Deep Thoughts by Handywoman

I have a jumble of thoughts going through my head today, so I will be writing in vignettes. Forgive my stream of consciousness.

The other day an educator said to me, "All children have gifts. They just open them at different times in their lives." I was looking at the lady who was saying this and thinking, "You're full of it." I was also in a room full of other parents who were tilting and nodding their heads and aww-ing in response. When I think about it more, I guess she's right. I wish and pray that our girls turn out to have some nice gifts (I hope they are useful gifts and if they are gifts that are lucrative, even better). It's so exciting as parents to watch them discover these gifts and then unwrap them. (*tilt*) Awww.

Do you remember when VCRs used to cost $1000 and movies, $100 each? If you calculated the cost with inflation, that same VCR would cost $1622.64 today. People our parents' generation were seriously messed in the head. Also, growing up we had a huge-ass camcorder (also cost $1000) that we used to lug around in its hard case, which I remember being the size of a small suitcase. Funny. It's not so funny, though when you talk to other people who are younger than you and they have no idea what the hell you're talking about.

Did you ever notice how much stuff we amass. Whenever I talk to people in their 60s or older, they are always telling me how much stuff young people nowadays have. Maybe it's due to growing up during wartime when things were scarce and didn't get bought unless they had a purpose. Even though our stuff gets smaller (as in the case of the aforementioned camcorder - we now have one that fits in the palm of our hand) we need more space to store it all. We live in a 50s home and it is greatly in need of a walk-in closet. Walk-in closets are definitely an invention of the 21st century. Since when did people need a whole room to house their shoes? My mother on the other hand, was always ahead of her time. She has been collecting shoes since we immigrated to the US in the mid 70s. Ever since I was a little girl, my friends would come over and marvel at the wall of shoes in our utility room. That wall still stands today and sadly enough, many of the same shoes do too.

I was sick over the weekend and my husband was on call on Saturday, so I spent most of the day in a horizontal position. I only got up to move from the bed to the floor and grab an occasional snack. I felt so lazy, but it was fun coming up with ways to entertain the kids in a supine position. It's amazing all the things you can accomplish without even having to get up. Don't educators always say that you should get down to a child's level?

It's been drizzling all day today, so I'm here at my computer reading and cruising the internet. I'm new to blogging, so I've started linking through various blogs I know to read about other blogs they read and so on and so forth. I have A LOT of catching up to do. It's kind of interesting to me to read people's journals and dig deeper and deeper into their past to see how events unfold. This is serious time-suckage. I feel like I've stumbled upon an alternate universe where people are connected by wires and feed information back and forth, but don't see each other (I'm envisioning the matrix from the movie Matrix). Anyway, as I was rummaging, I found an interesting article from a blog of a blog I know about how particular cultures don't believe in dishwashers. So true. Whenever I'm at my MIL's and she makes dinner (once in a blue moon), I am expected to wash the dishes (never mind that I have 2 young toddlers who need supervision and one especially clingy one that needs a bit more attention from mommy). Almost immediately after I finish my last bite, my MIL usually turns to me and says, "You can just put the dishes in the dishwasher." Aside from the presumptuousness of the comment itself (I would be more than willing to help wash dishes for anyone who has taken the time to make a meal for me), what she is really saying is that I don't need to go through the trouble of washing the dishes the "real" way and can simply be a puss and throw them into that machine, which doesn't do the job as thoroughly as by hand. Even I had to be retrained by my own husband about the utility of the dishwasher and taught about the mechanics and the methodology behind what it does. The scalding hot jets of water really sold me - it's like a sterilizer. In our old place, Joe used to run the dishwasher once in a while just to clean the machine itself (after days of using it like a dishrack it gets a bit of stale standing water at the bottom). Both of us are now advocates for the DW and inevitably get into debates with my MIL about how it really does clean dishes better than by hand. No matter how many times we tell her, I can tell by the expression on her face she still doesn't believe it. Also, the funny thing is that women my age at my church have had discussions about this topic and I know people who own and use top of the line appliances for everything else, but still get out the 'ole sponge everyday. Aside from Cha who enjoys doing dishes, what is the reason for this? We need to stop the cycle of doubt and distrust of DW with our generation.

I love the rain. I know, I live in the wrong region of the country. When it does rain here in sunny California it reminds me of those days when we used to cut class in NY to bask on The Steps in the first sun of the year after many depressing months of the same gray skies and gray slush on the ground. Rain makes me feel sad, but not in a depressing way. I love the coolness of it and watching it wash over all that it touches with a clear, glistening paint. I spend most of my days upbeat and happy-go-lucky, but inside my soul longs to be melancholy. When the weather is gloomy and I feel sorrow, it's like the long awaited rain in CA and the first sun in NY after the seemingly endless winter.