Bibliomama

It's the day when I have run out of post ideas for NaBloPoMo. I know Engie's blog has a list of topics, but today I'm just going to look at my own list of drafts. I don't anticipate this will generate anything cohesive and coherent, to be clear. I often text myself reminders - grocery lists, books to read, things to talk to Matt about when I see him, etc. Usually, even if I've forgotten about the thing altogether, seeing the text reminds me. Occasionally I come across one that completely mystifies me. Like SOA. I texted it to myself TWICE. SOA. Tried to Google it. Society of Actuaries? Unlikely. All my jobs? Already did that. One of my university boyfriends telling me how he and his brother bought his mom Poison Toilet Water when they were little. Honestly, the 'toilet water' thing is endlessly amusing to me.  I have memories of show and tell in grades one and two. Is it still common for kids to say 'what' instead of 'that'? Matthew Alpajero

 I woke up today, still buzzing from the concert last night, and read in bed for a bit. Then I got up and went to wash my face and dry shampoo my hair a little because I was planning to put away the rest of the Halloween decorations, go for a walk and do yoga before showering and washing my hair. For the most part, I find that dry shampoo works really well to get my hair through day two and sometimes three. The only part where this doesn't work is my bangs. If I'm going to work or out somewhere where people are going to see me, I put the rest of my hair up and wash my bangs. If I'm just working out or doing chores, I put in a little extra dry shampoo and still can't look in the mirror. I usually use the Lush dry shampoo, which is a powder. A few months ago, I bought a small can of Amika dry shampoo, which is a spray. I haven't found spray dry shampoo to be that effective in the past, but the Amika mousse I have is really good, and I saw it at Sephora so thought I wo

 I went to a Bruce Springsteen concert tonight and forgot to post before I left. It was a fantastic show with an amazing energy. There was no intermission and the encore went on almost as long as the actual show - it reminded me a bit of when we went to see Bryan Adams at Bluesfest and he played an encore that went long past when the noise bylaw said it should have, and Eve eventually moaned "I'm so tired and he keeps putting on different harmonicas".  I always feel like there's something magical about experiencing live music with a crowd of people, and the mood during No Surrender, Long Walk Home and The Rising was high and passionate. He joked that he was "moving to Canada" before the second encore (we were sure everything was finally done, and then he did I'll See You in my Dreams all alone). Good night.

I was just catching up on blogs and commenting and mentioned on Elisabeth's post that I always feel unsettled the week of the time change (so fun that the disastrous U.S. election AND the time change took place on the same week in November, the unkindest month, yeah, I said it T.S. Eliot, screw you). Even when it's the 'good' time change, where theoretically we get an extra hour of sleep. I have been turning on all the twinkly lights possible as soon as it gets dark (at like two in the afternoon). I wasn't sure I was going to post tonight, but then I thought, maybe a little post about light. One of the things I did while I was cleaning and organizing earlier this fall (lamentably, I have lost my decluttering mojo, and hoping it will come back), was to untangle the fairy lights that are on the little part wall between our kitchen and dining room. Because I am who I am, when I first got them I put them up in a kind of 'artful' tangle, and figured I'd strai

 Just in case I came across all sappy and 'love thine enemy' yesterday, that was not what I was going for at all. Someone on Facebook posted a quote about militant decency - being deeply, passionately angry about the injustice in the world and channeling that anger rather than trying to be less angry.  I am angry at the people who voted out of hate. I am angry at the Democratic leadership that could have done more to protect abortion rights and trans rights to treatment and demonstrated the same complacency that a lot of privileged people do. I am angry at the fact that so many of my dear friends are frightened and despairing. I don't know what to say. I don't know what to do. I don't want to spout platitudes. I am not any kind of better person than someone who just wants to burn things down right now. This is all just weird - it's like when someone dies and you have to keep walking around in the world and not everybody else knows or cares, and you still have to

 To my American friends, I'm sorry. Not in any kind of distanced, pitying, smug way, because I believe we are headed in a similar direction here in Canada, and I am sad and sick at heart. I told myself I wasn't hoping for the other outcome because I was afraid to, but I realize that I absolutely was, because I was not prepared for how bad this would feel.  Some random thoughts I am having about the whole thing. 1. I'm going to try not to hate anyone. For a while at least. I am totally cool with anyone else hating people that helped this happen. A lot of them did it out of hate. Some did it out of ignorance. Some are struggling and desperate and thought this was a solution. I know that's not an excuse, but it makes me think of when I read The Drowned and the Saved by Primo Levi. He said that he didn't feel like he could judge people who betrayed their fellow Jews for favours from their captors, because he was never given the opportunity and if he had he couldn't

I forgot to post a picture of Lucy yesterday. Oops. I had to go to the dentist today. I got my teeth cleaned a couple of weeks ago and I had two fillings that were hanging on by a thread and needed to be replaced. My teeth are a disaster on a number of levels. I had cavities galore, even though I had the same dental routine as my sister and saw a dentist just as often. The good news? These were just cavities that had to be replaced - no decay, very little drilling. The less good news is because that's just because I HAVE no unfilled teeth. My bite is also 'atrocious', according to one dentist. I'm supposed to wear a night guard. I do not wear a night guard. I go to bed wearing a CPAP mask and carpal tunnel splints, and a night guard is an appliance too far.  My jaw is also tiny - this is responsible in large part for the sleep apnea (tiny airways), and means dental work is always painful afterwards as well as during, because my mouth has to be jacked open so far, and to

I am enjoying hearing about everyone's jobs, and totally good with anyone who uses this idea for a post. It was kind of fun revisiting all of the occupations which were often very not fun at the time. Also, J, Lucy was NOT humping the blanket, I was totally confused until I realized I had said she was fucking with it. She was just digging in it as if she might actually get somewhere, and her outraged expression when I told her to quit it was funny. And Engie, I apologize, because truthfully when I said I would see if your comments got stuck in spam I didn't even think that was something that could happen in Blogger, but then I checked and somehow they DID get marked as spam - why? Why would that happen? Anyway, you are free to focus solely on Lucy and zero other components of this blog, and I will ensure that your comments pass unmolested. Unlike Lucy's blanket would have been, if J was correct. My remaining jobs: In university, I worked first at TCBY, a frozen yogurt place

Talking about my current job made me think that listing all of my jobs could be fun (and by fun I mean possibly entertaining, sad or pathetic).  Babysitting was my first job. Sometimes it was fun, sometimes less so. I liked little kids. There was a house up the street with three little boys, one a baby. Sometimes I would wake him up on purpose after the other ones were asleep just so I could rock him back to sleep. Once I got called to the apartment building kitty-corner from us. The two little boys were hyper and I was overwhelmed, and then finally they fell asleep in front of the tv (I had been there since early and this was afternoon) and then their grandma showed up unannounced and started talking loud baby talk and woke them up and I felt like strangling her.  Once I got a job on a recommendation from one of my friends. The friend then showed up at the babysitting job with her boyfriend and the boyfriend's brother who kind of liked me. My friend fooled around in the basement w

 Ha ha, I bet you're thinking I have no kids at home and I already showed you my Halloween party costume, what more could I possibly have to say on this subject?  Well first of all, THIS Sonia (from this post ) texted me that her friend was helping at a Halloween dog photo shoot and I should take Lucy. I said uh, cool, except that doesn't really sound like something I would do. Sonia asked if she could take Lucy and I was like, yes, obviously.  She was a bee! Just like me! Sonia also bought her the hot dog costume, which is the only costume she's ever worn happily for any length of time. Then there's Eve, who obviously still sends me pictures of her costumes. She lives in a house with six other girls - five other arts and science students (combined with various other programs) and one engineer. So they went to the arts and science club event as the Seven Deadly Sins. Eve was sloth so she could wear pajamas Lauren, whose bedroom is beside Eve's was Lust "because

 I have been thinking about (maybe not PRECISELY looking forward to, but not dreading) NaBloPoMo for weeks, and this morning I was washing my face thinking again about post ideas, how I'm going to use empty scrolling time to post and comment, and then I realized HOLY SHIT, IT'S NOVEMBER. *ahem* Last year was the first time I wasn't alone doing this, and it was much more fun. I am stealing this picture from Engie and trust that she will tell me if that's not okay. I'm also going to copy Engie's idea of a re-introduction, although I don't really anticipate anyone coming here who hasn't been here before. Maybe I can re-introduce myself to myself, though, sometimes it gets a little unclear. My name is Allison, no one calls me Bibliomama except a few times at BlogHer the one time I went there, and Nicole 's husband once said "oh, Allison the Bibliomama?" which I find hilarious (that's right, I'm friends with Nicole, I've sniffed her