Too many Lincolns

Abraham, Martin and Me

I helped escort Joseph's class to a performance of the Illinois Symphony Orchestra yesterday. It was entitled: Abraham, Martin and Me. It was an performance devoted to celebrating Abraham Lincoln and Martin Luther King, Jr. It was excruciating! The (white) conductor gave a long (LONG!) impassioned speech about what it would be like to be an African stolen from your family, owned, and forced into labor, and how Lincoln and Martin Luther King (Jr! she never remembered the Jr!) empowered black people. So cringeworthy. It totally took me back to my elementary school days. I specifically recall a puppet show about multiculturalism in which the puppet that represented my brand of diversity was a HORRIBLE caricature. I was mortified! It affected me profoundly that all the other kids would believe what the puppet said because it was presented to them as a lesson in school.

Throughout yesterday's performance of I kept imagining that some 6-year-old black girl (likely the only black kid in her class) was being forced to hear all of this in the presence of her white peers. And starting on the bus ride back to school, and for the rest of her life, would be aware of the curious stares of her classmates and feel embarrassed. I am sure that the conductor was well-meaning. She probably just wanted the white kids to empathize with the black experience. However, I think that this is the root of the problem: it was a lecture about black people specifically for consumption by white people. Being the subject of the empathy is like eavesdropping on people talking about you. I am sure that (WASPy) educators have no idea how it feels to be on the receiving end of such well-intentioned passion. The conductor is probably drinking some tea at home, and feeling like she did a good thing.

Swimming and consequences

Sunday the ISU Faculty/Staff Wellness Program had a Free Family Pool Day. The kids were very excited to swim--they haven't been since the summer. I guess that swimming outdoors all winter every winter in California caused me to have a tan all the time, so I thought that that was my natural color. Only recently have I realized that I am actually pale and varicose-veiny. I swim a couple of times week at ISU during Faculty/Staff swim, but all the other swimmers are old men so I figure that they probably can't see me very well. It was really not so tasty to walk around all cold, wet, pale and blotchy in front of people. I think that my hair froze on the way home. The kids had a great time.


However, as a result of this adventure (and despite the silicon ear plugs), Joseph got an ear infection. Joseph has ear tubes, so he actually has EAR FLUID COMING OUT OF HIS EARS. We had to find a pediatrician in Normal. Joseph was prescribed ear drops FOUR TIMES A DAY FOR 10 DAYS. How can such a medication exist? Has the drug company ever tried to put eardrops in a 4-year-old? Danny will have to show up at Joseph's school every day to administer one of the doses.

Also, some A-hole decided to break our headlight. The car was parked serenely in our driveway, but perhaps it insulted one of the drunken undegrads walking down the sidewalk? (I would also like to point out that in 8 years of Rubidoux and Riverside, no one ever vandalized either of our cars.) Replacing the headlight cover requires removing the front bumper, so we actually have to have this repaired in a body shop.

Gamera dissected

I found this picture of Gamera dissected, and I am dying to find out what the captions say. So, if you can read Japanese, please help.

My speculation is that the organ in his heel produces the fire that shoots out of his leg holes when he flies. He seems to have four stomachs. One is probably his fire-breath. Maybe the white one is some delicious milk to cool his fire/acid reflux? You can tell by the caption over his head that he is OK. But why is he carrying a shoehorn?

Happy Valentine's Day

Sam and Joseph made their Valentine's day cards for school. For whatever reason, they both chose the theme of Godzilla attacking the city with hearts. I think that Joseph may have thought of it first.

Madison is Joseph's Valentine. Joseph and Madison play together nearly all of the time, and he recently told me that "Madison is my girlfriend." Joseph also told me that one day he would marry Madison (after he asked me to marry him, and I told him that I was already married).


Sam likes to do a male and female version of his Valentines and I am not entirely sure why. I asked him if he thought that the girls wouldn't like Godzilla too, he thought not. He told me that "The girls would prefer a more feminine card" (he pronounces it "fem-i-9" because he has clearly never heard anyone say it aloud). Personally, I would rather get the Godzilla card, or maybe Gamera.

More cricket porn

My departmental seminar is tomorrow, so I cleaned up my "cricket porn" clip for mass viewing. Here it is:

Sledding, date night and strange weather

With a foot of snow on the ground, I was really psyched to take the kids sledding. Sam has been sledding once at Big Bear in CA, but Joseph has never been. Saturday we went sledding on a small hill near us. Joseph was highly resistant to the whole idea, and was very disagreeable getting to the park. (Does this sound familiar?) At the park Joseph refused to sled, but had a good time playing a game of his own invention in which he hurled his velociraptor into a snowdrift, admired the shape of the hole in the snow, and then found the dinosaur.

After about 40 minutes, Joseph suddenly announced that he wanted a turn sledding, and he had a great time. Sam loves sledding and enjoyed himself greatly.

Sam assists me in sledding without a sled

Danny says that sledding is A-OK.

Sunday, we went to Jersey Hill, which is the main sledding spot in town, and the kids had a great time. Joseph was giggling all the way down the hill, even as he ran into obstacles and bowled people over.

Sam is a sledding pro, and beats all of us for speed and distance.

I am happy to say that both kids carried their own sleds uphill.


Danny and I finally found a babysitter, so we went on our first date in Normal. For weeks I have been asking everyone for restaurant and entertainment recommendations, but have heard only mediocre reviews. Oddly enough, Bloomington-Normal has a freakishly high ratio of restaurants to people, yet none of them are good. (For a good laugh, read the review of the faux-French restaurant with commentary by David Sedaris.) We ended up at "Jim's Steakhouse," and had an expensive meal in a reasonably ambient restaurant with OK food and a piano bar. We were the youngest people in the place, for sure. We could not find anything (other than a movie) to do in town, so we went to a grad student Mardi Gras party where we played drinking games.

What have I learned from this experience? It is not as though I don't want to grow up and be an adult, but why are the grown-up options so boring? So, don't forget to take a Tylenol and drink a lot of water before you go to sleep. I can't but think that we would have been better off to forget dinner and entertainment and just check into a hotel room for four hours so that we could participate in marital relations whilst we were looking our best and more awake than usual.

As I am siting here, I am experiencing a weather first for me. Although it is only 20 degrees outside, we are having a full blown hailstorm with thunder and lightning. I had to come home early from the dog park where Argos was playing with his friend Jerry Seinfeld the Vizsla. The storm caused some local residents to have their power go out in the middle of the super bowl.

Snow day!

We had 9 inches of snow last night, so school was canceled for everyone. I went in to finish an experiment, and then we all went for a walk from the house through uptown Normal to campus. Joseph decided that snow wasn't so bad after all.

The kids played with the snowballs that the plows made--the snow was too light and powdery to make snowmen.



Snow angels!



Icicles!



Argos met a dog on campus and had a good time.


On the way home we stopped for coffee and hot chocolate at Emack and Bolio's.