I'm in the process of moving this blog. More details later.
-- Jesse's Mom

Every Friday morning Campus School holds a Family Gathering. Today it was Mr. Shadow's class' turn to make a presentation. They chose to demonstrate "Doing your Personal Best." It was very cute. They did a couple of skits, and at the end they held up poster boards spelling out Personal Best and the audience cheered along with them. I took photos and will post them as soon as I can.

That school totally indoctrinates its students with U of M spirit. When the 8 o'clock bell rang, the U of M fight song played over the intercom system, and all the kids yelled "Go Tigers Go!" in the correct spot. Too funny.

Thoughts on the election:
A friend called me bright and early, a Democrat, and said she was depressed. She was upset that Harold Ford had lost. But I look at it as a wash. A Republican-held seat stays Republican. Bredesen won by a landslide. And I couldn't be happier for Steve Cohen, who deserves a trip to Washington purely because of his perseverance on the lottery. And his victory meant that a Democratic seat in the U.S. Representatives stays blue. I told her to look at the big picture. It's a good day today. Harold Ford had a huge uphill battle in this election. But he's young, and he's smart, and he will land solidly on his feet somewhere. So, I don't feel sorry for Harold Ford.

I'm paying for my stress levels over the last week. Canker sores have taken up space on some valuable soft tissue real estate in my mouth.

I left the office for several hours this morning to talk to journalism students at the U of M about resumes and clip files and internships. I know I must have been clueless as a student, but I have a hard time believing that I was that clueless. "How do I get a clip file?" Um, you write stories for a newspaper. "How do I do that?" Am I being punk'd here?

I took a few moments to visit with the new person who is running the high school newspaper program I helped launch nine years ago. She seems energetic, which is good, because that job can suck all the life out of you. It's a great program, and I'm glad it's still going strong.

This past weekend I walked into the bathroom and found the mirror streaked with toothpaste spit. "Jesse!" I yelled. "Explain this," I demanded, pointing at the mirror. "I was brushing my teeth and the toothbrush kept slipping out of my mouth," he said. "Well, let me show you how to clean the mirror," I said cheerfully. I showed him where I keep the cleanser and sprayed the mirror down. Then I put a washcloth in his hands and ordered him to wipe. A few nights later I was settled into the couch watching television when Jesse hollered from the bathroom that he was cleaning the mirror for me again. "OK, that's great!" I said. 30 minutes later, he emerged with the news that he'd also cleaned the sink for me. I turned to SkooterPie. "You might want to rinse off your toothbrush really well before you use it next," I told him. I may have created a Windexing monster.

I guess NaNoWriMo is a bust again this year. I haven't written a single word to start off a novel. Sigh.

Weekend recap:
Saw Borat. It was, as expected, pretty damn funny. It's not for the easily offended. Or for anyone not in on the joke. And there's one scene that I wish I could erase from my brain. Where are those brain erasers when you need them?

Saturday I hung around the house psyching myself up for the big trivia tournament. Which we lost. We were in 14th place going in to the final bonus question and had we gotten it right, we would have finished third.

Sunday I asked Jesse what he wanted to do for the day, and he wanted to see the movie "Flushed Away." So we caught that at noon, and it was really, really good. I did not go see the football game. I just couldn't bear it. What a sucky season for the Tigers. I know we lost DeAngelo and some key seniors last year. But it looks like our entire team was replaced this season. Have these guys ever actually PLAYED football before?

I voted this morning before coming in to work, and I was relieved that the ballot was much shorter than the one I struggled to complete in August. I cast a big fat NO vote on Amendment 1 because enshrining discrimination in the constitution is wrong wrong wrong.

Jesse got in the shower late last night and so he asked me to blow dry his hair so it wouldn't look all crazy in the morning. While I was getting the hair dryer out he was going a million miles an hour in the bathroom with me. You can definitely tell when his ADHD meds wear off. He was doing the talking thing. What came out was a long story about how when he grows up and has a cat he's going to get out the hair dryer one day and use it to blow dry the cat's butt. "And it first, he won't like it, but then he'll get used to it," he said. And I doubled over laughing. I had sort of been half listening to him, and he was talking so fast that it took my brain a few seconds to catch up with him and then comprehend the whole story he'd been telling me. "That's a really interesting plan, Jesse." And then he got the giggles. And we stood in the bathroom laughing hysterically at the idea of a blow dryer and a cat butt coming together one evening in the future.

Later we were reading together and he came to a passage that mentioned a car accident involving black ice. "What's black ice?" he asked. "It's ice on the road that you can't see very well. It looks like road." "How does it cause an accident? Do people run into it?" "No, it's slippery. Like a skating rink." And then he started giggling and explained that at first he was picturing a wall of black ice that people would slam into with their cars. Earlier while reading he had read how two character had "exchanged looks" with one another. "I always think about their faces swapping places when I read that," he told me. He is truly a visual kid. And those visions are very odd.

Weekend plans: SkooterPie and I are seeing "Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan" tonight with Ron and his lovely wife, Bethany. Then Saturday night the superb trivia team Big Jim Slade will face off against other Memphis teams in a $1,000 trivia tournament. Sunday night I'll probably be watching the Tigers lose another football game. I'd skip it, but they're retiring DeAngelo's jersey, and I really want to see that.

I'm starting to get that overwhelmed feeling that leads to paralysis. I have several things I need to be working on over the next two days. They are all big projects. So I'm just kind of floundering, unable to decide what to start on first. They're all equally important and equally big and equally stressing me out. It's all supposed to be done by end of day Friday, and I just need to buckle down and push through this.

The Grizzlies lost their season opener against the Knicks last night in triple overtime. I hope they have a better season than last year. I hope Pau is back on the court sooner rather than later. The guys that aren't hurt actually look pretty good. Our draft picks, Rudy Gay and Kyle Lowry, didn't disappoint. The Tigers play tonight against Lemoyne-Owen, and I really wish I had tickets.

A bunch of co-workers were passing around photos yesterday of their kids dressed up in Halloween costumes. I took not one photo of Jesse in his costume. Mother of the year. That's me.

Weird things I have been known to eat:
Rice for breakfast. White rice mixed with butter and a little bit of sugar. Soooooo good.
Popcorn in a glass with milk poured on top. Eaten with a spoon, like cereal. Learned that one from my dad. This one never fails to totally gross people out.
Vanilla ice cream with fruity pebbles mixed in. I invented this one when I was a kid.
Sweet pickles straight from the jar. I have a clear memory of me as a kid sitting in front of the TV early Saturday mornings while eating almost a whole jar of sweet baby gerkins. Even that grosses me out now.

Weekend recap: I visited my friend Melissa in Birmingham Saturday and Sunday. We shopped a lot and ate a lot and had a great time. It's probably a good thing we don't live in the same town (as much as I would love for that to be so) because we have great shopping karma together. I scored a very cute shirt from Anthropologie for 11 dollars and change that had originally been priced at $88. Seriously. I also bought a cute shirt at J. Jill. Never shopped there before, but their clothes are so much cuter than what's hanging on the racks at Ann Taylor Loft right now. And the prices are reasonable. That was the last of the money I'm spending on clothes for myself for a while because Christmas is not far away at all.

Cissie's son, Jacob, turned 12 yesterday. I can't believe he's practically a teenager. He's such a cool kid too. Great on a skateboard. Great on the basketball court. Great sense of humor. He really needs to stop making me feel so old, though.

God I'm busy.