Hatching Eggs, a weird dream

I had a very strange dream. In the nature of dreams, not all of it made sense. So as I relate it to you here, I have freely edited to add some sense (though not all).

Walking with my Very Large Dog through a wooded area near my home (I don’t actually have a dog or a wooded area, and it wasn’t my actual home or any home I’ve ever had), I found four eggs. Make note of that. FOUR. For some reason, I believed these eggs to be abandoned, but viable, though I do not know what kind of birds they were.

I carried the eggs home, glancing at my watch because I had somewhere to be. Where? I had to go get some clothes for an important event. What clothes? What event? No idea. You tell me. Your guess will probably be just as appropriate. 

I climbed the steps to the top floor of the townhouse where I lived, climbed the ladder of a bunkbed in the corner bedroom, and opened a small door that enclosed a tiny storage space above the top of the stairs. (Doesn’t everyone have one of these? No? We had something like this UNDER some basement stairs once. It’s the sort of cupboard that would feel at home in a horror movie. I would expect small creepy creatures to come out, or perhaps a portal to another dimension. In this case it was just a cupboard.)

The cupboard was empty except for a bare lightbulb. The lightbulb was very hot, so I put the bowl/basket/something holding the FOUR eggs into the cabinet to keep them warm while I went to procure clothes. (Note, I never once thought “shopping” during the dream. Probably because I don’t like shopping. Perhaps I was going to go borrow clothes from someone? Or steal them?)

I didn’t get to go procuring though. Before I could close the cabinet door, one egg started hatching. This egg hatched dream-style. As in super-fast. Bam! Fluffy little birdling, dry, and running around on the bed where I sat. I reached quickly to catch the little bird, wondering if it was a duck, when the crazy little bugger jumped off the bed to the floor. I was sure it was dead. No way a newborn chick could survive a five foot fall, right?

I peeked over the edge of the bed, squinting against potential nastiness. The bird was stunned, as indicated by the cartoonish large eyes, and feathers spiked out into fluffball points. I gaped. It recovered and took off across the bedroom floor. Meanwhile, behind me, the other THREE eggs hatched and the birdlings did a similar leap off the bed into cartoon-stun.

Gratuitous Boob Shot 

I scrambled off the bed, worried that the FOUR birds would dive down the stairs or something, and wondering where the dog could be. I chased the birds down the stairs and watched them run in chirpy little circles around the living room. 

Then Sonar X8 joined me. (Hi Sonar X8!) We decided to get a box to hold the birds. I walked through a door to a front room/sun porch thing (the contents of which resembled our actual laundry room; boxes and stuff piled everywhere), and scooped up one of the birds who ran in front of me. Bird in one hand, box in the other, I heard a great woof, and turned to watch my Very Large (dream) Dog, crash through the front door, knocking it to the floor. The dog stopped and looked around at the crashed door, then walked into the living room. I dropped the box and walked right behind the dog, catching him by the collar in case he might want to lick up some little birds. I put him back outside, telling him firmly to stay (Why did I not contain him somehow? Oh yeah, dream.). He walked away and lifted his leg to gush out a gallon of pee on a neighbor’s front mat.

I could not lift the heavy front door back onto its hinges without help. I looked down at the fluffy bird still in my hand. Except that it wasn’t a fluffy bird anymore. It was a brand new, fuzzy, average-sized, baby. A human baby. A newborn. Somehow in my surprise I did not drop it. I left the broken door, firmly shut the inner door of the porchy room, and Sonar X8 and I went in search of the other THREE birdlings/babies. 

Six of them were on the area rug in the living room. Four were on the couch and rocking chair. I could hear the other one crying from somewhere upstairs. While contemplating just what to do with a dozen babies that were formerly stray, wild, birds hatched in my upstairs cupboard, I decided it was time to wake up.

Meanness, hypocrisy, and the lack of compassion and understanding in public discourse

Last week I was so proud and amazed by the power of people united in a peaceful movement in Egypt. But dude, this week, the appalling lack of compassion around here is really pissing me off. And I’m feeling particularly stabby about hypocrisy today.

I’ve had a hard time this week with the caustic domestic political rhetoric and the thoughtless stupidity that is overlooking the ways in which we need each other and the ways in which we should support and care for one another.

Congress is dicking around attacking reproductive rights when people need JOBS. My own state of Texas is also wasting time deciding what I can do with my uterus and the way in which my doctor and I can manage my reproductive health while a 27 billion dollar budget shortfall threatens the livelihoods of tens of thousands of educators across the state, as well as the quality of education for all Texas children. 

Wake up Lege! Texas is already sucking at educating and managing the children who are out here living and breathing.

People I know on Facebook are asking why we expend so much energy to take care of other people. A firefighter in Arizona did not go on a call because of political differences with the rest of his team. Institutions integral to a well-functioning democratic society—libraries, non-commercial broadcast and journalism, and schools—are being devalued and defunded. Worker’s rights are being attacked in Wisconsin. I could go on and on.

Listen to me. Humans are social creatures. We need each other. We need to take care of each other.

Texas, we cannot afford to make the proposed cuts in the education budget. Governor Perry, I respectfully submit that your economic development incentives won’t go anywhere if there isn’t an educated workforce to fill the jobs that companies may or may not bring to Texas. We need a well-educated, dynamic citizenry that can fill the skill-oriented and service-oriented jobs of the future. We need a well-educated and thoughtful citizenry that can continue to maintain the progressive ideals upon which this country was founded.

Texas, we cannot afford to make the proposed cuts in the education budget. Job losses are projected to be in the tens of thousands in the education sector alone. Job loss of that magnitude, in a state of our size, could not only drag down our state economy, it could topple the fragile recovery that has started in the country, and with that, the rest of the world. Everything is bigger in Texas, but we don’t want to be contributors to a bigger recession.

And yes, this is personal for me. I have three children being educated in Texas. I have a Partner who is a Texas educator. I am worried for my own family. But I am also worried for all of us, as Texans and as Americans.

I am so proud of US history and culture, of innovation and resources, of ideas. But I don’t want to live in an ignorant United States. I don’t want to live in a hypocritical United States. I want us to listen to reason and to pay attention to facts. I want us to have a social and a global outlook that continues to make this a great place to live. 

We have to find a way to make this better. We’re not going to get to a better place by ignoring each other, by attacking each other, or by throwing each other under the bus.

Eglentyne's 2010 Literary Awards

Another post about all the stuff I read last year, because when I read 73 books, I want to milk it for all it’s worth.

Drawing from those books I finished in 2010 here are my completely subjective and non-scientific award choices. Yes, there are multiple winners in some categories. I can do that because they are MY completely subjective and unscientific awards. If you disagree, post a note in the comment or get your own list.

Better Together

To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee and Bless Me, Ultima by Rudolfo Anaya

Read them Aloud, Twice (Or listen to the author read them, or just read them to yourself. No matter what, these are awesome with kids.)

Haroun and the Sea of Stories by Salman Rushdie, Odd and the Frost Giants by Neil Gaiman, The Magician’s Elephant by Kate DiCamillo (OH! to write such prose!), and When Santa Fell to Earth by Cornelia Funke

Best Real, Live, Honest-to-goodness Humans (aka Non-Fiction)

Bad Mother by Ayelet Waldman and Tinsel by Hank Stuever

Best Illustration of a How a Story Can be Born

The Good Man Jesus and the Scoundrel Christ by Philip Pullman

Most Likely to Make Me Pull Out My Hair Wondering Why I’m Still Reading It (as I turn it upside down for the fourth time)

House of Leaves by Mark Z. Danielewski

Best Step-On-Your-Face-If-You’re-a-Sadistic-Pig, Butt-kicking, theorem-solving Character

Lisbeth Salander from the Millennium Trilogy by Stieg Larsson

Still Crazy After All These Years

Ethan Frome by Edith Wharton 

My Dear Watson

The Hound of the Baskervilles by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

Best Supernatural Reboot

Pride and Prejudice and Zombies by Seth Grahame-Smith (no relation)

Stunningly Good Writing for any Readers, but tagged as Young Adult

The Book Thief by Markus Zuzak and When You Reach Me by Rebecca Stead

Best Short-Story Collection

After the Quake by Haruki Murakami

Best Use of Mathematics to Illustrate the Poignancy of Human Relationships

The Housekeeper and the Professor by Yoko Ogawa

Most Likely to Make Me Wish I Could Write Like That

The Book Thief by Markus Zuzak, Juliet Naked by Nick Hornby, The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Diaz, Tinkers by Paul Hardin, and…

My Very Favorite Book I Read Last Year, as well as The One that Made Me Flat-Out Bawl for Twenty Minutes

One Day by David Nicholls

What Will 2011 Bring? Stay tuned… 

BELL NECKLACE

When Sonar X10 was in kindergarten, I was a first time Room Parent. As we organized the class party, I searched around for some little gift the Sonar could share with his classmates. Something that wasn’t cheap plastic. Something very inexpensive and/or easy to make. I found a jar of jingle bells at the craft store and decided to make each kid a necklace. I just threaded a bell on a length of yarn (something I have in abundance around here) and tied a knot. Took me ten or fifteen minutes to make them. 

The Sonar thought they were great. He happily wore his bell to school and jingled around all day.  All of the kids have had a similar reaction as they pulled the bells out of their goody bags. Smiles as they put them on and jingled around the classroom. (Side note: I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, all elementary school teachers who survive children’s Christmas parties deserve a fifth of bourbon.)

This is my sixth year making bell necklaces for school party favors. I’ve made them for each kid, each year. I’ve switched to a smaller, quieter bell for the sake of the teachers. But these little gifts still hold up to the cheap and easy requirements, and the kids really love them. Sonar X10 has several squirreled away in his treasure boxes.

The very best reaction, though, came from a kid in that first class, who was so excited, so thrilled with his BELL NECKLACE. “A BELL NECKLACE! I have ALWAYS wanted one of these!” he said to me and his mom and anyone else who would listen. 

His mom and I have laughed about that story more than once since then. I saw that awesomely enthusiastic guy this morning while I was volunteering at the library, and I’m happy to say that he is just as earnest and enthusiastic at eleven as he was at six. 

Jingle Jingle.

It's a good thing I don't have a long driving commute, a Random WriMo Wrednesday

If I did, I would have to have some kind of voice recording device.  Otherwise I would be a total traffic nuisance, jotting down random ideas every few minutes on whatever scrap of paper (old parking pass, raffle ticket, window flyer, kleenex) I could find.  I drove into Corpus Christi this morning, and by the time I got to my first stop, I had a piece of paper (old parking pass) that looked like this (click to embiggen):

The front passenger seat of my van, with a scrap of paper and pen

A closer view of the front passenger seat of my van, with a scrap of paper and a pen

A close view of the piece of paper on the front seat of my van

I’ll decode that for you, with an explication of each entry, shall I?  I shall.  When I turned on the radio, it was tuned (miraculously) the the local public radio station, which was transitioning from Morning Edition to First Hour (local classical music), with a stopover at Garrison Keillor’s Writer’s Almanac.  Got that?  

1. “Sesame Street”  One of Keillor’s entries noted that today is the anniversary from 1969 of the first broadcast of Sesame Street.  In particular Keillor discussed the audience testing the show did on children to determine that conversations between people and muppets held children’s attention the longest, and so those conversations became a main feature of the show.  Later studies also determined that children who watched Sesame Street did better on standardized tests.  Happy Birthday Sesame Street. 

2. On First Hour, the host began by wishing Happy Birthday to the United States Marine Corps, which is a little older than Sesame Street.  Then he played a rousing rendition of “Semper Fidelis.” Happy Birthday Marine Corps. Which led me to remember that…

3. Tomorrow is Veteran’s Day here in the U.S.  “Love you Bro/Fam” I’ve been posting 25 Days of Thanks on my Facebook page (you’ll see it here later this month).  I decided tomorrow’s thanks should clearly go to veterans, but in particular I wanted to post some love to veterans I’m connected to on Facebook.  Like Partner (Air Force), my brother (Army Reserve) and others (Navy, Coast Guard, Army).  And to those of you out there who are veterans of the armed services of the United States, a hearty thank you for the commitment and sacrifices you made to serve.  The payback does not always justify what you gave/give, but for this day, I hope we can do right by you, and remind society and government to do right by you always.   

4. “donut!” Um, I didn’t want to forget to get myself a donut.  Which I planned to eat when I met my NaNoWriMo writing goal for today.  I couldn’t decide between Pumpkin Spice Cake Donut and Chocolate Cake Donut, so I bought both.  I ate the pumpkin spice after I’d written 2100 words, but was starving.  A short while ago, I made my 2500 word goal for today, and thus crossed the halfway point of NaNo.  My total word count is now 25,139. Hence the donut celebration.  I shall soon consume the chocolate (now that I’ve remembered it).

5. “lean of bike on crosstown” I had a short crush on the guy on the motorcycle who was behind me almost the entire trip across town.  He drove the bike in such a confident and relaxed and non-jackassy way.  In particular I was totally in love with the way that the bike leaned over to the left on the rising curve of the exit from Crosstown Expressway to SPID (that’s South Padre Island Drive for you non-Texas-Coastal-Benders).  Is there anything sexier than that lean, that just looks so dangerous and yet holds itself together?  

6. “traffic nuisance”  That would be me, with the pen and scrap of paper. 

7. “glassy bay” That would be the incredibly still water around Corpus Christi’s North Beach when I drove into the city.  I don’t think I’ve ever seen the water so still and smooth and bright.  Beautiful.

On the return trip, I added lyrics from two songs that I wanted to look up (not pictured), “Gulf Coast Romance” and “when she rocks she rocks.”  I haven’t looked up either of them yet.  Feel free to enlighten me in the comments if you know them.