September 22, 2008 | Friends, Haven't been hit by lightning yet!, Job? Huh?

Remember back about a year ago, when I was all “I am so looooooonely here! I love my husband but I have no giiiiiiiirlfriends! Woe is meeeeeeee!”? Remember that?

Yeah, me neither. Lord, what a difference a year makes.

Yesterday I had a local signing for Sleep Is for the Weak, and I don’t know if you’ve ever been to Athens, but this is a town with many fine offerings in cuisine, music, cultural events, etc. In other words, many folks have better things to do with their Sunday afternoons than to pick up an anthology about parenthood and have it signed by one of the twenty-three contributing authors. I’m just sayin’. And yet, for an hour and a half there was a steady stream of folks—who bought almost all the available stock (I think there were three copies left, at the end)—because so many pretty, pretty friends of mine came out to show their support.

Did I mention how pretty they are? (more…)

August 23, 2008 | Friends, Job? Huh?, Retail Therapy

I had grand plans for this afternoon—plans that did not, in fact, involve the computer—yet somehow it’s nearly dinnertime and here I am. I had several hours all to myself today, too. Poof! Gone! Not sure what happened there, but I strongly suspect it involved PathWords. And in case y’all are unaware, you know Aimee? Aimee who comments here all the time? Aimee is a PATHWORDS NINJA. I could play PathWords for a month and never get anything near what she scored. I strongly suspect she cheated.

(Confidential to Aimee: Haha! Just kidding! I’m sure you’re just brilliant!)

(Confidential to everyone else: Total cheaterpants, that one.) (more…)

July 23, 2008 | Friends, Haven't been hit by lightning yet!

I have a new(ish) local friend who is, like Otto, a professor, and therefore is free to do all sorts of things in the summer which she will be far too busy for once classes start up again. Me, I’m all slacker, all the time, but I’m coming to the realization that summer is a mystical time for most people here in Universityland. For one thing, most folks are working a lot less in the summer. For another, you can actually go downtown for pizza or whatever and FIND A PARKING SPACE. It’s lovely.

Anyway, my new friend—let’s call her Foodie, because it will make her laugh—and I have been engaged in an educational project of sorts. Yes. The education is mine, and it has to do with the fact that I’ve lived here for over a year and yet I’d only been to maybe three different restaurants in town, because we hardly ever eat out. But it’s SUMMER and she’s not teaching and there is parking to be had, so we are studiously touring many of the finer local eateries for lunch. (more…)

July 7, 2008 | Friends, I'm dating the television

My husband and my Kira just left for the airport, and try though I did to come up with some sort of viable diversion (”Um, someone stole both of our cars! And there is only one flight from Atlanta to Denver each month so I guess that’s that!”), in the end Kira opted to return home to her family rather than staying here with me forever. That bitch.

I love her to pieces. Just in case that wasn’t clear. You know, because I am so shy and hesitant to share my feelings. I do think Otto is a little relieved that the rampant and random declarations of love are going to cease. For some weird reason it’s okay with him if I spontaneously declare my love for HIM, but he seemed uncomfortable when I felt the need to turn to Kira and say “I JUST LOVE YOU SO MUCH.” I don’t know what his problem is. It’s probably because he wasn’t breastfed.

ANYWAY, as I mentioned before, it was a very busy weekend, and we were driving to the airport to get Kira and then driving out to Joshilyn’s for the 4th of July and then back here and then the kids left and really, it was just busy and exhausting. Which is probably how it came to be that last night we found ourselves just parked on the recliner couch watching horrible television. (more…)

July 5, 2008 | Friends, Offspring: ecstasy and agony

I’m sure I could be more exhausted, both from lack of enough sleep and from laughing so hard, but I’m not sure how. We’ve been in a whirlwind of sociability—first picking up Kira from the airport and then heading over to Joss‘ for the 4th of July—and while I am delirious with the joy of it all, somehow I have been required to get up and put on clothes for multiple days in a row, and I am just TIRED from it.

It’s possible I need to do this more often.

Anyway, the last time that Kira and Joshilyn and I were all three together was three years ago, during a very different time indeed. This gathering was reminiscent of the other in that there were some familiar players, like chocolate and wine, but it does rather feel like we last convened a millennium ago, back when the earth was still dark. Everything is different now, or at least it seems to be while my son and Joss’ Sam are running around discussing Pokemon with a life-or-death sort of fervor. (more…)

June 13, 2008 | Friends, Haven't been hit by lightning yet!

I have a great many awesome friends. Some of them take me out of my comfort zone, periodically, which is to say that they make me leave the house and pretend to be an adult. I hear that this is good for me.

So when my buddy Melissa sent me an email that said, “Hey, I often have to go to these media dinner things to check out restaurants, and I get to bring a guest, so do you think you’d like to come with me sometime?” I immediately replied that YES, that sounds like FREE FOOD GREAT FUN and she should count me in.

Silly me. A couple of weeks later she mailed to invite me to a dinner at Straits Restaurant. “You have to come,” she wrote, “because I really like the idea of two suburban moms eating dinner with Ludacris.” (more…)

April 11, 2008 | Friends, Growing

Joshilyn arrived yesterday afternoon with Sam and Maisy in tow, and Monkey and Sam were LITERALLY engrossed in a discussion of the finer points of various Pokemon beasties before the door had even shut behind them. For a couple of glorious hours, Joss and I got to sit and relax and chat while Chickadee dressed Maisy in a variety of her outgrown clothing and generally led her around like a wee and precious pet lamb, and the boys bounced off the walls upstairs (where we could hear them but not be overly disturbed by them).

I dished up dinner earlyish (Chris’ most excellent chicken curry with sweet potatoes and coconut rice, which if you have not tried you must go make RIGHT NOW because it is THAT GOOD) and the children regaled us with riddles as we ate, then we left the children and their pajamas and a movie with a sitter, and headed out to Borders.

Joss gave a great appearance, as usual, and as usual I had to restrain from blurting out to anyone I saw there, “She’s my friend! Isn’t she awesome?” Heh. (more…)

April 10, 2008 | Friends

My lawyer is very, very good at what he does, and a nice guy, to boot. He knows law. He knows tradition. What he doesn’t hand off to his secretary he types with two fingers, and he had exactly no idea of what a blog was until I had to explain to him what I do for a living.

“So, you write about your life for anyone to read?” he asked, hand pausing in mid-air over his legal pad.

“Yeah, pretty much,” I admitted.

I don’t think he really understood that. Heck, some days I’m not sure I really understand it. But most of the time I assume that people come here for humor, and most of the time I try to deliver. And even after four years, I continue to be completely blown away by my readers’ warmth and compassion on those occasions when there isn’t anything funny about my life. (more…)

April 7, 2008 | Friends, Health is overrated

Why yes, it HAS been six months since my last mammogram ALREADY. Thank you so much for remembering. You know how I do so love spending the entire morning having my boobs squashed between plexiglass in the name of health. No, I’ve never had breast cancer. Nor do I plan to. But until my breasts stop being lumpy I seem to have drawn the scan/poke/prod card when it comes to mammary health.

You’re welcome. (Me so sexy!)

Anyway, now that we’re all picturing my LUMPY BOOBS (sorry, Dad) (sorry, Otto), I have to go run over to the hospital to have them smashed. FABULOUS.

Since I’m short on time, I thought I would point out something fun you could do this week if you had some extra time and the inclination or whatever.

Hint: It involves books! And one of my favorite people! (more…)

February 27, 2008 | Friends

Hey, I have a friend who is having a birthday today. She is turning… awesome! Stupendous! Magnificent! And—most importantly—OLDER THAN ME. So I will nod sympathetically and pat her hair (or at least try to, from afar) all the while hoping that she will be nice to me when I reach… the birthday she’s at now.

Maybe you know my friend? Joshilyn Jackson? Seems like perhaps some of you know her. And perhaps you know that her new book just came out. Why, I’m stalking my UPS guy daily, waiting for my copy. Although, who am I kidding? I will end up going to the bookstore and buying a copy because delivery is taking too long, just like I did with her other books. And then one of my OTHER friends will get the other copy for one of THEIR birthdays.

It’s good to have friends who write books you can’t wait to read. I’m not entirely sure what Joss gets out of her side of this relationship, but damn if I haven’t already gotten some awesome reading material. (more…)