May 3, Houston: The big one -- the Inprint reading -- occurs at the Alley Theatre on Monday, May 3. Do not miss it or you'll be sorry. I'm not kidding -- I'm going to say the craziest, most intellectual yet hilarious stuff I can think of, and I'll be sharing the stage with the ultra sexy Oscar Casares, too.
June 24, Houston: I'm one of the peeps scheduled to read at Poison Pen, at Houston's famous Poison Girl bar. Besides me, everyone there will be ultra, *super* sexy. Come see me and drink!
June 26, Washington, DC: I'll be reading at the American Library Association conference. Come on down.
My other blog: Go read my the Houston Chronicle parenting blog (or my ChronMomBlog, as I like to call it) and make sure my kids won't resent me more than other kids resent their own parents.
Buy my new novel, Lone Star Legend. Already did? Well, buy a few more for your friends, then. :)
Wednesday, October 24, 2007
Right Now1. I am tired because tonight we did CathE's workout instead of Gilad's, and CathE is driven by demons. My triceps tremble and burn.
2. I am sad, tired, annoyed, resigned because my children's dad is trying, aGAIN, to sue me for custody of them. This time he claims that I neglect them -- that their physical and scholastic health is endangered every day that they spend with me. I strongly suspect that he's pulling this last ditch effort in the vain hopes that he'll get custody right before he has to show the court his latest 1040. (The one that shows that he just had a new house built, and that he still owns a big chunk of property that he's renting out to commercial tenants, and that he therefore cannot possibly make as little money as he's been claiming he does.) His most damning evidence against me: One of our children has plantar warts. ONE OF OUR CHILDREN HAS PLANTAR WARTS! I pray that the judge makes the right decision...
3. I am happy because I got my auto loan refinanced and will henceforth save 3% interest and $75 per month. Saving money! Yay! My Excel budget spreadsheet is happy. I fed it this arithmatic and it liked it.
4. I am (not as) stressed (as I should be) because I haven't yet begun to make my costume for Saturday night's costume party. I have all my materials, and I dyed the top half of my outfit. But I still need to make a skirt and wings. I need to take my sewing machine out of the closet. That's the hardest part, probably -- taking the sewing machine out and threading it. After that, it should roll like duck back water.
5. I am about to read Harry Potter to my kids. Remember the NYTimes book critic who said the last HP book sucked, and that his daughter was relieved when he gave up reading it to her half way through? I feel sorry for that guy and for his kid. Maybe he should take some lessons in how to read aloud. I get a lot of practice reading aloud, since I'm an author and I occasionally read to college kids and whatnot. College kids are a difficult audience -- especially the ones who are only listening to you for course credit. Anyway, maybe the NYT critic should read to college kids for a while, then go home and read to his daughter. Because I'm reading Harry Potter to my kids, and we're all into it. My kids are like, "OMG! Ron is annoying! Hermione is annoying! Harry is annoying! What's gonna happen next? Please read one more chapter, Mom!"
6. I am going to bed early, in the hopes that a little extra sleep will help me out. Lately I'm having lots of crazy REM time, and lots of dreams in which I eat sugary foods by the pound. Maybe because my body's pissed at me for working out now?
7. I am planning to wear something boring tomorrow. I've lost 31 pounds since May. Today I wore something a little bit less than boring, and I got a lot of comments. (I wore a skirt that fit instead of a skirt that's one size too big.) I don't really like it when people comment on the way I look. I mean, if you want to compliment my clothing choices, or my fitness progress, then that's fine and I will thank you. But it isn't necessary to compliment or backhandedly compliment my body or any of its parts.
8. I am looking forward to the year 2008. I have a feeling that's going to be a good year for me, and that 2007 was just prep time. So I'm still prepping. But I'll be glad when this year's tucked away and I can move on to new things. You know? 8:17 PM #
Comments:
Jeez, 31 lbs. Good for you. I'm trying to lose weight, but it's not going well. People keep telling me how good I look because I'm wearing control top pantyhose. I don't really know how to react to that. They don't know about the pantyhose, of course, and I don't feel compelled to tell them, but on the other hand, I feel like a fraud. Lately, I've cut out all sweets, which seems to be helping and nudged the scale along two lbs.I feel very optimistic about 2008 as well.
# posted by
kate : 11:08 PM
PLANTAR WARTS??? Oh for God's sake. Yes, that's what most CPS workers look for to confirm that a child is being neglected. (insert massive rolling of eyes)
There's not really a chance that idiot is going to succeed, is there?
# posted by
: 8:30 AM
Kate: Don't feel like a fraud. If you look good, you look good. Whether or not you're wearing control top, make-up, hair dye, deoderant, colors that compliment your skin tone... all that is part of what you look like, and it's all choices you made. So, when someone says you "look good," then they're complimenting the choices you made when you dressed and groomed yourself.
(As opposed to someone saying, "Girl, you have a *booty* on you. You love to show off, don't you? You make me sick!" There really is no response to that, in my mind.) (Or in my booty.)
Jennifer: There's very little chance that he'll win, considering that the children are healthy, adequately fed and clothed, and that two of them are Honor Roll students. But, for whatever reason, he continues to try. Honestly, I don't know if he really believes the stuff he says, or if he knows this is a waste of everyone's time and just does it out of spite.
Really, I think he just believes that he is the better parent and that child support is a punishment he doesn't deserve, and so he'll arrange the facts in his mind however he needs to in order to support those beliefs.
Worst part: He got our middle son (the one with Aspergers) to sign a paper saying he wants to live with his dad. Which is fine. If one of the kids prefers his dad's parenting to mine, I can't argue with that. But that's not going to win his dad the case, so he staples my son's signature to three pages of allegations of plantar wart neglect.
My son was upset. He said, "Dad said if I signed that paper, you'd never see it."
There's a lot of other stuff going on here that I don't want to explain because it tells too much about my son's personal business. I just want to say that, in my mind, part of my job as a parent is being honest with my kids and fostering realistic expections for them.
Telling a child with Aspergers that I have the power to overcome the effects of his disability -- whether through doctors willing to dispense pills, "less ghetto school system," or sheer force of my will -- would be wrong, in my opinion. So I don't do that.
But not everyone has the same sense of right and wrong that I do.
# posted by
Gwen : 9:17 AM
I wondered if he was going to play the Aspergers card in one form or fashion. What a jerk. If you don't mind my saying so. ;-)
And I didn't mean to pry. I just find it ridiculous that anyone would suggest you aren't a stellar parent when it's so very very obvious how devoted you are to those boys.
# posted by
: 10:25 AM
Word, on what Jennifer said. You've got that trust thing going with your kids; I want that with mine, when she's old enough.
# posted by
kate : 11:32 AM
TRUE TRUE TRUE...getting the sewing machine out, then threading it & then making sure the tension is correct for the fabric is half the battle. Thats one reason I let all my sewing projects pile up for the ONE time I will take out the machine, and it doesnt get put away again for a full month. Good luck with the Ex & your boys. I have faith that the judge will have good sense to see that a mere wart doesnt constitute that you are a bad parent. Judges see the most heinous crimes against children so I can assure you that NO judge would remove custody of a parent for warts. On another note, I will definately start reading to my daughter again...I have let our bedtime stories go out the window lately and reading your blog has inspired me to continue. I certainly look forward to reading your post. Thanks for the laughs.
# posted by
: 12:34 PM
Don't you love the binge-eating dreams? Especially the ones that make you feel guilty for doing so well with your diet/exercise regime because you actually believe that you're stuffing half the cake down your throat :)
Glad to hear that you are semi-progressing with your costume. I haven't quite wrapped up my Marla from Fight Club costume yet but I can at least say that I wont be another slutty cop/nurse/heidi-Ho out there. My friend is going as Richard Simmons so we plan on being the uglies at the party.
So much fun. Good luck with the custody battle!
# posted by
: 1:32 PM
I am so sorry about the ex and his machinations.
# posted by
Claudia : 2:36 PM
Oh, fercrissakes. What people will do to get out of child support. My guy wanted custody of his three boys because he wanted custody, because their mother is awful, not to get out of paying child support. For that reason, he told the judge he didn't want child support from her, because he knew that if he requested support, she'd fight him on custody just to not have to pay it.
And does your ex-asshole really think that having full custody of the kids is going to be CHEAPER than whatever he pays in support, or whatever he SHOULD be paying based on how much he actually has?
Meh. This just gets me so mad. Good luck, not that I really think you need it. I'm more wishing you luck on resisting the urge to bitch-slap that stupid man.
# posted by
Jenna : 4:08 PM
Jennifer: Thanks.
I wouldn't go around bragging about my parenting skizzills, because I have faults like everyone else, but I'm pretty confident that I'm not endangering my kids' health or scholastic progress.
Kate: Thanks. And I believe that you'll have it, because you value it.
Sylvia: I see that you're a fellow sew-er. :) Thanks for the good wishes, and I hope you find a good story to read to your daughter. How old is she? Maybe we can give you unsolicited suggestions...?
Amy: Yes! You feel guilty when you wake up! In mine, it's usually pie of a flavor that I'd never eat in real life, and I'm usually eating it with my fingers, with unnatural compulsion.
Y'all's costumes sound awesome. Will you post pics on Flickr? And post the link here?
Claudia: Thank you.
Jenna: :) What you said...
Although, the more I think about it, he might be partially motivated by the sincere belief that he can get our son's Aspergers cured.
Then again, he does give my kids the time-honored lectures about how he shouldn't have to pay since "your mama's just gonna spend it on herself," etc., etc. He really is following the bitter-ex cliche list to the letter, unfortunately.
I wish I could afford to go without his child support, because then I could bypass all this hassle. Not yet, though.
Thanks for your support, everybody.
# posted by
Gwen : 4:49 PM
Here are the pics we ended up taking the other night- Very much fun indeed. Hope everyone else's halloween is a success ;P
http://www.flickr.com/photos/16586468@N06/1780606603/in/photostream/
I am Marla (dressed in all black and the hideous wig), my friend Abby is Richard Simmons (in all red, Ha!) and Kim is Michael Jackson- Ow!
# posted by
: 6:36 PM
Sorry to hear about the Evil Ex... ANyway you could return his noble gesture with a call to the Audit departments of the IRS and relevant state tax division? ;)
# posted by
: 1:15 PM
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