Croupiness
Sorry to have been absent from this blog for so long. Lena had croup. At first croup was not so bad. She barked like a seal and we considered teaching her to balance a ball on her nose and clap for fish. But her nose is too small and she doesn't really like fish. Then her barking turned into real coughing and the fun began.
Remember the last time I wrote about her being sick... how she was all cuddly? Well, it was like that again, only with more snot. Jason and I spent a goodly portion of this last week chasing Lena with kleenex. You'd think she'd WANT us to clean the slime off her face, but you'd be wrong. She's finally started to feel better (she's eating better and running laps up and down the hall), although she still sounds awful. I'm hoping the coughing and runny nose calm down a bit by Thursday. We are scheduled to go to the La Habra Children's Museum (the trip was cancelled last month) and I really want to go. It's supposed to be good for this age group since there are many hands on displays and Lena is definitely a hands on sort of kid. Also, I haven't taken her out much (overprotective mom, etc. etc.) and she's getting antsy. We usually go to the park, or at least story time once a week not to mention mommy and me. I think she misses people.
posted by Lysa @ 2:30 PM
8 Comments:
Lysa, you are a very cool mom, if I do say so myself.
And forgive my forwardness, but is that a small Beloved reference in your profile?
Why yes it is. That's not forward at all.
Thanks for the compliment though I think Lena might disagree with you right now. J and I have both been sick and she's been a pill. post-croup Lena is almost as cranky as croupy Lena.
How's sr year going? Have senioritis yet?
Ha! Yes to the senioritis--I have great impatience with everything that is not excellent. We have one teacher who teaches literature like it's about sorting little things into labeled boxes. AGH! I make paper cranes in his class, and that's all. Hey, have you ever heard of Pat Conroy? He's making us read a book by him, and I don't like it, and I wonder what you think...
I've never read any Pat Conroy. Which novel are you reading? Why don't you like it? What does your teacher want you to get out of it? and other such questions....
Gaaah, it's called Beach Music, and I think it is badly written. Our teacher is a watered-down Machiavelli, and is intimidated by the fact that I can tell he doesn't know EVERYTHING about literature. He never addresses what we are to get out of literature--we just read it and talk about him and about our own unrelated experiences, which makes everyone feel that they've had a really meaningful discussion. I use the first person plural, but actually I don't talk at all, because if one were to say something like, "I think the excessive description he uses here detracts from the scene," or "Do the characters seem blown out of proportion or ridiculous to anyone else?" one would be accused of being elitist. Hm. Sorry for the rant. On the bright side, a few of us have formed a rogue group of lit-nerds to discuss Beloved outside of class!
Wow. Except that I had excellent professors,sounds like my college years. That's how Jason and I got together, in a GRE study group. Those outside of class groups were some of my best experiences in college. Are you reading Beloved in class?
I'm so glad you like Beloved. the section where Baby Suggs asks Sethe (or is it Denver?) to bring her colors to taste stayed with me for a very long time. It is such a gorgeous novel. If you haven't already, read Song of Solomon next. I think those (Beloved and Song of Solomon) are her best works. Jason says, read Sula - there's lots of fun religious iconography. (well, fun as a relative term)
Do you know what kind of literature you want to study? (not that you have to decide now, just curious.) medieval? 19th c.? 20th c.? British? American? etc....
Yeah, we read Beloved in class, but the discussion was so paltry (?) that we've decided to keep talking about it. And yes! I want to read Song of Solomon very much--perhaps our group will do that instead of following the teacher's list.
Ah, the literature question is one that I have been struggling with. I want to study Comparative Literature, since it incorporates all the things I can't live without (language and literature and one other traditional discipline). Unfortunately, I speak French, and I don't really like much French literature! I would like to find some W.African and Haitian writers, though, because perhaps I would like them. So what I'm trying to say is that I'm going to take Spanish in college, and maybe study G.G. Marquez, who I love.
Ha! Lysa, what this all boils down to is "I have no idea." Is there are particular time period that you like?
I agree that Spanish literature is much better than French. However,there are a few works I would love to read in the original French: Flaubert's Madame Bovary or Balzac's Pere Goriot. There's Zola, Baudelair, and Rimbaud as well. I have not read Hugo or Proust, but I hear good things. Of course this is all 19th century. There are some good 20th century writers too. Robbe-Grillet's Jealousy is extremely surreal, but good. I liked Duras' The Lover, although Jason never acquired a taste for her writing. Camus' The Stranger is excellent. I suppose there's also Sartre, Fannon, and foucault - they're more theory and pholosophy, but I highly recommend them. So my point is this: there are some good French writers. Oh, and I agree with you regarding G.G. Marquez. Beautiful.
All that being said, I studied 20th century American writers almost exclusively - particularily ethnic lit - although I also really like the modernists, both American and British. The Southern regionalists, Faulkner, O'connor, and Welty are the tradition Morrison comes from, for example. Honestly, I can go on and on and you probably already have a long, long list from me so I'll stop now. Honestly, you'll figure it out once you get there - I was just curious if you had an idea.
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