graceness's New Writeups

November 18, 2009 (personal)

2009-11-18T03:42:30Z

A friend posted a query on a popular social networking type site, asking what we thought she should get her kids for Christmas. After the typical suggestions, I told her to give them a hug, a board game, and a day of her full attention.

She didn't take me seriously. She is opting for a super expensive fad toy that will likely break in a week, and trust me the child will lose interest in it about 4 days before that.

What's so wrong with us, that in many ways we have decided to let technology replace spending time with our kids? It really troubles me. People look at me like I have three heads when I tell them that we didn't have cable for the first 5 years of my children's lives, on purpose, so that they would develop a love for books and a great imagination. Let me tell you something, my kids are almost never bored. On the rare occasion when it does happen, the minute they tell me so I am shoving them outside with a…

November 13, 2009 (log)

2009-11-13T04:08:49Z

To Sir With Love:

At times I liken this to a job in some ways: Some employees come and go. Some employees put forth more effort than others. Some have titles that others don't feel they deserve. The employees bicker about the management, the management bicker about the employees. People keep scrawling things on the bathroom stalls.

In other ways, I don't. For those of you who are new to it, there is no real way to explain it, although some analogies come close. It's just another website, but boy howdy can it change you.

I didn't know this place existed until Alpheus dragged me here kicking and screaming. He discovered this place through a stile project entry, I believe. I was one of the few people that managed to stick around past the initial novelty/trolling (I did not participate in that, as I had no idea that stile was the reason I got here). This place lured me in…

February 27, 2009 (personal)

2009-02-27T16:01:02Z

So at midnight the phone rang, I didn't get it in time and the number was unfamiliar. I called it back.

"Grace, it's your brother, Michelle's water broke. The babies are coming!"

In the minute it took for my sleepy brain to process, a million things went through my head. I wanted to tell him that it was ok, he didn't need to be afraid. That from this moment on his heart no longer belonged to him. That the twins would be a constant source of joy, frustration, sleepless nights, but mostly a happiness he won't be able to explain in words. That they will do things that will make his heart simultaneously sing and weep. There are million more things I want to tell him, but all I could say was:

"Congratulations, poncho, now get her to the hospital. I love you."

Now I'm feeling like a cooped-up cat in a cage, pacing continually, leaping at every sound, staring at the phone and begging it to ring. I'm going to be an aunt, for the very first time. I can't wait.

February 11, 2009 (personal)

2009-02-12T02:55:43Z

Someone dear to me likes to remind me from time to time that Wednesday is "anything can happen" day. I find it amusing and usually true. So today:

- My doorbell started to ring of its own accord. Then a really loud buzzing noise came from the bell speaker inside. Turns out the button was smashed somehow and rain leaked in. It was thisclose to it starting an electrical fire - my father-in-law fortuitously dropped by and disconnected the thingy before anything bad could happen.

- I found twenty dollars laying on the ground today, after pulling into a parking spot at work right beside the door (this is nothing short of miraculous) and it was pouring rain and I had no umbrella. So I managed to avoid getting soaked and I had money to put more gas in the car.

- I went to my family doctor who *gasp!* has finally decided to get things moving in a forward direction and is referring me to various…

October 24, 2008 (log)

2008-10-24T13:46:04Z

In E2 years, I am eight today! In internet years, that's about 800 years old.

In really real life, I feel about that age as well. I am cold right to the bone and tired, and feeling weak like a little mewling newborn kitten. Blind and cold and shivering. I love autumn but this year I have not been able to truly enjoy it.

I kind of feel like the birch tree in my front lawn - old and tired and blistered and peeling, slowly coming apart, pieces of me falling all over the place.

If you have a warm body that loves you, hold it tight tonight and be thankful. I know I will.

October 15, 2008 (personal)

2008-10-15T14:27:21Z

I am a medical nightmare. I don't really want to expand on that any further.

I hosted Thanksgiving in spite of my health. My mother was up visiting from Mexico, and my brother, his fiance, my uncle aunt & cousin, my grandma, we were all together. I just wanted to pretend things were normal for a while, you know? We were delivered a bombshell: My brother and his fiancee are having a baby in the spring. I…