Friday, June 30, 2006

I got nothin'

To write. Just boringness going on here. And some cleaning. Except for when I'm on the computer. Which happens more than it should.

We lost power last night due to a car/pole accident. If anyone was watching FoodTv and their show about the pastry chef competition - who won? The chefs were just finishing up their sugar sculptures and getting ready to move them oh so carefully to the judging table when BLAM! Out went the lights. D somehow knew where the flashlights were (don't ask me, I keep more important stuff in my head, like due dates for bills and such), and we went upstairs to go to bed.

The neighborhood was full of flashlights bobbing back and forth. One lucky neighbor had a generator. After hearing all the sirens and how close they were, I decided to get dressed, put my contacts back in, and joined the crowd at the end of the road (we live on a dead end street). We've lived here for a little over 2 years, and I don't know anyone. Which is ok. I've got a lot of Yankee in me, don't need to be friends with everyone. (And I can't play the game of "my kid is so wonderful and does this this and this". It's too exhausting.

Baseball game tonight. College league, here in town. C's been wanting to go to a baseball game, so this will be a good test run. Somehow she's decided she likes the Boston Red Sox. That horrifies D, who is a long time NY Yankees fan. I'm thinking there must be some genetic component going on here, since my family has been Red Sox fans since time immemorial.

Not sure how much time I'll have to blog this weekend, so I hope everyone has a happy, wonderful and safe 4th of July!!

Wednesday, June 28, 2006

Wednesday is the new Friday

Yay! Last day here until next week! We have a four day weekend coming up, and with a day and a half of vacation time, will get almost a full week of time off! That still doesn't make up for the 3 1/2 hour commute this morning (I would have turned around except I was closer to work than home by the point I thought about it), but it helps.

Tomorrow and Friday will be errand/chores day, with trying to fit in some workouts and other fun stuff. Bad mom that I am, C will still go to school. Oh, I'll pick her up earlier than usual, but sometimes it's easier to get things accomplished alone. We'll probably spend Monday at the beach (current forecast is for sun and high 80's) and Tuesday will be a picnic with the in-laws. Not looking forward to that, seeing as we'll be spending the following Saturday with them as well for a graduation party. But MIL is old! She might die without seeing C again! (very sarcastic here. I can't help it. I want to slap her silly sometimes).

I haven't really posted about D lately. Really, I'm just tired of thinking about it, worrying about it, and blogging about it. And he's so freakin' clueless. Last night he says "I thought we were happy!" (after I 'snapped' at him for something). I give up. Do whatever you want, I don't care anymore. And that's a very sad statement. But one day C won't need as much attention, and I'll be off doing something and he'll wonder where it all went off the tracks.

Monday, June 26, 2006

Monday Blahs

Rain rain go away!! I have a 4 1/2 year old who is all out of sorts, and I can't blame her. I feel the same way too! I'm tired of the rain, and blogging about it, and reading about it internet and hearing about it on the news. Make it stop!

So with all this rain, can't really do much outside. Although we did buy C a bike on Saturday. Pink (of course!) with a basket and bell and training wheels. She did really well but started going too fast, got scared, tried to put her feet down to stop and ended up taking a tumble. She didn't want to get back on it, but I told her that as a kid she was going to take lots of tumbles and get scrapes and bruises. That's her job. My job is to walk beside her and make sure she doesn't get really hurt. We didn't get a chance to ride yesterday between the rain and a birthday lunch for D's aunt.

We went to the mall Saturday afternoon. C kept telling me she needed to take a break. A break? You're four, you don't need breaks. Except she maybe did, seeing as she fell asleep on the way home and slept for over two hours. And this is a kid that stopped napping at 2! And yes, bedtime on Saturday was fun!

And why is it I can compose brilliant blog posts in my head, but when I sit down to write something it comes out like the mush above?

Friday, June 23, 2006

Friday Musings

Fridays in the summer are so slow. I've only gotten two official "work" emails, only one of which required any action on my part....

Why is it the coffee I get in the morning somehow seems to determine how my day will be? This morning, C got up early and wanted me to take her to school. She hurried up, got ready and off we went. I didn't stop at my regular Dunkin' Donuts but at a different one. How hard is it to make iced coffee? All I want is an iced French Vanilla coffee with milk and a little sugar. What do I get? Regular coffee, not enough milk and too much sugar. And on top of that - the coffee tasted burnt. Not a great start to the day.

I never used to drink coffee. Even in college, during the occasional all nighter, I'd drink Coke. It wasn't until I had C and had to go back to work that I started drinking coffee. And now, if I skip coffee one morning, I can tell. I'll be driving down the highway, yawning and wondering why I'm so tired. Am I addicted? Probably.

And why must it rain on the weekends? Couldn't someone invent something to move the clouds with the rain to the parts of the country that need the rain, like the West, versus the Northeast where we're now getting weather forecasts that call for inches of rain?? D has to work all day tomorrow, and I was planning on taking C to my dad's to go swimming all afternoon, but with 2- 5 inches of rain forecast, that's not looking likely. And we've seen Cars twice already....

Not that I would do anything productive, like clean the house or anything. That's not fun. Weekends, especially in the summer, are supposed to be fun.

Anyone have any fun plans for this weekend?

Monday, June 19, 2006

Father's Day

I should have some profound Father's Day post up for yesterday, but I don't. We spent the day in the pool at my dad's house (while my dad spent the day in his air conditioned computer room).

My dad is one of those old fashioned "goes to work to earn the living while mom raises the kids" kind of dads. It sounds worse than it is maybe. I think his dad wasn't very involved with his life (and my dad has five brothers and a sister, so multiply the uninvolvement)and he just doesn't know what to do. Even now he shakes his head when my brothers and I are goofing around, acting idiotic. "I had nothing to do with that". But when you press him hard enough, he does see the humor. Even when we all ended up laughing during my mom's funeral. (I know, sounds horrible, but the whole thing was so horrible, so unexpected and sudden something had to give. And she would have appreciated it. Even my dad admitted that, finally).

So we played in the pool, and bought my dad dinner, and had a pretty good day.

Hope everyone else had a good Father's Day!

Sunday, June 18, 2006

Overheard

(Or why I sometimes hate riding Metro North)

"so I heard that Beavis McButthead.."

"You know Beavis McButthead?"

"Yes"

"No way"

"Yes, he was president of my fraternity. He was a couple years ahead of me, but I saw him at a couple events"

"Beavis was the best man at my wedding"

"no way!"

Tuesday, June 13, 2006

Class of '86 Rules!!!

I just realized today is the 20th anniversary of my high school graduation. I'm not sad, I didn't have a particularly great (or horrible) high school experience. Not like the girls who peaked in high school. (Looking at you K*****! Wearing the ponytail with the Swatch in it!)

Twenty years ago tonight (it was actually Friday, June 13 back in 1986) I said goodbye to some people I had known for 12 years, and others I had only known for 4 years. I still have my best friend, whom I've known since first grade, lost one friend to cancer the year I got married, and married D, who went to high school with me but we weren't boyfriend/girlfriend. He was more like the geek I let sit with me. I should have realized back then, when he never had lunch money and I was always sharing my Hostess cupcakes with him, it'd be trouble. Other than that, don't keep in touch with anyone else really.

It's funny how life turns out. I was convinced I was going to graduate college, immediately become a vice president of some corporation (didn't matter which corporation, I'm a big picture person, don't bother me with details), marry someone, have 4 boys and live in Fairfield County while husband commuted into the city, spend summers on Nantucket and send the boys to private schools. Yeah. I pretty much wanted the Preppy Handbook life. Didn't get it.

Instead, I married D, have one girl, work in Fairfield County (I guess technically I am a vice president of a corporation - assistant vp anyway) spend summers working and am the main breadwinner of this family (which is pretty funny when you think I graduated college magna cum lucky and just have a bachelors degree). It's not bad, it's just not what I thought I wanted.

I don't know if there will be a reunion, or if I'd even go. Maybe for the 25th.

Monday, June 12, 2006

Summer Reading

I love reading. I have for as long as I can remember. I love losing myself in a good story, "seeing" the action in my head. One of my favorite things to do is go to the bookstore and just browse around. I found a great bookstore on my trip to Denver in April (not a chain, which made it even better) and spent a small fortune on books. D gets mad because I buy books instead of taking them out of the library, but I like to keep the ones that are special to me, and who has time to remember to return books to the library when they're due?

When I was young, I used to stay up until 2 or 3 am just so I could finish a book. I remember finally closing the book and looking around my bedroom to realize everyone else was asleep, and it was dark and quiet. I try to read to C every night (some nights she wants to play a game, which is fun too), and in the bookstore yesterday, she wanted to get the first Little House on the Prairie book (because it came with a necklace! Must have jewelry!).

In my small, Catholic grammar school, the library was organized by grade. I had been reading since before I started kindergarten, and there had to be a big conference about whether or not I could take books out from the shelves for the higher grades. There was one book in particular I kept checking out of the library. Not because I liked it so much (I did like it) but because it was the fattest book in the library at the time. I wish I could remember the title, or author. I just remember it was a pink book, about some kids who lived in a townhouse in a city, and the older brother took care of the younger siblings. Except, I think that last part was Party of Five?

I'm always looking for new authors to read. Anyone reading anything fun or interesting this summer?

Sunday, June 11, 2006

Sun Day

There was this strange, yellow orb in the sky all day today. I think it's called... the "sun"...

We actually had a whole day of sunshine today! Woo hoo! We rolled in the overgrown grass, and pretended to be snakes, and put on "shows" (C invented a show about pine cones)...I tried to juggle, we ate ice cream and C got covered in chocolate and I'll need to buy stock in whomever makes Shout, but it was a good day.

It didn't start out good, D got home around 3:30 am. I was so tired from waking up every hour or so at night since Wednesday I couldn't even bring myself to say anything to him. C climbed in bed with us around 6:30ish (why? Why can't she ever sleep in on the weekend?) and he woke up slightly to say he'd go to breakfast with us, etc. Which he didn't. He was still sleeping when we left for breakfast and grocery shopping, and was up by the time we got home. At which point I just exploded. What does he want from me? And then he just looks at me with those cow eyes and no expression, so I have no clue what he's thinking. He tells me he knows it's not right, etc etc.

I suggest perhaps he's an alcoholic. He counters with "no, more like problem drinker". Tomato, tomahto. It just seems very simple to me. He can't only have one drink. He drinks when he stays at work late at night. Ergo, when the show's over, and the audience has left, come home. Don't hang out with the people doing whatever it is they're doing after the show. It's not rocket science. It's not even calculus.
But what do I know? I told him he has a week to decide if he wants a family or to act like he's twenty something with no responsibility.

This could get interesting.

Saturday, June 10, 2006

Another Saturday Night

I have a post in my head about how crazy it's been since Wednesday, but I am so tired of always having negative things to say. It's summer, and if it ever stops raining in Connecticut maybe it can finally feel like summer! (ok, the sun was out this afternoon, but it doesn't make up for the last two weeks of rain).

And, if any old person wants to bitch about how there's a drought later this summer, I may be forced to hurt them. I drive by a resevoir on my way to my dad's house. I checked. That sucker was full. As in, filled to the brim. No drought this summer.

The lawn hasn't been mowed since before Memorial Day. I'm going to need some sort of farm implement to get through it. Although, D is looking into having someone take care of it for us weekly. It might be worth whatever that cost is, just to not have to worry about it. Because with our schedules, it's the weekend or not mowed, baby.

And we're taking 2 vacations this summer! I can't wait! One in July and one in August. Rhode Island and Disney. The Rhode Island vacation is one we take every year (or have pretty much since C was a baby). The Disney vacation happened because D was/is working 80-90 hours a week and we hardly see him (and when we do oftentimes he's getting calls from work).

Hopefully the weather will be nice so we can take advantage of my dad's pool, and get to the beach a few times, and find some other fun things to do. WHy do the 3 months of summer go by so much quicker than the 3 months of winter??? It doesn't seem right.

Wednesday, June 07, 2006

All dressed up

and no place to go. There was supposed to be a place to go, but the plans were tenative at best (LawnGuyland, if you must know, to deliver a check to one of my agents). But the agent had other plans for today, tomorrow, Friday, so hello Fed Ex?

And in anticipation of this check delivery, I dressed a little nicer than I normally do for work. Not a suit, mind you, my current employer and previous employer (so 9 years and counting) have been business casual. I don't own a suit that fits anymore. And since I work with mostly men, who need Garanimals to dress themselves for the most part, I don't usually spend a lot of time worrying about what I wear (usually khakis and a nice shirt). I am all about the comfort. I'm not seeing clients, and I don't want to or need to really impress the guys who are here, so I get to be comfortable most of the time. So while I'm not completely uncomfortable, it's still not right.

I'm dressed up-ish, and it's raining. The only good thing? I drove today, so won't have to walk in the rain to the train station. In fact, I might even leave early.

How's your day going?