I'm Not From Here

We were all pretty excited about moving to the Austin area, which is why I decided that we would make an effort to do something "Austin-y" at least once a month. We skipped doing something in March, except for all those trips to Target, but in April we went to Art City Austin. It reminded us of the Oklahoma City Arts Festival and was even held the same weekend.

Sometimes I have a plan, and no matter how determined I am to follow through, the novelty eventually wears off. I get lazy and decide instead to lay around the house all weekend in my pajamas. I am pleased to say that that has not yet happened! In fact, May has been a busy month for Austin visits. We had a botched trip to Max's Wine Dive for Mother's Day (which I will definitely post about once we use the $50 gift card they sent us!). And the following weekend we tried our first Austin eatery, with great success, and attended the Renegade Craft Fair.

This weekend I wanted to try another restaurant from my book and Asher decided that we should have Mexican again. We choose Torchy's Tacos at the South Austin Trailer location (1311 South 1st Street). We ended up at Izzoz Tacos (1207 South 1st Street). The two trailers share a fence! We stopped at the first taco trailer we saw and ended up being 20 feet from where we were headed. I didn't want to pile the kids back into the car just because I had my heart set on wanted to try a particular taco trailer, so we went ahead and ordered dinner . It ended up being a very good choice.

We wanted to try almost everything on the menu.

Asher said it was the best taco he'd ever had, but he didn't care much for the flies that accompany outdoor trailer dining

Amelia got her fill of guacamole.

And the boys got to show off their hula-hoop skills.

And because my darling husband knows me so well (and loves me anyway), he pulled out of Izzoz and into Torchy's so I could take home the tacos I'd been dying to try.

Beautiful Boy (Darling Boy)

When I was pregnant with Asher I had fears about being a mother. I mean aside from the actual birthing of the baby, I was also afraid of raising a boy. In fact I cried during the ultrasound when we found out we were having a boy. I blame that emotional response on the fact that no little girl plays with boy dolls, so, like all little girls that grow up, I didn't want my very first real live doll to be a stinky boy! But aside from the whole "how am I supposed to raise a boy, I don't know anything about cars!?" I had actual, I assume realistic, fears about how we would relate to each other.

I had four brothers, two older and two younger, so I felt the fear was completely justified. I knew that the early years, aside from anatomy and clothing, boys and girls were fairly similar emotionally. After Asher was born, I put aside the fears and we pretty much rocked the socks off of those early years. I couldn't have been happier to have a son. He was such a sweet tempered, snuggly little ball of love, and he adored his mother.

Fast forward to age six.

Asher is still sweet tempered and loving, and he still needs his mother to tuck him in and say "goodnights," but I can't help but be almost completely paralyzed by this rising feeling of panic. I can see our common ground slipping away. We are no longer interested in the same things, like ice cream and The Land Before Time, bubbles or the zoo. He still wants to go to the park but mainly to play frisbee golf, which I'm told by Elijah is a completely legitimate sport. Our conversations have deteriorated from "what did you dream about last night?" to him retelling (for the seventh hundredth time) how "the video game character Sonic has a kid and did you know that he also was the fastest runner, but not the best at archery because Waluigi is the best at archery, and did you know that Peach has the fastest car and that when you don't stagger over the finish line in a running race you lose and isn't that awesome and don't you think that's funny Mom? Mom!? MOM?!!!

Do you see what I mean? I guess what I'm trying to say is that video games are taking over my relationship with my son and I can't even begin to pretend to want to play them with him. I have a hard time faking enthusiasm and it's becoming more obvious to my darling little boy that I'm not paying attention to his video game stories. As soon as I hear anything that has to do with the Wii, I completely tune out; not intentionally, I'm just really bad at feigning interest.

In my mind this is monumentally bad. How can I ever expect him to come to me with the problems or stories that I deem important when he knows I'm not listening to his important stories now? I always tell Elijah that we have to really put in the work now in order to keep the lines of communication open otherwise we'll lose him. We won't know about his first crush or first kiss, or if he's being bullied or smoking pot behind the bleachers. I'm not saying that these are things he's guaranteed to tell us anyway, I'm just saying there is NO WAY he's coming to me for advice about social situations if I didn't listen to the time when he finally got through that race that took him two hours to finish and now he can go to another race which is even longer and harder and he gets to pick a new car and put new tires on it and do I think he should get the red one because the red ones are sometimes faster, but the blue one looks cooler and didn't I think that the blue one was cool? Didn't I? DIDN'T I?!!!!

I'm so totally screwed. I'm just hanging all my hope on the fact that we read together every night, that's our thing. We talk about the books, make special treats to watch the movies and still have that little thing in common. After Harry Potter I think we'll start the series of Oz books, there are like 14 of those. Next we'll move on to Tolkien and by that time he should be ready for Stephen King so we can bond over his 70-something works. I'll do anything to get us through what I'm now referring to as "the era of the video games," with our relationship intact.

Jose Cuervo

...you are a friend of mine.

For Mother's Day, Elijah bought me my new favorite Austin travel book. It's called eat.shop austin. I decided to use it to pick my birthday dinner spot. I found a Mexican place in South Austin, where they serve avocado margarita's, called Curra's Grill. Now maybe everyone else is cooler than I and has had (or at least heard of) an avocado margarita, but I hadn't and I'd been eagerly anticipating this dinner experience all week. Let me just say that it totally lived up to the hype in my head.


The place was perfect. The food was good and the atmosphere was loud (which is always a good thing when you're bringing small children along.) It had highchairs and crayons and was filled with locals. Definitely a place we'll go to again.

Life is a Highway

To commemorate my 33rd birthday, I've put together a list of 33 things that illustrate what a kick ass ride it's been thus far.

They are in no particular order.

1. Elijah, ten years with a remarkable man; and counting!
2. Asher, the name is stolen but the boy is all mine.
   
3. Amelia Grace, named for my Granny and born two months before she passed.
   
4. Winston Chesterfield Ogden III, or Chester, or Chest-head, or Chester-Westerkins.
   
5. A full week of sunshine in Ireland.
6. An Associate of Arts Degree in Russian
7. Caramel Macchiatos, the perfect reminder of my year as a nanny in New York.
8. A 2008, Oklahoma City Half Marathon finisher's medal with a time of 2:12:53.
9. Back Spasms, from the weight gain (and loss) of over 120 lbs total.
   
10. A chilled Hoegaarden in it's appropriate hexagonal glass.
    
11. Well worn Capezio jazz shoes, a reminder of my days at BYU as a dance major.
    
12. A fairly impressive collection of Kate Spade bags.
13. A delicious enchiladas verdes con pollo recipe I've perfected over the past ten years.
    
14. Six years of honorable service in the United States Air Force.
15. Appreciation for a good Australian Shiraz.
16. Riedell Quad Speed Skates, pre roller derby.
    
17. My RN License.
18. Getting my wedding dress at 16 and wearing it at 22.
19. A house that always smells of homemade Chex Mix at Christmastime
20. A picture of me, seven months pregnant with my second child, at my very first New Kids on the Block concert!
21. An African Violet that has survived the moves from our very first home in Maryland, to our new place in Texas
22. Scotch kisses from See's Candy. Something my Granny always sent on special occasions.
23. Kicking my American Spirits smoking habit.
24. Learning how amazing food can taste when cooked with bacon grease.
25. Taking Asher to Disneyland.
26. Summers at the Grand Canyon.
27. Hook echo!
28. A love for literature which has given me insight and knowledge as well as escape.
29. Learning to drive a stick first.
30. Marching in the 102nd Tournament of Roses Parade in Pasadena.
31. My very first Easy Bake Oven, a gift from Elijah our first Christmas together.
32. Mayan coffee at the Aventura Spa Palace.
    
33. A whirlwind move to Texas!
    

Mad World

On Tuesday, I dropped Chester off at the groomer's for his summer haircut. He came home smelling of powder, with a black and orange flamed bandana around his neck.

He is still not speaking to me.

Read My Mind

This was another quick read. It probably took me about eight days to finish. I can't say that I understand what all the fuss is about. I suppose the story was meant to be scandalous given the ages of the characters, but I wasn't very scandalized and the author didn't seem to want me to be scandalized. The writing appeared to be elementary, artificially so, given that it was supposed to be a well educated, grown man's, account of events. I neither liked nor disliked this book, I am interested in watching the movie though, but mostly because I love Kate Winslet.

The Book of Love

I know my book reviews are fairly fluffy. They're short and trite and don't actually delve into the "meat and potatoes" aspects of the work I'm critiquing. I just want to say, in my defense, that I'm no longer interested in analyzing themes of an author's work, unless they totally jump out at me. (Years and years of thematically driven analytical rewrites of famous literature will do that to a person.) These days, I mostly want to write about liking or not liking a book, how long it took me to get through it, or how long I enjoyed it, for the ones I loved. With an occasional "recommended for" aspect thrown in for good measure.

I have been thinking however, that since my reviews do seem rather superficial, it might be nice to include a list of books I have read and loved, to give my readers something to measure their likes and dislikes against. This might be a way to know whether or not to give any credence to my loving or hating a certain work.

So here it is, in list form, but not necessarily love order, my Top Ten books:

1. East of Eden by John Steinbeck - I read this in high school, before the Oprah phenomenon, and it lead me to all things Steinbeck, something for which I will always be grateful.

2. The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde- In my opinion, Oscar Wilde's greatest work. If you're familiar at all with Oscar Wilde, it's probably because of his play The Importance of Being Earnest. For some reason that play seems to be the author's most widely published and studied piece, while Dorian Gray suffers in obscurity. It's such a pity and also a prime example of how mainstream media can overrun some of the best art.

3. The Red Tent by Anita Diamant- I read this book right after having Amelia and I believe that is one of the reason's I loved it so much. It's an historically fictional account of the daughter of Jacob and sister of Joseph. A beautiful book about the struggles of being a woman and a mother; the troubles as well as the joys are timeless.

4. Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand - I am a lover of all things Ayn Rand, so choosing Atlas Shrugged over The Fountainhead and her lesser known We The Living was difficult. What tipped the scales though, was how clearly this novel illustrated her often emphasized theme of individuality.

5. The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver - Loved this book, hated when it ended. Read it.

6. Tess of the d'Ubervilles by Thomas Hardy - I read this in my twenties, when I was young and impressionable and totally lost. It amazed me how Hardy could speak to my idea of feminism and freedom from a completely different century. This is a wonderful example of why the classics are classics.

7. A Widow for One Year by John Irving - This was actually the third John Irving novel I'd read; behind A Prayer for Owen Meany and The World According to Garp. I really enjoyed the first two, but fell in love with A Widow for One Year. I now have three Irving books lined up along my "to be read" bookshelf hoping to have found my second Steinbeck.

8. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire by J.K. Rowling - Anyone who knows me personally would know I was just spouting garbage if I didn't put a Harry Potter book on my Top Ten list. I eagerly anticipated every release, often having the books shipped to me and reading them in their entirety the weekend they came out. I'm now reading the series to my son, Asher, and watching the movies after finishing each book. I'm pleased to report that he loves them just as much as I do. The fourth book is my favorite; probably because it's the first one that made me cry.

9. My Name is Asher Lev by Chaim Potok - My best friend from high school recommended this book to me a couple year's ago. She told me to tell people that I named my son after the main character. I didn't, I actually stole the name from her when she and I were both pregnant (she was having a girl - score!). Anyway though, had I read it before Asher was born I would totally have named him after Asher Lev. This Asher is a sweet Hasidic Jewish boy who only wants to be obedient and faithful to the ways of his fathers. Unfortunately, he is a fiercely talented artist who must leave the confines of his community in order to pursue his gift.

10. Me Talk Pretty One Day by David Sedaris - Another great gift! This one was given to me by my brother-in-law. It is my favorite Sedaris book, although I do prefer getting his stuff on tape because he and Amy are hilarious in the readings and so much more of the personality of the book comes through.

Well there you have it. Ten reasons to heed or not to heed my short, slightly lame, seriously superficial book reviews.

Hey Good Looking

Every day that I'm home, I learn something new about myself.

Well... I guess that's not actually true, but it is true that this "moving, nesting, not working experience" has opened up some undiscovered insights to my personality. For example:

I love to cook.

No really, I do. And to be perfectly honest with you, that's not something I ever thought I would say. Maybe it was because there were so many other things on my "want to do" list that I didn't realize how much I enjoyed cooking. But over the last few months, I have really grown in this area. Last night I made spaghetti & meatballs from scratch. Yep, the whole thing. I even used wine in the sauce. Of course, I didn't measure it, I just poured some out of the glass I was drinking, but that's beside the point. The point is that I made everything minus the noodles (I'm not sure how I feel about attempting homemade pasta). I don't think I'm there yet.

The exciting thing is last night wasn't the first time. I made a peach pie two weeks ago, from scratch. I've made mac-n-cheese without using a box. Lately I have been cooking up a storm and loving it. I mean actually loving the cooking part and not just the eating part.

I'm thinking that part of my enjoyment comes from the solitary aspect of cooking. Solitary moments are sparse these days. And sure, sometimes Asher and I make something together. However most evenings, it's me alone in the kitchen, listening to laughter as Asher and Amelia play in the living room. I chop and saute and boil and bake and just spend some time alone in my head. After that we all get to eat something yummy, which I consider a win, win.