Nostalgia...

So being at the job yesterday made me nostalgic, as my last post probably indicated. Don't get me wrong, I love not working...sure the kids drive me a little bonkers sometimes, but I wouldn't have it any other way at this juncture in my life. And, hey, I am not working! On purpose!

Besides seeing my girls every day, I miss the funny emails that went around. We still email, but it's more - what a shame we haven't gotten together lately, when can I see you next etc, etc. Nowadays, it's emails with a purpose. When you are emailing people you see all the time, you have more luxury to share stuff just for fun. Because if you need to tell them something important, you can just pop your head over the cubicle because you share a wall, after all.

Anyway, I saved TONS of these types of emails. Spent a good part of my last few days at work making sure I had 9 years worth of personal emails safely archived from my work account. The one I am going to share has always made me laugh upon re-reading.

Few things about that:

1) I wrote the email, so this is completely self-indulgent. Like: Look at me! Aren't I funny? (yes)

2) The story in the email is totally at my expense, so that makes the self-indulgence OK.

3) This was several years pre-Claire. However, in anticipation of having kids, I had already wrapped on a few layers of post-baby bulge. Usually I procrastinate, but I got to this nice and early. (this is relevant)

4) The words in italics have been changed to protect the innocent. (Mum, this means you!)

5) This was a re-cap of the Willie Nelson 4th of July Picnic, circa 2003.


Subject: Sad Story - feel free to console me effusively

So, after waiting and waiting for Neil Young to come on, we left after two songs. I was literally falling asleep. (Damn Willie for letting all of his relatives play)

We are walking back to our car and the following conversation ensues:

Guys in parking lot: Hey man, you going to Austin?

Shane: Yes.

Guys: Yo, can we get a ride?

Shane: No.

Guy: A**hole...yeah, I am sure your car is really full.

Other guy: Yeah...full with your wife's bum !

Shane: Eat poop.

Me: (middle finger extended) FORGET YOU!

The entire rest of the weekend:

Me: So, Shane. I think we need a king-sized bed.

Shane: Why

Me: For my BUM.

Me: It's not that big is it?

Shane: No. They were just losers.

Me: Silent.

Shane: Are you thinking about your bum again?

Me: silently re-enacting the scenario where I go over and ask them if that is how they talk to their mother and tell them what huge losers they are. Alternative re-enactment: me and/or Shane beating them with our big golf umbrellas. Or running them over in the car in which they originally wanted a ride.

This still makes me laugh. And makes me sad that I missed most of Neil Young's show because even without kids, I couldn't hang at the picnic for 8 hours until Neil Young came on, and seeing him was why we bought the tickets in the first place.

For my ladies...

I finally went back to my old work today, the first time since I left in July. I went to sort of say good-bye to Gracie. Not say good-bye, good-bye, but to say farewell to her in that context. Monday is her last day.

Lisa got let go in the biggest round of lay-offs, which were shortly before Christmas. Gracie got a month's grace period (ha!) to teach someone else ALL the things she does and generally wrap things up. Now Jori is the last one standing. Hang in there, Jor!

I know I left on my own accord, but it was more or less with the expectation that everything else would remain exactly the same, and I could show up and we could pick up where we left off. Granted, not very realistic, and now not remotely possible.

I like to think we were really fortunate in that we actually liked spending 8+ hours a day with each other. I know I did (and if you are G, L or J...please lie and say you did too!) We will see each other occasionally outside of work, and we email and FB, but it'll never be the same. We supported one another through marriages, heartbreak, divorce, births, deaths, shared a lot of tears and lots and lots of laughs along the way...oh yeah, we also got a hell of a lot of work done. I am feeling some grief right now for what's gone, and feeling thankful that it was ever there to begin with.

I miss you guys. You are my golden girls. (Jori, please convey this sentiment to Lisa and Gracie since they never read this! : )

25 things list from FB

Here are 25 things you have been dying to know about me, whether you knew it or not...

1. I was born in Iran, but I am a Canadian citizen, but I have lived in Texas for 21 years.

2. I lived in 6 countries by the age of 11. (Iran, Nigeria, England, Norway, the US, Canada)

3. I like to think I am relatively smart, but I just can't master affect vs. effect. When you read something from me and I use the word 'impact', you'll know I couldn't figure out whether to use affect or effect.

4. I hold grudges. I don't do much with them, but they are there. (Oh not you. I forgave you for that long ago.)

5. I am usually late. It's not because I disrespect you or your time, it's because I am relentlessly optimistic about how long it will take me to get ready and get there.

6. I am trusting to a fault, but if I find out someone lied to me, I'll...believe what they tell me next time too.

7. I have a hard time making decisions. Well, maybe I don't have such a hard time. Actually yes, I do, I definitely do. Wait, maybe it's not that hard...

8. 2004 was both the best and worst year of my life. Worst: I lost my closest friend. Best: I had my daughter.

9. My closest friend's middle name is my daughter's first name.

10. I went to Japan as an exchange student in high school and took 4 semesters of Japanese at UT. Unfortunately, at this point, I would be extremely hard-pressed to string together a single sentence in Japanese. (So please don't ask me to!)

11. If someone said I was turning into my mother, I would take it as a HUGE compliment.

12. My dad still does my taxes.

13. I have always relied on the kindness of strangers. (Not really)

14. I have Verdi's Rigoletto and NWA's Straight Out of Compton on my I-Pod.

15. My sister is, and always has been, the coolest person I know. (But you, dear reader, are a close second)

16. I have always, always wanted a horse. One day...

17. I am sorry that I don't keep in better touch with my friends. I do think about and love them all.

18. I still feel like a kid most of the time and can't believe I am 37 with two kids of my own. I am the grown up! Ha! That's funny!

19. I have a seriously irrational fear of being shot while driving under an overpass.

20. I am also scared of sharks, having seen Jaws at a shockingly early age (like 3 or 4). My parents thought I was being responsibly looked after at a friends house. It really impacted me. (see #3)

21. My most embarrassing moment was when I came out of the bathroom at a New Year's party and sashayed across the entire dance floor, doing a few smooth moves along the way, only to be told my skirt was tucked into my bright blue panties, earning the me name "Blue Buns" from other hilarious party-goers. Oh, I also blush easily.

22. I am not having any more kids and that makes me both sad and relieved.

23. I love to read. I'll read just about anything and recently had a shaming lapse in good parenting when I bought a Barbie movie on i-tunes so Claire would watch it and be quiet so I could finish my teeny-bopper vampire book. (The Twilight saga, such rubbishy goodness)

24. I want to do more camping and hiking. And by more, I mean: I want to camp and hike.

25. I was in a "synchronized swim" competition at the company picnic. We were called The Splashmatics and we were awesome. Watch us: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dzOOmcX8Mdg

Aaaaaaaaahhhh!!! (skip unless you like to hear me complain)

Gavin won't eat. He used to eat anything I made for him: avocado-wheat germ-squash-yogurt, banana-zucchini-oatmeal-sweet potato...whatever combo I set before him, he ate. Now he turns his nose up at just about everything. Tonight I even made the creamiest, ooziest, cheesiest broccoli-tuna-mac and cheese ever, from scratch. (OK, I am not much of a chef so the 'from scratch' is noteworthy...although I didn't actually make the pasta) and he only ate a few bites. Earlier I broke down and bought one of those Gerber Graduates ravioli meals, thinking that surely he would bite. Nope. I thought he was eating some but I found them tucked away in the no-spill snack bowl he was playing with. Granted, they were sort of grey, limp pasta lozenges so I can hardly blame him...but MY mac and cheese? Delicious. I have tried any number of things that I think he should like or that he used to like and nothing. Grrr. I had a serious lapse in good parenting when I tried to hand feed him a noodle. He handed it back to me and I threw it onto his tray like a petulant child. Luckily he was looking the other way. Sheesh.

I know, I know, he'll eat when he is hungry, but in the meantime, he will cry a lot and wake me up and make me crazy(er).

Meanwhile, Claire was having a super-sensitive day and spent at least half of it crying for no apparent reason. Including when we had to stop playing "Flying Defeat" (a lay-on-your-back-feet-up airplane game where she defeats me...over and over again) because it was time to eat. She was lying on top of me and started crying and saying I was squishing her. When I pointed out that she was on top of me with her elbow in my throat and had just smeared a boogie on me, she lifted her tear-stained face, actually smiled and said - But that's what mommies are for! (Ah yes, the glamorous life of the human tissue) Five minutes later, cue crying because I actually wanted her to sit down and eat dinner...You made me upset, Mama! Again: Grrr. At least she liked my mac and cheese.

On a positive note, I picked the perfect day to impulse-buy an oil can of Heineken.

More from the show

The big show

Claire takes 'gymnacksticks', which she loves. Today was her big show. I am not sure she is the next Nadia Lou Rettonov, but we were proud of her and her medal. After being told that Claire won a medal, my mom asked what she won it for. The answer? Being present.

I like this program because they are not all serious about themselves. It's lots of laughs and bubbles and learning a few moves without any eastern bloc scream-in-your-face-style coaching techniques. (For an example of that style, see my swim coach from 6th/7th grade. Yikes!). I mean she is only 4. That's for when she moves into the 5 year old group.

Dammit, Mom! Put down the camera and help me!

(In case you can't tell what he is stuck on, it's the footrest lever on the recliner. Hey, at least I wasn't reclining while I took the picture. I mean I had to get up to get my camera...)

More Christmas Pics

Christmas in New Mexico

Jack and Claire discover that Santa came:Rosy-cheeked from the fire:
,

Collecting pine cones to decorate the tree:Stringing popcorn:

We drove to Ruidoso, NM for Christmas. It's a long drive from Austin, so we broke the trip up, heading first to Ft. Worth for a couple of nights visiting family, then to Lubbock and finally on to New Mexico, arriving on the 23rd. I am going to resort to bullet-points to mention some of the highlights, good and bad:

• Our van got broken into in Lubbock. Thanks to the man with the pants that nothing was stolen since all the presents, my computer, even my set of keys to the car (oops) were in plain view. Someone must have come out of the restaurant and scared off the thieves. Uncle Mo didn't notice and "sat in the glass like an Uncle-head" (what Claire heard..I am pretty sure he called himself a knucklehead) Took a few hours the next day to get the glass replaced but considering nothing was taken we were damn lucky.
• The cabin was comfortable, if a little small. The owners decorated it nicely for the holidays and it had the rustic feel we were looking for.
• We had 3 kids, a Granny, 4 other grown-ups, 2 dogs and a bird...and everyone remained civil.
  
• You can get Christmas trees cheap at Walmart on Christmas Eve. $7.50. Who knew?
• The girls had a great time decorating the tree with minimal supplies...popcorn string, paper chain and glitter-glued pine cones. I liked the homemade look.
  
• Santa managed to find us in the mountains and everyone was spoiled rotten.
• Shane had his telescope and the number of stars visible from out there was insane. It almost made me dizzy. Makes the telescope view in the cul-de-sac look extremely pathetic.
• We went to Winter Park, a snow tubing tourist destination. Fun for the kids. Cold and too crowded for the grown-ups (and Gavin)
• It snowed! We got about 4 inches - just perfect for the girls to make snowmen, throw snowballs, make snow angels etc etc. We used the cookie sheet from the cabin as a makeshift sled. Hey - it worked just fine...no need for a fancy-pants toboggan!
• We managed to leave the van on for 2 days and ran it out of gas and battery. Just a simple mistake but, for once, not mine! (then we got a huge crack in the windshield...not a good trip for the vehicle!)
• Gavin had his last hurrah with his pacifier on this trip and he hasn't used it since.
• It was a Merry Christmas. Claire talks most about the Uncle-head.
  

At Auntie Sarah's

More Toronto pics

Toronto Trip

Finally, the perfect way to immobilize Gavin!
Perfecting silly string technique with Auntie Sarah before the parade. As a kid with a clown looking out for her, this is an important skill to master.

Our Toronto trip was so much fun. We stayed with Auntie Sarah in her condo downtown and did very well considering there were 6 of us in a very small space, granted 2 of the 6 are rather small.

Claire thought Niagara Falls were all right, but not as cool as the Rainforest Cafe in the gaud-awful tourist hell that has sprung up near the falls. Anyway, now she can say she has been to "Niagara da Falls", even if total time spent looking at one of mother natures wonders was 3.5 minutes.

One of the highlights of the trip was the Santa Claus Parade, a very big deal in Toronto. Sarah's boyfriend is involved in the parade (as a clown, the honor of which is bestowed on those who contribute to the funding of the parade. he has a great time doing it and at the end of the route the "bad clowns" head straight to the bad clown bar to warm up) which got us VIP balcony space from which to view the parade. What a fantastic experience for Claire! She had such a great time...even getting there on the subway was an adventure for my suburban daughter and when we can out of the subway it was snowing. Perfect! Even better was that the snow didn't last, so we got the effect without the mess.

We also went to the Ontario Science Centre, which was a favorite place of mine when I lived in Toronto as a kid. It was still pretty good, but somehow a little dirtier-seeming than I remember. I guess it has been 20+ years. Holy crap.

Good meals, great company and good to be back in TO. I left wanting to move back immediately. I miss my sister and we Canadians (OK...so I haven't lived there in forever, maybe "us" is a huge stretch) are so nice, eh. Of course the recent spate of colder than cold weather may have me reconsidering, but it's a possibilty, at some point, I suppose. Who knows where life will take us?

*giggle*

Claire was watching Little Einsteins and there was a caterpillar changing into a butterfly. "It's called metamorphosis. Can you say metamorphosis?"
Claire: "Meta-orifice!"

Bag of Tricks

Jori tagged me in her blog to share info about my bag/purse of choice. So here it is, along with the rules of the game.

So here are the rules for the meme:

1) Post a picture of whatever bag you are carrying as of late. No, you cannot go up to your closet and pull out that cute little purse you used back before you had kids. I want to know what you carried today (or the last time you left the house)

2) How much it cost. This is for entertainment purposes only. So spill it. And if there is a story to go along with how you obtained it, I’d love to hear it. 3) Tag some chicks. And link back to this post so people know why the heck you’re showing everyone your diaper bag/non-diaper bag.

All right, I am posting pictures of both my current bags. I just started carrying a purse again about 2 weeks ago when Heidi took me out for my birthday. I didn't feel like carrying my diaper bag sans-kiddos to Musashino, so I decided to grab a purse to carry my lipstick, chapstick, phone and wallet. The purse I intended to take was nowhere to be found, so I dug in the dress-up clothes basket and found this little green purse. I got it years ago in an optimistic attempt to lighten the clutter I was carrying around in one of my big purses. If your purse is tiny, you can't carry around so much junk, right? Well, that was my hope, anyway. It didn't last long and soon I was back to a regular-to-largish purse. Then along came Gavin and I was back to carrying a diaper bag. This one is perfect because it holds what I need but doesn't have a lot of room for the stuff I don't (clutter again...it's a curse). It also has two pockets on the side, one is perfect for my one lipstick (Twig by MAC, been wearing it for years and may never bother buying anything else again as I always come back to this old stand-by), chapstick and phone. The other is perfect for my wallet. That's me taken care of, the other stuff is all kid-related...the requisite diapers and wipes, snacks, coloring books, various anti-germ products, germy toys etc etc. In fact, the purse is only pictured because I haven't bothered moving the stuff from it back into the diaper bag. I really do better with one bag and since I am not working anymore and Gavin is with me 99.9% of the time, the diaper bag suffices.

When I left the house for birthday sushi, Claire said, "Mom, I have a purse just like that!" She will probably ask for it back soon, so I should go ahead and make the transfer.

As for cost, the purse was dirt cheap at Target and the diaper bag was a gift from my mom.

I would love to take a peek at the purse of the lovely lady behind Sugarluxe because it will be the complete opposite of mine, now or ever. Me: cheap and practical. Her: stylish and enviable.

Pretty. Silly.

Potrait of Winnie the Pooh

Religious Training Thus Far = 0

Evidence that Claire and Gavin have had no exposure to any kind of organized religion:

1. Claire received a prayer bear for Christmas. Press the button and it recites the 'Now I lay me down to sleep...' prayer (with the scary '...if I die...' part removed). I couldn't figure out why she kept saying "Awww man" so much. Then it dawned on me. Amen. Aww man.

2. Today we were listening to some kids music and the song "He's got the whole world, in his hands" came on. Claire took the words very literally and made her isn't-that-so-crazy face. Then she took it a step further and said "What if he had the whole world in his PANTS? And what if he had to go POTTY?!"

It's not sacrilege. I mean no one really knows, do they? The whole world could be in someone's pants. Think about it.