My Life as a Geek -- Archives
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Posted by Ms. Summer Moore Batte on Jun 21 2011 1:00PM | 0 comments
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sticker shock
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Years
ago, my husband, bought a used car from a friend of my dad’s
who specializes in finding just the right vehicle at auctions. With
the addition of our son to our family, it was decided that I would
be given full access to the obligatory SUV (in order to tote the
obligatory three-ton stroller), while my husband would need a
smaller putt-putt car just to get him to the BART and back. I
dreamt of finding an old Volvo, resplendent in its boxiness, to be
driven by my handsome husband down Highway 13. The soft tunes of
Classical 102.1 KDFC would pour out the windows while he sipped
Peet’s Coffee in the morning. Meanwhile, my husband dreamt of
Sports Talk Radio in a navy blue Ford Ranger to replace the one
that was run into in the garage of our apartment building in
Washington, D.C. by a diplomat from Eritrea. We settled for a 1992
navy-blue Lexus with 82,000 miles on it and a malfunctioning air
condit...Posted by Mrs. Katie Mauro Zeigler on Mar 23 2011 9:15AM | 0 comments
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Lent, Oranges and Guido Juiceheads
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With
Lent starting tomorrow, I’m still on the fence about what it
is I will be giving up this year. I’m not an overtly
religious person, but for some reason I’ve always given
something up for Lent. Maybe it’s because Marci, my friend
from childhood, always gave up sweets even though her birthday and
mine always fell within the parameters of Lent. So while the rest
of us were eating our fill of cupcakes and cake and ice cream, she
sat there looking rather sad and holy eating an orange. That kind
of thing stays with a girl. (Years later, I found out that at the
birthday parties she attended during Lent, she would always bring
the cake or cupcake home in a bag and then freeze it until Easter
at which point she’d eat until she threw up.) And while I
never found the inner reserve (or freezer space) to give up sweets,
I figured I’d try this Lent thing out for myself.I&...
Posted by Mrs. Katie Mauro Zeigler on Mar 8 2011 10:10AM | 0 comments
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any given sunday
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This past
Sunday, my family and I attended church thereby attempting to live
up to our New Year’s Resolution of attending at least once a
month. My husband grew up going to church every Sunday –
attending Youth Group and staying after church for the coffee
clutches and Danishes. I, on the other hand, grew up with a
fits-and-starts approach to church – attending sporadically
throughout my childhood and then completely falling off, save the
occasional visit to Mem Chu (more for the beautiful peace of the
place than the spirituality of it.) I think, fundamentally, I
have a base level of discomfort with church and I’m not sure
where it comes from. Lots of kids that I knew growing up went to
church regularly and were very active in youth groups and it always
looked like fun – movie nights, sleepaway camps, really cute
Youth Group leaders…But it just never seemed like a good fit
f...Posted by Mrs. Katie Mauro Zeigler on Feb 23 2011 8:59PM | 0 comments
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the weenie hat
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My dad sent me this
postcard when I was in college and I've always loved it.
Particularly her weenie hat. Yes, it takes a ubiquitous dig at
liberal arts majors, of which I was a real doozy, but who cares.
I'll own my doozy of a major. Heck, I'll sing its praises to you
and anyone else who will listen. Because even all these years out
of college, certain people still take a little pleasure out of
mocking my choice of major. I was an English Lit major which was,
to some nameless folks, just about as marketable as Underwater
Basketweaving. But I am here to applaud all the fuzzies
worldwide. (Do people even call them fuzzies anymore? Am I dating
myself? I digress...) Yes, I'll own my fuzziness and raise a glass
(or weenie) to all of my fellow fuzzy, non-techie, tweed blazer and
penny loafer-wearing, William Carlos Williams lovin', coffee
house-addicted English majors who used words like ...Posted by Mrs. Katie Mauro Zeigler on Jan 31 2011 11:12AM | 0 comments
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Inserting the Compass
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Seems you
can’t read a newspaper or listen to the radio lately without
seeing or hearing about Amy Chua and her Wall Street
Journal piece “Why Chinese Mothers are Superior”.
I firmly believe that quite a bit of Chua’s goal in writing
the article and in including such incendiary comments, was to
create a stir in the press (which she did with flying colors). And
whether you find yourself agreeing with her or nodding along with
David Brooks who, among other things, said that Chua may be putting
her children at a disadvantage not because of her strict parenting
but because she doesn't recognize "that in some important ways the
school cafeteria is more intellectually demanding that the
library” (hear! hear!), I think the take-away from both of
these pieces is that it has opened up a worthwhile dialogue among
parents. How we parent. How we discipline. Are we too easy on our
kids? Too d...Posted by Mrs. Katie Mauro Zeigler on Jan 19 2011 3:16PM | 0 comments
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Couples Skate
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Does anyone else
remember "couples skate" at the roller skating rink? The lights
would dim. That kid in the corner would stop "shooting the duck".
The disco ball would fall from the ceiling and, suddenly, the early
chords of Bryan Adams' "Heaven" would begin. That or Chicago's
"Glory of Love"...and for one brief moment you'd think that the
really cute guy with the pulled up Izod collar and the pegged acid
wash jeans was actually skating in your direction, until he put his
toe forward to brake and exited from the carpeted rink to go buy a
hot dog from the concession.Well, for those of you who do remember, please pause for a moment of reflection. For I, too, remember. And my memory was jogged this morning in my continual quest to organize my closet...when I came upon my journal of poems from the seventh grade. And...
Posted by Mrs. Katie Mauro Zeigler on Jan 7 2011 1:16PM | 1 comments
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if i ran the museum
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I'll admit, I'm a
complete nutball for museums. i adore them. when i lived in
washington dc, i took every possible opportunity to visit all of
the museums, for FREE no less...the sackler, the national gallery,
the portrait gallery...i used to feel so very sophisticated and
artsy and intellectual walking the rooms by myself, picking my
favorites and then walking out into the world feeling brighter and
more illuminated. unfortunately, in college, the cantor
center was closed due to damage from the 89 earthquake, but i still
was able to visit the outdoor rodin sculpture garden and imagine
the gates of hell opening on a dark winter's night.and then, years
later when it reopened, i took my children and we loved every
square inch of it...now that i have children, i've made sure that they are well-versed in the art of museum-going...not just from a behavior standpoint but from an appreciation standpoint. my sons know that e...
Posted by Mrs. Katie Mauro Zeigler on Dec 27 2010 8:50AM | 0 comments
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Is that a Moia or are you just happy to see me?
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There is,
perhaps, no better example of my life as a geek than my dating
history. Before we take this particular walk down memory lane, let
me first give thanks to my darling husband. Not only is he witty
and wonderful and handsome and kind and tall and just about every
adjective that I once came up with when daydreaming about my
perfect man (you remember my imaginary boyfriend, Chess,
don’t you? Ah, yes…). He makes me laugh like no one
else and he balances me out when I become, as my grandmother
Deedles put it, skeewampus. He has great hair and a great
smile and he knows how awful I am when I’m sick and he even
puts up with me telling the same joke 17 times without remembering
that I’ve told it 16 times before. Like the line from The
Simpsons when the teacher, Edna Krabappel, gets tired of Ralph
Wiggum and tells him to put his head down on the desk and go to
sleep and Ralph says, &ld...Posted by Mrs. Katie Mauro Zeigler on Dec 16 2010 7:02PM | 0 comments
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Searching for Diana
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Years ago, when I was little and would spend
the night at my grandparents' house out in the country, I would
pretend that I was Anne of Green Gables. I'd lie upstairs in
the little twin bed next to the window, listening to the tiny green
frogs hiccuping against the open screen, and dream that I had
long red hair and a boy named Gilbert Blythe who loved me and
that I lived in a white gingerbread house on Prince Edward Island.
At one point, around that same time, I apparently announced to my
parents that I wanted to renounce my American citizenship so that I
could become Canadian and move to Nova Scotia. This wasn't the
first of such announcements. Others included legally changing my
name to "Katie Blue" which my mother quickly put the brakes on
since she thought it was eerily similar to Cher's son Elijah Blue.
Another was that, at the ripe old age ...Posted by Mrs. Katie Mauro Zeigler on Dec 8 2010 1:25PM | 3 comments
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Whales and Pearls
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When I was in the seventh grade, I wore a white
turtleneck with navy blue whales on it to school. Now, mind you, I
loved that turtleneck. Who could blame me? It had whales
on it for goodness sake. And if ever a girl felt glamorous, it was
I. I breezed into homeroom, waved to Mr. McGregor (the cute
teacher), plopped down my enormous backpack and began to read
Catcher in the Rye for the eleventh time.“Ahem.”
I turned and looked up. And there, before me, were the three coolest girls in the entire school. Bangs perfectly sprayed into a crashing wave of Aqua Net. Jeans perfectly pegged. Pale pink Contempo sweatshirts tied around their diminutive waists. They just stood there – eyeing me until the ring-leader, let’s call her Erika J. (for that was her name after all) took a quick glance...
Posted by Mrs. Katie Mauro Zeigler on Dec 2 2010 11:56AM | 1 comments
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