Archive | May, 2007

Phone calls from the edge

by Mir on May 31, 2007 in Offspring: ecstasy and agony

As I’d already predicted, this was pretty much the week I lost my mind.

(That’s about all I’m going to say about that, for now.)

The natural fallout from this, however, is that I am perhaps A LITTLE STRESSED OUT, and the children react to this in different ways. Monkey reacts to it by giving me extra hugs and kisses and telling me that I am the very best Mama in the whole! wide! world! right before he runs off to do whatever he was planning to do anyway. Chickadee reacts to it in two ways: She either gets a stomach ache (or at least says she has one) or she clowns around until she gets a laugh from me.

Needless to say, I prefer the latter. (more…)

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Susan said it would be interesting

by Mir on May 30, 2007 in My name is Grumplestiltskin, What do I do all day?

I have very little to report, because I often try to stick to the whole “if you don’t have anything nice to say, don’t say anything at all” thing. Oh. You’re laughing. Right. Well, there is a small exception to that rule, you know, which is that if you don’t have anything nice to say but you DO have something funny to say, then go ahead. In that case, I go ahead.

Today I have nothing nice or funny, though I do have 2600 square feet of boat anchor around my neck, so if my posture is a little off, that’s why.

While chatting with Susan this evening and complaining that I had nothing to blog about (see above), she was kind enough to pluck items from our conversation and direct me to write about them. That Susan; always helpful! (more…)

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By any other name, still the same

by Mir on May 29, 2007 in The Year of Living Changerously, What do I do all day?

I was paying some bills this weekend and realized that hey, I’m moving in less than a month, and I should probably really stop, I don’t know, writing checks on an account I’m going to be closing soon. Duh.

Why yes, I HAVE managed to do all of my banking with a local New England bank instead of one of the eleventy national chain banks available in the area, thank you for noticing. Ahem.

So this morning, I got the kids off to school and did some work and then set out for the local branch of Big National Bank to open new accounts. Sure, I could’ve just stayed home and shoved paperclips into my eyeballs instead, to achieve the same level of joy, but this way seemed slightly more productive. (more…)

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Wait, it’s not Sunday?

by Mir on May 28, 2007 in Haven't been hit by lightning yet!

I have spent the entire day convinced that it’s Sunday. Nevermind that I went to church YESTERDAY (which should’ve been my first clue), but the whole Monday-holiday thing, it confuses me. I cannot be expected to follow along.

I was supposed to spent today sorting and pitching the ever-growing contents of some of my closets, but that’s hard to do with a helper who likes to chew on things. With the dog here, it became clear that cleaning was not meant to be. (Oh! Twist my arm! Keep me from being productive! Okay!)

Just so that I wouldn’t feel like a total slug, I decided to take the dog for a nice long walk. (more…)

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Celebrate good times, come on

by Mir on May 27, 2007 in It's not a regret, it's an "experience"

Happy Memorial Day weekend! Or, as I like to call it, Happy Can’t Get A Decent Price On A Plane Ticket So Instead Of A Naked Weekend With Your Husband You’ll Be Stuck At Home Taking Care Of Someone Else’s Dog weekend!

Oh, like YOU don’t call it that, too.

I really LIKE dogs, you know. And I especially like other people’s dogs because I can GIVE THEM BACK after a while. You may recall that I had a very exciting dogsitting adventure a couple of years ago, from which I have only recently recovered. But I’ve kept this particular (smallish) dog for my friends before, and so when they asked me if I could PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE take her at the last minute, I said “Are you kidding me? I’m trying to sell my house! There are people here all the time!” Um, well, I said that at FIRST, but then I realized holiday weekend = no showings, and they were desperate, so I took the dog. (more…)

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The most fun $6 can buy

by Mir on May 25, 2007 in Offspring: ecstasy and agony

Today one of the house showings was CONVENIENTLY scheduled for right when the kids got off the bus. Honestly, I don’t think this whole house-selling thing has disrupted our lives enough. I’d like people to start coming for showings in the MIDDLE OF THE NIGHT. Just to keep things hopping around here.

Anyway.

So, on account of the needing to clear the premises immediately (“Touch nothing! Put your backpack away and GET IN THE CAR!”) and the fact that it was about 95 degrees here today (Welcome to New England; take your pick of snow or sizzle, without any of those pesky temperatures inbetween), we opted to go for ice cream. (more…)

Comments { 31 }

Sinking in

by Mir on May 24, 2007 in The Year of Living Changerously

We’ve got about one week for Something To Happen before I enter panic mode, re: the housing situation. The movers are coming in one month. One. Month.

If we make an offer on a house in this next week, we could close before my stuff shows up and needs to be left at that van down by the river.

I am, of course, dealing with this information by:
1) Not packing.
2) Not mowing the dandelion fields grass.
3) Working into the wee hours every night.
4) Shopping for shoes online.
5) Trying to find a cheap last-minute ticket to get down to Georgia this weekend to see my husband and also maybe look at some more houses.

But it was tonight at choir rehearsal when I opened the card they all gave me that it really hit me. I am moving away. I mean, that thing was FULL of kind words and well-wishes. Anyone who tells you church choirs are all sweetness and light has never been in one; I am accustomed to being tormented mercilessly in there. All that NICE can only mean I’m dying or moving.

I feel okay, so I guess I’m really leaving.

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Love makes superheroes of us all

by Mir on May 23, 2007 in The Year of Living Changerously

It was about a year ago when I first noticed Andrea Scher’s gorgeous Superhero necklaces popping up all over the place. I wanted one immediately. But then I saw how much they cost and I died. It’s not that they’re too expensive for what they are; it’s that I’m an incurable tightwad and I rarely splurge on something for myself. (Splurge on the kids? Sure! Splurge on you? Okay! Splurge on me? Let me get back to you.)

I vowed to buy one on several occasions, only to have something come up and make me change my mind. Unexpected expense! Major distractions! Oh, I didn’t need one anyway, you know. Frivolous.

Andrea announced that she’d be taking a last batch of orders prior to closing up shop for a while on the same day that I landed a big project. This was clearly a sign that the time had come. I placed my order along with half the free world and quickly put it out of my mind before I could think too much about how I could’ve bought a couple week’s worth of groceries with that money. (more…)

Comments { 35 }

Little of this, little of that

by Mir on May 22, 2007 in It's not a regret, it's an "experience", Offspring: ecstasy and agony, The Year of Living Changerously

Hmmmm… I think I wasn’t clear about Otto’s brothers in my last post. But thanks to all of your suggestions, I think we have our monikers worked out. The brother who DID SO PRACTICALLY BEG FOR A NICKNAME regardless of whatever damage control he’s trying to do now is definitely going to be Nearly Nickless from now on. He is not, however, the brother who came through with the GPS. That brother shall henceforth be known as Wild Thing.

Assuming that Nearly Nickless continues speaking to me after I publish this, if he wants to top Wild Thing’s wedding gift, I suppose he could get us a pony. Or maybe a Prius! To put the GPS in!

[Hey, I can't help it that I want to get my hands on that GPS so that I can love it and hug it and squeeze it and call it George. It's not that I wasn't really looking forward to calling Otto every time I went out so that I could cry "I have no idea where I am!", but I just suspect I will learn to cope with the disappointment while I drive around my new town to the dulcet tones of turn-by-turn directions that do not come from a husband who's in the middle of teaching a class.] (more…)

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Such a lucky family to get me

by Mir on May 21, 2007 in Haven't been hit by lightning yet!

I come from a family which is fairly small; I have one sibling, each of my parents has one sibling, there are rarely more than two kids on any family branch and many of us are far-flung. My brother lives across the country from me and we lead very different lives.

I think it’s safe to say that I am intrigued by large and/or close families.

As a result, I’ve apparently developed a habit of marrying into those sorts of families. (Yes, let’s refer to my marriages as “habits.” That should delight both ex and current husband alike.) The idea of a big crazy group of people who voluntarily spend time together just because they’re related appeals to me. I had childhood fantasies of having a whole gang of siblings, and seeing the interactions of those who do fascinates me. (more…)

Comments { 46 }
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