The Dreaded Macaroni Dream

Happy Labor Day! (Jumping for joy at the beach after (most) of the tourists had gone home Labor Day evening.)

Another night, another milestone. One night last week, we heard a sudden piercing scream and sobs. Then footsteps. "I DO want macaronis, Mama, I DO!" "Yes, macaronis!" he managed to get out between giant tears of terror. It was dreaded macaroni dream, or rather, nightmare. You know, the one where your mama tells you that for dinner you are having something other than macaroni. I almost had to make him macaroni just to get him to calm down. Which, eventually, he did. But then a few hours later he woke up concerned that, "I wanted to open it." "No, I wanted to open the door." Yes, apparently the mean mama had also opened the door instead of letting him get it. I hope he will go back to talking in his sleep and the dreams won't be quite so traumatic in the future. (I did make macaroni the next day, and I made sure that he was allowed to open the door for papa when he arrived home.)

In other news....

It has been quite hot here at Casa North Park, but luckily JT's friend O was back in town, which made JT one happy camper. The boys and their fathers went on a train outing, and then the boys misted themselves in the backyard. O even got to stay for supper and a bath.

Then we held our un-annual day-before-Labor-Day-Backyard-Hangout-and-Grill-party. It was fun. There were 3 little boys and 1 girl, another baby, and some adults. O's mom made a fabulous cake, and I made some marinated mushrooms (which were surprisingly easy and tasty, otherwise I wouldn't mention it).

Tonight the heat has finally abated, so I may actually get a few good hours of sleep in. JT is back at school this week, and I have ONE more lecture to go. But - yeah me - there will be no lecture. Instead, the students are working on group presentations! So I only have 20 essays to grade tomorrow, a multiple choice final exam to write (and give on Saturday at 8 in the morning!!!), and then I grade the presentations, the exam, and the take-home part of the exam. And then figure out how to make an excel sheet that will calculate the grades. THEN, I can take a break. I think JT and I will celebrate by going to Sea World one day next week. This morning, driving by, he said "I want to go to see road" - hmm. It frustrated him that I didn't immediately recognize "see road" as sea world. The fact that we were driving by should have clued me in, but I was thinking about the traffic jam. :)

Today the students in my class watched a movie showing spirit possession in Haiti - some Vodou rituals and ceremonies. I forgot to warn them about the animal sacrifice, but no one had to run out screaming. Then I got the question that I should have expected, but hadn't even occured to me: are the possessions fake?

That is an interesting question, and for anthropology educators, a question that shows that people are grappling to understand something out of the realm of their cultural understanding. What would you have answered? Or would you have asked the question as well?