Elly Lonon's Blog, page 4

Marvelous Toy

I should probably proactively apologize for this ukulele video. But productivity, which is low on a good day round these parts, takes a nose dive when a kid gets sick. And as those of you that follow along on FB already know, those days seem to happen a LOT. Preschool is really just a brightly-colored, mind-stimulating, petri dish of highly communicable diseases.

But stickier.

Blech.

This year our stockings will be filled with hand sanitizer.

Have a lovely weekend, Interwebz. I’m off to go boil our linens. Again.

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For All We Know

I’m going back to bed. I may not get back out again until May. But in the meantime, I made you this ukulele video. I think. I’m 90% sure it happened.

May your Thanksgiving be politically uneventful and at least partially restful. It feels extra important to remember all we have to be grateful for this year.

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Are You Having Any Fun

I don’t know what the weather is like where you are, but it is cold, crisp, and stunningly gorgeous here today. The light is doing that piercing intensity thing it does in the Fall, and every orange leaf seems to capture and emanate with its glow. Maybe it was all the amazing wins on Tuesday, maybe it was spending hours yesterday crafting with my kids, maybe it was sacrificing some writing time to learn this joyful ukulele song…whatever the reason, today I feel like a glowing orange leaf, too. But emanating gratitude and joy for this one, magical life.

Because I am. I’m having lots of fun. I’m getting so much out of living. And I am elbow-deep in laughs and wonderful people that elicit them regularly.

Well this wasn’t a funny post at all, was it. I must have used up all my snark writing this McSweeney’s post earlier in the week. So I guess you’ll have to get your giggles watching me massacre this song with my trusty ukulele.

Here’s to a joyful weekend! I plan to see two of my favorite veterans and thank them personally for their service with soup and snuggles. May your weekend be full of fun, too.

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Other Related Ramblings You Might Enjoy:A Life That’s GoodFallingBlue SkiesFive Years TimeThis Little Light of Mine

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32 Flavors

Fall has finally arrived. It’s been a whirlwind couple of weeks with crinkling leaves, franticly scheduled meetings, and an overly ambitious tie-dye birthday party for a now-six-year-old.

I think I had a birthday, too. There was cheesecake, so probably. And I have fun news to share, but I’m going to hold off a few weeks in the hopes of having bigger news to share.

My first instinct after writing that previous sentence is to follow with a joke about being a tease. But this week? This week I don’t feel like giving a voice to internalized misogyny. Because #metoo. Because #yesallwomen. Because #harveyisntananomoly.

Anyway. This week’s uke is an old Ani DiFranco song that was an absolute revelation to 19-year-old Elly the first time she heard it. It shook her so much, in fact, that she still occasionally refers to herself in the third person.

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We Don’t Have to Change At All

Recently the boys outgrew their shoes. So we went to buy new ones.

Me: Do you have these in a 13?

Sales Dude: The pink ones?

Me: Yup. In a 13?

Sales Dude: Those are girl’s shoes.

Me: Are girl’s shoes sized differently?

Sales Dude: No.

Me: Then a 13, please.

I have a lot of feelings about pink and gender and stereotypes and misogyny. I have a lot of feelings about a LOT of things. Including kneeling and Puerto Rico and Russia and…well…I’m not going to tackle any of them here today. (I did over here, though. And here.)

Today I’ll just say that the boys and I are listening (and reading) a whole lot of Free to Be You and Me. Because it will never not be awesome and poignant and timely. Marlo Thomas is magic. And so is Rosey Grier.

Hence today’s ukulele song:

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I’m Going To Go Back There Someday

Some days you wake up ready to take on the world, your task list fresh in your mind, your internet fast and your children compliant. And on those days, you of course reward yourself with a quick scroll through Facebook and then all productivity is lost because someone in your feed posts an article about some new line of sex toys that allow you to “lay alien eggs” in your interstellar entrance.

Because there’s NO WAY I can possibly resist the compulsion to read that. Paying, of course, particularly close attention to the details of how one must make their own “alien eggs” with gelatin [never ever the dessert kind] and copious amounts of both patience and free time [never ever gonna happen].

IT’S EVEN WEIRDER THAN SHOVING JADE EGGS IN YOUR CELESTIAL SNATCH.

Fortunately I recorded this video before reading that article. Because now all I can think about is these guys in the most disturbing porno ever.

I’m so, so sorry, Jim.

Anyway. I’ve been thinking a lot about my village and the wonderful people that have come into my life these past few years – both online and off. And maybe we haven’t “just met.” But as I age, time seems to become more subjective. They still feel shiny and new…yet old and comfortable, too. Magic. Like all things Muppets.

Shut up and sing, El.

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Get Back Up Again

I have a kid in Kindergarten. Unreal, right?

I’m not going to say the time flew by. I’m not going to say I don’t know where it went. It didn’t. I can account for every single day. I have the gray hairs and the wrinkles and the pounds and the sleep-deprivation glaze to prove it.

And yet. Unreal.

Because in the monotony of those years, I didn’t really believe it would actually end. Now my brain can’t quite reconcile before and after. I think I might have pulled something.

Anyway. Sam is loving having the run of the place and is basically screaming the 3yo version of “MAKE IT RAIN!” while rolling naked through all the toys with no reprimands to “share.” He’s taking the same approach to my lap, too. So there was no way this week’s ukulele video was going to happen without him.

To those in the path of Irma, stay safe. Let us know how we can help.

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Dorilla the Gorilla

When the Summer began, I promised Paul we’d write a song together. And so began the journeys of our protagonist, Dorilla the Gorilla and her van, Anna. We finished it yesterday. So what better way to jump back into Ukulele Fridays than with Paul’s original composition – with backing vocals from Sam.

Why yes, we ARE freaking adorable. And I even managed to not curse so you can show it to your kids, too. Hopefully it will be just enough of a distraction to get you through the long weekend.

Unrelated but important:if you have boobs and put bras on those boobs and have bras that you aren’t actively using, consider sending them to I Support the Girls. They have people on the ground in Houston and neighboring cities providing feminine hygiene products and gently-used bras to the women who need them. Just another way you can help Texas and (literally) support the women there.

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