At least, blog about anything of substance.

As I fell asleep last night, my last thought — as the People magazine fell from my hand — was, “I bet that f-ing Shakira really IS a genius. I bet that’s like her THING.”

Yeah, I even have the comment this morning to back that up, along with the beginning of a discussion about IQ I’m totally unequipped to partake in, since I haven’t done my research.

This all backs up the reason for my grumpiness in recent weeks — my bosses have discovered this cool new thing, it’s called “THE INTERNET” and you can do this thing called BLOGGING on it — you can do it all day long (and all night) and it’s so cool, dude! It’s the latest thing!

It’s also very dangerous for a group of journalists used to ruminating over stories and research for weeks, if not months, at a time, then spitting out 8,000 word stories.

I”m not saying it’s a bad idea, but the growing pains are driving me nuts. If I’m going to have a job in anything resembling journalism in the next few years, I know I’ve got to embrace it. (Hence, one reason for this blog.)

But the Shakira thing reminds me it’s just not as easy everyone tries to make it seem.

Now I gotta go figure out what to do about my bright-red legs.

And the worst part is that I should know who Shakira is, since I have a People magazine waiting by my bed. (I even subscribe, for crying out loud.) I think she’s a singer. Anyhow, apparently she’s a rocket science and I’m spending too much time on Facebook (my newest vice, along with tart-and-trendy frozen yogurt) since I’ve now seen ads touting the IQs of two celebs.

The first was Angelina, and I don’t recall her IQ (another bad sign, for sure) but I remember the ad because I’ve been thinking a lot about IQ these days. I’m too lazy to look up the New Yorker article about IQs I keep hearing was fabulous (I have like the last six months of the New Yorker unread in a pile because I’m too busy reading People) but I want to since we’re in the process of dealing with Sophie’s IQ.

Maybe my IQ is not 140 (I don’t know what it is. My mother won’t say. She won’t tell my sister or me — or my dad, unless he once knew and forgot, because she doesn’t want either of us to know the other’s smarter. Or more IQ-y. I tried to get it out of him not long ago, he’d only say that he knows my mother’s is higher than his.) but I do know there’s no freaking way you can accurately determine the true intelligence of a 5 year old, particularly a 5 year old with Down syndrome.

When I saw the ad I didn’t think about signing Sophie up. She’s already signed up for testing. I did think about clicking on it for myself, then decided that some things are better left unknow, or at least unsaid, and anyhow, who wants to find out they’re not as smart as Shakira?

This afternoon, I plopped Sophie in her booster seat, turned on “Bear in the Big Blue House” and gave her paint/paper.

The results are pretty close to Annabelle’s 18-month effort.

Pity party for me! I know Sophie’s biggest challenge is writing/drawing/painting, and really, who cares what a kid’s artwork looks like? Annabelle had a pre-school teacher when she was 3, who sent home remarkable artwork — intricate collages, wooden sculpture, gorgeous tissue paper creations. It wasn’t til Annabelle switched schools that I realized she had made these things herself. Of course that’s what matters, that the kid do the creating and that we celebrate the outcome. And I did, I oohed and ahhed over Sophie’s paint splashes, and didn’t complain when she covered herself with paint, too, despite the smock I made her wear.

We’ll give her work away tomorrow as Father’s Day gifts, and everyone will make a fuss, just as we will over Annabelle’s intricate drawings.

Still, like a lot of things these days, it gives me pause, particularly as we continue to test Sophie to see just where her brain’s at. Is there a correlation between IQ and the ability to draw more than a circle?