An Update, and a Pilfered Meme For Good Measure

So it looks like we might be leaving for Beijing on Valentine's Day (aaaaw!) and we're shooting for a 02/26 consulate appointment in Guangzhou. Nothing's set in stone just yet, but that's what they're trying for. I cannot believe how fast TA happened (and for all my bitching about how long I've been waiting, this whole process actually went pretty dang fast. For us, anyway.) and I totally cannot believe we might be traveling in three weeks.

I don't think I'll be going to L.A. before China. I can't see squeezing it in, and even if I did, I would hate to be meeting with potential managers only to have to say, "Oh, by the way, in a week I'll be in China, and then pretty much unavailable for...er... a while..." Plus I think the look of absolute panic and the way I would be stumbling around muttering about babies might give me away. I need to work out the details, but I guess I'll be taking the kids to L.A. sometime after we arrive home. Not too soon, but eventually. That will be a first and true test of my balancing act.

Ironically, I started working on a re-write of a script yesterday. Y and I were throwing around some ideas and then I took a shower, and for some reason my words often come to me while I'm washing my hair. So I want to take this as a sign that I will be able to do both these challenging things (mothering and writing) with some amount of grace or inspiration.

I am skipping from task to task. I ordered bottles and formula (!). We got our vaccination contract notarized. I bought a lot of soap to pack as gifts (I will add to this - but that’s what I’ve got right now. Soap. Oh, and some candles). We have a homestudy update later this afternoon (um, let's hope we pass. Heh). Ryan is shopping for a nice warm coat. Spike had a sleepover at his friend's house and came home with a cough (listen kid, if you’re going to get sick – do it now). We shampooed the rug (because of the homestudy update, but mostly because I’ve been told that Fang Fang’s favorite thing to do is to “crawl around on the rug” and I couldn’t live with the idea that she would be crawling upon multiple layers of lord knows what kind of animal effluvia and mud). There is so much to do! Mainly I need to sit down and make lists – list making soothes me.

I cannot believe we are literally less than a month away from meeting our daughter for the first time. That is amazing. Last night I had a dream that we were foster parents and had eight different kids in the house, all wonderful, all whom I loved dearly – but we were still waiting to bring Fang Fang home – and so I woke up really sad.

But just to bulk up this post, I will do this meme that I ripped off from American Family. I don’t think she’ll mind, mostly because I’m fairly certain she doesn’t know I exist. Heh.

House Meme

When you walk in your front door, which room do you enter?
It depends what, exactly you mean, by front door. If you mean the proper front door – which practically no one ever uses – then, you are standing in a hall, and looking up a narrow red painted staircase. If you are talking about the door that everyone actually uses, which technically, I suppose is the back door, you are in our family/tv/toy room.

Do you have a dishwasher?
Nooooo. And it’s one of the banes of my existence because I hate doing dishes. Hate it. We have been talking about putting one in for years, but because it would take some rebuilding of our kitchen cabinets, we always put it off. When The Houseguest used to live here, he did all the dishes, though. At his own really slow, sweet pace.

Is your living room carpeted or does it have hardwood floors?
Wideboard antique pine. One of my favorite things about this house, and something that we had to rip out four levels of dog pee soaked carpet, fake parquet stick on squares, and antique (like the kind that came in one big sheet) linoleum to get to.

Do you keep your kitchen knives on the counter or in a drawer?
Corner of the counter in a wood block.

House, apartment, duplex or trailer?
Farm house.

How many bedrooms is it?
Four. It was probably five at one point but there was a real do it yourself-er who lived here for a while before us and I think he was the one that combined two to make a really big master bedroom.

Gas stove or electric?
Gas, and that’s the only way to go, baby.

Do you have a yard?

Do we have a yard? Ha! Boy, do we ever! An acre on this side of the road, plus we own another acre and directly across the street. I love our yard.

What size TV is in the living room?
It’s not in the living room. It’s in the family room. But it’s big. And flat. We used to have a big and bulky TV, and for years Ryan talked about getting a flat screen (he’s a total electronics geek, but in his defense, he does earn his living via television and I suppose he should have a good TV to watch his creations on) and I kept saying we didn’t need one, and then I went away to visit a friend for a week, and when I walked in the door, Spike yelped, “Mom! You’re not going to believe what Ryan” (he calls his dad Ryan. He calls me Mom – but Ryan is almost always Ryan. Which amuses me and Ryan, but appalls a lot of people.) “did while you were gone!” and there it was – new flat screen. And I have to say, I do love watching TV on it. It’s nice. And Ryan sold our old TV. But it was the one time my husband ever made a major purchase without checking with me first.

Are your plates in the same cupboard as your cups?
Uh. Sort of? The plates are in the same cupboard as the sort of trashy un-matching mugs (the ones I actually tend to drink tea out of – you know – the ones with Spike’s picture on them, and a set of WNYC mugs that they sent me after a fund drive, and the one from The Houseguest that says “Free Palestine”… ) – but the plates are in an open shelving part of the cupboard and the mugs are behind a door. Then there are a set of multi-colored Fiestaware mugs hanging on the bottom of the cupboards on hooks, which are really pretty and decorative, but not very functional. I almost never use them because they’re just a little too small for a really satisfying cup of tea. Also, there are Fiestaware teacups next to those – which I pretty much never use, either. And then there the drinking (like water and juice) glasses in a different, but still adjacent, cupboard, and under that, in open shelving are the wine glasses, (with stems and without, and a couple of margarita glasses, and one blue champagne flute) and then in the dining room, in a two totally separate breakfronts are a large collection of champagne glasses (which I actually use more than you’d think since Prosecco is often my wine of choice) and a set of fine china coffee cups which I inherited from my sister Mary, who inherited them from her paternal grandmother (Mary and I have different biological fathers) because I inherited our maternal grandmother’s china, and it was more Mary’s style than the rose painted stuff she got from her paternal grandma, and so we swapped china. But while our maternal grandma would have been fine with the swap, I feel a little guilty because I know for a fact that Mary’s Boston Brahmin of a paternal grandma would absolutely roll over in her grave if she knew the trashy Italian/Black Irish progeny of her daughter-in-law’s second marriage ended up with her good china. Anyway, I love those coffee cups (they are like bigger versions of tea cups) but only use them occasionally, and, to make it more scandalous, they are almost always used for tea. Ah! The humanity! I’m such a philistine! Oh, and back in the kitchen, on top of an old Hoosier cabinet, there is also a big collection of (really dusty) sherry glasses and a set of colored glass cordial glasses. Whew! There are a lot of ways to drink beverages in this house!

Is there a coffee maker sitting on your kitchen counter?
Yes. Purely for Ryan’s use since I don’t drink coffee (one of the great disappointments of our marriage for Ryan is that I don’t drink coffee).

What room is your computer in?
Er. Which computer? Mine? It sits on the counter in the kitchen. Ryan’s goliath of a work computer is out in the Pumpkin house. Spike’s computer (which is just a jacked up, missing keys beater of a laptop that he inherited from me when it crashed and couldn’t be trusted to keep my work safe anymore) is currently balanced on the arm of the big chair in our living room.

Are there pictures hanging in your living room?
Well yeah. There is a painting by William Streetor – which we call “The Dark Lady” and is this long rectangular oil painting of an Edwardian era woman with dark hair and eyes – it’s got kind of a Rembrandt vibe (because it’s done with a black background and her dress and hair are black, too and barely discernable from the background, and her face and the white lace of her collar sort of glow out of the picture like some of Rembrandt’s stuff did) and some Sargent and Whistler like qualities, too. It’s a bit damaged, and needs to be restored. But it’s one of my favorite things in the house. There is also an ornately framed but teeny tiny photograph of Georgia O’Keefe. Everything else hanging is mirrors.

Are there any themes found in your home?

Uh… mirrors? Pink bathrooms? Primitive antiques? Dust?

What kind of laundry detergent do you use?
Mrs. Meyer’s lavender scented detergent. I love it not only because it’s all natural and shit, but also because it smells like Fruity Pebbles.

Do you use dryer sheets?
Nope.

Curtains in your home?
Only in the bathrooms and in our bedroom. I like the light too much to risk blocking even the teeniest tiny bit. But Spike and Fang Fang need some in their bedrooms soon, I think.

What color is your fridge?
Chalkboard green. We painted it with chalkboard paint. Which was the same thing my mother did to all our refrigerators while I was growing up. It’s very cool.

Is your house clean?
At the moment? Very. Only because our social worker will be here in a few hours.

What room is the most neglected?
Oh. The basement, I guess. But it’s really not a room – more like a dungeon like hole in the ground. It’s carved straight out of the fieldstone bedrock under our house. You can’t even stand up straight in it.

Are the dishes in your sink/dishwasher clean or dirty?
Clean, amazingly. See the social worker comment above.

How long have you lived in your home?
Six and a half years.

Where did you live before?
A very big, pretty, three bedroom apartment in a marginal neighborhood on Staten Island.

Do you have one of those fluffy toilet lid covers on your toilet?
Oh, if only! No.

Do you have a scale anywhere in your house?
No. And I don’t want one.

How many mirrors are in your house?
This is… well, okay, twenty one, at least – and I probably missed some. Because I love to look at myself! No, no, - I collect old, silvered mirrors. Love them. They are hanging all over the house.

Look up. What do you see?
The world’s ugliest plastic ceiling fan/overhead light. For all the tender loving care I put into our home, we still have hideous light fixtures all through the house, left over from the Mr. Fixit who lived here before us, and who felt the need to pull all the original fixtures out, and replace them with horrible 1980’s era brass replacements. He also removed all the original interior doors and replaced them with plastic, hollow core monstrosities. I would curse his name if I knew it. I have a collection of antique doors, and antique fixtures, and someday we’ll get around to doing some replacing ourselves.

Do you have a garage?
Yes. Detached. Though it was probably not a garage in its first incarnation. And we don’t put our car into it. It’s full of all those antique doors I was just talking about.

Feel free to steal this Meme if you like - since I got it off the back of a truck myself.