polly wrote a haiku for you!

this one's about tetris:

pieces fall like snow
have to make a line, ok?
the L's are the best...

yah yah hey

at the end of galang galang by M.I.A. she sings yah yah hey. that's polly's favourite part. according to itunes she's listened to it 137 times, just so she can hear her sing yah yah hey again. papa sampled that part & looped it over & over for 5 minutes & made an mp3. he called it yah yah hey. now polly listens to it on her ipod while she jump ropes.

papa said don't ever play it for anyone because they'll think you're crazy.

polly's medal ceremony

the only time polly, mama & papa are home at the same time is dinnertime when mama comes home from work & right before papa has to go to work.so in the afternoon polly set up a podium in front of the tv so she could get everybody together for her medal ceremony. she used 2 milk crates & a chair for the podium & got 3 of papa's bagels that he eats for breakfast & strung them with ribbons for the gold medals. polly didn't have an american flag but papa has a t-shirt with an american flag peace sign on it so she hung that up on the wall behind the tv. polly had the mpeg for hannah teter who won the gold in women's half pipe so they could listen to the star spangled banner.

so after dinner she made mama & papa put on the bagels & stand on the milk crates while polly got on the chair. they listened to the national anthem play on polly's laptop & stared at papa's shirt. mama couldn't stop smiling & papa kept laughing. mama wanted to know what they won their medals for. polly said her's was for skating, mama's was for yoga & papa was for dj-ing.

papa asked who got the gold, silver & bronze. polly said everybody got gold medals.

it was a lot of fun & afterwards papa decided he needed to toast his medal & eat it with a little peanut butter & honey.

shorty on the short track

if polly were in the lim pix, she'd like to be a speed skater.

snowboarding is fun but it's too cold. figure skating is hard with all the twirlies & twizzles & jumping, the only trick polly can do on the ice is skate backwards. & it's really fancy. while polly thinks all the ladies look like princesses, she wouldn't feel comfortable wearing all that frilly stuff. but all a speed skater has to do is go fast & polly can do that. plus you get to look like a super hero & that's always a good deal.

the lim pik spirit

what polly likes the most about the lim pix is seeing what she calls the lim pik spirit. it's more important than winning a medal. that's when you keep going even if you're hurt or tired or scared or if you fall down. polly sees the lim pik spirit around her all the time. like when mama teaches a yoga class even though her knee hurts. or when papa works hard all nite but still gets up early on saturdays so he can take polly to the park to see the horses.

polly doesn't think she has the lim pik spirit though. when she's tired she gets cranky & wants to sleep. or if she's jump roping or ice skating & she get's tired, she'll just sit down! there's no sitting at the lim pix.

unless you're on a bobsled.

the gold bagel

polly was watching the medal ceremony & told mama she liked the gold medals because they looked like bagels or donuts. that made mama laugh so she took a bagel & tied a ribbon to it & presented it to polly. polly put it on along with her rollerblades & took a victory lap around the loft as mama videotaped her. polly said we should make a silver bagel & a bronze bagel & then when papa comes home we can have our own medal ceremony.

that was almost more fun than watching the lim piks.

more accupunk? sure, why not?

today miss saffron came to the ashram to work on mama's knee again.

mama needed more accupunk sure. polly was fascinated. mama said it didn't hurt & was talking like everything was normal & there wasn't a bunch of needles stuck in her knee & up & down her leg. she didn't even bleed. miss saffron said that's because the needles are so small the skin closes up almost immediately after you take it out.

mama asked polly again if she wanted to try it & this time polly said ok, almost without even thinking. miss saffron held her hand & said close your eyes & take a deep breath, then exhale. polly knows how to do that from yoga & can take a really deep breath. when she opened her eyes there was a needle sticking out of her wrist! it felt like a pinch is all. this will help prevent colds, miss saffron said. i don't think i feel anything yet polly said & they laughed. it was only a little bit scary. when miss saffron took the needle out there was a tiny speck of blood but it didn't hurt one bit.

then polly got bored & went out the garden to play with her jump rope in the snow.

happy birthday pisces

happy birthday to all you pisceans.

polly loves the water & thinks being a mermaid would be fun if she could still be a vegetarian.

the lim pix

polly loves the olympics, or as she likes to call it, the lim pix. papa has to tivo it so she can go to bed on school nites. she's going to spend all saturday watching the ice skating & the snowboarding & the fast sleds & the skiing. polly likes all the sports. she even likes curling though she has no idea what's going on there. it looks like fun.

if polly has to pick a favourite she'll pick the ice skating. polly loves to ice skate. she can't do any twirls but she can skate backwards pretty easy. & she can stop on a hard skid & spray ice in your face but that's mean, not funny.

polly wrote a haiku for you!

this one's about molemen:

underground? uh oh!
the molemen have 6 fingers
stay away or else

sluggo, part 2

the next morning polly was talking about her nightmare & mama punched papa in the shoulder! but she wasn't mad, she was smiling. and papa just laughed so polly wanted to know what was so funny. papa said it was something your mama said & then mama said your papa's a big comedian.

grownups are hard to understand sometimes. they think they're so funny but they're really not.

gabby & sluggo

all this talk about molemen & giant rats gave polly a nightmare!

last nite she dreamed she was being chased by the molemen & they were wearing long coats & they only had 3 fingers on each hand & one of them had a snake. mama had to wake her up. then she got her a bottle of water so polly would calm down. mama said you don't have to worry about the molemen because the lions in front of the library come to life at night & they've sworn to protect the city. they're very strong & not afraid of anything. not even the giant rats? polly asked. i'd like to see a rat even try to scare a lion! mama said. the lions are made of metal so you can't even bite or scratch them. do you know their names mama?

umm, mama paused. one's named sluggo, because he likes to fight... the other one is named gabby, because he likes to talk.

but polly was already asleep.

polly has a valentine for you!

here's
polly's
valentine
just
for
you!

mama sets the record straight

mama says there are no such things as chuds, molemen, giant aligators or irish ghosts in the subway & papa & grandma should be ashamed of themselves for trying to fool polly.

mama says the only dangerous thing underground are the giant mutant rats. they're as big as a dog. they got that big from eating all the toxic waste down there. but they're afraid of the light & grownups so as long as polly stays with papa she'll be ok.

polly doesn't know who to believe, so she might as well believe everybody & add giant rats to the list.

watch out for the chuds grandma!

when polly & grandma were waiting for the subway on friday she told grandma all about the chuds that live underground in the dark. grandma laughed & said there's no such thing, child. there are however ghosts of all the irish immigrants who died digging the tunnels & they look for little girls who don't mind their parents & grandmas so hold my hand & stay close.

polly leaned forward so she could look into the tunnel. she never sees any aligators, molemen & chuds & now she has to watch out for irish ghosts too? how do all these people ride the subway every day?

opening ceremonies

after grandma left it was just mama & polly because papa had to go to work.

so last nite mama let polly stay up late & they watched the olympics. polly really liked the rollerbladers & the dancing christmas trees & the little girl who sang the italian national anthem. but what really amazed her was the giant skier made out of people. she watched that whole segment with her mouth open.

polly was sleepy by the parade of nations but when the u.s. team waved at the cameras she waved back like she thought maybe they could see her too.

grandma & brooklyn

grandma picked up polly from school every day this week so yesterday they went to see brooklyn like usual. polly had to explain that brooklyn was a & horse not the borough. grandma thought that was a foolish name for a horse, not like paint or general lee or bessie or socks.

polly also had to show grandma which subway line to take & when to stop. so really, polly took grandma to the park & not the other way round.

brooklyn & cassidy weren't there but this time polly wasn't disappointed. she told grandma they were showing tourists around the park & usually if they can't see brooklyn papa gets her a soy hot chocolate. grandma said let's go home & i'll make you a soy hot chocolate that's better than anything these city folk can do.

aligators, molemen & chuds

papa says polly has to hold his hand tight when they wait for the subway because there are aligators, molemen & chuds that hide in the dark waiting to get you. the aligators come up from the sewer & the molemen are pale because they live underground & have big black eyes & only 3 fingers on each hand.

the chuds are the worst. papa says they're a secret army experiment that escaped into the subways & chud stands for cannibalistic humanoid underground dweller. polly isn't too scared because that sounds like one of papa's dumb tv shows on the sci fi channel but then again you never know.

it's safest just to hold onto papa as tight as she can.

morning asana

mama has an altar set up in the corner where she does yoga. it's smaller than the one in the ashram. it's a cabinet with two doors. inside is a statue of buddha & ganesha, a picture of the dalai lama (not dolly, dalai), a picture of grandpa, a bowl of oranges and some incense. there's some other stuff there like a white scarf & some red string & some beads too. & some candles. polly likes the little statue of ganesha because he has an elephant's head & a little mouse by his foot. mama says ganesha's best friend is the mouse. polly never knew grandpa but he looks handsome. every morning mama lights incense & does her asanas & meditates before she wakes up polly for school. she says she burns the incense to honor our ancestors & bless the day. after she's done she closes the doors.

sometimes in the afternoon polly opens the doors so buddha & ganesha & the dalai lama & grandpa can look out. but she doesn't burn any incense because she's not allowed to touch the lighter.

polly & the 3bears

sometimes when polly can't sleep she thinks about the three bears. except they live in a cave like she saw on animal planet. mama bear, papa bear & baby bear are all asleep in a big furry pile so she crawls into the cave and snugs up with them. It's nice & warm & cozy for a little while. then polly starts to think about how much papa bear snores & how bear fur is itchy & it doesn't smell too good in the cave. then she wonders if the bears are vegetarians. some bears eat berries. so polly starts to think about blueberries & cranberries & strawberries. one time she was at the fair with grandma & she had strawberry shortcake but only ate the strawberries. there wasn't much at the fair polly would eat other than cotton candy.

then suddenly she's not in the cave anymore, she's at the fair & it's daytime & it's noisy & she's wide awake & not even sleepy.

the tent by the couch & the tv

grandma's sleeping in mama & papa's bed. they were going to let her have polly's room but they didn't want her climbing the ladder to the loft bed. polly wanted to grandma to stay in her room because it's pretty & besides, papa set up the tent in the main room near the couch & the tv & that's where polly was going to stay. now mama & papa get to sleep in the tent.

polly said maybe when grandma leaves we can keep the tent up & she can stay there.

vegan biscuits & gravy

grandma came to the city to visit & help take care of mama! she's staying for the week.

for breakfast she made polly vegan biscuits & gravy which polly liked a whole lot. grandma made the gravy from soy milk. at first polly wanted her ususal breakfast of half a microwaved yam & maple syrup but grandma said she should try new things. everybody always tells polly to try new things & she doesn't know why. but she sure liked the vegan biscuits & gravy!

last nite polly showed grandma how to use the internet & they found a lot of vegan recipes of southern foods that grandma said were easy to make. grandma looks funny when she reads the computer but polly didn't laugh because it's not polite.

testify!

in grandma's church there's lots of singing & dancing & clapping & shouting. people yell stuff like amen & testify & hallelujah & true dat. in the summer polly visits grandma for two weeks & she takes her to church on sundays. mama doesn't like it but polly thinks it's fun. everybody's friendly & nice to her. grandma bought her a special church dress with a big yellow hat & little white gloves & a fan. the only thing polly doesn't like about church is sometimes it lasts all day & then she gets hungry.

daljit's sister's wedding

daljit is the youngest of 3 sisters. her oldest sister devyani is getting married. everybody calls devyani dish. polly isn't sure why but that's what daljit said she liked to be called.

daljit & dish's mama asked polly if she wanted to be in the wedding along with daljit. polly said sure but didn't know what to do & certainly didn't expect to get to wear such a fancy shiny pretty special princess dress. daljit said it's called a sari, not like i'm sorry, sari.

polly said she feels like she's in moulin rouge.

polly wrote a haiku for you!

this one's about vegetarianism:

stop eating meat, yes?
animals hurt and die
it's not very nice

tetris

polly's favourite video game is tetris. she likes to watch the pieces fall. if she doesn't have her gameboy she can play imaginary games in her head that are almost as good. sometimes she plays tetris in her head when she can't sleep.

daljit said tetris was invented by a russian scientist & microsoft stole the game from him & made millions. this was a long time ago before the internet.

click said that's partially true, tetris was invented by a russian scientist, but he works for microsoft & is probably a millionaire by now anyway so it's no big deal. click also says that tetris is a metaphor for life. life is all about pieces falling from the sky & how you deal with them is up to you.

polly says her favourite pieces are the L's.

clickitty is still afraid of horses

on saturday when polly showed click to brooklyn he tried to eat him! cassidy said click smelled like carrots & brooklyn was just curious. he didn't really bite him, he just smelled him funny. later clickitty said keep that horse away from me, he's crazy. all he thinks about is carrots & apples & pulling that carriage. he loves to pull that carriage, he's really proud of how strong he is.

polly thought that was interesting & promised to leave click home next time.