urSkek

come see me

Sun, 25 Jun 2006 19:30:15 GMT

I don't have any blog postings or anything like that, but if you wanna see what I look like these days, I'm on the myspace. I like calling it "the myspace." It's funny like when your grandma asks if you're on "the drugs." :::mwah::: http://www.myspace.com/urskek

my beauties

Sun, 03 Jul 2005 15:53:26 GMT

Wed, 13 Oct 2004 17:25:46 GMT

It's been too long. I still don't have internet access. I'm housesitting for friends while they're out of town and get to use their connection when I come over to feed the animals. I have a paying job now. I work at a coffe bar that's only a few blocks away, called Onion Creek. I work about 25 hours a week. I really like the job and the people I work with. The place has a great atmosphere and the work is easy, if exhausting. Tonight I work for the first time at night, at the bar on the deck. Jason is still working on building a clientele for Emancitech. It's been a painfully slow process, hence the need for me to get work. We're still in the little apartment we moved into, and we have some creepy, scary, documentary-worthy neighbors that fuck with me and the kids all the time. I should make a post solely about them some time.

We do HomeWorks, the homeschooling co-op, twice a week, and my kids are doing well, considering all we've been through over the past two years. Timely is 6.5, she's reading and she's really into math. She is the kind of kid who makes homeschooling easy, but I also worry that she's understimulated. Noble (he's 5 now) still lives for bugs and all things crawly, knows more about such things than most adults and is often correcting me when I try to teach him something in that realm of knowledge. He also has the vast mop of almost-orange curls that get all Shirley Temple-like in the humidity. Sagacious is SOFREAKINGCUTEANDADORABLEICAN'TSTANDIT. He's 2.5 and worships Noble, still nursing and I'm just so in love with him. This is not to say he isn't difficult, as toddlers can be, especially when he asks for a banana about three times a day, and each time only takes one bite out of said banana, thereby declaring, "I finished now."

My mama community remains the rock that gets me through the hard times and makes the good ones great. We still do everything together, birthdays, births, holidays, nights out, and we're starting to come together with The Last Organic Outpost to do some amazing community building type stuff.

So that's a tiny little window into my very crazy and hectic life. I'll try to post some pictures the next time I have a few minutes. Now I'm gonna go try to catch up with all of you lovely folks.

Sun, 25 Apr 2004 22:22:23 GMT

I'm in Louisiana. My papaw (mom's father) died last week. I haven't been home in seven years. He never even met my children. I'm having a hard time with that. My dad (who lives here, too) sent his wife, Terry, to pick me and the kids up from Houston so I could go to the funeral. We're on day 5 of a 7-day stay.

There's so much to write about that I will need to break it down into bits and pieces. For now, the thing that is consuming my mind is how people here are so different than they are anywhere else in this US, even the rest of the south. Louisiana is like a different country, the culture is so distinctive. This is truly part of the Bible Belt, too. All but two of the radio stations here are Christian-oriented, and most of the billboards have something to do with church. My dad is the pastor for a nondenominational church called The Church. We went to the service this morning. I let me kids go to children's church and do the craft. I listened to my dad do his preacher thing. I feel proud of him, even though it's not my thing. He's a happy man. Much of his congregation are bikers, and his co-pastor and his wife have nine children, all of them homebirthed, breastfed, slept with, from age 22 down to 2. She hugged me really hard when I first met her the other day and talked about how she'd never met anybody else who did things the way she did them, people always telling her she's crazy. That was so cool, to meet someone like her here.

I've seen five out of my eight brothers and sisters since I've been here, and aunts, uncles, cousins I haven't seen in years. They all have done nothing but fawn over my children and love them (sometimes traumatizing them with overbearing hugs and kisses, but loving them nonetheless). Amazingly, no one has given us the first bit of shit for the vegan thing or the nursing thing. These people love me so much, and I think I had forgotten that. It feels good to be home, but I cannot wait to be back in my own space, my own bed, going by own schedule.

I'm not in the right head space to write about my papaw yet.

In about 38 hours

Fri, 30 Jan 2004 01:51:09 GMT

Day after tomorrow! I can't stop thinking about where I'm gonna put the couch, my bamboo plant, my paintings, how I'm going to organize the art supplies. I am so freaking happy right now. Dance with me!

links

Mon, 26 Jan 2004 05:02:55 GMT

Okay, I have a couple of HILARIOUS links to share, gacked from other Mr. Crunchy (who is hilarious himself, BTW) and Partial to the Bean.

I post this in hopes that it will be accessible again. It was working for days, but now you get a 403 when you click. Maybe it will be fixed soon.
Shake it like a polaroid picture, Charlie Brown.

For those of us who love IKEA, but have partners who hate it, it's the IKEA Walkthrough.

One more for good measure. I've been playing these games for ages now. They are so pretty. There's a very cool Marbles (which I used to play for *hours* back when Noble was a baby) type game on there, unbrokenchain.

Xmas pics

Sun, 25 Jan 2004 13:42:12 GMT

A few pics from Xmas morning, here at casa de MIL:

Timely wearing fancy flapper hat

SuperNoble

Sagacious, suspicious about what I'm trying to feed him

More here. That's my MIL in the very first pic, heh.

going.crazy.

Fri, 23 Jan 2004 01:34:54 GMT

Ladies and gentlemen, we're on day 4 of this atrocious sentencing, a mother housebound, deep in the trenches of suburbia, with a precocious 5yo, a restless 4yo, and a fever-stricken toddler. Let's move in for a closer look. Oh. What...what...WHAT is that...that smell? It would appear that the mother has not showered in many days. The older children seem to be provoking her. The 5yo, looks to be a girl, keeps asking to do some sort of "project," and the middle child is screaming...on the floor...something about wanting the mother to hold him. The sick baby is clinging to her like a newborn chimp. Who is this entering now? It looks to be the father of the children. Oh...oh...OH NO HE DIDN'T! He JUST asked the mother what's for dinner!! What ever will happen next? Will the family survive the mother's rage? Will the mother survive without succumbing to her rage? Tune in tomorrow to find out!

Okay, so we're feeling better now. I wrote most of that this morning, but had to keep getting up. We ordered pizza with coupons and Sagacious' fever is finally gone. I guess we'll all live another day. I still haven't had a shower, though, damnit.

Thu, 22 Jan 2004 12:28:33 GMT

We are definitely moving on the first!! I'm so happy I could cry (in fact, I did cry). We got the apartment we want, although I do need to call them today and make sure they are giving us the downstairs unit. We had to put down a bigger deposit, considering Jason's self-employment status, but we were able to do it. I was totally sweating this move, worried we wouldn't be able to make it because there was this one client of Jason's who was disputing his charges, and we hadn't heard from them in three weeks. Yesterday a check from them came in the mail! Happy dance!

Down side: I won't have internet access for a while after we move, and actually, not even a land line. We'll live only three blocks from the library, though, so my plan is to go once a day and check email, various yahoo groups, and LJ. Plus we'll have a laptop and there are wireless cafes around.

I need to write about the countless cute things Sagacious says and does, but he is so sick right now. Well, actually, I think he's better today, but for the past five days, he's been the sickest he's ever been with a raging fever and whatnot. Okay, so the cutest thing he does is that he'll say anything you say, like a mocking bird. He just repeats whatever it is, like I could say to him, "Say 'Elvis lives'," and he'd say right back to me, "Elbis wibs." Very cute stuff, talking in little sentences, understanding everything, furrowing his brow and tattle-taling on Timely and Noble. I love the way he says their names, Simey and Nomle. He totally thinks he's one of the big kids, just gets right in with them, whatever their doing. When we're having school, he's out in the backyard with his own shovel with the other kids, digging for worms, or he's right up to the table trying to cut snowflakes out of construction paper, will not be left out of anything. I have a few pics to share later.

Does anyone have home remedy type stuff to speed up cold sore elimination? Timely had this really bad one through Xmas and New Year. It's pretty much gone, but there's still a very red splotch where it was, and with all the illness going around, I'm worried about it erupting again.

Also, payla, will you email me? I want to ask you some questions about getting your new job. mandytrichell at hotmail dot com

Sorry this is most boring entry ever. I've been utterly blocked, even for journal writing, with all that's been going on. I'm starting back slow, or whatever. You know what I mean.

Wed, 21 Jan 2004 14:32:16 GMT

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, mackysmama!! I hope it's awesome for you!

Tue, 20 Jan 2004 22:35:07 GMT

My friend Elizabeth came up with this fabulous idea to make watching Bush tonight bearable. She says ". . . a drinking game! Get your favorite beverage. Drink every time he says WMD or Saddam or Hussein. Drink twice every time you see Cheney. And if he cites British intelligence, you have to slam your drink. Now I'm kind of jazzed for the speech...Anyone want to suggest other rules?" So I threw in that every time he says "Amerrka" you must do a shot of tequila. Any others?

Sun, 18 Jan 2004 13:59:28 GMT

Jo, it's beautiful!! What a sweet surprise, totally brightened my day!

Thu, 08 Jan 2004 08:32:16 GMT

I have packages to send out for Mani, venalanatomica, Jennifer, and being_homeless. I'm snowed (hah! not here in Houston!) under with moving and stuff, but will definitely get those out before the end of the month. This is last call for anyone else who wants me to send them comics from my fine collection. I have an issue by Lydia Lunch called Toxic Gumbo. Anyone, anyone? A lot of other cool stuff, too. zaftigvegan, I still need your snail mail address.

Thu, 01 Jan 2004 18:11:15 GMT

Houston mamas: There will be a Whole Mother meeting at Brasil at 3:00pm on Saturday (the 3rd). Any mama who is interested in helping with the show in any way is welcome to come. We need show ideas, help producing, help hosting, etc. Bring it on!

Also, debmorbeto, thank you for the e-card! I only just checked that account today. What a nice surprise!

Sun, 28 Dec 2003 20:22:15 GMT

My Mr. Picassohead

Sat, 27 Dec 2003 04:31:35 GMT

I've been in such a strange head space lately. It's so bizarre that I haven't been able to put words to it. I keep thinking this is what it must be to be grown up, but then I know so many people who don't feel this way. The best way that I can describe it is to say that everything is familiar. Everything is mundane. I almost wrote that nothing is intriguing, but that's not quite true. I find myself curious and excited about things, but never, ever surprised, and nothing holds mystery or magic for me anymore. Everything is just...par for the course, I guess. Like right now, I'm watching the Kodo drummers on TV. I remember when I saw them live and I was taken to another place through hearing them. I used to be utterly in love with life because that sort of thing would happen to me all the time. It's not so anymore. I feel as if I've learned that the secret of life is that there is no secret of life. We're just here, and sometimes it's fun, sometimes it's not, and there's a bunch of stuff in between, end of story. That's not to say I'm ungrateful for the greatness in my life, the greatness I feel through the love of others. I feel as if I could walk into the most somber of historical landmarks and feel nothing, or if I did feel something, it would not impress me, it would just BE. I feel as if I could meet some lauded celebrity, that eve I like, and I would be polite, as always, but I wouldn't really care. I don't think I know what truth is, or rather, there just isn't any truth.

Sat, 20 Dec 2003 17:41:19 GMT

Sagacious said his first full sentence this morning: "Santa scare me." It was the funniest thing ever. I don't think he would even know what Santa looks like, but he knows the word because we've been throwing it around so much. He woke up this morning, pointed to the window, and said, "Santa." I said, "Is Santa outside?" He said, "Fly!" So then I said, "What does Santa say?" He said, "Say?" So I said, "Santa says 'Ho ho ho!'" So he gets TOTALLY freaked out, pulls my face into his, and says, "Santa scare me," while he's crinkling his little eyes in fear and whimpering! I don't even know what to make of this! So we're still under the covers and my forehead is to his forehead, he's holding my face, and I try to move it, and he grabs my head with an "Ungh!" and says AGAIN, "Santa scare me" while he's pointing at the window. For another five or ten minutes he wouldn't let me move and he wouldn't look at the window.

Okay, so in the same morning, he has also said, "T.C. (that's the dog) run!" and "Pick it up!" when he dropped his dinosaur down the stairs. All these new sentences in one morning. He's a genius, I tell you.

Fri, 12 Dec 2003 21:47:23 GMT

I know very little about some of the people on my friends' list. Some people I know relatively well. Some of you I hardly know at all. Perhaps you lurk, for whatever reason. But you friended me and I thank you.

But here's a thought: why not take this opportunity to tell me a little something about yourself. Any old thing at all. Just so the next time I see your name I can say: "Ah, there's so and so...she likes spinach."

I'd love it if every single person who friended me would do this. Yes, even you people who I know really well. Then post this in your own journal, if you feel like it

I mostly copied and pasted the same stuff into all the ones I answered, so please feel free to do the same!

Fri, 12 Dec 2003 16:25:07 GMT

This is very interesting: The 10 Regions of US Politics

moving

Wed, 10 Dec 2003 14:24:46 GMT

I looked at some apartments the other day that we will move into. They are $650 a month with one month free for the life of the lease, only $150 security deposit, and they don't do a credit check. They just verify employment and rent payment. Water, gas, and cable are paid, and the complex is right on Heights Blvd. It's clean, not luxurious, but definitely clean and safe. There's a (fenced) pool right outside the front door of the unit we want. We are 3 blocks in two directions from parks that we frequent. We are two blocks from the building where Timely's yoga class and ballet class are, and this is the same building that HomeWorks is going to be renting space from, so we can also walk to school. We are two blocks from the Heights library, and less than a mile from several friends. Also, madera looked there, too, and wants to move into same complex! I'm excited. Jason just has to make $745 by the end of the month for move-in cost, and we'll have to put down a deposit for turning on the electricity, I'm sure. He says he can do it, but I also just finished putting my resume together so I can get some part time clerical work if I need to. I was also thinking that we can sell some things if we need to for the first month, like our washer and dryer.

Love.

Tue, 09 Dec 2003 13:03:12 GMT

You are a Grassroots Activist. Anti-capitalist,
anti-patrist, anti-authoritarian, whatever,
you're just fuckin' anti. You probably tell
people you hate postmodernism, but that
assertion elides the complex interdependencies
among academic poststructuralism and street-
level activism. You don't bathe regularly, and
know at least one person who has scabbies.

What kind of postmodernist are you!?
brought to you by Quizilla

Mon, 08 Dec 2003 15:28:35 GMT

BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! mr_splice, check it out!

I spent months attempting to master the art of dancing with glow sticks...Little did I know at the time, it was all demonic!!...Raves are a means of the devil to solicit worship.

payla, this is for you, mama. Tee-hee.

money/house

Sun, 07 Dec 2003 16:32:38 GMT

I don't want to keep depending on other people to feed my children. That's not fair to them at all. We owe some very good people, Wassim and Linda, $3600 for our irresponsibility. Jane alone has spent hundreds of dollars on buying food for us. Everyone in HW supports us financially by not requiring us to pay school dues for supplies and such. Every person in this group, even Glenda and John, has spent some amount of money on us. I feel like a big fucking loser, and it's so not fair that while Jason is getting this nominal amount of work because he doesn't want to work at something he isn't happy doing, while all these other people are supporting us from their own mundane jobs. That's just not fair and it goes against everything I believe in. It also means that we are never in a position to help anyone else, so I believe we are building up some very extreme kharma, to be in servitude for the rest of our lives. And I am the person who bears the embarrassement of receiving such help. I take it and I thank people, over and over, to an absurd point. Jason never does that part of it, and I think if he did, we would not be in the position we are in right now.

I'm bitter because I know that I would never willingly put my family through this if I were the breadwinner. It feels like there's this gigantic, easily accessible switch on the wall that's turned off, and all Jason has to do is turn it on and we'd have a home and plenty of healthy food and the resources we need to homeschool our kids and be a contributing part of the community we in. He can get a job. He is choosing not to, and thereby choosing for his whole family to live in poverty. Our kids never have any healthy food, and that makes me fucking cry. I HATE that I have to tell my kids, about shitty food, "That's all we have," and when they say they don't want it, when Timely is begging for salad, SALAD, or when Jane takes her out to lunch and she wolfs down a giant salad meant for an adult, that fucking BREAKS MY HEART. I never wanted my kids to live this way. My credit is fucked now with us owing the bank over $300 in OD fees. We need to be out of this house in about 25 days and we have absolutely no money and we owe all the utility companies over $1000.

swiped from mr_splice

Sun, 07 Dec 2003 13:16:40 GMT

Undeniably accurate parts are bolded. From Mind Media

Your Brain Usage Profile

Auditory : 35%
Visual : 64%
Left : 53%
Right : 46%

urSkek, you are somewhat left-hemisphere dominant and show a preference for visual learning, although not extreme in either characteristic. You probably tend to do most things in moderation, but not always.

Your left-hemisphere dominance implies that your learning style is organized and structured, detail oriented and logical. Your visual preference, though, has you seeking stimulation and multiple data. Such an outlook can overwhelm structure and logic and create an almost continuous state of uncertainty and agitation. You may well suffer a feeling of continually trying to "catch up" with yourself.

Your tendency to be organized and logical and attend to details is reasonably well-established which should afford you success regardless of your chosen field of endeavor. You can "size up" situations and take in information rapidly. However, you must then subject that data to being classified and organized which causes you to "lose touch" with the immediacy of the problem.

Your logical and methodical nature hamper you in this regard though in the long run it may work to your advantage since you "learn from experience" and can go through the process more rapidly on subsequent occasions.

You remain predominantly functional in your orientation and practical. Abstraction and theory are secondary to application. In keeping with this, you focus on details until they manifest themselves in a unique pattern and only then work with the "larger whole" (although, see, I'm completely aware of this and am constantly trying to see the forest instead of the trees and all that because I really hate it when a lesson sneaks up on me).

With regards to your career choices, you have a mentality that would be good as a scientist, coach, athlete, design consultant, or an engineering technician. (THIS IS THE BIG ONE) You can "see where you want to go" and even be able to "tell yourself," but find that you are "fighting yourself" at the darndest times.

regional speak

Sat, 06 Dec 2003 13:38:22 GMT

I'm from north Louisiana, half Cajun on my dad's side, and grew up all over the south.

1. A body of water, smaller than a river, contained within relatively narrow banks?
That would be a creek. Up by my mamaw's house, in Collinston, La., there's a creek that everybody calls Stink Creek because it's full of sulphur. People dip their dogs in it when they get mange and that cures 'em.

2. The thing you push around the grocery store?
When I was a kid, we called it a buggy. My kids call it a basket, and the ones that look like cars at Whole Foods are called "car baskets."

3. A metal container to carry a meal in?
Lunch Box.

4. The thing that you cook bacon and eggs in?
Skillet, cast iron.

5. The piece of furniture that seats three people?
Couch (the smaller one is a loveseat).

6. The device on the outside of the house that carries rain off the roof?
tracijean said "God! Gravity!" Yes! Trailers don't have gutters (at least they didn't when I was a kid). The house I live in now has gutters.

7. The covered area outside a house where people sit in the evening?
Porch, or if you're at your great aunt's house in Louisiana and all the women just finished making gumbo in the summer time, then everyone pulls a lawn chair into the outside kitchen.

8. Carbonated, sweetened, non-alcoholic beverages?
Definitely coke when I was a kid. Soda now.

9. A flat, round breakfast food served with syrup?
Pancake.

10. A long sandwich designed to be a whole meal in itself?
Po' boy when I was a kid. Sub now.

11. The piece of clothing worn by men at the beach?
Swimsuit.

12. Shoes worn for sports?
Tennieshoes.

13. Putting a room in order?
Picking up, as in "Go pick you your room!" The first time I ever tried to get Timely to help me pick up her room, when she was about three, she said to me, "Mama, I can't pick up the WHOLE room! I not strong enough!"

14. A flying insect that glows in the dark?
Lightning bug. When I was about six years old, living in Longview, TX, I put lightning bugs inside of two paper plates together and taped them shut, then threw it like a frisbee and hoped that someone would see it from far away and think it was a UFO.

15. The little insect that curls up into a ball?
Roly poly.

16. The children's playground equipment where one kid sits on one side and goes up while the other sits on the other side and goes down?
Seesaw.

17. How do you eat your pizza?
With my hands, but when I was a kid and we'd have pizza for dinner, my mom would give us a fork to use while it was still hot. So it was first slice with a fork and second slice with hands, and of course, picking off all the vegetables.

18. What's it called when private citizens put up signs and sell their used stuff?
Yard sale if it's in the yard. Garage sale if it's in the garage.

19. What's the evening meal?
When I was a kid, the mid-day meal was called dinner and the evening meal was called supper. I call them lunch and dinner now.

20. The thing under a house where the furnace and perhaps a rec room are?
I've heard of basements, but I've never had one. Basements always make me think of that PBS after school movie about the kids in the supposedly haunted house and they find...something...in the basement. It's all very vague in my memory.

21. When you are waiting at the bank, you are standing ____ line?
In line. On line makes me picture this long line of people with other people standing on top of their heads.

22. In a school, if you want a drink of water, where does it come from?
The water fountain.

23. What are the chocolate things that you put on ice cream called?
Sprinkles.

24. Thing women (mostly) use to tie their hair back with:
Ponytail holder for my whole life, until Timely started wearing them. She has always called them "piggies" from when I first started giving her pigtails.