Surprising benefits....

I've got this kid.... crazy chick... love her to pieces... (and now that I've used that phrase yet again I realize how morbid and slightly homicidal it sounds)  ANYWAY!  Her name is Brigid, though I tend to call her Peanut Butter (which she hates) or Karate Chop.... she's 9 and is one of those innately kind souls who actually thinks of others.  She's growing her hair out to donate to Locks of Love for the second time.  I could go on all day! 

She also seems to be innately poky.  As in S-L-O-W to do things....  she has been known to take almost 2 hours to take a shower.... 30 minutes to put pajamas on and brush her teeth?  She comes by it honestly at least... both me and her big brother tend to be poky in the bathroom.  I'm shaving my legs, slathering masques on my face and deep conditioning my hair..... I REALLY don't want to know what the 19 year old is doing.  Nope.

Brigid, however, takes endless joy in making faces at herself in the mirror, plopping down on her butt in the shower and gazing up at the water as it rains down on her.  There are also conversations with the invisible TV and movie characters that seems to move in and out of our house on a regular basis, plus the need to pose with various 'props'.  GREAT imagination... S-L-O-W!

I have to get her up at about 7AM to get ready for school- though she doesn't leave until 8:30 for the bus arrival anywhere from @8:35-8:50.  That's an hour and a half to toss clothes on, make her bed, eat something, throw a snack in her bag, get the cats food and water, brush her teeth, wash her face and brush her hair.  When she's on top of things, I've seen her accomplish ALL of this in about a half an hour.  The morning 'ritual' seems to be, Mom wakes Brigid and crawls back into her warm bed.  Brigid gets up and invades the bathroom... when done goes down to eat breakfast just in time for big brother to come upstairs and rush into the bathroom and Mom to hit snooze until she can actually get into the bathroom and ready for the day. Just before 8 the bathroom is free and I'm struggling to wake up- Brigid crawls into bed with me and chats for a couple minutes while I blink myself awake and convince myself I cannot crawl back under the covers again.

Of late, I've noticed that at this point Brigid seems to be ready for the day- GASP!  Mostly at least... cats might still need tending, but for the most part she's good to go. 

What is going on? 

The other morning, don't ask me which as I wasn't awake yet, she had crawled into bed with me and I have no idea how it came up, but I mentioned that if she wanted, she could try taking showers in the morning sometimes provided she doesn't putz around and gets in and out before Luke comes up to take his shower.  Side benefit- cool braids or hair dos for school usually only done on the weekend or in the evenings after a shower.  Her eyes gleam in anticipation.  Of all the things to get excited about- she's excited about the prospect of taking a shower in the morning rather than at night. 

This morning my sleeping brain registers the shower and bathroom fan being turned on and sleepily remember Luke is driving to Des Moines and back for work today.... roll over to look at my alarm clock.  Due to go off in 2 minutes.  Ugh.  I go in to wake and tell Brigid she'll have to eat first as Luke is leaving early for work.  Now, it was dark and I was sleep befuzzled, but I had to pat down her freshly made bed several times before it gets through my fogged brain that she's wasn't in bed.  Lights were off, room neat, bed made... downstairs lights on.... Luke is downstairs on his computer eating breakfast. 

She was so excited about taking a shower in the morning that she woke up, made her bed and got in the shower BEFORE the alarm went off.  She was done and ready for the day in record time AND it included taking a shower!  Who IS this child? Not going to say a word to her though... might jinx it! 

GO TEAM!

YIPPEE! Rah! Rah! Rah! Sis-boom-bah!

OK- big time sports are not my thing. I go to the games if and when we are offered some free tickets because it IS fun.  I love the atmosphere and, you have to admit, the people watching is PRIME!  I do NOT religiously follow them- found out the other day that a person I thought was a team member for one of MN's team is LONG gone.  However, I do love lazy Sundays when the football game is on the TV because it lulls me to sleep wonderfully.  I also really like getting together with people to watch the game, because I like getting together with people!  It's fun DAMN IT!  What's the score?  I have NO IDEA!

To the people that do follow them- go for it! I'm pretty sure I get the same gleam in my eye when I'm talking about jewelry or glass.

• Bleed purple and gold or whatever your team colors are.
• Paint your face.
• Make giant signs.
• Wear fun gear.
• Draw things on your chest and stomach and shake it in the stands! (Told you I love the people watching!)

Here's my only problem.... the obliviousness that seems to go hand in hand with many (not all) fans when they are attending a game.

The number of cars and people in the general vicinity of the game increases by 64,111... really.... I looked it up- at least for football.  I happen to work downtown and park in what I can only describe as the 'eye of the storm', but that doesn't seem to fit either because this particular eye is anything but calm.... it's actually the antithesis!  Fans come out in droves and I have to dodge though various pregame celebrations to get to my parking ramp entrance.

• They change lanes 4-5 times in a block- in opposite directions!
• They jaywalk...
• They stop in the middle of the block to talk to pedestrians...
• They stand in doorways of buildings and elevators blocking people from entering and exiting...

This is stupid to begin with on any game day, but compound the issue by mixing in rush hour downtown?  ARGH! It's a recipe for disaster and it makes the crazy woman that lives inside me strain to come out and konk people on the head.... with my car....   The cops are out in force as it is and have no problem ticketing morons (thankfully), but when the morons on foot and behind the wheel far outnumber the cops- shit is going to go down.

So with that said... THANK YOU to the gentleman that clued in quickly opened and held open the door for me going into my ramp.  YOU are wonderful!

To the two schmucks who decided to stand directly in the path of the elevator yammering incessantly in the same said ramp blocking it for people exiting and shifting just in time to block it MORE for me trying to enter the flippin' thing and missing the elevator while it went down to get more people before I could get to my car.... I highly you recommend you visit your doctor soon as it seems plainly obvious you are both suffering from severe cases of rectal cranial inversion.

So..... go to the game, cheer your team on, have a blast.... DON'T BE AN ASSHOLE!

Happiness is....

Growing up we had a little box set of Peanuts books... I still have them around somewhere.  One of the books had a theme, "Happiness is.... " and then there was always a little Peanut style finish.  Linus with his blanket against his face, "Happiness is a warm blanket." Etc..... I've always remembered it and still like to occasionally thumb through their musty pages full of memories.

Over the weekend, I had one of my own "Happiness is..." moments.....

Happiness is a tray full of beads to play with!

 

 

Pictures of the end results to come at a later date- these were used for a custom order for a wedding and the lovely bride has yet to give her bridesmaids and flower girls their gifts!  

Ladies night!

I like music... a lot.  I like a pretty eclectic mix that range's from Lady Day to Jay Z... throw in a little Staind for good measure and I'm a happy girl!  I have a very good friend, Lissa, who makes me look like a novice when it comes to music... not only is her range even bigger, she KNOWS stuff.... I pretty much know what I like and go with that! 

Several years ago, Lissa told me I HAD to go see this Christmas Show featuring several local singers.  I'm all for a night out, what the hell!  That was the night I first heard Keri Noble sing and I was hooked.  She's not mainstream and you can hear her music here and there.  I think Kelly Clarkson remade one song, another was featured on Grey's Anatomy once and there was one song played on popular radio for a while.  To actually hear her music you need to either buy the Cd's or go to a show. 

Told Mom and Dad about her and, lo and behold, they already knew about he!.  They had seen her perform at the Duluth Blues Festival a couple times.  Over the last several years, I have introduced other people to her and have gone to several of her shows in and around the Twin Cities.  Now I can hear her talk almost every morning on Cities 97 as she's now a part of the Morning Show!  This involves dragging my butt out of bed and being able to see straight to turn the radio on, but hey... it's an option! 

Prior to Christmas last year, I had checked a local theater who has been known to book Keri and isn't too expensive ticket-wise.  She was playing in January!  IDEA!  Mom, Brigid and me- DATE!  WOOHOOO!  Except, recently Mom and Dad have starting 'going south' for the winter and Mom wouldn't be in town.  Bummer.....

Hmmmmm.... mother/daughter date night... and lets make it even better, wrap it up, along with a skirt and a top, slap a bow on it and give it to her for Christmas!  It was a hit!  Brigid got to choose where we went for dinner the night of (Donatelli's- YUM!) and we went on Keri's page and printed out pictures of her to bring along that Brigid got signed.  While looking up pictures, Brigid took note that Keri has stars tattooed on her arm and an idea was born.  Together, Brigid and I designed a pair of earrings for Keri that Brigid gave to her that night.  Keri instantly took off the earrings she was wearing and put her new earrings in! 

Brigid and Keri Noble- with her new star earrings!

 



Brigid was elated!  She got to meet Keri Noble, had a new CD- signed, two pictures of Keri- signed, had given Keri some earrings and received several hugs in return!  We bought a triple window picture frame and have all three photos in it.....

 

Except I took the picture above out of the frame today.....

 

This was taken about a week and a half ago...

 

Upon realizing she was looking at Keri Noble tickets...

 

She began to do what Shawn called...

 

The Snoopy Dance! 

 



 

 My original idea of a date with Mom and Brigid to see Keri Noble has come to fruition!  Our date is tonight and we can't wait!  We are meeting for dinner and get to spend time together before going to the concert.  Recently, Brigid and I heard Keri announce that she had gotten engaged.... so last night Brigid and I whipped up another little gift to give to Keri.   I've got the camera at the ready and the picture above ready for Brigid to get signed! 

 

Hello world!

I've been told a couple of times I should start a blog and never really seriously thought about it.  I'm really not that interesting.  I just try to get by day to day as best I can.  However, lately things keep happening in and around my life that just strike me as odd or funny and I want to tell people about it... so after retelling someone a story about today and being told, yet again, I should start a blog I thought I would give it a whirl!  Warning... I like to draw things out so sit down with a cup of coffee, tea, vodka... whatever!

So, for my first episode I would like to tell you about how sometimes I think my life imitates Stephanie Plum's life from the Janet Evanovich books... fortunately, without the dead bodies, flying bullets, and exploding cars.... unfortunately without Joe Morelli and Ranger.  Who doesn't want those two in their life?  YUM! 

Anyway!  So I had arranged to work from home today- AWESOME!  I roll out of bed, frizzy psycho curls sticking out everywhere (WHO CARES?!  I'm going to be happily ensconced in my house all day!), throw on sweats and get the 9 year old off to school in between starting to work and mainlining coffee. 

10:30 rolls around... I'm hungry, did I eat?  Nope.  I still have homemade pot pie filling leftover from a couple nights ago and puff pastry sheets in the freezer.  Chicken pot pie!  YUM!  I get out the fixin's and as I'm assembling one for myself I realize I have enough for ONE more.  What to do?  Make lunch for someone and surprise them of course!  I have a friend who works just over two miles away, I can put BOTH pot pies in the oven, keep working and when they are done I can run the pie up to my friend and be back working and eating my lunch inside of 15 minutes!  GENIUS, right?!

I get work moving and in progress, my database is thinking and my timer is almost up.  I bribe the dog with a treat to go into her kennel (I'm not leaving my pie out with a dog loose- are you crazy?), grab a basket and line it with a towel and paper towel to secure the pie.  Grab the car keys, cell phone and license and run out the door. 

Pie is being enjoyed, I'm headed home smiling.  I love it when other people like my cooking!  I pull into the driveway and a thought hits me like a ton of bricks and my stomach turns over. 

Sidebar on-

So, a couple weeks ago, my husband finally decided to replace the lock on our door- he's had it sitting  around a while and, thought what the heck.  Wait, he wants to replace the door knob too!  Holy shit!
-Plus, door is more secure, which means we're more safe.  No boogey men in our house!
-Plus, the door no longer sticks and doesn't require brute force to walk into the house!  HELL YES!  I like that even more! 

-Minus- the handle/doorknob is the kind of set up where you can lock it from inside with a twist but still open the door freely, but the door is still locked from the outside and you need a key to gain entry.  Before, if I was going to be gone for a handful of minutes I would simply close the door behind me to give it the semblance of being locked up tight then walk right in when I got back.  We have several neighbors in and out of the neighborhood all day long, 5,001 dogs, known alarm systems in almost every house, everyone knows what everyone drives and its a dead end with little to no outside traffic- so it's pretty safe.

Sidebar off-

SHIT!  Is the door locked?  Yup!  House keys?  On the table in the library of course! 

So here I am, in my sweats, slippers, no bra, hair sticking out in several places with car keys, my license and my cell phone with my lunch sitting on the stove and my database undoubtedly done 'thinking' all waiting for me... mocking me behind a very securely locked door.

I feel so safe. 

There's a fly in there.... my pot pie is going to have fly cooties on it...

Locks are still new so we haven't given the keys we had made for our neighbor's out yet.  They are hanging right next to the door... inside... taunting me... bastards....

What are my options?  Shawn (husband) and Luke (son) both have keys and both are about 20-25 minutes away.  FUCK!  I'm working from home because Shawn had to go on an organic farm tour OVER TWO HOURS AWAY for work!  Luke works for a car dealership and goes on dealer trades almost daily-many times to another state!  EEK!

I frantically call Luke and explain as quickly as possible because his phone battery is slowly dying and can barely hold a charge when a phone call is in process.

LUCK!  He is on his way back to the dealership and will be there by the time I make it there. 

I'm home- the door knob lock is officially unturned, I'm stuffed with chicken pot pie and trying to not think about the possible fly cooties....