Baby Blase

9 years ago there was the anticipation of forever. Of HOLYCRAPFOREVER!????  Of oh my goodness – I found my oh-so-cheesy-yes-this-is-it SOULMATE-forever so, let’s get married and make it official. 9 years ago I married a guy that I had known for 5 years as an acquaintance and known as a “boyfriend” for far, far less. A guy whom my parents weren’t really sure about. A guy whose parents at the beginning called me “The Girl.” We didn’t start out storybook. But, we kind of ended up that way. Storybook in the way that you hope that the fairytails work out in the long run. Boy meets girl. Boy and girl leave significant others for each other because it is just so much more “right” than they have ever experienced. And because it is magical. Girl gives up on dreams of a big-SF-city-life of advertising to live in tiny Truckee, CA. And loves it. Girl waits tables and boy does construction. Boy and girl snowboard a lot because it’s the most fun they’ve ever had. Boy and girl decide it’s time to start something remarkable. Together. A business. A family. A life.

Today we have a do have a pretty remarkable life.

So, happy anniversary to us.

Listening: Jets To Brazil (video of JTB playing “Sweet Avenue” our cheesy, indie-rock “first-dance-song”)

I played for two teams for our last scrimmage of the season – the T-Birds and the Hawaiian Punchers. With the help of Sweet Hurt’s “magic tape” (Kinesio Tape) the knee held up and all was great – THANK YOU Sweet Hurt – if you happen to read this – I still owe you a drink!!! There were 3 photographers there so, there are a lot of photos from the day. Both teams I was on really came together to play as a team and both won. It was a blast.

NOTE TO SELF: Must work on happy-smiling-derby-face.

Me racing Slyther Anne and to the side, Me Shove You Long Time falling – a very unusual site.

Me pushing Big Nasty out of bounds

Jamming against Smash Hit – we were up against each other the whole time – good, tough fun.

Things get heated – our awesome coaches for the day – Vanna Whitetrash and Devil Girl

Fancy photo-tricks make me look fast.

Listening: Best Coast

About a thousand years ago I hyper-extended my knee in softball while running back to first base to avoid being thrown out by the pitcher. The meniscus cartilage was torn as was the ACL. I got a brace and stayed off it for a bit. Then I went to college where late-nights and a beer-drinking were prevalent, I would frequently injure my knee – it was the cartilage tear. It would feel as though the bits of cartilage would get caught between the bones or muscles leading to a severe, sharp pain and a fair amount of swelling. Nothing that another beer couldn’t fix…OK, so I was a tad careless in my teens.

That winter I fell while skiing (OK, fine – it was snow-blading. I also played the clarinet in marching band for all of high school. Are you happy now, internet? You now know all of my darkest, most embarrassing secrets.) That fall was the re-injury that lead to surgery for the meniscus. I don’t know why the ACL wasn’t repaired then, I can only imagine it was half Kaiser HMO not wanting to foot the bill for the costly surgery and half the fact that I was in college and had only short amounts of time to recover.

Anyway, my knee has always been unstable because of that torn ACL, but, the fact that for the majority of the last fifteen years I have been chained to a desk and shackled to my computer it hasn’t been a big deal. Until I found the new love of my life.

I knew I loved derby when I started back in November. But, until Monday of this week, when I thought that it might be prematurely taken away from me, I didn’t really understand how much. I have been skating with a bit of pain since I started. But, nothing that I can’t handle. Last Sunday, after 3 hours of pretty tough training I got worried. So, I went to see a orthopedic surgeon on Monday. He pretty much expressed that he didn’t understand how I was skating with my condition given the amount of pain I must be in.

Please! I have given birth to a human being! Sir, you can stick your assessment of pain up your you-know-where.

So, cut to today – I got the results of my MRI – I have a torn meniscus and  ACL.

Me: “So, I have a tear in my ACL. What kind of a tear? Just a little one?”

Doctor: “No, it is torn.”

Me: “You mean that the ACL is compromised?”

Doctor: “No, it’s like you don’t have one.”

Me: …

BUT! Here’s where it gets good!

The ACL needs to be rebuilt – meaning surgery and 6 months recovery. BOO! But, he has officially given me the go-ahead to skate on it for a few more YEARS with a brace and physical therapy and I only have to get the torn cartilage removed in the next few months – which is a surgery with only weeks of recovery.

So, I will be toasting to my new-found relief  - the knowledge that I don’t yet have to give up this sport - tonight preferably with something sparkling.

Listening: The Black Lips

UPDATE: Even better news worth celebrating – the brace that weighs in at a hefty $1200 price tag will be covered completely by my insurance. HOLY-HOO-RAY!

Saturday night found us at Bonnie’s house two-year-old-heaven for her husband, Josh’s birthday. Bonnie’s friend Mollie is another oh-so-talented photographer who took some totally covert shots of us enjoying our evening. Thank you Bonnie for the great night and Mollie for the great photos.

Listening: The Hold Steady

Click below to see a way-too-long video of Harrison eating a “posipcale” as slow as humanely possible and driving my mom insane in the process.

NOTE: Grandma is not a total clean-freak AND we are sitting outside so, the urgency with which she tends to Harrison’s drips is, in my opinion, brought on by the desire to keep the sugary mess off the kid himself not the furniture… my mom didn’t raise any boys, so, she never learned the art of not-caring-about-how-stunningly-messy they can get.

Listening: Band of Horses

Videos from our outing with Finny are below.

Finny explains the dangers of the play-structure:

Harrison: “I caught a bug in my hat… that’s silly.”

Finny scares Harrison:

Pretty cute stuff.

Listening: Beulah

I have mentioned before Harrison’s ability to adapt to new environments, people, caretakers and the like – in fact the week-and-a-half that it took him to assimilate to pre-school was the longest adjustment period we’ve experienced. So, when we ended our nanny-share and immediately went on vacation to California in July it was no surprise that H didn’t really seem to miss Finny.

Then a couple weeks ago, H went to the back door window – where Finny would arrive each day during the year-and-a-half nanny-share arrangement – and had a conversation with his old pal:

“Finny? You good Finny? You good?”

“Oh good.”

It was incredibly cute, so immediately set up a play date for his long-lost friend. We got to share a squeal-filled hour at the playground in the scorching heat on Saturday with Finny and his parents… everyone involved agreed that it was totally worth the near-heat-exhaustion.

Listening: Washed Out

Harrison spies his fold-up tunnel and has an idea.

H: “Let’s play tunnel… I haven’t played that in a looooong while.”

—

Walking into the downtown farmers market.

H: “Look at that crane Mommy!”

Me: “I see it – cool.”

H: “It’s moving… I didn’t believe my eyes!”

—

Harrison riding his rocking horse.

H: “I’m a cowboy!”

Me: “What do cowboys say? …Yippeekaiay!!”

H, definitively: “That makes no sense, Mommy.”

Listening: LCD Sound System

Biking home from pre-school yesterday I was sucking wind trying to ride up our big hill and was loosing ground to Marc and Harrison. When, out of nowhere, H turned back to look at me and yelled, “You can do it mommy!”

Which is cute as hell even without the knowledge that he has never before in his life said that phrase. But, knowing he plucked that phrase from his brain at the exact right moment and that it is not something that he is repeating from either of us – is so totally rad.

I told that story last night to a small group of unimpressed rollergirls. But, I should know better! Telling a story about your kid while donning body armor and a mouthguard… It’s a huge big buzz-kill. Sorry ladies – it won’t happen again.

Listening: Les Savy Fav

Ack! Where did the week go!?

Oh yeah – we got back to work full-time because Mr. No-Tears-H-Blase is loving pre-school!!!!

Harrison’s teacher/guide informed us that Harrison is a Montessori kid if she’s ever seen one. I’m not entirely sure what that means. We are guessing that it’s his independent, quick-to-adapt nature that makes him good for the pretty hands-off approach to care/learning. Montessori schools seem to pride themselves on fostering independence. And while we had a bit of a scare for that first week – the kid is back to his old self:

We rode our bikes up to the gate and were greeted by a explosively beaming child. He came to the gate and then ran back to playing. Ran to the swing and flew on his belly – far higher than he had ever done before – hanging out with big kids all day will make you brave. No need for a hug or even a hello to his doting parents. In fact, he informed us that he didn’t want to leave. When I asked him where he would sleep if we left him there, he thought carefully and then pointed to a nice comfy spot on the pebbled playground, “I’ll sleep right there.” he said in all seriousness.

So, there you go.

Stay tuned for the next life-stopping, guilt-ridden parenting moment from the drama-queen Harrison calls mommy.

Listening: Here We Go Magic