Wednesday, May 31, 2006

Beach Day


I mentioned we went to the beach on Sunday. I love the beach, the sun, sand, salt...the sticky tired feeling at the end of a long day, the way you lie in bed that night and can still feel yourself bobbing in the waves. I find it incredibly relaxing - every care and stress just melts away when I'm there.

The good thing about the beaches in CT is that Long Island acts as a barrier - waves are never very high and there's no undertow. Now, if you're an active beach person, it's boring, but with a fearless four and a half year old, it's perfect. I can sit on the blanket and watch her play in the waves without having to be right there with her. She gets a little independence, too - she's in the ocean! By herself!

And someday, maybe I'll even get to read a book lying on the sand again.

Monday, May 29, 2006

Memorial Day Weekend 2006

Sigh. We had a great weekend - did a lot of work on the yard on Saturday, went to the beach on Sunday, and had two family picnics to go to today. And now, C is asleep in her bed, D is at the theatre (because he's the only sap around tonight apparently who's dumb enough to answer his phone) and I'm here, in our finished basement, hiding from the humidity trapped upstairs.

The thought of going to work tomorrow is depressing. I was able to work from home on Wed, and was off Thurs and Friday...(although stupid me still answered emails via blackberry on Thursday, so maybe I could argue for it not counting as a day off?)
This coming Friday will be pre-school graduation (and the pictures of C in her cap and gown made my heart skip a beat as I saw the future), so it's not even like I'll have a whole week to work anyway.

Hope everyone had a great weekend!!

Tuesday, May 23, 2006

Marcia Marcia Marcia

You Are Jan Brady

Brainy and a little introverted, you tend to think life is a lot worse than it actually is.
And while you may think you're a little goofy looking, most people consider you to be a major babe.

Monday, May 22, 2006

Clueless



Are guys deliberately clueless, or do they just want us to think they are? I don't know which is worse. Case in point. D's theatre does a "family" show every summer - lots of kids in the cast, or a kid friendly show. Somehow, he comes up with this plan to have C audition for this summer's show. Now, the guidelines for this particular audition state that the kid has to be over 6 and be able to sing and dance. C is none of that, in fact her "dancing" is just her pretending to be a ballerina. Which is very cute, but not something I'd want onstage.

In addition, her listening skills (at least to mom and dad) aren't the greatest. But whatever, he's told her she might be in a show (which she hears as "I'm going to be in a show!") and she's going to the audition. So who has to bring her? Me. Because D is "working" (which seems to consist of the various volunteers either whining about something, or not knowing how to do something basic, like breathe). But I ask him, what would you have done with C, if I weren't there to hold onto her? Oh, she'd just be with him.

Oh ok, and the various stage parents of the ninehundred and ninety nine other kids auditioning wouldn't have noticed that? As they clutch Fifi's or Trixie's headshots (?!) and urge them to warm up, hoping that there's a part for their precious child?

I just can't get into that whole scene. Maybe because when I was in high school, I had to ban my parents from my basketball games (sick of hearing, if you play good enough you'll get a scholarship!! even in the early 80's before girls hoops became popular, that was never going to happen). And then I went to college determined to lose the "jock" image and turned into party girl instead. I don't want to be one of "those" parents.

And all the other girls there were a good 4-6 years older than C, with dancing lessons and who knows what else that my pumpkin hasn't done yet. And I don't know which will be worse - she does get a part (however small) instead of someone else, or she doesn't get a part and has to deal with that disappointment (not that I don't want her to ever be disappointed, but I want her to be a little older before she has to start dealing with those emotions).

With my luck, she'll have my artistic ability and D's athletic ability. None whatsover.

Wednesday, May 17, 2006

Wednesday



I have no witty title for this post, sorry. I have been on the dark side at work recently. (And no, I am not a Star Wars freak. D is. Thinks the whole trilogy is about "family values". Don't ask. I just live here.) I may have mentioned before, I work with mostly men. Which I usually like, except when they do something typically man-like.

Yesterday I had a situation, whereby I went into a boss's office to vent. That's all. I just wanted him to listen, nod his head, say he understood how frustrating the situation was and how frustrated I was, and that's it. What does he do? Try to solve the problem for me. ARGH! And then, sets up a meeting about the situation. Double ARGH! Now his boss thinks I'm an idiot (because nothing was said in the meeting that wasn't already common knowledge) and a simple situation got blown into a huge production.

Then my boss has the nerve to stop by my office this morning to ask if I was in a better mood today. I give up. I need to either win Powerball or find a six figure part time job (that one seems to only exist in my imagination)....

Saturday, May 13, 2006

Saturday at the circus



We took C to the circus this morning in Hartford. We had excellent seats, and learning from our experience last year, got there ahead of time to spend some time on the floor with the performers before the show and to look at the animals.

For some reason I thought the show this year would be the same as last year (3 rings, tigers, high wire act, etc). Unfortunately, I thought wrong. It was one ring, and more clowns and acrobats than animals. Although there was a cat and dog show, which was just odd (in my opinion). I felt sorry for the dogs, having to "walk" up on their hind legs. I know some people think the circus is cruel, and I guess I can now understand why.

C was very excited, and on the ride over kept making up silly riddles.

"mommy, what's pink and eats a house?"

I have no idea, so I guess. "a little pony?"

"No! A pink monster who eats houses!!"

D'uh. I should have known that.

So tomorrow is Mother's Day. I have been promised that I can sleep late (I'll believe that when it happens), and we'll go out to breakfast. Then we get to go see Cats at D's work. We saw it last weekend, and C loved it. Probably because we had aisle seats, and D brought her downstairs to see the "cats" getting into makeup before the show (they painted her face to look like a cat, too), and the cats stopped to talk to her while they were wandering through the audience. Not my favorite show (in fact, I could probably name a few off,off, off Broadway things that D and I have gone to while he was in grad school that I like better), but since tomorrow's supposed to be cloudy and cool, it'll suck up the afternoon at least.

Happy Mother's Day to all the moms!!!

Wednesday, May 10, 2006

Happy Birthday



Happy Birthday D!!

I'm usually venting about him in this space, so today I will accentuate the postive. D is the one who keeps me grounded, who makes me laugh, who is always there for me. He puts up with my moodiness and grumpiness, and he understands what I'm trying to say without words.

D loves being a dad - he spends time with C, he takes her to his meetings and will even be taking her to rehearsals this summer because she will be in one of the shows. He loves to play games with her. C loves the view from his shoulders, and he volunteers to carry her that way more often than not.

D and I like to joke if there's a long way to get somewhere, we'll end up taking that route. When we were in Oahu on our honeymoon, we decided to hike up Diamond Head. There's a short route, and a longer route. We ended up taking the longer route, and that's been the pattern in our lives ever since.

We may always take the longer route, but we get to see more along the way. And there's no one else I'd want with me on that journey.

Happy birthday D!!

Saturday, May 06, 2006

Reincarnation

I swear, in my next life I want to come back as a man. Seriously, I don't know why it's taken me so long to realize this.

Men seem to only be able to concentrate on one thing at a time. Maybe it goes back to the days when Og just had to worry about killing the woolly mammouth and staying alive. That's it. The women had to worry about taking care of the kids, cooking the meat, keeping the cave clean, and making sure everyone was dressed appropriately for the weather.

Today, Og thinks, gee, I need to bring this (whatever "this" happens to be) upstairs. So he brings "this" upstairs, and gives no thought to the six other things that need to be brought upstairs too. Mrs Og, on the other hand, when she brings something upstairs, also brings the six other things that also need to be upstairs, and remembers to bring things downstairs from upstairs.

And nothing seems to drive that home more than working with men of a certain age. Their wives stayed home (not that there's anything wrong with that), took care of the kids, grocery shopped, picked up the drycleaning, cleaned the house, bought the various gifts and cards and had dinner ready when Mr Old Timer got home. Well, now Mr Old Timer is in charge, and thinks everyone has the same situation (someone at home to handle all the details, leaving employee free to work, work work). I need a wife! Seriously, someone should start a business to handle all those details for a dual career household. I bet they'd make a fortune. (Or maybe someone has, and I'm out of the loop. Again.)

(My current bosses aren't like that, even though that was their situation as well.)

Thursday, May 04, 2006

Tired, so tired



The scene: a dark house, fan blowing in one room, humidifier in the other.

A sleepy voice calls "Mommy!"....a quick glance at the clock (squinting to make out the numbers, since I am blind without my contacts in) shows it to be approximately 4:15. AM. One half hour until the alarm is to go off. I wait, hoping that she'll fall back asleep, but then feel badly. Get up and go into her room, avoiding the clothes laid neatly out for tomorrow, and the rest of the mess that is her room.

She opens sleepy eyes "why is it raining?" (It wasn't, as far as I know)

"shhh...it's not"

"can you rub my back?" So I hunch over and rub her back. She closes her eyes and drifts back to sleep. I go back to our room....and try to fall back asleep before the alarm goes off. I finally do fall asleep, except the alarm goes off about 5 minutes later.

I can't wait until May is over and I can go to bed early without missing a new Lost. Although, last night wasn't worth staying up for, except for the last 2 minutes. I will stumble through today (thankfully, a very slow day, a lot of people are off) and probably crawl in bed right after C falls asleep. D's been working late (Big! New! Production! this weekend that requires him to work until late. I had a conversation with him the other night when he got home, but I believe I was still asleep because, judging from his responses, I wasn't making much sense. (Some people might say that's normal for me anyway).

Monday, May 01, 2006

Beach Season '06

We actually had a rare weekend where D didn't have to work Sat or Sun. We got to spend the whole weekend together! Sat we did chores, but Sun was for fun. And we decided to spend it at the beach. Yes, we're probably crazy.

It was so much fun. We loaded up the car and hit the road around 9. As there's no direct way to go, we took our time, stopping at Dunkin Donuts for coffees and chocolate milk and a box of munchkins. We played I-Spy in the car, told silly jokes, and C started some deep conversation ("Mama, are we in a storybook?" She couldn't ask where babies come from? At least I know that answer!)

We had to stop for a potty break when we were almost at the beach ("I really really have to go". Then when she hops out of the car, she's ready to shop (we stopped at the outlets in Clinton)). After a bathroom break and some shopping, we're back on our way and at the beach in 5 minutes. Unbeknownst to me, C had packed her bathing suit, because beach = swimming. She was upset when I told her she could only put her feet in the water.

Well, that didn't last long. She waded right in and started playing her game ("in and out") with the waves. Of course she ended up wet, and wanted her suit. I let her change her top, and we told her we weren't staying too much longer.

I took pictures, to horrify MIL (because you don't get wet in April! That leads to pneumonia, and death!) She actually asked D if C was wearing a hat on Saturday because it was cold and breezy. How she would know that, not having been outside, is anyone's guess.

We wanted to play miniature golf, but the place we went to wasn't yet open for the season. So we went to the outlets in Westbrook (I need a new casual china set - mine is pretty beat and when everyone comes over, there's not enough). C and I were walking past the baby store (Carter's) when she saw something in the window she absolutely fell in love with, and had to go see. So she runs inside and starts trying to tell me something. Of course I can't hear her, so I go inside too.

She was in love with the pink strollers in the window. I told her she was too big for that stroller, and she told me she wanted it for when she had a baby. I informed her when she was going to have a baby, I would buy her whatever stroller she wanted. Then she said she wanted to have a girl baby. Not wanting to go into the whole "how the sex of a baby is determined" talk, I just said ok. I thought that was so cute - she was so serious about wanting a girl baby.

She fell asleep on the way home and last year, that would have meant she was out for the night. I guess those days are over now. She woke up about 10 minutes before we got home and was ready to go again.