bbrrruuuuppppp

1. WonderToddler broke my phone power cord, leaving me useless.

2.  I dropped our sexyamazingfabulous Powershot camera and broke it.

3. I’m leaving for LA today with WT.  4 and a half hours in the air, at least 3 in airports and definately one in the car rental place (those take foreverrrr)

4.  SexyHusband rigged up a way for me to charge phone on my laptop.

5. This means I have to bring my laptop to a place with no internet service, figuring out how to pack it in my suitcase without it getting smashed.

6. SH also bought me a new, sexyawesomefabulous Powershot.

7.  Please pray the 7+ hour travel time goes smoothly.  Including driving on LA freeways for the first time with nothing but a screaming toddler and a GPS system that sounds like Mr. T.

8. Remember when I used to freak out because I was travelling with my violin??  Ahh, those were the days…

Side effects.

A somewhat disturbing side effect of my new hair is that I’m starting to get some odd new attention.

Take yesterday when I was walking through the wall, trying to decide on dinner.  Some smarmy guy ran into me - and when I say smarmy, I mean smarmy.  I know charm, and that’s incredibly rare - and true smarm is also rare.  Car salesman type stuff.  Anyway, this early twenties, dressed to do a deal shoudler smacker hit me, and then stopped to say the obligatiry apology, and then stopped - looked at me again, and made his best “how YOU doin’” face, and tried a line.

How long has it been since I saw that look?  The last time I wore my red vinyl pants, and thatmy friends, was a loooong time ago.  So I’m a little rusty on my snappy comebacks.  All I could do was sputter out a “huh?” while I was vainly trying to get my contact lens out of my eyelid and trying to get my left hand free so I could flash that ownership ring.  He figured out I wasn’t as cute as the new haircut said and walked away, leaving me confused, thinking “What on earth?  I have a KID and a husband!!”

Also smiling my own smarmy style.

But then today, the hair got me in creepy trouble again.  In the processof waiting the hour and a half for the cops to show up, the moron 22-year old tattooed “music producer” has a court date next week MORON that ran into my van while I was trying to pull into my own bleeding driveway asked me if it was my mom’s van.

Not as flattering as you’d think.  This was after I ran around my street screaming at him like a banshee.

I’m not up to this sexy thing.  I’m putting a hat on tomorrow.

Silly Jane!  I got new hair, not plastic surgery!

Guess what I did yesterday??

(I mean - paid someone else to do yesterday ;)

5 uninteresting things

ooo Mary tagged me to list 5 unimportant things about myself.   How liberating!  These lists make me always go into fits because I feel like I have to put something super interesting and deep.  Nope, here’s some mundane for ya!

1. I am addicted to popping my knuckles.  Every joint I can get to pop, really. I briefly had a dream of marrying a chiropractor who would cracky me up any time I wanted… but my manly supply chain manager is juuust fine with me:)

2. In 3rd grade I wrote an essay for science class for some kind of competition thingy and my teacher selected me to be one of 2 3rd graders to disect a cow’s brain.  It was the last time anyone let me do anything sciencey-brainy.

3. I am a horrible puker.  I moan and moan and don’t want to and mooooan.  SH on the other hand, had a stomach virus that made him throw up every day for something like 6 months, so he feels like he’s an expert at it.  After I puked once when I was all pregnant and crawled into bed miserable and wanting some snugglage, he actually offered to give me puking lessons so it wouldn’t be so miserable for me.  SERIOUSLY.

4.  As a kid, most summers were spent practicing violin for 8 hours a day in my aunt’s backyard.  Not my idea, and not enjoyed at all… and yet I still picked violin as my career.  I’m a glutton for punishment.

5.  I say “sorry’ a LOT and not WT is saying it constantly… I wonder how to get out of this one..

Okay, I tag Jane (so she’ll FINALLY post something!!) Cellogirl, Pascal,and… okay EVERYBODY.  Mundane away!

The gig this weekend - INCREDIBLE!!!  Not only did we rock the hizouse musicially, but I had such a wonderful time with my bandmates that my batteries are all kinds of recharged.  The singer - Liz - went shopping withm e just an hour before we had to leave, and helped me find some really nice, on sale, tall gal clothes!  Then we played about the whole time, it was wonderful. Plus,once we’d done one set, we couldn’t go anywhere without people stopping us to tell us how much they enjoyed the music.  My heart is happy:)

You can check out some of the pictures at our myspace - http://www.myspace.com/tresdesolei (all at my facebook page - we should be friends!).  We went a little hog wild with Michael’s camera;)  Oh, how I’ve missed having girlfriends around!!  Mommy friends are nice, but running around with Liz - teenager that she may be - was one of the funnest things I’ve done in many moons.

No complaining here, folks - I’ve got the happies today!!

recap of insignificant proportion

Ironic how I get on people’s backs who don’t update, and then I don’t for a whole week!  Just to get everyone caught up to speed on my life, the highlights of the week were:

1. WT talks SO MUCH.

2. WT throws fits in public now. Apparenly, she’s the first child to ever do this, given the looks of crazed people glaring at me in disapproval.

3. We’re doing good getting our 72 hour kits together in case of an emergency, seeing as the whole planet is having all these crazy freak things and it’s inevitable that it’ll be our turn soon.  We still keep arguing about food storage, because we know we need it - but SH is not convinced that we need to spend thousands of dollars on fancy canned cheese.  Hey, that’s all I need!

4. I taught a class for 2 days on rock violin for a orchestra camp.  It’s something I used to do a lot of, but it’s becoming more and more clear that I am a old, old woman.  That and I can’t figure out all my cool electric violin toys out anymore.  Oh, and I’m jonesing for a new electric violin.  It’s between a cool acoustic electric - like the Epoch - or the reliable solid body electric Yamaha Silent.

   Â

I have played an Epoch and I remember thinking the acoustic sound was nice, plus the violin is weather resistant - you can even get it in carbon fiber instead of wood!  But the Yamaha is reliable, plus has a few preamp settings like reverb already built in so it has a nice sound.  But it feels so akward, and… well, everyone has one.  I’d kind of be following the crowd and all that.  I have one from the first year they made them, but it has some glitches I couldn’t stand so I gave it to Dallin.  Hrmmmm…..

5.  I’m leaving today for an overnight gig.  No baby, no husband, just Tres de Solei and me.  I’m excited because it’s so fun to play and it’s a pretty big gig for our small crew, but I am disheartened by the fact that I can’t get over looking like a MOM.  It’s so blasted hard to find comfy cute clothes for the ridiculously tall.  Le sigh.

Okeedokie, gotta pack!!  Now Y’ALL post!!!

A moment in the life....

AWWWWKKKKKKward.

I have this student whose mom is a doll, but I always do something akward around her.  I’m just …. akward. Can’t explain it. 

Today’s tummy twister?  I was over at her house while WT ran around with her girls - and she offered me one of their outside play toys with a slide.  I was thrilled!!  And then…. attack of the akward!!  I went in to give her a hug (why?!?  I am so weird!!) and instead - HEAD BUTTED her.  And it was So.  So. So. akward.  My head still hurts.  I tried to laugh it off, but it was just. too. weird.  And my head STILL hurts.

GAH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

found this gem -

carlovely:

Kmart carries a line of Abstinence Sweatpants.

As if sweatpants needed any help inducing abstinence.

True Love Waits

(via cbeth)

 We all know I’m in favor of the waiting thing, but to put the message right next to a teenage girls crotch, AND also print it on the butt??

Good golly, give the poor boys a break!

Today is National Doughnut Day!!  Why?

The celebration was launched in 1938, in the depths of the Great Depression, as a Salvation Army fund-raiser honoring the volunteer “lassies” who served coffee and fresh doughnuts by the thousands to homesick soldiers in France during World War I.

AND - get a free Krispy Kreme today!  Just go and ask for it - they’ll give it to you!  Any kind you want!  I know what I want to do for dinner now… ;)

If I could just erase that one thing...

Enjoy the power and beauty of your youth; Oh never mind, you will never understand the power and the beauty of your youth until they’ve faded. But trust me, in twenty years, you will look back at photos of yourself and recall in a way you can’t grasp now, how much possibility lay before you and how fabulous you really looked.

Many thanks for the happy thoughts.  I stumble every now and then, but my holes tend to run a little deep.  You never know when something will snap on you, and … well, it’s the once bitten, twice shy sort of thing.  And that’s the part of me I hope WonderToddler escapes.

I hope she won’t live in fear.  I hope she’ll always know she’s loved no matter what - and that she can trust me to always do just that.

This adult life tends to raise the stakes, doesn’t it?  Everything is bigger, especially the consequences.  Was I ever a risk taker?  I did manage to do some pretty ballzy things, but it feels like those days are behind me now.  Everything I try seems to get me into trouble now.  Tends to leave you with less motivation to try and all that.  And it terrifies me… is this really how it’s going to be for the next xxx years??  I mean until I live out my life long dream to die onstage in a summerstock production of Romeo and Juliet when I actually plunge that dagger into my boobs and go down in history as the most dramatic Juliet EVER.

But until then… thanks for being my window into the world.

  

It was impossible NOT to blog this.

He Came With The Couch

http://www.lookybook.com/embed/1360-embed.swf

Via my good friend, Pascal who thought I’d like a smile today.  Oh it did help - and now I want my own couch-lackey.  I tend to fall down, the help would be handy:)

PS - click the eyeballs to see the picture bigger.

Haven’t posted a Things That Make THis All Worth it pic, and today I really feel like it is.  This shot is from a few weeks ago, but it’s a smile I’m lucky to see every day.  Last night I was so sad, I just couldn’t stop the waterworks.  WT kept giving me hugs, then standing back to survey the result.  She was working for a smile.  FInally she smiled and pointed at the TV and said hopefully - “SuWhy?”  It’s her favorite show (SuperWhy).  I smiled and turned it on for her.  She was thrilled, but she never left my side.  She’d look at the screen with a big smile, then turn to see if I was smiling.  If I wasn’t, she’d point to the TV and say “SuWhy!” - or “Our favorite show is on -doesn’t this make you happy?!”  When she decided I was smiley enough, she curled up on my lap, content.  Either she’s one amazing little girl, or I’m one awesome mom.

I'm not

a strong woman.  I need validation and approval far too much.  If I ever let go of that need, I could conquer the world.  Well, not that far - I’m not a very smart person (it’s true - it takes me forever to figure out most basic things).  But I could tackle my demons and achieve my dreams.

Instead, I’m weak, doing very little for anything else in the universe except for this tiny beautiful girl who has suddenly learned empathy.  That’s such a comfort.  Tonight she tried to stop my tears by jamming her fingers into my eyes.  It didn’t work, but the thought was incredibly sweet.

If only I could disappear.  I hope she’s nothing like me.

Insanity over on the family blog.  And you think I’m kidding, but I’m NOT.  EVERYBODY GET BUSY THIS SUMMER!!!!!!  Heck, everyone is doing it.  Well - not YET, but they will if I keep bugging the crap outta everyone!

Ahh… you can’t understand it unless you’ve been there, but for those who have tried to breastfeed, but the baby wouldn’t do it - so you had to pump instead - and then discovered pumping is one of the most agrivating, painful experiences of your entire life - this link is for you.

I had to pump to keep up my supply for my daughter who didn’t want anything to do with my boob 70% of the time, wouldn’t drink my milk from a bottle and to top it off - I had a leaky, inefficient hand pump I’d brought from the states that took twice the time to get an ounce out, AND gave my tendonitis a horrible flare-up.  Oh, and every time I had letdown, I had an intense urge to kill myself.

For anyone who had a decent or wonderful experience nursing, I applaud you.  But for those of us who didn’t and/or couldn’t, thanks to Julie for this fabulous entry about letting ourselves off the guilt train.

Yep, WonderToddler hated nursing, and it ruined the first 3 months of our time together. Heck, she didn’t even drink formula half the time!  And now at 19 months - she recognizes every letter in the alphabet and can count to 10.  She walked early and has a vocabulary as large as most kids a whole year older.  She’s taller than every 2 year old we know.

I don’t have any regrets, except that I wish I would have stopped forcing it on us when it was obvious that it wasn’t going to work.  WonderToddler is indeed a wonder, and loved the crap out of me once I stopped being her caterer, and started being her mom.

So if you can - WOOHOO!!!!  And if you can’t - it’s no one’s beezwax but yours.  Stop hating yoursef and get cracking on giving them what they really need - loving both your baby and yourself.

carlovely:

(via wtfdude)

Funny thing though - this doesn’t ahve my sleep position.  I’m part feotus, part yearner, and part ALL OVER THE FLIPPIN’ BED.