Juggling Life

Time Warp Tuesday: Who Let these Babies Get Married?!

I was going full-on Clean Sweep on some closets yesterday and we all know that kind of activity sends ripples out and I ended up cleaning out a bureau that sits in the entry way and holds things like thank you cards and office supplies. In the process, I found this photo tucked away.

Us: I was 23 and he was almost 24.

This was snapped by a friendly passerby on our honeymoon in the Bay Area in 1987. I've been out-of-sorts about the cleaning job because of the way it transpired, but now that it's done I'm very happy to have it crossed off my to-do list. The impetus for the purging and organizing was because Mr. Fix-it took everything out of the closets in question and put them on folding tables in Danger Boy's bedroom. About six weeks ago. I've been busy and also probably a bit mulish because it felt like a passive-aggresive move on his part. He maintains that there never was an intent to pressure (except of course the mid-December deadline of DB needing to sleep in his room) for me to do this. Still, it felt like pressure to me.

Anyway . . . Friday, MVP's high school girlfriend was talking about student teaching on her FB page and another one of his friends chimed in about her student teaching. I joined the conversation and 24 hours later hs gf picked up five crates chock full of teaching supplies and books. Good thing everything was easy for me to get to, sort and pack up. Thanks to Mr. Fix-it. Yep, I can eat crow when I need to.

I'm pleased to have all my serving platters, baking supplies, etc. neatly sorted for the holidays. The shelves are very deep, so I took a photo of the back contents before I added to the front so I can see where a particular seldom-used item is--my mother was an avid collector of all things cooking related, so I have a lot of really cool things; creme brulee torch anyone?

 

This will make holiday entertaining easier.

 

How did I get so much done with Social Butterfly visiting? Because like any college girl worth her salt she was sleeping all day and having fun all night. It was a delight to see these girls crashed out all Saturday, only to rouse themselves to get ready to go out and have fun all over again. I love, love, love that SB put her halloween costume together for under $10 and involving sewing and paint.

 

A Runaway Bride and a Sunflower (this is what passes as conservatively dressed for an 18-year old on Halloween, FYI).

It was defintely a productive and fun weekend--full of cooking, cleaning and lots of laughter as we helped our summer roomie celebrate his 25th birthday--and his first away from home. It makes me happy that it makes his mom happy that he has a San Diego family. Plus, now I know all about the awkward turtle hand motion and that is some good knowledge indeed!

Be sure to pop in to see Susan and Karen (I think). And enjoy this last week of early evening sunlight before it disappears until next spring; it's always tough for me to say goodbye to daylight savings time. 

 

 

 

Time Warp Tuesday: Earlier this Day

Did you every write a totally clever intro full of wit and verve about how busy you are and how you get everything done by making time in your day to simultaneously run on your trampoline, respond to emails and texts and watch a DVR'd episode of Criminal Minds and/or to edit photos for posts at stoplights and then lose the whole damn thing because you were so tired you stupidly answered yes to the question about navigating off the page without saving your changes?

Me neither.

This has got me hot enought to be tweeting at Yahoo as the site sponsor for at least one site that sells this costume.

 

This would only be more disgusting if it was sold alongside a cancer patient costume consisting of a bald wig and an IV pole on which the hot patient was dancing.

I'm not going to bother identifying the other brouhaha that's got me worked up.You'll figure it out. I snapped this picture after work because I don't have hair days this good very often and I wanted to memorialize it. Then I thought . . . this would look even better if I held a sign over my head that said, "I've got a graduate degree, a challenging career, a 25 + year marriage, I've raised four good people and I volunteer about 20 hours a month . . . What's YOUR (expletive deleted) excuse?" 

Not that it will come to news as anyone that I'm over standing by silently while the damaging and unrealistic expectations of our society brainswashes women into trying to fulfill impossible stereotypes, but really, you could stick a fork in me.

I was originally joking about the sign over the head idea (which I must credit to Cassie via FB), but now I kind of like it. If I wanted to do something with it, could I get volunteers to do it with me?  Maybe just pick one accomplishment that has nothing to do with looks, make a sign, have someone snap your photo and email it to me?

Thoughts?

Also on the feminism front . . . Lean In by Sheryl Sandberg. Loving it.

 

Time Warp Tuesday: This Past Weekend

That handsome fella--aka Danger Boy--had quite a tournament this past weekend. 

The 16-goal win was the Golden Knights' widest margin of victory this season, missing out on the program record by two goals.

Junior Jake Ouellette (San Diego, Calif. / Scripps Ranch) led the Golden Knights with four goals for the second time this weekend. Four Golden Knights record three goals each including Sophomore Adam Wolf(Worthington, Ohio / Thomas Worthington), junior Raz Yuval (Kibbutz Yagur, Israel / Carmel Zvulun), senior Daisuke Takagi (Tsukuba, Japan / Namiki) and Nathan Bean (Houston, Texas / Cypress Creek). JuniorLouis Weyand (Erie, Pa. / McDowell) and freshman Michael Squeglia(Erie, Pa. / Cathedral Prep) had two goals each with sophomore Xavier Augustyniak (Erie, Pa. / Cathedral Prep) and senior Tommy Nimrod(Glenview, Ill. / Glenbrook South) adding a goal.

In his first career start, Nick Fagen (Saint Charles, Ill. / Saint Charles East) collected the win for the Golden ­Knights with six blocks.

The only way I can stand having missed this is that next year Mr. Fix-it and I are flying back East for a tournament. So, after a ticket-buying spree which included a ticket for Social Butterfly to come home for a long weekend on the 26th and then her Thanksgiving ticket and Christmas tickets and (because I realized I alreayd had DB's Christmas ticket) tickets for MVP and Mandy to come (for a week!) at Christmas, we should start hoarding points because we'll be needing to get a few people to Pennsylvania for Danger Boy's graduation next in 2015--which sounds like a long time away, but is like 67 seconds in child-rearing years.

Oh, the busy, people. But good busy. Truly. 

I will write more about the busy as soon as I have a break from the busy. I miss you all and am glad we have Facebook.

 

Flagstaff: There and Back

This past weekend was Parents' Weekend at Northern Arizona University, so Mr. Fix-it and I made the easy 7-hour drive up on Friday and back on Sunday (or maybe it's just seems easy 'cause he does all the driving).

We had a very fun dinner out Friday night with her roommates Erin and Tara and Tara's mom, grandma and long-suffering, but game little brother. We wrapped dinner up around 9:30 and took the girls back to the dorm so they could hit a party. I swear to you the thought of starting my night at 10 p.m. exhausts me too much to even contemplate.

(I have this really funny story to tell that happened at dinner, but it requires you to have seen this Jimmy Kimmel/Justin Timberlake skit, to understand that when I showed that bit to Mr. Fix-it I had to explain Twitter and hasthags (more than once) and then I would need to use hand motions to do the part where I saw a kid in a t-shirt that said #TrueBlueNAU and I said, "Hey! (insert hand motion) Hashtag TrueBlueNAU and Mr. Fix-it responded "(insert hand motion) Hashtag funny!" and the whole table cracked up.)

I should have taken a picture Friday night because the rest of the weekend the girls were not in a picture mood. Not even when I made my lower lip quiver. Sigh.

Erin, Social Butterfly and Tara's pretty blue eye. Somewhere around move-in day and swiped from FB.

Saturday Erin joined us for breakfast at a place so amazing that I can unequivocally say that it was worth the 1 +1/2 wait for a table and the additional hour for the food. OMG! Best breakfast of my life. And I am not young, so that's a lot of breakfasts. 

If you are ever in Flagstaff, you must have breakfast at MartAnne's Burrito Palace. Must. The servers wear Dia De Los Muertos aprons bought off Etsy.

Saturday afternoon the girls napped and Mr. Fix-it and I saw Don Jon (incredible social commentary on misogyny, porn, and "The Rules"). Saturday evening we ended up rocking it low-key with just the three of us, a movie, and pizza and beer in the hotel room. I may have had to prove that I can still chug an entire beer. 

Graininess aside, I adore this photo. #1, happiness and silliness personified. #2, my bra is doing it's job.

Sunday we had breakfast with the girls at Biff's Bagels--it is 100% granola Flagstaff at its best, and then we lit out for home. But not without me unwittingly leaving my jewelry behind. 

The terror in my heart when I went to get dressed Monday morning! The relief when I called the hotel! The apprecation I have for the honesty of Candace! The TripAdvisor review and emails to management I am writing this weekend!

It was a quick but really fun trip and Social Butterfly is doing phenomenally well. I read an essay she wrote that knocked my socks off. She's changing her minor from Psychology to Forensic Psychology and she and Erin are looking at doing a study abroad in Australia or Fiji--and I am optimistic this will happen. Very optimistic.

A lot of things are coming together re: eating disorder activism and they are very exciting. I'm going to wait until things are further along to share. 

I am really missing all your blogs! Work has been like running full-tilt on a hamster wheel, but I think next week will be better and I will be visiting all of you.

 

 

 

 

 

Time Warp Tuesday: The Rest of the Story no Matter how Long it Takes

It's been just about a week since I posted our harrowing journey to get to Fort Collins. Now, the details are fading so fast I just need to get them down. 

Friday: Slept, hung out and did some work (Mandy and I were both working remotely and MVP couldn't get to work due to the flooding). Then we went to Mandy's parents because Mandy's warm and wonderful mother had prepared a birthday dinner for Mr. Fix-it--two of his very favorite foods--lasagna and pineapple upside down cake. Of course there was beer. Mandy's father and uncle recently returned from a trip to Alaska, which Uncle Grant blogged and I read faithfully. To say that Grant and I got on like a house on fire would be an understatement. Everybody had a fantastic time. It's really a big family lovefest--it's like we've been friends for years. 

Any day you're drinking a beer while looking at this view is a good day. 

Saturday we got a leisurely start and walked the two blocks in to downtown under gorgeous skies and perfect temperatures and browsed the myriad gift shops with the coolest tchotchkes in the history of tchothchkes. They have not one but two olive oil and vinegar shops (I just used my wild mushroom and sage olive oil in a risotto and O.M.G.). We had lovely and inexpensive cocktails at a rooftop bar. There was about 15 minutes of light, intermittent rain, but we didn't even have to move inside. I cannot tell you how relaxing it was. 

 

Whimsical art abounds. J'adore. 

Then it was back to the kids' place for cocktails and a photo op before heading back downtown for dinner. And shots. And to a martini bar.

Our kind of people. Also j'adore.

Sunday we woke up really well-rested because I had discovered the secret to sleeping on an air mattress (and this was a really good one [also, the kids offered us their beds and saying yes to that is something an old person would do, and we're not old]) is pushing the inflate button for 15 seconds every three hours while half-asleep. MVP, who has inherited the ability to make a damn fine breakfast (or any meal really) from his mother, fed us and we set off to a movie. 

I almost died from the sheer amount of character the movie theatre had. There were couches. There was coffee in real cups and bus bins for you to leave them in. Instead of canned pre-movie-preview filler there were adorable ads that looked like the fifties someecards--one of which exhorted not to cause the owners kids to starve by bringing in outside food. Between that and their reasonable prices, why would you (asked the woman who has a purse that doubles as a concession stand 'cause highway robbery)?

 

Duct tape on canvas at the burger place where we had dinner.

 

I had made up my mind in the morning to not worry about whether or not we got back to San Diego that night. It was raining and there was definitely a possibility they would close the I-25 again and we wouldn't be able to get to Denver. I practiced a DBT skill called "radical acceptance"--a major accomplishment for a catastrophizing, control-freaky, adult-child-of-alcoholics like myself. 

 

Me not worrying. Also, my peeps. And Rosie the dog who sat like that all on her own.

 

Get back we did--but late. So Monday I was stupid tired. The kind of tired where you see a red light and barely process what it is you're seeing in time to stop. But I've bounced back nicely and just in time because this past weekend was packed and this Friday it's off to Flagstaff for parents weekend at NAU.

You know all that stuff you're going to have time to do when you're an empty-nester? You won't. But that's okay.