Spontaneous

Last week, I get a text from my friend and it went something like this:

I have tickets to tonight's Mets game. Free through work.  Come with me - It's to support kids with special needs. I'll buy beer.

At Citifield - not that you can tell

After a little back and forth with Mike to make sure he would be home to be with the kids.
My response:

Sure.

Spontaneous. My friend could not get over how spontaneous I was. I like spur of the moment plans. (It felt 'spur of the moment' even though it took about a half hour to secure childcare). Especially ones that involve being outside on a nice night for a good cause.

It was a beautiful night to be at Citifield.

I ate a sweet sausage for dinner (yummy) but I never did get that beer....

Managing Expectations

When hubby and I were dating, he used to use this term with me all the time. "You need to manage your expectations" everytime someone did something that I thought was wrong or not what I would do.  And I hated hearing it.  So much so that I pretty much banned it from his vocabulary.

But it's come back to haunt me...see...it's a problem of mine. I have extremely high expectations of the people in my life.  I guess I hold myself up to (what I think) is a pretty high standard and so I expect the same of others. And when they don't reach that, I get disappointed in them.  And to some degree angry with them.  After his "manage your expecations" speech usually comes the "why are you surprised?" speech where he goes over how people do not change and I need to stop expecting more from people than they are willing to give.

So I'm working on this.  
I'm a work in progress. 
This is going to be a lot of work. 

Friday Flip Offs 10.15

Back by popular demand (well not really demand, but I got some stuff to flip off)

#1 Absolute biggest flip off ever might be the a-holes...err - people who think it's okay to ask me when I'm going to "try for #2?" - Ummm is it your damn business?!? People: let's make this clear: You should never ask a person a) if they're pregnant (that will never go well) and b) when/if they are trying...seriously with all the crap that goes on with baby making - you still have the balls to ask me...well STOP. 

#2 Hey all you know-it-alls who think teachers should get merit pay?!? Umm...children are not bottom lines.  I do not sell a product nor do I have clients.  I teach children to do and be the best they can.  Period.  We do not pay firefighters based on the amount of fires they put out or police officers on the amount of arrests made - so really? Teachers should not be paid based on how their students score on some standardized test that business people and politicians developed.  Thank you very much. 

A Flip Off to the parents who do not call teachers back.  It's your kid's education I'm calling to discuss. C'mon...find 5 minutes to give me a ring. 

#3 Flipping Off time - why is there never enough of it? I feel like by the time we finish with J's nighttime routines and have our own (dinner/showers) it's freaking bedtime.  Mike and I are like two passing ships in the water.  BOO!!

#4 A final Flippity Flip Off to the never-ending cold/cough my kid now has since starting daycare.  As my pediatrician said so bluntly, "Daycares keep peds in business." I love you daycare, I really do, but please keep your colds to yourself. I do like to sleep at night.


Happy Friday everyone!

My goal next week is to get some more posts done over here...(see flip off #3)

You like the Friday Flip Offs as much as I do? Check out Momma Kiss for the link and other Flips wihle Kludgy Mom is busy with some other stuff!

Night from Hell

I had the night from hell Thursday night...and you know what sucks about this night? It started off so peaceful and relaxing and then went to shit.

Hubby was away on business (in my mind this means he's sleeping comfortably in a kings sized bed with no responsibilities to anyone but himself) and I actually got J to bed at the normal hour of 7:15 (she's been giving us some going to bed issues so this was great).  I call Mike and he says how great it is that we can both get a good night's sleep (obviously his guilt talking) and to enjoy the down time. KISS OF DEATH people!

Here's how my night played out....

9:15 - Wailing coming from sleeping toddler's room.  I go in and get her back to sleep
9:45 - More wailing...ok - I'll go right in...just have to pee...THUD! (I do not have a font size big enough for this thud). I freak the fuck out.  I run into J's room and she's on the floor.  She climbed out of her crib!! She's on the floor on all fours. I am scared shitless.  Seriously. I know most kids do this, but I have never heard anyone say that the thud is ridiculous and I can't stop my mind from wandering to all those "she could've..." places.  Seriously, I'm not a religious person, but there's a god somewhere watching over little children. 
10 - 10:15 - Call hubs in hysterics and I think hang up on him cause he's no help.  Call mom who kinda laughs at how "advanced" J is - she's only 18 months after all. 

Now here's where the fun part start

10:30 - 12:30 - I tried everyone of my mommy tricks to get her back to bed:
Rocking her - FAIL!
Milk - FAIL!
Dancing - FAIL!
In bed with me - FAIL!
Back in the crib - BIG ASS FAIL!
TV  - FAIL!

Finally after TWO hours of this insanity, I gave up - I laid down on our living room floor, left the TV on and closed my eyes.  At some point, she did too, because the next thing I remember is being woken up at 6 am with "Mommy milk Mommy milk" 

Now I am so freaking tired and just finished my Buy Buy Baby list which now includes a Crib Tent and a Toddler Bed (we'll see how either one of those works out!).

Fitting It All In

I took a break from blogging that last week or so because I was just too damn overwhelmed with life to even think about getting some coherent thoughts together and write them.
I'm back at work, teaching 27 third graders and in one simple word, I was tired.  I stayed home for a year and a half and trust me when I say I was tired then, but now it's pure exhaustion. 

I am a believer in the fact that there is no break for any mom - working or stay at home.  But right now I'm just figuring out how to do a quick switch from teacher to mommy without getting burnt out at either one of my 'jobs.'

I'm in the third week of school right now and it's starting to get better...and I took this week to do some stuff for me.  Wednesday night I went out with my girlfriends, Friday night I went to my first book club meeting (which was filled with lots of wine) and Saturday night, we had a double date while J slept at my parent's house.  Maybe it was because I was so busy and didn't have time to think about my triedness or maybe because J was back to sleeping well (now that she was feeling better), but I felt a bit more human this week. 

So now we're back to the question of fitting it all in - work time, mommy time, family time, and me time....

Sick Baby = Sick to my stomach Mommy

It's Saturday over here (but you probably won't see this til Monday cause I have to see how tomorrow goes) and we are officially in the midst of Jenna's first real sick day.  We've been so lucky so far - she has never run a fever over 99.9 in her little life...but today she ran a whopping 103.7!!
I got nervous and for whatever reason her pediatricians' office phone lines were down and their offices were locked (I'll deal with that issue tomorrow - they're supposed to be open 7 days a week and phone line typically has an outgoing message with an emergency number, but the line wasn't picking up).  So I took her over to my doctor (who is also a ped) and I learned two things:
#1 - it's viral which means lots of TLC and Motrin/Tylenol
#2 - if your kid runs fever, give her tylenol to get the fever down.  It's a whole lot easier to examine a child who's not burning up.  I didn't know that...I thought that if I gave her something, I may not be able to give her antibiotics...I dunno - dumb mom move.  But again, I've never dealt with her having a fever before (or myself - I don't run fever - random fact about me)

Okay, so I'm rambling...and I'm feeling the first ever working mom dilemma.  Because obviously, we're keeping her home from daycare on Monday, and I can't stay home with her. It's the second day of school for my kids and I just cannot take the day.  Mike is in a pretty new job and for him to start taking days now just looks bad.  So we're relying on my mom to watch her Monday.  Honestly, she'll probably be feeling much better by then, but still...the one time she gets sick and I can't be with her.  That shits.  It's not the end of the world, my mother is a fabulous stand-in for me and Mike, but she's not Jenna's mommy. 

I can see pretty clearly what a different type of teacher I'm going to be this year.  I'm going to give my 100% because I don't know how not to, but my heart's going to be somewhere else.  And my ass is going to be out the door at 3:17 on Monday.

I probably should not have been dirty dancing

Here's the scene in my house from the first time I saw Dirty Dancing...

The movie came out in 1987 which means I was nine years old.  My family was watching it on our VCR (alright, so maybe I was ten).  Looking back, this PG13 movie was probably a bit inappropriate for my age {Mom, what were you thinking?!}.  But the music was great, the dancing was awesome, and what I understood of the plot was pretty good too. 

Cue sex scene...Baby professes her love to Johnny, "Me? I'm scared of everything. I'm scared of what I saw, I'm scared of what I did, of who I am, and most of all I'm scared of walking out of this room and never feeling the rest of my whole life the way I feel when I'm with you."


Cue sexy music...
When you're waiting for a voice to come

In the night and there is no one
Ah don't you feel like crying? (cry to me)
Don't you feel like crying? (cry to me)

And now cue 10 year old me watching an inappropriate movie asking my parents, "Why do I have a tingling feeling in my vagina?" during said sex scene. 
After a little awkward silence (and some giggling from my older brother), my mother, always the tell-it-like-it-is matter-of-factly kind of mom, "Honey, that's normal."

Thus began my love affair with this movie.  I've watched it hundreds of times and probably only really got what was going on much later...
But it was and still is my favorite movie of all time.

This was written as part of Mama Kat's Writers' Workshop

Friday Flip Offs

I took a week off last week from Friday Flip Offs but today I'm back!

* Flip Off to the lady at Barnes and Noble who looked at me soaked, pushing a stroller and let the door slam in my face. To you, obviously not-so-nice lady, I say Karma's a bitch!

* Flip Off to the people who do not know how to parallel park in my neighborhood. Don't take up two spots. It's obnoxious and annoying.  M'kay? Thanks!

* Flip Off to random middle of the night wake-ups...umm we've been over this before.  Nighttime is for sleeping.  I don't know what this recent development is all about.  (For clarification, not flipping off my kid here, just the middle of the night wakeups).  Mommy's going back to work soon and would like to not be tired at work.

I was holding on tight but...

I'm going to change the wording just a tad to fit with the story I'm going to tell...

For me, I'm forever holding in tight but...my bladder will inevitably fail me.  I'm going to take you back...before I became a mommy (and the whole birthing process surely ruined my capacity to hold tight) before (I think) I was pregnant...

Mike and I took a trip to Barcelona, Spain.  It's an amazingly beautiful place.  We took a day trip to Figueres and Girona....on a bus...about 2 hours...no bathroom. 

You probably know how this ends. 

I was fine on the way there.  The two places were a lot of fun and very different from Barcelona.  It was a nice way to spend the day. But I made a mistake.  I forgot to go to the bathroom before we got on the bus to go home.  Rookie Error. 

About halfway through, I look at Mike and say, "Honey, I have to go to the bathroom."  As is typical for us, he asked me how bad - I said on a scale from 1 to 10 about a 7.  He went to the front and asked our guide how much longer. Another half hour without traffic. 

I tried to hold it in.  I really really really tried.  I concentrated on anything and everything that I could to keep my mind off my bladder.  I was not successful. 

I told Mike I couldn't hold it in any more. I had some sanitary napkins in my bag and proceeded (on this crowded bus) to shove them in my underwear (hoping that they would soak everything up).  FAIL. I also put our backpack around my bottom, so I wouldn't get it all over the chair. FAIL. I peed all over my shorts, all over my bag, all over the chair. On a crowded bus.  Did I mention it was August? And hot. Yeah. 

I was so embarrassed.  But unfortunately (or fortunately) Mike is used to these kinds of things happening to me. We ran off the bus straight to our hotel so I could change. 

I'm sorry to the person who sat in our seats the next day thinking they were on a lovely day trip.  The smell must have been horrible and it was probably still wet. 

I was holding on tight but....

This post was written as part of Mama Kat's Writers' Workshop

A Big Thank You!

It's always nice to get some recognition from others.  So a big thank you to Steph over at Life of a Twingle Gal for this lovely award! Now I have some rules to follow...

Here are the rules:

1. Thank and link back to the person who gave you the award.
2. Share 7 things about yourself.
3. Pass the award onto 15 other bloggers who you recently discovered and think are fabulous.
4. Contact the bloggers you chose and let them know about the award.
 
I have a pretty good diarhea of the mouth over here, so not sure if I'm going to tell you anything you don't already know, but I'll try....
 
1. I don't wear earrings.  Or at least when I do it's very very rare.  I have an allergy to nickle (which is what a lot of gold is cut with) so when I wear them, I end up taking them off and scratching at the back of my ears all night (very very attractive).  So I'm waiting for some platinum (not cut with nickel) set diamond studs (Mike better be reading this) so I can have some bling on the ears again.
 
2. I don't like tattoos.  Well, let me restate that.  I would never ever ever get one on my body and I will be beyond angry if Jenna ever gets one.  But I like seeing tattoos that other people have.  To me, I haven't had a hair color or style for longer than a year, I can't imagine having something permanently on my body.
 
3. My all-time favorite band is the Beastie Boys.  I know they're in their 40's now and on to other things, but I love them.  I' ve seen them in concert over 10 times (once in the UK). 
 
4. I love a good dance party, whether it's while I'm getting dressed in the morning, at a wedding, in our living room, or at a club (hasn't happened in a loooong time) - I love to boogie woogie!

5.  I'm a lefty with a beautiful handwriting - it's rare.

6.  I think having a few very close friends is better than having a whole bunch of aquaintences. 

7.  We picked our daughter's name from the movie 13 Going on 30. Before we were even pregnant, I loved the character in the movie and the name.  Mike was on board.

Now I'm going to share the love with some of my favorite bloggers...seriously, click on over and check them out.

Pretty All True
Mama's Losin It
My Little Life
Not Super...Just Mom
Things I Can't Say

Every Couple Has Their 'Dance'

I've been thinking a lot about my job as a SAHM and how it will change when I head back to work and the roles my husband and I have chosen in our marriage.  Key word here for us is chosen.

Every couple has their what I like to call their own dance. The things that you do as a couple that may or may not work or be for everyone else.  With Mike and I it's kind of interesting because we both lived on our own before even meeting each other.  We both paid bills, maintained apartments, had jobs, cooked and had indpendent lives for close to ten years before moving in together.  We are both capable of taking care of things. So for me, I got to "give him" the chores that I didn't like doing and he got to "give me" the things he didn't like doing.  For one thing, Mike's in charge of the bills and money (which sometimes means that I have to explain what the $50 withdrawal was - but at the end of that day, I hate doing bills and he does them well). And I am in charge of the cooking around here. I like to cook and truthfully, I'm good at it.  Compromise. We compromise on tons of things around here - that's what marriage is, right?

Choosing to stay at home this past year and half made me feel at times like a 1950's housewife with a husband-provider who came home to dinner on the table.  But the difference for me is that I chose this and am lucky to have been able to choose this life.  It also helped me to know on those nights where I just couldn't deal, I had a husband who would throw his work hat off and put the dad hat on the second he walked in the door to help put Jenna to bed or cook dinner for us and give me some alone time. When it comes to Jenna, we really are 50/50 as much as possible.  I jokingly say that when Mike is around my "off duty" light goes on.

Now that she's a toddler, she chooses who puts her to bed at night (some nights it's me and some night's it's Daddy).  We tell her it's time for night night and she typically clings to one of us.  And if there's only one of us there, then it's not a problem. I think this back and forth is partly because we've always split up her "routine" things, even when she was an infant.  I remember when she was still waking to eat at midnight and 4 am - He took the 12 and I took the 4. It worked for us. It may not work for everyone.  Now if she wakes up during the night (which isn't too often thank god), we jokingly wait each other out in bed and inevitably one of us caves in to go take care of her. I think it's kind of funny (maybe because I usually end up waiting him out and get to stay in bed).

So I guess for us, some of our roles have been very traditional and other stuff has just been what works for us. It may probably will change when I go back to work next month but we'll make those changes as needed.  It'll always be a work in progress.  Some may say that I'm crazy for cooking dinner every night or not having my own bank account or that I shouldn't make him get up at night because he's working. But it's our business, our marriage and our dance.

Friday Flip Offs #4 and 5 Question Friday #3

Joiing Kludgy Mom yet again for som Friday Flip-Offs for the week.
* A repeat offender...contractors who don't call me back...ummm last I checked we were in a recession and people were looking for work - I need and will be redoing my kitchen and bath within the next couple of months.  Call me. You could have a good job on your hands.

* Parking  by Jenna's daycare. A little annoying. Went to pick her up at 3:30 and didn't get in there until close to 4...you suck!

* People who question (with judgement) why we started her in daycare when I don't officially start working until September.  How 'bout trying to go back to work for the first time in 18 months and know that you just left your kid hysterically crying with strangers. Yeah...I'll take a well adjusted good bye for my first day. Thanks.




Linking up again with My Little Life for some getting to know you questions!
1. Have you ever visited another country?

Visited many and lived in London for 6 months.  I love love love to travel.  Started when I was a junior in high school and my Spanish teacher took a bunch of us to Italy for 10 days. I caught the travel bug and haven't been able to get rid of it.  We're trying to figure out if we can bring Jenna on a bigger trip to Europe soon cause we're ready for another trip.
2. Where is the strangest place you have ever been?
The Bread and Puppet Festival in Vermont about 12 years ago.  Traveled there with some friends for a weekend of camping and I just remember huge crazy-looking puppets everywhere.  But I don't remember any bread...weird.

3. What is your favorite season?
Tough call between fall and spring.  Fall means apple picking, halloween, cool weather, and Mike's birthday. But it also means the beginning of the school year, which isn't always bad.  Spring means nicer weather, my birthday and more importantly now, Jenna's birthday.  And nearing the end of the school year.  I'm going to call it a tie!
4. What one song will always cheer you up?
"You're All I Need to Get By" by Marvin Gaye & Tammy Terrell - my wedding song.


5. What Disney character do you resemble most?
So here's the thing, I don't really do Disney.  I know I will probably be very knowledgeable on this topic in a few years.  But right now, not so much.  So I googled it and guess what? There's a "Which Disney Character Are You Most Like?" quiz. Check it out here if you're interested.  It told me I'm Peter Pan. I dunno if that works for me...but he/she was child-like and good. So I guess I'll take it.
 
Happy Friday Everyone!!

Trouble is my middle name (not really)

I was a good kid.  I didn't get into too much trouble. And honestly the only real trouble I got into as at home with my big brother.  Other than that, I was good.
Except once.
One time I got into big trouble.
Like sent to the prinicipal's office big trouble.
And I lied to my mom about it.
But the truth came out. 

Fourth grade girls are mean.  I was a fourth grade girl and I was mean.  Groups of three girls is never good. One always gets left out and in this instance I was the girl leaving the other one out.

I have no idea why I did what I did.  I guess that just goes to show how small and stupid it was probably was.  But either way, it happened.  Two of us decided to gang up on the third person in our trio.  In ganging up on her, we I wrote what I called a petition against her.  Basically it said things like "I will not be ____'s partner in line." "I will not ask ________ to go to the bathroom with me." "I will not invite _______ over my house to play." "I will not walk home with ______."
And the list went on and on.
Not only did my other friend and I sign this petition, but we had our classmates sign it as well.  I think we aimed to get our whole class to sign it. 
I am so embarrassed even writing this.  As a teacher and now a mother, I would be FURIOUS at this behavior. Really disgusting.
Well, the girl's mom found out (probably because she went home crying about it) and called the principal. 
The next morning I get sent down to the principal's office. I had no idea I was in trouble.  He was a big dude. Super nice guy unless you crossed him. Then he could scare the shi** out of you.  And that is what he did to me. I don't remember exactly what he said, but it ended with lots of tears and ripping the petition up and apologizing profusely to the girl (who was my friend...ugh girls are so mean!)

I never said anything to my parents.  I figured I would never have to.  The principal and the teacher didn't call home, so I was home free.

Until we were going on a class trip a few weeks later and the chaperones? My mom and her mom.  I remember so clearly going into my parent's bedroom and telling my mom what happened and how sorry I was and all the details.  And boy was she pissed. Not even so much about the incident but about me not telling her when it happened.

The three of us went on to remain friends through elementary school.  But I gotta be honest when I think back to stuff like this, it makes me really scared to have a girl. I see how mean girls can be to each other from childhood through adulthood. 
I hope Jenna's nice.  That's all - I don't care so much about intelligence or looks or any of that.  I just hope I can raise her to be a good person.


This was written as part of Mama Kat's Writer's Workshop.

Embrace Your Body Week 2010

I'm joining Mary over at the Mommyologist for Embrace Your Body Week 2010.

I love the idea of this - as women we are very quick to judge our bodies instead of embracing them, loving them and being mom sexy!  So I took to this idea right away. 

This is my first ever Vlog and I'm super nervous about it - It took me several tries to get it right (and trust me when I say it's not very polished) but here it is...

Friday Flip Offs & 5 Question Friday

                                                                   

* I'd like to give a flip off to Gisele - your judgemental and thoughtless comments were just ridiculous
* A big flip off to the humidity in NY - I am going to get my de-frizz next week because seriously, I can't take this weather, and neither can my hair
* Flip off to whoever decided that $110 is enough money for a teacher to set up her classroom - that should buy me borders for my bulletin boards and not much else!




1. Are you a neat sleeper or a messy sleeper?

I would say I'm a neat sleeper, but Mike would probably say I'm a messy one since I hog all the covers.  Either way I make my bed every single morning.  I cannot go to sleep in a bed that is not made.
2. Fill in the blank. I wish I was more ________________.
Active.  Although I feel like I'm constantly running around after Jenna, I wish I did some more excercise. I need to get back into the gym or yoga or running or something.

3. What is something that you wish you had been warned about?
I wish I had been warned that people really don't change and you can try all you want to change someone, but it's not going to happen.  So either accept who they are or move on. 

4. What was the best thing you ever found at a garage sale/flea market?
I haven't been to one in a really long time, so I'm going back to the 80's with this one.  We used to go to the flea market weekly and my favorite pick ups were Champion sweatshirts and Baggie socks.  I totally just dated myself.

5. If you could have any meal brought to you right now, what would it be?
I'm writing this after a week of pretty sleepless nights and it's before 6am. So right this second, I would love any meal that has coffee with it.

so far so good

I'm feeling a little empowered this week.  For starters, Mike is away til Friday (left Monday morning) and I'm holding down this fort solo.  And I think I'm doing a damn good job.  I didn't realize how much stuff he helped out with around here until I had to do it all alone. 
Like the whole bedtime routine, that's a hard thing to do alone...we run a pretty tight ship over here...Jenna goes from highchair to bathtub to crib in one big swoop.  That's hard to do alone.  But I'm managing. 
Daycare day 2 was pretty good again.  Drop off was way different though. She ran into the building and you could hear her thinking "this place is cool...I have fun here" and then we got to her classroom door.  SCREEECH....literally saw the lightbulb go off in her head "wait, mommy leaves me here. don't leave mommy!" Grabbed onto me and started to lose her s***.  I did what every parent does when dropping their kid off at daycare, I passed her to Ms. Caitlyn and hightailed it out of there and cried in the car.  Seriously hard.
I figured I'll call them when I get home to see how long it took her to calm down. Luckily, I never had to, a friend of mine (whose son goes there too) texted me that she saw Jenna in her classroom, eating waffles, and looking happy.  Thank god.
She's been handling this transition as well as I could've hoped.  I imagine this week is really hard for her - Daddy's away, Mommy's dropping her off in a strange place, and tomorrow her Uncle comes to visit from Prague.  Lots of stuff going on over here...but so far so good.

Oh Boy!

I know you feel a little bad for me, so do me a favor and give me a click click

here....Thanks!

just what i needed to hear

You know those people who always know the right thing to say at the right time. I am so freaking lucky because I actually have a few of those people in my life. I have a whole lot of stuff going on right now and Ive been feeling a little stresed and emotional about it all. You can read about some of it here and some other stuff is just not for the blogosphere...

After a kind of rough going day dealing with all the issues surrounding Jenna and daycare, and my guilt and her happiness...I open my email and I get this amazing note from one of those people in my life.  It doesn't really matter who she is, but she reads this and I hope she smiles when she does, because it made my day.  It's exactly what I needed to hear, when I needed to hear it. 

I was concerned about you when I read your blog from yesterday. I know this is a very difficult time for you and there is nothing anyone can say or do to make you feel better. However, coming from someone who did the same thing and survived (not without tears) I can tell you that everything is going to be fine. Once you see how much fun she is having and how tired she is at the end of the day from all the fun and exciting activiites you will begin to feel better. You will also start to cherish the time you spend with her over the weekends even more and if you still have trouble you also know that you have a pretty terrific support system to help YOU deal with this transition (Jenna will be fine).


I so hope I can make other people feel better after a rough patch like she did for me.

Friday Flip Offs & Five Question Friday

This felt so good last week, that I'm going to do it again...

*I'm going to give a big ole' flip off to the traffic on I95 North that had us go 13 miles in 3 hours...you read that correctly - 13 miles in 3 hours - f'ing ridiculous!

* And a flip off to one that I'll probably be doing quite often - my crazy period-induced emotions.  Seriously tear ducts?!? Do you need to start filling up with while you sit in the daycare with your daughter?!?! C'mon, at least wait until Monday when you drop her off and you're out of the building!!





And I'm trying something new...first time linking up with My Little Life for Five Question Friday...







1. Did you have a favorite blanket or toy as a kid? If so, do you still have it?

I never had a blankie - but I did have a favorite doll - Her name was/is Lisa. My mom tried to throw it out but I saved her from the garbage room in our building (true story).  She's probably packed up in my boxes o' memories that I keep at my parents' house.

2. Do you dream in color?
Interesting question...I definitely do.  And I dream a lot. I have crazy dreams and I remember lots of them.

3. How tall are you? Do you wish you were shorter or taller?I'm 5'2". Goof things come in small packages...never really thought about being shorter or taller.

4. If you could have anyone's (celeb or other) voice as the guide on your GPS, who would it be?
George Clooney - but only if he was giving me directions to his house.

5. Do you return your shopping cart to the corral or leave it wherever in the parking lot?
Depends. If I'm a lone with Jenna, no way. Any other circumstance, we return.

Burn Baby Burn

Summer in New York has been H-O-T.
I am one of those people who obsesses over sunsreen.  Not just because I'm a mom.  I've been crazy over sunscreen for years because I had the burn of all burns
the burn that scarred me
the burn that caused blisters
the burn that didn't heal for months

....and it was on my BOOBS.
 
I once was a carefree teenager working at camp wearing cute little bikinis with my cute little body and not wearing sunscreen. 
All it took was one day.
One day of wearing a skimpier bathing suit than normal.
One day where the sun was blazing. 
One day of sitting by the pool, watching my campers swim. 
One freaking hot day.

The burn came on kind of slow.
First it was red
Then came the blisters
Next came the scabs - really attractive to have scabby boobs when you're 16 years old.

There was not enough aloe in the world to make this burn go away.  I wore bathing suits that covered the hurt area for the rest of the summer.  And if my memory holds, it took until September for it to totally heal. 
I have scars now, small ones, but scars nonetheless.
I do not leave the house without sunscreen on.  It is in my moisturizer/makeup even in the winter months and during the summer I bathe in the stuff.


This post was written as part of Mama Kat's Writer's Workshop