Suck it, America

We got the mini van! And I love it. And I drove it to walmart and bought the baby cheap clothes because for some odd reason she has none. Can't figure it out. We had another baby two years ago and that baby had clothes that we kept. Maybe it's because Miss K is huge and baby clothes shrink. She won't be 6 months till next week, but she's already in 6-9 month stuff and she can wear some 9 month stuff already.

I used to be a good person. I took the train. I walked a lot. I shopped at the food coop. Now, I'm all evil in my big car going to the big box stores to dress and diaper my offspring.

I still recycle though.

Whew.

5-0! 5-0!

Okay, so before you worry (moms) the damage was purely cosmetic. The Bean slept through our first (and very minor) auto, uh...auto thingy! Yes, we had an auto thingy this afternoon. Route 12A is in West Lebanon otherwise known as West Leb and it's where all the box stores are. I normally hate 12A because all the box stores make it really crowded and slow, with people constantly turning and entering and all that annoying driving stuff. The only reason I was there was because I wanted to buy The Bean a boom box so she could really take it up a notch. Really, I just thought it would be nice if she had a cd player in her room so we could listen to tunes there. (The Bean has quite a cd collection btw). Anyway we were cruising in the LEFT lane because eventually we were gonna make a LEFT when a RENT A CENTER truck pulled out of the lot and smack into our car.

Yikes.

It was actually on the side of the car and the only damage was cosmetic so we're lucky! The Bean slept through the whole thing, but it still was scary and a bit of pain. We had to go all the way back and talk to the not so nice Rent A Center people who said the guy in the truck thought I was moving out of his way or something, which makes no sense since I was just going straight. The Bean woke up on the way back home and was in a foul mood because she had taken such a long nap and hadn't eaten in ages. But I wouldn't do one of our parking lot nurses because I didn't have my cell phone and I wanted to get home. After she nursed, I called the cops figuring I wouldn't wait around to hear from the RAC people. The cop said to bring the car there and file a report, which I did. The Bean was a trooper. For her the car means the car seat, which is totally confining these days and not fun. But she loved the police station. It was eye-opening for me since there's no real privacy so we heard the lady be told she had to pay the $40 bail for her son and that he was being held because he got caught selling what he said was cocaine but was really baking soda in the high school parking lot. Double yikes. The woman has had some kind of life since she's currently raising her 9 month old and 21 month old grandchildren because her daughters are "even worse" than her son.

The Bean really liked this woman and listened to her advice intently. It was probabaly because she had such good advice (don't sell drugs at the school, grow up to be good) and also because she had fringe on her coat, which The Bean thought was awesome.

Anyway they didn't even file a report since the damage was not particularly significant. I spent this AM on the phone with the insurance people. Hopefully the car will get pretty again next week and this will be worst traffic thingy The Bean and I are ever in.

Say, Momma, What's Going On?

Baby: not a whole lot of sleeping that's for sure. Bean is still excellent, but not an excellent sleeper. She doesn't like to nap, which means she gets overtired, which means it takes her parents an extremely tiring amount of time to get her to sleep at night and because she's growing like a weed she wakes every two hours to eat which means mom is pretty sleep deprived and thinks a really long sentence will get the point across. Whew. Today I had what would be a degrading situation if it had been someone other than an almost 6-week year old in the room. I was on my hands and knees rocking the bassinet. Why was I on my hands and knees? I was hiding from the baby. When she sees me, her eyes fly open. Really. She's kind of a genius like that. This morning when N. was trying to give her a bottle she refused to take it so he put her back to bed. It wasn't until his milk was poured in his coffee and he was about to take a bite of cereal that Bean decides she'll take the bottle.

Car: still cute even in the driveway.

NH: I'm sick of the two main restaurants in town, that's for sure. But there are some things NH does better than Bklyn. Like the food co-op. The Bklyn co-op was so small that you'd never consider going there on a Sunday at 5:00 unless you're some kind of masochist. The one here? Totally empty. And huge. And there's never a line at the bank. Or, as you remember, the post office.

Another thing I like about NH: kids playing on the streets. Not babies being wheeled around in gourmet strollers in gourmet playgrounds by their parents but real kids ages like 8-11 riding bikes and playing ball on their own.

Another plus about NH: Did I mention there's no sales tax? Regardless, I spend like no money here. Back in Bklyn, I spent money just breathing. Of course I did spend like a kagillion dollars at the Coop on Sunday but we do need to eat.

Baby Crap: just keeps coming into our house. Tonight poor N. has to put together the Graco Swing. I considered putting it together but keeping Bean together is job enough. Besides, I'm really bad at putting stuff together. Especially if there's 40 steps and 80 pieces. And screws are involved.

Other people commenting on the dearth of blog updates: shouldn't really talk now, should they?

Knitting: I'm considering learning how to do it. Bean nurses a lot, it's gonna be cold a lot soon. Shouldn't these two things come together? Any knitters out there? Do you think someone who's bad at putting things together and not really sewy can learn to make knots?

The New York Times: why do I keep buying it when I don't ever read it? It's a good thing they don't deliver to this zip code.

Brooklyn: I'm too consumed with general day to day living to miss it but say hi if you see her.

Jersey Boy: Strangely A Post That's Not About Me

Congrats to N. for finishing a whopping 6 years commuting to and from New Jersey! I thought about figuring out the number of miles and hours you put in slogging from Brooklyn to central NJ but I don't want to depress you or my 4.5 readers.

For those of you who don't know, N. had a really rough commute for a less than stellar teaching environment for a less than stellar salary. And you know what? He didn't complain about it. I know, it's crazy since I've been known to complain about the hair on my left pinky toe or the texture of a piece of cheese, but N. would get up at 5:30 AM to get to Jersey by 8:00, teach a 5 hour class, have office hours, maybe have 20 minutes to scarf down a mediocre Quik Check sandwich at his desk, and then teach another 5 hour class. After that, he'd finally drive the hour-if-you're-lucky home only to spend 20 minutes looking for a parking spot. He didn't have any of the heaps of time off that other academics get either since the terms began anew every eleven weeks. Despite all this, he never complained. I know, I'm a lucky woman.

He will have to drive to work in NH but it will be a simple 30 minutes down the comparatively empty highway to a beautiful school with a real art department, traditional students, and an actual cafeteria where he might get to eat some kind of human lunch. Plus, no night classes! And no more looking for parking since our new place comes with a driveway!

Here's to a job well done, N. And here's to better schedules, less traffic, and more satisfying classes in your NH future!

The First Step to NH

Was trading in our styling yet totally gas devouring VW for a Subaru Outback, which if it's not on stuff white people like it should be.

I have yet to see a person of color anywhere near a Subaru. (And yes, I've been looking. What do you think I do when I'm not blogging or going to the library?)

Anyway, our VW aka "Ruthie" had over 130,000 miles on her and we just kept emptying our bank accounts getting her fixed this year. The a.c. got fried when we were up in NH (where it was surprisingly balmly) and it's just not legal to have a pregnant woman in a car with no a.c during the summer. It had to be done. Yesterday N. went in with Ruthie and came out with the car who has yet to be named. There was no question of not getting a Subaru for NH because we're white, listen to NPR, like Barack Obama, and will probably join some kind of food Co-op. Plus it has all wheel drive which I hear is helpful during the occasional New England snow flurry.

I heard from the gays that Subarus are a very lesbian car, which I guess is something. But still, those crazy kids just picked themselves up a super cute, city-friendly Honda Fit. It feels a little bit like they got a Mac and we got a PC. Our new(ish) Outback has made me feel really married, kind of boring, and less black than ever.