Obsessing

Slightly pensive but still scrumptious

My heart goes pitty pat. He really is not that much younger than me.

When I was in college, I was quite disapproving of the behavior of my various roommates who played the same song over and over incessantly.

When I became a parent, I quickly grew resigned to the fact that my spawn would play the same video again and again nonstop.

But now that I am a (mostly) mature, well-rounded woman, I recognize there is nothing strange about watching a DVD eleven times in a three day period.

Not when it features Jason Bourne.

What took me so long to discover these films?!

Put that paper down and come to bed, honey.

One Fine Day aka Magic Bus

photo from http://www.foodcartsportland.com/2010/08/01/creme-de-la-creme/

Because I am feeling slightly pooped très fatigué this evening - whoops, this morning (it is now 12:05 am) - I am going to rely on my exceptionally talented writer friend Bad Mom to share the deets of the early part of our day together.

Please go over here to enjoy her wonderful text and photos.

More later. Because she left out a ton of good stuff. She must be très fatigué aussi.


XOXO

Where Would You Go?

Picture from http://www.perfectplaces.com/vacation-rentals/10871.htm

Professor X and I were talking today about the prospect of a sabbatical in a few years. We definitely want to go back to Europe; the entire family loved being there. Rather than renting a house for 9 months and then roaming around from place to place for two months as we did previously, we thought it might be better to rent houses in different places for 3 months at a time and roam for a couple.

For some reason right now, I am obsessed with the idea of France. I blame Facebook. The advertising gnomes put an ad for a vacation home in Domme into my sidebar. That area is my idea of heaven. I also loved the buildings of nearby Sarlat and the countryside. So I am lobbying for a French locale as one of our three.

Where would you stay if you could spend 3 or more months? It's time to share your travel fantasies.

Rejection Sucks

Someone I love has just been rejected.
It makes my own heart ache; it gives me cause to reflect.
How hard it is to put yourself out there, to be hopeful, to make an offer of oneself.
How brutal it is to receive a "no, thanks," no matter how kindly given.
So now there is the licking of wounds, the questioning of one's self worth, the pain.

I think about my own hopes and dreams,
and resolve to do more to expose myself to rejection
because taking the safe path and not trying
might not be so dangerous
but it also yields no rewards.

Whether we are disappointed in love
or in our creative endeavors
it's a punch in the gut.

But if we keep trying like Dr. Seuss did,
remain as upbeat as Dante was about Beatrice
our hearts will heal and we'll be happy.


Still, there will be gloom despite the sunshine today.
As Charlie Brown so aptly observed,
when musing on the the lack of reciprocity from the red-haired girl:
"Nothing quite takes the taste out of peanut butter like unrequited love."

This song's for all of us who've had our hopes dashed. May it help the peanut butter taste better.

Say WHAT?

So there we are in Ikea, after a satisfying dinner of 100 meatballs, mashed taters and lingonberries, when we decide to buy some stuff in the food department. And what does my husband get but a bag of this coffee. Our son read the name and could not stop laughing. Our daughter read it and cracked up. My husband was aghast that she found it amusing at her tender young age.

I asked her "Sweetie, why is that so funny?"

She said, "Mom! It's like that alien guy Robin Williams played! You know, Mork from Ork? Only it's Morkrost, like he's been ground into coffee beans and roasted!"

I am very confident that is NOT why our son was laughing.

I am also not entirely sure that she wasn't laughing for another reason too.

Embarrassment

Fabulous graphic from http://blog.dogsounds.com/2010/02/01/judge-pwns-idiot-proves-dog-more-intelligent/

Have you ever really wanted to do something, but then decided that you didn't want to do it after all? And then you worry that your friends will think you are a complete and total flake and idiot and they won't want to be your friends anymore?

Of course, I'm totally just speaking hypothetically here.

See, I have a friend - we'll call her Spamtastic Sorryass - who saw a really nice desk and file cabinet that her friend's late father had owned, and thought "Wow, that would be great in my home!" So when she learned it would be part of the estate sale, she said "Oh, I definitely want that!" And she even wrote out a check for it. But then she realized that she didn't NEED the desk, she just WANTED the desk. She needed a bunch of other things instead. And she didn't even really have room for the desk. So she felt totally foolish. And she quickly called the estate sales person and asked that the desk be put back into the sale. And then she prayed that someone else would buy the desk. And now she is awake at half past midnight, freaking out that her friend will think she is a total spaz because she kept saying how much she wanted the desk previously.

What a pitiful person. Ha ha ha! Good thing this is just a hypothetical situation, right? It would totally suck to be stupid like that.

Yeah, it sure would.

On Unexpectedly Finding The Perfect Sentiments in a Hallmark© card

I don't know about you, but I agonize a bit when I need to purchase a birthday card. And not just because they have become obscenely expensive (I saw one for $7.99 at Walgreens yesterday) but because I want to make sure that it is THE PERFECT CARD.

The card that will make everyone laugh.
or
The card that will express everything that is in my heart.

The card that will let the recipient know that I am THE BEST FRIEND EVER/BEST DAUGHTER EVER/BEST SISTER EVER....
or
The card that will let the recipient know that he is THE BEST SON EVER.



I looked at a lot of cards that were very nice. I almost bought one; the message was nearly right, along the lines of how proud of him his Dad and I are.

But I kept scanning the rack for something better.

I almost didn't find it.

And then, tucked behind some envelopes, I spotted it:

FOR OUR SON
ON HIS BIRTHDAY

You know you're blessed
when you have a son
you really believe in -
when you look at him and see,
above all else,
the talent and the determination
to accomplish whatever
he puts his heart and his mind to.

That's the kind of son we have in you,
and if we could wish just one thing
for you on your birthday,
it would be this:

May you always believe in yourself
the way we believe in you.

Happy Birthday, Andrew. We know you will do great things, because you have already begun to do so.