Day in the Life of an Idiot

Last night I was up until 11:00 pm writing. And giggling. Let's just say there's now a scene that involves a well-known Minnesotan/public radio show host and... vampires.

I amuse myself.

Thanks to everyone who gave me thoughts about Mason, especially naomikritzer for pointing us in the direction of Leonardo's Basement, which I think Mason will enjoy this August. I also had kind of a break-through moment with Mason at the breakfast table. Another thing that Shawn and I have struggled with is getting Mason to learn to tie his shoes (actually, he's really resistant to anything that requires more than a few minutes effort. Again, I think this is pretty typical for kids like him for whom so much other stuff seems to come so quickly. Plus, it's another fine motor skill thing.) Anyway, Shawn had made up a little practice board and we were showing him the various ways to tie. He tried twice and then screamed about never being able to do anything this difficult.

Often, to be perfectly honest, this is where I lose my patience.

Today, though, something clicked. I realized that Mason was feeling overwhelmed because he wasn't thinking in terms of individual steps. He was frustrated when he tried to do it all. So, I broke things down. Today we just worked on tying a knot. I told him: "Let's not think about anything else right now. Master this, and then we'll move on."

Simple right? It's amazing how this simple stuff doesn't occur to you when you're dealing with a yelling child. :-)

Okay, so the rest of my life. Last Friday, Shawn and I went to HPB, which means I picked up a bunch of used comicbooks. We also stopped into our new favorite independently-owned used bookstore, Sixth Chamber on Grand Avenue in St. Paul. First of all, if you're local, you should know that someone in that neighborhood dumps a lot of new, cutting-edge trade paperback science fiction/fantasy. (If it's you: I love you!) Also, their prices are incredible. Especially on young adult/children's stuff.

So, anyway, one of the things I got at Sixth Chamber was a shojo Manga by Asami Tohjoh called X-KAI- (Volume 2). I may have to see if I can find the first volume, although this is appeared to be a two book story and I've now read to THE END (I haven't yet read the Wikipedia article I linked to above, so perhaps I'm mistaken). This was kind of an intense storyline.

Our hero, Kaito, is a forist by day and teenage assassin kind-of-for-hire, but-more-at-the-mercy-of-some-funky-shadow-organization by night. I guess in keeping with the shojo tropes the story focuses on Kaito's emotional life and has a lot of hurt/comfort, to use a slash term. Kaito is often referred to as a killer with a heart, and, though the killing doesn't seem to bother him per se, the lifestyle is tough on his tender soul. Plus, he's more-or-less forced into doing it for honorable reasons, ie to pay the bills for his comatose older brother who saved his life in a fire (over which, of course, Kaito has LOTS of guilt.) Add to that the young abused boy Kaito takes in, and you've got a boat load of angst.



That might sound a bit snarkier than I intend, because I actually found X-KAI- very moving, perhaps because it taps into a favorite theme of mine -- how does a person stay human in an inhuman world? and/or can a sociopathic killer be sympathetic?

Well, it's about time for me to get working on that novel that's due in a matter of days, so I'll hit the comicbook reviews later.