dual personalities

You can expect interesting posts from my mother about the things we saw and the places we went on our trip. I bring you, however, a tongue-in-cheek look at one of our favorite places of the whole trip: Otero Junior College.

Otero Junior College was the “home base” for the symposium. I mean, technically. We went to Bent’s Old Fort three days in a row, so I’d put that on the home base list, as well. Anyway, Otero had a pretty little campus where I was always able to find a parking spot. And they have a rodeo team–Go Rattlers! Sadly, we didn’t decide we wanted Otero sweatshirts until Saturday when the bookstore was closed.

But the reason I count it as one of “our favorite places of the whole trip” is that it had real UC Sunnydale vibes. Specifically the Thanksgiving episode where Buffy’s perfect Thanksgiving feast is disrupted by an army of Chumash Indians, the original inhabitants of Sunnydale, whose spirits have come alive to avenge the wrongs that were done to their people after Xander inadvertently releases their spirits from the remains of the old Sunnydale Mission.

Otero even has the Koshare Indian Museum and Kiva. UC Sunnydale had a Cultural Center.

In case you’re wondering, the kiva, a modern adaptation of ancient subterranean rooms used for rituals, is owned by the Otero College. It was built in 1949 by the La Junta Boy Scout troop under the leadership of James Francis “Buck” Burshears. The museum holds a pretty impressive collection of Native American art and artifacts.

I’m just telling you guys, I kept expecting to see this guy around every corner.

What can I say, but we amuse ourselves.

Also, I’d like to thank the super nerds who maintain websites like this so that not-as-super nerds can find the information they seek and still be thankful they haven’t reached that level of nerdom.

How was your weekend?

Daughter #2 is back on a Monday since our travelers arrived home late on Sunday night. I promised that I would not post two posts effusively describing a toddler’s every development, so I have a few other thoughts to share.

We are not great at keeping up with television or movies, since the evenings somehow slip away between bedtimes (Katie’s at 7 p.m. and mine, which edges closer to 9 p.m. every week). We are also watching Only Murders in the Building and identify deeply with Martin Short’s character’s affinity for dips. Sometimes we mix it up by watching old episodes of Curb Your Enthusiasm, which is a real vibe. I think readers of the blog would appreciate this clip, beginning at 0:35.

I feel this.

On Friday night, we watched the newest episode of Great British Bake Off, a show which my aunt has blogged about before. The thing is, it’s so soothing in its pure-hearted competition that it puts me to sleep by its second round of baking (the “technical”). Sigh.

Then, on Saturday, we tried a movie — a Woody Allen pick, since Katie loves to sort the stack of DVDs and the Woody Allen collection is often on the top of the pile. We chose The Purple Rose of Cairo.

Mia Farrow’s character falls in love with a fictional character and the actor who plays him. OK, sure. I fell asleep for the last five minutes, so I never found out who she chose. (DN told me.) I think this was the first Woody Allen movie I’ve seen that didn’t star Woody Allen, and I’m not sure if it landed. Plus, all I could think is that Jeff Daniels is kind of a Dave Coullier type?!?

In an unbelievable twist, I managed to watch another movie on Sunday afternoon. Modern mothers will love to tell you that doing anything relaxing during a baby’s nap is torture — there is a bathroom to clean! Work to do! And it’s true, it does feel highly unproductive to relax. But I indulged and watched You’ve Got Mail while Katie slept, because the weather has been so autumnal, and I felt like it. I think most people are either You’ve Got Mail fans or When Harry Met Sally fans, and I’ve definitely seen the latter more times than the former. Even so, that line about sharpened pencils is what I remembered, so I went for it, and I managed to finish it even after Katie woke up and wanted to run around rather than find out whether Meg Ryan would figure out who Tom Hanks really was.

There you have it — a few media updates that may or may not inspire you! And if you’re wondering what we’re reading, rather than watching, the answer is Sandra Boynton:

Sunday is boy #3’s birthday. He will turn 26! Although we won’t be together on the day, Tim and Abbie paid us a visit last weekend, and we celebrated then. I baked a gluten free version of Sarah’s special cake #2, yellow cake with chocolate frosting and Heath bar bits on top. It was quite yummy, and we even got a couple of photos of notoriously camera shy Tim. Here I am holding him in place as Abbie takes the picture.

We had a wonderful time with the newly affianced couple – aren’t they sweet?   

I hope Tim, the last of the September birthdays, has a wonderful day on Sunday!

After they left, the excitement waned and we returned to our busy but boring routines. I went to the dentist and discovered that I need a crown on one of my back molars; I went to meetings and discovered nothing, and now here we are on Friday morning. This morning I’m feeling A.E. Housman’s Yonder See the Morning:

Yonder see the morning blink:

The sun is up, and up must I,

To wash and dress and eat and drink

And look at things and talk and think

And work, and God knows why.

Oh often have I washed and dressed

And what’s to show for all my pain?

Let me lie abed and rest:

Ten thousand times I’ve done my best

And all’s to do again.

I am really looking forward to my DP’s tales of western adventure, aren’t you?

Safe travels to my mother, sister and dad, who begin their trek west today — we can’t wait to hear all about it. In the meantime, I have updates to share!

Katie is nearly 16 months old and is truly toddling around with confidence these days. After getting through yet another cold, she has had a happy week of walking in and out of rooms, fetching this or that, declaring when she wants something (most adorably a “bop,” or frozen mango popsicle), and also following directions. She seems to have a pretty impressive handle on her little world. She’s also very sophisticated:

In recent weeks, Katie has grown much more attached to her stuffed animals and dolls. “Snuffles” and “Clown Bear” have places of honor in the nursery, while “baba” gets carried around all over.

I was very touched the first time Katie said “mama, baba” while I was holding her and she was holding her baby doll. They say that dolls and animals teach toddlers about empathy, and I can see that – she cares for them! (Snuffles gets his hair brushed each night when I comb Katie’s hair; Katie routinely gives Clown Bear a kiss if she has just given one to mommy and daddy, etc.)

On the flip side, Katie enjoys her fair share of destruction. Currently, her favorite game is annihilating a perfect row of rainbow sheep and then immediately signing “more” for us to line them up again.

Well, I’ve shown my true “mom” colors here with this evidence that I find her endlessly fascinating. Let me just add this picture of her proudly displaying the remote and coaster basket while wearing a raincoat in case you need one more dose of darling:

I just finished reading Sophocles’ Ajax and I loved it. You may remember that Ajax plays an important, if supporting, role in The Iliad. A fierce fighter and the cousin of Achilles, Ajax proves both thoroughly dependable and unwisely independent. He refuses the help of the gods because he wants to be his own man. In the play we discover the consequences of such freedom. Meanwhile, at Troy he guards the ships against the Trojan onslaught, tries to convince Achilles to return to the fight, duels Hector twice, and when Patroclus gets killed, fights to protect the corpse from vengeful Trojans.

Without doubt, his greatest feat involves recovering Achilles’ body and carrying it back to the Greek ships before the Trojans can plunder and mutilate it.

What does he get for all that faithful service? Nothing. Spurred on by Athena, who doesn’t like independent men, the Greeks award Achilles’ armor to Odysseus. Sophocles picks up the story at this point.

Certain that he has been cheated and dishonored, Ajax decides to kill as many of his former comrades as possible, starting with Agamemnon, Menelaus and Odysseus. Fortunately for them, Athena intervenes by driving him mad so that he mistakes herds of cattle and sheep for the Greek warriors. He slaughters, tortures and mutilates the animals, and when he comes to his senses, he is not only horribly ashamed but realizes that there is no escaping the gods and his dishonor. In an act of defiance (or shame), he kills himself by falling on his sword.

It’s a sad play that ponders the human condition with some lovely language:  

Like other Greek tragedies it boasts manipulative gods (Athena), angry men, weeping women and a stubborn, tragic hero who defies them all. It also has a lot to say to its audience. In particular I liked Teucer’s (Ajax’s half-brother) rousing speech against the autocratic Menelaus who forbids the burial of Ajax’s body:  

It’s a speech that would have resonated with the Athenians in 440 BC (thought to be the date of the play’s performance). A fledgling democracy not yet a hundred years old, Athens was at the height of its power but in danger of succumbing to greed and hubris. Perhaps Sophocles thought his fellow citizens needed a reminder about what really matters: family, loyalty, and doing the right thing by upholding universal laws, particularly burial of the dead. Not that long after, he would bring up the same issue in Antigone. One wonders why Sophocles focused so on proper burial. I don’t suppose we’ll ever know.

I’ve got a busy weekend coming up and will have no time to ponder such matters. Tim and Abbie are coming for a visit – yay! Next week, I’ll tell you all about it. Have a grand weekend and always do the right thing!

*a line from the play. Translations by Ian Johnston. You can read the whole play online here. Ajax was a popular figure on Greek pottery. The photographs show several examples — all found via Google Image.