katie allison granju

food January 30, 2007

Cannot…stop…consuming…Taco Bell…

horses

I love horses. I always have. I remember pretending a broom was a horse when ai was a preschooler and we lived in a little beach town in Southern California. That was as close as I got to any horses.

Then my parents moved to a farm in Washington State when I was 6 and for my 7th birthday, I got my first pony. Horses were my passion throughout my entire childhood and I briefly rode at the college level. I had limited resources, but lots of natural talent and tenacity. But it’s an expensive sport and after college, family and work commitments pulled me away for a number of years.

Then, when my now-11 year old daughter was about 4 years old, she rode a pony at a school fair. When the ride was over, she screamed and cried when we tried to take her off the pony. We let her go around again…and again….and again… and the next day I started calling around, trying to find a place where she could take riding lessons.

(JANE’S FIRST PONY, DICKENS)

For the past seven years, hunter ponies and horses have been the biggest part of my daughters life.

She’s far more naturally talented than I am, and just as passionate. It’s so much fun to share this love with my daughter. Unfortunately for me, I can barely afford for her to ride, much less for me to have the time and energy to get on a horse. But when I do, I still find that nothing, absolutely NOTHING, gives me more sheer joy than being on a horse. As it is, I enjoy just being at the barn and enjoying being around the horses. I like pretty much everything about them. I am optimistic that in a few years, there will be a little more time and money available and I will be able to take back up the riding career I left behind before I had children. In the meantime, I enjoy watching Jane ride.

This is my longwinded way of saying how sad it made me to hear that Barbaro had to be put down yesterday. It left me in tears. And then this morning I found out that a horse I know and really liked also had to be put down yeserday due to complications from injuries that just couldn’t be made right. He was such a sweet, wise guy, who taught many people to ride. He was a very talented hunter horse, quite successful in the show ring, but he always struck me as just a very wise and patient and willing teacher.

Humans are so lucky to get to have relationships with horses.

genetic testing January 29, 2007

Genetic testing during pregnancy sounds like a no-brainer at my age (39) until the date of the procedure approaches. Then it begins to seem a bit scary and invasive… I’m not so sure I want someone poking at my my baby with a needle, you know?

quote of the day

When I got out of high school, I thought, I’ll take a year or two off and play the clubs, get this out of my system, and then go to med school.

-Gregg Allman

congrats to randall and becky!!

My friends DOWNTOWN RANDALL BROWN and Becky N. have decided to get hitched. They are a great couple, and I am very happy for them. Head on over to R’s blog (linked above) and offer up some well wishes.

go ahead! baby your babies, people!

Two Harvard researchers EXPLAIN WHY.

Choice quotes from the article:

“The pair say that American childrearing practices are influenced by fears
that children will grow up dependent. But they say that parents are on the wrong
track: physical contact and reassurance will make children more secure and
better able to form adult relationships when they finally head out on their own.”

” ‘I think there’s a real resistance in this culture to caring for children,’
Commons said. But “punishment and abandonment has never been a good way to get
warm, caring, independent people.’ “

(Thanks Dewi

fat

This major new study says that losing weight is REALLY QUITE SIMPLE, unless you have some underlying medical condition.

Discuss amongst yourselves…

cold weather

I HATE COLD WEATHER.

I hate everything about it, except snow, and it never snows where I live, so the cold weather has zero redeeming qualities.

Okay, it is nice to have a fire in the fireplace, but other than that, I just hate it.

It’s, like 15 degrees outside right now. It’s miserable. I need some sunshine and flowers and birds chirping.

Jon loves the cold weather for reasons that are unclear to me, so I guess we will not be moving to Florida at some point, as I would prefer.

Now I need to put on my coat and go out to my frozen car and freeze myself over to my office.

words to birth by January 28, 2007

Today my little sister and I watched the video of her last birth, 4 years ago (unmedicated waterbirth at St. Mary’s in Knoxville).

She had some choice lines during the long and grueling event:

Sister: “I can’t do this! I just cannot do this!”
Bro in Law: “Just go with it, honey.” (Obviously trying to be the good Bradley birthing coach)
Sister: “YOU FREAKING JUST GO WITH IT, WHY DON”T YOU??!!!”

Also-

Sister: “Please someone tell me again why I am doing this?”

Sister: “This baby better be REALLY, REALLY cute!” (He was)

relief

I have discovered that sparkling water or Perrier/soda water both settles my delicate stomach and helps with the PTYALISM.

bonnaroo line-up leaked? January 27, 2007

Online buzz is that this year’s Bonnaroo line-up was leaked by the local newspaper in the town (Manchester) where the festival is held.

CHECK IT OUT.

It sounds too good to be true. The Police? Fountains of Wayne? Willie Nelson? Cat Power? The Decemberists?

The Police reunion sounds like a possibility since they were rumoured to be getting back together for Coachella, but when that line-up was announced, they weren’t on the bill. That’s a show I’d loooooove to see.

I will be very, very pregnant when Bonnaroo rolls around this year, but I still hope to make it down to cover it as I have for the past two years. It’s an experience not to be missed.

visceral

Both my husband and I had previous marriages. Mine lasted 12-plus years. I still have a great deal of grief over the whole thing and probably always will. Jon is extremely understanding of this. I always say that for me, being divorced is sort of like missing a limb; I have become very adept at functioning without the limb (which hurt like HELL to be amputated), but I will always be aware that it’s gone.

Jon’s marriage was very, very brief. They dated for several years but were only married less than two years. And he has zero grief. I think he mostly feels grateful that it ended as quickly as it did (though it was not his choice at all, even a little bit) because he knows it could have been much more complicated and painful if it had gone on longer. But he is remarkably levelheaded about the whole thing and where it fits into his life story and what it all meant. I think his family has more anger and resentment about what happened to him on his behalf than he has for himself. (Those Hickmans have each others’ backs

I am always a bit jealous of his thoughtful, productive approach to viewing what the relationship was to him. He’s just….over it. Someone treated him without respect or honestly and thus, he knows he is better off without them in his life. End of story.

So last night we went to this venue to see a band and dance. Apparently his ex regularly did some sort of social dancing (swing dancing?, )often at this venue. So being there made him feel very uncomfortable. He tried as hard as he could to enjoy himself, and even to dance with me, but finally he had to be honest with me that being there, with that kind of music playing and people dancing, just made him feel, well, bad. We’ve been dancin together at another place, and had a blast, but this particular Knoxville spot just brought up a flood of unpleasant recollections.

He wanted to leave. So we left. It was the first time he’s ever expressed any sense of lingering hurt over his lost relationship. I felt terrible that I had put him in that position. I never want him to hurt. I can’t imagine anyone hurting this profoundly kind, decent, honest, loving man. In fact, if anyone ever does again, they will have me to deal with.

We will dance at home.

dancing

I love, love, love to dance. I don’t get to do it enough.

christabel and the jons January 26, 2007

I love seeing live music, but pregnancy prevents me from going anywhere smoky, plus I am so sleepy lately that I cannot stay up very late.

But tonight at 8pm, there is a smoke-free show at LAUREL THEATER with one of my recent favorite local bands, CHRISTABEL AND THE JONS. I’m dragging Jon along with me and will insist that he dance with me. He’s a very good sport.

applicants January 25, 2007

My daughter has decided completely, 100% on her own that she wants to apply to the most competitive prep school in our area for next year. She says she wants to “have more opportunities” (she currently attends a very nice, protestant parochial school).

So we already discovered we missed the priority application deadline, and now I am going to be scrambling to get her application completed ASAP. Then she has to do the testing.

It’s fascinating to me how different siblings can be. My oldest - a 9th grader - is totally not competitive. He’s not interested in traditional definitions of success. He is wickedly funny and clever, very cynical, loves jam bands, can quote Abbie Hoffman, plays a mean guitar, and just blew the lid off the PSAT. But grades? He doesn’t care. Competitive sports? Forget it. I have no idea what he’ll decide to do for college.

My daughter is very competitive. She wants to be the lead in the play, the horse show winner, editor of the school newspaper… At age 11, she is already thinking about how going to a better middle and high school will influence her chances of getting into a better college.