Swined etc.

Well we have all been swined here at house Ellani. That is my term for having H1N1. Ther eis something so tedious and frustrating about being ill. We aren't completely out of the woods yet: my cough is still pretty nasty and little E. is still coughing quite a bit...aparently there is a higher risk for pneumonia with this thing.
This week, there were only 9 kids in A's kindergarten group on Monday; 4 on Tuesday. The numbers have been slowly increasing since then. Today they were up to 12...out of 22 total. For some reason the little ones all seem to be bouncing back faster than the bigger kids. E's nursery school group were down to 4 on Monday and back up to 8 on Tuesday (from 10).
...
Reading The Women by TC Boyle--a fictional account of Frank Lloyd Wright and his various wives and mistresses. What bugs me most at the moment is the photo on the cover which is clearly from Taliesin West or some other jaunt to the American Southwest. But the book takes place almost exclusively in the original Taliesin in Wisconsin. Evry time I pick up the book, I see the picture and think desert Southwest only to find myself immersed in the rolling green of Wisonsin. I never thought I made much of cover art (unless it was particularly ugly), but it is much more powerful than I thought. I guess it would be like putting a spaceship on the cover of a Jane Austen novel.

Reading

Today a recommendation for the best book I have read this year: The Bone People by Keri Hulme.

This is probably the hardest book I have ever read--in terms of content. It has some horridly difficult and painful themes. But there is something so stunning and achingly beautiful in this book. I can't say any more about it (and usually I can can go on and on about a book I like).

I read it back to back twice. And it stayed with me for weeks. It is not the kind of book I will run to reread on a dark, winter day--it is not the cozy comforting book you reach out for over and over again. But I will read it again.

Try this test:
Take something you are in the habit of looking at very often, but in a subconscious way, and move it.
Our kitchen clock literally fell off the wall the other day and is now residing on the counter next to the coffee machine until I can its frame back together. I knew that I look at that clock often (is it time for the kids to go to school? How much longer until the noodles are ready?), but until it fell off the wall I had no idea how often. Now when my eyes are drawn to that empty patch of wall, I NOTICE.
I thought I might look at that clock about a dozen times a day, but now I realize I look at that thing all the time. It has become an unconscious habit, and I wonder, if an obsessive one.

Institutional Friction

We've been havng a bit of trouble at our kindergarten. It's a long and convoluted story, but basically the director is trying to make the lunch experience so difficult and late for the kiddies that we will all pick them up early and feed them at home. And this right after the place was renovated and a bright new kitchen and large eating room was installed.

We, along with some other parents, have been vocal (though also constructive) in trying to change this policy. Now, I have noticed a marked coolness emanating from A's teacher (today he didn't even greet her when she came intot he room). He just said an absent-minded hello in passing in return to my greeting.
This is really upsetting to me, who tends to, admittedly, feel these things too keenly. I had expected a degree of professionalism; an ability to keep these things separate. I really do not wish for them to punish A, just because we (along with some other parents) are trying to instigate some change in an otherwise notoriously immobile institution.
I dread it, but there will have to be a TALK...I am not good at these things at all. I am just too shy and socially unskilled (especially in a language that is not my mother tongue). Should I regret our having spoken out? But keeping quiet would mean giving up any hope of doing any real work if I had to pick up the kids to feed them lunch every day.
This situation is so German. Here is an institution that is supposed to be supplying care to our children...which is supposed to enable us to go back to work...but which, in practice, does almost everything to make that impossible. They stilll haven't heard of customer service or satisfaciton here (at least in this sector). They don't actually see us as their customers. Isn't that just strange?

Kids and Colds

My oldest is now 4 years old and the little one is 17 months. We have been in nursery school and kindergarte now for 3 years, but I still seem to get every viral and bacterial infection that there is. I have come to dread the fall/winter/spring seasons because of the heightened illness activity. Hey, this summer wasn't much of a breather either. I seem to get everything and everything worse than enyone else in the family. On one hand, I am thankful that the kids don't get so darn sick. On the other had, I am so tired of being down for the count for weeks on end.
My mom never got sick when I was a kid. I remember one cold she got when I was about ten and I was completely shocked. Okay she worked as a dental hygenist, so she probably had been exposed to everything.
I'm just wondering when I will cross that magic line and also be immune to everthing out there?

Random Thoughts on a Rainy Day

I have a half-brother who is 10 years older than me...I only recently realized that he was very influential on my early musical taste. He introduced me to Supertramp and The Rolling Stones pretty early when I was still a little pipsqueak and the other kids in my class were still listening to kiddie music. Not that imbued me with any kind of musical sophistication in my later years (or made me cool at the time...I didn't understand half the lyrics I was singing and probably sounded like a complete idiot singing Fleetwood Mac lyrics: 'When times go bad, and you can't get enough, just ay yourself in the tall grass and let me do my stuff...').

But I do remember so clearly the album covers of those two bands (the first couple of albums that I owned). Later, my half-sister bought an album by Rickie Lee Jones which I just loved. I played that album over and over again in our living room and drove her nuts. She ended up hiding it from me. I wonder if she still hates that album?

My musical preferences got stuck somewhere in the 90s when I was in my 20s and music meant so much to all of us (remember making mix tapes for your friends?). I don't know when exactly it happened, but somewhere along the way I stopped buying music. At the time, we all had fountains of knowledge about bands, developing music, new albums, new directions and the like.

The most recent CDs I purchased have been children's music, and with the exception of When We Were Young ( a lovely collection of Irish children's folk songs), none of which have any real musical merit...though we all sing along to them in the car. It is kind of a compulsive, obsesive sing-along that happens, whether we like the song or not. What fun. I sure am looking forward to that 8 hour drive to Italy this summer!

Birthdays and Such

Sunday was my birthday and Husband was (as usual) wonderful. The detailsare boring I suppose, but we actually went out to dinner By Ourselves on Saturday night (dearest Patenhexe even brought Sunshine to bed). The dinner was beautiful--we have ot get out more I tell you. Sunday he gave a birthday brunch for me and loads of people showed up. Was really really lovely.

The babysitter is here, but I can hear Sunshine being a bit cloudy. Usually it works better. But I think she's grumpy 'cause they can't og outside and play. The summer weather has disappeared and it's a bit rainy and cold. What do you do to entertain a 16 month old on a rainy day?

Ah they approach. The babysitter has given up. Post interrupted.