Friday, December 08, 2006

potato chips as retaliation

So it’s almost nine o’clock and my hands have finally warmed up enough to type without having to pound the delete key. Work? Nope, not quite yet. Blog? Sure, why not.

For some reason I want to say that yoga practice has fallen by the wayside, but to be honest I’ve only missed one day this week. They’re not all the juicy long practices that I like, but they’re enough to keep the muscles a loose and challenged. And I’m quite giddily pleased with the development of some upper body strength.

It occurred to me this morning in the shower (which is where I do my best thinking) that running in this weather is just silly, not to mention a sop to the weight-loss-ego-vanity thing. Yeah, I'd like to hit my next milestone, but if I can stay where I am through the winter, I'll probably have an easier time losing in the spring. And then I'm really happy to run instead of just gutting it out and compromising my immune system anyway.

My friend P in Columbia has expressed interest in sneaking in an hour of practice this weekend during our visit. We’ll have the dads there, so this might actually be a possibility.

We left Duckie’s fluffy white coat in Virginia over Thanksgiving. They’re mailing it to us, but yesterday I decided that I simply could not allow my daughter to be less than toasty in this weather. It’s turned bitter cold and windy, and her fall jacket wasn’t enough, even with two sweaters underneath it. It was one of those situations that raised all the maternal hackles on the back of my neck. Totally unacceptable, and it was time to act. So I made an executive decision to do a quick run to the big box store. (Oh, the ongoing shame of it…)

And wonder of wonders, it actually was quick. We were all ravenous and had no interest in browsing. Duckie had entirely too much fun hanging onto the cart for dear life as Brian whipped it around corners and chased me through the store. In other words, we hauled ass.

We picked out a coat in about five minutes. Man, this thing is a wonder of modern tailoring technology. It’s like four coats in one. A thick outer shell, a zip-off hood with a Velcro chin flap, a quilted inner lining that also zips out and is reversible – one side is a stylishly shiny lavender quilted with hearts, and the other side is minty green polar fleece. It even has little zip pockets for storing mittens. Brian and I are both envious. Her coat was outrageously inexpensive – but for an adult it would probably run a couple hundred dollars. Nuts.

We finally got her into the thing this morning. The temperature was somewhere around 15 degrees with a wind chill of below zero. Even letting her go from the house to the car without a coat was not an option, no matter how truculent she was about it.

She looked warm and cozy and three years older, like she was about to catch the bus for kindergarten.

I’m continually amazed at the gymnastics my brain plays about this. She’s standing there in her big girl coat, arms sticking out and stomping like a little Sumo wrestler, grinning hugely through the chin flap, and I know she loves it – but I just want to tear it off of her, wrap her in a blanket and sit with her for an hour in the rocking chair, holding onto the baby in her.

And then, at the very same time, I’m utterly, tearfully grateful that we have the resources to skip blithely to the store and pick up such a wonder, along with a new nightgown (because I’m tired of washing the same one twice a week.) I know perfectly well that there are lots of families around here who can barely put food on their tables and have to plan the purchase of winter clothes months in advance.

Doubtless this coat will be donated in a couple of years to some organization or other that helps out those families. And we’ll put our extra cash (yeah, like we’ve got a lot laying around) into the Salvation Army buckets, and I’ll continue to give thanks, every day, for this job, my husband’s job, the roof over our heads (hard as it is to catch up with the mortgage payments), and the blind luck that lets us keep our daughter warm and our cupboards full. Maybe this is another good reason to stick at one kid, you know? I’m not entirely sure we could manage to provide for two – certainly not as well as we can manage for one.

*****

The audit this week wasn’t bad. The guy was jumped up on caffeine and decided to actually audit instead of calling it in like he usually does. Happens the audit may help us improve – which is what it’s supposed to do anyway. It’s about time. And for some reason I found him slightly less annoying than the last time - except that during lunch, he mentioned something about his lack of interest in TV, and the channels he prefers to watch. “You know, Fox News, the History Channel…”

Good gracious, why does he find it necessary to define his cable news network? I would probably just have said, “You know, the news channels, Animal Planet…”

Why would he advertise his ignorance? Why would anyone? Fuck’s sake, who in their right mind would limit their news sources to one questionably-slanted station? Even CNN isn’t enough, really – there are plenty of things that aren’t ever reported on either station, and I don’t entirely trust the newspapers or the news feeds, either.

It seemed to me like he was almost challenging someone to take him up on the pride he takes in his political views. As if he’d thrown a stone and was waiting for someone to throw it back. Like he felt superior.

It was probably the caffeine talking. Maybe, like Brian, he’s married to a smart liberal chick who challenges his own opinions on a regular basis. Maybe he really does think about this stuff instead of mindlessly gorging himself on other peoples’ opinions.

But I still wanted to throw my chips at him.

1 comment:

SB Gypsy said...

I applaud your restraint, even as I take unholy glee at the picture of you showering the idiot with the greasy stuff at the bottom of the chip bag. *heh heh*