Borderline Savage

10 Things I would Bring on a Picnic

I do love a good picnic although I haven't been on a real one in years. These days picnics are typically had on my living room floor with my youngest. Its a rainy day thing we have. 

I do have some specific supplies that I like to bring when eating on a blanket in a park somewhere.

1 -  A blanket or sheet, preferably a Neat Sheet. Sadly these appear to have been discontinued. I use to like to keep them in the trunk of the car. They really do keep the wet out so you can sit on the grass anytime, even if it rained earlier.

2 - Finger food.  I use to like to bring cold cuts and bread to make sandwiches but that can get messy. I now prefer things like chicken wingettes that can be picked on all afternoon.

3 - Snack foods. I suppose if you're the healthy type you could bring grapes or something. I've been known to bring strawberries because frankly they are my favorite thing on the planet but pretzels are good too. Hell something really crappy like Bugles or potato chips are fine by me as well.

4 - A book. Have you met me? This really doesn't need any explanation does it?

5 - Multiple bottles of water. Not just one for each person, two or three. Its important to stay hydrated.

6 - If its just me or adults with no little ones around a bottle of Sangria. I chill it before I leave but I'll drink it warm no problem.

7 - Portable speakers for my ipod. Not to play anything loud enough to bother anyone else. Just loud enough for the people on my blanket to hear.

8 - Uno cards. If I'm in a group this is typically the only game I'll ever play but it is a lot of fun with the right people.

9 - Sunglasses. At some point I'm going to lay back and relax, if the sun is in the wrong place this can be very unpleasant. Sunglasses dull that bright light so this recovering goth girl can rest.

10 - Good company. Sometimes that means just me, sometimes a significant other or a group of good friends. It all depends on my mood.

Central Park is one of my favorite places to have a picnic, particularly around water and weeping willows: 

What do you like to bring on a picnic?

...and All I Got Was This Lousy T-Shirt

The first half of that sentence ought to read, "I went to New Hampshire Sheep & Wool..." except that I didn't get a t-shirt. And I didn't take any photos, because I forgot my camera. And I didn't buy any yarn because I forgot to bring money and I was overcome with shyness. 

Shyness is nice

And shyness can stop you

From doing all the things in life

You'd like to

Ask - The Smiths

Well, I could have kicked myself several times over. I was so busy ferrying the kids about on Friday, arranging someone to manage taking the Princess to dance on Saturday, getting El Esposo and the little man ready to go, and making sure I had my Mother's Day stuff organized, that I completely forgot to get myself ready. And that, plus shyness, is not the best social lubricant. 

So, we went, we looked, the little guy touched just about any animal he was permitted to touch, and he brought home a stuffed alpaca/llama. (It depends on the day - some days he says it is an alpaca and other days he says it is a llama.) I saw people I know in real life and also only via the internet, and I didn't say anything to them. In fact, the only people I spoke with were the lady I bought the stuffed alpaca/llama from, and a guy who had Shetland sheep, because I had a lot of questions about them. I want one, or more.

Before I tell you about excitement later that evening, here's some belated stash acquisition:

That's a Ragtop mitten that I knit during the first Bruins/Rangers playoff game. I've wanted to knit these ever since I saw Vicki's Ragtops. (That's a link to her blog - she knit three pairs of Ragtops, and I couldn't pick just one.) The yarn is Romney Ridge Farm Kaleidoscope in the Mardi Gras colorway. I must admit, I'm not a huge fan of yellow and purple together, but given that El Esposo and I were married on Fat Tuesday and we had purple, green, and gold beads for our guests, ordering this colorway was a no-brainer.

I think this yarn was a good choice for this pattern because it's not super soft like merino, so I don't think it's going to pill too much. And it still has lanolin in it - my hands feel so super soft after I've been knitting with this yarn - so it will be nice to have on my hands in the winter.

There are some really lovely colorways, and the one on the right is called Loco. I think I see this as a pair of mittens. I could have bought this yarn at NH Sheep & Wool if I wasn't feeling all shy, but I mailordered it.

My Ragtop knitting is bringing the Bruins good luck, so I will keep doing that. I am Suffering with allergy and sinus crud this week, so I knit one cuff during yesterday's hockey game and promptly fell asleep for the rest of the game, but I will be back on the needles for game three. If I finish during that game, I'm not sure what to knit to give the Bruins good luck.

During the previous round of the playoffs, I worked on Tir Chonaill, but knitting with charts is really not super great for watching hockey. It worked as a lucky charm, but I feel like I will need something else after the next Mardi Gras Ragtop mitten is finished.

I should take this opportunity to say that my blog co-pilot Nancy is a Rangers fan, so there is a bit of friendly rivalry going on here.

And, finally, I will swing back to the end of our day at NH Sheep & Wool. We went out to dinner at our favorite Mexican place. You know, the one where one of the waitresses takes great exception to the fact that I am white. We ended up sitting in her section that night. When she came over to greet us, we all placed our drink orders and then El Esposo asked her if we could have the queso fundido appetizer.

Well, everyone's drinks came. Then the people at the table next to us got their drinks and their entrees, even though they weren't even sitting when we placed our order. Then the tortillas for the queso fundido came. Then the kids' meals came. Then El Esposo asked the waitress where the queso fundido was. She told him in Spanish (because she thinks I can't understand) that she was sorry, but another server must have taken it and she would ask the kitchen again. We were sitting at a table that is on the aisle leading from the kitchen to the dining rooms, and I can tell you that no one went by with an order of queso fundido for another table. When we got the queso fundido finally, it was cold. . .clearly, it had been sitting somewhere for quite some time. It's served in a cast iron pan, so it is usually quite hot.  Then we had some cold soup which should have been hot. Ditto on the dessert. The people next to us were getting their orders on time. El Esposo talked to the manager, and the manager said he wouldn't blame us if we never came back. And then he comped the entire meal, less beverages, for the four of us. We eat at that place at least once a week, and the only reason why it has dropped down to only once a week is because of this racist waitress. And now we just aren't going to be going back, not like we used to go. I told El Esposo that I am putting my foot down and I will absolutely not ever be waited on by that woman ever again, and he is in agreement. 

And that, my friends, was a day of shyness. I think I'm going to need to work on overcoming that for the future. It would likely make for a better day.

 

10 Favorite TV Moms

1.    Morticia Addams - The Addams Family

Carolyn Jones played her on TV, Angelica Houston in the movies. Morticia was dark, mysterious, and deeply devoted to her family. In addition to soothing their savage souls, she kept the flames of passion burning with the amorous Gomez.

2.    Carol Brady - The Brady Bunch

Florence Henderson played her on TV, Shelley Long in the movies. Carol Brady gets enormous credit for being a fabulous mom to a blended family with six kids, but she never cooked or cleaned or did much of anything. Yet, somehow, she's known as one of the best tv moms ever. I don't know why, but I'd trust her to be my mom.

3.    Kitty Forman - That 70's Show

Homegirl Debra Jo Rupp (Yes, she is from Massachusetts!) plays Kitty. I love Kitty's unique laugh, and her pragmatic approach to dealing with teenagers, a crabby husband, and the changing roles of women during the 1970's. She had a career, though she often gave up working for her family.

4.    Violet Crawley, Dowager Countess of Grantham - Downton Abbey

Maggie Smith may not play the most nurturing of mothers, but she certainly is intelligent and has a dry, sometimes unintentional, wit. I have to believe that the Dowager Countess could have been much more had she been born in a different age.

5.    Lucy Ricardo - I Love Lucy

How can you not like Lucille Ball? She was so funny, and she had adventures. 

6.    Mrs. Wolowitz - The Big Bang Theory

She is voiced by Carol Ann Susi, though we never see her. I think everyone had a friend whose mom was like this. 

7.    Sophia Petrillo - Golden Girls

Estelle Getty brought this lady to life, and, quite frankly, she was more interesting than the other three Golden Girls, even though she was supposed to be a generation older. And my grandmother used to carry her pocketbook (That's what she called it.) everywhere with her when she got old, so that little habit of Sophia's tickled me to no end.

8.    Marie Barone - Everybody Loves Raymond

Doris Roberts played this mom, the one who is most like my real life mom, though she would probably kill me if she knew I said that. If you ever watched the show, I'd be the Robert character, and my brother is Raymond.

9.    Hyacinth Bucket - Keeping Up Appearances

I don't think I've ever seen Patricia Routledge in anything else. And you never see Hyacinth's son Sheridan in the show, but he constantly calls her to ask for money. She dotes on him from afar. She reminds me a little of my other grandmother, except my other grandmother doesn't cook, clean, garden, or invite people inside her house. 

10.    Catelyn Stark - Game of Thrones

This has to be the best role of Michelle Fairley's career - she gets to show her depth here. Catelyn is tough and tender, romantic and pragmatic. Above all, she's an intelligent woman who commands respect, and even in her moments of doubt and weakness, she is still strong. 

Ten Reasons I Knit

Why do I knit? God knows its nearly as stressful as it is relaxing at times. The mojo comes and goes and in the past 4 years or so it has definitely been waning but its making a comeback lately. Here are some of the reasons why:

10- The joy of creating something from sticks and string.

        I love the whole process of knitting. Watching something go from words or symbols on a paper and string to an actual garment or item, it's a form of magic as far as I'm concerned.

9- The meditative, calming aspects of it. 

        My mind has a habit of going a mile a minute. When I'm watching TV, or in a meeting the second level of my brain is contemplating all kinds of other things that have nothing to do with what I'm supposed to be doing. Knitting while doing these things helps keep it quiet up there and lets me focus on the task at hand.

8- To carry on a tradition.

        My grandmother taught me to knit when I was little but it didn't really take. I remember a scarf that I worked on forever yet never finished. When I rediscovered it in my early thirties I felt like it was a way of connecting with her memory.

7- To bring out my creativity.

        I like that I can change a pattern if I want to. I have also designed a few. Nothing major mind you but I have the tools and language to make things the way I want them to be not necessarily the way someone else does.        

6- The friends and community it has brought me.

        I recently told someone I no longer worry about not being able to make friends, all I need is to find the yarn shop and the comic shop and I'll be fine. The support and love I've received through the years has been more than I ever experienced in my life before becoming part of the community of knitters. They're a damn fine group of people.

5 - For the other creative outlets it has brought me.

        Knitting brought me back to writing. My first blog started out because I wanted a place to talk about my projects. It grew into more, which then led to me gaining confidence and writing for other sites like Pink Raygun and now What'cha Reading. It all started with that knitting blog though.

4- To impress myself with my own abilities and skills.

        I remember when I had to only choose the easy patterns on Knitty or in magazines. Now I'm not intimidated by any pattern. I may choose to not to make something because its a technique I'm not fond of but never because I don't think I can make it. That's a nice feeling.

3- To make gifts that have more meaning than store bought items.

        Granted this can backfire depending on the recipient (my mother in law being one of them) but mostly people really appreciate the work that goes into making a gift for them. Especially when you knit for a new baby, which is one of my favorite things to do.

2- So I can pretend I'm patient.

        Everyone always says, "oh I can't knit I don't have the patience" here's the truth, I have no patience. That's why I knit. When I'm waiting on lines, when I'm waiting in a doctor/dentist office, when I'm waiting for a friend to get out of surgery, knitting is what I do.  It keeps me from bolting. 

1- So I don't kill anyone.

        I am a thug at heart so I often want to kill people, or at least hurt them very, very badly, having something to keep my hands occupied has saved more than one life. Believe me.

Tick Tick Tick

When I was tasked with coming up with a list of ten things I was looking forward to in May, I honestly had a difficult time thinking of ten things. And, of course, today I found more things about May that are making me happy, though I must admit they aren't necessarily specific to May.

I've been having the very best time lately listening to the 70's channel on Sirius/XM while I'm driving. On Saturdays, they do a the Top 40 Countdown with Casey Kasem, and last Saturday it was a 1978 show that they played. I was in heaven, and there were even a few songs that my kids knew.

On Sunday, we had a perfect family afternoon (after I whined, begged, and bullied them to get out of the house) and took the dogs on a nice walk in the wildlife sanctuary, then to a visit to our local bookstore (which allows dogs), and for some ice cream (at a place with yummy homemade ice cream that also serves dog sundaes). On the way home, we had the windows down and the sunroof open, and Queen's "We Will Rock You" came on the radio. It came on right as we pulled up to a red light, and by the time the light was green, every person in the car was clapping, stomping, and/or singing. I don't know about the rest of the family, but this was a memory that I will cherish forever. 

 

 

Today, I was driving to the grocery store at about 6:30 (my favorite time of day, the light is so beautiful) and one of my favorite songs from Grease came on the radio. I have to admit, I drove along listening to "You're the One That I Want" and secretly feeling a little thrilled that I can drive. I've had my license since I was 16 years old, but I still feel like I'm only ten when I hear this song.

 

Finally, I bought the coolest thing the other day. Now that it's nice out, it's tick season, and our trusty tick tweezers are missing. They were just regular tweezers, only reserved exclusively for pulling ticks from the dogs and cat. So we bought one of these things, a Contech Tick Twister

You can click to enlarge the photo. This little thing sells for less than $5.00, and it is amazing. I believe you can get them just about anywhere, but we found ours at Petco (available online and in stores) so I want to give them credit. I can't believe I never tried one of these before. Our cat went missing for almost a month and when he came home last week he was covered in ticks. I got ticks off of his face and out of his ears with this gadget, and it was so easy. I had no trouble getting the ticks out, and I think it worked well from the cat's point of view because he didn't struggle like he usually does. I'm super pleased with this, and highly recommend it.

So, there you have it, a couple of things that make me tick, and one thing that makes my pets tick free.

The Joy and the Sorrow of an Autism Diagnosis

I hate labels and boxes. I never fit in them comfortably, a little white girl in the South Bronx, a gifted child who dropped out of high school, I was pretty much the square peg for any round hole. I swore I'd raise my kids to be the same. No trying to fit them into anybody else's boxes, they would forge their own path.  

This was wise with the eldest who definitely marched to the beat of his own drummer. It was a tad more complicated with the youngest. My youngest had issues from about 15 months. He stopped speaking. He lost the words he had and would learn one word then drop it in place of another. We got him early intervention where he was diagnosed with a speech delay. He immediately received speech therapy and quickly thereafter went into a special pre-k for speech delayed kids.  He did very well in both. We were told regularly that he needed extra stimulation to engage him unlike the Autistic kids who needed less distractions in the room.  

We went on like this for a bit and Ian did well. Then there was the first kindergarten go round. By this time the youngest  could speak and had done so well we decided to try him in mainstream kindergarten. Bad idea. He didn't speak to his teachers at all. He spoke to his speech teacher and the minute he got to the corner when school let out all his words would burst forth from him as if he'd been holding them in all day. So we held him back, he's a late birthday anyway so it wasn't that big a deal. He ended up in 12-1-1 special ed with a teacher we knew from watching her over the years (my eldest son had attended this school too). She did wonders for him. He gained confidence, learned quickly and was a hard worker.  She adored him and knew the right mix of pushing and coddling for him (heavier on the former and less on the latter). She was his teacher for K-2. In second grade she suggested we get him evaluated by an outside source rather than the Department of Education. 

Now by this point I was pretty sure the youngest was on the spectrum. His train obsession alone should have clinched it but his sensory stuff was there. High functioning? Sure, but I was sure this is when they would say the words, "your son is autistic". Oddly enough $2000 and multiple tests later, the words never came. They "ruled out ASD", they said. "He's too social", they said.  Instead he had, generalized anxiety disorder, sensory integration disorder, speech and language disorder and separation anxiety. Ok, that didn't do much for us to get him a special placement for school so we left him where he was. 

Third grade was ok. He didn't progress a ton academically but socially he made great strides. We thought that was ok for the moment. He needed that and the confidence he was gaining. In fourth grade the NYC DOE changed the way they do special ed and the self contained classrooms in the youngest's school were done away with. His principal asked if they could change his IEP so he could stay, they said they would support him as much as possible. After speaking to his psychologist she agreed that keeping him in the same school where he felt safe and had been succeeding was probably better. Besides the goal is to mainstream special needs kids, this was the ideal place to try, it was familiar, small and everyone knew him. 

Due to unforeseen circumstances his school building was closed just before school was set to start in September that year. They moved to a building quite far from the original building. Many kids switched schools to avoid the travel. The youngest's first mainstream class was 18 kids. He did really well socially again. He started raising his hand more and participating in class but the reading was still at 2/3 grade level and not really budging. This year his class is 22 kids and he's struggling more. The emotional maturity gap has widened between he and his peers and he is feeling the pain of not knowing how to make friends with them. He's started being picked on, on his bus ride home but being my child he fights back which doesn't ingratiate him to the bus driver. Although the principal and his teacher have both told me they're secretly pleased he stands up for himself. 

We realized there's no way he's ready for NYC middle school. He'll be eaten alive or he'll be forced to turn agressive. I'm afraid he'll shut down completely and that will be the end of him learning and growing acdemically. We decided it was time to try to get him a private placement. This means another round of evaluations. This time I decided to push back. I believe he's on the spectrum and I wanted the diagnosis to help improve the choice of placements for him. His psychologist said that because I've raised him to cope with his quirks and taught him strategies to get past them in the outside world he wouldn't ever get it. Basically she's saying he hides it well. I taught my kid to pass. 

I kept pushing. She asked if I wanted one more psych eval for "diagnosis clarification".  I said yes I do. Today was that eval. Over an hour and a half of going over everything that had gone wrong with my baby since the beginning. The psycologist was a sweetheart but it was hell. I wasn't prepared. At. All. He then spoke to the youngest for a bit. Then called me back in alone. He said the youngest was charming, friendly and so likeable (which he gets a lot). He admired his memory and his ability to cope...but he didn't understand how on earth he hadn't been diagnosed as autistic before. He had all the classic signs and symptoms. He felt that the youngest's friendliness and outgoing personality may have fooled the other evaluators because they bought into the myth that autistic kids can't be friendly or affectionate. He said he was fairly sure I knew this since I'm the one who had been pushing and I said yes I just wanted someone to finally agree. 

I left the office, thinking I finally had what I wanted. The label that will help get him the supports he needs. He's found his tribe. I'd joined the mothers of this tribe long ago inately sure I was one of them even without a doctor's say so...

...so why did I start to slowly fall apart as we took the train trip to work? Why did I find myself at my desk silently but uncontrollably crying? Why have I not really stopped since? Because my baby is autistic. He now has the label and it will color everything in his life for good and bad. Because some will just see him as defective rather than understand how far he's come.  Because much of his life will be defined by a word. A label. A diagnosis. One I fought for him to have. 

But having it will help him get what he needs in school. It will also help me teach him to self advocate as he gets older. It will help him name what makes him different if he chooses to. It will be his label and when he's old enough he can decide if he wants to wear it or discard it. 

Its a label yes, but not a box. Nobody can put my baby in their box. 

Ten Things I'm Looking Forward to in May

I still have 62 minutes before its Wednesday so I can still do Ten on Tuesday right? There's a lot coming up for me this month and I'm hoping it will bring with it a sea change in the chaotic ocean that is my life at the moment.

First up the geek girl stuff:

1- Iron Man 3, yeah baby RDJ as my favorite alchoholic, asshole, playboy superhero. I am ready for him and Rhodey to smash shit up.

2- Star Trek Into Darkness, I am so excited about this I let my geekgirl compatriot talk me into buying advanced tickets for the sneak preview. Fifteen days baby fifteen days.

3- Fast and Furious 6, yeah, yeah its a guilty pleasure, I don't care. Vin and I have a standing date for all his films and Michelle Rodriguez is my spirit animal. Very excited about this one.

more typical and real life things:

4- My first Stitch and Pitch.  I always knit at baseball games this time I won't be alone...and hello? A Mr. Met Bobblehead? Way too awesome for words.

5- The HIM concert. I'm not all that familiar with this band but my friend is a fanatic for them so I decided I wanted to see what the fuss was about and go with her. I've been boning up on their music and liking it so far. I think its going to be a blast.

6- Finishing knitting the universe. I've been working on the Celestarium shawl. I started it almost two months ago. This is the most fun I've had with a project in years. Completely brought my knitting mojo back. That being said I'm ready to be done. I want to block this puppy and see the fruits of my labor. Here I am at row 145:

 

7- The end of the university's school year and the start of construction in my store. While this won't be fun I'm sick of planning and talking. I just want it to start already so we can get it over with.

8-Putting my house on the market. This is the climax of a year long life transition that I am ready to move on from. I've been waiting to finish this chapter for awhile now and I am so ready to start the next.  I realize putting it on sale doesn't mean it will sell right away but at the very least we'll be on the path to it finally.

9- A solution to my youngest's school situation. Who would have guessed it would be easier to get the eldest into college than it's been to get the right middle school for the youngest. Special Ed sucks more and more as kids get older and this particular issue is what keeps me up most nights. There's been a bit of progress though so I'm hoping at some point this month it will be resolved.

10- Beltane or May Day. One of my favorite of the pagan holidays. I rarely do anything special for it but it heralds the coming of Summer and while I hate the heat I very much need some light at the moment, so I welcome its return. 

What does May have in store for you?

10 Things I'm Looking Forward to in May

1.    My dad's birthday, though he won't be here. He's going to be in Florida, helping my brother and SIL with their upcoming move to Texas. He might not be here, but he will get to spend his birthday with my brother, which hasn't happened too often since my brother moved out of state in 1995.

2.    Recital madness will be almost over. Between photo week (this week) and all the extra rehearsals, May is hell month here, and it's even worse with The Princess now on the performance team. The recital is in early June, so by the end of May, sanity will be in sight. Of course, I just got an e-mail about three additional performance team events in May and June, and performance team has classes in June, so it won't be completely over, but there will be six or seven blissful weeks before August sessions start.

3.    Gardening. I am not a gardener, but my son has been doing all sorts of plant related things in third grade, and El Esposo wants to give a vegetable garden another go, so there will be a garden this year. May is really the first month when you can put the plants outside around here and be fairly sure we won't get snow or killing frost. I'm excited about this, though I have a feeling it's going to end up like the pets. . . something everyone wants but no one wants to care for, so it falls to me. And I have news. I will make the extra effort to keep a small mammal alive, but plants are on their own.

4.    Warmer weather. A week ago, I wore a thick wool sweater and a wool hat. I love wearing my handknits, but it's time for some sunshine and warmth.

5.    The Tir Chonaill knitalong. I know I just said I'm looking forward to warmer weather, so why on earth would I be starting a worsted weight, stranded blanket? I don't know. I'm a huge fan of logic, and I often try to impose logic on situations where it can't be done, but sometimes one just has to let go and do something that doesn't make sense, just for the fun of it.

6.    My foot should be back to normal. I broke a toe a few weeks ago, and it has been super stubborn about healing. It's still swollen, and I get pain in my ankle and shin from the modified gait I've adopted because of the toe. However, I still keep on going. They day I broke it, I took the dogs out for a 1.5 mile walk, agony on the down hills, and carried on with the rest of the evening's plans before I even iced the toe. So, I haven't been the best patient. 

7.    Pedicures! I need a new one, but I've been holding off until my toe can handle it. I love being able to get a pedicure and walk out of the nail salon in flip flops. And I love bright summer nail polish.

8.    Another health issue, but this time not mine - the dog's ear infection should be clear in May. He is 2.5 years old and he seems to have had an infection in his right ear for most of the past two years. We treat it, and it comes back a few months later. It's super frustrating. Our latest trip to the vet for an ear swab revealed that it's yeast in his ear (though you wouldn't think that, because it's dark brown and super sticky), so he has a new prescription for a medicine that is 100% focused on yeast, and that seems to be doing the trick. I like having him happy and healthy, and I also will not miss wrestling with him twice a day to clean his ear and apply medication.

9.    Stanley Cup Playoffs - The cup won't be earned until June, but May is when the finals get into full swing and the tension begins to rise. 

10.    This is going to be a surprise for everyone, because I haven't discussed it with anyone who reads the blog, but I am hoping to start a business in May. I don't know if it will be able to support me any time soon, if ever, but it will be nice to do something I like to do, if only part-time. It's exciting and scary to be taking a risk like this.

And what about you, what are you looking forward to in May?

Wicked Pissah

I had planned on doing some posts about things in this area, kind a tourist in my town sort of thing, while the kids were on April vacation, but we didn't end up going too far due to the Boston Marathon bombing. The Princess was on a school trip to New York City when it happened. Ironically, she was visiting the 9/11 Memorial at the time that the bombs were going off in Boston. She made it home safe and sound, only to have me change our plans for the rest of the week in response to the attack. We did finally venture out on Thursday, mostly because I figured that Obama's visit to Boston provide the necessary distraction for any would-be terrorists, thereby leaving other places safe to visit. And then we spent Friday on lockdown, watching the hunt for Suspect Two. We weren't in a town that was officially on lockdown, but pretty much everything around here shut down, too. 

This week, I caught the VIP's leaving MIT officer Sean Collier's funeral. I was driving north on the highway and I noticed that there was no southbound traffic, which never happens in the Boston area, so I knew something was up. Then I noticed cops at the tops of all the onramps onto the southbound highway, not letting motorists enter the highway. Finally, a single file parade of motorcycle cops, lights flashing, spaced about 100 yards apart, came down the highway, making way for two busses with VIP's to return to the city. Even though I knew it wasn't the funeral procession, it was a visually arresting sight.

The aftermath of the bombings is pretty much over for the rest of the world, and Boston is taking steps to return to normalcy. Many of the victims have a long road ahead of them. As with 9/11, I do not know any of the victims, though some were friends of friends, etc. . . All the people we knew who were running were safe - one runner's mother told me that she had a fully charged battery on her iPhone when the race began, and the phone died shortly after the bombings because she got so many calls, texts, and e-mails asking if her family was okay.

I'm not going to post music videos about Boston, though I'd recommend Love That Dirty Water by the Standells, and the live performance of Sweet Caroline by Neil Diamond at Fenway Park last weekend. I wanted to post a couple of videos that showcase real Boston people.

Here's a promo for Boston's Finest, a tv series that aired the final episode of its first series the day after the bombings. I love the shots of the neighborhoods and the police officers' accents. El Esposo saw two of the gang unit officers on the highway the other day, and that was 

 

 

And here's another local favorite, Wicked Tuna. The accents and the slang they use is so Boston. I tried to find a clip with Paul saying, "Wicked pissah," but couldn't locate one. 

  

Those two videos should give you an idea of what Bostonians really sound like. I don't really have a Boston accent, and sometimes it gets on my nerves, but other times, it's music to my ears, as it has been of late.

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Self-Disenfranchised

That post title isn't necessarily supposed to make sense. For those of you who read Self magazine way back when, there used to always be something in the magazine that started with self-. I've been reading Self for probably close to 20 years, and I know that my co-pilot Nancy has also been a Self reader. Other magazines have come and gone in my life, but Self has been fairly constant. I liked the reasonable approach they took to health, fitness, beauty, and other topics. However, after the March 2013 issue arrived, I think that I am not going to be renewing my subscription. 

Check out one of this month's hottest beauty trends - draw a blue stripe across each eyelid. Um, no thank you. I have enough problems without going out made up like a clown. I think this would even embarrass my pre-teen daughter.

The magazine moves further into self-degradation with a quiz about would you sleep with a guy who. . . ?  The article gives you choices like "wears ankle pants".  I think the real question is, would any of those men sleep with a woman stupid enough to answer that quiz.

In one issue, this magazine has dropped its standards way, way down. Maybe the demographic of shallow, vain, unintelligent young women has started buying Self in large numbers, and the magazine needs to kowtow to them and their insipid interests. It doesn't appeal to me any more. The March 2013 issue went straight into the recycling bin after a cursory review. However, if you want to read the scintillating articles about gonorrhea and what to do if your boss catches you shopping online, leave a comment and I can pull it out of the recycling bin and send it to you.

So, Self is out of my life. My question is, what should take its place? I would like a magazine that has articles about fitness and nutrition that are not crazy - no bizarre diets or exercise programs. I'd also like to keep updated on fashion and beauty trends, preferably those geared toward women who are not into the mutton dressed as sheep look. I'm fine with alternative, retro, and natural fashion and beauty - I'd rather see an article about steampunk makeup trends than one that advises drawing a blue stripe on my eyelid. Finally, I'd also like some brain candy, some articles that capture my interest, amuse me, intrigue me, tell me something that I don't already know. I like to know about new books, movies, and music, to learn about new places, and to be educated about things that are happening in the world. 

Any suggestions?