Boobs and Poop

I'm back! I took a break, and then an even longer break. I lost my confidence and I guess my voice too. In reviewing my last post - from March! - I can see that my thinking was not as sharp or clear as I'd like. I have a lot to say but am really nervous about saying it or writing it. The truth is that as much as I seem to want to do this, blogging is very hard for me. I have in my recent past really hurt people's feelings with my writing. I have also taken some personal risks and wrote things that later embarrassed me. Worst of all, I've both hurt other people and embarrassed myself at the same time with my writing. Sometimes I guess I'm fearful I'll make the same mistakes again... or if I'm really honest about it, I feel as though I don't deserve the chance to write about whatever I want to now because of the mistakes I made then. There was also an incident. A short, brief conversation. Not even a conversation... my mother made a passing commen...

So it's been awhile. I've been busy and I've sort of gotten the hang of being a parent. Basically, I have resigned myself to the fact that I have no control over anything. But I do the best I can in spite of this. It's been really hard to think clearly. Not so much because of being a parent, or because I still feel like a newbie in this new town, but because I don't really have a good grasp on what's appropriate. I could blame the election of Donald Trump - and he's certainly a clear indicator of what I'm grasping at here - but I think it's more than that. Lately, I've been listening to NPR and watching Fox News. I've been contemplating growing more of our food and buying a clone so I can grow my own marijuana. I've also been shopping at Whole Foods and Nordstrom... I've been driving a Mercedes, and a Toyota Corolla. We live in Diamond Bar, but we rent a townhouse. We're white, but are we that white? The answer to the last q...

So I marched ... I wasn't particularly interested in marching until about 2 weeks prior to the event, when my sister-in-law said she wanted to check it out. I started to wonder if I should go too? I knew a lot of people who would be going to different Women's March events all over the country and started to get early onset FOMO, and I hate missing out. I don't usually march or participate in protests, rallies or anything of the sort. I used to. For that reason, many people are surprised to find how apolitical I actually am these days. When I was younger, I was very involved - CSPAN was my ESPN. I worked for Environment California, I interned for my congressman in Washington, D.C. and I was a proud, proud elected officer of my YMCA Youth and Government program in high school. I was very interested in the political process and public policy. My interest in my youth stemmed from my reverence for anything "anti." Wanting to be involved in the political proces...

by Alysson Foti Bourque;  illustrated by Chiara Civati Buy it on Amazon! Every Thursday the kids at Alycat’s school get to eat dessert after lunch. Alycat is so excited to choose from ice cream, fudge popsicles and popsicles with cream in the middle. Dessert is all she can talk about at breakfast on Thursday morning; she even daydreams about dessert on the bus on the way to school. Alycat is so distracted by her excitement, she misses the bell and is late getting to the cafeteria for lunch. By the time she makes it through the lunch line, all of the ice cream, fudge popsicles and popsicles with cream in the middle are gone. Alycat is so disappointed she refuses another dessert from the younger kitten’s dessert choices. She says she won’t have any dessert at all as tears stream down her face. Her friend Spotty tells her not to worry so much because it’s the same ice cream every week and nothing exciting. She is surprised that Spotty doesn’t look forward to desse...

I love this explanation of superlatives and whether they require a preceding article... Read Melissa Morato 's answer to Is it grammatically correct to say "Sweetest" as superlative form or it must be always "The sweetest"? on Quora

We have made many changes and my life has been completely without any routine for the past year. We moved out here when I was pregnant, had the baby, then I decided not to go back to my job and have decided to go back to school... and of course, I'm shooting for a spot in a very competitive program and have a ton of prerequisites to meet. If you're an avid Boobs and Pooper, you've already read all about it . My taking classes and tutoring students are only possible thanks to two reliable childcare options we now have during the week: the assistance of a part-time nanny and a part-time spot at an awesome daycare. To say I was excited to get back to a routine and let some other people deal with my baby is an understatement. I was elated all that first week. For the first time in forever, I had my own schedule and am able to "do me" periodically throughout the week. That wonderful feeling of elation was eradicated within that same week. The Saturday follow...