Rita Arens's Blog, page 20
June 30, 2014
Life Is Complicated
On Sunday, my wonderful Tante Sue passed after a long struggle with Pick's disease. I remember most about her that she loved to socialize. Pick's stole her speech. It makes me very angry. It doesn't make sense.
I hate you, Pick's.
On Monday, my daughter's buddy Ka'Vyea Tyson-Curry left Children's Mercy Hospital after two months of recovery from multiple gunshot wounds. He's ten. He likes books. He did not deserve any of what he got. It makes me very angry. It doesn't make sense.
But I love you...
June 24, 2014
RIP, Simon the Fish
The little angel's betta fish, Simon, went down the toilet, where all streams go to the ocean, last week. I bought Simon on a whim as a surprise one day, because I had fond memories of my own betta fish in college and because I think every child needs a fish. My daughter hadn't even asked for one; it was just one of those impulse things I do as a mother because I can. When she came home from school that day, I showed her Simon, and I think I was more excited than she was, but she grew to love...
June 16, 2014
Hotter Still Thirteen Years In
Today is Beloved's and my thirteenth wedding anniversary. Yesterday he was in the shower while I was putting on makeup in the bathroom mirror, squinting at my reflection with annoyance.
Me: "So ... do you still think I'm hot?"
Him: "Sure. But you'd be way hotter if you handed me the new bottle of conditioner."
THAT WAS EASY.
Love you, babe!
June 12, 2014
Dear Richard Gere
Some friends and I read Matthew Quick's THE GOOD LUCK OF RIGHT NOW this month. One of the quirky things about the book (one of many) is that it's primarily told through letters from the protagonist to Richard Gere. THE GOOD LUCK OF RIGHT NOW isn't my favorite Matthew Quick book (I love, love, love FORGIVE ME, LEONARD PEACOCK), but the main character's striking observations about people and humanity linger with me still.
I wondered aloud on social media if Richard Gere actually knew he was in...
June 10, 2014
#Catastrophize
I felt silly going to the doctor. While I was in the ultrasound room, though, with the lady checking all along the big vein or artery or who knows what from my groin to my ankle and frowning and highlighting things and thumping my calf and listening to my pulse, my heart raced and I had to consciously breathe. So even though it will be a needless expense, maybe it wasn't a needless expense.
In the end, this doctor trip was more for my anxiety disorder than my leg, though. No blood clot. Just...
June 4, 2014
Almost Done With the Slow
In mid-April, I ran a half-marathon. A few weeks later, I developed a stress fracture. Since then, I've been building back up from that. I had a boot for two weeks, then I got out of the boot and was only able to run a mile and that mile gave me pain, so I cut back to an even more conservative plan that had me building up from three cycles of 9 minutes walk/1 minute run to today's final six cycles of 5 minutes walk/5 minutes run. After a rest day tomorrow, I should be able to run three miles...
May 29, 2014
The Soaking
I pull out of the school drop-off line and listen to the creak of the motor pulling the top down off my car. I read somewhere exposing yourself to natural light first thing in the morning is the best way to wake up, and I didn't want to wake up this, her last day of fourth grade.
I woke only begrudgingly, soaked in sweat for the second time last night, my first tshirt and shorts lying in a still-damp heap at the foot of the bed. I wasn't drenched from a nightmare; I'd been having dreams all n...
May 27, 2014
What Does She Do?
I've caught up with a few friends with kids lately, and the conversation inevitably turns to what activities our kids are participating in during [insert season]. As usual, my kid isn't doing shit.
We started out strong. We put her in Twinkle Toes ballet class starting at two, and she followed it through up until last December, when she hung up her leotard after class went to twice a week with an hour-long round-trip commute. She took gymnastics for a year, long enough to convince me to buy t...
May 21, 2014
The Day the Traffic Died
Almost a month ago, all my stat counters started telling me there were zero pageviews at this blog. Zero. Typepad finally blamed it on Goodreads and their widget code (you'll notice I temporarily removed all my Goodreads widgets) spitting out faulty HTML or something like that. Both Typepad and Goodreads responded very nicely as they are good people, and I'm sure I'll have my widgets back soon, but it sure was weird during the very month I'm celebrating my ten-year anniversary of blogging her...
May 15, 2014
10 Years of Surrender, Dorothy
Y'all, I'm having a blogiversary this year, the big ten. I even started this blog in May 2004. I got all sappy and made a big slideshow of ten years of my daughter and me and this blog over on BlogHer today. Please check it out!
