Vicarious Rocky

We had a lovely long weekend.

Part 1 Stay-Cation: Turned out to be too much for Indy right now, but he enjoyed the 3 days it was up. I had planned to do 5, but he wasn't sleeping well, and he's having trouble growing up right now. Lot's of tears and frustration, so returning to routine was welcomed by all.





Part 2 Thanksgiving: Mmmmm. All the traditional delicious stuff. I will say though I missed two regular aunty contributions -- strawberry salad and cheesy broccoli. And, not to forget aunt DL, I better see her at Christmas, or I'll shed tears about not eating that toffee.

Great to see my grandparents. Indy finally understood who they are this year. Nana's parents. His Great Grandparents. He also "got" the connection that they had bought him lovely birthday things and was proud to present his thank you card.




Part 3: Post Thanksgiving shopping. We are done shopping for Indy! That was fast. We had anticipated going out and finding nothing, but I saw some good deals so the kid has all his stuff bought except for the new drum heads for his drum set. That's right. Santa approves of noise.

Part 4: Thanksgiving Parade. Man was that LONG. It was cute though. I decided Earl needs to be in it next year with his convertible. There were some sad classic cars in that parade. And way too many corvettes. Corvettes and Model Ts. Someone needs to represent the 60s. It would be fun to throw candy at people too.

The best thing our preschool does is send these emails about circle time conversation. Indy had a lot to report today. He is BEYOND excited about our upcoming stay-cation.

What we do, is try and create a hotel room on our third floor. We use his two twin bunk bed mattresses to make a king bed. This is where we have our movie theater/TV. We stock the mini fridge with beverages and get candy and buffet breakfast kind of food. And we all hang out together lounging in the big bed at nighttime while we stay up late and we lie around for longer than normal in the morning. It is quite fun, if I don't say so myself. I'm setting it up Wednesday and then I'll break it down Monday morning.

Anyway, so that was what he was talking about for his first monologue at circle time.

T: This morning, Indy, you wanted to know if we knew what something was.
Indy: Do you know what a stay-cation is? We have candy, we watch TV up in the TV room. We watch shows up there, and there is candy and balloons. We move our beds up there.
T: How long will they be there?
Indy: Forever.

Then he told all about our Christmas lights that we put up yesterday. They are sparkly and nice.

Indy: We went outside we decorated. When it was nighttime we put our shoes on and walked down the stairs. I was staring at them and I said “This looks like Christmastime.”

The picture is Indy at school getting his birthday gift made by his birthday committee. He asked for a Kitty Cat.

Here's my Friday wrap up:
Pat is awesome.
Little Italy is still delicious.
Gauguin exhibit is a bit disappointing.

It had been over a year since I saw Pat. FAIL. What a bad friend I turned out to be! We had a blast. It was nice to catch up over art, food, and then more consumer inspired art.

We ate at Guarinos, which is charming. If you had an Italian Grandmother, this would be her restaurant with all the lace, silver, and burgundy and rose colors. And the food is traditional and delicious.

WKSU says, "It's an art show about an art show." That is its downfall I think. A little bit too specialized. I knew it was a year, and I don't know how much I expect a guy to accomplish in a year certainly, but they seemed to be padding the place with a lot of other people's art. And the Zincograph, while interesting, didn't seem exhibit worthy to me. I get it, it's complicated. It's also a copy. He was making copies. The exhibit was what it promised to be I suppose, but I think it was just a weak exhibit concept.

Since we fired the cleaning people, I told myself I'd clean my house every Thursday morning. They did it every Wednesday morning. Instead I am writing email, blogging this nonsense, and going to Sams club. I mean, what good is a clean bathroom if you have no toilet paper, right? Sure. Right. I'll get to the house . . . eventually.

We had the strangest teacher meeting yet. It all accentuated the positive. There were only 2 little things to work on -- his writing and his letters. After all the crazy, after even the "development delay screening" recommendation from 5 weeks ago, there were suddenly no problems. Did I mention the Kindergarten Screening is in a few weeks? So do we get the bad news then? Or is it renewal time and the word is go easy on the re-uppers?

But, hey, I facilitated the creation of a preschool bowl that looked pretty cool. Not cool enough for me to buy for lots of money, but hopefully someone will.

OK, enough of all that.

What a shocker! When did this happen? Five years?!

OK, enough of that. He had a Halloween themed birthday party because he loves spooky stuff more than anything else and everything was on sale. ;) He got Star Wars Legos, an electric guitar, and a bike. He's loving being 5 and says things like, "I can do this because I'm five." It's sweet.



Speaking of things he can do . . . or not do . . . He got his preschool "grade card" thingy and he's doing better then last year. Each little kid skill is ranked in this way: Not Age Appropriate / Needs Assistance / Emerging / Proficient. Last year he was all the bottom two. This year he's all NA and E but still is not "proficient" in anything. I am, however, fairly sure he will become proficient in 4-5 skills by Q4.

We're meeting with the teachers Friday to discuss the card and let them know we have not yet pursued the developmental delay screening and small motor OT they recommended. The delay screening is scheduled for next Tuesday, and I'm not paying $40 a week for Indy to learn how to work a pencil. I'm over it. If he comes back from that delay screening and they declare him normal or better and reaching milestones (as the city school system already did) then I'm done with OTS. So, there goes ruling the world.

Either way, it's looking like Indy must not be Old Trail material. And I think that's quite OK.

So there's the kid update!

It's a Romance novel. Well, sort of. It started out being just as formulaic and "sensual" as required and then morphed into something less formulaic and maybe less shallow, and I lost my scripted ending and now it's, I don't even know. Unmarketable. That's my fear anyway. But, hey, whatever. I have seriously had a blast.

Right now, I'm formatting and final editing for real bad and obvious problems. I'll send the synopsis and partial manuscript, all 6 copies, to the RWA (Romance Writers of America) "unpublished manuscript" contest on the 23rd. They will toss all 6 copies in the trash on Dec. 3rd when they read the synopsis and see that it is not a romance novel. I should learn about that sometime in late February. :)

At which point, I am hoping the book is back with more feedback from my already amazing readers. Then I will rip out the sensual, twist up the formula, and try and make it into something else. Less mainstream, let's say. Then I will do all the things unpublished writers do like join writing groups, go to conferences, and send out dozens of mailings monthly and watch rejection letters roll in while I work on something else.

I am not sure my ego is totally ready for this process, but I feel committed. Malcolm Gladwell tells me it's going to take 10,000 hours. That's about 6 1/2 years at 30 hours a week. So I'm rounding up and giving myself 10 years. If I have nothing published by age 46, I will declare this a giant misstep and spend the next 10 years on something else.

Have I mentioned I am grateful for my cushy life as an aristocrat that allows me to do shit like follow my bliss?