bird by bird

Every day on our walk to and from school, the boys and I walk past some bearded dudes selling Christmas trees on Columbus street. These bearded dudes are totally the type that I like to fantasize about fixing my leaking drain and then singing me folk songs by a fire all night long, so as we walk past, I always try to make it clear that I am just the boys' nanny, not their mom. I say things like, "We will have to ask your mom and dad about that when you get to your house" or "My apartment where I live alone without a boyfriend is uptown" or "I'm not your mom, and I have a leaky drain and I love folk music." I'm not sure if the bearded tree-sellers are paying attention, but man, am I persistent. So one day last week we were walking home from school, and the guys started talking to K, JJ, and JT. They had a reindeer that they had carved out of a tree scraps and were trying to get JT (2) to say "Merry Christmas." None of the kids really...

The other day K (6) was singing " I'm Sexy and I Know It ," which he must have picked up from Hebrew school because I definitely am not the one who taught it to him, and JJ (4) started singing along too. Then JJ stopped and asked K what "sexy" meant. K kindly explained, "It means that you're really fun and everyone wants to be your friend." I guess he's kind of right. Kind of.

"...a woman must have money and a room of her own if she is to write fiction." -Virginia Woolf

So I'm listening to "The Moth" podcast today (which I usually do on Sundays while I put away clean laundry but I'm ahead of schedule this week, though I'm sure you really don't care.) ANYWAY, "The Moth" is a free podcast that features true stories that are told live, without notes. I'm a big sucker for stories, especially true ones, so I LOVE it and hope to go to an event in the city someday. So I'm listening this morning and Peter Sagal from "Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me" is on and he's talking about his friend who has a PhD in something that I can't remember.. and he tells about when he got out of college and his friend told him this: "Sometimes I think that the best way to live your life is to choose the experience that will have the most anecdotal value." Sagal goes on to say that this casual comment ended up being what he calls the law of anecdotal value. He says: "Everything I choose to do, I tr...

“I write in a very confessional way, because to me it’s so exciting and fun. There’s nothing funnier on earth than our humanness and our monkeyness. There’s nothing more touching, and it’s what I love to come upon when I’m reading; someone who’s gotten really down and dirty, and they’re taking the dross of life and doing alchemy, turning it into magic, tenderness and compassion and hilarity. So I tell my students that if they really love something, pay attention to it. Try to write something that they would love to come upon.”—Anne Lamott