Freudian...

So, I watched "Almost Famous" last night after chicken fingers...which is just a wonderful, wonderful movie. And one I have seen many times.

There is one part of the movie that always makes me absolutely bawl. Despite the fact that I have seen it so many times, and that I know it is coming. The scene? When William's sister finds him completely broken at the airport and he makes her bring him home.

If you haven't seen the movie (and just why haven't you?!?!?), the sister and the mother have some serious issues early in the movie, and basically stop speaking. The sister leaves to become a flight attendant, and this scene is the first time she sees her mother after that.

And their awkward hug on the porch...where both of the kids are home for the first time in a while...I dunno...it just kills me. Absolutely tears me up every time.

Anyone have some deep psychological reasoning for this?

Can I Have Your Attention, Please!

I had a terrible time getting out of bed this morning. It was just way too comfortable in there, and too dark outside to really want to get up. I think I hit snooze five times maybe? It is kind of overcast and not real warm, and it just seemed like it would have been a really good day to stay tucked into bed all day.

Big announcement at work yesterday. I have known that this was coming for a while (um...three years...lol?) but had to keep the details a secret:-). The basics were pretty well known, but the specifics have been under wraps until yesterday when everything was all announced.

The announcement is that there is a new VP starting here as of September 1. She is a supremely talented, experienced deal-maker with expertise in some very complex transactions in a variety of industries. And, she just happens to be Big Sis:-D.

This is not a surprise at all. She works in the same industry as we do, and it has been pretty widely known that she would jump from her current firm to ours, but the timetable was a bit of a secret. She actually worked here for a short period of time when she got back from London (winter and spring of 2004) on one specific deal. The lesson of that was that she and her father (Papa Bear) were not really meant to work together too closely...lol.

Smoking Hot Roommate and I were in college at the time, and she got a phone call every day from each of them, complaining about the other. Basically, it was a disaster (well, not entirely...the deal turned out really well, they just hated each other a little bit...lol. But I have learned that they argue a lot more than Papa Bear and SHR do...very different relationships. I thought I wrote a post about this, but I can't find it anywhere.)

Anyway, that convinced them both that she would be better off working for someone else for a while, and coming here when she was a little more senior, and when Papa Bear was a little less involved in the day-to-day operations of the firm. That time is now:-)

The surprising part of the news is that she is not coming alone. The place she was working is sort of dissolving...a couple of the partners are retiring, a couple more are going to another firm, two are sort of remaining but basically starting a new, smaller firm with a very small speciality, and one of the partners is coming here to take the same role. They are bringing another VP and an associate as well. So, we are getting four new people out of it.

For those who remember way back to the early days of this blog, Boss Foxy and Big Sis used to work together (that was one of the first posts I wrote!). So this will be something of a reunion for them.

And for me, it means I get to have my Big Sis around every day now:-)

My Office Should Be on the Beach

I have been back in the office for exactly 32 minutes, and I am officially looking at the clock and wondering when the day will be over...is that bad of me? I haven't even been here long enough to think I am bored yet! And, I have plenty to do...I will most definitely not be bored today.

Yesterday was actually one of the most productive work days I have ever had...proving that you actually can work from the beach. I got a TON of sun over the previous three days, so I spent most of yesterday sitting on the couch with my laptop and a pile of stuff to get through. The peace and quiet served me well...as I got an absolute mountain of work done. So, maybe I need to do that some more, right?

Smoking Hot Roommate is back from her honeymoon on Friday, and her mother's family is invading the beach house starting tomorrow for the next week and a half...so hopefully she gets home without any issues, because I know she wants to get to the beach as quickly as possible.

Munchkin has a golf date today...how cute is that? Well, assuming it stops raining this afternoon... She is playing with three boys, at least one of whom has an obvious crush on her, which was confirmed by his father. When I talked to him about picking her up today, he offered "I don't care how old you are, men don't invite a woman to play golf with them unless they really like her." Which sorta cracked me up...although I would add that SHR gets invited to play in at least 150 golf tournaments a year, primarily because she is absurdly good, and gets to play from the girls' tees. I guess the tall, leggy blond part helps...

And for the record...all three boys are 14 years old and one year ahead of her in school, which is totally within my comfort zone...lol. Shit...I forget to give her money. I guess that means I need to make a quick trip home this morning. There is one excuse to leave the office...anyone have any others?

I don't have a whole lot else for you today. I am expecting some big blogosphere news in the near future, but that is still under wraps, and I am nothing if not a good secret keeper!

So, until then...back to work, I guess...

Why does Munchkin have Talking Heads in her iPod?

Raise your hand if your pretend older sister convinced you to stay at the beach through Tuesday and work from there.

And, also raise your hand if your pretend big sister conveniently has a lot of pull with your boss, and also is likely to be your boss in relatively short order:-).

So that explains where I was today when I should have been blogging. And where I will be tomorrow:-P.

But I have a very good reason for all of this. You see, it is August, and that means that summer is more than half over...and that means that we need to take advantage of the good weather that is left. And since it has been GORGEOUS down here for four days...ergo, so on and so forth, such and such, etc...

So...I have a random story from Friday's ride down here. Munchkin, Big Sis and I left pretty early (The Boy and Papa Bear drove down together later on...which is good, they don't get nearly enough quality time:-P). On the way, we were listening to Munchkin's iPod, and after a while we realized that she had a really eclectic set of songs on there. To be specific...here was what was on the docket:

Once in a Lifetime - Talking Heads
Clumsy - Our Lady Peace
Born to Run - Bruce Springsteen
Dirty - Christina Aguilera
Rocket Queen - Guns N' Roses
Romeo and Juliet - Dire Straits
Girlfriend - Matthew Sweet
Just Like Heaven - The Cure
Shake Ya Tailfeather - Puff Daddy, Nellie, Murphy Lee
Whipping Post - The Allman Brothers
It's Alright - Big Head Todd and The Monsters
She - Gram Parsons

So, after a bit of this, a logical question arose...how the fuck did all of these songs find their way onto her iPod? This is not the first time that I have been totally floored by her taste in music...but the scope of her selections this time really took me by surprise.

How did this all end up on her iPod? Simple...The Brain Surgeon put it there...which was news to me and Big Sis both. They apparently had a conversation about music a LONG time ago, and he has been filling Munchkin's iPod with all kinds of stuff from all over the musical spectrum for a while now. Which I guess explains why she knows all the words to Simon and Garfunkel's "The Boxer"...

Anyway, I thought that was cute...she has an amazing ability to form relationships with people in so many ways. She obviously sees The Brain Surgeon a lot, but that is sort of their thing, and gives them something to always talk about...she tells him the sorts of things that she likes and he finds more stuff, or other stuff that he thinks she would like based on that. I need to have a talk with him about the amount of sexual moaning in Rocket Queen, though...hmm.

However, her growing ability to attract older boys? Less cute... It has dawned on me this weekend that, physically, she has matured quite a bit in the last six months, and that she does NOT look 13. Girls, remember when you went through a growth spurt around that age? You finally got boobs, shot up about 6 inches and got really gangly and awkward for a while? Then when you get to 15 or older, you started to fill out, grew some hips and got curvier? (OK...some of us never went through a growth spurt and are still barely five feet tall...details...)

Well, she skipped right past the awkward, Olive Oyl stage. She is built much more like a 16 or 17 year old than a 13 year old. And, since she doesn't have braces, she is missing the obvious sign of being her age (her teeth are straight...I totally hit the jackpot on that..you know how much those things cost?!?!)

So far there hasn't been anything that has led to any real trouble, but I don't necessarily like the way it is trending. It's OK when she is in school...everyone knows how old everyone else is there...but when she is with "summer friends" that she has maybe only known for a month or two, things get sketchy.

When boys that are 13 and 14 and even 15 get all tongue-tied and awkward around here I find it cute. When I feel like she is drawing attention from boys with driver's licenses? Yea...not so much at all. As usual, she hasn't done anything to make me think she isn't totally and completely capable of handling herself in any social situation.

But I worry. I can't help it...it is the Mom in me:-)

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.