Wednesday, April 30, 2008

What's she doing now, I wonder?


Do you ever wonder what someone from your past is doing...now?
Sure you do - we've all entertained at least a casual passing thought about individuals whose lives have criss-crossed with ours.

But...
have you ever wondered what your first child's first pediatrician is doing...now? Is he/she still alive? Retired? Revered? Reviled?
Tonight I wondered.
So I 'Google'd' the doc's name - and found some interesting info.

This is what DollinkDaughter LLS' pediatrician is doing 'now'.
[The article is from a year ago].

Dr. Ramer was in attendance at the birth of BabyLLS.
I was a newbie parent and to me, Doc Ramer represented the Voice of Reason. I listened attentively as she dispersed medical baby-related advice. Her words were Gospel. The Doc encouraged nursing, Snugli Carriers, Happy Baby Food Grinders, cloth diapers, reading books to your baby and plenty of parent-child interaction via touch, speech and play. Ramer never dismissed my asking 'silly' and 'obvious' questions about parenting. She answered plainly, pointedly and with a sense of humour.

Moreover, the doc was kindly and fun, even whilst doctoring. She hugged my infant at every office visit and even kissed baby's (clean) bare bottom once. Doc Ramer called LLS 'fat' and considered it a compliment because the kid at least looked well fed and happy. Growth rate certainly met with the doc's approval.

When it was time to exit the Big City for the suburbs, I was loath to leave this doctor and switch to a new pediatrician. Ramer was my Primo Guidance Counselor at What-Life-Never-Taught-Young-Parents-
About-Raising-Babies Camp.
However would I cope without her gentle reassurance in regards to my insecurities about parenting?
Would T. Berry Brazelton's baby/childhood primers have ALL the answers I needed?
However would I/we cope?

We did as people do. We moved on. We found a new 'ped' in a new town. We adjusted.

Time passes (like nobody's business, it passes...).
Though we try not to, we do lose track of people who were once such important players in our growth, development and life experience. Daily musings about interaction with these folks start to lessen.
Once so vivid, our mental playbacks of these people, places and events, begin to fade.
Snippets of times past are reduced to blurry memories we file away in the back 4o of our memory bank.

Then, perhaps, decades later - we're prompted to recall a once significant
name, time or place.
Oh yes....so and so....Hmmmmm.....What's he/she doing now, I wonder?

In the case of First Child's First Pediatrician, the WWW provided a tidbit
of info in answer to my query. Cool!

'Just Google It'
Ya never know what you'll find.

Saturday, April 26, 2008

games people play

peek...







a...






boo!



photos taken by DollinkDaughterJrS

Monday, April 21, 2008

Quote of the day...


'I base most of my fashion taste on what doesn't itch.'
- Gilda Radner -

HaHa.
I heard this quote a couple of weeks ago and thought to myself 'Oh yeah, that would be ME'.

Everyone knows of those infamous itchy labels attached to necklines. Some sensitive clothing manufacturers have taken to printing garment info directly onto the fabric at the nape of garments. Most considerate, and
takes care of a major comfort-in-clothes problem.

If only it were that simple.

For me, clothing issues extend waaaaaay beyond the 'minor' irritation of an itchy tag tickling the back of the neck.

In considering my wardrobe, it seems that clothing choices I've made over the years consists of things that just don't 'feel right'.
Itchy this, too tight that, too loose here, not fitted enough there. Slipping, sliding, pinching, twisted fabric. I confess to not having chosen well.

I do adore soft fabrics and generally go for fine silks, drapey weaves, touchable pima cotton and cashmere. I like the look, but can't stand the feel of, stiffly woven cotton. Consequently, few items made from firm weaves/heavily sized fabric make their way into my wardrobe. If they do, I rarely, if ever - wear them. Too crispy.

Each time I pull a fitted long sleeve, high neck garment over my head and onto ye olde bod, I utter a rather loud and sustained ARRRRRRRGGH. Once the item is on, I'm OK with the feel of it - for awhile. Until I start to feel the fabric chafing my skin...
BTW, I HATE wearing turtlenecks.

I don't often dress in layers because I can actually sense the shift of each layer of clothing upon the other.

Fitted waistlines on skirts and pantyhose invariably pinch my mid-section.

The crotch on fitted jeans drives me bonkers (which is why I prefer baggy 501's).

Clothes that ride up, shift and/or wrinkle easily are cause for daily fashion upset.

Don't even get me started on ill-fitting bras and panties.

In addition to clothing issues, it seems I'm overly affected by a host of natural elements: heat, cold, brightness of the sun, wind, humidity. Too much or too little and I grow uncomfortable and/or my mood changes (to - can you believe - worse) and I begin to obsess on the offending element.

If that isn't bad enough, there can be problems for me with temperature controlled environments as well: A/C that has been cranked up too high, when there is not enough air circulation in a car...harsh or unflattering artificial light....distracting noises....the deafening decibel of extreme restaurant din....

Inspired by Gilda Radner's cute quote, I only meant to click 'round the net for some 'fun n' lite' info on how folks deal with itchy clothing. Instead, I happened upon studies for Sensory Processing Disorder (SPD!), aka 'sensory issues'.

Gosh.
The things one can discover about oneself whilst composing a simple blog post. It really does give me pause.

Yet another syndrome.
Not fun or lite, this SPD stuff is serious.
At the very least, it is itchy.

'Oh yeah, that would be ME'.

[G-R-R-R-R-E-A-T...]

Tuesday, April 15, 2008

Peeeeeeeeeuuuuwwwwwww!!!!


Man Cologne. Applied with a heavy hand.

I'm not talking about the quick splash of a lightly scented astringent slapped about the cheeks/neck post-morning-whisker-scraping. Fresh and citrus-y, there are quite a few aftershave scents which are very pleasant (and sweetly memorable) indeed.

Peeeeeuwwww!!! is the musky, lingering, cloying, downright stinky Parfum de StupideMan. Heavy, pungent scents that many men believe entice and attract. However, the desired effect is not always achieved. More often than not, those stanky
overpowering odors actually - repel.

Besides the unappealing smell and intensity of some (not all, but too many) of these scents, why is it that so many guys seem to use half a bottle at each application? A whiff of a super heavy skanky smelling men's cologne is an attack on our delicate senses.
Makes ya want to go runnin' for the hills.

Take care not to stand too close to a guy who has soused himself liberally with 'fragrance'. Invariably (more so if the stuff is especially offensive), the scent tends to slime and seep its way over into YOUR clothes, hair and skin...
and is most difficult to wash away.

Ugh.
Ptui.
Yuck.

Cologne: Get a clue, boys. Choose lite. Apply sparingly. Don't let the bed bugs bite.
(Oh sure, the same can be said for some of the more cloying women's scents, but we're discussing ManParfum today...)

Sunday, April 06, 2008

Within the books of our home library...


...it's not unusual to find bits of ephemera I've slipped between the pages over the years...for safekeeping.

Little things that double as bookmarks:
Notes & doodles written/drawn by DollinkDaughters when they were kids. Chinese Good Luck red envelopes (sans money, but kept for how pretty they are). A receipt from purchase of the book. Airplane seat ticket stubs. Recipes. Unused cocktail napkins. Candy wrappers. Grocery lists.

If the book happens to be a Russian novel, one might find a listing of the names of the characters = full names + nicknames (those of you who have read Russian novels understand that it's near impossible to keep track of those lengthy names without writing them down).

It's especially amusing for me to discover slips of paper on which I've written notes to myself.

I came across one just the other day. Flipping through an old book which was about to go into a donation box for Goodwill, I found a slip of folded scrap paper on which I'd jotted three very important things to remember. The note contains the following info that is definitely worth saving (perhaps in the pages of another book):

(1) Klatuu/ Barada/ Nikto
- because I always forget...and it's of the utmost importance to remember....just in case... an alien robotic form needs to be stopped.... from zapping me with its eye-laser-beam.

(2) The words from a scene of one of my favourite Danny Kaye films:
The pellet with the poison's in the vessel with the pestle.. The chalice from the palace has the brew that is true. *** The pellet with the poison's in the flagon with the dragon. The vessel with the pestle has the brew that is true.

Just in case one ever has to choose between the vessel and the flagon.

(3) The lines to W. H. Auden's 'Funeral Blues' - as memorably recited in the movie 'Four Weddings and a Funeral'.

So sweetly poignant.