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Orange balloons + Black Accordion + A Russian Virtuoso = Happy Halloween

Now this is music! I wish I could convince him to take Reuben as his accordion apprentice.

Monster Mash

Request a Halloween creature by midnight and I'll draw it. Happy Halloween!

Halloween: Come to Me My Moonbeam!

(Picture from BYU library)

When we were just barely starting to consider dating, Aaron came to a Halloween party I threw in college. He ended up staying after and we watched the silent film Trapped by the Mormons (1922).

It is a truly terrible movie, sooo bad that it's hilarious. In it Mormon missionary Isolde Keene who seems to be part vampire, part hypnotist and a devoted jazz fan attempts to seduce Nora Prescott, a beautiful young English woman. Thankfully her crotchety father and controlling sailor ex-boyfriend save her by wiping the whole town into a frenzy of violence and leading the blood thirsty mob to attack Isolde. Nothing makes a better happily ever after than mob rule. Hurray!

There's so many amazing scenes but one of the best shows Isolde Keene, using his evil powers, summoning a hypnotized Nora from her bed and into his presence. He does this by waving his arms and according to the silent film card saying "Come to me My Moonbeam!" Aaron and I thought this was hilarious and it became a running joke.

A year or two later we were hanging out with Aaron's brother and I casually called Aaron Moonbeam. Dan in a mix of disgust and curiosity exclaimed "Ick. Why does she call you that?" I was close enough to overhear and I expected Aaron would tell Dan about the movie, Isolde, the great Halloween party, etc. etc. But instead Aaron replied "I don't know. She just likes to call me that." Thanks Aaron.

Another of my all time favorite movies which I watch every halloween time is "The Invisible Man (1933). The special effects are amazing.

More Halloween Fun: Monster Anatomy

Ever wonder what goes on deep inside the innards of Japanese Folk Monsters?

Now you can know.

Tis The Season

I love Halloween. To get in the spirit, I like to pick up a book or two that fits the season. Here are a few books I read recently that got me in the haunting mood.

The Grave Yard by Neil Gaiman

As a baby, Bod survives the murder of his family when he wanders from his crib, out the front door and into the protective if ghostly arms of the residents of the local cemetery. It's a clever derivative of The Jungle Book and has some sweet illustrations. You can find out more about it here.

Anything else by Gaiman

Ladies of Grace Adieu by Susanna Clarke

A collection of short stories featuring the mysterious haunts of Olde english magic.

Diary of a Wimpy Kid by Jeff Kinney

Perfect depiction of the the struggles of Halloweening as a greedy 11 year old.

Nightmare Abbey by Thomas Love Peacock

The book I'm about to start. A satire of the gothic novel written in 1818. I have it from an excellent source that it's great fun. Here's an excerpt:

Scythrop ... threw himself into his arm-chair, crossed his left foot over his right knee, placed the hollow of his left hand on the interior ancle of his left leg, rested his right elbow on the elbow of the chair, placed the ball of his right thumb against his right temple, curved the forefinger along the upper part of his forehead, rested the point of the middle finger on the bridge of his nose, and the points of the two others on the lower part of the palm, fixed his eyes intently on the veins in the back of his left hand, and sat in this position like the immoveable Theseus, who, as is well known to many who have not been at college, and to some few who have, sedet, æternumque sedebit. We hope the admirers of the minutiæ in poetry and romance will appreciate this accurate description of a pensive attitude.

There are plenty of others: Welles, Shelley, Baudelaire, Poe.

Anyone else have a good Halloween read?

Be Afraid Jack-o-Lanterns

Aaron Reuben and I picked up a little pumpkin over the weekend and last night we hacked it into a jack-o-lantern.

Every time we showed it to Reuben he bit its face. We thought at first he was giving it a kiss but he clamped down hard and left several puncture marks.

When we took it away he looked up at it, laughed, and snapped his jaw a few more times in its direction. What goes through that kid's mind?

Enriching

Today my ward had enrichment. There was a lot of good food and some cool crafts. I didn't do any of the crafts because I'm not a craft person. Instead I talked to a few ladies in an attempt to work on my social skills (which are mediocre at best) and stole some cookies to take home to Aaron.

On the ride back I started thinking about what I would enjoy making if I had the time and opportunity.

Here are a few things I came up with:

Atlatl construction

Reusabe, washable ziplock bags

A bike light

Pickling

What would you want to do?

By the way, I really like lifehacker. If you have a minute you should check it out.

Fair Day!

For Family Home Evening on Monday we went to the SC State Fair. Reuben cozied up to Grandpa and his lemonade. I never give that kid juice and on the rare occasion I relent I water it down, so he was in heaven sharing a REAL lemonade.

Reuben kept pointing us forward. He couldn't get enough. You can spot the iconic "Meet Your Mama at the Rocket" Rocket to the left.
We took the opportunity to peer at some bewildered prize fowl. Reuben kept sticking his soft, pink, worm sized finger through the cage wiring which made the birds very excited and me nervous. But it's still intact despite the chickens', peacocks', geese's, pheasant's, ducks' and Reuben's best efforts.
Reuben examined the noisy roosters with Grandpa.
While those two pal-ed around, Aaron and I took the opportunity to do some fair fooding. Below you can see some delicious fried mushrooms (my favorite), fried cheese, cherry bombs (cherries dipped in chocolate then deep fried), deep fried chocolate banana and sweet piggy (bacon fried and dipped in chocolate and covered in powder sugar) which Aaron is about to take a bite of. We also ate an elephant ear or two (fried dough covered in sugar and syrup) and some fries and after that it all became a blur but I know I put some more stuff in my mouth.
We wandered around and rode some rides. Amy sent Eliza on a caterpillar ride and graciously held Reuben while I tried to snap pictures.
Aaron wandered off and came back with a pork chop on a stick.
When it got dark and the crowds thickened I tried to convince Reuben to let me pick him up. His response? Biting the hand that feeds him. Once again we stand before a scary clown.
All in all a good time was had by all. My favorite part as usual was the animals and farm displays. I had a nice chat with the SC Bee guys. I left feeling the same way I feel every year, slightly nauseous and with a deep desire to become a farmer. Oddly enough my dream of waking up as a laborer on some happy organic farming commune corresponds directly to some of Aaron's worst nightmares.

Good thing we agree about so many other things, like the joy of fair food. Good bye fair. We love you.

The Best Thing All Day. Make that All Month.

Today I had a LOT of work to do. A LOT. I've had a lot of work to do for the last two weeks and it's been wearing on me. I was laboring away, mindless drone style, feeling my soul slip away and then Reuben got home!

As soon as he came through the door I heard the quick pitter patter of little feet racing my way. He pushed through the door and this is what I saw

He rushed over and tackle-hugged me in one slobbery, toothy, baby bear hug AND kiss. (He took the opportunity to sink his teeth into my cheek which is his really really special kiss)

Best thing ever!

Reuben Walks

Reuben can walk now, not just toddle, walk.

And he is FAST. He takes off without a concern in the world and A and I often find ourselves having to run to catch up with him.

It's interesting to see where he decides to go.

Congaree National Flood Plain Forest

To celebrate Reuben's hard earned walking skills our family made a visit to Congaree National Park. Congaree National Park is about 20 minutes from our place and home to "the largest remnant of old growth floodplain forest on the continent!"

The trees are massive and the birding amazing. In less than a mile I saw a huge pileated woodpecker and heard two more. We also heard a Eastern Screech owl, a barred owl and a lot of other smaller song birds.

Most people like to call the park a swamp, but it's not a swamp. It's a floodplain forest. Which means it's a forest that's almost always flooded and swampy. And beautiful.

Reuben didn't want to be carried. He insisted on walking. INSISTED. ADAMANTLY.

After a mile and a half Reuben still wanted to walk.

He then decided to pick up leaves off the boardwalk and exam each one for a minute or two.

Then we'd through them over the side.

I was fine with that. I figured, he'll throw a couple leaves off and then we'll move on. But it's fall, so there were a LOT of leaves. Here he's about half way done with the deck.

Finally we got moving again.

And just so you know, Aaron was there too. Here he is stuffing Reuben up a hollow, bat filled cypress tree.

And he helped Reuben pet a cypress knee.

And we had a great time at the wonderful nature center.

Monty Python - Finland

This is my new favorite song.

Party

Today is the birthday of Friedrich Neitzsche AND P. G. Wodehouse. I can just picture the two of them partying it up together in the afterlife. Or not. They don't seem like they'd run in the same crowd.

Travel

I love visiting countries' official travel pages. Not only does it make me realize how fun a trip to say, Bulgaria might be, I love seeing what countries think are their best attractions.

For instance, on the official Visit Finland page there is a set of rotating pictures which include an image of an old wooden boat in some swampy grass, a white reindeer that appears to be coughing, a tree branch, a lot of snow, and a girl in front of dandelions. So come to Finland where you can get lost in a marsh, meet a sick reindeer, see a tree, get really cold and watch a girl spread weeds in a very scenic manner.

(Thanks to Tove Jansson's Summer Book I really would love to visit Finland. )

I could look at these pages forever. How else would I find out about the 2010 International Fireworks Competition held in Danang Vietnam? Chile looks pretty awesome from its site. There's one for almost every country: Japan, Indonesia, Russia, Israel, China, Belgium (the photos for Belgium kind of scare me. Particularly #10)

Iran even has a Beta version holding place in case they ever decide to switch tactics and start being friendly with the rest of the world. Another site even invites travel to Iran with the line Iran: the land of civilized and Friendly people.

And I guess that's what I really like about these sites. They make it look like all the world is a friendly hospitable place, ready to welcome you and show you the best they have to offer. So flipping through these pages gives me a glimpse at what world peace might look like. Ahhh, sweet delusion...

States have these pages too. Even states that you'd never want to go to like Delaware or Indiana. South Carolina's is nice enough but the video bar is kind of crazy and seems to be targeting heavy set men who like to walk around golf courses.

I've got a bad case of wanderlust.

The Mormons

The Pew Research Center just ran the numbers on Mormons. I wasn't too surprised by their findings. Generally Mormons are highly committed religiously, believers, more likely to be married, have big families, slightly higher rates of education, middle income and Western.

I was happily surprised at the finding that Mormons have the highest rate of belief in the Bible as the word of God (91%) without feeling the need to believe each word literally (57%) So we know how to interpret scripture, understand symbolism, analogy, etc. The numbers for Mormon's belief in God, miracles, the afterlife are also very high.

Even more interesting, unlike the general population, the higher the education level the more likely Mormons are to be active in their religion.

My biggest surprise: Mormons are LESS likely to homeschool (6%) than the general population(15%). I would not have guessed that.

The funniest observance: Yes, there is a difference between Utah Mormons and the rest of us. The numbers say so at least...

You can see for yourself here.

11 Months

I sat Reuben down on the couch to attempt an eleven month picture. He immediately made a break for it. He dove off the couch (I barely caught him), walked over and happily flipped pages in Aaron's 400 page library book, and then tackled me (ouch). That should give you a pretty good idea of what life with the boy is like right now.

Positive Good

I read this yesterday:

I do not like the idea of helplessly suffering one's misfortunes, of passively bearing one's lot. The Stoics depress me. I do not want to look at life as an eternal making a best of a bad bargain. Granting all the circumstances, admitting all my disabilities, I want too to "warm both hands before the fire of life." What satisfactions I have, and they are many and precious, I do not want to look on as compensations, but as positive goods.

- The Handicapped Randolph Bourne

That last line particularly impressed me. I have felt lately that to expect more leaves one always wanting. But to be satisfied with what is, provides a foundation to build.

Dang, I sound like a fortune cookie. Maybe I should be a fortune cookie writer. That would be an awesome job.

Lunch Date

I have a soft spot in my heart for hypothetical questions. I often wonder why people chose to talk about the weather or grocery store or game when they could instead ponder the likes of: If any deceased human's collected knowledge and experience was yours for the taking, whose mind would you take and why? Or if it was in your power to save One and only one endangered species but all other endangered species would die off, which animal would you choose? Or if you could learn when and how a single future events of your life will transpire (and it could not be changed by your knowing) what event would you choose? (I'm just getting warmed up. Feel free to offer answers to these questions. I really enjoy hearing responses) I usually ask Aaron a half dozen of these puppies right as he starts to drift off.

I've always enjoyed these sorts of questions so you can imagine my delight when I found out about the college application process, particularly the essay prompts. Finally questions that were worth answering! and I had an audience! I loved running those prompts through my head, adjusting my response and extrapolating the outcome. I seriously considered applying to more schools just to get a crack at a few more delicious questions.

Since it's one of the most common, I spent a fair amount of time on: If you could meet with three famous people for lunch, who would you meet and why? Despite my question love, I found this prompt a bit unnerving.

For one, I never go out to lunch. Add to that, I'm fairly reserved and I don't usually like to speak much to people on first meeting. And I usually make really bad first impressions (just ask my in-laws) I knew I would make a TERRIBLE lunch date. To top it all off, there was the despair that no matter my agonizing, it would never happen.

But I've found a solution to my problem and it was right under my nose the whole time. Waa-laa! (Aaron is pressuring me to change this to Voila! the dirty francophile) The ESSAY! Essays are brilliant, synthesized musings of great thinkers. Essayists pours out opinions, offers meditations, dispenses advice, relates personal and professional experiences and do their darndest to be as entertaining or intellectually illuminating as possible in the process.

In short, reading an essay is in my mind the equivalent of going on the perfect date with Renee Descartes or Mark Twain or John Muir or Rachel Carson or Richard Rodriguez or a hundred other amazing human beings. With minimal work, the greatest minds are at your finger tips, vying for your affections.

So next time you're feeling a little lonely, consider picking up an essay.

But you don't have to take my word for it. Da-da- da! (That's the Reading Rainbow music) By the way Reading Rainbow just got taken off the air. Which is a TRAVESTY!! Good bye little rainbow butterfly!

Enjoy

I've really been enjoying the Freaky Fortnight article series currently on Slate. In which, a stay-at-home, writer mom and a full time editor dad switch duties or as she says "switch the balance" on the responsibilities they share. The writing is humorous, laid back, a bit predictable but insightful.

It touches a few subjects I've been mulling over. For one, it's interesting to me how each couple has to work out a game plan, a sort of divide and conquer list of duties. The classic: you bring home the bacon, I'll cook it up.

But in modern life there's a lot more to do than bacon baking. Who cleans the bathroom? Pays the insurance? Talks about feelings? Provides spiritual direction? I've known a lot of couples and so I've known almost as many ways to divide up the "To Dos". Many have sent shivers up my spine. (He can't cook a decent dinner?? She can't balance a check book?? Yikes!) But I remind myself, that's why I didn't marry guy x and he never would have married me AND to each his own.

The amount of shared dependence increases substantially when a couple becomes a family. There's a LOT more to do in the domestic realm. Domestic doesn't mean feminine, but more often than not it trends that way.

To me couples and their families are better equipped when both people are handy with the life skills. Easily interchangeable "tasking" can be a much needed pressure release valve for a struggling spouse. Y has a long day? X does dinner. X is feeling sick? Y does dinner. In Biblical terms we're more "equally yoked."

But I know that's my own personal preference. So it's interesting to see a couple that's doing the literal translation - physically switching spots and then switching back without any expectation of disastrous results.

Man this is long. Anyway, what I find striking is the surprisingly HIGH amount of Guilt and Self-Doubt a lot of moms carry around with them. The first hurdle back to work Burton mentions is the surprising lack of confidence she initially feels. I know she isn't alone. I'm continually caught off guard by the LOW confidence I find in women around me. I want to tell a lot of them to go watch an episode of Mr Rogers or Sesame Street (You are special! There's no one else like you!)

I don't have a lot of those feelings and I'm not sure why. I wonder if it's because I'm simply emotionally insensitive OR if it is because I feel less constrained by wifely expectations because of my very capable husband OR because I have an independent income OR because I've NEVER felt very constrained by convention

And since we're on the subject of Sesame Street, what happened to Prarie Dawn? She was the only original female muppet and she disappeared. And what's up with Elmo's power grab? He nudged all the other muppets out and they were a lot funnier and less annoying than him.

Beheading

I mentioned before that we have an owl in our back woods. To be more specific, from the call, it's a Great Horned Owl, a mighty and fearsome predator. More fearsome if you are small and your relatives are rodents or small birds, but they have been known to take cats, small dogs even armadillos. The creepiest thing I've heard is they often eat off the head of their victim and then go on their way. Some call them "Silent Tigers" and in Appalachian lore they are harbingers of death.

I really hope I can get a glimpse of him. I've been letting Battle hang out on the balcony - maybe that will lure him in? Battle of course could escape to safety back in the house.

In Case You Haven't Watched Bambi Lately

This is the scene I was referring to.

Bird!

Reuben is growing up fast and lately he's started doing a lot of communicating. He's started to say Bird. It sounds closer to brrrrrt, brt, brt! so we get to reenact this scene from Bambi every day.

Consequently as he's toddled about and inevitably plopped to the ground I keep saying "Did the young prince fawwwll down?" in my best Thumper voice. Reuben seems unimpressed by my impression which I think is spot on.

He's also started doing a lot of signing. This is rewarding because Aaron and I have been signing to flat stares of seeming indifference for the last four months. It's rewarding to know it sunk in.

It's also great because we get a sneak peak at what is going on in the kid's head. He really likes the birds that come to our feeder. When they arrive he usually stops what he's doing and starts signing bird frantically and "whistling" to them. So I guess he's decided it is equally important to learn how to communicate with them as with us. I actually think he might spend more time "whistling" than speaking words.

Now when I say whistling I mean Reuben's adapted whistle. We whistled bird calls to attract birds out of the woods. Reuben started to try too and very cutely blew as best he could but to no avail. He changed tactics and now emits long high super-soprano shreaks instead. They are remarkable similar in sound to a whistle. So way to go Reuben. The Vienna Boy's choir awaits you.

I really need to get a picture/video of all this. This blog was supposed to motivate me but I've been really busy so I decided it'll have to come later and posted the picture I had on hand.

And what's that giant green thing he's happily leaning against? If you guessed a Giant Okra man from the Irmo Okra Strut you'd be right. Good Guess!

Here he is not smiling because he's trying to swallow a gigantic glob of fried Okra.

And here he is not smiling because he's in front of the scariest clown painting EVER.

Here's the close up. That's how it made me feel too.

See what I mean.