Archive | October, 2011

Insert uplifting conclusion here

by Mir on October 31, 2011 in It's not a regret, it's an "experience"

Have I mentioned lately how much I like all of you? Because I do. You’re a lovely bunch of super nice people I would like to have over for a party on my deck. I mean, once there’s actually guardrails and stairs, and stuff. Probably I would only be serving Chex Mix I got on clearance and three buck chuck from Trader Joe’s, but the LOVE, man, THE LOVE IN THE AIR would make it a party.

This is the part where I tell you that everything worked out splendidly. Life turned right around and all is flowers and sunshine. Wouldn’t that be great? But… yeah. No. We did, however, go out Friday night and listen to some great music and drink wine out of plastic cups (fancy!) and generally have a nice evening. So that was lovely.

Of course, it was raining pretty hard so the marching band left their away game early, and we were still out when Chickadee texted us that she was back at the high school and needed a ride. Because we’re responsible parents, I texted back that she should find someone else to give her a ride home. And you know what? She did. (more…)

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A night out

by Mir on October 28, 2011 in Aspi(e)rations, Offspring: ecstasy and agony, Ottomatic For the People

Otto and I are going on a real live genuine date tonight, in just a little bit. I am drinking a large cup of coffee by way of preparation, because the sad truth is that my idea of a perfect evening, lately, is sitting on the couch watching TV for a while before going to bed at about 9:30.

I’m not sick. I shouldn’t be tired. But I am exhausted, mentally, and that’s bleeding over into everything else. I’ve taken to shutting off my alarm in the morning and going back to sleep; on the rare occasions when I used to do this, before, I would just get up 15 minutes later when Otto’s alarm went off. Now I often lay there until the last possible minute, and one day this week when Otto offered to pack lunches and shuffle children I just let him and stayed in bed.

It didn’t help. So tonight I’m doing my best to slough off my now-comfortable shroud of “I am just so TIRED and OVERWHELMED” and instead I’m going out with my very patient husband, and I may even put on mascara. (more…)

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Deckpocalypse

by Mir on October 26, 2011 in It's not a regret, it's an "experience", Oh look! Something furry!!

As I noted last month, Licorice enjoys her time out on safari now that the fence is complete and she can roam around in relative freedom, inside a contained area. It had gotten to where she spent only a napping hour or so indoors with me, during the day, and spent the remainder of her daylight hours either 1) outside doing lord knows what, 2) hurling herself at my office door as a subtle hint that she wished to head out, or 3) standing next to my chair whining until I opened the damn door.

I’ll admit, I was a little saddened that just laying on the floor of my office was no longer sufficient for her. My office is a messy pit, but a dog on the floor totally spruces the place up. Nevertheless, I was pleased that she was enjoying herself so much outside, and it did kind of make the whole fence debacle ALMOST feel worth it.

But then—because I’m essentially a big jerk—I had to go and ruin the dog’s good time. (more…)

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Apples, tree, karma, and coping

by Mir on October 25, 2011 in Haven't been hit by lightning yet!

I often marvel at the clear evidence of fate and genetics bringing me back what I dish out to the universe by way of my children not-so-subtly throwing some of the same in my face. Karma has a twisted sense of humor, it turns out.

Today over at Off Our Chests, I’m thinking about my most fearful little apple, and what tending to him has done for this mama tree. It’s a good thing, I hope, though we both have a long way to go. Courage is easier to come by when it’s for your kid, I find.

I hope you’ll come over and add to the conversation.

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White trash fondue, yo

by Mir on October 24, 2011 in It's not a regret, it's an "experience", Ottomatic For the People

So this is a THIRD post about food in a row, which means the planet has officially been jolted off its axis. Or that these things come in threes and I’ll stop after this. Probably.

This weekend was stressful for a variety of reasons, and about halfway through yesterday as I was ranting to Otto that I AM ON ANTIDEPRESSANTS I AM NOT SUPPOSED TO FEEL LIKE THE MOTHERFUCKING SKY IS FALLING WHAT IS GOING ON HERE? he gently asked me if maybe, possibly, I had missed a dose? And I had. So it’s possible the sky doesn’t require expletives and maybe is just drooping a little, not crashing to the ground, and also the moral of the story is that right now I am Lexapro’s bitch. So! Lesson learned.

Anyway, in the midst of the stress and the weeping and the general angst, I not only had to figure out what we were having for dinner last night, but I realized we had to have fondue. (more…)

Comments { 31 }

This is preferable

by Mir on October 22, 2011 in Offspring: ecstasy and agony, What do I do all day?

What I really, really want to do right now is go on a long and indignant rant about a particular teacher at the middle school. BUT I AM A GROWN UP. So I merely complained about it on Facebook, instead, and here I am going to talk about oatmeal. As adults do.

See how MATURE and RESTRAINED I am? Don’t be envious, it took me YEARS to become this refined.

Instead I am going to tell you about how this week Hippie School had a Medieval Festival, and we parents were treated to various delights including a swordplay tournament, dance demonstrations, and various other medieval things. And of course, we were tasked with providing various medieval foods. I agreed to bring “porridge,” which meant I brought a huge crock pot filled with steel-cut oats. Which no one ate. It turns out that—while porridge is medieval—so is roast chicken and apple pie, so, um, yeah. (more…)

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Riveting soup update!

by Mir on October 20, 2011 in What do I do all day?

I got you some rivets! All kinds!


Because… you know… rivets… riveting…? Oh, nevermind.

The soup was delicious. And I made naan! Recipes after the jump, if you care. If you don’t care, enjoy your rivets. I Googled them just for you. (more…)

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Random things, only slightly germy

by Mir on October 19, 2011 in It's not a regret, it's an "experience", Offspring: ecstasy and agony, Oh look! Something furry!!

If I had some magical blog-glue I could probably cobble all of this together into a cohesive post, but I don’t. Oh well!

I came home from my travels and waited for the inevitable I-spent-hours-on-an-airborne-metal-tube-filled-with-other-people’s-germs illness to settle in, but then spent a couple of days patting myself on the back for remembering to take my Vitamin C, because I had FINALLY escaped that particular fate. Only, now there’s some weird bug going through Monkey’s school that Monkey clearly has and I spent a day going, “Do I have it? Am I just making myself sick psychosomatically? I’m fine. I’m sure I’m fine. Oh, wait. I’m not fine.” Said bug is a very mild stomach thing, hence the confusion. (Also: Not complaining. I would rather have an intermittent stomachache than, say, projectile spewage that is in no way ambiguous.) I should probably stop kissing my kids, huh?

In related news: Monkey actually NOTICED and SHARED that he wasn’t feeling well, so it’s been a carnival of “You say your stomach hurts? WOO HOO!” all up in here and at school. (That’s what happens when your kid usually just lays on the floor with a fever of 105 and insists he feels fine.) (more…)

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Little bit by bit

by Mir on October 18, 2011 in It's not a regret, it's an "experience"

It’s Tuesday, so that means I’m over at Off Our Chests. Today’s topic: focusing on the little things, and how that helps me find my happy.

(I wrote it completely convinced that what I do is regular and ordinary, but then by the time I was done I began to wonder if I’m a freak and you’ll all think I’m weird. As if you didn’t already.)

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In which we take NYC by dork-storm

by Mir on October 17, 2011 in Friends, It's not a regret, it's an "experience"

Three days in New York City hardly seems like enough time to get into trouble, but I sure tried, because we all know that I leave the house so rarely, traveling to an actual city is a major pilgrimage for me. It requires THOUGHT and PREPARATION and MASCARA. All of these things are slightly foreign to me, but I soldier along as best I can.

So! When we last left off, my journey TO the city had been blessedly uneventful. My first meal there was delicious, and I skipped out on a late night of karaoke to attend to my beauty sleep. [Sidebar: I can't hang this on my 40th birthday, but maybe around 38 or 39 it seemed like I suddenly had An Eye Issue, by which I mean I often wake up with dark bags underneath them which could easily accommodate a week's worth of groceries, and which laugh at the various ever-increasingly-expensive Bags-Be-Gone gels and treatments I stupidly keep buying. I really don't believe in plastic surgery but I'm beginning to understand the allure. I would like to have a bagectomy, please, but only if it doesn't leave me looking perpetually surprised instead of just exhausted.]

I was off to a very responsible start. Of course that wasn’t terribly long-lived. (more…)

Comments { 27 }
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