weapons of massdistraction

You ever feel like you’re playing connect the dots - spending so much time scrambling to get A connected to B then lined up to C, ad infinitum, with all your focus down in the nitty gritty in macro mode, that you lose sight of the big picture? Maybe it’s just me but I’ve been feeling that way. A LOT. As I tackle items on my massive To Do list. Sure, I am task-oriented so it is satisfying to get things done. I guess that’s better than being completely apathetic and without direction. My direction is forward. Always doing doing doing. But some days it is so TEDIOUS. [/end whining]

My major accomplishment of the day involved connecting the dots for summer day camp for the kid. This came with an unexpected side effect. We are now gym members again as this summer program is offered through a community center with a gym. And summer camp is cheaper for members ($1888 instead of $2548 - but ouch). I had canceled our YWCA membership to save money but the new gym is just a fraction of the cost, and it does have a pool. Albeit a very basic one. I’m afraid my son has been spoiled by fancy indoor pools with water slides. When I was a kid going to *any* pool was a real treat, let alone an indoor one. And I only have one memory of visiting a pool with slides, out in Spring Lake Park in the 80s. Instead our only option was to go play in White Bear Lake, even if it had THE ITCH. Ick. So I think my kid can make due with a clean, slide-less indoor pool, if he must. Somehow he will endure.

Thankfully his foul mood finally lightened up a bit. Before dinner he approached me with a huge grin on his face…and his previously loose tooth in his hand. I was just telling a friend about all the teeth that have been falling out of the kid’s head lately. This friend’s initial reaction was TOTAL ALARM. Before he realized that hey, that’s what happens when you are a kid. Baby teeth fall out to be replaced by adult-sized chompers. It’s not like my son will be toothless and require dentures. Or that he’ll continue losing teeth throughout his life and keep getting new ones, like a shark. Though that could be kind of cool.

Speaking of evolutionary advantages…I heard an interview on NPR the other day with one of the animal critic bloggers (a satirical response to Cute Overload?) - read/listen at NPR: Why The Animal Critic Gives The Panda An F. Or visit their site directly, where their most recent review was of jellyfish (C-). And holy wow do they ever have disdain pandas and alpacas. Big fat Fs for each. At least they do give the octopus an A for being so super ultra smart. Alas, even with their big brains my beloved cephalopods don’t always come out on top. Here is some disheartening footage of a sea lion methodically making a meal out of an octopus.

In another tangent…I’m looking forward to seeing British street artist Banksy’s documentary, Exit Through the Gift Shop, opening at one of the Landmark theaters in Minneapolis on April 30th. This is incredibly silly though, celebrities caught “tagging” at the film’s premiere in LA. Groan.

No more tangents for now. Instead I plan to ease the whirring of the gears in my busy brain. Best remedy? Curling up in bed with a book. While trying not to think about how I should be working on my own book…