Stuff...

a little of this (travel town, griffith park)

a *lot* of this (dana point)

hopefully none of this...

love these...

miss this (caltech campus)

Oh goodness, it's time to get away for a minute. I can tell when I *really* need a break,

which is all too often, I must admit. 

But even my kids are all irritable these days for some reason.

*

Is it the change of seasons? 

I don't know, but T's been just dying to get away too. So when he suggested that we head to L.A. for four days (four and a half! if you count leaving tomorrow evening. and i do.), I gave absolutely no argument.

*

We are keeping it a surprise for the big boys (Keo already knows but can't say, "California" sensibly yet, so I'm not worried) but they're starting to catch on. 

*It could have been when I brought in a sleeping bag to see if they could both fit in one.

(we'll be camping one of the nights)*

*It could have been when I offered them,

and here I must defend myself from myself and say that while I am admittedly a rather lackluster mother, I do not make a practice of this,

ten (!) dollars each to really really really clean their room

(i HATE to come home to a dirty house after vacation)*

*It could have been when I told them that they were not to get anywhere near the WII until they have found their DS's, as I was wrapping up the DS car chargers and headphones.*

My kids aren't stupid. And wow, they're much older than I allow myself to admit. They can put two and two together. So last night, as I was putting them to bed and rolling the sleeping bag back up, Jo accuses me, "We're going on vacation, aren't we?"

To which, I very easily (scary how easily it comes to me...) lied and said, "Nope, I wish we could. Hopefully when Grandma & Grandpa come out at Thanksgiving, we'll be able to get away for a day or so."

*

Smart & stuff, but they still believe mom, I haven't lied to them that much.

 ***

 

So, I married an American. But he thinks he's Japanese. He is of the Japanese race, but he is American. My kids are now calling themselves Japanese and I am watching this warily. 

Am I racist?
Am I jealous?

I know that, of the European mutt that I am, I am more English, Danish and German, than anything else. But I am American.

Yeah, I think I'm jealous.
*

But really - do we need to define our children this way? Do we need to point out that they have different features than other kids in their class? Does this not bring to attention the pretty black hair of that little girl in their class, or the bright blue eyes of that little boy they sit next to? Isn't that racist? But by my constant (and I mean constant because Kai rolls his eyes rather sparingly at me in these tender young years of his life, but he *always* rolls his eyes when I start in on this subject) assertions that the way a person looks does not define who that person is, am I, in a sense reversing that racism by insisting that my kids be "colorblind"? My mom just took some training (she works for the City of Seattle) and found out that said colorblindness is actually a form of racism. So we should be celebrating the black hair/blue eyes/etc., right? And saying how great it is that we all look different? Sounds good, but I imagine there's a careful way to do that so it's not being racist!

I'm confusing myself.
*

All that rambling aside, I think it's awesome that my kids have a Japanese/Danish/English/German heritage and I will, in all of our spare time HA!, be getting on them soon to research family history so they too can appreciate where their ancestors came from.
*

All *that* rambling aside, my husband was shooting pictures for his work yesterday and he needed a shot that depicts "forgiveness." He had (Japanese ;)) Grandma hugging Jo at the kitchen counter, as he had just spilt some milk. Grandma said, "well the shot should have his mom in it, not me."

To which T replied, "no, she can't, um..."

Awkward, but he had very kindly already explained to me.

I giggled and finished the sentence for him, "she's too white." 

*
What got me going on the subject this time, you may ask? Not even anything related to race, really. I heard this ridiculous story on the news this morning that some place in New York is making a family move their family burial plot (even though the family has a letter from the city saying they could have a burial plot there) to a different place. So lame, whatever city in New York you are. Nearly, but not quite as lame as the city-that-I'm-not-willing-to-look-up, is that the radio guy had to specify that the family was Muslim. K. Would the story have been less lame if the family was Christian? Jewish? Hindu? Atheist??? No, still way lame. But now we know the family's religion. Cool. And because of that and the resulting thought process I went through on my morning commute, you, blog reader (you're the best, Mom), have to sort through this post. It's the radio announcer's fault.

***
 

To finish the rambling, I give you one (two?) word:

WorldFest

It's just around the corner!

And I'm trying to get excited!

And maybe, with enough exclamation points, I will be!

And my program (banquet with dance/song/modeling-of-traditional-dress) is the same night as the Harry Potter premier!

I'm trying to not be more excited for HP than WorldFest!