Upstaged
Today I managed to make it to my rescheduled follow-up with my breast surgeon, after having gotten the time wrong last time. Now, I’ve known for some time that this woman is sort of a card, and it’s part of the reason I really like her. It’s a full-service operation, you know? Feel you up, crack jokes. Everything you need. read more…
A day of memories
I’ve been reading a lot of 9/11 tribute stuff today, both personal memories and tributes to those lost. It’s hard for me. It evokes a level of anxiety in me that feels dangerous. The truth is that I don’t watch the news and rarely read the paper; I find current events depressing and I’d rather be ignorant than scared.
[I’m not interested in debating whether or not this is a healthy outlook. I also can’t go to sleep with the closet door open or go on a trip with fewer than two extra outfits. I never claimed to be logical.]
Maybe I have an ulterior motive for not wanting to read about all of the ways in which September 11th altered everyone’s lives. Maybe a small, stubborn part of me wants to believe that it can still be a regular day for some of us, or maybe just Chickadee’s first day of preschool, and not a day of tragedy.
Anyway, I am going to deal with all of this in a supremely mature manner and do a little bit of talking about photographs instead of history or current events. This is me, burying my head in the sand, with a really cool digital photo frame down there to keep me company! read more…
Here’s your baby book. Sorry about the *bleep*s
Hey, I want to start off by saying I LOVE YOU GUYS. (Well, most of you. Nearly all of you. Except those of you who are turds.) I was… well, I was a wreck when I wrote that last post. Those dark times of parenthood reach up and grab me, sometimes, and throw me in the pit and chant “it puts the lotion on its skin” while I whimper and mewl in the corner. Then y’all come along and pull me out and pat me and stroke my hair and tell me I’m pretty and there are many, many more pairs of shoes to shop for before I give up. Thank you for your kindness. And for not just agreeing with me that life sucks.
Anyway, I had my little tantrum meltdown, and then—go figure!—life continued on. As if nothing had ever happened. read more…
What’s happening in that furry head?
Things I never thought I’d have to ask a child of mine, excerpts from Volume One:
Why is there a cheerio in your nose?
What did you just put in your diaper?
Why are you eating that book?
How did you manage to throw up all the way over THERE?
The funny part is that all of those things seemed really challenging at the time, you know? WOE IS ME, my child is naughty. Wah. Wah, I say!
I do believe we’re currently somewhere in the middle of Volume Four, and we haven’t even hit double digits yet. Pray for us. read more…
Go without thinking
This will be short so that I can hunker down in bed and pursue my new favorite hobby, which is sleeping. (Sleeping is also my old favorite hobby, and inbetween the old and the new is a hobby I don’t get to pursue often enough and also can’t talk about here without causing several people close to me experience spontaneous immolation.)
The good news is that the toothearache has gone away. The bad news is that it was, apparently, a harbinger of something awry in the sinuses. Now I just have a yucky cold. Summer is officially over! read more…
Love Thursday: Borg edition
Hey, I realized I completely spaced out and missed it last week, but it’s time once again for Love Thursday.
I don’t want to get into a big political debate here; I know a lot of people have very strong feelings when it comes to my subject matter. Where I stand, myself, is immaterial. The truth of the matter is that no matter how you feel, some things are just plain adorable, dammit, when kids do it.
Ten is the new dozen
Today was one of those days where things just hummed and clicked and I was able to step outside of myself and peer back and think, “Huh. I’m getting pretty good at this life thing.” Of course, such hubris inevitably meets with the swift smackdown of reality, but for the first part of the day things were really quite lovely.
This morning the children were encouraged to prepare for school quickly so that they could come eat breakfast and—wait for it—watch the robot work its magic! Yes, after using the new unit to clean the family room last night, I went wild and let it loose in the great room. Let me tell you, there is no better breakfast entertainment than a Roomba. Except, possibly, being mother to a small boy who insists on referring to it as “the room-bot” and a small girl who crows, “let’s name it Robot Jones!” read more…
Other couples bicker about dirty socks
It’s time to reveal all about the weekend wrap-up, but first I simply must share that the high and low points of my day came in rapid succession this evening. I swung through a complete spectrum of emotion, and am still feeling a bit off-balance.
First: I have a toothearache. Either I have an earache that is also affecting my jaw, or I have a toothache which is referring pain to my ear. I cannot tell which. But it is making me fairly miserable. Bah.
Second: It arrived last week, and I finally tested out my replacement robot. In spite of my throbbing ear/jaw, watching this thing zip around my family room and then emptying all sorts of unspeakable grime from its innards was immensely gratifying. I totally would’ve licked it if I hadn’t seen what it had been touching. read more…
Weekend recap — ten true or false
I am home! Again! Jiggedy jig, or something. (Clearly I am thrilled to be back.)
You know, they say that absence makes the heart grow fonder. I say that absence makes for a pretty fantastic weekend here and there, but the rest of the time it still just pretty much sucks. My version isn’t as pithy, but it’s more true.
Many exciting, harrowing, and thrilling things happened this weekend. I thought it would be fun to share some of the highlights and maybe make up a thing or two, in the process, to encourage reader participation. Your job is to read on and determine which of these things actually happened, and which are fabrications. They (although perhaps not the same THEY as the idiots who think absence is dandy) say that truth is stranger than fiction, and I agree. read more…
Pretty things
Today, in honor of my having left all my liquids and gels at home but having packed up some of that good ol’ fashioned New England cold front, Georgia forgot to be sweltering and instead dawned cool and pleasant. We can now conclude that I make everything better, even the weather. Yay me!
In honor of this turn of events, Otto took me to visit the State Botanical Gardens. “Maybe we can shoot some pictures,” said he.
“Okay!” Said I, doodling his name in puffy letters. “But I didn’t bring my camera. You know, because it sucks.”
“No problem,” said he. “You can borrow one of mine. Which one would you like?”
I picked one. Because it was sitting next to me. He looked at it and then gave me a different one. Then he asked me which lens I wanted, and my eyes glazed over.
Sometimes I’m amazed that he talks to me at all. read more…