Weekend Round-up

* After getting involved in Kickstarter for Return to Zero (the movie about a couple whose baby is stillborn), I found myself backing another (more lighthearted) project:  The Veronica Mars movie.  I wrote about VM way back when (another lifetime, right?) and I still love it.  (David is actually a big fan as well).  So I decided to become a backer for the VM movie, which has become HUGE.  They've surpassed their original goal (in fact, I think they doubled it) and they're trying to break a record for the most backers ever on a Kickstarter project.  They are almost there and the minimum donation is $1 so if you're interested in backing what is sure to be an awesome movie, you can pitch in here.

* Now that I have backed two movies through Kickstarter, I'm considering adding line "Film Producer" to my CV.  That's legit, right?

* It started this weekend.  Packing up our house to move.  I thought I would have all kinds of complicated and mixed up feelings about this and I already have and I'm sure I will, but mostly right now I feel like holy shit we have so much stuff and it all has to get packed and we're trying to get things painted and painting takes forever and I want to be organized about packing because otherwise David will put stuff who knows where and then "forget" that he's ever seen it and a month seemed like a long time but actually we now have exactly three weekends between now and when we have to be out of our house.  And also, how am I supposed to get anything done at our current house (like laundry) when I spend all weekend painting at the new house?

* We close on selling our house and buying the new house on the same day in early May.  In the meantime, we decided to lease the new house for a month so we wouldn't be in a rush to get everything moved.  I hoped this would help keep the crazy at bay, but I'm not sure that's really possible.  Plus there are just a few things going on at work between now and then...  like the end of the semester and final exams and an honors convocation at which I'm speaking.

* The timing of all of this, at the busiest time of the semester, and a couple of months before I had really expected to be moving, also reminds me of when we adopted Cooper, which was right before my major field exam in grad school.  In what should know be called the "Classic Brooke and David move," we talked about doing something in theory, planned to do it that summer after I'd passed my exams, and then jumped in and did it about three months before we'd originally intended to.  Cooper arrived at the WORST time possible because it was still wet and cold outside and he had to be potty trained, I was trying to study for exams and he was chewing up everything in our house, and when he wasn't chewing on things, he was peeing.  Everywhere.  And I do mean everywhere because Cooper as a puppy did not make a little puddle in the corner.  He gleefully ran through the house, tinkling everywhere, as we shouted, "Outside!  Outside!"  And we still had carpet at the time.  I spent WAY too much time scrubbing dog pee out of the carpet when I should have been studying for my exam.  (Cooper was seriously such a nightmare to potty train.  However, one day it finally clicked for him and then he never looked back.)

* I finished reading The Fault in Our Stars last night (by John Green).  I cried.  Kind of a lot.  It was so damn heartbreaking.  I mulled over the line, "Grief does not change you... It reveals you." I'm not sure whether or not I agree.  Or whether or not I want to agree with that sentiment.  But I smiled at "The world is not a wish-granting factory."  Because, no.  It sure as hell isn't.  And it freaking sucks that some people can only wish for what other people take for granted.  Anyway, the book was great.  I highly recommend.

* The first room we painted at the new house was Zuzu's "Big Girl Room."  I chose a sweet, pale pink called "White Dogwood."  It's a slight homage to our current house, which has an adorable dogwood tree in the front, on the opposite side of Eliza's magnolia tree.

* The new house has three bedrooms upstairs--the master, the front room (which is the "Big Girl Room"), and a tiny little room that was their office that we're going to make a nursery.  I love Zuzu's nursery at this house, and there are lots of things in it that personalize it just for her, but the overall "theme" (baby ducks) was Eliza's nursery theme.  I didn't put the nursery together fully together when I was pregnant with Eliza because I was waiting until classes were over (one week after we lost her).  And I didn't put a nursery together when I was pregnant with Zuzu because I was waiting for her to be alive.  So this is basically the first time I've fully planned and executed a nursery without an eighteen-month gap in between the initial planning and the putting it together.  It's emotionally fraught in some ways, but also super freaking fun in other ways.  For example, I had a fabric sample and a vague idea in my head and walked into Sherwin Williams to find that the very color combination I was imagining had been put together on one of their combo-suggestion cards.  I was delighted.  It's going to be SUPER cute.

* Next up on the painting list:  The nursery.  Then the bathroom.  And then the master bedroom.  The nursery is small, but it's complicated.  I want to do stripes...  on the ceiling.  (No, it's a GREAT idea.)  The paint guy at SW seemed incredulous that I planned to do it myself, and now I'm experiencing a bit of self-doubt.  Mostly in term of time/energy.  But my parents will be here next week, so they will be able to wrangle Zuzu while we paint.  That's the hardest part, really--keeping her entertained.  She only tolerates baby jail (the pack & play) for so long.  Then she wants to crawl around and play with (1) paint buckets (2) paint brushes (3) the door (4) dirt, paint chips, various choking hazards, (5) iPhones.  All of which are generally off-limits, except today we left her have the iPhones because ANYTHING to get this paint up on the wall!  This afternoon she was obviously tired and refused to go in the pack & play so we strapped her into the stroller, rolled it into the center of room, and she fell asleep in it while we painted around her.  (Zero VOC paint, with the windows open and fan going, in case anyone was concerned about her brain cells).

* Speaking of cells (possibly worst segue ever) David's grandma and my nana are both currently undergoing chemo.  (Well, Nana starts on Friday).  David's grandma has lymphoma and my nana has lung cancer.  I also know of three little girls right now (relatives or friends of friends) who are battling leukemia.  My friend Brad from college died of leukemia last fall.  It's because of all of these people that I am registered at Be the Match.  I confess that I also hate the idea of being someone's match.  Well, I don't hate the idea of being a match.  I hate the process of donation (Needles.  I hate needles.). But if Zuzu ever needed a match for something like that...?  I would damn well want everyone and their brother who's not an IV-drug-user to be on that list.  The fact is, somebody's sweet little girl has cancer and there's a chance that she might be a match to me (people who sign up for the registry have a 1 in 540 chance of being matched with someone).  So I'm signed up.  Cancer effing sucks.

* Speaking of segues...  One time I was writing on a student's paper and telling him he needed a smoother segue from one section to another and instead I wrote "segway."  Yes, I spelled it phonetically.  Like the electric scooters tourists sometimes ride and that I kind of want to try even though I think anyone who rides them looks like a huge jackass.  At any rate, I didn't realize it until I'd handed the paper back to the student, and then later that day, it just hit me.  The certainty that I'd spelled "segue" as "segway."  I was mortified, but I'm not sure the student (1) read the comments or (2) knew the difference.  Or maybe he had a good laugh at my expense and wondered how such a moron ended up teaching college.  I occasionally wonder the same thing.  (Whatever... MOST professors totally  consult Wikipedia when writing lectures...)

* Zuzu had her 9-month photos taken this morning.  I know.  We basically take her picture CONSTANTLY and then we hire other people to take her picture every three months, PLUS I take her to JCP every now and again.  What can I say?  Girl looks good in photographs.  She was pretty good for our session today, but she is going through a slightly clingy mommy-phase.  It's cute and endearing, but also cramped our style at the photoshoot just a little bit.  Hopefully we got some good shots.  (You know I'll post them...  it's what I do.)

* Zuzu totally redeemed herself from photoshoot meltdown when we met up with a friend at a coffee shop and Zuzu smiled a friendly greeting and then proceeded to peacefully fall asleep in her stroller and nap for about an hour while we chatted.  #bestbaby

And THAT, my friends, is the weekend round-up.  Bear with me as the blog becomes focused on New House Makeover, because that is the obsession around here.