Art Day

So we met up with some other Mamas and Babies this morning to check out the Blanton museum, which has free admission on Thursdays and is fairly baby-friendly.

It was great to see everyone; I got some reassurance that even though Bodhi is not crawling yet, he's not the only one his age who isn't...and some true geniuses didn't crawl...at all.

Right now I'm watching him pull his books out of the bookshelf, practically his favorite activity.

He rolled across the floor to get to it.

I have to say that I almost went ballistic today in the parking garage at the Blanton. It's UT orientation time, so the freshmen and their pushy, strident parents are swarming all over the place. Get the picture? We parked our car, I put Bodhi in his little sunhat and plopped him in his stroller, then we stood to wait for the elevator.

After a few minutes, it finally came. There was another baby in a stroller riding with us, and a PSP with her teen UT students and some of their belongings. We were able to squeeze in. When we got to the ground floor, 10 seconds later, I hesitated -- my mistake -- because I wasn't sure if I was where we wanted to be or not. The PSM (Pushy Strident Mom shall we say) felt compelled to say, as though it were not possible to open elevator doors manually or keep them from closing, "This is where we need to get off!" Turns out it was where we needed to get off, too, so we did that, but both she and her brood and the other PSM with the stroller practically steamrolled over us. The other stroller pusher literally tried to cut us off. It was very Keystone Cops meets Ratso Rizzo. I said, "JESUS, Lady! This is a BABY here!" And I swear I felt my blood boil. Even though she was also pushing a BABY, somehow her trying to push in front of me was worse than me not letting her.

I could just see it, all the Moms squaring off in the parking garage at Jester dorm.

We managed to escape unscathed.

So the contrast of the cool, smooth and light museum was welcome. Two other Mamas who met up with us also had harrowing parking experiences.

I forget how crazy it can get around campus when the students come back.

Bodhi is really working hard right now to put a book back in the shelf; it's really cute.

As I write this, I realize even more how much I need to write what is in my head.

The problem with that is that what's in my head is often not so very pretty.

I need to write

1) the story of Bodhi's birth
2) the story of my Dad's death

I used to want to be famous. For what? Poetry, Fiction, Screenwriting...whatever. I just wanted the power and the respect it seems famous people get.

Okay, now Bodhi is chewing on the "babyproofing" rubber corner pad I put on his bookshelf. He simply pulled it off and put it in his mouth. The label on it says it should be good "until baby defeats" it. Really. No shit. And when might that be? Five minutes after I put it on, or ten?

Who in the hell designed all these babyproofing items anyway? Some childless, sadistic monk who has been sequestered in a castle without electricity his whole life?

I digress.

And earlier today, I was about as unyogic as I it gets. I don't want to get in a street fight with another mom. I don't want to set the bad example for Bodhi that problems are resolved with bad words and/or fists.

Oops, gotta go -- he's got the plug end of the humidifier in his hands.