Tonight we were reading In the Night Kitchen, in which the main character ends up swimming in milk, which led to discussions of liquid: “Milk is a liquid. Water and juice are liquids. PEE IS A LIQUID!” Lucy then began talking about solids: “Duck is a solid. This book is a solid. Mom, you are a solid, even though I can’t pick you up.” And I said, “If something is not a solid or a liquid, what is it?” She made her thinking face, frowning and squinching her way to…”I don’t know…” I prompted, “How about a gas?” She lit up: “Yes, a gas. A gas is…um, a gas is…
(more frowning and squinching)
(then the big, existential part)
…something that is all around you, but you can’t see it or feel it. It’s there even though you don’t know it’s there.”
Yes. It’s there even though I don’t know it’s there.

Lu, from inside our closet: “It’s really stuffy in your closet.”

Me: “Lu, do you know what ’stuffy’ means?”

Lu, emerging with a tangle of shoes: “It means there’s a lot of stuff in here.”

Indeed.

She swears she made this joke up herself:

“How do you know when a train is eating?”

“You can hear it choo-chooing! Get it? Chew-chew?”

Very soon, I will write about something happy. I will write about something funny. But today, I am lost in the push-pull of creative vision vs. budget and time constraints. “Resources” is the euphemism, one that’s used in my work, as well as in relation to a certain house project. No matter how you couch it: IT IS HARD TO KICK ASS WITHOUT ENOUGH MONEY AND TIME. Whether you are building a web site. Or a remodel/addition. You need “resources.” And neither my clients nor I can shake $50K and 6 more months out of the couch cushions.