Every Day Above Ground

[mallorys_camera]

Trying to get back into the habit of writing… This needs to be more of a commonplace book if it's gonna be useful. Some days just don't have a narrative.

Spent yesterday cleaning the kitchen. This may sound mundane but trust me, it wasn't – the bottom of my refrigerator looked like some Paleolithic butchering site for the holy slaughter of the Sacred Pig. I don't even want to think about what that congealed brown stuff underneath the vegetable crisper was. Now my fridge sparkles like a Sears ad! It's ready for its close-up, Mister DeMille.

Finished the Mark Twain bio. Clemens invented the American vernacular in much the same way Dante invented Italian: this is what Hemingway meant when he wrote, "All American literature begins and ends with Huckleberry Finn."

Not sure I agree. I'm more of a Herman Melville girl myself. I like big words. If Noah Webster hadn't intended us to use big words, he wouldn't have put them in the dictionary.

Around sunset I ventured forth to do some light shopping. Ran into Alligator at the low-rent Safeway who hugged and kissed me effusively in the Southern way, expressing great joy in our chance encounter. Now, that man has a story! How the hell did he end up in Monterey?

Ben, Robin and I had our usual fight over Blockbuster after dinner. Robin wanted to rent video games. I maintain that Robin shouldn't be allowed to play video games until he gets his grade point average up to over a B. Currently the kid has a D average. I don't understand it. He's really, really smart. But he hates school. I was winning the battle until my sister called, looped to the gills on Vicodin. Servicing that losing battle, I surrendered the other. It's been six months since Jeana's accident: I wonder whether she'll ever completely recover?

Comments

[(Anonymous)]

I'll try to write more too.

Why does Robin hate school?

Emielia doesn't do as well academically as I know she could. She is, in the words of her (sage) science teacher, a classic minimalist. But she does OK. The occasional C. She enjoys the social aspects of school far more than I ever did. Especially at that age.

Maybe it's just middle school.

[idylld.livejournal.com]

That was me, btw.

[mallorys-camera.livejournal.com]

Robin's got high self esteem -- he figures he doesn't have to prove himself to anyone unless he wants to. And in school he doesn't want to.

I blame myself, of course. I wasn't a mean enough parent, capricious enough, undermining enough. I didn't shame him enough when I toilet trained him -- instead I bribed him with toy cars. ("If you pee in the toilet, you get this nice little red '72 Camarro!") I think that set the model for all his subsequent expectations: "I can do it if I want to. But why should I want to? What's in it for me?"

[hotelsamurai.livejournal.com]

I don't understand it. He's really, really smart. But he hates school.

That was me.

[mallorys-camera.livejournal.com]

Really? God, I loved school. It was just so amazing learning about the ways the world works.