A Fabulous Day

What a fabulous day! Let me tell you all about it....

The little guy and I went to a new gym today just to check it out. After our brief tour he went one way and I went another. I hit the treadmill and then when I was just sitting down to do my regular routine with the weight machines my little guy appeared.


Little guy: "Come work out with me. I need a spotter."

Me: "Me? I'm too little to be your spotter."

Little guy: "Let's just try. Come on, let's go."


So with great reluctance, trepidation, and a considerable mumbling of protests, I followed.

And we did it. And it worked pretty well. I continued my undercurrent of negative commentary as he pushed and pushed and PUSHED me harder than I've been pushed in many years. And I was actually able to spot him effectively though he likely wasn't pushing himself as hard as he was pushing me...you know, for his safety and all.

So while he's promised me that my upper body will be really really sore in the morning, I'm super excited to go back tomorrow for the leg workout he's got in store for me.


Me: "I promise I won't gripe so much tomorrow."

Little guy: "Oh, you'll gripe. You'll have a lot to say about how sore you are." (Pretty darn sure he looked more than a little happy about this.)


I cannot wait!!! Really!

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Medusa and the Mermaid

The other day it was super windy, and my hair, that is hardly what one would call tame, was doing its very best Medusa impression...and it was doing a fantastic job of it, I must say. I walked into the gym and the guy by the card reader said, "I like your hair."

Me: "Um, thanks." And I did my best to tamp it down just a tad. And then it sprang right back.

I did my weights, I did my cardio, I did my ab work, and then I went into the bathroom to do my, well, you know. When I went to wash my hands a woman went to the other sink. Her hair was the most amazing turquoise blue and the most spectacular brilliant green. I was standing next to what surely must've been a mermaid who'd gained her legs.

Me: "I like your hair."

Awesome walking mermaid chick: "Thanks!"


Medusa and the mermaid...fabulous!

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ACL Love

I know that ACL means something to so many people.  Great music...fun crowds...sunkissed bliss.

Know what it means to me?

I get to hang out in my house with the windows open and listen to the jams.  I get to make about a million cookies for my kid to sell in our front yard as all the festival goers walk by (he and a friend are raising money for an upcoming school trip to Costa Rica).  I get to paint and write to my heart's delight and enjoy it all...from the comfort of my own home. 

I love ACL!

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Looking...not good

My sweet husband has been taking a photography class.  Each week he comes home with an assignment.  This week's was titled something like "change the lighting and perspective dramatically" or something like that.  But what it was in reality was "make your wife look her very worst"...yup.

Now the whole family posed.  We got to be the subject of an attractive photo and the subject of an, um, er, different perspective photo.  We all looked like ourselves in the former, but the latter, that was a different story.

Dave made himself look like he had a teeny, tiny head, but fine.

He made my big guy look like he had the longest eyelashes ever.

He made my little guy look spooky.

And me...he made me look like I'm dripping skin off of my neck. 


So, as I'll be in California for Halloween and I can't really take an elaborate costume in my carry on, I've decided that my costume is a super high lumens flashlight, strapped to my torso, aimed upward.  That's all I'll need to be super scary.

Boo!

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Fuel up Fail

I like to think that embarrassingly goofy stuff like this happens to most people...at least some of the time.  But deep down I'm pretty sure it only happens to me. 


Today, for instance:

I pulled into a gas station to fill up my car.  I was down to a quarter of a tank so I was being super responsible and all.  I popped my gas cap cover, took my gas cap off, did all the credit card stuff, put the pump thing in, and started fueling.  Of course instantly I used that little stopper thing that keeps it pumping without you having to hold it the whole time.  And then I cleaned my back windows.  A little while later I heard a click, I pulled out the pump thingie, returned it to its dock, put my gas cap on, closed the cover, and got in my car and took off.

I gave it a bit of time for my gas gauge to rise to full as it always takes just a bit of time...and nothin'!  It didn't budge past the original quarter full. 

So when I got to the grocery store I pulled out my phone and checked my bank balance.  No charge from the gas station.

I must've never really gotten it fueling, though I went through all the motions. 

So this kind of thing happens to all of you, too, right?

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It's Good to be a Girl

It's good to be the only girl in the house.  One particular way has surfaced just recently.  And it revolves around laundry. 

Every time there's clean laundry a battle ensues.  A "That's mine!" battle.  The thing is, both of my boys and my husband now all wear approximately the same size shirts and shorts.  And they have no qualms about taking each other's clean clothing out of piles or drawers. 

Me?  Well, no one wants any part of mine...the girly, frilly, lacy, pastely, polka dotty, flowery, and tiny.  And that's awesome.

This is part of my Hallway Project.

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The Fuzz

So sometimes I let my imagination get the best of me.  And somehow it always ends up just being a humbling humiliating experience.  Believe me, I'm not new at this game.  (Check out my worst episode here.) 

Anyway, I was at the gym and I kept noticing that when I was lifting weights over my head I was getting looks.  I'm thinking...

"What, is some hot chick behind me?"

"Do I have a booger in my nose?"

"Could it possibly be that my muscles are getting awesome?!?!"

So I walked back to the locker room with just a bit of a hop in my step.  I stood at the sink to wash my hands, then raised my arms up to take the big honkin' clip outa my hair, and...

OH MY GOSH, you've never seen so much black shirt fuzz stuck in armpits...ever!

Me:  "Oh."

Ah, well....

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Fall Asleep Anywhere, Anytime, in Any Position

I have many memories of my maternal grandfather, and one of them is that he could sleep anywhere.  Anytime.  In any position.

Literally.

I very clearly remember him standing in a room, leaning against the wall while someone played music on the piano, and he was snoring.  Softly, but snoring nonetheless.

Well, yesterday I released my inner grandpa.  We were at a rocket launch waiting, waiting, waiting for the clouds to clear so we could launch.  It was crazy windy and a bit cold, so my little guy, one of his teammates, and I got in my dad's minivan.  They sat in the bench seat to watch a movie and I sat in one of those canvas chairs folks bring to soccer games and such.  (My dad's van is fairly emptied out to allow room for his wheelchair.)

Anyway, there I sat, eyes getting heavy, and before I knew it, I was seriously asleep.  I didn't know until I jolted awake.


Me:  "Did I snore?"

Little guy:  "No, mom.  You kind of slurped."


Hmmmmmmm...I don't remember my grandpa ever sleep slurping.

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Adorkable

You know when you're being goofy because it's pretty much the only way you know how to be?  Well, my husband came up with a new term for that...and he used it on me.

"Adorkable"

Yup, a perfect "adorable" and "dork" combo plate.

Good to know at forty-six that I'm still darn adorkable.

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Door Slamming is Good for the Soul

I think I figured out how I keep my calm (-ish...if you really know me well) demeanor.

The thing is this.  Just by luck I have things set up in my world that let me blow off steam, even when I don't have any.  At home I have this wacky microwave that insists that I slam it to make it close.  Seriously, it requires a really hard shove.  And my classroom door at school is the same way.  All the other classroom doors close smoothly.  But mine?  Nope.  It requires a good hard slam.

So, this girl has life circumstances that require her to slam a door of some kind at least ten times a day.

Yup, I've got that calm, cool, and collected feeling going strong.

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Avalanche...Liquid Style

You know how when you're drinking out of a cup and it's filled with a bunch of small ice cubes and you tip...tip...tip it till the last bit of water starts running toward your mouth and then suddenly ALL of the ice smacks you in the face?

Well, when you're a hot tea addict like I am, something kind of sort of like that happens.  At least to me it does.  You know how when the bottom third of your tea has cooled because you've been busy doing other stuff and you go back to it because you want to drink the last of it and the teabag is still in there because you're milking it for all it's worth and you tip the mug back and the tea starts going toward your mouth and then the teabag flops right by your mouth and then all the tea floods around it and it sloshes around the sides of the teabag and spills over your cheeks and down your shirt soaking it and your bra?

No?  I do.  Me neither.

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Can't make this up...or maybe I can.

I had the occasion to wear make-up for the first time in forever yesterday.  And I'm not counting the times I've worn make-up on Halloween or the very occasional dance performance.  Those don't count.  Anyway, I realized that morning that the only make-up I had was some very old Mary Kay I'd bought about fifteen years ago...it was still fine, but it was just blush and eye shadow.  I had an old, old mascara...a big no-no, right?  I mean aren't those things breeding grounds for bacteria over the years?  And I'd given all of my lipsticks to my mom when she was in the hospital not too long ago.  So, the mascara was tossed and the Mary Kay stuff set aside somewhere where I wouldn't forget for the next few hours, and I headed off to Target.

And I was clueless.

I meandered around the make-up section, both unsure of what I even needed and determined to find products that weren't tested on animals.  Not the best combo for a quest in a big ol' mainstream store.  But there it was, amongst the Revlon and L'Oreal, a brand made exclusively for Target that does not test on animals (Let me go on ahead and plug Sonia Kashuk since I mentioned those other guys).  I was half-way there, people.  And then the guesswork began.  I picked this and that, tossed them into my bag, and headed home.

Where I discovered a couple of new-to-me things.

1.  Eye liner comes sealed for my protection...so sealed that it took me about ten minutes to get all of the sealing off of the darn thing.

2.  Mascara (all of them?) comes with a little eyelash comb.  I had no idea that eyelashes ever tangled, but I went on ahead and combed mine, by golly.

3.  Lip coloring things have remarkably little sealed for my protection stuff.

4.  Wearing make-up is kinda fun.

I even did my hair and wore my contacts.  Had a real girly moment, people.  Might just be inclined to do it again sometime.

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Looking for Inspiration

OK, full disclosure here.  Sometimes I get stumped.  I get stuck.  I can't think of one single thing to write about.  So of course I go into begging mode.


Me:  "Do something funny that I can write about in my blog."

Dave:  "I think you have to just let those things happen on their own."

Me:  sigh


Me:  "Do something funny that I can write about in my blog."

Big guy:  "Why would I do something like that on purpose?"

Me:  "Ugh!"


Me:  "Do something funny that I can write about in my blog."

Kitten:   passes gas


Thank goodness there's someone in my house willing to help me out!

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