Susan’s Journal

Last night was 8/30. I had four coupons to Cici’s Pizza that expired last night; but I only have two kids. I brought all four coupons with me, hoping I’d be able to do a good deed. My hope became a reality, as a car pulled up while we were getting into ours. Two adults crawled out of the front seats, and two little boys crawled out of the back. “Here,” I said to the woman. “These expire tonight, and I had extras.” She said thank you a few times, and one of the boys waved to me with a smile as I backed out of the parking spot. It feels good to do things for strangers.

I’m an honest believer that God gives back to us the good we give to others–and that was proven today while I was on my lunch break. When I go to eat alone, I stop at a convenience store and buy a paper to take with me and read. A man walked into the store in front of me, and we both reached for the Dallas Morning News. We waited in line behind two or three people, and when it was his turn, he motioned back at me and said, “Get hers too.” I was really surprised, and I made some silly comment that I don’t remember now. It was only fifty cents, but that one little gesture really made my day.

Tonight I picked up the kids from school, then we headed for Blockbuster with some coupons. I swear, Dylan takes twenty minutes to pick out one little game. It’s serious business! When they’d finally made their selections (we also got Ghost Rider and Happily Never After), we got back in the car and headed to Wal-Mart. The one thing we needed: cat litter. The one thing we didn’t get: cat litter. However, I did have a list, and we got the other things on there–I had just apparently forgotten to add cat litter to the list. Anyways, the kids had been so good I let them each get a little toy–Dylan got a Nerf football, and Rain got some kind of baby animal Barbie-friend-looking toy. At the checkout, a woman walked up behind us in line with a gallon of milk. We probably had about a dozen things. I leaned over and whispered in Rain’s ear, and she said to the lady, “You’ve only got a gallon of milk, why don’t you go in front of us.” The lady was very happy, smiling, and told Rain thank you two or three times. Now you’ve done a good thing for today, I told her quietly. It feels good to do things for strangers.

After we got home and the kids brought everything in from the car (I thought it was fair payment for me buying them toys), we threw the football around in the driveway for a little while. It’s kind of heavier and harder than it looks, but it bounces, and we had a good time, giggling and the like. I was proud of myself for remembering the bug spray this time, and it seemed like no one got bit. The bugs aren’t that bad here this time of year, but there’s always that one or two that find you and bite-bite-bite you all over. Not tonight, though.

The kids are in bed now, and I’m fading fast. Rain has a 9am soccer practice tomorrow. Ugh! Isn’t this supposed to be a holiday weekend–meaning I get to sleep late?? I guess sleeping until 8 is two hours later than normal.

And on this day…
August 31, 2005… Aww, I was telling the story of what it would have been like if we had been able to take our vacation to Biloxi. Katrina hit instead. None of the stuff in this story exist anymore.

There wasn’t a lot of time between seeing the kids and starting school. We flew home Sunday, and they went to school Monday. We were able to do some shopping Sunday afternoon, though.School supplies have been in the stores for a month or more, and I can’t tell you why I waited to buy them. Well, I guess I can; I figured the kids would want to pick their own things out, even though the list is pretty specific and doesn’t leave a lot of room for variables.

Waiting was definitely not the right thing to do. Sunday night we went to the Wal-Mart in our hometown, and it was empty. By empty I mean “void of all needed school supplies.” They literally had nothing we needed on the list. (Well, I’m sure they had tissues on the grocery side of the store, but we didn’t venture in that direction.) Beat down and worried, we left and headed for another Wal-Mart, in the next town over.

The sun had just started to set, and the first thing we noticed at the second Wal-Mart was the collection of ambulances, fire trucks, and police cars out in front of the store. What’s all that, we wondered.

Inside the store was a madhouse. It was an absolute mad-house. There were hundreds, no–thousands of people there, cramming aisles, trying to buy things; and while they had a few things on the list, they didn’t have everything. The kids got backpacks, but they weren’t pretty or cool or fancy–they were just remaining. Know what I mean?

I came out of an aisle with some folders in my hand, and Scott pulled the carriage up to me. “Know what happened out front?” he said. “Someone got shot and killed.” I swear, in that moment, for more than a few seconds, I thought I was going to pass out. I hadn’t been that near to a murder since the guy got shot out in front of the townhouse I lived in, in Gulfport, MS. That was a looong time ago.

I spent the rest of the Wal-Mart trip kind of in a fog, and after we finally checked out with our list half-completed, the emergency vehicles were still out there. I overheard a young girl say, “He shot her then shot himself.” Wonderful. I went on the web later and found this article about the event.

Scott said he would take me and the kids home, then would head out again to see if he could get more of the stuff on the list. He did an excellent job–he didn’t return until after I went to bed, but he ended up with everything on the list but one thing–a certain-sized pack of construction paper. I was very proud of him.

I was proud of the kids too–they were well behaved, took their showers, and went to bed without incident. Ever since they’ve come back from Maine, they’ve been really well behaved, and we haven’t had any issues at all.

Monday morning we got up and took the kids to their first day of school. Scott walked Dylan to his class, and I walked Rain to hers. Dylan had left his lunch box and water bottle at the house, so Scott ran home and brought it back to the school for him. At the end of the day, she let me know that she loved her teacher, and that she had a wonderful day at school, but there was a problem after school… there was no air conditioning on the bus. Not only that, but the bus stops at two more schools after hers, so she has to sit on it and bake for half an hour. She had a headache, and was definitely not thrilled. She let us know that several times over the course of the rest of Monday. So now we have to decide if we are going to keep her in that daycare, all because they apparently like to make kid-kabobs with their buses.

And on this day…
August 28, 2006… Some people aren’t thrilled when it rains; but for us, it slowed down the building of our house and gave us more time to sell our old one.

Come on. You want this photo on your cell phone. You know you do. My cat is such a trip; I love this pic. It’s the background on the home screen of my Blackberry. You can put it on your own phone with that “send to my phone” link on the pic.This Cellfish company has a pretty neat setup. You can upload media–images, videos, and ringtones–either from your computer, or from your phone. Then you can download ringtones or any other kind of media right to your phone.

So how do they make their money? This content must cost a fortune, right… well, not really, and there’s a lot of free content on there too. I think personally I’d use it the most for cute home screen images. Just now I sent one called “ibizia sunset” to my phone with one click. It sent me an SMS with a link to where the image was, and one more click to a “set as homescreen image” check box, I had that beautiful picture as my home screen image. (Thanks, Foxy-Sue!)

I haven’t played with video yet, (got a Blackberry, not an iPhone!) but this image part is definitely pretty cool. I’m going to poke around next and see what kind of ringtones they have.Have you found a really cool piece of media on Cellfish? Give us a link to it so we can check it out! I’m always curious to find out what other people have as their home screen image.

So what’s your home screen image on your phone?

I’ve probably got ten blog posts I could write right now, and I’m sure I’m thinking of them out of order, so I’ll just go ahead and write this one first.

It was a long weekend, but way too short. I spent all day Thursday flying to Maine, then all day Sunday flying home from Maine. This story is about our (the kids and I) flight home.

I had originally thought our flight home was a direct flight (which would have been GREAT with the two kids) but it turned out the flight stopped in DC at Reagan. No problem–just sit on the plane until it takes off again–right? Wrong. I was sitting next to Dylan, and Rain was in the aisle seat across from me (two seats on either side of the plane). I told Rain to just stay in her seat, that we’d stay on the plane. “But everyone’s getting off,” she pointed out to me. I looked around behind me, and she was right–and there was one man standing in the back of the plane, talking to the flight attendant, asking her what I was thinking. Can’t we stay on the plane? No, the flight attendant said. We are changing crews here, and everyone has to get off. Great, thanks for telling us ahead of time with all your other stupid announcements.

So I was slightly miffed, and I didn’t check our seat pockets and stuff, because I thought we were staying on the plane. We grabbed our carry-on bags, our stuffed animals, and headed out into the terminal. We had ten minutes until we could reboard, the lady at the desk said. So we headed to the restroom (sorry Dylan, you have to go in the Lady’s room), and then to the food court for three slices of pizza and a soda to bring on the plane. When we walked back to the gate it dawned on me–Dylan had left his Nintendo in his seat pocket! I walked up to the counter and nicely asked the lady if I could check; she said “One of you can go back on the plane and check.” I turned around, to everyone who was sitting there at that gate, and loudly said that I was NOT GOING TO LEAVE MY KIDS ALONE IN THE TERMINAL. Then I said something to her about being on the previous flight from Manchester. “Well you didn’t say that,” she said, and at this point she was being very rude to me. I can’t remember what else was said–I must have blocked it out–but when it was time to reboard, I got the kids and stood there, right at the front of the line. We were getting our asses back on the plane. And she made us wait. She let some elderly people, which I am completely fine with, get on the plane, but I swear she intentionally then made the rest of us wait five minutes, just because I was standing right there in front of her with my kids and all our stuff.

Finally she asked me my last name, then really rudely said “all three of you have the same last name?” like I’m some single mom or some shit like that. I was pissed at her by this point. Yes, I said, then ushered the kids down the walkway to the plane. After we took our seats again, I said something to Rain about that lady being rude, and at least two other passengers as they got on said to me, yes, she was completely unecessarily rude to you. See? It wasn’t just me.

Anyways, miraculously, Dylan’s Nintendo was still in the seat. Right after the flight took off, though, I started digging for the brand new book I had bought in Manchester–and realized I had left it in my seat pocket. I digged in the seat pocket–no book. So they would leave my son’s two-hundred-dollar Nintendo, but took my friggin ten dollar book? I had read one chapter into it and had really started to enjoy it. It was just the icing on the cake. I asked the flight attendant, and that was a joke–like I’d be lucky enough for her to have it. Brand new book. I was pissed.

August 23, 2007
Stuck in a rocking chair.

Today’s the end of the loneliness. I’m halfway to New England, flying up there to spend the weekend with my parents and bring the kids home.

Notice I said “halfway.”

My flight had one connection. See, flying into Manchester, New Hampshire from Dallas is rarely a direct flight. So I got to the airport around 5am, got myself on an earlier flight to Charlotte (the halfway point), and then promptly got stuck. Flights are running on average 1/2 hour late, and the flight I’m already scheduled on (at 4pm) is the earliest direct flight to Manchester.

I’m stuck here for five hours.

The reason that’s bad is because I was trying to get up there early to spend extra time with the kids. The reason it’s not so bad is because there’s a shitload of restaurants and shops right here, and where I’m sitting there’s a whole row of rocking chairs, with POWER PLUGS… which seem to be way too hard to find in airports.

I guess I’ll live. I just want to hug my kids.

Something very important to me might, just might, happen with your help.

Believe me, I am going to bug you, and bug you, and bug you…

South by Southwest (SXSW) is a festival held every year in Austin, about a three hour drive from me. The first four days of it are called “Interactive,” where media makers and the like get together and talk tech, teaching each other tricks and comparing ideas. The days are comprised of moderated panels, and the nights are comprised of unmoderated beer-drinking and schmoozing. It’s my favorite event of the year.

I’ve gone to SXSW the past two years in a row, and I couldn’t help but feel this overwhelming urge to want to lead a panel of my own. So this year, I did it–I submitted a panel idea, and it made it into the last round of panel-picking. There will be just under 130 panels this year, and you have the opportunity to vote and possibly help this dream of mine come true.

If you’ve got just a minute to spare, please visit this link, where you’ll see a description of the panel idea I submitted. You’ll have to create a little account, but it takes just a second, then you can choose how many stars you’d vote for, for my panel. (If you get lost, just search for “diaper” at the top, and you’ll find the panel.) Five stars would be nice, but I’ll leave it up to you.

So why did I want to do this? Well, as you can see from the panel description, I want to talk to people about text blogging, video blogging, sharing funny stories and suggestions, and building community. I also want to kick people into realizing they can take all that video content that’s been sitting on casettes in their video cameras and put them into video blog posts, and have their relatives halfway across the country see them. That’s like my mantra now.

I have two people I’d love to have lead this panel with me. One of them is Andy Carvin, of Dirty Diaper Diaries, to give a spin from the more community-driven aspect, and the other is Erin Nealey from Mom’s Brag Vlog, to give a spin from the personal family journal video bloggy point of view. I’ll come in from text blogging, and we’ll go from there. I have tons of ideas, but I don’t want to get too excited until the panel actually becomes a reality.

This is a huge huge deal for me; if you’d be willing to take the time out to vote, I would be so incredibly appreciative! Thank you very much. *bow*

I read this storya little while ago, and I have some real problems with it. There’s really a million things swirling around in my mind about it. A little girl, eight years old, my own daughter’s age, heard news of Hurricane Dean coming, and was so scared that she got on her bike and started trying to ride her bike out of Florida.

Does anyone besides me see some problems with this?

First of all, where were her parents while she was out riding her bike? She’s eight years old, doesn’t have any friends in a new town, and her parents let her ride outside alone unsupervised? This is not 1970, people. Now we live in what I like to think is a safe neighborhood. My daughter rides her bike outside… with her little brother… and always with at least two other kids from the neighborhood… and they know they are NOT to go out of site of our house. I’d like to think that’s quite a bit different than “Here, go outside on your bike and go ride alone unsupervised.” Am I wrong?

Also, I understand that the parents didn’t grow up on the coast, but their daughter should be taught about hurricanes. We fear the unknown, especially when the media is kind enough to blast us with frightening details like “one hundred mile an hour winds.” When Katrina hit, or even before it hit, I sat both kids down in the living room and we watched TV together, and I taught them what a hurrican was and such. I taught them not to be afraid (because in our case we live just enough inland that all we get from them is a shitload of rain). I even taught them about tornadoes and air raid sirens (is that what civilians call them? It’s what I call them), and where in the house to go. I’ve even taught the kids to call 911 if something happens, they’re home alone with Mommy, and Mommy collapses or something like that. To take it a step further, I’ve taught my kids about the “Code Adam” blue stickers at the front door of Wal Mart and other stores, and taught them what to do if they get lost.

The point to all this, is this: shouldn’t every parent teach their children these things? This isn’t teaching them to scare them–it’s teaching them so they’re informed, so they know there are systems in place to protect their little selves, so they know what to do in a bad situation if for some reason they can’t find me or I’m unconscious? I’d call it “bringing an umbrella so it doesn’t rain,” because isn’t it always raining when you don’t bring an umbrella? Don’t the bad things always happen when you’re not prepared?

Tell me that I’m not nuts. Tell me this little girl shouldn’t have been riding her bike alone. Tell me you’ve taught your kids about hurricanes, tornadoes, Code Adam, medical emergencies, kidnapping, or anything else you can think of. Share your knowledge and experiences with me. I swear, I am not just the nutcase who’s out to scare my kids–I want them informed… and watched.

I was going to write a post two days ago. Really, I was. I have been so friggin busy at work, training my coworker who is visiting here from Argentina, both in our job and and in English. Then I either head out to dinner with him and his other coworker from Argentina, or I head home and spend time with Scott, maybe play a little Wii, then just crash asleep.

Being busy is good, though, because then I don’t think about the kids too much. I have had a few moments where I have gotten really, really down without them. One time I even called Rain on the phone and broke into tears; and she said, “Oh Mommy, it’s all right, it’s only eight more days!” which is what I’m always telling her.

Now it’s seven.

When I bought the Wii, I had also purchased an extra remote for it, for two player games; but when I got it home, I couldn’t get it to power on. I tried three different sets of batteries. The one-page, three-language instructions told me absolutely nothing. So one afternoon after work, the Argentinians followed me to Fry’s, and I brought back the remote. To make a long story short (too late), there’s a “sync button” (which it took me going through three salesmen to find out) that is inside the battery compartment; you hold it down, and all the lights flash, and it will sync up with your Wii, and there you go. While we were there, I bought a zip-up case for the Wii discs (so the kids aren’t digging through the plastic cases all the time), and a Wii game–”Happy Feet.” What’s hilarious about this game, is if you were ever a Linux user, or even if you weren’t, you might remember a game called Tux Racer, with a penguin sliding down the snowy mountain on his belly–this Happy Feet game is the same thing, but you do it while holding the Wii remote in two hands and waving it around like a steering wheel. I caught myself giggling several times–and unable to stop playing the game.

Do you have a favorite Wii game? I’d love to hear your recommendations. We have Big Brain and Paper Mario and Wii Sports (which all came with the console), and now Happy Feet and Wii Play (the latter of which came with the extra remote). I’m hoping for games that the kidlets will find fun, maybe a race car game or something? I can just picture Dylan now…