I’ve been doing more reading! I’m not sure what the typical “spring reads” are but my recent reads are all over the place in terms of content. These are all highly recommended, but I will warn you that Room will make you cry (in a good but still very emotional sort of way).

An Object of Beauty: A Novel by Steve Martin

Room: A Novel by Emma Donoghue

Outliers: The Story of Success by Malcolm Gladwell

I also started Life by Keith Richards and I Was Told There’d Be Cake by Sloane Crosley, but I couldn’t get into either one. I think Life is better suited to winter reading, though I’m not sure why. I kept it on my list to try again later. As for I Was Told There’d Be Cake…well, ugh. It came highly recommended by multiple people who tend to like the same kind of stuff that I do, but I found the author’s voice annoying. Or maybe it was the subject matter? Either way the book was way too self-indulgent for my taste (this coming from a huge David Sedaris fan) so I stopped halfway.

I am currently about halfway through Radical Homemakers: Reclaiming Domesticity from a Consumer Culture by Shannon Hayes, which is awesome and I can already say you should read it, especially if you give a shit about family and community and living life on your own terms. Also on the bedside table are Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking by Malcolm Gladwell (this has been on my “to read” list for years; I’m very excited to read it especially because Outliers was fantastic!) and Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother (as a mom, how could I not read this?! Also, I’ve been on the waitlist for it at our library since January).

I wish I had something more insightful to say about these books, or a cute photo of my current reads stacked up on the floor next to my bed, but as I type this there are SIX sweaty men digging up the sewer line in my front yard and I am having trouble concentrating because I can physically feel the money being drained from my bank account. Also I have a headache (unrelated to the sewer line. I think). Here’s hoping that your spring is getting on well and that you are reading or otherwise expanding your mind and your horizons. I have lots to tell you about and hope to see you back here a little more frequently in the coming weeks!

I am having one of those days (weeks? months?) when I realize that I really just need to relax. I am taking everything so seriously, especially in regards to Dylan, that I am sure to have a nervous breakdown and also drive my family crazy if I don’t find a way to chill out. I am just amped up and cranky. Is it the season? The moon? Bad personality habits? Too much chocolate?

Dylan has been up at night the past three nights. Not just waking up and we go in, change his diaper, and put him back down. Oh, no. He has been waking up and staying awake and getting all kinds of emotional if we try to leave him in his room. Brian has slept on the floor in Dylan’s room, with Dylan, for at least some part of the last three nights. Have I mentioned that the foundation of our house is concrete slab, and that the carpet in the bedrooms is laid right on top with just a thin layer of padding between? Our floors are hard. I guess this is just another of those little “phases” that babies go through, but every time we encounter one I feel blindsided. Like, everything was working so great, what did I do to cause this? I search my brain for the reason (daylight savings time? not enough outside time? staying up a little too late a couple days last week?), but I know it just is what it is and I hope that it ends soon.

I think a lot about this blog, one of my few creative outlets, and I still don’t know what I’m doing with it besides neglecting it. I have a lot of recipes in the queue and some posts on gardening and fashion and design, but in the spirit of cutting myself a break I am going to try not to worry about the drafts piling up in my WordPress dashboard. Right now what I need is less computer time, more productivity, and to shake up the routine a bit. I think part of my crank is coming from just feeling like we are in a rut of doing the same things, eating the same foods, bickering over the same stuff (we don’t even really know what it is, don’t you hate that? fighting and then stepping back and saying, hey, what are we fighting about? I think we are all just tapped out around here), etc. I also think I am missing my CrossFit! It’s been two months, thank GOD I am going back on Monday before my butt completely disappears. I am not 100% but definitely much better and the plan is to just modify and scale as needed. My ass needs CrossFit for sure, but after this break I am certain my mind needs it more.

The weather in Austin is amazing lately, kind of hot for the season but I’ll take it over the cold. I bought all the transplants and seeds for our spring garden (no such thing as a summer garden in Austin, really) and am working this week to get the garden prepped, planted, and outfitted with a new fence! We are also going to build a trellis for the tomatoes and cucumbers since we do square foot gardening and don’t have the space to let them spread out–they need to grow up up up! Maybe I will turn this into a photo blog and just post some shots from around the house and garden and call it a day. I dropped my iPhone on the patio yesterday but it still works so I still have my trusty everywhere camera. Ironically, I dropped it while trying to take a photo (and shoo away a mosquito, WTF, it’s only March!).

Also, unrelated, my house is such a mess and I want a maid so badly that when the across-the-street neighbor’s maid shows up on Tuesdays (I am watching her unload her cleaning supplies right now!) I just want to cry. In my future life of riches and leisure I will have a maid. Just putting that out there now so the universe can work on it for me.

What are you all up to? Gardening? Spring cleaning? Traveling? Exercising? I think a lot of us get a little funk or a little bug to change things up around this time of year, so what’s doing?

So this song came out in June 2010 but I just heard it for the first time last night during the pre-show for “True Grit” at the Alamo. How am I always so behind on this stuff?

Mark Ronson & The Business INTL “Bang Bang Bang”

I don’t know that I was ever really cool or hip or cutting edge but having a baby has somehow made me even more disconnected from pop culture. I guess I can add “be cooler” to my list of non-resolutions this year.

Also, “True Grit” was holy shit fucking rad. If you haven’t seen it you better go while it’s still on the big screen. You will laugh, you will cry, you will be like, wow. The star of the movie was only 13 when it was filmed and this is her first film, she’s amazing, the whole cast is amazing and the film is just beautiful and fantastic and Coen-y. You will love it.

Ever since I quit my job to take care of Dylan I have been out of the loop. I wasn’t super on top of what’s cool when I was working, but now it’s comical how out of touch I am. I find out about stuff months after it’s had its moment and then I email links to Brian and am all DID YOU SEE THIS IT’S SO COOL and he’s like oh, I thought you saw that, it’s old, it was big on Twitter. Sigh.

Two recent examples of me being late to the party are below. I am posting them in the off chance that there is someone even less connected than me who might appreciate these lovely bits of the Internet.

The Wilderness Downtown, Chris Milk’s interactive film music video thing. I knew what it was going to be and I still cried because I am emotional like that. Go do it if you haven’t already! (Yeah, I know, you did it months ago when it was all over Twitter.)

Christoph Niemann’s NY Times blog. It’s almost painful that one person could be endowed with so much talent, nevertheless, I am grateful. This made me cry, too, because it’s that funny.

2-day weekends feel like the government’s way of punishing us. For what, I don’t know. It’s inhumane.

Today Dylan only napped long enough for me to paint my toenails. Which means that I didn’t get any of the other 8,796 things on my to do list done. Priorities, people!

I think I need to wean myself off the Internet at least a little bit. Being alone in the house with the baby so much is making me a little crazy-addicted to checking email and reading blogs and such. And of course this pseudo-connecting doesn’t really assuage the loneliness, it just makes me restless and cranky and I want to do something more tangible.

I made Brussels sprouts for dinner. I have hated them all my life and then I decided out of the blue that carmelized Brussels sprouts sounded really good. I remembered a recipe I saw on Heidi’s site a long time ago and I made it for Thanksgiving and now I can’t believe I ever hated Brussels sprouts. They have appeared on our weekly menu three times recently and I still can’t get enough. Yay brassicas!

I suppose I have returned to blogging. Just a little post here or there lately, but I know I am back now. I never meant to take a break from blogging, especially not a 5-month break, but that’s how things turned out and that is okay. I still don’t know what I am doing with this blog, but there are a lot of things I want to do. I am going to try to not get all worked up about it and just see what happens. Let’s fight the good fight against paralyzing type-A perfectionism!

I feel like I owe my few readers some sort of explanation for the sudden disappearance because it always bugs me when a blog I have been enjoying just suddenly stops. There is a long story and a short story. I would like to tell the long story at some point, but for now, the short story is that I was both very busy and also quite depressed. It took a while for me to figure out something was wrong, but I got some help and I am feeling so much better. I sleep at night, have more good days than bad days, and no longer feel like I might be ruining my child by being an awful person. I am finding myself and living my life again, and I am so, so grateful to be doing it.

Me: I can’t believe it, something ate the cauliflower right out of my garden!
Dylan: Garden!

—

Me: C’mon honey, we have to go to the store.
Dylan: Kong!

—

Me: When we are done with snack, we can go play outside.
Dylan: Outside, outside, outside!

—

Me: I think you have a load in your pants, I can smell it.
Dylan: Looooad!

I got barbeque sauce on my face today while eating ribs.  Of course I didn’t know it and of course Brian looked at me, laughed, and then said, “You’ve got shit all over your face, go look in the mirror.” This happens all the time. I’m not a messy eater but I do like to get all the meat off my ribs and that has certain consequences. I asked him if this shit-on-the-face-all-the-time thing was disgusting or endearing. He said, while still laughing, that it was endearing, and then explained, “You always think I’m making fun of you, but I’m not. I’m laughing along with you, it’s just that you haven’t started laughing yet.” Ohhh, right. Because you can totally laugh along with someone if they’re not laughing!

When I told him I was going to blog his explanation of why it’s okay that he laughs at me all the time, his response was, “Are you going to include a photo of yourself with shit in your teeth?”

Back when we were in Seattle I compiled a sampling of albums I’d been listening to a lot to share with you, and for some reason never published the list. Most of this stuff seems very inappropriate now that we reside in the land of sun and fun and only listen to T.Rex, but it’s really great music nonetheless. I couldn’t not share, so here you go!

Isobel Campbell & Mark Lanagan: Sunday at Devil Dirt
I am usually on the fence when it comes to Isobel Campbell. As a longtime Belle & Sebastian fan I of course love her contributions to that band, but I’ve always had issues with female singers who sound like they’re using their “head voices” (that’s what my choral teacher used to call it) rather than their real, diaphragm-driven voices. All that floaty stuff, so high on the register, and so sweet that it’s cloying, just icks me out. This album, however, is fantastic! She sounds great paired with Mark Lanagan (whose magnificent voice I have no issue with), and the songwriting is tight.

Fleet Foxes: Fleet Foxes
Fleet Foxes are a Seattle band that we sadly missed when they played in the fall. The show was at a sit-down theater, how rad would that have been? Brian says they’re reminiscent of The Shins, I say maybe he’s onto something but these guys sound more like proper musicians to me. Just straight-up good, organic-feeling music. When I don’t know what I want to listen to, this is usually a good choice.

Iron & Wine: Shepherd’s Dog
Um, it’s Iron & Wine. Need I say more?

Electrelane: No Shouts, No Calls
This is my favorite Electrelane album by far. Too bad they broke up and it’s their last album. I’m grateful we had the opportunity to see them play a kickass show at the Black Cat in DC when they toured this album shortly before they disbanded – it was definitely one of the better shows I’ve seen. There’s something about the variety and energy of the songs and the fact that the album still has a nice cohesive feel to it that is just right. Plus, these girls can really rock when they want to!

Comet Gain: City Fallen Leaves
Comet Gain is a British band that I feel is often overlooked. They are consistently, if secretly, awesome. They sound like pop with a little old-school punk mixed in. This album in particular, while from 2005, has a very distinctive old-school sound that I just love love love. The second track, “Days I Forgot to Write Down,” is one of the slower songs on this album and is great for when you want (need?) to play one song over and over again. Not that I do that or anything.

The Breeders : Mountain Battles
My old favorites still have it! I actually prefer this album to their other post-hard times release, Title TK, because it sounds more like classic Breeders to me. According to Brian, who got to see them live this past fall (I was too pregnantly ill to attend), they are aging and their voices don’t sound quite as crisp as they used to. But the production on this album is so good that they sound perfect to my untrained ears! “Bang On” and “We’re Gonna Rise” are highlights, for sure.

But they didn’t exactly lose either. Have you heard about this? I’m not April fooling, I swear! The Texas State Board of Education met last week and made decisions about how to teach evolution in elementary and secondary schools. Specifically, they argued about whether to include a phrase requiring students to study the “strengths and weaknesses” of all scientific theories, including evolution, in the state science standards. Apparently that phrase used to be in the standards but was removed since it’s a favorite phrase of the critics of Darwin’s theory of evolution. The Creationists tried to get a few almost-as-bad alternative phrases into the standards instead. Luckily, the Creationist agenda was defeated, but they did succeed in getting language in the standards that would require students to “analyze, evaluate and critique” scientific explanations and examine “all sides” of the scientific evidence. So, this opens the door for allowing critiques of Darwinian evolution into classrooms and textbooks.

Salon.com has a pretty good explanation of the situation:

Dan McLeroy, the Texas State Board of Education chairman, a dentist and self-described creationist, led the charge to mandate teaching the “strengths and weaknesses” of the theory of evolution. After three days of high-pitched argument on both sides, the 15-member board, by a vote of 8-7, rejected the language, relieving textbook authors and publishers of the pressure to insert what opponents called “junk science” into their pages. But in a compromise that alarms and dismays many science education advocates, the board did adopt language that attempts to cast a shadow of doubt over the validity of the central evolutionary concepts of natural selection and common ancestry.

The situation isn’t as bad as the mass freakout on Twitter would lead me to believe, but it’s not good either. My first thought when I heard about this was, “Well, I guess our kids are going to private school, or we’re moving back to the east coast.” Austin is great, but the fact that there is even a shadow of a doubt that my kids will be able to get a complete and unbiased science education is definitely one of the downsides of living in Texas. I think the New York Times editorial sums it up best:

One can only hope that teachers in Texas will use common sense and teach evolution as scientists understand it.

If you want to read up on this issue a little more, check out Texas on evolution: Needs further study on Salon.com or Evolutionary Semantics, Texas-Style on the New York Times website. Or, just use Google–everyone seems to have something to say about this.