There is still about a meter of snow in our front yard, but the temperature is above zero and threatening to stay that way. The kids have done their last ski of the season and I have the (probably) last xcountry session scheduled for tomorrow. This was a tough winter temperature wise, but it was amazing for winter sports.
I’ve been thinking about how much time I spend on chores per week… Here is a quick rundown:
Laundry: 8 hours
Breakfast: 2 hours
Dinner: 8 hours
Tidying up: 5 hours
So, one full day in the week is spent on chores. Fortunately, I listen to audio books while doing this so one full day of the week I get to enjoy some culture I would otherwise not have time for. I am almost done “reading” 100 Years of Solitude.
I’ve also completed another knitting project, a shawl…
I feel very conflicted about this project. On one hand, I really enjoyed making it, on the other, I am not sure if I like it. On some level I really don’t and yet I am not keen on putting it away in the bottom drawer. What should I do with it?
Yes, I went to a movie. In fact, the whole family is now of age where we can go to see a kids movie and we did. Expect me to only review kids movies for the next five years…
I think Lego Movie is best seen on an airplane where you can choose not to put the earphones on. Concept and execution were good, jokes were good (ok, you can wear earphones for those) but the dialogue was standard pep-talk between action scenes fare. Had they hired a decent dialogue writer this move would be as awesome as everything.
I’ve also been listening to popular music! I’ve got a solo album by Alex Turner and two of his group work efforts; “Whatever People Say I Am That’s I’m Not” and “AM” by Arctic Monkeys. After many, many listens, I prefer the solo album which is the soundtrack to the movie “Submarine” the best though I am fairly hooked on the other two. This is the first time that I have albums I bought at the iTunes store that I wish I had a CD for (or at least the CD booklet). I found myself wanting to check the song credits, lyrics and the album art quite a few times.
Eight feet marching, get it? haha
After Markus was born people would ask me if we are going to try for a girl or if I am disappointment that I only have boys. I would truthfully reply that I was hoping for three boys and I feel very fortunate that it has come to pass in such a way. After a while the vehemence of this feeling started to startle me. Surely, had I had a daughter I would have loved her as much as I love my boys. So why do I feel such a relief at not having one?
A possible explanation occurred to me recently while I was reading Sheryl Sandbergs’ “Lean In” (Book review: Well written book with interesting examples and well though out advice though essentially, yawn, noting you haven’t heard before.). While Croatia in the 80’s was, on paper, a place of equal genders, the radio hostesses would sardonically remind us on March the 8th that we are by miles better off than women in more backward and violent countries. The systematic and socially ingrained misogyny grated me more than any other real or perceived injustice.
Canada today is possibly as far removed from my childhood as those violent and barbaric countries we consoled ourselves with were removed from the 1980’s Zagreb, but the fact that Sandberg’s book was written, published, bought and presumably read causes me to think that I was perhaps justified in not wishing to put a daughter through all that crap.
And yet, really, life is not fair, whatevs. I still managed to grow up, get a job and live well. I can’t really come up with any example of how backwardness of my environment set me back. If anything I developed thicker skin and “I’ll show them” attitude. Though I am not aware of any of my elementary school classmates becoming engineers, they are OK doing girly jobs like being doctors, judges and accountants, according to Facebook anyway. Oh, one girl is in theatre though, perhaps, that is irrelevant.
So if I had had a daughter, despite the messages my childhood self graffitied and hid in the back of my mind, she would have been fine. You cannot change the laws of physics, but there are laws you can change and gravity sucks but only on sufficiently large planets.
Anyhoot, happy early Women’s Day. Yes, it is a month away but I am pretty much guaranteed to forget it.
Just add studded tires!