Archives for January 2009

Pumpkin Is Running the Show.

The Princess has been watching the clock all day. Actually, she’s been counting down for the past two weeks. A friend of hers is having a sleepover and tonight’s the night. All day, she’s been watching the clock, calculating just how long remained until she got to go to her friend’s house. Finally 6:30 rolled around and off she went.

Oh, how sad Pumpkin was to see her big sister go, but she quickly adjusted to her role as the only kiddo in the house. And she kinda liked it, from what I can tell. She got to pick the evening television show (Diego, the one about the anaconda – and she even warned me to not look at the tv because there was a snake — though cartoon snakes don’t skeeve me out like real ones do). She got to curl up under the big Zoe blanket without having to share it. And my god, if bedtime wasn’t easier with just one.

By tomorrow morning, she’ll be ready for her big sister to come home. She’ll miss her playmate (even though Pumpkin nearly broke The Princess’s nose this morning), but for tonight, I think she enjoyed getting to be the only child.

Thursday Ten: Some Days Are Like That Edition

1. Sometimes I have a truly fantastic time at guitar lesson, other times (like today), I can’t seem to wrap my head around the most basic of concepts and can’t seem to get my fingers and brain to work in conjunction and then it’s all garbled crap. And those days are hard. Still working on Beethoven, and then some funky notes and I had to figure out the counting and the picking and it was one of those times where even after I said something, I had zero understanding of what it was that I just said and even less understanding in how I was going to execute it. Fantastic. Fantastically crappy.

2. New music of the week. TONS. Tons and tons and tons. I can’t list it all – but basically, in a quest to build a workout playlist for my 101 List, I listened to a lot of amazing music last week — and my iPod is a little happier for the process.

3. When I dropped Pumpkin off at school today a little boy rushed up to meet us – so excited to see my little girl. He said several times, “She’s my girlfriend!” My girl? She walked right past him without paying him any attention. Huh. That’s awesome. She can keep ignoring boys til she’s 25. Fine by me.

4. We have some serious snow falling now. I ventured out for my guitar lesson not realizing that the roads had gotten so craptastic since dropping off Pumpkin – but yikes! Slippery. Now big fat flakes are falling and I’m not liking it. Really, winter – you can be done anytime.

5. Speaking of… Groundhog’s Day is coming up. If that stupid little rodent says there’s going to be a longer winter, I may have to take a road trip to Punxatawny (seriously, is that how you spell it? No clue, and I’m not up for Google) to bludgeon a groundhog*.

6. Today might be a perfect day for some Five Minute Chocolate Cake. I have a four pound bag of chocolate chips in my pantry beggin’ to be used (don’t ask why I have so much chocolate chips, I just do).

7. One of my things on my 101 List is to get my karaoke on. Let me be clear: It’s not because I think I have a surplus of singing talent that needs to be shared with the world. Oh no. No no. Though I don’t think I would make a “worst ever” list, I’m less than fabulous BUT – I love karaoke (because I’m a dork). What is your favorite song for karaoke? Seriously?

8. I’ve decided I need a shirt that says “because I’m a dork”. I say it a lot. I’m dorktastic. I embrace it. Maybe it’s time to get the puffy paint out.

9. Somehow, I have a sneaking suspicion that school is going to be closed tomorrow. I hope to b e wrong.

10. After finishing “Revolutionary Road”, I picked up Candace Bushnell’s “One Fifth Avenue”. Just so you know, I am knee deep in a complete fluff read and though it’s not as good as “Sex and the City”, so far it’s better than “Lipstick Jungle”. But honestly: Fluff. I should be embarassed, but I’m not. So there.

*Disclaimer: I love all animals and would not really bludgeon one. Even a stupid groundhog who deserves it.

Now I Can See The Movie

When a movie based on a book is released, I try to make it a point to read the book first. Yeah, that usually means that I don’t enjoy the movie as much, but I want the true picture first. I like to be able to make a comparison in my head between what the author said and how it was translated onto the big screen.

I’ve spent the past few days reading “Revolutionary Road” by Richard Yates and am so ready for the movie now. Set in the 50s, this book never felt antiquated or behind-the-times: the themes and the writing were timeless.

It was a fabulous book and I could see Kate Winslet in my head as April the entire time I read it (Leo, on the other hand? Well, I guess I’ll decide for myself when I finally see the movie).

Sunday Done Right

The days in tax season get kind of long sometimes. It’s hard to be ON all the time, and it’s lovely to have a break from the demands of life – to go out, be with a good friend and be silly. That was my plan for the day. Originally, when my BFF and I made plans, Hubby was going to be hanging with our kiddos at home while I went shopping. HOWEVER, he kinda lucked out because my mom called, all but begging to have the girls for the afternoon. Lucky guy. So, he got a bit of a break from his crazy week too.

The thing about this shopping trip was that I didn’t really need anything. I was just along for the ride, the social aspect of it. But when she went to go try on clothes, I did too. I tried on jeans. I hate trying on jeans by the way. While we were at Old Navy, I tried on their jeans that supposedly look good on everybody. Yuck. I was actually kind of glad they looked like crap on me because I’m cynical and cranky and like proving people wrong. Ha.
And more pillows, but I took this picture because this is my favorite color green, and I need to find a way to work more green into my house.

All in all, it was an awesome day to get out of the house, to hang with a good friend, and to just relax a bit. My sinus infection is finally fading and it’s good to start feeling human again and to live life and smile and laugh and JUST BE.

Thursday Ten: Since When Does The Word Suck Have to Be Censored?

1. For starters and in new music of the week, I heard Kelly Clarkson’s new song “My Life Would Suck Without You” – only it’s listed on iTunes as “My Life Would S**k Without You”. Which is lame. Almost as lame as the song itself which features generic lyrics and a wanna-be P!nk vibe. And not in a good way. The song? It s**ks.

2. Spent a full guitar lesson today working on “Fur Elise” (Where’s mah doohickey for the u!?). Spent the whole time talking legato versus staccato and how to “arpeggiate” as much as you can. So how is it coming along? Better than last week, for sure, but a long way to go. Actually the whole concept of “legato” (smooth, connected notes) made a lot of sense and if I can just get my brain used to thinking a few notes ahead of my fingers, I’ll be doing that much better.

3. Within thirty minutes today, I got hit with not one, but TWO donations for my Avon Two Day Walk for Breast Cancer. I’m 21% of the way for my fundraising goal – which is awesome – as y’all know, the fundraising part has been scarier to me than the walking nearly forty miles part. Yeah, I don’t get it either.

4. I remain inspired and so moved by the new President and all the festivities on Tuesday. Yesterday’s paper and its coverage of the inaugural events made me cry. I know it’s partly because I’m a mush, but partly because it’s nice to feel hope about the direction in which we’re going. Hope is good.

5. This cold has quite certainly morphed into a sinus infection and my doctor is out of the office for the next two weeks. SUPER. Here’s hoping one of the fabulous nurses will just call in antibiotics for me rather than make me come in and see the Dr. McCreepy. And I don’t want that. I’ve managed to avoid the man for a year and I don’t think it’s time to break that streak yet.

6. Daily, I am amazed by the sheer amount of paper The Princess brings home from school. I am quite certain that not all the families in our school district are as crazy about hugging their trees as ours is, but dang – at least five sheets of paper daily. Multiply that by 24 kids in her class? That’s a whole lot of paper. It frustrates me.

7. I’ve fallen out of my workout routine from being sick and it’s been a slow road trying to get back into it.

8. Watching my kids play Wii is the funniest freakin’ thing ever. The Princess makes it a full body sport. She was playing a paper airplane game in EA Playground last night. I had to video her because it was hilarious how she kept leaning and ducking as she moved the Wii-mote. Then she got irked when I laughed. It was funny. I couldn’t help it.

9. I’m still paused on reading Catch-22. Waiting to start again. That book is sitting at my desk and I swear it’s staring at me saying, “YOU WUSSBABY: JUST READ ME!!!”

10. If you have yet to weigh in on giving me recommendations for songs for my workout playlist, you should do that. Really. I have received FIFTY suggestions so far. I’ve listened to a lot of them. I’ve only outright ruled a handful out for my playlist, but the rest? Most of the rest of it is awesome.

She’s Just Like Barbara Walters, Kind Of

Colleen, from Mommy Always Wins, got interviewed on her blog – and I’m a sucker for the Meme this week (I broke my streak yesterday though, which kind of sucks) so I asked her to interview ME. She was interviewed by Maria at the Immoral Matriarch.

1) If you could “undo” any one thing about your life, what would it be and why?
As much as I know people hate this answer, my answer is… NOTHING. I change nothing. Even the bad stuff, I’ve learned from – and I think because we’re a product of everything we experience, who’s to say that changing that one thing won’t erase everything good that happened after? I’m not willing to risk it. I live and learn.

2) What’s your favorite restaurant?
I know that I should have some philosophical opposition to chain restaurants but I really don’t. I love spicy food. The easiest route to go is On the Border, so I can get chicken tacos and a nice drink. Usually by the time my dinner comes out, I’ve binged on so much chips and salsa that I’m chugging glasses of water to kill the heat, but I LOVE THAT. My favorite nonchain burned last year and I’m just twiddling my thumbs waiting for them to rebuild it.

3) Imagine you’re twelve years old. What do you want to be when you grow up?
Twelve was what, sixth grade? I think at that point I wanted to be a writer. Hee hee. But I went all over the board – I’ve wanted to be a flight attendant (Yeah, so I hate flying. So what?), an actress, a songwriter, an engineer, an interior designer, and… I don’t know what else. But when I was twelve I wanted to be a writer, which I guess goes to show that twelve year olds maybe have a better sense of themselves than we give ’em credit for sometimes.

4) If you could learn one thing without actually having to do any work (so, let’s say you could just wake up in the morning automatically knowing something) what would you want to learn?
I would really love to wake up one morning and be so phenomenal playing my guitar. My lessons are going well and it’s coming along really about as good as it could. But I want to be better sooner.

5) Who’s your favorite muppet?

Kermit because he sang “Rainbow Connection” which is to this day one of my favorite songs of all time.

Want to be part of it? Follow these instructions:
1. Leave me a comment saying, “Interview me.”
2. I will respond by emailing you five questions. I get to pick the questions.
3. You will update your blog with the answers to the questions.
4. You will include this explanation and an offer to interview someone else in the same post.
5. When others comment asking to be interviewed, you will ask them five questions.

It’s a New Day…


One Word

So, in the latest round of Twitter-nuttiness, Joe challenged me to the one-word meme…

Here I go.

1. Where is your cell phone? Desk

2. Your significant other? Hubby

3. Your hair? Ponytail

4. Your mother? Local

5. Your father? Far

6. Your favorite thing? Smiling!

7. Your dream last night? Nyquil

8. Your favorite drink? Cappuccino

9. Your dream/goal? Contentment

10. What room you are in? Office

11. Your hobby? Creatives

12. Your fear? SNAKES!

13. Where do you want to be in 6 years? Warmer

14. Where were you last night? Home

16. Muffins? Yes

17. Wish list item? Nada

18. Where you grew up? Cali

19. Last thing you did? Forgot

20. What are you wearing? Clothes

21. Your TV? Functional

22. Your pets? Allergic

23. Friends? Awesome

24. Your life? Alright

25. Your mood? Sniffly

26. Missing some one? Nope

27. Car? van

28. Something you’re not wearing? Shoes

29. Your favorite store? Apple

30. Your favorite color? Green

31. Apparently people can’t count.

32. Public school, much?

33. When is the last time you laughed? Today

34. Last time you cried? Dunno

35. Who will resend this? Nobody

36. One place that I go to over and over? Starbucks

37. One person who emails me regularly? Audrey

38. My favorite place to eat? Anywhere

39. Why you participated in this survey? Joe

40. What are you doing tonight? Nothing

I’m not tagging anyone cuz otherwise these things go on and on and on and I am OH SO FULL OF MEMEs LATELY! Wow, people.

Brought to you By The LETTER D and the Number 10

Courtesy of I love when Starbucks has a drive thru.

3. Dell.
I’m typing on my Dell laptop. And love it. I think I’d love it more if it was a Mac, but you can’t always get what you want (BUT, if you try sometimes you just might find…you get what you need).

4. Dreams.
I never really know what they mean, but I love to wake up and remember my dreams. Especially when they aren’t creepy.

5. Driving
Now, I’m not saying I’m a good driver. But I like to be in the car. I like road trips and singing along to the radio – and basically, I like to be out and about anyway.

6. Dance
I love to dance. I love dancing at bars or clubs or weddings. I love to watch other people dance too (but think more “So You Can Think You Can Dance” and less “Dancing With the Stars”).

7. Duritz, Adam
Adam Duritz is the lead singer of Counting Crows (my favorite band for the past 100 years-ish) and an amazing song writer. Actually, he’s a pretty phenomenal writer, period. Love the guy.

8. Dooce

Yeah, who doesn’t read Heather? But I like her. She’s blunt and funny and straight forward – and that’s GOOD.

9. Discovering New Music
I love when I am introduced to music I would not have known otherwise. I say that all the time, I know. But it begins with D. So I’m saying it again.

10. Dessert
Especially in the form of brownie sundaes or cheesecake. Dessert: It’s better than dinner.

If you wanna play along, let me know, and I will give you your own super very special letter. But not Q. I won’t give you Q – because I’m NICE.

Saturday 9 – Your First Apartment

1. Where had you moved from?
My first apartment. Sigh. I moved in the summer before fall Semester 1997, I believe. I had moved from my mom’s house – but I had been doing the dorm life then home then back to dorm thing before that.

2. Describe your first apartment.
It was on the top floor of a student-typical housing situation. This apartment complex housed a lot of the college’s international students and smelled often of fish sauce.

3. How old were you when you had your apartment?
I was 20, I think. (The other day I completely blanked on how old I was. Just plain forgot.)

4. Did you have roommates? If yes, tell us more.
I had one roommate. She was about 18 and her parents had just gotten a divorce. She used to have a standing phone appointment with her therapist every Tuesday afternoon and I wasn’t allowed to use the phone then (it was before cell phones were prevalent). She also had a tendency to break my stuff and to crank the heat when no one was home. We had electric heat in our apartment – crazy expensive. One month our bill was $300, and after I came back from being gone one weekend to find that our heat had been jacked up to EIGHTY degrees on a weekend when neither of us were there, I started being the thermostat police. She hated that. I eventually found a subletter and just gave up on my security deposit just to get out.

5. What was your place of employment then?
I am pretty sure I was working in the hospital then.

6. How were you finances at the time?
Pretty good, actually because I’ve always been decent with managing my money. I’ve never been in that “digging for change in the sofa cushions” mode.

7. Tell us about a lover who spent a night there.
Hubby and I had just started dating a few months before, so he stayed there with me, occasionally – but not often (see above re: icky roommate). By the way: HATE the word “lover”.

8. Tell us about a band you listen to then. (You can cheat. Look it up.)
Then, like now, I listened to just about everything. I’ve been a HUGE Counting Crows fan since 1994, so I would bet I was listening to them too.

9. How long did you live there and why did you move from there?
Ultimately, I lived there less than a full year. I moved out early and was glad to – I ended up making the move to co-habitate with Hubby – a move that my dad was not enthusiastic about.