tiny grass

Researching skinny wallets was kinda fun - there are several options available. I considered 4 options:

1. the JimiX | $16 | 4.3″ x 2.7″ x .6″. This was the most technically interesting option. Plus, I could yell out Kick me in the Jimi ad nauseum.

2. the Slimmy | $32 | 3.8″ x 2.9″ x .3″. The most expensive but elegant option.

3. the All-Ett European | $15 | 3.75″ x 3″ x 1/32″. The cheapest, fugliest option with the worst name. All wtf?

4. the Fossil Front Pocket Wallet | $25 | 4″ x 3″ x ?”. The leather looked old-school and thicker - not slimmy. Just there for comparison with something more traditional.

Besides shrinking the wallet and freeing my butt, I had two other practical considerations, both relating to the move to Costa Rica. It had to fit comfortably in a front pocket since CR is chock full of pickpockets and it had to fit Costa Rican currency. Turns out the currency is almost identical to US currency in size, so that part was easy. Some other wallets not on my list were knocked off because they were too large to fit in a front pocket.

I decided on the All-Ett (wtf) European, because I’m cheap and don’t give a crap about the style of a friggin’ wallet. I also picked up a smaller card case from them for another $5. They charged $2.05 in shipping, which mostly paid for the plastic packaging sleeve since the wallet shockingly arrived in a regular envelope. The wallet & card case are made of thin, rip-stop nylon. Think pragmatism over style, by a HUGE margin.

Following are some pictures of both with a ruler (hard to read, but hey - I tried). Note that the Wtf European is empty til the end.

This pic has my old, now empty wallet in the background, the Wtf European filled with all necessary items and the pile of unnecessary crap.

Here’s the new skinny wallet with all the unnecessary crap next to it. It was a little tight to close due to some of the cards that I can’t get rid of yet, like 2 cards needed for entry to work. That’s why I got the card case (and also to carry business cards). The wallet thinned out a lot when I just took the cards and stuck them in the card case - which is nice since a lot of times, I need either cash or a card but not both.

The card case is empty here, but here’s a list of the contents of my fat wallet replacements:

In the All-Ett European: cash.

In the card case: 2 credit cards, subway card, 2 proximity/ID cards for work, driver’s license, 2 health insurance cards and 1 triple AAA card. Oh - and one … receipt.

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First, a few pictures of our family of spooks:

We took the kids to one of the best streets for Trick-Or-Treating that I have ever had the pleasure to go to. It was great. We all had a great time. M was into which kinds of candy he was getting. J was into the lollipops. I particularly loved looking at all the houses with their amazing decorations. If only I had the money to invest in that kind of festivity!

On the way home, what was on the minds of Arp and I was how many little girls were costumed as princesses, brides, or other sorts of “girly stuff”. Of the thousand people we saw (this was a happening place!), I only saw two girls in non-girly attire: My J, in her Creature From the Black Lagoon outfit, and a two-year-old in a fantastically accurate police outfit (which I complimented, of course). From the point of view of a feminist, I’m finding this fact more than a little troublesome.

Why are so many young girls dressed as princesses? Frankly, I’m repulsed by it. I’m guessing the reasoning is two-fold. Either the girls actually really wanted to be princesses, or their parents pushed them toward the choice. Actually, in both cases, I’d wager the parents pushed it. Even if you have a child who wants to be a princess, I’m guessing it’s likely because you have chosen to fill your house with those sorts of items - princess videos, princess-themed toys, etc.  Or in the other option, I’m guessing the parents direct their daughters toward the “girl aisle” of the local costume store.

What do parents do this?  Do parents really want to push their girls into the role of princess?  What the heck are we trying to say to our young women?  Do parents really want their girls to sit around waiting for a rich man to rescue them and provide a life of “happiness” in a castle away from the masses?  Having seen the “girl aisle” for costumes in Target, I quickly found most of them to be uninteresting.  Some items were actually rather whorish.  I swear, you could actually change up the size on a few of them, put them on a woman on 42nd street, and have someone propositioning her within 2 minutes.  Gotta love that for Halloween.  “Hey Honey!  Look!  Want to be a prostitute for Halloween this year?”

Let me go on record as saying that I don’t ban princesses from my home.  We have a few Disney movies, such as Beauty and the Beast.  But we don’t give them undue emphasis either.  If my daughter wanted a CD player, for instance, I wouldn’t pick the pink princess-themed one just because she’s a girl, or some other such idiocy.  But yet I’ve been to people’s houses that have 2 or 3 year old girls and a house filled with princess-themed merchandise.  You can’t tell me that a two-year-old drove her parents to buy all that princess crap.  The parents have to be taking the lead.  It’s time we stop doing it, don’t you think?

Here’s one more pic of me and my girl.

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Turns out I have a verifiable disorder with an actual name. It’s called Third Baby Syndrome, and I have it bad. According to this midwifery student, it is even mentioned in midwifery textbooks. I actually feel much better now, knowing.

What are my symptoms? For quite a few weeks, I was obsessed with the fear that I was having twins. The morning sickness and fatigue has been a lot worse for this pregnancy, combined with the fact that I began showing at something like 8 weeks. I’ve also been incredibly hungry, which I don’t remember from the first two pregnancies. It just all feels incredibly different. So I brought up my fear that I was having twins at my first midwife appointment. She kind of reassured me. I mean, I’m not even vomiting that much, so it’s not like I have hyperemesis. It’s just that it feel so different from the first two times. I keep catching myself wondering if there is something wrong, just because things are not like my first two pregnancies. Typical Third Baby Syndrome, I now know.

I also have a strange amount of fear surrounding birth this time. My first birth was in an in-hospital birthing center, and it went pretty well. For my second birth, we planned a homebirth, and it went wonderfully. I think the second time, I was just so happy to be staying at home that I really didn’t have any fears entering labor. This time, I have worries. What if I have a hospital transfer (in Costa Rica, no less)? Third Baby Syndrome strikes again. My plan: I’m going to try to focus on the positives. After all, planning a low or no intervention homebirth is going to increase the likelihood of a normal, natural birth. I’m also in the process of getting some Hypnobabies CDs to reduce my stress and focus on positive pregnancy affirmations.  Finally, I’ve ordered a copy of Birthing From Within from my local library, so that I can do some wrestling with my fears and some art that connects me with my baby.

On the hunger: Arp tells me that he remembers it from the first two pregnancies. I asked him the other day, “What if I eat us out of house and home?” He says, “You asked that the first two times, and we still have a house, right?” That made me feel better, too.  And every time I walk up, showing him my huge belly, saying, “Look at this belly!” he says, “It’s great!  I love it!”  I am a lucky woman, indeed.

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In recent months I found myself needing to adjust my wallet to make my commutes more comfortable. The damn thing was too big to sit on comfortably. Wallets need purging every so often, but I figured it’s time to make the purge more permanent. The other day I ditched my wallet and just grabbed my license, a credit card and a couple of bills and loved it. My butt was FREE. (I pack some back, so it was quite noticeable) Figures that I realized after going to work that I needed a card to get into the building and another card to get into the office. So going completely minimal wasn’t an option. Here’s what was in my wallet:

2. driver’s license
3. work ID card
4. metrocard (NYC subway fare)
5. work building entry card
6. 2 bank debit cards
7. health insurance ID card
8. prescription card
9. AAA card
10. work emergency number card (laminated crap)
11. 3 reminder cards from vet (1 from January)
12. ASCAP membership card
13. Trish’s library card
14. Target giftcard
15. H&M merchandise credit card
16. Babies R Us merchandise credit card
17. 1 credit card (ie the ‘emergency’ card)
18. 3 business cards
19. Zoo membership card
20. Warehouse club membership card (membership expired)
21. Local nursery stamp card (spend X get a stamp…)
22. 1 small band-aid
23. 1 painted heart (from M)
24. 1 small guitar pick
25. 1 ATM deposit receipt
26. 1 eyeglass prescription (yay I found it!)
27. 1 certified mail receipt (from January)
28. 1 folded 4″x6″ note (from January)
29. 1 credit-card sized NYC subway map (tattered)
30. 1 double CC sized NYC subway map
31. 1 post-it with address of M’s potential penpal from camping
32. 1 quote from an overpopular dj about djing (inspired me for about 10 minutes in February)
33. 1 2″x2″ note written when I was ~10 with the following quotes:
    • Fear of the unknown brings no gain. (inspiration for a shy kid)
    • Mighty brawn is no match for nimble brain. (obvious geek in training)
    • Silence is golden. (wtf)
    • Do not meddle with things… (incomplete, must’ve been really important)

I’ll post some pictures of my old & new wallets tomorrow eventually.

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Last night, M was drawing, using Dot Art markers.  They make lines about 3/4-1″ thick.  I see him draw an upside down ‘V’ and contemplate.  After 20 seconds, he covers the apex with his hand, then speaks to me.

M: Arpy?
A: Yeah?
M: Doesn’t this look like our walkway?
A: Huh?
M: Doesn’t this look like our walkway?
(he turns the paper so I get a better look; pause while I scratch my head)
A: I don’t really understand what you’re saying.
M (losing patience): Doesn’t this look like our WALKWAY? When I look down the walkway it’s gets smaller as it gets farther away.
A (surprised that M seems to have discovered linear perspective): Oh.. yeah, it does.

I love these little surprises when you realize that your children’s minds are always at work, that they are always learning whether we know it or not.  Who knows when he first made the observation about the walkway?  We don’t hear about the exact moment when such a light goes off; we only only know when they explicitly say or do something (when our mind connects the dots).  A big part of unschooling has been trusting that learning happens, and these moments really inspire confidence.

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