Monthly Archives: October 2009

Ugly Betty

Posted on by
3

The Fashion Team has been having lots of themes lately. Michael Jackson style: I wore a Thriller-like jacket. The Emmy round up show: all good red carpet dish. And this weekend it’s Ugly Betty. The TV Guide Network will be running the encore shows when the new season starts in a couple of weeks.

Ugly Betty is one of my favorite shows and a bout a year and a half ago we had Vanessa Williams on as a guest. I loved her! So, for this show, I channeled my inner Wilhelmina (her sharp-tongued diva), and my extremely good-natured co-host Lawrence Zarian was dressed as her Boy Friday Mark. I really enjoyed this. It was the most acting I’ve done in years (not personifying, which is what hosting is).

My outfit is not my usual garb, but quite fun. Why do i not embrace the belt? It really helped with my posture, and the whole ensemble made me power hungry and wanting to hire and fire and make people fetch.

Anya Sarre, fashion reporter for ET and The Insider was a guest. Nice girl.

When the show was over, I got in my A-line tent dress and went home.

Spanking Someone Else’s Kid

Posted on by
17

Okay this story is not your normal “disciplining someone else’s kid.” More like abusing someone else’s kid. That was my launching point for this vid. But, like I’ve told you, I’m not always that rested, and honestly, this is not one of my strongest ones. It’s like I forgot to end it. Instead, I just ended it.

Help me out: write an ending to this video. I’ll try to be more with it on the next one.

The Neglecterzizer

Posted on by
10

Thank heavens for it!

When Vivien was a baby we had a hand me down exersaucer. It was a bit sun bleached, some of toys were missing, but it still use to buy me time to throw food in my mouth or pee. I recently asked Mark to get me a saucer. He came back with a little seat that rolls. Yeah, okay, good for 2 to 3 minutes. But I knew it was the saucer-baby-prison I needed. Not all hunks of plastic are created equally. Somewhere in China my perfect baby activity center awaited.

I needed a prime neglecterzizer. I almost bought one when I was birthday shopping for Viv, but the $90 price tag made me pause. A few weeks ago, my sister Cecily called that she was in a hand-me-down kids shop, and there were some nice ones. Not all beat up or ghettozizer like Vivien’s had been.

So, voila, $55 later, look at how happy Rex is in it. The other day he was happily playing away in his office for 15 minutes.

Almost long enough to take a nap.

Momversation: Private vs Public Schools

Posted on by
2

There is so much to be said on this topic. But Alice made a good point when she said that what can make a school good is often unquantifiable. Did I spell that write? Not sure if my school was any good.

Here is the dead truth about what I think is wrong with most public schools that NO ONE talks about: architecture. Seriously. One of the reasons I hustled and graduated early is because public school buildings are NOT built to the environment. They are created by the same people who build prisons. They are beat, yucky, not a place you want to matriculate, let alone take a dump. Sorry, but it’s true. I used to hold my sphincter in till after 3 in high school because of the gross bathrooms.

Architecture does affect people. One of my first reporting assignments I did in radio was to interview high schoolers from South Central in the aftermath of the LA Riots. These were the good kids. Not rioters. They were seniors who would graduate. But they said, basically, look, where we live is ugly. There are no trees; there are mostly liquor stores. It makes us feel disrespected that we live in this environment, so while we don’t think it’s a good idea to burn this place down, we understand why someone would.

I often think of that.

I mention my mother’s high school in this piece. It’s called Venture School. Her school is small, but she has helped many people over the years. But, you know, I’m biased.

Sleep Travails

Posted on by
9

Okay, so this sleep thing… um, well. Saturday night went great with Rex. He slept from 9:30 to 5 (here he is napping at my mom’s).

I should have had the energy to go to an early morning yoga class, but as life would have it Vivien–not her norm–woke up at around 2 or 3. Not sure, a blur, just realized she was wedged between us, and Mark was saying “She’s had a bad dream.” She rolled on me a few times till I took her back to her room where I passed out briefly and then went back to my room. One wake up after another. I calmly said, “Vivien, if you don’t go to sleep soon, I’m going to be in a very bad mood.”

The next night, my stepson is here, which means Rex is in our room. Well, forget it, you can’t sleep train when the baby smells you. They are like wild animals. So that night was a waste. The next night back into Oliver’s room (aka, where Rex sleeps when Oliver is elsewhere). Went better. I fed him twice in the night and didn’t jump up at every little cry and gurgle. I have noticed allowing him to cry for a few minutes at bedtimes does help him stay asleep longer.

The next night, again the room was occupied with a teenager who doesn’t need to be part of sleep training an infant, so I put Rex down in the play room (and by that, I mean the space off the kitchen).  But we had noticed he had a little runny nose, so I was not tough loving it. I was jumping up and holding him to me when I thought he need it. Or when I did.

I think between the cold and him getting shots tomorrow, I can’t pull another feeding from him this week, right? Shouldn’t I wait a few days? That’s what I think. And I’m not that busy this week so I think I can sack up and do it.

Sleep training can resume on Saturday.