Geeky Mom

Twas the night before Christmas when all through the house,

Not a creature was stirring not even a mouse,

The stockings were hung by the chimney with care,

In hopes they’ll be filled with more than just air.

The children are nestled all snug in their beds

While visions of video games dance in their heads.

And Mr. G in his boxers and I in my pjs

Have drunk too much eggnog and are snoring away.

When up in the kids’ rooms, there arose such a clatter,

I sprang from the couch to see what was the matter.

Up three flights of stairs, I flew like a flash,

Twisted my ankle making such a made dash.

The moon on the mess that lay out below,

Reminded me there are some things I’d rather not know,

When what to my wondering eyes should appear,

But a miniature sleigh and eight tiny reindeer,

With a little old driver so lively and quick,

I thought for a moment I just might be sick.

More rapid than eagles his coursers they came,

So I whistled and shouted and called out each name;

On Douglas and Thaddeus and Stephanie too,

If you don’t get in bed, Santa will surely skip you.

Put on those pajamas! To the beds right this minute!

Dash away, dash away! Close those eyes now I mean it!

As dry leaves that before the wild hurricane fly,

When they meet with an obstacle, mount to the sky,

So up to the house-top the coursers they flew,

With the sleigh full of toys, and St. Nicholas too.

And then, in a twinkling, I heard on the roof

The prancing and pawing of each little hoof.

As I ran down the stairs and made way for the kitchen,

I heard a moan from the couch and saw a foot twitching.

He was dressed all in green, from his foot to his head,

And his clothes were all cover with a blanket from the bed.

A bundle of toys he had hidden all around,

And it looked like they might never be found.

His eyes how they twitched! his dimples not merry!

His cheeks were like roses, his nose he had buried!

His droll little mouth was drawn up for a snore,

And the beard of his chin proved shaving a chore;

The glass of champagne he had left on the floor,

And the bubbles came out eat time that he snored;

He had a quiet face and a peaceful smile,

That made me want to leave him for a while.

He was happy and content, a right jolly old geek,

But I poked him and prodded, “Get up, you freak!”;

A wink of his eye and a twist of his head,

Soon gave me to know I had nothing to dread;

He spoke not a word, but went straight to his work,

And filled all the stockings; then turned with a jerk,

And pointing his finger up into the air,

And giving a nod, he climbed up the stairs;

He sprang to his bed, to his wife gave a shout,

And under the covers they both headed out,

But I heard him whisper, ere he slept for the night,

“HAPPY CHRISTMAS TO ALL, AND TO ALL A GOOD-NIGHT.”

Type a letter into the address bar and see what comes up. (I’m too lazy to make these links; just cut and paste yourself if you’re interested.)

A: ancarett.com, adviceatyourownrisk.blogspot.com

B: bitchphd.blogspot.com

C: www.cheekyprof.com, www.crookedtimber.org

D: dmorgen.blogspot.com, drvegeta.blogspot.com

E: elb.typepad.com/halfchangedworld, www.echidneofthesnakes.blogspot.com

F: faculty.deanza.fhda.edu/jocalo, www.furl.net

G: geekymom.blogspot.com, www.google.com

H: www.haloscan.com

I: infavorofthinking.blogspot.com, ianqui.blogspot.com

J: jmp.typepad.com/jmp

K: www.kurrasplace.com/MT/mandy

L: learningcurves.blogspot.com, www.liliputianlilith.com

M: madeline.typepad.com/academom, mousewords.blogspot.com

N: newkidonthehallway.typepad.com/new_kid_on_the_hallway, www.noradsanta.org

O: offnight.blogspot.com, www.ospolitics.org/blog

P: playingschool.blogspot.com, permanentred.com

Q: quizilla.com

R: roughdraft.typepad.com/dotmoms, redbirdblogs.typepad.com/red_bird_rising/

S: sitemeter.com, sbfh.blogspot.com

T: theculdesac.blogspot.com

U: www.unfogged.com

V: www.videohelp.com (from my troubles with dvd burning yesterday)

W: whatnow.blogspot.com, wolfangel.calltherain.net

X: nothing–wow!

Y: www.yahoo.com

Z: www.zephoria.org/thoughts

That was fun! My favorite is noradsanta.org. Worth checking out.

I have always enjoyed Christms Eve. For my family, it is on Christmas Eve that we had a formal meal, usually something quite different from what we had normally–like cornish game hens. We also opened a present on Christmas Eve. We used to pick one at random, but later, my parents got us pajamas that we always opened and then promptly put on and went to bed. We’re continuing that tradition with our kids. I’m looking forward to it. Growing up, I sang in our church choir so I always participated in our Christmas Eve service. The choirs would stand at the back of the church and the girls from the youth choir would begin the service by singing the first verse of “Once in Royal David’s City.” The rest of the service was a series of carols and lessons, quiet and unassuming, about the only time I ever really liked church. I sang my first solo at a Christmas Eve service to a packed church. I think I was in 7th or 8th grade. I was a tiny person, 4’11, less than a hundred pounds. My mother was terrified my voice wouldn’t be loud enough to fill the church. It did. The service always ended with the congregation singing Silent Night while holding candles and then processing out of the church. As we milled around the hallways, still hearing the music, we would wish each other a Merry Christmas. The kids would exchange their hopes for what Santa would bring. I felt very much a part of a community then.

I miss this aspect of Christmas Eve somewhat, but I still try to maintain the unassuming and quiet manner of the service. We will spend the day relaxing, working on a jigsaw puzzle, watching Christmas movies, and drinking hot cocoa by the fire. After dinner, the kids will open a present and after they go to bed, Mr. Geeky and I will share some champagne before putting out the presents. It will be a quiet day and evening.

I’m not sure I’m really doing this for love, but . . . I got up at an ungodly hour, a little before six. Mr. Geeky and I have spent the better part of the last two days converting his late grandfather’s 8mm film to digital format (his gift to his family members). We finally got it all edited and started burning the DVD. It was burning into the night. I woke at 3 am to see that progress was stalled with 41 min. to go. So I didn’t sleep well for the next few hours thinking I was going to have to redo this whole thing (it takes many hours to burn one dvd). Finally, because I couldn’t breathe and was worried about the status of the dvd, I got up, and had to reboot the computer (completely frozen). To my surprise, the dvd appears to have burned correctly. It’s playing right now in our dvd player. I’m checking on it every 15-20 minutes. If everything is okay, we’ll be making 3 more copies and fed-exing them off. Nothing like the last minute. I should note, however, that we haven’t received gifts from either of Mr. Geeky’s siblings; it’s a family of procrastinators.

Today is the last day of school for the kids. Tomorrow I can sleep in without worrying about anyone’s gift or the class party, etc. A true vacation, finally. I’ll have to cook dinner for Christmas Eve, but I’ve gone the really easy route this year: ham, mashed potatoes, green bean casserole, walnut salad and bread. Last year I made a really elaborate meal of roast beef and yorkshire pudding with a variety of exotic side dishes. This year, I asked the kids what they wanted and this is what we got. I am making one more batch of cookies. I made chocolate gingerbread people yesterday. Today, I’m making those peanut butter, hershey kiss cookies–so easy and yummy.

Mr. Geeky has gotten my illness and toward the end of yesterday, we were feeling completely puny, probably both of us running a slight fever. Hopefully, this too, will pass so that we can enjoy the vacation.

Elizabeth, at Half Changed World has an interesting post about the problems with charming older books that contain elements of racism, sexism, classism and other things that we might not find so charming now. Though I commented there about issues with my own children, this was actually a problem for me growing up. I was in a feminist theory seminar a while back for which we read Huckleberry Fin. I had never read it and had, in fact, avoided such classics as these (including Catcher in the Rye, Catch-22) because the protagonists were male. I did read Pippi Longstocking, but once those ran out, I resorted to books with animals as protagonists. I was charmed by the idea of animals having lives similar to humans, with feelings and struggles akin to our own, but also they seemed more equitable to me. When I told my professor about this tendancy of mine, she was concerned for me. She was sad that I had missed out on some good literature because I was turned off by gender issues. Even now, I tend to be drawn toward books with female protagonists though I don’t exclude ones with male characters as I used to. I wouldn’t call my reading chick lit, but perhaps it is in some way. And is that such a bad thing? Isn’t it okay that I want my imaginative life to be lead by women?

Two links today to point us to the traditions surrounding this time of the year. First, from Grumpy Old Bookman, a reminder that a celebration has existed long before Jesus did. And then, from Sharon, at Early Modern Notes, shares some links to various traditions, old and new.

Both of these help counter some of the “put the Christ back in Christmas” arguments as described here. (nyt; registration required). I’m an atheist myself, but I really love some of the religious carols (Silent Night, It Came Upon a Midnight Clear). I wouldn’t object to my children singing them in school, but I think it would need to be clear that there are other holidays to celebrate. There should be balance, I think, and perhaps a discussion about all the various traditions, in order to give everything context.

. . . a bubble bath, gingerbread latte and the new Newsweek (a double issue no less) all at once.

. . . you can’t breathe through your nose. Yes, I have another cold. If I were a scientist or something, I’d probably marvel at how my symptoms are completely different from the last cold and wonder if I could compare the virus strains under a microscope and figure out what causes these differences. There’s a dissertation there I’m sure. One of the lovelier symptoms I have is laryngitis. I have no voice. Do you know how hard it is to yell at your kids when you have no voice? I mean, really, Hurry up! You’re going to be late for the bus just doesn’t sound as good when it comes squeaking out in fits and starts.

This morning was filled with more than its share of annoyances. I am the queen of the morning. I get up before everyone, have a cup of coffee, blog, and then wake up the kids. They eat breakfast while I shower. Then Mr. Geeky gets up and showers so basically we’re all kind of getting ready at the same time. One thing I absolutely hate–and when I’m tired it rankles me even more–is when people yell for me but do not include in their yell what it is they need from me. It goes something like this:

“Moooooom!!”

“What?”

“Moooooom!!”

Me, stopping what I’m doing, moving closer to the vicinty of the yeller, “I said, what!”

“I need a glass of milk.”

“Well, you’re gonna have to wait. I’m naked.”

Then, when I finally get dressed. “That took you forever. I yelled three times.”

Some days, my children are lucky I let them live.

This scenerio happened at least 10 times this morning including a couple of times from Mr. Geeky. It drives me insane–really. I have to stop what I’m doing, go to another location, listen to the request, and fill it. And people wonder why I don’t wear makeup. I’d only have time to do one eye–and that would not be an attractive look.

Oh, and guess what I was up late doing which led to me feeling cranky. Making Dutch colonial architechtural elements out of construction paper. (Yes, Geeky boy forgot an assignment again–forgot to write it down.) Do you know how hard it is to make a porch with railings out of construction paper? I’d snap a picture and show you, but frankly, I think my work is on about a 2nd grade level, 2 levels down from Geeky boy. It’s going to be a rough day.

Mr. Geeky and I went out to buy some Christmas presents for ourselves. This is our tradition for almost every holiday that requires gifts. We get a joint big present, usually a gadget or appliance. Last year we got our smart phones. This year, we decided to get a digital video camera. We also decided we needed an external hard drive to hold the video and some other accoutrements. So I did my research on the digital video cameras. As always, Mr. Geeky and I try to get the biggest bang for our buck. Mr. Geeky left me to figure out the video cameras and wandered off to look at some other stuff. So I find the one recommended by David Pogue and start poking around on it. It’s a nice camera, but I don’t see a firewire out and I need firewire or it won’t work with my Mac. So I ask the worker dude. The guy is 12. Okay, he’s maybe right out of college, but he looks 12. I ask him about the firewire port on the camera. He points to the usb port and says, well, you can use that for both. It’s a 4-pin port. I say, no it’s not. I’m thinking I know what a 4-pin port looks like and that’s not it and you cannot use one port for two different types of data transfer you ding dong. I point out that there’s a little dv label on the front, but I don’t see how to get to it. Finally, he figures out that the opening is impeded by their security device, so he takes that off and sure enough we find the real 4-pin firewire port. Told you so, buddy.

Later, the guy redeemed himself somewhat by giving us three different cameras that he thought were the best in our price range. We went with the cheapest and he seemed somewhat disappointed, but hey, we’re living on academic salaries here. I think we’ll probably be buying a new camera in 3 years, but by then I figure they’ll have hard drives instead of tape.

On the way home, I noted to Mr. Geeky that no women work at Best Buy and that it’s scary that I know more than the worker dudes about most everything. I mean, I really don’t know everything even if I pretend I do.

1. Must do some housewifery today: clean up my own desk, clean Geeky Girl’s room (really organize it), get laundry under control.

2. It’s really cold–10 degrees. Miraculously our bathroom pipes didn’t freeze. We’re trying to figure out what the root of the problem is.

3. I should also do some writing today. Which project to tackle? Forge ahead with the one I’m stuck on or work on the one I’m more interested in or a little of both.

4. Feeling inclined to do some baking, but I don’t think this will fit into the schedule.

5. Things I’ve asked for for Christmas: usb hub, shelving, hard drive, warm workout clothes.

6. Things I will probably get for Christmas: clothes I don’t like, a kitchen gadget I don’t want or need, money (the only good thing).

7. Need to send out the remaining Christmas cards.

8. David Pogue (NYT technology guru) recommended either a Kodak camera or the Canon model above the one I got–am I cool or what?

9. Must charge the iPod and import some more of the CD collection (horrible though it is–ok, maybe eccentric).

10. Should probably pay the bills, check the finances. I hate doing this. Can’t we just go the Star Trek route and live without money? Sigh.

An even 10. It’s more of a to-do list I guess. Oh well.