andrea profile picture

andrea

happy. tired.

About Me

i really love the squish of sand under my bare feet. i also love floating on my back in swimming pools while trying to decode elegant cloud formations.i've given birth to two incredible sons in the past two years. it is amazing to look at the world through fresh eyes - dazzled by the way a butterfly lifts off of a tree branch - marveling at a huge yellow crane smashing up cement... childhood IS magical! every time i hear "mamaWOW, mamaWOW" or "yay-yay!" i smile in happy anticipation of rediscovery.still full of wanderlust and the desire to travel everywhere, enjoy exotic cooking, take lots of photographs, sleep under stars, and learn new languages... still a voracious devourer of books (all types). i am crazy in love with my husband and children.

My Interests

becoming a great mother. making my sons laugh. tackling my husband with hugs. spending the day in my pyjamas. listening to the ocean with my head on the sand. music: intense, soul-filling, straight to the gut. reading at the grove cafe with a bowl of vegetarian chili. watching indie films, or any films. lighting a spark within my children (and possibly future students, if i go back to teaching) so that they will be consumed by the desire to learn more and more about the world. spending more time with my friends. meeting new people, traveling the world, backpacking. i want to live in barcelona and write novels for children. i want to learn how to make homemade ice cream. playing chess. knitting. alias (seasons i and ii: lots of lust and kicking ass). music. music. music. music. music. music. pablo neruda. sleeping. figuring out what happens next. doing it.

I'd like to meet:

george gordon. nelson mandela. my grandparents on both sides. our sons seth and spencer, happy and healthy every day for the rest of their lives! tailleur mcgreevy (in her next incarnation). myself at age 92. sappho. ernest hemingway. robert penn warren. FDR. al gore. my dad when he was 19. victoria woodhull & alice paul. anyone who will make me laugh. hank in 30 years. god.

Music:

my good taste in music is temporarily on hiatus.i do have it, though :)

Movies:

amelie, todo sobre mia madre, sex and lucia, garden state, in america, nowhere in africa, heaven, american beauty, the constant gardener, munich, the lives of others

Television:

boston legal

Books:

"a ring of endless light" by madeleine l'engle. "absent friends" by s.j. rozan. "the garden of eden" by ernest hemingway. "all the king's men" by robert penn warren. anything by jane austen, anna maxted, or david sedaris. currently reading a great collection of autobiographical essays on working and stay-at-home motherhood called "mommy wars"

Heroes:

my mother. tailleur mcgreevy. my best friend katie. all of the strong, ass-kicking women in my life. children. politicians who have scandalous sex affairs but who actually know how to lead a country and not pollute the world or occupy other nations by force. cassie m. scientists and inventors. musicians who perform because they love music (not just fame, the scene or women). teachers who love their job. people who care about climate change and the environment enough to alter their lifestyle.

My Blog

buy fire insurance

Santa Catalina Island is burning.  4,000 acres, pushing steadily toward the tiny town of Avalon.  A place where Hank and I have shared some of our most memorable and beautiful times together...
Posted by andrea on Fri, 11 May 2007 06:56:00 PST

Luckiest person in the world

Tonight Hank and I watched a Frontline documentary about Stephen Heywood, an incredibly intelligent and brave man not much older than we are who lived for eight years with ALS - Lou Gehrig's disease.&...
Posted by andrea on Wed, 04 Apr 2007 11:02:00 PST

My little orange...

...there were a few days this week when it looked like maybe I was so ill that our youngest son would have to be induced and delivered right now, at only 22 weeks. Too little, too fragile to survive....
Posted by andrea on Sat, 17 Feb 2007 12:06:00 PST

Boy, oh boy!

Great news... Hank and I had our big ultrasound today (4D ultrasounds are AMAZING, by the way) ~ and it turns out that Seth is going to have a beautiful baby brother. We are thrilled that he seems to...
Posted by andrea on Wed, 24 Jan 2007 12:52:00 PST

James and Kati Kim

I'm probably not the only one within my friend network who has spent the past several days closely tracking the story of James and Kati Kim, and their two children.  Hank and I have been reading ...
Posted by andrea on Thu, 07 Dec 2006 08:36:00 PST

Walking away hurts

Tonight was my last major open house as a teacher, with students showing off the projects that they have been working on so hard for the past six weeks. It was crazy and stressful to put together, an...
Posted by andrea on Fri, 10 Nov 2006 10:53:00 PST

Heartbeat...

Something special... this afternoon Hank and I got to hear our new baby's heartbeat for the first time! We are seven weeks into the pregnancy, and everything is going beautifully this time. It's har...
Posted by andrea on Tue, 31 Oct 2006 06:44:00 PST

Upside Down or Rightside Up

...it's crazy when suddenly the poles shift and your whole world turns upside down. Hank and I found out this weekend that we are pregnant again. I can't believe that we are going to have another ba...
Posted by andrea on Tue, 10 Oct 2006 10:34:00 PST

Letters sent nowhere...

Sometimes people manage to just disappear from your life.  There isn't anything wrong with this, since it is natural for human beings to flow together and ebb apart.  In a way, vanishing act...
Posted by andrea on Sun, 17 Sep 2006 06:05:00 PST

A Seventh Grade Teacher's Response...

    "THIS IS SO BORING!" HE SNEERS Hurt Your whispered words, shuffled under breath like papers under desks Have barbs that puncture Slash and stick They say each time we take a breath One m...
Posted by andrea on Wed, 24 May 2006 10:38:00 PST