Making Videos with Tootie Pie

 

 

Many things that I do, especially activities with Tootie Pie, begin out of innocent questions. Somehow, a discussion of Mr. Peabody and Sherman turned into reenacting the siege of Troy on film.  There is a connection there, and I challenge my followers to find it.  Tootie Pie and her bestie built the walled city, the horse, and brainstormed all sorts of details.  Follow me down the rabbit hole and see what they came up with.

After the rousing success of this movie adventure, Tootie Pie was hungry for more.  My husband's "niece" (for lack of a better and/or easier term) just gave birth, and Tootie Pie is learning "Brahms Lullaby" in her piano class.  There are German lyrics to this song, which she knows.  So, in honor of the newborn, we quickly whipped up a cute video with her singing "Guten Abend, Gute Nacht".  My favorite part of this process was when she was working the camera and I was on props.  Non-German speaker that I am, had to rely on Tootie Pie to tell me when the part about the angels was.  I asked three times and she didn't respond, so I just started moving the angel around aimlessly.  This was not the take that we used, but when we replayed the video, it struck my funny bone.

Because of Tootie Pie



Tootie Pie and I just finished "Because of Winn Dixie", our first book with no pictures.  The author used a literary device where India Opal's father told her 10 things about her mother, who abandoned her when she was very young.  She cherishes these 10 things as a way to hold on to the memory of her mother, whom she can barely remember.  But, at the end of the book, when Winn Dixie goes missing, India Opal creates a list of 10 things about her dog so that she can put these ten things on a "Lost" poster.  She realizes that you cannot get to know a dog, or a mother, or anyone from a list of ten things.



An even better metaphor!

Still, though, the ten things about India Opal's mother and Winn Dixie were nice lists.  I want to make my list of ten things about Tootie Pie, not so that you will know her, but so that when she grows up, she will know something about herself at six years old. 

Ten Things About Tootie Pie

• She has never given anyone any trouble
• She jumps up and down and squeals when she's excited, which is often
• She loves to dance and sing, and does both very well
• She sings German and Mandarin songs with no detectable accent
• She loves to learn and make connections
• She will hold hands with special friends and relatives
• She will invent funny stories and even speaks her own language, called Carrot language
• She is loved by all who meet her
• She has made my life more rich and fantastic than I ever thought possible
• She has a great sense of humor and makes people laugh

Growing Up Open-Minded in the 2010's

Oftentimes I am sad for my daughter growing up in today's crazy world.  She doesn't know why people put paper in water in the dark to magically make a picture, and she could look at a typewriter forever and not understand why there are keys and no screen.  Her peers are plugged in and dumbed down, but, there are advantages to having never known the 20th century. 

Tootie Pie and her crush.

I wouldn't say that my daughter does not know color, but I would say that it is a non-issue in her world.  She's only ever known "Baba Babama" as president.  There is no plurality in her class, whereas I grew up in a wonderful neighborhood, but our idea of diversity was Italian versus Irish.  Tootie Pie's first crush was an Asian boy, and the current object of her affection is black.  When she first drew him, he had peach-ish skin, but then she pointed out how his skin is brown and redrew their (her?) love. 

What do you think the cartoonist was
trying to say?  I don't think it was that
all presidents have been men, but that
is certainly a pattern that has yet to
be broken.

She has no preconceived ideas about homosexuality, religion, or foreigners, either.  Perhaps this is a product of where we live, but I'll take it.  Now, if only we could equalize the perception of women in this society.  In her lifetime.

Yvgeny and I Just Can't

Yvgeny Plushenko and I both came so close.  He had two skates left.  I had one day before vacation.  We got through the long, hard slog, but we just couldn't.

His downfall

I couldn't get out of my driveway.  Many ins-and-outs of the car later, I'm on the road, which is blocked by an abandoned van, flashers on.  Manage to get around the van, and my in-law's one-way street is blocked off by cops and and flares.  So, I go down side streets, where another van is stuck on an incline.  No one can get past.  Ditch the car in a snowbank and walk Tootie Pie to in-laws.  Now, of course, I am stuck in the snowbank, more ins-and-outs, and get the car moving, but there's not enough space on the road and I must stop to let oncoming traffic pass, and, wouldn't you know it, I get stuck.  Turn around, drive off, only to get diverted again by cops in the wrong direction from work. 


My obstacle to overcome

Has there ever been a clearer sign from God?  I am completely convinced that something bad was going to happen if I went in to work.  Last year, on this day, Tootie Pie had a dental emergency.  Today, I was dressed in my pink, I only had to survive seven hours, and I just could not do it.  I really want my DeBlasio vote back, let me tell you.  Was there a Libertarian or Green Party candidate that I should have known about, because this guy is bungling the snow major-bigtime. 

Strangers, Again?

Since I did not marry until I was 38, I've had my share of relationships.  Some of my exes I look back upon fondly, and others I do not.  When I was analyzing my former loves, I just recently noticed that, for the most part, those that I broke up with are the men I recall warmly, and the ones that dumped me make me sick.  When I break up the relationship, do I feel sorry for the poor sod?  When I am the blindsided person, do I harbor resentment and channel it into finding fault with him to the point that I cannot stomach the thought of him? 

Did I really look at him like this?  I must have.

I'm pondering these things because I am breaking up with my husband; he does not want us to part.  It sucks to be abandoned; I get that.  I am in the contemplative stage of the divorce/separation, and I'm analyzing what I want to accomplish, besides not living with him anymore.  Perhaps I am trying to recapture some of the fondness I felt for him.  The love I had for him is so far in the past, and so eclipsed by the disdain that we both now feel for eachother, that I can't imagine that I ever felt it.  If we break the cycle of petty hatred, could I ever again see him as I once did?  Could I pick through the hostility, the slights and the bitterness and keep the good memories?  I don't know.

It happens.

One thing that destroyed the marriage is being taken for granted, and this is what made me think of the guys who dumped me.  My husband can be gracious and charming, and he was when we first met.  This was the man I married.  This man still shows himself, but never to me; the beneficiary of his charms are people that he just met.  The hopeful part of me wants for us to become strangers again, so that I can see the man I loved once again.  But, the rational side of me knows that this will not happen, firstly because we will always need to communicate because we share a child, and also because he will certainly never look back at me fondly.  Once you hate someone, is it impossible to like them again?  Just like you can't unhit an iceberg, neither can you become unfamiliar once you've married.  Any divorces out there?  What's the best you can hope for?

Come back! Come back!

Where have I been?  Let me see...how to put it? 

There was a little movie around fifteen years ago that told the story of a little known voyage made on a ship called the Titanic.  Probably you've heard of it.  The Titanic hits an iceberg, and the iceberg tears a whole into the side of the ship.  The lookout wants to know "Why won't you turn?", but the ship was too big to turn quickly.  Well, this is what is happening to me.  I can't turn this boat.  I've hit the iceberg.  I'm angry and incredulous that the thing won't turn.  And, the ship is going down.

I think his line was "Arggggggghhhhhhhhh!"

The Titanic is my marriage.  The iceberg, well, it is many things that I won't enumerate here, but I will label it "petty indignaties", "lack of appreciation", and downright "disdain".  I've been trying to "unhit" an iceberg.  It's tragic, because the Titanic was a beautiful ship, full of promise, adventure and comfort.  Now it's a cautionary tale about pride and stupidity.

So, where have I been?  I've been on the ship, clinging to it desperately as it was sucked into the sea.  And its wake pulled me under, scared and flailing.  Now, miraculously, I've emerged from the depths, and although the immediate fear of drowning is behind me, I face the prospect of a drawn-out death, shivering and freezing in the Artic waters.  But, I will profess my hopes before I go. 


Handcuffed to a sinking ship.  Yep, that's me.

There is a young lady in this story.  I have put a life jacket on her, and I ensured she has a place on a small piece of flotsam.  She will shiver, too, and her hair will be a crystalline crown.  I wish I could do more for her, but this is the best I can do in the circumstances.  And, I know her future will be bright, because Leonardo DiCaprio said so.


Exposure has never looked so beautiful

Jack: I promise, you're going to get out of here, you're going to go on and you're going to make lots of babies and you're going to watch them grow. You're going to die an old, an old lady, warm in her bed, not here, not this night, not like this, do you understand me?  Winning that ticket, Rose, was the best thing that ever happened to me. It brought me to you and I'm thankful for that Rose, I'm thankful. You must, you must, you must.. do me this honor, you must promise me that you will survive, that you won't give up, no matter what happens, no matter how hopeless. Promise me now Rose and never let go of that promise.

Tootie Pie is my ticket.  I am so thankful for her.  The Titanic, at least the Titanic in the movie, had a raison d'etre, and that was so that Rose could free herself from her bummer of a fiance, and live a happy life.  I will get her through this.  I will probably make mistakes, but it will be something that will make me stronger, and eventually will afford me a fresh start on life.  A life with a past tragedy, but one that can still be full and rich.

HP Incompatible Cartridge Error - Hewlett Packard's Dirty Secret

My printer started displaying an error at the beginning of the summer.  The error said "Incompatible Cartridge Error", which seemed strange because I hadn't changed the cartridges, and they were genuine HP cartridges.  I read the steps from the HP website about this error, and nothing changed.  Not wanting to drop $50-60 on new cartridges, when I was not sure that they were the problem, I called HP, and after many frustrating exchanges, some representative agreed to mail me new cartridges.  Of course, they sent me incorrect cartridges.  So, I went to Staples to try to exchange them for the correct ones, which, of course, they were unwilling to do.  However, I learned something from their tech support guy that HP does and apparently won't admit they do.  So, I am posting this corporate secret today to spare other folk from the headache that I experienced with this issue.

Hewlett Packard date stamps their print cartridges.  This means that once they are used, they are designed to cease working after a certain amount of time.  The rationale given to me was to prevent black market or refurbished cartridges from being used.  Hmmmm...  The problem with this is that, since the price of toner ink rivals the gold index, we like to use our ink sparingly.  I guess thrift is looked down upon from mega corporations.  I am going to call HP each and every time a cartridge times out and there is still ink in it.  I urge you to do the same, and tell them that we will continue to do so until they change this stupid, wasteful policy.