Melts Her Pen Goes International!

Exciting news: As of this week, Lisa Melts Her Pen has an international readership! A long-lost Spanish friend found me through my blog -- how, I don't quite know, as many of my friends here haven't even found it (possibly because I neglected to mention where to find it).

So, a big shout-out to Carmen Gutierrez in Madrid! I am so happy to be back in touch after more than 20 years! I lived in Salamanca, Spain for a year and a half during and after college. Carmen and I were "intercambios," language-exchange buddies. We took turns stumbling over our words in English and Spanish until we finally didn't much notice which language we were using. It's a beautiful thing when another language ceases to be the thing you notice and the meaning of what you're hearing and saying moves to the forefront. And then when you stop noticing even that because you're too busy becoming fast friends and going out on the town (and the farm), well, that's just the best.

If you want to read about a cool event I participated in at Carmen's parents' dairy farm in the beautiful north of Spain, look up "Special Delivery" in the awesome book Travelers Tales: Spain. It's in the original edition, but not the later one which was edited down into a smaller book. I have another story, "Toro, Torero" that is still in the second edition, which you can also check out. You can click on a link on my website: www.LisaMeltzerPenn.com under "Writings" to preview a big chunk of "Toro Torero" if you're not already running to the bookstore. Or, just click here.

So, Carmen, THAT'S actually your surprise, and a long-overdue copy of the book will be on the way to you soon!

Love, Lisa

Pot 'O Gold

I could have blogged last week. But it would have been from a strange space-cadet kind of place with a weird reverb from Vicadin and muscle relaxants and lots of Advil. Normally I don't take even one Advil. But when I need them, I'm pretty desperate. The whole right side of my back was in muscle spasms all week after "ski week" in Tahoe. I wasn't actually skiing, just trailing the kids around the mountain dragging a heavy tote bag on my shoulder. It had my whole book manuscript, which I decided to revise again and somehow thought I would have hours a day to work on while everyone else skiied, and a heavy journal, again that I would theoretically be writing in, plus all the miscellany and water bottles and extra jackets, etc.

So this week, instead of blogging, or doing much of anything else, I spent the week moaning, napping, and eating. A lot of eating. "Oh, yeah," my doctor told me when I went in for my yearly physical today and almost passed out when I saw the number on the scale, "Vicadin does have a munchies effect." That would explain the loaf of bread, two sticks of butter, and "secret" chocolate stash that mysteriously disappeared in the middle of the week.

This week it's just raining a lot. Except for having to drive in it, I don't mind it so much. It reminds me of home. We also saw two rainbows today. And that's pretty lucky.

Parent Appreciation

I always thought I would have a daughter, and I did have her first. Then I had a son. Though I've had him for more than six years now, I am constantly surprised who he is. He's a joyful ball of energy. More energy than I know what to do with sometimes. Sometimes I get impatient with his loud exuberance. Sometimes we get mad at each other for not understanding the other or listening well enough.

But then he's in the kitchen in front of me with his playdate asking for hot cocoa. And they don't just ask -- they are literally bouncing up and down like they're on springs and saying, "Please! Please! Please!" as they bounce. (This is pre-sugar, mind you).

And then it's bedtime, and Aaron wants me to snuggle with him, and tell him a story in the dark, and half the time he'll give me a big hug and say, "You're my best mom!" Last week he said to me, "Thank you for everything you do, Mom."

I was shocked. I couldn't even believe I was hearing that. Sophie, who is more like me and I understand more, has never said a thing like that, even if she has thought it (which I like to imagine!). I have to remember Aaron's words in the moments I don't feel appreciated. Because I am.

Uni-Tasking and Cats

Everyone is always talking about multi-tasking, as if it is a goal for us all to survive in today's frenetic world. But I'm tired of multi-tasking. I keep finding myself in the garage or my room, or most often, in front of the computer, not remembering what the heck I went there to do! I want to uni-task, to focus on ONE thing and do it well, and finish it!

I would also enjoy not living by a list. Wouldn't it be nice to have stuff done and then live the day? I looked out the window a while ago and saw one of the neighborhood cats wandering around. I'd like to be that cat, living in the moment, living through the senses, being outside.

Therefore I will eat breakfast, then go for a stroll, then dive into my projects one at a time. I have two and a half hours before Kindergarten pick-up.

Ta!

Drugstore Dreams

Sometimes I enjoy trips to the drugstore -- today I stopped off to pick up a prescription -- by myself without the kids pleading for things from the shelves. I was wearing designer jeans and a new cute top my sister gave me for my birthday, and a cool new necklace my mother-in-law gave me for my birthday, and a cute cap I gave myself for my birthday, and there's music from the 60's playing -- X and Y -- and I start singing along because no one else is in the aisle. It sounds totally dorky but I felt the music flowing through me and I didn't care, and I didn't feel at all dorky. And I wandered through the aisles and picked out a a fresh colorful box of Crayola crayons, some new pens, because I'm always out, some mechanical pencils, because they always disappear, too, some letter and number stickers for the kids' art projects, some general house supplies I think of as I stroll the aisles. And all the stuff I get to look at and consider.

I'm a sucker for the miracle item of the moment -- the "Ped Egg" that will keep your feet smooth and callous free -- without making a mess! The lip balm that will keep our lips smooth and soft. The toe separator that keeps your feet healthy (but doesn't actually fit your feet unless you have really big feet). The promise of so many things. I love the promise, and I can fork out $9.99 for a promise, a dream, even when I know it will dissolve into the everyday and probably unsatisfactory, but a dream is a dream. A small dream offers a moment of possibility, which in its own way, is priceless.

50th Post

This is my 50th post! Kind of an anniversary.

What is it about lists? I just opened a fresh new notebook and declared it for writing only - not for lists and miscellany. I drew a bold box around that declaration. Then I proceeded to make a few lists: goals for the year, summer plans, lessons for the kids...does life exist in the lists? Or are the lists everything preventing life?

Oh, that's a dumb question. Lists disappoint me. They are everything that hasn't been done yet. There is no point listing what's already been done, is there? Unless it's as reference for a current list.

Lists feel like hypnosis to me. Even if I never do all the things on the list, they've been acknowledged as existing ideas. I'm ready to start something new. Okay, I don't really expect the pages to stay pristine. But please let them hold something that matters.

Goodbye, Flower

We went back to Bunker Hill Preschool this week to pay our respects to Flower Sweetie Hill, the class guinea pig, who visited our house a few times, and inspired Aaron to eat lettuce. Aaron was very sad when he learned she had died over the holiday break, and got up out of bed that night to make her a card.

It was our first visit back since he began Kindergarten. Aaron was excited to impart knowledge to the Pre-k'ers, though most of them were busy playing. We went up to the playground to see the new and improved sandbox which is now HUGE and wraps around the gazebo. He hopped onto his favorite double trike fire engine he spent all of last year speeding around the track with, accompanied by one or another of his high-energy friends. He did one lap, then said, "Hey, Mom, this is too small!" We went back in to impart more knowledge and he read the signs on the walls. His hand-made cards were already tacked to the bulletin board over where Flower's cage used to sit. "Mom, all the kids are so little! said Aaron. " I stood in the center of the block room and looked out the windows onto the trees and missed the place.