Sometimes...

I tend to share a lot here, but there are still a lot of things that I keep to myself. Even in quasi-anonymity, I don't feel totally comfortable sharing all of the details of my life and that of people around me. Often it is because of a specific request from someone, or because of a deep-rooted fear that the social services infrastructure in Illinois is reading;-)

But sometimes, oh sometimes I just wish I could tell you things, and I just can't. Last night, Big Sis, Smoking Hot Roommate, Munchkin and I had dinner, and I would love nothing more than to share a transcript of the discussion...but it is just a little too personal for those involved, and I will have to keep it to myself.

However, there was MUCH laughing, and several instances of laughter so hard that food and/or drink nearly came out of someones mouth and/or nose. We managed to keep everything in, but it was close.

And on a more serious note, Munchkin is extraordinarily lucky to have two older sisters who care about her as deeply, and show it so thoroughly through both words and actions, as Big Sis and SHR. I am not sure that I thank them enough.

Back from Vacation

Other than the miserable weather, vacation was actually quite nice:-) I did...let's see...absolutely nothing, and it was glorious!

That is not entirely true...I read, I napped, I cooked (and ate) and hung out with the lovebirds a lot. I think I have stopped really wondering about their future. They seem to have, remarkably, settled into a really happy and healthy relationship where they only get to see each other a couple of times a year. I am still not entirely sure how that works when you are their age, but they care very deeply about each other...enough to make it work, I guess.

Interestingly, she didn't cry when he left last night. I think maybe having done this several times now, she knows how fast the time between visits passes, and she doesn't get as sad when he leaves. Smoking Hot Roommate, Big Sis and I have a dinner date with her tonight, which was largely intended to cheer her up, but I am not even sure that the cheering up is needed. Which means we can use the time to try an embarrass her, and to badger her with the 1,000 questions that we all have before she heads back to the beach tomorrow:-)

Changing subjects...while I was relaxing at the beach, The Boy was busy being a single Dad of two little girls (well, except for the night his Mom stayed over). And since I was gone the weekend prior, that made for him having them by himself for most of a week (I was home for two days last week). I need to acknowledge that he is much better at that than I am...he has more patience and gets much less flustered than I do.

But, even with his Daddy talents, they are a handful, and by the time he got them fed, packed up and in the car on Friday night and drove all the way here (which includes a ferry), he was absolutely exhausted. I happen to find the ease with which he handles parenting absolutely adorable, so I put him directly to bed and rewarded him with two of his favorite things...(hint: they both start with "b", have seven letters and one of them is a backrub...;-))

The weekend was nice...pretty low key, weather was kinda blech. Just hung out at the house, played with the girls, ate and drank too much and laughed a lot. Pretty good, if you ask me:-)

Visiting and Visitors

Weekend was a blast...tons of fun (and surprisingly little drinking for this girl...actually, not surprising, since I was sort of on Mom duty the whole time).

Munchkin came with us everywhere and never got carded or questioned once. And no, just because they let her into bars doesn't mean that I let her order anything that she shouldn't from said bars. That was actually kind of easy, as there were two pregnant girls with us periodically all weekend and I didn't really drink much, so she wasn't totally left out.

Just a really good time...we didn't really cause too much trouble, we just went out Friday and Saturday nights, laughed a lot and danced a lot and spent a lot of Saturday just hanging out and shopping and whatnot (and having a dress fitting, which was awesome...both of our dresses fit really well right off the bat). Honestly, if Munchkin hadn't been with us, we may have been a little more debaucherous, but BFFg would have really missed her if she was at home:-) And our heads are probably in much better shape today as a result...

It was good to see some friends I haven't seen in a long time, too, and to meet some new ones. Honestly, I didn't really live up to my role as Maid of Honor in planning this, but I didn't really have to since everyone sort of pitched in and took care of it. Her work friends (who are the ones that I don't really know) and just really great girls, really laid back and easy to have this kind of party with. Just like BFFg!!!

Anyway, we dragged our exhausted behinds home a little early yesterday so that we could be home to spend Father's Day with all of those wonderful Dads in our lives:-) The Boy and I went up to his parents place with the girls for a cookout (I was totally exhausted, but figured it best not to complain:-)).

Munchkin stayed behind because she had a very special visitor to meet at the airport, of course. And yes...still in love:-). I had originally planned on going to the beach for the whole week with them (girls are staying home), but I changed that plan since I didn't want to be away from the girls for that long. So, Big Sis headed down with them this morning, and is going to stay until Wednesday and then I and going to head down late tomorrow or Wednesday morning and The Boy will come down with the girls on Friday night.

Make sense? Ahh...summer...finally here:-)

Hockey, eh?

So, several weeks ago it came to my attention that the Bruins were playing in the Stanley Cup finals. Surprisingly (given my obviously intense devotion to them) this was news to me.

Then I found out that the other team (and Canadian readers...isn't "Canuck" a somewhat derogatory term?) had a pair of twins, so I was maybe a little bit conflicted. Because, as we all know, twins are awesome.

Then somebody got bitten and there seemed to be a lot of people hitting each other with sticks...is hockey always this violent? While I was aware that the Blackhawks won last year, I never actually watched any of the games...I have watched hockey before, and I know that there is a lot of hitting and whatnot, but this seemed to be excessively violent. Anyway...

So, the Bruins won, and The Boy has pointed out that, since I first moved to Boston, every team has won at least one Championship. I can see no other logical explanation for this other than my presence:-)

And I am now accepting bids to move to your city and bring my good karma with me:-)

My new favorite TV show.

First, a little clarification...when I said "next weekend" in my last post, I was referring not to the coming weekend (or "this weekend" in me head) but in fact the upcoming weekend. Which is now "this weekend". Follow? It all seems perfectly clear to me...

Anyway, completely random confession: I have a new favorite TV personality, and if I gave you a thousand guesses you would never get it. The winner? Jeremy Wade from River Monsters.

I have a hard time explaining my fascination with him and with the show. I am not a fisher...in fact, I have never been fishing. I have little desire to ever go fishing. My impression has always been that fishing is boring and very smelly. I enjoy eating fish, but let's be honest: they are kinda gross. And the ones he catches are big and mean and nasty and like to eat people with their big ferocious teeth,

But whenever it is on, I can't help but watch. His accent is killer and his crooked teeth make him a lovely combination of rugged and refined. He also seems to own at least 3,000 fishing rods, which is apropos of nothing, really. But mostly, I think the fish are the stars...like this one, which is the scariest thing I have ever seen. And this Giant Japanese Salamander, which is really gross but has the cutest little toes ever. Or the never-ending array of catfish the size of Volkswagens.

So maybe when I get the inevitable invite to go deep sea fishing this summer, I should go? Or maybe just avoid the sea sickness and hang out on the beach...either or.

Fake ID's, babysitters, foreigners and emails

I am quickly becoming the Worst Blogger Ever. I don't really even have an excuse...I am not so super busy that I don't have time to write. I think maybe I am just boring. I have nothing that seems worth writing.

Let's see...girls are doing great. Daddy gets them all by himself next weekend because Smoking Hot Roommate and I am going to Chicago for BFFg's bachelorette party, which will be a total shit show. Munchkin is coming and we are gonna try and sneak her into places with us...hopefully being in a group of 10 or so girls that are all in their late 20's at least will mean we can skip the ID checks. She looks plenty old enough, but I am not quite criminal enough to get her an ID (if SHR weren't going, she could use hers as they look enough alike, but we will put that on the list of "habits I would rather she not get into").

The wedding is in July, and we are hoping to be able to go. That will mean that his parents have to watch the girls for a whole weekend, though, and I am not sure we are totally ready for that. For now we are planning on going, but The Boy could end up staying home at the last minute...hopefully not.

Then, when we get back, Frenchie is coming and I am headed to the beach with both lovebirds for the week. Looking forward to vacation!!! I have had to promise Munchkin that we can have a lot of driving lessons...wish me luck:-)

So, to change topics...who else got "The Email" this weekend? I did (not sure why, really) and found it to be a little weird, a little confusing, a little disconcerting and some other stuff. And the nosy part of me would LOVE to know who wrote it, but I doubt that will ever come out (and if the named party ever figured it out, I doubt she would broadcast it anyway.) But I would love to know anyone else's thoughts on what this says about who reads blogs, who writes blogs and what we all hope to, and eventually get, out of blogging.

Drop me a line:-)

Changes

Munchkin is all moved in at the beach...which is less of a production than it has been before, and of which I am much less worried about her well-being. I am, however, still gonna miss her a lot when I don't see her:-) I still have trouble going more than about four hours without talking to her...

The weekend was nice, although the weather wasn't great at the beach...not a whole lot of sun. Still, it is just a fantastic feeling when the beach house gets opened up for the year. It lets me know that summer is finally here! The girls did great in unusual surroundings, which is good...always a little bit of a worry that maybe they won't sleep or something. And mostly they just like having all of those people to pay attention to them:-)

But the big news around here is that The Boy has a new job. Since he got out of graduate school he has worked at the same place, has been promoted a couple of times and has very much enjoyed it...but this was a chance to go in a little bit of a different direction that he is excited about. This job will be more client facing, and will include a lot more lifetime estate and tax planning, in addition to the same sort of investment analysis that he always did.

And without going into the details, the new company is kind of an unusual place, and it is not very common that they bring in people into the job he is going into. He sort of got recruited by two older guys that are winding down and looking for a successor to inherit many of their current relationships. So, he is both flattered by their faith in him, excited about the new role and excited about all of the opportunities it presents!

And I am very happy for him and very proud of him:-)

Hooray for The Boy!