Nobody Knows Anything

Welcome to Diane Patterson's eclectic blog about what strikes her fancy

A note I found

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Yesterday I found several pieces of writing Sophia had made on the kitchen table. One read, “Mr. Sure is going to a in inportit meting.” Another had a picture of a rocket ship with the legend “rokit ship.”

She hadn’t asked anyone for help on these. She’d just written them, sounding out the words. Evidently “Mr. Sure” is supposed to be “Mr. Star,” which is kind of weird because on the paper with the rocket ship she’s spelled “star” correctly several times. And “a in” is her spelling of “an.” And I have no idea what this important meeting is.

Still: I’m just amazed.

I know, I know: this is what kids are supposed to learn. Those are generic kids. This kid hasn’t done this before. She’s gone from knowing how to read a few words to this in a few short months.

She loves writing and drawing. She leaves writing and pictures all over the place. My supply of printing paper is dwindling rapidly. I bought her some Crayola washable markers and she started making elaborate pictures. It’s funny to watch how her symbols for various things change: hair on girls is now long lines on both sides, even for girls like herself who have short hair.

Didn’t I just bring her home from the hospital?

Why writers scream

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Because real life is so much weirder than anything you can dream up:

TMZ has learned, director Lee Tamahori was scheduled to be arraigned today, on charges that he allegedly solicited an undercover cop while dressed in drag.

Tamahori, whose directing credits include, ‘Die Another Day,’ ‘XXX: State of the Union,’ ‘Along Came a Spider’ and ‘The Sopranos,’ was arrested in Hollywood on January 8, 2006. According to law enforcement, Tamahori was allegedly dressed in drag, approached an undercover officer who was in his car, entered the vehicle and offered to perform a sex act for money.

Really, the only reaction you can have to this is: WTF? If you read something like this in a Hollywood novel, you’d say, “Oh, what crap, no fairly successful director is going to do something like that. Go down to Hollywood Boulevard and pick up a hooker, sure. But this?” And you’d throw the book across the room.

(I once tried to think up the most shocking thing I could imagine a star doing, and I came up with “brother and sister celebrities openly living as a couple.” Then Angelina Jolie macks with her brother at the Oscars and I was like, Day-um.)

(Via Defamer.)

Something to aim for

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A while ago — we lived in LA, I know that much, and we had Sophia, at least — I picked up a running or sports magazine and opened it to a big article on the Berlin Marathon.

Berlin.

Marathon.

My immediate reaction was Oh yeah, I wanna do that.

I haven’t been back to Berlin since I was there in 1986. I’ve kept saying I want to go back, but it was always easy to put off, and then I got together with Darin, who is not particularly comfortable with countries where he doesn’t speak the language.

At the time I read the article, I hadn’t gotten back into running. The idea of running a marathon seemed completely ludicrous. And yet…

Running a marathon isn’t completely ludicrous any more. (In fact, as Rob puts it, “We could probably run one right now, just on sheer orneriness.”) My running buds, Rob and Nina, are not that into the idea — continue running for four (errr…five…maybe five and a half hours)? So I’m in it on my own. Although Nina wouldn’t mind going on the training runs with me. And Rob wants to do at least one 30K (18.6 miles) trail run. And it’s really cool to go on these runs where a lot of participants are doing 50K (31 miles) runs up gigantic hills and without getting a medal when they pass the finish lines.

And then, one of my favorite bloggers, the Born Again Gym Bunny, has decided to do a marathon. Three guesses as to which one she’s doing.

It’s a sign, I tell you.

Except schlepping the entire family halfway around the world so that I can run around the streets of Berlin seems just a teensy bit crazed. (Not to mention: expensive.) And the idea of going to Berlin by myself… well, I couldn’t be there for particularly long, because I can’t leave Darin with the kids for too long unless he takes off of work.

Maybe it’s just a completely crazy idea and I should just do something simple, like the LA Marathon. (True, with all this hill running, I should be up for the SF Marathon, but… no.) But I want to do a marathon this year. This is the year that the odometer rolls over and my warranty expires. This is my version of giant party.

Evidently they close the registration for the marathon in August, unless it fills up before then. So I guess I have a while to decide and work out the logistics.