First thing's first (AM)

Baby is at kinder Monday-Wednesday and I work Monday and Wednesday which means that the only day I'm at home with just Newbie is Tuesday, but for the last 4 months I've been volunteering at the office of an... ahem... politician. It's better than it sounds. Because I think that this office is full of people trying to do really great things like get people into public housing and help refugee families reunite and replace a coal fire station with some renewable power source and, of course, keep the politician in power.

The volunteer program I was part of was kind of an internship, which I felt reluctant to call it because it made me feel like an old person playing a young person's game, and even though everyone else in the program was younger that me I could mostly ignore that fact. Oh sure, there was than time in a workshop when the chief of staff asked us who had voted in the Kevin 07 election. I didn't get what he meant at first until I looked around at all the shaking heads of people who had still been in high school in 2007.

Other than making me feel old and also really busy, doing the volunteering has been pretty good and I feel like I've learned quite a lot and done some interesting things. The most noteworthy of which was writing a speech that was delivered in "Parliament" (so called, but must have been a room down the hall, away from where the action seems to happen) to as many as nine or maybe even 10 people. In that speech I managed to combine my two great loves, shopping and green politics, so I guess, if nothing else, I've learned that dreams can come true.

But it means that tomorrow is the first Tuesday in months that I kind of have to myself, you know and Newbie. I used to drop Baby at kinder on Tuesday mornings and go straight to do my grocery shopping but after all this time I feel like I need to do something a bit more pressing. At the risk of reliving my recent day off and overwhelming myself with things to do I've decided to commit to one thing and one thing only. And that most important thing, the first thing I'm going to do is restock my jeans supply. (Which, in case you are wondering is not the kind of thing that speech was about.)

I have lost my black jeans and it means that I have pretty much one pair of jeans on high rotation. And by high rotation I mean I basically wear them everyday. I buy all my jeans from Dejour and tomorrow I'm planning on stocking up for reals, I'm going to buy three, THREE pairs of jeans. If they have all the colours I want. The thing about Dejour is that their shades of blue are not consistent, of course that's great, you know, real! And all that, and I guess at worst it means that I might only two pairs of jeans. But when all your dreams are hanging on your first free Tuesday in months, well the colour of them jeans seems pretty important. Maybe I shouldn't even go jeans shopping tomorrow. Maybe I need to do it on another Tuesday, one that doesn't seem so precious. God, can I do nothing with a spare day that doesn't leaving me doubting myself!?!

New friends (AM)

I've been thinking lately about how it's good to make new friends. Other than the self-evidence of the statement, there are actual reasons too, like when you hang out with people other than the people you've been hanging out with for the last 20 or 30 years you get a new perspective on things. You talk about different things or the same things in new ways and you learn things and it's great. I can't recommend it highly enough. Except I rarely do it. The last friend I probably made was Pickle* and that was at least 8 years ago and is highly embarrassing because she has probably made about 45 friends since then. A year.  

"Why doesn't J make new friends?" You may wonder? "She seems so terribly amusing, if a little too obsessed with her hair," you're probably thinking. But it's not my hair obsession that's the problem, it's a bunch of other things. Like I'm pretty shy and I tend to think that people don't have room in their lives for new friends. And I kind of feel that I don't have room anyway.  Although I see people making new friends all around me, so I guess the latter is not true for them. So if I face the truth, it's probably just the stupid shit I tend to say to people that puts them off.

The other day I told a woman I barely know how great things had been at home because Baby had finally gotten into Harry Potter and I love Harry Potter. I mean, it's kinda cool. I guess. Whatever. I had to backtrack somewhat cause she looked at me as if that statement was totally kookoo. That is to say she seemed to think I was a total loser. 

A few weeks earlier I'd found myself having lunch with a bunch of complete strangers and after remarking on what an enjoyable show The Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt was someone asked "Do you guys like Amy Schumer?" But his emphasis was weird and I thought he'd pronounced a word funny, so I repeated what I'd heard "Amish humour?" At which  we all laughed, them thinking I'd made some funny joke and me wondering  what the fuck was going on, until the conversation carried on and I realised what had happened and that we weren't talking about Amish humour at all.  

That same day, like some stalker, I'd asked another complete stranger what street in Brunswick she lived. Not because I'm a stalker but because I am curious. But it did come across pretty weird.  

So how do I know that making new friends is cool? Well I don't but Kimmy Schmidt seemed to enjoy making friends on that TV show so I guess it is. 

*Not an actual true fact. But not far off.

Life Lessons (PM)

Lil'Sis is still young, that's her fault, there's so much she has to go through. 
But I guess it's true. Middle aged men of the silver screen are all the same to a teenage girl.
As if we would ever have differentiated between, say James Caan and George Segal when we were little. No way no how.

 

Just quickly, I wish James Caan spelled his name Jame Carn'. That would be great!


Of course, all bets are off when it comes to these guys.
I don't care when a lady comes of age. That these men are hunks is as plain as the nose on your face.

Life leassons (AM)

This weekend Pickle and I had a joint birthday party. It was a little early for me, but whaddya gonna do when you wanna share a party with someone? It was really fun. Thanks everyone!

The first time we shared a birthday party we used something like this image:

It was a great party, a great invite, and I felt like we cast ourselves perfectly as Laverne and Shirley. It was hard to think of who should represent us this year, but after some consideration I think we chose the perfect couple:

Then, not now that they hate each other. (What happened Gwyno?!) When we came up with the invite I was really happy with it and that day I had lunch with LB and his youngest sister. She is 15. I was telling them about the invite, giving Lil'Sis some background on the invites, mentioned we'd used a pic of Laverne and Shirley in the past. "Am I supposed to know who that is?" She asked. Fair 'nuff. I mean, reruns aren't what they used to be. Schemeel, schlemazel!

So, I moved on, started talking about Gwyno, about how they were BFFs until they busted up, about how Ben Affleck was dating Gwyneth and Matt Damon had been dating Wino. And I could see Lil'Sis's eyes glaze over and it started to occur to me she mightn't even know who Winona Rider was. And then she said something that, more than anything that has been said in the 10 years I have known her, highlighted the age difference. And you realise I have known her since she was 5. She said to me, "I always get Ben Affleck and Matt Damon and that other guy... who is that other guy?...Leonardo Dicaprio... I always get those guys confused."


!!!!!


?????


!!!!!

LEONARDO DICAPRIO! MATT DAMON! BEN AFFLECK! How could she? I mean, hello, has she seen Romeo and Juliet?!? To me it is almost unfathomable that, these men, hunks of my youth could be confused. And then, it occurred to me that to her these guys aren't hunks. Never have been. They are just some middle aged actors. She is just confusing a bunch of middle aged actors and I guess that makes perfect sense. I mean, she is a teenager. Oh lordy. And these aren't even hunks you would see me thinking twice about usually (though I do have a soft spot for Matt Damon. And I guess Leonardo has a certain je ne sais quoi. Also Ben Affleck looked handsome with that beard recently. But I digress) but they are just hunks I grew up with I guess and I have a very clear idea of them all. And now...well now I've just realised how finite things are. You know?! How we live in the past. We think we're teaching the kids, but really it's them that teach us.

I would post a picture of Taylor Lautner here in case any kids dropped by, but he is probably passe anyway.

A question of vegetables (AM)

Like most people I spent the better part of my undergraduate degree sitting in bars and cafes discussing the desert island vegetable question.  Looking back on this I am reminded of the scene in movies when old people say reflectively "Ah, young people they think they know everything." And then talk about how stupid that is and then I always think, "Shut up Albert Finney." And yet when I think about the vegetable question, Albert Finney seems to make a lot of sense.

Back in those days there was no question about what vegetable I would chose. Potato. Potato. Potato. Potato. It seemed to me then, as it does in many ways now, the most delicious and the best. You can mash it, chip it, roast it, make it into bread, even use it in a sweet treat if you were desperate. So versatile. Oh, potato. And, at 18 that was all that I thought mattered in the world, but now I'm older, I've seen more, lord knows I've eaten more, and often I wonder, would I still take potatoes to my desert island or would eggplant have to become my life long companion.

Think about it. Eggplant is caramelly, mushy, delicousy, can also be chipped, curried, pasta sauced, pizzaed. Eaten hot, eaten cold. I know that potato can do all that and more but I just think that eggplant is so delicious I may not be able to forsake it for potato. And yet. And yet.

But perhaps even asking this question is what those old people in movies are talking about. Perhaps the question itself is the naivete. As if a question like this could ever be answered. Perhaps wisdom can only come when I realise that I couldn't ever chose a single vegetable for eternity. And with that I reach maturity! BAM!

I can see the future (AM)

They say that if a man wants to know what a woman will look like in her old age they should look at her mother. They do not say you should look at a man's father to find out what he will look like, I don't know if that is because it is not true or because they think women don't care about such things. If they do say that it would definitely not be true of LB, dude looks exactly like his mother. And by exactly I mean EXACTLY. In 30 years he will probably look exactly how she looks now except only for the haircut and dresses. So perhaps the original sentence is true for everyone. If you want to know what any person will look like in the future look at their mother. I vividly remember the day I ran into The Notebook, I guess I hadn't seen him in a while and he said to me, "You look so much like your mother." I was in my early 20s so it was a little upsetting, no offence to my mother, I mean what 20-year-old wants to look 50?

And while there may be an increasing resemblance to my mother there is another increasing resemblance I am trying to deny but is overwhelmingly apparent to me.

If a person has ever come to my parental home, recently, in my childhood, ever, it is likely they have seen my dad in running shorts. That is because my dad basically always wears running shorts. And now I know why. Do you know how effing comfortable they are? They are basically the most comfortable thing in the world. Recently I went climbing with Russeth, it was one of those super hot days and I had left the house early in the day to do some things and I was not appropriately dressed for climbing. Believe me. So I bought some new running shorts. The 4-inch kind, which means they are far more modest than the regular kind. They were also the silky (polyester) moisture-wicking kind which my first pair weren't. On my way home after climbing I was sitting on the tram in the 35-degree heat and I was so comfortable, you could have turned the heat up a few notches. I was more comfortable than I had ever been in my life and I found myself wondering, "Is there anyway I could wear these on a day-to-day basis?" The answer came back to me, regretfully but overwhelmingly, "No!" And yet, I have found myself wondering this still. At home I find myself dressing for a run hours before I know I will go on one. On the hot days, especially those I don't intend to go far from home, I struggle against myself, wanting to wear what is essentially the uniform of my father. Running shorts, running shoes, a t-shirt. For now the better-dressed me is winning the fight, but who knows what will happen as I grow older and the inevitable parental resemblance strengthens. Poor LB wouldn't have considered that when he first met my parents.