Girl Detective

I’m not sure I have much to add beyond what Manolo the Shoe-Blogger has written about the first half of the season three finale. Laura seems to be stirring up trouble out of jealousy and a desire to win, Jeffrey is acting shifty, while Michael and Uli should be minding their own beeswax, not backing Laura up. Jeffrey and Laura’s stuff looks the best. Uli’s looks the same as it always has, barring her recent win. And Michael, who I was certain would win, seems to be buckling under the pressure. The previews made it look like Jeffrey was going to be eliminated because of Laura’s accusations of cheating. Therefore, I suspect it won’t happen. Generally, they merely hint at things that will happen. Strong telegraphing usually means a red herring or surprise reversal. It feels like a disappointing end to this third season.

Some friends and I set aside a night for dinner out, and left the kids home with the husbands. What a luxury it was to eat good food prepared by someone else, uninterrupted, and at a leisurely pace. When it came time to pay the bill, I offered to put it on my card to simplify things. One friend wrote me a check (because this is MN, where we write checks for everything), but another realized she’d forgotten her checkbook, and had no cash.

“Would you accept a Target gift card?” she asked, holding out what she did have in her wallet.

I laughed and said yes. Moms are nothing if not adaptable.

My son Drake is recently three, and so far proving all those moms right who told me that three is far more difficult than two. My frustration is at an all-time high as he doesn’t listen and flouts my quiet, reasonable, polite requests to do basic things like get dressed.

Last night at bathtime, after I’d asked him several times to get in the bathtub, he continued to ignore me. I told him I was going to count to five, and if he wasn’t in the tub at five, I was going to lift him in by force. I counted to five, he hadn’t moved, I grabbed him, lifted him and plonked him in the tub, where he began to scream. I felt sad that the incident ended so badly, and I felt worse for him. He’s small, and at the mercy of grownups like me. Sure, he was being recalcitrant and ignoring me. But when I don’t want to do something, I try to reason my way out of it, plus I’m not usually physically forced by someone bigger than me. Yes, he’d been behaving badly, but I didn’t blame him for being outraged. It’s gotta suck being small, a lot of the time.

#59 in my book challenge for the year was Reading Like a Writer by Francine Prose. A brief reminder that these mini-reviews are part of my annual book and movie challenges, which I initiated to remind myself of their importance in my life, and to let others know parenthood doesn’t preclude books and movies.

I enjoyed Prose’s novel A Changed Man last year, and was surprised to find her non-fiction book was also a compelling page turner. I had trouble stopping at the end of chapters. Prose harks back to a time when learning literature was done with close readings that largely eschewed the biographical details of the authors. Her approach embraces the study of literature before postmodernism, which came along and shook everything up with its inclusion of Foucoult, Lacan, and the insistence that we look at everything through different “lenses”. Her approach also harks back to a time and an approach that were more about loving literature than taking it apart and tearing it down, as discussed in this article by a professor of English.

Each chapter focuses on an aspect of fiction, such as character, sentences, paragraphs, and more. For each topic, Prose offers many excerpts and analyses of famous works. The book finishes with a list of “Books to be Read Immediately”, though I did miss an index that would have tied each work on that list to where she cited it as an example in the book. I found her writing and the book both accessible and challenging. In the wake of it, I feel both discouraged (how am I ever going to write as well as the writers she named?) and encouraged (nothing for it but to practice).

Interestingly, Prose even took a book I’d recently not enjoyed, Sense and Sensibility, and pointed out a skillfully done aspect of it that made me better appreciate that book. While Prose’s book is directed to writers, it will also be appreciated by those who love literature.

#49 in my movie challenge for the year was Mysterious Skin, based on the novel by Scott Heim. I do movie and book challenges to remind myself of what’s important, and to show it’s possible to have small kids and still find time to read and watch movies. It’s not easy, and many things go undone (our house is messy; we’ve all but given up on our yard), but it can be done.

I liked but didn’t love the book when I read it last year, and I felt similarly about the movie. It was a good, faithful adaptation of the book. Joseph Gordon Levitt was mesmerizing in the role of Neil, a young, small-town hustler. There’s rough, graphic sex and child abuse in the movie, so this is not for the faint of heart. But it is a well-done indie that handles tough subjects well, and has strong performances.

I type 1-handed, w/ baby Guppy in sling. He cries if I put him down. Soon Drake will be home from preschool. I’ve learned to do many things w/ kids around, but writing isn’t one of them. These last few weeks, with Drake not napping and Guppy napping sporadically, I’m wrangling one or both from 5:30 a.m. to 8 p.m., with few, and all too brief, exceptions. My husband G. Grod gets home from work about 6 p.m., so the last hours of the day are tandem parenting, but it’s a struggle to get even the basics done lately, and I’ve had to put writing off again and again.

#58 in my book challenge for the year was The Last of Her Kind by Sigrid Nunez. It is the carefully crafted tale of Ann Drayton, an heiress with a conscience, who gets in trouble during the 1970s. Told by Ann’s college roommate, Georgette, the narrative takes several interesting and unexpected diversions, which all contribute to a satisfying whole. I re-read many passages as I went, because they offered up more with each new encounter.

I have been blamed by others for my timidity; I have heard my passionate love of reading denounced as an addiction, a vice, a cowardly avoidance of the challenges, dangers, excitements, and even duties of real life.

A few things troubled me about the book. Part Five makes a daring switch from first person to third, and nearly pulls it off, except that there are too many things that the author couldn’t have known. Otherwise, I thought the varied points of view in the novel were extemely impressive. A segment near the end written by a prison inmate was too long, and varied too much in voice. Finally, the last two paragraphs are a quote from The Great Gatsby, and a comment on it that didn’t flow well for me from what went before, which was an interesting critique of that great book.

These things are small, though, especially compared to the richness of the story and the characters. The voices are strong, and their lives are compelling. It was a fascinating history lesson as well.

The reunion show confirmed many things for me about this season of Project Runway. Robert was funny. Bradley was strange. Alison was kindly. Kayne was charming. Keith was a liar, whose claims were about as believable as his nose. Laura thinks dressing up is a virtue.

And Vincent lives in a separate reality from the rest of us.

My boys haven’t been napping, I had to pack for a weeklong visit to family, and at the last minute I decided not to take my laptop, hence my lack of recent posts. I flew out with my husband and both boys, then G. Grod returned to work, and I stayed longer so the grandparents could have more time with the kids. While packing, I was daunted by the thought of taking my laptop, various liquids–baby Tylenol, children’s Tylenol, my eye drops, two containers of baby food, and two juice boxes–AND the boys by myself through security, so I left the computer behind. The flight back went mostly well, but Drake’s listening is sporadic, the security guy confiscated the juice boxes, and Drake cannily refuses to wear the monkey backpack/leash we bought. It wasn’t easy.

Before I left, a friend said to me, “Have a good vacation.” I responded that I find family visits different from vacations. While family visits can be enjoyable, they usually don’t have a high enough ratio of relaxation to obligation for me to feel restored enough to call them vacation.

Apologies for the inconsistent posting. I hope to have things back on track soonish.

Episode 11 of Project Runway was both a surprise, and a letdown. The judges did not eliminate a designer, so the four remaining–Michael, Laura, Jeffrey and Uli–would all prepare for fashion week. I had picked Uli to lose, since she kept doing the same loose, flowy patterned dress each week. Instead, the other three choked. Jeffrey went so overboard trying to prove he was romantic that he did something boring and demure. Laura did the exact same thing she always does. Michael didn’t recognize that sexy, sensual and sultry all mean largely the same thing, and his evening gown flopped. I found the judges comments on him odd, though, since they kept saying he was clearly a sportswear designer, when they’ve praised his gowns nearly every time. Uli pulled victory from the jaws of defeat. She was about to do another loose flow-y dress, but correctly realized it would look like a “kitchen dress.” Instead, she changed course for something short, fitted, and daring. I think the judges had probably planned to eliminate her, but when her dress was clearly superior to the others, they couldn’t do anything but award her the win, and let the others stay on the merits of their past work. All four prepared collections, and all four seem to be all over the place with their designs, so I don’t think the winner or losers are so obvious after this episode.

As always, I checked out Manolo the Shoe Blogger’s thoughts, and was amused and impressed.