Rody

Well, that was just about the most ridiculous spring break ever.  It started last Friday with such promise (about 3 hours worth) until Theo awakened from his nap with super gross pink eye and was sick all weekend, soon to be followed by me, sick all week.  Finally, this past Saturday, I had to go the weekend clinic for antibiotics for an ear infection ("we don't see many adults with ear infections").  Then I took Theo to the same exact clinic on Sunday only to discover that, in addition to pink eye, he had an ear infection in both ears and hand, foot and mouth disease.  (we also picked up some cream for his leg rash while we were at it).  When we were getting into the van I cried the cry of sheer frustration.  I was so looking forward to spring break and spent every single day of it either sick or caring for the sick.  Currently 2/3 of our house is on a course of antibiotics and the other 1/3 is on about 5 different pain and nerve medications.  Things are great around here! 

Can we talk about the medical establishment's rather sharp turn away from antibiotics this year?  I've been sick for most of the past 3 months, but could not, for the life of me, get a prescription for antibiotics because my symptoms always "sounded viral".  It literally took a super painful ear infection to finally get the amoxicillon I have so desperately wanted for the past 3 months!  I mean, I'm pretty sure there had to be bacterial stuff going on with my congestion/cough, but the (Kaiser) party line was no antibiotics.  Someone told me they won't even give antibiotics for sinus infections in small children anymore. 

Coincidentally, on the way to the weekend clinic I heard a Kaiser radio ad espousing the medicinal benefits of hugs.  Is this where we are now?  I sort of just figured, given the startling rate of technological advance, that we'd have some sort of mechanical organism that could be implanted in our bodies to dissolve our old organs and replace them with new machine ones that will never fail or tolerate illness. 

I did read a book over the break, in my sick haze (the Circle by D. Eggers), which was discombobulating/frightening as it's supposed to be dystopian, but seems sort of contemporary. 

Theo has a Rody horse, on which he loves to bounce for approximately 20 seconds at a time (but it is the happiest 20 seconds ever!  ...so I guess it's a must-have toy?).

And he has a stuffed horse (which sometimes kisses his mama and his bears).

The rap

I went to the Green California business conference this week (they had a curriculum session), an event that was notable for several reasons:

1.  The radio stations in the northern central valley are pretty much either:

• Spanish language (awesome, as I like to believe I am 10% fluent and therefore listen attentively until the concentration required to translate a few scattered words makes me tired).
• Soft contemporary with a strong love of Jesus (I heard you can cure depression through prayer!  This was an actual testimonial that I heard on the radio which killed a few of my brain cells) 
• “Today’s hits without the rap”, which immediately made me think, “Oh, this is the big ‘ole racist radio station”.  I couldn’t quite understand how this was an actual corporate catch phrase. There are so many problems with it:
  1. It’s just rap.  Not “the rap”.  
  2. Couldn’t they just play hits without “the rap”?  I mean, without announcing it?  Wouldn’t people figure it out?  The marketing of it seems insidious.  
  3. What is wrong with rap?  They played Katy Perry heavily, which means that there were plenty of (bubblegum) sex metaphors and innuendo, so it can’t be the perceived “content” of rap.  Is it the style?  Again, I will point to the rap-influenced bridges in Katy Perry’s new dark horse song, which seem to rule that out. 

2.  There was not one vegetarian option for lunch, which is perhaps the pinnacle of irony (given the water required to raise meat.  In CA, a drought  state.  At a green CA conference.)  Meatless Mondays, ya’ll!

Exciting news:  Today is the 38^th anniversary of the birth of one of my favorite people, Natan.  He requested a smoked turkey.  This is going to be a great year for him, I can already tell.  He won an NEH grant to go to Oaxaca for the month of July, thereby making us a “family of scholars”, as I like to joke.  Our summer plans aren’t completely ironed out, but it’s looking like a pretty good one right now (albeit with a large carbon footprint).  We’re definitely going to the east coast for a wedding in early June, and then down to NYC for some touristing.  Other than that, I could be going on anywhere from 1-3 additional summer jaunts, and Natan will be living in Oaxaca and eating street corn for a whole month!  It’s going to be a rad one.

In honor of his 38^th, I made a gif.

My baby finally walks (a little bit)!  He is super wobbly, and can only take a few independent steps, but, by golly, he’s getting there!  Hypotonic babies are the cutest (and their parents get to carry them for years more than most!  Extra exercise!).

He loves the wooden blocks he got for his birthday and he builds something for his trains every day (usually a boring road).  Also, House Lannister?! (I bought that shirt at the thrift store thinking that it was House Baratheon.  I am an amateur.).

why working at an all-girls' school is the best

1. Every single freshwoman completes the “women’s place project”, an art-science-history-religion interdisciplinary project based on the Dinner Party by feminist artist Judy Chicago.  I should mention that this school project was conceived of by an awesome SND (nun) who’s into feminist art and who traveled to LA specifically to see the exhibit when it was there (feminist and/or environmentalist nuns are the best ).

2. Today I accompanied my homeroom to a presentation on obstetric fistulas.  It was such a moving presentation that resonated with me, as a mother and woman, deeply.  Is it too late to go to med school? (…was my thought after learning about it).  I also didn’t know what they were until this presentation.  In my crappy, rural public school, women’s issues were never discussed in any capacity (and, in fact, a student was allowed to hand out pro-life flyers in bio.  UGH.)

3. They are smart and funny and unfettered by the obnoxiousness that is teenaged boys.  I hate arguments about how we live in a co-ed world and we have to teach them to live in it.  1.  I think they know how to live in it just fine, given that the patriarchy is everywhere around them and 2.  They are teenagers whose brains are undeveloped, and my personal, anecdotal experience has proven that it is important for them to hear and see female leadership—when I taught in a public school, I literally did not hear a girl voice all year in one of my classes because teenage boys blurt out whatever is in their head the second the thought forms.  Don’t get me started on this issue, I guess.

4.  My dear conceptual chemistry class, which has me heartily laughing at least once every block.  This week, a student had aviator sunglasses on for an entire class (with a note from mom attesting to her need to wear them) and I was shown SO MANY cell phone pics of guinea pigs with top hats (they are also really good at photoshopping themselves in with various celebrities)!  They are a fun-loving and chemistry-disinterested class, which I think is probably OK.

On to some pictures from before the onset of 7-week winter illness! (I will not soon forget or stop mentioning this winter's loss of vibrancy)  Earlier in the year (January), we took a phone-guided tour of the north beach area.  It was so fun (we only completed half of it because of an epic lunch break in the middle that ended with a completely melted down baby and a very expensive tab for bad pizza)!

We visited City Lights bookstore, and walked around the north beach (Italian) neighborhood.  I think an intense spell (maybe spring break?) of geocaching is in my future!

 Natan bought some literary inspiration

 A six year-old took this picture of me and Theo.