Munchkin goes global

I alluded to this the other day, but now that I have had a chance to hear Munchkin's version of things, as well as that of her friend's Mom, I figured I would fill you in on the whole story. I'll call this one "Munchkin's French Boyfriend", and can subtitle it "THIS is what I have to deal with for five more years until she is 18!"

Munchkin and her friend's family left on Saturday morning, and got settled in and got to the beach by about 3:00 in the afternoon. At approximately 3:07, several boys on the beach decided that they wanted to make friends...lol. Says her friend's Mom with a grin, "Munchkin sure does attract attention from boys, doesn't she?"

The boys were from three French families that were there on vacation. There were five of them, ages roughly 12-15, and a girl that was about the same age (all of whom spoke either pretty good or perfect English...I'm impressed!). In Munchkin's words "They were nice, and they were really cute and their accents were just adorable." So, they hung out for a bit and then they each went their separate ways because their families had some different things to do.

The next day, they were all on the beach again, and spent most of the day hanging out, swimming, flirting, etc. Sometime towards the end of the day, the girl told Munchkin "My brother has a crush on you." (Or, really, it probably sounded something like "My brothzer? He haz ze crush on you!" hee hee). Munchkin felt like he was cute, really nice and pretty overall dreamy, so a romance was born.

The French families were having a party on the beach that night (or maybe the next, I am not sure) and invited Munchkin, her friend and her friend's family. She and le garçon snuck away for a brief private moment, during which she reports he held her hand and appeared totally and completely consumed by his own nerves. I love that she can find that cute;-).

I also love that she can say things like "I could tell that he couldn't concentrate because he wanted to kiss me really badly, and I was hoping he would. But I can't do everything, he has to have some courage of his own." That just cracks me up to no end...

Anyway, the kids all spent most of the week together on the beach or by the pool. It was all pretty tame fun with plenty of adult supervision pretty nearby (although...ahem...when the little frenchie finally worked up the courage to kiss her on about day 5...where were the adults then?:-P). This, however, did not stop Pierre St. Loverboy from asking her to be his girlfriend (no word on exactly how that would work...) and inviting her to spend the entire summer in France with him.

While the offer to spend the entire summer, while quaint, is pretty obviously absurd, his mother did tell Munchkin's friend's mother to relay to me that she was more than welcome to come and visit for real. Not sure I am quite ready to put her on a plane to go and visit foreign strangers, but we can worry about that later (and in truth, I think she viewed this with a certain level of "quaintness"...she didn't actually ask to go and visit, she just said that she had been invited.)

So, that is the story of Munchkin's brief island romance. There is a part of me that thinks I should be scared by things like this...here she goes creating her own personal relationships in strange places where I have no control over the events. I send her on vacation and find out that she is kissing older, foreign boys...

But, if I am going to be really honest, I love that she can do these things. I totally and completely trust that she is capable of managing her own relationships. I trust that she can keep things like this in perspective, and that she is fully aware that these are "cute teen romances" and nothing more serious.

And mostly, I just think that she deserves to have stories like this. She deserves to have fun. She deserves to have adorable boys pining over her. She deserves to have crushes on those boys. She deserves to be able to look at old pictures with her friends when she is 25 and say "Oh my God, do you remember that French boy that fell in love with me in two days? He was cute."

She just deserves to be a regular teenage girl. She will never have a classic, "normal" life. I can't give her one, and I don't think I would want to. All I can hope for is that the lack of normalcy still allows her to experience all of the things that a kid should experience growing up.

Like dashing European admirers:-)

Bubble Gum for your Brain...

I'm starting off the year with some mindless entertainment, because I don't wanna burden your brains on your first day back at work...

Rock of Love Bus? Seriously...Bret, it is time to give it up. We understand you like trashy women, and you like groupies and you are not gonna settle down. This whole "I am looking for a soul mate" schtick is just not at all believable...it was stretching it during the second season, and it is just absurd now. They should try and find Big John a girlfriend again...

Charm School reunion...I was glad that Meghan (who is seriously the evilest person alive) called out Sharon Osbourne for being the obnoxious bitch that she is. Seriously...how many times can they all say "You are such an amazing woman" before someone asks..."Um...why?"

Confessions of a Teen Idol? What exactly is the point of this? Do they win something? It did lead to a fantastic exchange where Jamie Walters was complaining about his lost fame and I said" Well, you shouldn't have thrown Donna Martin down the stairs" only to have him say "And then they wrote this story line where I threw Donna down the stairs and people would come up to me on the street and be like 'Why did you throw Donna down the stairs'?". But seriously, don't ever watch it.

Superstars of Dance? Have we really stooped to this? I love stupid TV as much as anyone...but this is really absurd...

New Biggest Loser starts tomorrow...that was fast...

I am going to miss catching Jerry Springer and Maury Povich in the mornings now that I am back at work every day. Who knew there was that much pent up demand for lie detectors and paternity tests?

Riveting preview for Gossip Girl tonight...should I watch? I'm torn...

Total change of subject, to a more serious note...is there anything more offensive than the idea of Caroline Schlossberg as a US Senator? This is the United States of America, and we don't have fucking princesses! She has never had a job, never held public office, never demonstrated any sort of policy vision, and never done a single thing that would imply she might even be remotely capable of this job. Oh, but she is a Kennedy!!!

It's un-American, it's arrogant and it is incredibly offensive. Isn't there someone in New York who can stop this? I may have more on this tomorrow if anyone has any thoughts...

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!

Awards!!!

The snarkiest of snarkies, A (Aloysius Snarkelupagus?) has bestowed an award upon me, and it is with great honor and some reluctance that I accept:

Many many thanks:-) The award comes with a few rules: The honorees are to: A) first list 10 honest things about yourself - and make it interesting, even if you have to dig deep! B) pass the award on to 7 bloggers that you feel embody the spirit of the Honest Scrap.

This actually a task that could be incredibly easy, but will be quite difficult. There are, in fact, LOTS of interesting things about me that I have never mentioned here...unfortunately, they are not things I care to share. And outside of those, I don't know that I have anything really that juicy. But...I will give it a go!


10) I speak a very little bit of Spanish. Part of this comes from taking Spanish in school, but the bulk of it comes from a very, very close friend from Chicago (and a pretty regular figure around these parts) who's mother was Dominican and spoke a lot of Spanish.

9) Speaking of that...I had an abnormal number of mixed-race friends growing up, and very few white friends. In fact, if I mention a friend from home, chances are that he or she is black, Hispanic or some combination of black, white and Hispanic.

8) I suck at pictures. This is probably not a surprise to anyone who has requested some;-). But even outside of blog world, I generally forget my camera (or lose it like I did on New Year's Eve), or forget to take any pictures when I am out. Good thing I have friends that are better about it than I am!

7) I have picked out a name for my first-born. It is kind of a unisex name, has great meaning to me, and it is sort of a secret. Actually...this is something that is a secret to people in real life (except The Boy, he knows:-)) but not to blog friends. Yes, that is an invitation to ask:-P

6) I wear a lot of boy's jeans. I mean actual boy's jeans...from the boy's department. I have a terrible time finding women's jeans that fit me, so virtually all of my bang-around, casual jeans from the boys department at Old Navy.

5) I secretly love Barry Manilow. OK, maybe not "love", and it isn't much of a secret anymore, I guess. Cheesy can be good sometimes... (and bonus points to anyone who can figure out which Barry Manilow song I sing pretty once a week;-))

4) I have a horrible heroin addiction, and I am finding that the hideous track marks really diminish what I can charge when I prostitute myself to pay for it. Hee hee...just checking to see who really reads all 10 of these:-P.

3) I enjoy nothing more than waking up at 4:00 on a cold winter morning, looking at the alarm clock and realizing that I can roll over and go straight back to sleep. Truly one of life's great little pleasures. I have considered having two alarm clocks, and setting one at that time just so I can turn it off every night...but I feel like that would be cheating...:-)

2) Based on some things that have happened in the last week, I think I am a really good listener. For some reason, people like to talk to me, and they feel comfortable opening up to me. I like that, and I would like to try and encourage it even more...I know how wonderful it can be to just have someone that you can talk to sometimes, and how much better it can feel to say all of the things you are thinking. I am glad that I can be that person sometimes. There have been people that have done it for me, and I know how much it can mean.

1) I have a weight problem, and people's reaction to it frustrates me to no end. I have a terrible time keeping weight on, and have to carefully watch my diet to keep from getting too thin. Usually this leads to "Oh, you are so lucky, I wish I had that problem!" No, I am not, and No, you don't...it's a pain in the ass, its dangerous, and it has caused substantial health problems at different times. I have to watch my diet as much or more than people that carry too much weight, and it is insulting when people belittle the issue and dismiss it as somehow "fun".

That's all;-)

Now it is my turn to bestow the award to 7 people, and to make them fill out their own list! I am going to hit up some people's whose blogs I read, but that I haven't heard much from lately...also, people I don't think I have ever tagged before, and that don't seem to get too many of these....

1) I will start with Jmhender at Getting Over You. She needs something fun and mindless these days.
2) Mo at Happier Cows. Of course, I went to her blog to get the link and she just did one of these kinda thins. Ahh well...so I already broke one of my rules:-P
3) Jamie at My Cynical POV...because Laurwilk has dramatically increased my love for Iowans, and I am spreading that love around..
4) Amy at A Day in the Life...this is what you get for posting kissy face pictures!!!
5) Megan at A Running Commentary, in hopes that maybe she will write more often! Seriously, more people should read her, she is one of the funniest bloggers I read.
6) Maria at Be Yourself, Everyone Else is Taken, although she is hereby absolved of the expectation that she respond promptly...since she, you know, just had a baby...
7) And finally, Scotty at Bueno Morning since, I dunno...I feel like I probably owe him one from way back maybe?

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!