Sozlet stories

@sozobe,

sozobe wrote:

Looked in the rearview mirror expecting protest but she was looking thoughtful and said, "You're right." That's it.

Whether it was sincere or she's just figured out how to handle me when I'm on the edge of getting seriously pissed off, it was strikingly mature.

Sounds like a night owl too weak to protest in the morning because her horrible mother denied her coffee. I'm in awe that she even mustered the energy to start blaming you.

PS, unrelated to Sozlet: ASL-ing with a grumpy daughter through the rear-view mirror while driving in rush-hour traffic---isn't that dangerous?

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@sozobe,

Wow!!! Some kid.

I blame the mother.

; )

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@Thomas,

DrewDad, awww.... a year already!

Thomas, we were talking actually, not signing -- I have a thing that goes under the regular rear-view mirror and gives me a clear view of her face. (And no rush-hour traffic, we usually walk but since we were trying to get there ASAP we drove. As it turned out, sozlet was right and her teacher was wrong, and her team wasn't in the finals after all. So no mad teammates, whew.)

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@dlowan,

Yer sweet. Very Happy

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This is back to the original sozlet-related "What made you smile today?" posts purpose of this thread....

Last night her friend stopped by to drop something off. She'd gone to the softball field first, because she knew sozlet's team was playing. But sozlet wasn't there.

I said WHAT? I knew nothing about any softball game. Turned out that it was a make-up game for a rained-out game, and nobody had told me about it. A lot of people didn't know, and her team was down to a skeleton crew.

OOPS. Sozlet had already settled down for the evening, was doing something on the computer and didn't really want to be interrupted, and wasn't enthusiastic about going. The game had already been going for about an hour at that point (they typically go for 1.5-2 hours.) I encouraged her because she's one of the better players and sort of a leader of the team, and she'd already missed one game (ideally players miss zero games, there aren't that many). She agreed, got suited up, and we went down there.

Her team was behind by only three runs, which was impressive considering how few of them were there. (A couple of others trickled in around when we arrived, too, as word spread.) Energy level definitely seemed to go up when people saw her and the other new arrivals.

She jumped right in, was up to bat within a couple of minutes of arriving, whiffed a few but then settled in and got on base. (Walked.)

Did some pretty good fielding, nothing spectacular but stopped some extra runs from the other team.

Got a sweet hit at her second-at-bat, batted someone in. She was doing lots of cheerleading and encouragement for that whole inning.

THEN... last inning. Home game. They get another run, down by only one now. Bases loaded. Two outs. Sozlet's up to bat.

ARGH TENSE!

If she strikes out, that's it, the game's over and they've lost. If she hits and it's caught by the other team, game's over and they've lost. If she gets on base, it's a tie game. Coach calls her over and talks to her for a minute. She nods, strides to base, looking cool as a cucumber.

She's calmly dealing with what's coming her way (and staring down the pitcher) when bam, she gets hit by a pitch. (Barely grazes her chin, no injury or anything, but it means she automatically takes a base -- and walks in the tying run!!)

Then her friend C is up to bat. Also cool as a cucumber. (The parents were worse off than the kids I think.) Swings, misses. Watches a ball. Watches a strike. Swings -- it's a hit! And the winning run comes in! Safe! And mayhem.

Anyway, didn't mean to do such a lengthy play-by-play, just an intro to this text from her coach which made me smile:

Quote:

How 'bout [sozlet] coming thru with maybe the biggest at-bat of the game!!! I challenged her & she came thru getting on base & forcing the tying run home! She was SO excited after the game. Did u c her lifting [C]? AWESOME!!

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Sozlet and C!!

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@ossobuco,

It was a fun game. Very Happy

I had a good talk with the mom of another teammate; we're both sports fans in general and we were talking about how we really get into these games but we DON'T want to be one of those obnoxious, over-invested sports parents. Win or lose, we just want the kids to do their best and learn something and have some fun. But if they win (especially a nail-biter like this one!) that's fine.

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@sozobe,

sozobe wrote:

But if they win (especially a nail-biter like this one!) that's fine.

Yes, I thought I was sensing subtle vibes that you don't mind too much if your daughter kicks ass.

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Random sozletness, after getting a "your cookies may be disabled" message:

http://i34.photobucket.com/albums/d130/sozobe/disabledcookie.jpg

(She assembled that from bits and pieces in a Photoshoppy way but not with Photoshop, with Preview.)

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@sozobe,

That girl is very clever!

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@sozobe,

Ha! Very cute.

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I had two conversations with people who spend time with sozlet when I'm not around that were interesting. One was with one of her teachers, who was talking about how she can always count on sozlet to be calm and positive, when other people are freaking out about an assignment or something she is the one who both seems interested in it and calms everyone else down.

There were more details I don't remember (and that's a paraphrase), but the overall theme is that sozlet, at school, is the unflappable center/ nurturer. I already knew that she tends to be the one people go to with their problems, I didn't really know about the whole "calm" deal though.

Because I think of her as kind of a spaz! In a good way. Goofy silly spaz. But quiet and calm are just not adjectives I'd usually apply to her.

That was redoubled yesterday when I ran into one of her soccer coaches and was talking to him for a while. The instruments our respective kids are playing came up -- I mentioned something about how I think sozlet likes the power of the trumpet (it can be LOUD). He looked thoughtful and said something like, "Yeah, she's a quiet, laid-back kid, so maybe she enjoys the difference of...." At this point I must've looked dumbfounded because he trailed off. Laughing

I think of the trumpet as being very HER.

I talked to her about it later, she also looked dumbfounded at the quiet bit. What we figured out though is that in classroom situations (at school or being coached), she's a very good listener; that can be read as "quiet" when others are goofing around and not paying attention. She agreed she's calm and laid-back, as separate from quiet.

I think two things account for the school-home difference -- one is that she is happiest/ calmest when her mind is engaged. When she's bored, she gets spazzier. She's not bored at school or soccer that much. (Not just the educational component per se but also doing all of that nurturing/ social stuff.) (That was one nice thing the coach said, was that he was so impressed at how she managed to be so smart *and* a good athlete *and* good socially. He said that's a really rare combination, which was nice of him.) (As an aside, everyone comments on how smart she is and I don't really know how they know that. Anyway.)

The other is that I think she goes into an "ON" mode when she's in those situations, and then when she comes home she unwinds and lets it all hang out. I can definitely tell how hard of a day she's had by how spazzy she is when she comes home.

And there is a known thing where if she's slightly sick or too tired, she'll be fine right up until five minutes after a friend who has been over after school leaves. Then boom, she crashes.

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@sozobe,

Cool kid.

Cool mum.

Coinkidink?

Nyet.

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@dlowan,

Aw. Thanks bunny.

So the talk of feminism on GracieGirl's thread reminded me of this: she's been doing ballet for a few years and likes it, but at her current level there is a big time commitment (several hours a week) so we decided to switch over to flamenco instead (much less time involved, while still dance).

She loves it, much more than ballet. She said that ballet is all graceful and delicate and stuff, while flamenco is (here she struck a flamenco pose) feminist. Much stronger and tougher. She approves.

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Random sozletness, just found this snippet of a report she was working on (on my computer), very her I think in terms of her "voice" even though it's just a mundane report. (Cut and pasted, no alterations.)

sozlet wrote:

I go to Iowa every summer to visit my great-grandma. By now I’ve become pretty accustomed to it. At least my grandma’s house. But I wanted to know more about all of Iowa, not just the hundred-yard area around her house I know by heart.

Iowa was founded on December 28th, 1846, the 29th state in America. In history, Iowa is connected to France much more than I expected. For example, the very name Iowa comes from the French name for the Indians that lived there, Ioway. Also, the flag has a red, white and blue background, purposely related to the French flag. The Iowa flag has an eagle carrying a ribbon with Iowa’s motto on it (“Our liberty we prize, our rights we maintain.”). Unlike France, it’s capital is Des Moines. The absolute location of Iowa is 42°N, 93°W. It’s relative location is below Minnesota.

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"Unlike France, it’s capital is Des Moines."

I love that.

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@sozobe,

Nice personal intro, smooth transition into the big-picture paragraph, well-visible signposts between the sentences ("for example", "also", "unlike", etc). Sozlet either has very good instructors in English composition, or she is a natural. And, what a loss for the French that their capital isn't Des Moines! Smile

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@George,

It has a certain Georgian dryness!

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@sozobe,

sozobe wrote:

Out of nowhere, the sozlet perkily announced, "Sheep are living lawnmowers!" (Our kitchen overlooks our backyard, we frequently are looking out the window at birds and such when we're not eating.) I said, why yes, that's very true! She asked how they do that, and I explained about grazing. She thought that was interesting. Then she suggested that we get a few sheep to keep in our backyard and mow the lawn when we move to Columbus.

I said hmmm, interesting idea. Where would we get the sheep, though? She thought about that one for a long time, then came up with the answer -- the petting zoo! I said, but what if the petting zoo wants to keep their sheep? She pondered that one longer (she usually signs "I'm thinking" for these long ponders) and finally said "I know! We'll take the sheep from the petting zoo, and then go to the pigpen, and get some other sheep, and give the other sheep to the petting zoo, and then the petting zoo will have sheep to keep!!" <nodding in a "can you dig it?" sort of way>

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/11/03/garden/sheep-lawn-mowers-and-other-go-getters.html

Quote:

Mr. Miller, 23, is the founder of Heritage Lawn Mowing, a company that rents out sheep — yes, sheep — as a landscaping aid. For a small fee, Mr. Miller, whose official job title is “shepherd,” brings his ovine squad to the yards of area homeowners, where the sheep spend anywhere from three hours to several days grazing on grass, weeds and dandelions.

The results, he said, are a win-win: the sheep eat free, saving him hundreds of dollars a month in food costs, and his clients get a freshly cut lawn, with none of the carbon emissions of a conventional gas-powered mower. (There are, of course, other emissions, which Mr. Miller said make for “all-natural fertilizer.”)

In Ohio even!

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This really isn't particularly impressive -- kids today are extremely adept at using computers, full stop. Sozlet's not unusual that way.

But I'm generally pretty good with technology and it's still a little startling to me how effortlessly she does pretty complicated (to me) things.

She's a pro with iMovie, and has made a bunch of videos with fancy editing. She needed to do a school project on invasive species, with a lot of latitude as to format. She decided to do a faux cooking show, "The Joy of Cooking Invasive Species," with the episode devoted to her specific subject, the American Mink.

The video went pretty well, a single take of each part of the show (appetizer = salad with American mink sausage; entree = American mink bologna sandwich; dessert = American mink oil-infused chocolate). (We made labels for all of these things, very fun.) Had a whole set in the kitchen, etc. She was a sort of British matroness type, polka-dot dress and cardigan and pearls with hair in a bun. (She didn't manage to keep up the accent though.)

Anyway, we squeezed in the filming before the sun went down, dismantled the set, etc., and she got to editing. She was extremely grumpy because at that point she realized that at a critical juncture she said "American mink" when she meant to say "European mink." It made a big difference in context.

My reaction: well, we can re-shoot that part tomorrow. (Re-creating the set in the kitchen, her costume, her hairdo, etc.) Or else you can add, like, a caption saying "I meant European mink"?

Her reaction:

Cut out the sound from that part, record herself saying "European mink," and dub that back in.

The syllables are similar enough that it glides by imperceptibly.

Very cool.

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