Exhausted

The weekend was awesome...wedding was fantastic, the girls did great with Grandma and Grandpa and now I need a nap to recover:-) Leave it to me to get no rest on a weekend when I have two consecutive nights to sleep as long as I want undisturbed!!!

I think my toast came out pretty well. I cut it down quite a bit, but a lot of the content was the same. It made BFFg cry, which was really my only goal:-P. She doesn't cry nearly as easily as I do, so I consider it to be an accomplishment!

No problems getting out there, which left us with some time to just hang out with the bride and her family for most of the day Friday before the rehearsal dinner. That is one of my favorite parts of wedding...the "calm before the storm" when everyone is excited, and checked into the hotel and just really riding high. It is a great time to be with the bride and groom before they are buried under wedding guests.

Two moments...one funny and one kind of touching...both related to BFFb (also, I am starting to think I should have given the BFFs less similar names...I think it is hard to keep them straight if you read fast). First, I don't think that BFFg's mother has seen Munchkin since she moved to Boston. On Friday afternoon we were in the hotel lobby waiting to assemble before heading out to dinner...BFFb was sitting on a couch talking with Munchkin, and I was talking with BFFg's Mom, maybe 25 feet away, out of earshot.

At which point she asked me if that was his new girlfriend...and thought I was joking when I told her that it was Munchkin. And then she got so emotional that she burst into tears...which made me cry. What can I say, we are women, we are weird.

Second, towards the end of the wedding, I had a lovely moment with BFFb's Mom, where she told me that she was really glad that BFFg and I were both married, because she never thought he would get married while either one of us was still single. And the thing is...I know exactly what she means, and I think she is right. It is kind of hard to explain (and she doesn't even know part of it;-)), because it has nothing to do with potentially ever being married to one of us...he is just really, really protective and loyal and devoted to us both. (Now we just need to find him a girl:-)).

Anyway, I had a great time, and danced so much that I am still sore. It was wonderful to see so many of her family that I haven't seen in forever, and she was a spectacularly radiant bride. Oh, and since The Rocket Scientist couldn't get away this weekend, Munchkin stayed with Smoking Hot Roommate...so I had The Boy all to myself all weekend long! Something about hotels...hee hee.

The wedding toast approval process begins

OK...this is my current working version of my toast for BFFg's wedding. I am having trouble with the beginning, but I think I like the second half of it. Unless it is entirely too personal, which is possible.

Also, the chances of me getting through it without bawling are absolutely zero:-)

-----------------

I tried to find poems or book or songs that I could quote from to help me with this, but nothing really seemed to fit, so I am just going to tell you what I think about [BFFg] and hope that it helps you to understand exactly how special she is.

I've known [BFFg] since we were four, and I can't even imagine how life would have turned out if I didn't have her as a best friend. Both of us were only children then, and almost right away we considered each other the sisters that we wished we had. Certainly there were challenges, but when I look back...all that matters is that she and [BFFb] and I were together. We were a team, and it was the best team that a confused, insecure, slightly-neglected girl could have had.

She (and her Mom) were there when I needed a place to stay, which was entirely too often.

She was there to make me laugh when all I wanted to do was feel sorry for myself.

She was there to get into trouble with me. And then to get out of it and then to laugh about it later on.

We sat next to each other in every class we ever took in high school, when it wasn't important to anyone else that we be there. Except for each other, because we made a promise to each other that it mattered, and we take promises to ourselves seriously.

And maybe most importantly, she was there to be a sister, a friend and a guiding voice to my own sister when I couldn't be.

Frankly, life wasn't always easy, and a lot of the kids that we grew up with became victims of our environment. But we didn't. And we didn't because we were always a team. We were always a "we" and we were always together.

We started high school with nearly 800 students. 250 graduated and maybe 25 went to college. But we were two of them, and that wasn't an accident. I made it because she held me to my promise to do it, and I think she did the same.

But she was always the stronger one. She never cared what others thought as much, and she never got as discouraged as I did. We lost friends, and all I could get from it was anger and resentment...she turned that into a strengthened resolve to make ourselves better than that.

Whatever I am, she made me. Whatever she is, I would like to take just a little bit of credit. And now, here we are, almost all grown up, and we made it.

I can give no higher praise to someone than to tell him that he is worthy of her, but [Husband], I think that you are. You are the only person I ever met that I thought worth setting her up with, and I am glad to know that my instincts were that strong. You are not only is so obviously handsome, but you treat her like a princess, challenge her and he make her even better.

BFFg and I have been a team for as long as I can remember, and we still are. But now she has a new teammate, and I can tell you from 25 years of experience, [Husband], that there is nobody you'd rather have on your side.

-----------

Thoughts?

Match.FiremanStoppingTraffic

I am still up in the air on the tattoo(s), and I will let you know if and when I finally decide what to do. If I ended up getting this and then another when Munchkin is old enough (which I promised her, although I could easily go back on that if I want to) I could conceivably be a girl with eight tattoos. They would all be small, but o I really want to me a girl with eight tattoos? Of course, seeing as I am already a girl with five tattoos, maybe that isn't such a big deal. Anywho...

Kind of a cute story that I want to tell, just because I feel like it. My friend had a date yesterday...just a brief meeting for coffee because it was really short notice, but still a date. I tell you this because she met the guy she was out with in one of the strangest ways I have ever heard of.

Thursday morning (I think), she was driving to work, and got stuck at an intersection. It is kind of a weird corner, where traffic turning left can be stopped by traffic that is stopped at a stop light about 25 yards behind the street she was trying to turn down. To ease this problem, the street is clearly marked, and a "Don't block the box" sign warns traffic to not stop in the way of cars turning left. Several cars seemed to have ignored the sign, though, and she was stuck waiting, and was backing up traffic while she waiting. Meanwhile, there were two firemen in a fire department SUV that were stopped just in front of the intersection, and therefore right next to my friend.

I should probably mention that my friend is super cute, because I think that is a key part of what happened next:-)

Seeing her kinda trapped, the fireman who was driving turned on the red lights, got out of his car and yelled at the cars behind him to back up and let the car through. There was a good public safety reason for this (it alleviated the traffic congestion)...although there was probably not an actual public safety need to ask for her number...hee hee. But he did when she rolled down the window to say thank you.

Sort of taken aback, she declined and drove off. But then she realized that a) he was adorable, b) that was super nice of him, and c) like every other single girl in America she constantly laments the difficulty in meeting nice boys:-). So...later in the day she drove by the fire station and left her number for the guy who cleared out the traffic for her.

He called her right away, they met for coffee yesterday and she reports that he is quite charming, in addition to being adorable and apparently quite chivalrous.

So...um...that story is relevant to nothing at all, but it seemed like a cute Monday morning anecdote:-)

I deserve a musical for this

Really, I am still a blogger, I swear...in fact, I usually think of a couple of things a day that I want to blog about. Finding four minutes to myself to do it, however, is another story entirely. The girls have their first cold this week...which means that Mommy and Daddy have their first baby-induced cold as well. NOT much fun at all, but I think they are getting better.

However, I got a super wonderful bit of news this morning that has me smiling inside and out and thinking of all sorts of wonderful things!

BFFg called me to ask if I would her Maid of Honor:-)

Yay!!!

Oy

Seems like I have gotten a little distracted from blogging the last...oh...week or so...eh? Which leaves me very, very far behind on my list of things I wanted to blog about, and bordering on out-of-date.

I have a serious-sounding post about health care and our state's election of last Tuesday (and the misunderstanding of it nationally), but that will need to wait until at least tomorrow. For now, I owe you an explanation as to where I have been while I haven't been blogging (or commenting on others).

There are a couple of intertwined stories here...involving a couple different people. For starters, The Mouth, one of me dearest friends from college is unexpectedly visiting for a bit. To be really frank, she did something kinda stupid, and ended up having to leave her job because of it. She is not real happy about it, nor real proud of it...and I think she came to see me and Smoking Hot Roommate because she couldn't think of anything better to do this week, could benefit from some people reminding her that she is a good person, and she needed to do something.

About the only counterbalancing factor is that she had some help in her actions, and her leaving her job is attached to a very large monetary parting gift. So, she flew out here on Monday and got in during the late evening and it was actually really good to see her, even if she wasn't in great spirits.

Second part of the story...on Tuesday afternoon, Munchkin hurt her foot playing basketball. I wasn't at the game, but she says that she landed on it funny and thought she just had a mild sprain. She has done that before, and didn't think a whole lot of it, even though she was limping on Tuesday night and felt the need to keep an ice pack on it periodically. She has some experience with hurting her ankles, so she sort of knows what to do.

On Wednesday morning, it was pretty swollen and uncomfortable, but she could still walk on it and didn't think it needed anything more than rest. She had already figured that she would have to skip basketball for at least the rest of the week and maybe longer...she also dutifully kept putting ice on it periodically to help with the swelling. At lunch on Wednesday, she called me and said that it had totally blown up and that she could no longer put any weight on it at all.

So, I picked her up at school and took her to the hospital...after a lengthy wait, a quick exam and an X-ray, the verdict was in. Broken bone in her foot. Ouch. Then the orthopedist looked at it and decided that he wanted to consult a surgeon to decide on the best course of action to re-set the bone.

Surgery? Say what?

The good news is that they (in the end there were four specialists) decided against surgery, and think that the bone can heal without any negative effects. The bad news is that she will be on crutches for a while, then in a boot and will have to be very careful while it is healing. Basketball season is obviously done for, and most likely a large chunk of her spring lacrosse and soccer, as well. The concerned parent in me is tempted to just tell her to not play any sports until the fall just to be safe, but I haven't verbalized that yet.

In the short term, that meant that she was in some pain, on some meds, and adjusting to her lack of mobility. For me, that meant the cancellation of my weekend trip to Florida:-( Munchkin was supposed to stay with Smoking Hot Roommate, but SHR was actually super busy all weekend and was really only on kind of emergency supervisory duty (Munchkin is old enough to pretty much take care of herself, even if I won't leave her home alone for two days in a row). However, SHR was way to busy to be around all the time, which is sort of what Munchkin needed this weekend.

Oh...but wait a minute...!!! Who is miraculously around all weekend?

That's right...The Mouth's ethically-challenged ways saved my vacation! She was more than happy to hang out at my place for the weekend, make sure Munchkin was comfortable and allow me and The Boy to get away to some warm weather for a few days. So, we blew out on Friday afternoon, hung out on the beach and enjoyed the heat yesterday and today, and got back after dinner tonight. Not exactly a lavish vacation, but just perfect to remind me that the world is not entirely covered in snow:-).

I am feeling relaxed, a little bit tanned, de-frosted and overall much better than two days ago. And I think The Mouth rather enjoyed having something to do...win-win-win.

"Cousins"

A few of you managed to guess my secret, or at least some version if it.

Today's big news is that I am not the only person in AM world that is pregnant;-). The divine, spectacular, and all-around awesome Big Sis is joining me in the great pregnancy adventure. She is about a week behind me, schedule-wise, and actually found out a couple days before I did.

Without a doubt, I am way happier for her than I am for me:-). There was a time (not that long ago) when she was pretty firmly against the idea of children. Then, maybe a year and a half ago, she changed her mind a bit, and she and The Brain Surgeon decided to try and have a baby. She had a devil of a time getting pregnant, though, and was beginning to get terribly frustrated.

They did not get to the point that they went through fertility treatments, but they were thinking about it (don't you just love blogs? I get very sharey:-D. Don't worry, she told me it was OK to blab!). In the meantime, she had gone from "Yes, I think I want a baby" to "I really, really want a baby, and am becoming terribly worried that it hasn't happened". Which also explains why she was much more diligent about taking a pregnancy test when she was late than I was...lol.

Because she had had trouble getting herself knocked up, she asked that her pregnancy be kept an ultra-super secret, even from the blog world. In fact, she would not have told me right away had I not had my own issues;-). But, following her doctor's appointment today, I am free to tell all of my wonderful readers!

So, while I am partially terrified at the idea of being pregnant, and totally terrified at the idea of twins...I am very much comforted by the idea that I get to go through this with one of my most very favorite people in the world. I will most likely deliver quite a while before her now, but that is OK...I am gonna love being knocked up with her!

So, please send a hearty congratulations and wishes for a healthy, safe pregnancy to Big Sis. She reads this, so she will get all of your comments if you leave them:-)

And one note, before you ask...in response to the obvious question "Does this mean that you will try and have a baby, too, now?" Smoking Hot Roommate (who virtually never swears) would like the record to reflect "Not on your fucking life!" She will have to settle for being an Auntie three times over...

Hoodwinked!!!

Well, the girls managed to pull one over on me...and did a right fine job with it, too!

On Friday, I packed up Tinkerbelle to drive her back to Boston to get her on her plane home. Or so I thought;-). I should have known something was up when Munchkin offered to ride up and back with me because she inexplicably had the day off. So, what did I find when I got back to Boston?

Surprise! Bachelorette party...

Turns out that Tinkerbelle was not actually leaving on Friday, she was leaving Saturday morning, which gave her the chance to hang out with us on Friday night (and Munchkin, too) in Boston. Smoking Hot Roommate and The Boy did some behind-the-scenes chicanery to fool me:-).

Friday was pretty low-key. Dinner and drinks and totally PG-rated activities with some local friends...we went out in the North End and then hung out at SHR's place for the night. Boss Foxy came with her daughter, and one of Munchkin's best friends came over, too (and slept over at our place). All in all, it was really fun, and I was obviously really happy to include Munchkin and Tinkerbelle in the festivities. We have sort of done the same kind of thing for Big Sis and SHR's bachelorette parties to get Munchkin involved, and it is a fun tradition.

Saturday morning started with getting Tinkerbelle to the airport, getting Munchkin's friend back home and getting her back to the beach (Papa Bear stuck around until Saturday morning so he could drive her back). All went smoothly, and then it was off to...

Las Vegas, NV...

No one would tell me where we were going until we got to the airport...although I had my suspicions once I knew that Munchkin wasn't coming. If it had just been a beach place, she probably would have come with us and just stayed in the hotel while we went out. So, Big Sis, SHR, both of The Boy's sisters, four other friends and I headed out, got there with no trouble and got checked in and settled in time to sit by the pool for afternoon cocktails;-).

BFFg was already there, along with two of my cousins and Munchkin's sister-in-law (they all flew out from Chicago together). I was actually really happy that Munchkin's SIL came...I hadn't expected her to at all, but I like her very much, she has been incredibly good for Munchkin's Brother, and I definitely don't think she has nearly enough fun!!! So, I was happy that she was willing to leave the baby at home and take a few days to come out to celebrate with me.

The Body, The Mouth and another college friend arrived as we were sitting by the pool, and the fun was started! I should actually note that our trips to Vegas in college were WAAY crazier, but we still caused a little bit of trouble. Drank too much, ate too much, gambled a little bit (at least I only gambled a bit...I can't speak for my compulsive gambler friends), danced a lot, met tons of new friends, and just basically had a grand old time.

Thankfully, the girls did not request that I wear any stupid "Bride" clothing...or any tiaras...and just basically wanted to let loose, tear some shit up and have a good time. We hit a whole mess of clubs, ran up some astronomical bar tabs (not to mention the damage that the girls did to the tabs of the hopeless men trying to hit on them...) and then wore very dark sunglasses during the day to ease the pain of the headaches:-).

All in all, a really great time. Highlights included a totally priceless monologue from The Mouth on Saturday night about men that try too hard (complete with lots of examples pointed out in the crowd), Big Sis winning and then immediately losing a sum of money that nearly made me choke during three hours of blackjack, a random meathead losing track of his location while trying to talk to us at the pool and falling backwards into said pool, my cousin breaking a heel, tripping and totally feeling up a random old woman when she fell, and a couple other things that I will keep to myself;-)

One thing we did not do a lot of was sleep! So by the time we got back last night, I was totally beat. I took The Boy pretty much straight to bed...hee hee...and then slept pretty straight from about 10:30 until 9:00 this morning. And once I finish this blog entry, I am headed back to the beach for a couple of days and then on to the great Parisian Love Adventure of 2009:-)

More on that later...for now...I am off to the beach!

More on SHR's Quiz

Judging from the answers I have received so far, I think my intuition about the quiz from yesterday was right: it is super hard!!! Smoking Hot Roommate really outdid herself on this one...I actually had to check a few things to make sure that I actually did write them at some point.

To give you something to shoot at, I will tell you that, as of now, no one has gotten even close to half of them right (and there are a couple that have more than one acceptable answer, as it turns out). And again, if you feel like sending me answers one at a time, you can do that and I will track them all...we all know how much I love Excel (that should have been a question!)

I am not real sure how or when to divulge the answers. I am actually thinking that I may kind of break it up, ask a couple of questions per day and then give a few answers per day over a few weeks to make it a little more manageable. And, unfortunately, there are some questions that I will only answer by email or gchat...and a few that I will confirm, but won't tell you the answer if you don't guess it on your own:-P!

The good news? The winner gets a gift card:-) Let's figure on maybe $50, but that could change based on how well the winner does ($5 for every question right, maybe?). And yes, since this whole mess was her idea, Smoking Hot Roommate has been designated as the provider of said gift card, so congratulations on that;-)

In other news, I had a wonderfully low-key birthday with SHR and Munchkin. Walked to a nearby restaurant for dinner, then to Munchkin's ice cream store for some celebratory ice cream cake. I got lots and lots of birthday phone calls, and just generally had a very nice day for myself:-)

The sun is back out today after a few days in hiding, just in time for the weekend invasion! Four of our friends are coming down tonight to stay through the weekend, and some more of SHR's Mom's family is coming as well. Munchkin's two best friends are coming tomorrow morning, so I will have to go and pick them up at the ferry...in other words, it will be a pretty busy couple of days around here!

I guess that is all for now...keep those answers coming!

Just like old time. Almost

I sort of have a lengthy, serious post that I want to write, but I am not quite ready to do so just yet, so it will have to wait. Actually, there are two, but I am unlikely to write about the other one at all, so I won't even promise it.

Not gonna lie, I am a little bit hungover today. I went out with the boys from work last night for the first time in a VERY long time, and had maybe a beverage too many (or three). Nothing like the debaucherous nights of old (pre-Munchkin) times, but still more drinking than I generally do on a Tuesday.

[ What kind of debauchery? Well...like the night that we met a bunch of people in a bar and somehow ended up at Foxwoods until about 6:oo am on a Wednesday night. And one of my co-workers punched some random guy out because he made at least one too many inappropriate comment about me. And people say chivalry is dead:-)]

Since most of them have wives or girlfriends at this point, there was no need for me to revive my role as the World's Greatest Wingwoman. Actually, one of them met his wife on one of those wild nights four years ago...yes, I picked up his wife in a bar;-) (I think it was The Place). And, since none of them were really on the prowl, it was a little more mellow than it used to be. Which is fine, I am not in that kind of drinking shape anymore:-)

The Boy came to meet us at about 11:30, and we were home and asleep by 1:00 (after all, I can't get a little tipsy and not be expected to cause some mischief when we get home:-D)...which is reasonable enough. But, not early enough to avoid a pretty painful morning;-)

What a pain in the ass emotions can be!

Based on the comments on my post yesterday, I think that maybe I implied some things that aren't true. There were a couple of comments about sharing boyfriends or common partners and whatnot...

Just to clarify, my hooking up with her ex-boyfriend is a non-issue. She always knew about that, and it was long before they dated (she hooked up with him in college, too). It would be "prudishly misleading" of me to imply that those sorts of things have never happened before, either:-P. There are no secrets there.

The issue was around his profession of some additional feelings for me, and her not being aware of that. She just felt like it was something she should have known, and I can't really blame her.

I talked to her for a bit last night, and she is considerably less irritated with me. She spoke with him yesterday, and he cleared some of it up, too (plus, it gave her someone else to be mad at...someone she already has some mixed feelings for...took me off the hook!).

So, I think we are good. She is definitely a little upset, and I think she feels like she looked kinda stupid the whole time, which is totally NOT the case. He may have had a little crush on me, but he was nuts about her, and never would have broken up with her if given the choice. I think she gets that now, and understands that his little confession to me was much more cute than it was serious. So, I think it will all be fine... (Munchkin, who only gets some of the details on things like this...hee hee..., has suggested sending her flowers or candy or cookies, which I think is a fine idea!)

Change of subject...

Those of you that check in with gChat and see my updates are likely aware of the fact that Boss Foxy, Big Sis and I had salads and massages at lunch yesterday. Absolute fucking heaven!!! And, we actually got some work done, too...it was not a totally frivolous trip. OK, Big Sis and Boss Foxy did a lot of discussing and I did a lot of enjoying...but whatever, I was involved!

Work has actually been really busy this week, and looks like it will be for a while. Nothing huge, just a whole bunch of small to medium sized stuff going on, so everyone is pretty well at capacity. Actually kind of a good feeling, even though it cuts down on my blogging/chatting time quite a bit. Good thing I can multi-task...

Anyway...it's snowing again...there's a shock. I think this is supposed to be a messy one, 4-6 inches of snow and then a lot of rain and then a lot of freezing. Basically, a whole bunch of "ICK!!!". Makes me want to move up my trip to Florida from the end of February until...oh...how about tomorrow? Or this afternoon... Seriously, this shit is total BS!!!

Full Disclosure

Good morning, peeps! It is still morning, but about 40 minutes...I tell ya, this work nonsense is really cramping my blogging!!! Wassup with that? Aren't I supposed to be overpaid just to sit here and look cute? Why am I...like...doing stuff?

BS, I tell ya!!!

Anyway, I have sort of an issue today. The Body, one of my very dearest friends, is kinda angry with me. Not like super pissed, but she is mad, and that bothers me. (Incidentally, when I call her "The Body", I mean that this is the closest approximation I have ever seen of someone that is built like her).

So, here is the story. It involves a boy that we both went to school with that she dated for about a year after college (I have blogged about this). I don't think I ever gave him a name, but given his adorable red hair, I will call him Opie for now...hee hee.

Opie is a total sweetheart. He is super cute, really nice, really funny and has been a great friend for a long time. It is entirely possible that I hooked up with him a few times in college, which is really not a big deal. I hooked up with most of my guy friends in college at some point...and most of them hooked up with my friends, too. In fact, any time I mention any two people from college, chances are that they hooked up at least once...lol.

Anyway, maybe three weeks before we graduated, Opie confessed to me that he had always had a little bit of a crush on me. This was not like a super heart-felt "I love you and I always want to be with you" moment, it was just him admitting a really cute puppy-dog crush. That was kind of the end of it, though...it wasn't like he was asking me to be with him or anything.

I am not sure if I thought that I told The Body this or not. I know I told Smoking Hot Roommate, and I guess that I sort of figured I told the rest of them, too. But apparently I didn't. And then I sort of forgot about it...

So, fast forward to a while later...The Body moved back to Phoenix, and she and Opie began dating. This, if you recall, was one of my favorite things ever...lol. I love them both, and love them both together, and I thought that this was just totally awesome. But alas, it didn't work out and they broke up...sad:-(.

This past Saturday, SHR was talking to The Body, and casually mentioned something about Opie's long-time ago confession to me, assuming she was fully aware of all of this. Whether I never told her, or she forgot (or was so loaded at the time that she didn't notice...c'mon, we were three weeks from graduating!), she didn't know. And was none to happy about it.

So, I talked to her Sunday, and she was really upset. I think that maybe she is thinking that this was a bigger deal than it was...that there was a lot more emotion involved than there really was. But she was mad that I never told her when they started dating, and said that it made her feel like kind of a fool that we all had this secret we kept from her. I feel like she is really mis-representing what went on, but I understand why she would be upset...

And it really never even dawned on me to tell her. I sort of thought I already had, and I also had sort of forgotten...it just didn't seem like anything worth telling. But, I can certainly see why it bothers her.

So, anyway, that's my pickle:-(

Lazy Sunday

The Body and The Mouth got out without any trouble yesterday...overall it was a really nice visit. I think we all decided that we don't see each other nearly enough:-) They are gonna try and come on our spring vacation with us, and once The Body figures out where she is going next (New York, LA, stay in Phoenix or maybe even somewhere else...) then we can figure out how to spend more time together.

Then Munchkin got back last night, tanned and exhausted! She had a great time, and the people she went with tell me that she was as easy to have around as always. They also reported what I am already acutely aware of...that she attracts a LOT of attention from boys. Munchkin began to tell me about her new French boyfriend, but I only got part of the story and she is still sleeping, so I have to wait for her to get up to hear the rest of it. What I have heard from her friend's mother is that a totally dreamy French boy developed quite the thing for her in their short time there. I'm sure Munchkin will give me the rest of the details later on...

Not much else to report, I guess. Just planning on hanging out with Munchkin today, looking at pictures and getting the full trip report. The Boy mentioned going out to watch the football games, and if she wants to do that, we can. Smoking Hot Roommate and Big Sis wanna catch up with Munchkin, too. I suppose we can decide that when he gets back from the gym and she wakes up...

Back to a plain old, five day work week tomorrow...it is gonna feel weird!

Like its 2005

I can describe New Year's Eve in a brief phrase...

Rock Stars

That's right, the old crew was back together and no prisoners were taken. We started pre-gaming and getting dressed at about 8:00, hit the bar at 10:00, rang in the New Year at 12:00 (duh!), had a lovely New Year's call with Munchkin at 12:05 (during which I believe she told me that a 14 year old French boy invited her to spend the summer in France...more on that later), closed the bar at 2:00, and then headed back to Smoking Hot Roommate's until about 4:00. I think I went to sleep by maybe 6:00 and woke up at the bright hour of 2:30 pm. Just like old times!

During that time we made a lot of friends, had a lot of laughs and drank a LOT of Ketel One. There was actually a little bit of drama, and I had to put a very tearful friend to bed at one point, but that was just a blip in what was otherwise a really fun night. I also broke a shoe, ripped my dress, lost my camera, found $80 and ate an ice cream cone despite it being about 3 degrees outside. I'm cool like that:-)

Obviously, not a whole lot going on tonight...lol. We went over to SHR's for pizza earlier, and that required an enormous amount of energy, and pretty much counts as my activity for the day. That's OK, though...I have tomorrow off, and the girls are here until Saturday, so we still have time:-)

That's about it. The Boy is passed out on the sofa at about 9:00, and The Body and I are gonna put on our bathing suits and sit in the hot tub for a while. Normally I would say that requires a glass of wine, but...um...the thought of that is not real appetizing right now:-)

So, until we meet again...HAPPY NEW YEAR!

More visitors

Good morning, everyone:-) I'm swimming in visitors, and I love it! The Body and The Mouth got in with no problems at all, within about half an hour of each other. Smoking Hot Roommate picked them up at the airport, and Tinkerbelle, The Boy and I went over to her place to meet them right after work.

It is really great to see them. I talk to each of them all the time, but it is still different to see them in person:-). The Body continues to get even more and more impossibly hot, and The Mouth has gone a little more Cali-girl and it looks very good on her:-). OK...so she has more blond highlights:-P.

We didn't really do much...just got some pizzas and hung out at SHR's place. The Body is staying at my place, so we got to stay up really late night chatting...which was really good. We used to do that literally all the time, and there was actually some stuff that we had to talk about, so it was sort of a neat throwback evening:-).

So, let's see...Tinkerbelle is with me at work again this morning. She will either stay all day, or hang with the girls this afternoon until I take her to the airport this evening. Yesterday she spent the afternoon with The Boy's Twin Sister and the baby and they had lots of fun:-). I'm gonna miss her:-(.

So, I guess that is about it. We will probably go out tonight...you know, to practice for tomorrow;-). Then I can start working on my sappy yearly retrospective! Hint: it's been a good year!

Until then, stay warm!

Childless

Today marks the first day back from a five day weekend for a lot of you...and me:-). Isn't that such a pain? Seriously...it is really easy to get used to a life of leisure, isn't it? Maybe there is some merit to the idea of getting knocked up, quitting my job and being a stay at home Mom...

Munchkin got to St. Maarten safe and sound and on schedule...joke's on her, though, since it was like 65 degrees here yesterday! Somehow I think she is probably not that jealous... She seems to be having a wonderful time, which I guess is to be expected!

Meanwhile, Tinkerbelle and I are having a lovely visit:-) We went to the Museum of Science, and we went shopping and we did some sightseeing, and she got to meet a lot of my friends yesterday, too. A whole bunch of people got together to watch the Patriots game, so I brought her there to meet everyone.

She is at work with me today, too, which is always fun. I am not sure if she will make it the whole day, but for now she has some books and her PSP and she is doing just fine. Kind of a casual vibe at the office today, so she can wander around and make friends if she wants, too. I am hoping that she doesn't get too bored until at least lunch...at which point I will either go home with her for the afternoon, or bring her to hang out with The Boy's sister and the baby for the afternoon (she offered to babysit, ain't she sweet?).

She leaves tomorrow, and I am sure I will miss her a lot (although I will appreciate having no children for a couple days:-D). I still feel a little bit like I am babysitting her whenever she is around, but I think we are getting closer to feeling like sisters. Part of it is just the age difference (she is only 3 1/2 years younger than Munchkin, but Munchkin is really "old for her age"...she is much more like a 16-17 year old), but part of it is just not really knowing her all that well. It gets better all the time, though:-)

Little secret...I am really hoping to take her to Florida over her February vacation:-). Twice I have taken Munchkin to Disney for a couple days and then to the beach for a couple of days over her spring break, and I am hoping I can do the same for Tinkerbelle this year. I really, really wish that her vacations lined up with Munchkin's but they don't...:-(

But more on that later. For now, The Body and The Mouth are arriving tonight, and I am super fired up! It has been way too long since I have seen them! Tonight will be really low key, since we still have the little one around and they will be tired from the flight, I'm sure. But after that...cue the New Year's debauchery.

Oh, and cue the wishful thinking from my single male friends:-P...hee hee...

Hope everyone's Holiday was as fun as mine!

You know...My last name is descriptive of the weather...

***Update, 10:30 pm: Home safe and sound:-)***

Well, we made it to Chicago:-) It is below zero, so I am rethinking that decision...lol.

I guess it never really stopped snowing in Boston, but sort of flurried all day and night. It was light enough in the morning that flights were getting out, though. We were delayed a bit but still made it to Chicago early enough that Munchkin got to have lunch with her brand new niece:-). Her sister-in-law had a relatively routine labor (as routine as those things can be!) and had a super adorable little girl on Friday. 10 fingers, 10 toes, mother and daughter are both doing very well, and Auntie Munchkin is on cloud nine.

I know I have sort of an ambivalent relationship with Munchkin's brother (my stepbrother, technically...wait...do you have to be adopted by your married parents to be steps? Maybe we are not...I don't know. I need a ruling), but I have to give him credit for really getting his shit together. He had his issues when he was younger, but since the time he got out of jail, he has really been on the straight and narrow. Not really in touch with his old friends, has had a good consistent job for over four years now, moved to a new neighborhood and has a great wife that I absolutely adore. He can still get under my skin, but he loves his sister as much as I do, so I can't say all bad things about him.

Munchkin stayed at the hospital when we left and The Boy and I went to go see Tinkerbelle. I was hoping to take her downtown to go shopping and have dinner and look at the lights and stuff, but since we were late and the weather was not great, we had to nix that idea. That's OK, though...she is coming to visit next week, so I didn't feel the need to have to spoil her with attention this time:-D.

Since Munchkin's brother was staying at the hospital, she stayed at he BFF's place with The Boy and I. That required some logistics, since she also went to a birthday party for one of her old friends that she was also super excited about. There are two girls that she still talks to regularly and sees when we are out there...and it sort of lets her keep in touch with her old life. I have no idea how long that will keep up, but hopefully for a while. So, one of her friends' mother picked her up at the hospital, and then we picked her up from the bowling alley that the party was at when it was over.

That also ruled out really going out last night, which was fine...we did go out for dinner with the BFF's and BFFg's boyfriend. BFFb and Munchkin were dates:-) It would have been nice to see some more friends, but that's OK.

Now we are headed to my aunt's house for a little Christmas party, and Munchkin is headed back to the hospital to help them get ready to pack up and take the little one home! Exciting! And then...we are crossing our fingers that the weather is on our side:-). We are still scheduled to fly out tonight, which could be a problem. When we switched Friday's flight, I toyed with the idea of trying to switch today's to tomorrow because the forecast called for a lot of snow in Boston. The Boy wasn't really able to take all of tomorrow off, so we decided to leave it as is and hope for the best.

So...wish me luck!

Travel Plans

Thanks for all of the advice on travel...I think you all helped to convince me that we should try as hard as we can to get there, even if it is a pain to get there. And that got even more important, as Munchkin's brother called this morning to tell her that her sister-in-law is in labor as we speak. I have to admit to being sort of excited about the whole thing. I am still no huge fan of her brother, but we get along well enough and he really is not a bad guy, I guess. And his wife is a complete doll:-) So, preliminary congrats to then!

I toyed with trying to get a flight out this morning, but that got nixed for a couple of reasons. First, The Boy wouldn't have been able to make it, and I would miss him:-) Second, Munchkin has a big test today that she wanted to get out of the way while she is ready for it. Otherwise it would have sort of hung over her head all weekend, and I can understand why she wanted to take it first. I am certainly not going to do anything to discourage her being a diligent student. Finally, I am not sure that we really would have been able to travel this morning anyway. Going from here to Chicago is really going into the weather, and it easily could have turned into a disaster of a trip.

So, it doesn't look like there will be a lot of flights getting out tonight...unless the weather is not nearly as bad as they say it will be (which is always a possibility). Tomorrow morning looks pretty good, though. Hopefully we can get out super, super early and get into Chicago in time for a full day.

Then, of course, we can worry about getting home...whole other issue!

What is this...a Sunday post?

I know I haven't posted on a Sunday in...oh, forever, but today feels like a good day to break the string:-) Count yourself blessed! It snowed just a little bit today, making everything really pretty and festive. And here I sit, tucked warmly under a blanket, all by myself with my newly decorated Christmas tree lighting the room, a cup of green tea and Forrest Gump playing on TV. Yes, I will cry at the end, even though I have seen it like 100 times.

"You ain't got no legs Lieutenant Dan!"
"I know that Forrest."

Anyway, I am actually kinda hung over, so I have been super sluggish all day. I went out on Friday and Saturday and had maybe a couple too many on Friday, and stayed up way too late last night. We put the tree up and the lights on on Friday night, and then after The Boy left for the weekend, I met up with some girlfriends for a drink that turned into maybe 4 or 5 (and seriously, I weigh 98 pounds...4 martinis is WAY too many). Munchkin actually bagged on her dance because she was still irritated with a bunch of her friends, but she was cool just staying home. I think she just wanted some alone time, which is totally acceptable.

So, I ended up staying out kinda late (lol...I slept in Munchkin's bed when I got home, and her first words on Saturday morning were "Ew, you smell like booze." Yea, you smell like snotty teenager!)

We spent much of Saturday bumming around the house and decorating the tree, which was really fun. It came out really cute:-) I added some colored lights this year...I usually just like white ones, but was feeling adventurous this year. I am really wild, aren't I?

Smoking Hot Roommate and I went out on Saturday, had dinner and met up with some other friends. First, we dropped Munchkin at her friend's house for a sleepover, which I was glad about...I don't want her hating all of her friends...lol. We ended up staying out until closing time, and then got late night pizza and were up until super late being stupid giggly girls:-D. We don't get to do that nearly as often as we should!

Didn't wake up until about 10:00 today, and even that was only because Munchkin called to come home. Didn't do much all day, then SHR took her out to watch the Patriots with their fantasy football friends and I am enjoying the peace and quiet and waiting for her and The Boy to get home:-) All in all, not a bad weekend at all!

Raises and Visits and Dates and stuff

So, turns out that I have Internet access when I am at this client company, so I am not nearly as abandoned from the reservation as I was worried about. Which is good...I am gonna be here for a while! Actually, it is kind of nice to get out of the office and dive into some operational stuff (of which I know nothing!) for a change. I am sure I will be singing a different tune after I spend three straight weeks here, but for now it is OK.

It also means that I am probably going to have to let Munchkin walk herself home from school, since it will be hard for me to consistently get there to meet her everyday at 5:00. I guess someone may be available to meet her on the days that I can't get there, but I don't want Smoking Hot Roommate or Big Sis or The Boy to feel like they are obligated to change their schedules that much. It is a short walk, and I can talk to her the whole way home via phone:-). A couple of times she has had to go home during the day, and that is what I have done...talked to her the whole way until she was in the apartment.

So, I haven't had my formal review, but I did get my raise letter yesterday, and was definitely pleased. I got very large raises in each of the last two years (like 10 grand each year), and since this year was not great for the firm, I figured it would be a small raise or none at all. But it was about 5% of my salary, which I was really pleased with...that was more than I was expecting. So, yay for me! I think that maybe since bonuses were kinda thin all year, that they didn't want to be too stingy on salary adjustments...not real sure.

Munchkin has a date on Friday. Kind of...they have another dance at school, and two of her friends have a triple date with three boys to have pizza before the dance. Kinda cute, I think:-). Her "date" is a boy in her class that is super cute, but is really just a friend of hers. I don't think she wants to be any more than that, and he may...but I am sure she will handle that as deftly as she always does.

The Body is coming to visit for New Year's, which I am super excited about. The Mouth is like 90% sure that she is coming, too, pending some work commitments. Obviously, I am really fired up about this! I haven't seen them since July and we have some trouble making to catch up on! It looks like Munchkin will be out of town (another globe trotting vacation adventure...ho hum), so I will be off the leash to tear some shit up! Hide the women and children, we are getting the band back together!!!

I guess that's it for today...back to work!

Breakthroughs

Good morning everyone! I hope everyone had a great weekend and is loving that this is a short week:-) I know I am!

Right down to business...The Boy fell asleep the second we sat down on the plane, which gave Munchkin and I quite a while to chat. I suppose he could have been pretending to sleep because he knew I wanted to talk to her, but he has been NUTS with work lately, so I imagine that he was super tired.

I brought it up, pretty straightforward. This is, in fact, something that I am not ashamed to say that I have learned from her. It could be the best of her many admirable traits...a willingness and ability to discuss everything head-on, before it is allowed to fester and create bad feelings. So, I started very simply with "Hey, I want to talk about what you said last night about Mom being an alcoholic." I don't think she was specifically waiting for me to bring it up, but she was more than willing to talk.

First of all, the answer to the question of how she knows this really made me furious. She knows because my one of my whore-bag aunts told her last year. I have no idea what possessed her to do that, other than just basically being an evil bitch. Munchkin didn't really remember what context it came up in. I probably won't ask her...although it does seem like maybe a good reason to speak to her again after like three years of ignoring her...yell at her, drop a few C-bombs, and then go back to ignoring her...plan?

She had some pretty extensive thoughts about it beyond that. She said that she figured that this was a lot of the reason that our mother and I struggled to get along. She seems to be very aware that our Mom was a very different person with her than she was with me...and that, to me, is an extraordinarily complex idea for a 13 year old to have. She seems to have a pretty good grasp on some complex relationships without really affixing blame to one party or another. I am no psychiatrist, but that strikes me as some pretty advanced social thinking.

One thing that she said that I hadn't even thought about...she is definitely aware that our Mother's drinking played a part in her death. I don't know if our Aunt told her that, too, or if she just connected the dots...but she knows how our Mom died, and at this point she is smart enough and has had enough health education to know that liver and kidney failures are not independent of being a complete booze bag for 15 years.

All in all, it was a very productive discussion. I actually got kind of emotional over the whole thing, and I am not sure that I can really explain why. I think maybe it is a recognition that she has a little better idea of who I am, and that makes me feel good. She is a sister and sort of a daughter, but she is also one of my very best friends and I think this was a really important moment in our relationship. As time goes on, she will become much more of an equal and less of a little pipsqueak, and I think it is neat to sort of be able to mark those moments so clearly. I dunno...I guess I feel like I can say that I felt differently about our relationship when I got off the plane than I had when we got on it. And that's cool.

The rest of the weekend was a lot of fun. Munchkin spent most of it with her brother and his very pregnant wife. She is a super adorable pregnant girl...all belly! In fact, she has put on very little weight in her legs and arms and neck and face, but she has this giant baby belly! Super cute...and Munchkin is quite excited to become an Auntie:-)

So let's see...The Boy and I had breakfast on Saturday with an old friend. Lunch with Tinkerbelle and dinner with BFFg and her new boyfriend (that I set her up with:-)). We met up with BFFb and a couple of his friends...including Sam. I still get a little anxious before I see him, because things are unlikely to ever be relaxed and normal, but I do look forward to it, and I am glad to be speaking again.

Saw my Father's family for brunch on Sunday, which is always a treat. I got to see Tinkerbelle again and a whole bunch of our aunts and uncles and cousins and such. Then we picked up Munchkin and went to our (non Whore-Bag) aunt's house to see some of our Mom's family. That was nice, too...although it was hard to bite my tongue about the people that weren't there that I have some choice words for...

Got home without incident and back to the condo at about 8:00, just in time for some Chinese food and bed time:-)

I slept very soundly!