The Boy

On the heels of my bitching about being on bed rest in my last post, I feel like I should write something a little more positive. Which brings me to The Boy's overall level of awesomeness.

The objective truth is that he has been a total trooper about the bed rest thing. It puts a lot of burden on him...he ends up having to do most of the housework and random chores around the house, he has to put up with me when I get grumpy and crabby, has largely lost his favorite spot on his favorite couch:-) and is suffering from the same lack of sex that I am. I can't help him with any of the furniture moving or assembly or the painting or anything of the related activities, and I can't really drive anywhere either (so, for instance, he was up at 6:00 on Saturday to take Munchkin to the airport on Saturday). In addition, Munchkin was a cranky housebound mess for part of this time as well, so he got to deal with both of us.

So, it hasn't been a treat for him at all, and I am sure that it is super frustrating. But he never complains, he constantly brings me juice and water and snacks and lets me have the remote when we are watching TV. He also makes sure that I don't spend too much time on my feet, even when I get bitchy about it:-)

In other words, he is awesome, and he is being a super-fantastic husband through all of this. In fairness, the babies were his idea, so he better be grateful that I am going through this shit:-P. Seriously, though, I have felt all along that he is going through this with me as much as possible, shouldering as much of the burden as he can and doing everything he can to make it easier on me. It is just important that he knows that I have noticed:-)

And once we get these monsters out of me, I will most definitely make it up to him!

Who else wants some snow? We have extras...

Another Monday, another snowstorm, another day closer to retirement! Pretty nice, relaxing weekend...I slept a LOT, by my standards. Friday was brutally cold, and Munchkin wanted to have a couple of friends sleep over, which made for a great excuse to stay in. The Boy went out with some friends, so I spent the night in my pajamas, eating pizza, watching movies and hearing seventh grade boy gossip from the girls. Actually kinda fun...apparently I am cool enough to hang out with them. So I have that going for me...

Saturday was just as cold, I think...see, I wouldn't know, because I didn't leave the house until 6:30 pm:-D. The Boy was nursing a bit of a hangover, and Munchkin had a whole bunch of school stuff to do, so we didn't really feel the need to venture outside at all. She also had her scheduled phone date with Little Annie the French Boy. Again she spent about an hour on the phone, much of it giggling and twirling her hair mindlessly, which says to me that it went well;-). But true to her promise, she said that she wasn't sure about next Saturday, and that they could figure out another time to talk via email. Then she told me that she wants to start taking French next year...ahem...

Saturday night was Smoking Hot Roommate's birthday dinner, and also happened to be the one year anniversary of this, which was sorta nice. We had a really nice dinner (all the girls and their non-French boys, Papa Bear and two of SHR's cousins and their spouses) and then SHR, Big Sis and I, along with the three boys went out to meet some friends for another kinda birthday party. Really it was more of a night at the bar that Big Sis picked up the tab for...lol. Parties come in all shapes and sizes;-)

Unfortunately, it was too late for Munchkin to come with us (she is usually good in bars until about 10:00, but after that they start to get a little stricter about...um...being of age and all) so Papa Bear walked her home and got her into the apartment safely. This gets me to kind of an odd subject...she may be getting too old to hang out in bars with us. When she looked 12, it was always OK...it's not like she was gonna try and get served, so if it was early enough and there was a group of us, they generally don't have a problem with letting her come in and sit off to the side with us. (Also, led to her being likely one of the youngest people to ever get tossed from a bar...)

But, now she is getting to the age (or, more importantly, LOOKING like the age) where kids try to sneak into bars. And that, I think, will make the door folks a little bit more sensitive about letting her in. I certainly hope not...but I have a feeling it might. 12 year olds are non-threatening...18 year olds are trouble! I guess I could, you know, stop taking her to bars...but really, that is no fun at all!

Anyway, we had a really good time, danced and drank a lot and got home pretty late. That led to sleeping until about 11:00 on Sunday, which was heaven! Since it was snowing like crazy, I decided that it was best to not leave the house again. I was, however, talked into going over to Smoking Hot Roommate's to watch the football games and get Chinese food for dinner...

And I guess that was it for the weekend...pretty good one, I'd say:-)

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Inauguration tomorrow...very exciting event, and it is hard to ignore the historical importance of it all. I have had maybe a little too much of the Abraham Lincoln references (seriously, he hasn't taken office yet, and we are going to constantly compare him to one of the handful of great leaders in the history of the Western world? How about some more reasonable expectations...)

Weekend Ahoy!

I originally titled this TGIF, and then I realized that Kate wrote this morning and already claimed that title...rather than plagiarize, I changed it:-P

Sorry for being a terrible blogger all week...it has been sort of busy and I have been dragging, too. I still don't feel like I have quite caught up on sleep from last weekend. I also feel like I never adequately covered Smoking Hot Roommate's wedding, but now it seems like kind of stale news to really go over it. Sufficed to say: totally great wedding, completely top notch all the way around. When the photographer posts pictures, maybe I will put some here, but I wouldn't count on it (remember when I promised after Big Sis's wedding last year? How did that work out...?)

She and The Rocket Scientist are on their honeymoon...Greece this week and Italy next week. The Greek week is just to sit on the beach on some quiet island somewhere, and the Italian week will be a little more touristy...Rome, Venice, Florence, I think...not sure exactly. The Rocket Scientist has never been, so he wanted to do a little more than just veg on the beach for two weeks.

Meanwhile, I am spending the two weeks visiting a little town called Jealousville...

Munchkin and I had chicken fingers for the first time in what seems like forever last night. It was nice:-) The Boy met us, and some other friends stopped in on their way home from work or out for the night, too. I wonder if Munchkin will be too cool to have dinner with her big sister every Thursday at some point? I hope not...it is my favorite tradition.

Secretly I am really hoping she stays in Boston when she goes to college so I can take her to dinner every Thursday...is that dorky of me?

Headed to the beach after work. In fact, I am planning on leaving work early and heading this afternoon. For a while it looked like it was just going to be me and Munchkin, but now there is a little more of a crowd coming, which should be nice. Awful big house for just the two of us to bounce around in:-). I plan on reading and sitting in the sun...and not much else!

I had a wonderful talk with The Judge last night (I also just re-read those posts and they made me cry again...like they always do). I called him last week because a conversation with Kristen B reminded me that I hadn't talked to him in a while. He called me back last night and we had a really nice talk. He is coming out here this fall for a symposium of some sort, and I can't wait to buy him dinner:-). He has also never met The Boy, and since he exerted some influence in my getting custody of Munchkin, he feels some responsibility for her well-being and would probably like to meet her new roommate:-)

I guess that is about it for this week...not my best as a blogger, but I can't be witty and insightful every single week! Hope everyone has a great weekend.

10,000 Visitors

Site Meter has spoken...and visitor #10,000 came through at about 9:30 yesterday morning. Of all the places in the world that I have had visitors from, this one came from Quincy, MA, a scant 5 miles down route 93. He or she works for American National Power and found me from Green Line Boy (who also works somewhere near there, although he is a little vague on the details:-P).

And then I came in this morning and found a handful of comments from new people that had never commented before...yay!!! So, I would like to take this chance to thank all of my regular readers, as well as the ones who drop in occasionally, and even the perverts who just like when I talk about blowjobs and hot tub sex:-) Mostly I wanna thank the commenters, emailers and IMers for your input...it is fun having "friends" that remain a little bit mysterious!!!

For the second straight day, I woke up to just about the cutest site that I can imagine: my two little sisters cuddled up and sleeping soundly. I know that maybe a lot of people don't understand why I would appreciate that so much, but it just sorta sums up my whole life for me in one cute little package. A lot of random circumstance and a lot of not-so-happy stuff preceded that brief moment, and I dearly appreciate the chance to observe it for a moment and reflect on what it all means. Kinda philosophical for a Friday, I know...

Anyway, Munchkin played tour guide all day, and the whole family (which, just as a reminder, is not her family at all...Munchkin and I have the same mother, Tinkerbelle and I have the same father, and this is his family) seemed to have a good time. The weather was absolutely gorgeous, which I was happy about. Then the whole crew made its way over to our normal Thursday night haunt for dinner where Munchkin taught Tinkerbelle a very valuable life lesson: all drinks taste better when they come in a fancy glass!

Incidentally, one of my Uncle's did ask why exactly the bartenders know Munchkin by name...and know what she drinks... I think maybe my "Mother of the Year" trophy is in doubt:-)

We got ice cream after that, and then a bunch of people turned in for the night. It was still kinda early (like 8:30?) and a couple of my cousins wanted to go out, so we headed over to the waterfront to hang out for a bit...and watched a killer Thunderstorm roll in off the ocean! Munchkin came with us...again to a bar where they know her by name:-)...but Tinkerbelle went back to our place with her Mom for a bit. I would have liked to bring her with us, but it would have been kinda loud, and she was pretty beat from the day. Also...I think my warped moral code has a bar-hopping age limit of 10 :-D

We hung out there for a bit, but not too late. I sort of have to have Munchkin out of there by 10:00, at which point we sort of wanted to go out some more, but not enough that we felt like taking Munchkin home and then going out again, so we just bagged it and had a couple drinks on our deck. Which is always fun:-)

I am not totally sure what they are all doing today. I think they all wanted to do a Duck Boat tour, which they didn't get a chance to do yesterday, and I am not sure beyond that. I told them that they can always just wander up Newbury Street and look around...that is always a good way to kill an afternoon!!! It can be expensive if the shopping bug strikes...hee hee...but fun! I also get the feeling that they are sort of getting on each other's nerves a bit and may need to split up a little bit today...:-).

Party at Big Sis' tonight...everyone thank Big Sis for entertaining:-) That should be fun, a ton of friends are dropping by to say Hi, and mostly to meet my little Tinkerbelle. Then tomorrow morning we are packing up for the beach. I ended up renting two big vans to bring everyone, and I am driving down with a bunch of stuff in my car, and Big Sis is toting a bunch of stuff, too. I couldn't get all the cars on one ferry, which is kind of a pain, but not really a huge deal, I guess.

I also haven't quite prepared them all for "The Beach House", either...although I am guessing that they are wondering exactly what a house looks like that can sleep 30 people...

So...I hope everyone has a good weekend! I don't think I will be here on Monday, so I won't be posting again until Tuesday. I should be approving comments, though, so they will show up. And I may even respond:-P

The Cutest Sleepover of all

The great family visit is underway and seems to be going swimmingly. They all landed (all 21 of them!) on time yesterday morning and got to their hotel in pretty short order. I left here for a bit to meet them, let my cousins in at our place so they could drop off their stuff, and to go to lunch with them. It was actually raining just a tiny bit, which I was bummed about, but was really warm and not bad to walk around in.

We had lunch at a restaurant on the water, and then I pointed them all at Faneuil Hall and told them to entertain themselves all afternoon...lol. Meanwhile, I brought my very special little guest to work so that she could hang out with me! That was really fun...Tinkerbelle got to meet Papa Bear and Boss Foxy and all of my other work friends. The Guy That Hates Me was out of the office, so she missed out on his shining face, but she got to see everything else. She was mesmerized by the 38th floor window...she spent about an hour looking out it! And she was incredibly impressed that the partners have couches and TV's in their offices...that was just the coolest thing ever. But it was the tray of leftover cookies in the conference room from a lunch meeting that actually elicited a desire to work here when she grows up.

After about three hours she had had enough, and it was a good time for me to leave (early). That coincided with Munchkin calling and saying that she was coming home (she had stayed at a friend's the night before and all day). So me and Tinkerbelle walked over to meet her at the train station, and then back home. The family spent the afternoon shopping and looking around and enjoying the city, and were coming back to their hotel (and our apartment) around the same.

I had called around a bit to some little restaurants in the North End to get a reservation and found a super sweet old Italian guy who said "We can seat 35, I will close the whole restaurant for you!" So the whole family, me and Munchkin, The Boy, Smoking Hot Roommate and the Rocket Scientist, Big Sis and the Brain Surgeon, Papa Bear and his Lady Friend, and The Boy's Sister and her wife all met at a really cute little Italian restaurant and had a GREAT meal! (Note, Dearest New Cousin #1 was drinking iced tea all night...if that isn't a sign, I don't know what is...)

On a separate note, the best non-tourist thing you can do if you are in Boston is to wander over into the North End and find a little restaurant that is on one of the little side streets. They are all really small, family run (the owner was the guy that I talked to, and he is also the chef, his wife is the hostess and the wine server, and his kids are waiters and cooks...only the busboy and a cook were not related) and the food is great! Unless you don't like Italian food, in which case don't go.

We made a quick stop at Mike's Pasty, and then everyone was pretty beat so we went back home. I had a really good time, and I hope they did, too! They are gonna do the freedom trail today, and maybe a duck boat tour, which is all fun stuff. Munchkin is hanging out with them today, so she gets to play tour guide a little bit, which she will enjoy. A lot of them have never been to Boston before, so this is all brand new...I kinda wish there was a Red Sox game for them to go to (or, at least to go hang out around Fenway for, since getting 21 tickets would have been an issue) but they are on the road all week:-(

Tinkerbelle stayed over and she did great! It was the first night she ever stayed away from her Mom, save for a couple of days that her Grandmother stayed over and watched her while Mom was away. So this was her first night ever away from home and away from Mom (even though Mom was only a couple blocks away:-)) She slept in Munchkin's room, and they were both so tired that they fell asleep pretty much right away. When I went to bed and checked in on them both snuggled up under the covers, I kinda almost maybe cried a bit...:-)

Anyway, I walked Tinkerbelle and Munchkin and my cousins over to the hotel this morning and dropped them off. I wish I had the day to hang out with them, but I really do have some work to do, and they will get along just fine without me:-) We are gonna try and do chicken fingers tonight...and a couple of my cousins want to go out for a bit, so I may do that, too. Maybe Munchkin can show them her bar hopping skills for a bit...lol...they will be so impressed with my Mothering skills...

Last question...what is with the total lack of comments and emails and IM's recently? Have I become that boring? Do I need to tell you about the time that BFFg and I had to drop some names of gang members to avoid being stabbed in a bar when we were like 16? Because I can do that if need be...

Late Night Jacuzzi Highlights...

OK, it is fucking cold today...like really, really cold. And the wind is supposed to whip up later, so the wind chill is gonna drop to like -20. Not fun...

Yes, Smoking Hot Roommate and Big Sis...this is what you get for going away where it is warm: gross cold to greet you when you get back:-P That will teach you!

So, let’s see…the Super Bowl was kind of a bummer. I wanted the Bears to win:-( So did Munchkin, but she cares a lot more than I do. It ended a little late and I let her stay up and watch the whole thing, so she was dragging a bit this morning. I was kind of half expecting that she would want to get up early and put on makeup and jewelry and stuff…but so far love hasn’t changed her that much;-)

Since I don’t have anything else to write about today, I am going to go back to Saturday night. Munchkin wanted to stay at Papa Bear’s so that she could sleep with the dog (a little golden retriever, she is super cute…) so The Boy and I got a pleasant and unexpected night all to ourselves. Honestly, I was happier for him…I feel like he has to make a lot of sacrifices around my sister’s schedule, so I like when I can just devote time to him unexpectedly.

Anyway, we had dinner, met some of his friends and some of my friends for drinks and had a pretty fun night. Then, having the whole apartment and the whole night to ourselves, we decided that it was a fine excuse to make use of the Jacuzzi (which is actually in SHR’s bathroom…sorry about that, sweetie;-).)

I am kind of impatient sometimes, especially when there is a naked boy around, so the Jacuzzi sex never materialized because I couldn’t wait for the stupid thing to fill up…hee hee. However, soaking in the tub with a bottle of wine and a comfortable post-sex glow was a really, really good time…:-D

Anyway, we got to talking, and were both in sort of a philosophical mood, I guess. The good news is that I have picked out a name for my first child, and he is OK with it, so that’s good…lol. I think it is a better name for a girl, but it works for a boy, too. And no…I am not telling you what it is here…:-P (I may tell you if you ask.) OK, there is still the minor issue of whether or not I even want to have children, but I have a name, just in case…

Long and short, none of the drama that is going on over at GreenLineBoy. I am nowhere near ready to get married, although I am ok talking about it. And The Boy is fine with that…I think he is more ready than me, but he isn’t exactly being tormented by his relationship-clock just yet. He is also understanding of the desire to not live together before marriage, so that’s good, too.

He is really incredibly easy going. Not that he won’t stick up for himself to get what he wants…but he tends to care very intensely about some things, and then be really, really flexible about everything else. He is a much better boyfriend than I could ask for…I am not really easy to date, but he sticks around anyway;-) I think he just may like me:-D

OK, this was a really boring post, I know...but it is hard to be charming and interesting every day...give a girl a break!!!

The Boy, Marriage, Etc.

I got a request yesterday to talk about how I met The Boy. I wish it were a more romantic story, but I guess not everything has to be en epic tale. The truth is that we got set up by Big Sis. He is a “friend of a friend” of hers, kind of. She has known him for a couple years and felt like we might hit it off.

Actually, I realize that I already wrote this story…lol. And, true to form, it is in two parts. I am starting to think that maybe I write too much…I should make more use of my editing skills.

Anyway, that was about two months ago, and not a whole lot as changed. He is still super-cute and I love him dearly, and I think he still kinda likes me, too:-) Obviously, going through the Holidays for the first time is kind of a big thing because it is such an important family time. He has a large, close family, and they are definitely in the practice of “passing judgment” on people. I mean that in a very good way…they all have very high standards for each other and look at new partners with a critical eye. Not that anyone is at all mean or unfair about it. Regardless, I am pretty sure they all like me…hee hee.

The obvious next question is marriage, which we have definitely discussed. Not in a “should we, when, etc.” kind of way, but more a “what are your expectations?” kind of way. I think it is more common for him to get the “When are you getting married?” questions …he is a little older than me, and is the only one of four kids that is not married. I also have no parents to bug me about it, which contributes.

And the answer is: not terribly soon. I can most certainly see myself marrying him…but I still don’t really wanna think about it for a while. Things are moderately more complicated because of the little one, but not really…just adds an additional priority. Mostly, I just feel like I am young and there is no need to be overly anxious to make lifelong decisions. If it is right, then it will still be right in a couple of years.

That doesn’t mean that I have never done imaginary wedding planning, though:-) I am a girl after all!!! And with Big Sis and SHR both getting married soon-ish, it has been sort of front-of-mind.

What I have realized is that I will likely have an enormous wedding party! I have been blessed over the course of my life to have a large number of extremely important people come into my life. Munchkin, BFFg, Smoking Hot Roommate and Big Sis will all have to be there with me, or else I would feel like I was leaving a lot of myself out of the ceremony. And…I would feel really bad if The Body, The Mouth, My Two Favorite Cousins and The Boy’s sister were not there with me, too. And Tinkerbelle, too! Can’t forget her! That is 10, and leaves out some really good friends and close family members…and doesn’t count either Papa Bear or BFFb (I’m allowed to have two people give me away, right? I have to work on that…)

Anyway, I guess that is a good problem to have, and I have plenty of time to work it out;-) Big Sis’ wedding is next summer and I am looking forward to it. Let’s all pray that I am still taller than Munchkin by then…I don’t wanna be the shortest bridesmaid!!!

Who has more cookies?

How was everyone’s Christmas? Mine was super-excellent-awesome…look, a new word! I feel like I put on about 30 pounds from eating so much, but there is no real crime in that, I suppose. Between Big Sis’ birthday, and then Christmas Eve with The Boy’s family and Christmas Day with the adopted family, I ate a whole lot of everything.

I am particularly a big fan of the little peanut butter cookies with a Hershey’s Kiss in the middle. Mmmm…me likey!!!

Munchkin is now gone on vacation…raise your hand if you are jealous (one hand up, but I have to put it back down to type again). The family she is going with came to pick her up bright and early this morning, and her plane is currently en-route to Miami. Then on to sailing around the Caribbean for a while. Not bad…

That also means that I get some solid non-parental alone time with The Boy, as well as the chance to hopefully catch up with some friends I don’t see that often. I will spare you the running “orgasm count”, but I can assure you that it will be substantial…hee hee. I would like to say that I will get some rest and relaxation, but I know myself better than that, and finally given the chance to respond to all of the “Hey, we are meeting here for a drink” invitations in the affirmative, I will likely run myself a little bit ragged. Whatever, you only live once!

Was Santa good to everyone? He was very good to me, even without counting the super-cute new little sister. I got a really, really gorgeous bracelet from Papa Bear from Mrs. Rock’s stash. He gave Munchkin some earrings, too…but I didn’t let her take them with her sailing…lol. That was sort of the most exciting of the stuff that I got, the rest was mostly clothes and the like. All of it was much appreciated:-)

Munchkin totally cleaned up. Beyond the earrings she got just about everything you can imagine a little girl would want (save for a pony) courtesy of her two pretend older sisters. If she is not the best dressed 11 year-old in school, then I don’t know who is. When she first moved here, I was a little hesitant about letting Smoking Hot Roommate and Big Sis be too generous to her, just because I was worried about her adjusting and all of that. But, as long as she does well in school (all A’s again, thank you very much!!!) and stays the little angel she is, then she can have whatever they wanna give her.

Anyway, back to work…I can’t put this off forever. I hope everyone else’s Christmas was as much fun as mine!

The second tree

Back to my story…I promise it gets better than it has been…lol. I went to bed before hearing from The Boy Saturday night and I was not real happy about it. I kind of figured that we would have to have an awfully uncomfortable “talk” the next day, which made me feel kind of sick to my stomach.

I got a text message from him at about 3:30, though… “Love you. Miss you. Don’t want to fight. I am sorry for being ass. Breakfast tomorrow?” That made me feel a whole lot better…I am not really in the mood to go through a breakup this month… Of course, I also knew that he was probably kinda drunk, so I figured I would make him work for it and texted him back to meet me at 8:00. Yeah, mean of me, I know, but that’s what he gets:-P

Anyway, we did have kind of a “talk” but it was all good. His sister actually called me at about quarter of 8:00 to tell me that he had called her the night before and was all crazy because he thought he had fucked up. Which is also kind of cute…and let me in on what I was gonna hear at breakfast.

Anyway, we had a lengthy discussion, only a little bit of which I want to get into here. I guess the nutshell is that I am a pain in the ass to date (my words, not his) but he is ok with that. I think I have to say at this point, as I have before, that he is abundantly patient and understanding. He’s hot, he’s got a great job and very few of his friends need to clear time on their babysitting schedules to hang out....meaning that he could probably have less aggravation in his life with someone else.

One of his very best friends just got engaged last week…to a girl that he started dating at almost the same time that we first began dating (about a year and a half ago.) To be honest, I think he is probably a little jealous of the simplicity. They met, they became infatuated, dated a lot, took some vacations together, moved in together in September and now are getting married. Then they can work on having kids shortly after that. Nice and easy, just like they draw it up in the books.

But I am not quite that simple…I come with some baggage. Really cute and fun baggage, but baggage nonetheless. If he had shown up for breakfast and said “This just isn’t gonna work. I need someone who can make me more of a priority and is on a timeline I want to be on,” then I would have been really upset, but I would have understood.

The good news is that he didn’t say that, or even anything close. I think he just had a brief crisis when he thought about the fact that a “timeline” for us won’t lead to marriage for probably three years, minimum (ok…I can’t even believe I just wrote that, it gives me hives…) I don’t know when I would think about having kids… maybe never.

Anyway, I felt like a huge weight had been lifted after that. I definitely wanted to…um…
“seal the deal”, so to speak…but he was clearly exhausted, so I figured I would give him a couple hours to rest. And shower…lol.

I went back over to his place during the football games later to help him decorate his Christmas tree and have a whole bunch of sweaty sex. I don’t know if I would say it was make-up sex, since we weren’t really fighting. Mostly I just hadn’t been laid in almost a week and had some serious fucking to get out of my system. And so did he, which led to a pretty good afternoon…actually a playful kind of fun sex afternoon that involved some whipped-cream-enhanced oral sex.

I don’t really think I would normally qualify as “kinky” per se, but I do like to have fun. And I was certainly not in the mood to object to some relationship-repairing fun sex. So if he wants to spend an hour giving me oral sex with whipped cream, well who am I to object?

More on The Judge

OK, The Judge, part two. This also has a lot to do with my, um… "tense" relationship with some members of my real family. Or, I guess of Munchkin’s family.

I graduated from college in May of 2005. I had this lovely plan and really felt like I was in a good life-place. Smoking Hot Roommate and I said some good-byes and then piled everything we had left into my car and drove to Chicago. We planned on staying there for a week, then heading to Boston where the apartment was going to be newly renovated and ready for us on June 1.

I kind of knew something was up…my Mom was acting kind of strange the week before when she had come out for graduation. But it was a complete bombshell my second day there… "My liver and kidneys are shot and I am dying". There were a lot of questions and some crying and stuff, and then the obvious question: What happens to Munchkin?

There were basically three options: 1) She could come and live with me in Boston 2) I could stay in Chicago and take her 3) Her aunt and uncle could take her in. The Aunt is her father’s sister (therefore not related to me at all) and lived about half a mile from where Munchkin and Mom lived.

The Aunt idea was out off the bat. I don’t like her and I think she would have been a bad influence. She is basically white trash (most of my family is, too) and her own kids are complete fuck-ups. I appreciated her willingness to help out, but it was a terrible idea. The Aunt, however, disagreed.

For me it was really a Chicago or Boston choice, but I was going to take her regardless. For a couple of reasons, I decided on Boston…not at all a small decision, but not the point of this story. Munchkin’s Aunt then made it known that she was not at all happy about this, and would be taking whatever action she could to keep her from me.

I have to blame a lot of this on my mother. I don’t feel like she ever really told The Aunt that she wanted Munchkin with me, and never told The Aunt to back off. I have to feel like that would have helped. Maybe not, though…The Aunt is just basically a bitch. She also never wrote any kind of a will that detailed her wishes. Dumbass. Anyway, I took Munchkin to Boston in August and my mother’s health deteriorated really rapidly after that.

Then The Aunt sued me. She filed suit in family court, protesting my custody. It was actually a suit filed by two people…her and Munchkin’s older brother. Which kind of complicated things, because he is the same relation to Munchkin as I am (half-sibling). Never mind that he was fresh out of jail for stealing cars and was basically a useless piece of no-good. They were suing for him to win custody of his sister, and for both of them to live with The Aunt and The Uncle.

[Incidentally, I feel differently about her brother now. I may write about it some day, but the short version is that he has grown up a lot, loves his sister dearly and has apologized for the whole suing thing. The Aunt is still a fucking bitch that I won’t speak to.]

Their basic argument was that I was too young and not fit to be a mother and that it was not right to uproot Munchkin, take her away from her family and friends and move her out-of-state. It is not an argument without merit in the court’s eyes, I don’t think. Basically, they were saying that she should stay where she is, go to the same school, etc.

My mother was not in any kind of condition to render any sort of statements, so she was sort of out of all of this. Papa Bear hooked me up with a law firm in Chicago to help me, and they were really, really helpful in this. Like, My Aunt applied for an injunction against me taking Munchkin out of the state…which means very little when I already had her in Boston, but means a whole lot when we had to come home for the funeral. I was actually worried that there would be someone who simply wouldn’t let me take her back to Boston. But the lawyers helped navigate all that and get those things taken care of.

I went to see the lawyers right before we left to go back to Boston after the funeral to talk about what would come next. They pretty much told me that there could be an ugly battle full of icky personal stuff about why I would be an unfit mother and stuff like that. They told me that I would need to think about people who would be character witnesses on my behalf.

So I mentioned kind of randomly that I knew The Judge and spoke with him regularly and that he might be a good one since he was a family court judge. They kind of looked at each other with their mouths open for a bit…and then one of them asked kind of dumfounded if I knew him well enough that he would submit a personal letter for me. And I said sure he would, I can call him now. "You know, AM, we probably could have saved a lot of time if you had mentioned that before…"

I guess when you are basically arguing over who is the more responsible person, it helps to have a senior colleague of the person deciding the case chime in on your behalf. To be honest, I don’t know what The Judge wrote. He offered to send me a copy of the letter, but I didn’t want to…I am not sure if that is really kosher or not. It must have worked, though, because the presiding judge kind of told the other lawyer that they should just drop the suit and move on. Again, I was taking her to a different state, but The Aunt probably has a record, and Munchkin’s brother was certainly no prize either, so it isn’t like he just totally pulled rank. But it clearly helped.

As we have seen, The Judge takes his job very seriously. In October, he called to say that he was visiting his daughter at school in Boston for Parents’ Weekend, and wanted to stop in and see the apartment, Munchkin’s school, etc. I had had a suspicion that he was just checking up on us…which was confirmed when his daughter told me "This is four Parents’ Weekends now, and this is the first one he decided to come to…"

So yes, he came out to make sure that I really was doing right by the little one. I am not gonna lie…I sort of knew that, and I took him to a cocktail reception at Papa Bear’s place before a charity dinner completely because I was trying to impress him…hee hee. That was actually good though, I wanted him to meet Papa Bear and Big Sis and Smoking Hot Roommate, since they are all key parts of Munchkin’s life, too.

Anyway, that is kind of the whole story, in two parts.

The Judge

Ok, as promised, here is my other story…it is lunchtime and I feel like blogging some more…lucky you!!!

I got a message last night from one of the key people in my life: The Judge. He is, not surprisingly, a judge. More specifically he is a judge working in the Illinois family court system, and in an important capacity (which becomes important later on.) He was just calling to check in on me and see how I was doing, which he does periodically.

Now let’s back up, to when I was about Munchkin’s age…a little older, I was in sixth grade. My mother got arrested for being a drunk, which actually happened three or four times. I think she got thrown out of a bar and drove away despite the warnings of a police officer that if she got in the car they would arrest her. So she did, and they did, and that is bad news.

Shortly after that we were in family court because the state was trying to argue that she was an unfit mother. In truth, at that point she was pretty much a waste product, although she always made it to work and kept me fed, clothed and warm, so she was never a total loss.

After the hearing the Judge went back to his office to think about whatever he was gonna do. I told the attorney that I wanted to talk to the judge, and he relayed it to the bailiff who went to see the judge and came back to get me.

Even doday, I am only about 5’ 1" (that is generous) and weigh 98 pounds (my weight is another story…no I don’t have an eating disorder) and I have always been tiny. The Judge is about 6’ 6" and weighs probably 260 pounds. So little, itty-bitty 12 year-old me went into his office to tell him why I should stay with my mother.

I told him that I didn’t think she could survive without me…lol. Which is kind of cute in hindsight. I said that she needed me to take care of her and that she wasn’t a bad mother but that she wouldn’t be safe if I wasn’t there. She was a drunk, but I never missed any school, had all the regular doctor’s visit a kid is supposed to and had good grades.

In the end, he let me stay with her under some rules. Every Friday he was going to call my teachers to make sure I was in school every day, went to all of my classes, did all of my homework and did well on all of my tests. Then I had to be home at exactly 4:30 every Friday so he could call me after he spoke with all of my teachers.

And he did that every single week through 6th, 7th, 8th and 9th grade. By the time I was a sophomore in High School, he told me that he didn’t need to call my teachers any more, but that I had to bring him my report cards every quarter and check in about once a month. And that went on through High School.

He sent me a big bouquet of flowers on my 18th birthday and a long personal letter. At that point he couldn’t tell me to do anything any more;-) but I still talked to him about once a month and always faxed him my grades in college when I got them. When I graduated from College I sent him a framed copy of my degree.

Now, there is absolutely no reason for him to do something like that. He easily could have put me in foster care, or just sent me back to my mother. He didn’t though; he helped me and took a genuine real interest in me at a level that cost him a lot of his personal time and energy. I am not going to lie, there was a LOT of schoolwork that I did only because I knew that The Judge would find out if I didn’t. Would I have ever graduated from High School? I don’t know…I probably would have, but I wouldn’t have done nearly as well and never would have gone to college.

So now he is a friend and I feel a real sense of pride when he tells me that he is proud of me. That friendship actually came in really handy about a year and a half ago, but I am going to leave that part of the story out for now.

Shiny Things

You guys make me feel all warm and fuzzy inside:-) I came in kinda grumpy from a short nights sleep in a strange bed and I had all kinds of well-wishes from people…you are all too sweet!
I really have very little to write about today. I got to the office (not even our office…someone else’s that we are working out of for the time we are here) at 6:45 so that I could get a super early start. And I got a ton done, which makes me feel good. I have to drive back home tonight, which is a pain, but I have to do my civic duty (and let Munchkin help me:-), even though Smoking Hot Roommate already took her to the polling place once.)

Really I don’t mind…it will be good to see the little one, and I really get kind of homesick about sleeping outside of my bed. Yes, I am a baby…

I am actually gonna tell a story. Not sure why, but I alluded to it the other day and I feel like telling it at the moment. And Smoking Hot Roommate said I make her cry yesterday with my gushing about her, so I am gonna do it again. This will make me cry, too…lol. But the guys are in a meeting all morning while I am working on something so no one will see me…hee hee.

It is also in kind of the same general topic of my appreciation for the Rocks. [Oh, by the way, I am now referring to them as the Rocks, which is short for Rockerfeller. No, they are not actually Rockerfellers, but they have a name that sort of goes back like that, so this will work as a substitute].

Anyway…Mrs. Rock (SHR and Big Sis’s Mom, Papa Bear’s wife] died a little over 10 years ago. That has undoubtedly had a dramatic influence on the remarkably close relationship that they all have with each other. Mrs. Rock, from what I hear, had little use for many of the trappings of wealth; with one small exception…she really liked things that sparkled. This is actually a trait that both of her daughters have inherited (OK, so they are girls, and we all like sparkly things…)

Mrs. Rock had a jewelry collection that was substantial. Between things that were passed down through Papa Bear’s family and things he bought for her, she had a spectacular collection of stuff. Since she died, Papa Bear has been giving it to SHR and Big Sis a little bit at a time…birthdays, Christmas, graduations, things like that.

Example: when SHR was 16 or 17, Big Sis was home for a bit (she lived in London for like 6 years) and they went out and got their belly buttons pierced. Which Papa Bear was not happy about and apparently threw quite the tantrum, directed mostly at Big Sis. But three years later, he had an old pair of Mrs. Rock’s diamond earrings remade into matching navel studs for the girls.

Back to my story. Neither Big Sis or SHR wears a ton of jewelry, so in about May, the two of them told Papa Bear that he should start giving it to different people, that they had plenty already. Skip ahead to about July [I am jumping around a lot here, let me know if it is confusing].
Every year, Mrs. Rock’s family, who Papa Bear remains very close with, takes over the beach house for about a week and a half. Some day I will really tell you about the beach house, but for now, just believe me that it’s freaking huge (it is a "house" in the sense that the Taj Mahal is a "tombstone"). Anyway, Papa Bear decided that this would be a good time to give a lot of Mrs. Rock’s old jewelry to her sisters, nieces, etc.

And he likes to be kind of formal and stuff, so he had like a whole speech ready and stood up after dinner one night and told them all that he and SHR and Big Sis wanted them all to have some parts of Mrs. Rock to help remember her. Then he started to give the stuff out and had neat things to say to everyone and about everyone. Yes, there was lots of crying;-)

But then he started talking to me, and he said…I am para-phrasing, I didn’t record it…hee hee… "AM, you are very much a part of this family and I think of you much as I do my two daughters. We have never told you this, but you remind us all of Mrs. Rock, and the two of you would have been great friends. We know that she would want you to have these." They gave me a pair of earrings that I wear almost every day now...hee hee. They are teardrop diamonds with a little stud and a pear-shaped hanging stone. Not only are they nicer than all the other jewelry I have ever owned combined…lol…but they mean a lot more.

So there, one more super-sappy story:-P And yes, I am crying again…so what?!?!?
By the way, I got a message from someone last night that I will talk about later. It is another person I owe a ton to, but it is not quite as happy a story.

Busy Monday

Super busy morning...tons of stuff and most of it is WAAAY over my head. And now I am really tired and frustrated at how little I have gotten done and how much I have left to do. And I am eating Chinese takeout for lunch which is just unbelievably awful. But I really want to do a good job for my two bosses today so that they don't think it was a waste to bring me out here. Which means I should stop complaining.

I have to take a moment to talk about exactly how awesome Smoking Hot Roommate is, though. As a roommate, I come with a certain amount of "baggage" which there is no reason to expect a gorgeous, super-cool 22 year old girl to voluntarily take on. She does it, though, and is great about it all the time. There is a certain amount of parenting responsibility that comes from living with a kid, and she could very easily want nothing to do with that, but she does a lot of it, and she gets a super special, extra warm spot in my heart for it.

I am away tonight, which means that she is responsible for getting Munchkin at school and bringing her home, getting her fed and helping her with any homework she needs help with and watching her and getting her to bed. Obviously, it sort of rules out any other plans she may have had. She doesn't have to take on that responsibility, but she does, and I lover her for it.

Big Sis and Papa bear both get a really similar shout out for doing the same thing a lot, but Smoking Hot Roommate gets more of it, and is kind enough to charge me a MUCH below market rate rent as well:-D

Which kind of gets to the thing I was talking about the other day about families and holidays. And I think Ally was dead on with her comment...not that I don't think The Boy will be around forever (yeah, I am pretty sure he will...there, I said it) but there are certain things that are reserved for families. And I may not be part of the family in the strictest sense, but that is just a detail. They are my family and I am part of theirs and I want to spend Holidays with them because that is who you should be with...the most special people on the most special days.

OK, this went from irritated to corny really, really fast. Sorry about that;-)

Families and Holidays

I forgot to mention…I got a really cute email from Boyfriend’s Mom yesterday regarding dinner the other night. It was actually a really sweet note about how much they like me being in The Boy’s life.

Then at the end there was just a (possibly) throw away line: “We’d love if you and Munchkin made it to Thanksgiving with us this year.”

Now, holidays are a big deal in his family. His great-grandmother is still alive, so her entire family tree makes a point of gathering as often as possible, which is a LOT of people. I kinda wish they wore nametags to make it easier…lol [Did I mention that the first time I met my father’s family they all wore name tags for me? How cute is that?] And being invited to the big family gathering is no small deal…The Boy was actually kind of hesitant to bring me around because it can be overwhelming, but he finally did for Great Grammy’s birthday last summer. And none of them bite…lol

And I would love to go. Obviously, The Boy is pretty high on my list of people I like to be around;-) and so is his sister and her wife. At this point I know a lot of the other family, too and like seeing them.

So what is the problem, you ask? And please don’t yell at me for this, because I am fragile…lol…but I have too many families now. The irony, of course, being that much of my life has been spent wishing I had more of one, and suddenly I have an embarrassment of riches.

For the last year or two, most Holidays I have spent with Smoking Hot Roommate, Big Sis and Papa Bear and their extended family. They really make me feel like part of the family (when I am home sometime I will tell you what they gave me for my birthday, but I am gonna bawl like an infant, so I can’t do it here), and this is really the first time I have ever looked forward to Holidays just because of the way it makes me feel to be included.

But there is also the Chicago family (families, actually). I would love to see my father’s family more, and these are always great times to do that. There are also some members of my mother’s family that I would like to see as well (others that I would like to see only so I can hit them over the head with a brick). And finally, there is Munchkin’s father’s family, which I feel obligated to get her out to see as often as possible, too. Truthfully, I could do without many of them (like the ones that sued me…) but she should see them.

And then now there is The Boy’s family, too. So while Thanksgiving at The Boy’s sounds like a lot of fun, it would mean missing Thanksgiving with SHR, PB and BS. And either would mean not getting back to Chicago, as well.

Believe me, having too many families is WAY better than the alternative. And I don’t want to sound like I am complaining, because I really am not. I guess I am just lamenting that sometimes there isn’t enough time to see all the people you love, and you have to sacrifice the time with some of them in exchange for others. And that leaves you at risk of missing out on the memories that REALLY make families.
Which I guess is my problem…I feel like I have a lot of catching up to do. Most people get a lifetime to be with their families…I kind of stumbled onto mine when I was in my 20’s. So I have 20 years worth of memories and occasions to catch up on, and there just aren’t enough Holidays.

BFF's

I have two more people to introduce you to, my oldest and dearest friends, who get the appropriate monikers of BFFb and BFFg…one is a boy and one is a girl, duh. And they are super-mega-hyper awesome and are my other halves (2 other thirds maybe?) They still live in Chicago and I am trying to get them to move out here because that is the ONLY thing I dislike about being here, not seeing my two best buddies more often.

I met them when I was about 4. We moved into a new house on a new street (where my mother lived until she died) and BFFb was the troublemaking little boy across the street, which means he immediately became my friend:-). BFFg lived two houses down and was friends in short order as well. The three of us have a lot in common…dirt poor, no fathers and all of the experiences that come with that. But we benefited from each other…I always felt like nothing could really break me if I had my two BFF’s around.

There was a fourth for a while. In about sixth grade, High School Boyfriend moved in and the troika became a quad. I guess the fact that I call him HSBF sort of gives away where the story goes, but there is a lot more to it for some other day.

BFFb and BFFg have separate but equally important places in my heart. BFFg because she has been my closest friend forever and was the one I most often stayed with when my mother was, um…“incapacitated”…and I needed a place to stay. She is still the one I call first when I have something, either good or bad, that I really need to tell someone. And she did all kinds of big sister things with Munchkin when I was away;-)

And BFFb because I think he is my most loyal friend. I trust him absolutely and completely. That might not make a lot of sense, but when I finally get to the High School Boyfriend story, you will understand what I mean. But for now I will say that he has demonstrated through words and actions that he will blindly observe my best interest, even if it is uncomfortable for him. And I would do the same for him. He is also really hot, and currently single…take note, ladies, I can totally hook you up;-)

Ooh… that reminds me of another post, but I wanna write that one separate. But I think I can get it done before my 1:30, so check right back…

A Tour of My Tattoos

I promised to tell you about my tattoos…all of them are small and most have some meaning…

#1 – I have a little bird carrying a red flower on my stomach. It is about two and a half inches to the right and below my belly button. I got this in high school after a girl I knew pretty well got shot when a bar fight spilled out onto a street and into the coffee shop she was in. She was a completely pure soul, and I never wanted to forget her, or the way that made me want to move as far away as possible.

#2 – I have Japanese characters on my left shoulder blade that say “From perseverance through adversity comes strength.” I got this one at the beginning of my sophomore year after the final, final, final end of a long and sometimes tortured connection with High School Boyfriend. That story is gonna take me like a month of posts to tell, and it might be a while before I get to it.

I actually forgot exactly what this said at one point…lol…and had to have The Body’s father translate it again for me exactly. I knew the gist of it, but the exact wording I forgot. I also saw a website once about people with Asian letter tattoos that they think say things that are really deep, but are really like recipes for Kung Pao chicken and stuff. I am pretty sure mine is legit, though…The Body’s father was with me when I got it and wrote it out for the guy who did it.

#3 – I have a rose on my ankle…this one is cute:-) After my sophomore year, I went home for a week at the end of the summer, which was only the second time I had been back in about two years (it took me a year and a half to go back home when I left for school…more on that some other day). I took Munchkin to a fair and we got temporary tattoos. Then when I left the next day I was feeling kinda down and I really missed her, so I stopped on the way and had it done for real.

#4 – I have a sun kinda thing on the small of my back. This one doesn’t really have a deep meaning, it is just sorta cute. The Body was getting one done and I decided to get another one with her.

#5 – I have three rings with an interweaving vine on my foot. This one is really small and is the newest of them…I got it in July. In the story about my father, I mentioned that I never met him or his family until a couple years ago. Well, his family is awesome, and my cousins (all 13 of them!) are great. Of the 13, there are only two girls, both a little older than me (28 and 27) and are basically best friends. In July after I first met them all, I was invited to Favorite New Cousin #2’s wedding, which was really the first time I met the WHOLE family. Favorite New Cousin #1 was her maid of honor, and right before the wedding, the two of them went out and got matching tattoos of two interlocked rings with a weaving vine.

Favorite New Cousin #1 got married last summer and asked me to be one of her bridesmaids, which was just like the sweetest thing ever…I am crying writing about it…lol… She also asked Munchkin to be a flower girl, even though she is not actually related to her at all (you know how a wedding program lists the people and their relationship with the bride and groom? Well, Favorite Cousin #2 was “Dearest Cousin of the Bride” and I was “Newest Cousin of the Bride” and Munchkin was “Almost Cousin of the Bride” which I thought was super cute.) Anyway, I am way off track…

The two of them called me one day and said that right before the wedding they wanted to have a third ring added to their tattoos for me and for me to get the same thing. So that is where the rings come from…my connection with my two favorite cousins that my asshole father never let me meet until I was 22. So fuck him for one more thing.

So those are the five…and I have promised at least one more. Munchkin is, at least for now, completely obsessed with them. If she turned 18 tomorrow, she would run out and get the same rose done that I have, and she has also sold both Smoking Hot Roommate and Big Sis on us all getting something matching when she is old enough. That is still a long way off, and I am not going to encourage her if she changes her mind between now and then…lol. But she can be stubborn, so it wouldn’t surprise me if she ended up asking for these for her 18th birthday…

At which point I will be 30…yikes that makes me feel old.

Boss Foxy

I have been kind of gushy around here lately, which I suppose I shouldn’t apologize for, but at some point I will have to cover years 1-18 of my life, which were a little less positive. Especially numbers 8-12…those were not that much fun.

But I can leave that until tomorrow. First, I am going to cover Boss Foxy, which is by far the coolest name I have given anyone so far. And she would be really fired up if I told her. Maybe someday…but for now we all have secrets (including…teaser…one very large one I am keeping from you:-P)

Anyway, about when I started work here, Smoking Hot Roommate, who is a little more plugged in that I am, encouraged me to find a mentor. I never really even thought of it, but she explained the virtues of finding someone who could offer your career advice and guidance and general counsel. I could pretty much hit up both Papa Bear and Big Sis for that kind of stuff, but I could see the virtue of finding an alternate source.

As I mentioned, this is almost an entirely male industry, so I sort of though I should find a female mentor who could help with issues around fitting into a male culture. As luck would have it, we have a female partner here at the firm. There are NOT many of them in the industry.

Boss Foxy actually used to be Big Sis’ boss at Big Name Investment Bank that rhymes with Old Can Schnapps. [I really laughed at that one]. They worked in London together for almost five years. Papa Bear was concerned with the lack of women in the firm…he is kind of a women’s libber, which I guess happens when you have two absolutely amazing daughters…and set out to increase that number. In looking for a senior level woman, of whom there are few, Big Sis suggested that he talk with her old boss. He hired her on the spot and she was a partner within a year of that.

Fast forward to me starting here. Armed with SHR’s advice, I approached Boss Foxy all timid and cute one day, told her what I was looking for and asked her if she would be interested in mentoring me. Or if she knew anyone at another firm who might. Well, she got all excited and not only did she agree, but she put me on her schedule for lunch once a week for eternity to talk about whatever I wanted.

And she has been great to me. She has been faithful to her promise to meet once a week, despite having an absurdly busy schedule. She also takes time to explain things to me that I don’t understand, and suggests projects in different industries with the principals and vice presidents that I should try and get involved in.

She has also taken me to a couple of women’s networking sessions in the city that have been really helpful and have been SUPER ego boosters. And she has given me invaluable council on how to be a woman in an industry that is 95% male. I don’t want to sound like a sniveler, but it is hard and you do have to be wary of the way people view you. Especially because I am so much younger than everyone else and look even younger than I am.

Beyond that, she is just a good friend. She takes Munchkin to baseball games sometimes, and I baby-sit her kids on occasion. And she told her husband to consult me before he bought her a Christmas present last year…lol.

One last thing…she is in her mid 40’s and has three kids, but she is still in extremely good shape. I wouldn’t say she looks younger than her age, but she definitely doesn’t look like she has had three kids. She engenders a ton of respect in the office and the guys that work for her would run off a building if she asked them to. But they also all think she is hot…lol…and the power is part of that.

Well, on three occasions now, our lunch meetings have turned into “facial, manicure and massage” meetings…hee hee. We have gone to a spa nearby and taken a couple hours to decompress. The first time we did that, I wasn’t really sure what the protocol was for getting massages alongside people you work with. Didn’t bother her, though, and she got naked before the massage (yes, I did the same, but I wouldn’t have done it first!).

Well, I relayed this story to the guys at lunch a couple days later, and they were just completely flabbergasted. After like five minutes of open jaws I got like one little whimpered “Wait…you saw Boss Foxy naked?”

Another couple days later, I had relayed that story to Boss Foxy, who casually dropped in conversation to a couple of the guys…”I understand that you guys were impressed that Cutie saw me naked?” And they just had no idea how to respond to that at all. And on her way out the door, she casually dropped “She has more tattoos than me, but mine are bigger.”

Which is true, and also left them all with looks on their faces that can not be described in words. I wish I had a camera.

And I guess leads to me telling you about my tattoos...I have five of them and they all have a story.

That will have to wait until tomorrow…

The Boy, Part II

I forgot to thank “Bob” for leaving my first real comment. By real, I mean that it was not an ad for Viagara or an invitation to fuck someone. So thanks, Bob. I know people read, because my site meter tells me so, but comments rule!

Back to The Boy. When we left off, we had finally shed any other people and committed to a “relationship”. Which is no small deal for me…I don’t get a lot of free time, so if I agree to block out a big part of it for someone, he has to be pretty special.

And he is:-D He is really cute…sort of tall (everyone is tall compared to me), with black hair and green eyes. He is very lean and has some of the nicest shoulders, arms and back of anyone I know. He is older than me by four and a half years, which hasn’t really been a problem, although there are definitely some differences between his friends and mine. He lives pretty close to me…just on the other side of the Common and Public Garden, and has an excellent job with a small money management firm. He’s smart and funny and sweet and I always look forward to seeing him. Even when I am not getting laid!!!

He has a twin sister, which is WEIRD. She is awesome and I love her, and her wife, too (yeah, you read that right), but I definitely get weirded out by the twin thing sometimes. Example: they can order for each other in bars and restaurants. And not just like “Oh, he usually drinks vodka tonics,” but more like “Hmm…I think he feels like a vodka tonic,” even though he might rarely drink them. And they can sense each others’ moods and finish sentences and stuff.

Back to my story. Immediately after we were first “together”, I left for a month…oops! And he was rightfully confused, especially since I only talked to him twice while I was there.

Which meant that I had some work to do when I got home. I assured him that I was committed and didn’t want anyone else and I did want him, and he got to say some things that I know he needed to. I pretty much convinced him and things have moved along nicely since then. I am not foolish; I know that I can be a royal pain to date. I am naturally programmed to not be too attached to or reliant on people, and by definition there is always someone who comes ahead of a boyfriend.

So, among my many blessings is a wonderful boy who dotes on me in just the right amounts and puts up with all my foibles and lack of time. He could throw a tantrum over only seeing me two or three days a week, or about me changing plans at the last minute all the time because Munchkin is sick, or because I have to take her somewhere or get her or whatever. Or he could be angry about me not letting him stay over if Munchkin is around, or not staying at his place real often either.

But he does, and I thank him deeply for it. As I mentioned, we have periodic “talks” to make sure we are on the same page, and we are. He understands that I am not like most girls…I don’t need constant contact to know he loves me. And that if I don’t see him for a couple days, it doesn’t mean that I am not thinking about him. As for him, what he really wants is just to know what I am thinking. He can put up with my weirdness so long as he always knows where he stands.

And right now, he stands in a very good place:-D

Feeling skippy

This is kind of a weird time…its about 1 am and I am in my new bedroom blogging:-) Aren’t I dedicated? I started this post earlier, but never finished, so I will finish it now. The Boy is sleeping next to me, but I am not terribly tired…looks like I wore him out. We have had a lot of alone time the last two days, and I am pretty sure both his cock and my pussy are gonna be recovering for a couple days:-D [Yes, I totally laughed at myself for writing that].

It was a really weird day out today. It was warm, but really windy and really rainy. And we were moving all day, which kinda sucked. For the movers, that is…I don’t have much to complain about. I spent most of the week packing up my own stuff and munchkin’s stuff, throwing some things out, packing others for goodwill, etc. And I was a good little doobie, so I was in pretty good shape by yesterday.

I didn’t want munchkin around while we moved because she has been sick and I figured it would be better to let her rest all weekend. Since Papa Bear was complaining that he never gets to baby-sit anymore, I figured I could take care of two problems at once. So, after school yesterday, I took her over to Papa Bear’s place and dropped her off. The two of them have a really funny relationship…there is a little father/daughter, a little grandfather/granddaughter, and then there is a little of them just being buddies. He has a girlfriend that Munchkin totally picked up for him one day like a year ago. Whole other story.

Smoking Hot Roommate was out last night as well, which meant I had the whole place to myself to be alone with The Boy, a box of condoms and my overheated sex drive…hee hee. I am happy to say that I sent my old bedroom out in style. And the living room sofa. And the kitchen counter. And then the shower this morning.

In between all the fucking, we had a bit of a talk about “things”, which we do periodically just to confirm same page-ness. I have never been one to spend a lot of time talking about relationships, but I guess it is good to check in from time to time. I will sort of fill you in on that more later on, but I have to finish the stuff I started about him earlier for it to really make sense.

In the meantime, though, I am really excited about the new place. It is a complete palace, and it is WAY WAY WAY nicer than any place I ever thought I would live in. I guess it is times like this…alone and quiet…that I sort of assess life. I know it is sometimes more interesting to be disturbed and depressed (“dark and twisty”) but I just can’t bring myself to do it.

I am extremely blessed and thankful beyond words for the things I have been given. And I couldn’t even begin to articulate how happy I feel about the things that Munchkin has…great school, great friends and loads of support from all kinds of people that have no obligation to do so (SHR, Big Sis and Papa Bear all get a special spot in heaven for the way they treat both of us, especially her).

Ok, I am crying, and that is really NOT my style. Well, fuck it, I am feeling emotional…that happens after orgasms sometimes. Especially the ones that come from the devoted tongue of an admiring boyfriend...hee hee.

There, that is more like me.

Alright, I am gonna stop typing before I get even sappier than I am already.

Meet The Boy

I seem to have gotten in some trouble. I have gone to great lengths to introduce ALMOST everyone that really matters to me. You met Munchkin (my real sister), Smoking Hot Roommate and Big Sis (my almost-real sisters), Papa Bear (not my father, but maybe my Dad), The Body and The Mouth, Boss Foxy, My Mother and My Father.

I kind of left out The Boyfriend. Sorry, buddy (don’t worry; I am WAY too cute for him to be mad at me…)

Ah, The Boyfriend, or BF, or The Boy [little hearts twinkling around my head]. Let’s see...I guess I will start at the beginning. I met him through Big Sis, who is kind of a tangential friend of his and thought that we might get along well together. This was actually last summer, just before Munchkin moved out here, and to be honest, I was kind of seeing a couple of guys.

Anyway, Big Sis told him to call me, so he did and we went out to dinner in the North End for our first date. There weren’t really immediate sparks, so to speak, but I definitely liked him. He is really cute and smart and he made me laugh a lot, which is sort of all I need (that’s it, huh?...lol). So, since I liked him, I held off on sleeping with him for a little while. Not that long, I have my limits after all…hee hee

I am, to be kind to myself…a royal pain in the ass to date, I think, despite being so obviously adorable and kind of hypersexual. And, this was the worst possible time to try and date me. Once little sis showed up, it became all about her and trying to get her adjusted and comfortable. Trying to do that and maintain the rest of my social life made it very difficult to advance any kind of a relationship.

For most of the fall and winter I probably only saw him once a week, tops. There were also a couple of other boys as well. Well, there was one other at least. Needless to say, his patience with me has been enormous and much more than I deserve.

And as a final test of that, I pulled the following stunt. In April, he finally told me that he was ok with the complications in my life, but he really wanted to know where he stood and where we were going. Which was totally, fair, given the time frame, and was also pretty good timing, because I had decided that I really liked him:-)

So, what the fuck, let’s do it. I am ready to be a full time, full attention girlfriend. He’s a great guy, treats me like gold and is always, always, always great to be around. Then I proceeded to leave the country for a month and only talk to him like twice.

Good thing I am cute…that shit could have caused a problem otherwise.

It was sort of a work emergency/great opportunity. There was a giant steel industry deal in Europe that was in trouble, and Papa Bear knew all the players involved and was hired to come in and try and hammer out the last minute details. So, last minute he had to go for an undetermined time, and needed some help. And since everyone else was either busy, or terrified that he would kill them sometime over the time there, the chance came to me.

It isn’t everyday that you get the chance to work with international CEO’s, bankers and various government big wigs (I met a Prime minister, a foreign minister and two finance ministers), so I went. Smoking Hot Roommate and Big Sis were beyond generous in taking care of Munchkin, and our aunt came out for a week as well.

BF though, was kind of understandably a little confused. After all, we had kind of been “dating” for nearly nine months, and I finally said “OK, no other boys, no other distractions, I wanna be your girlfriend.” Then one day left him a message that said “Hey, going to Europe today, be back in a couple weeks, I think.”

I will leave you with that little teaser and finish later…but I gotta run for the time being. And I like teasing you…hee hee!