It's all TV's fault

One of the things that I have always been sure of in life is that TV is a time-sucker. It could be a time machine, as it is the single-most invention on the planet designed to make hours fly by and you have no idea where they went. It’s even worse than the internet, because usually on the internet, there is some reading involved. With TV, however, you sit down on the couch, and next thing you know, Saturday has turned into Tuesday and you forgot to go to work. This I know, and I really am OK with that.

A couple of years ago when I joined myspace, I laughed and laughed when the profile question came up “Favorite TV shows.” And than I began to list them. I had probably 20 or so when I was done, ranging in everything from Animal Planet (the entire channel…except anything to do with reptiles or sharks) to Zoey 101 (OK, not really). But you get the picture. We even bought a 65 inch DLP TV that I still heart. And then I had Sam.

It’s not that I really watch that much less TV, because Workaholic is insistent that it MUST BE ON AND BE THIS LOUD IN EVERY ROOM THAT HE IS IN. It’s just that I haven’t watched my favorite TV in a while, in my favorite chair, or my favorite shows. Which, granted, aren’t on right now anyway. Moral of the story is, in the evenings, after I eat (or don’t eat) dinner, I’ve been taking walks. Always with Fonz and Sam, sometimes with Workaholic. It’s been great.

Until last night. I heard on the radio on the way home that there was a severe thunderstorm WARNING out for Cook and DuPage counties in Illinois. You know, the state next door. Which means that there IS a severe thunderstorm out there, watch out for it and take cover if it comes. Now, if you look at a map, Cook and DuPage counties in IL are just to the west of my house, and, contrary to my belief, not a bit north. So I set out on my walk with my mother and daughter and dog. And yes, I did notice the sky was dark, and the clouds were all roll-y and fast-moving. And yes, the thought did occur to me to turn around, but there was a thing with a house down the street, and her dogs, and I thought I’d keep going for a little while until she got them all inside. Stupid me, being all nice and considerate. We won’t let that happen again.

So we finally decide to turn around and go home, and then we decide to cut across the golf course to get home quicker, and then I make the mistake of looking up. It was a mistake, because no matter what, we were going to get soaked. But I look up and see the clubhouse, which is about 400 yards away, almost invisible through a wall of rain. And I mean, a wall. Which quickly overtook us. (and I now cannot get the picture of the nearly invisible clubhouse out of my head) So we attempt to run, alternately pushing and carrying the stroller, and the wind is pushing us over, and poor little Samantha is just lying in her stroller going “Why the hell am I getting wet with my clothes on?? This shit is COLD.”

We finally make it home, dodging the piles of dog poo as we sort of run across the backyard, and I say sort of because by now we’ve run against the wind quite a bit and we are both pretty much out of shape. Workaholic said later that when he heard the rain and saw the lightening he laughed at first, until he remembered that his daughter was out there, and so he jumped in the car to go find us. (good thing we had her, otherwise for all he knew we could have died out there.) I would be remiss not to mention at this point that the whole time Fonz, everlasting in his weirdness, literally pranced along next to us as we were staggering across the golf course and gave me that look that says, “Hey, can we do that again?” when we got inside. He likes water, no matter how he gets there, he likes to be wet.


Moral of the story? Either stay in and watch TV, let fear and common sense turn you around, or at least check the radar next time!

We're Teaching Her Right

Go ahead...threaten to call CPS on us...won't be the first...probably won't be the last!!

I Need to Get Away

Over the past month or so, I’ve been just exhausted. I am not really sure of the reason for this, probably the same things that doctors tell you…not enough sleep, eating unhealthy, etc. I really think little of it has to do with Samantha, as she is usually still asleep in the morning when I leave for work, and in the evening, we hang out before Workaholic showers with her and we put her to bed. Her bedtime routine isn’t excruciating or tiring, it’s really quite simple. Bath, food, swaddle, bed. And she usually goes right down. It has just been more and more difficult for me to get out of bed, and even worse, through the day.

Our weekends have been full of fun and family, and this past weekend was one of the first of the summer where we had no planned events, and could just sit down and relax. (So what did we do?? Instead of lazing around, we went out to dinner on Saturday and on Sunday went to the St. Joe art fair) After the fair, we finally went out for a boat ride with Uncle Tony. We took his dog and the Fonz…other than that, it was just me and Workaholic and Samantha.

Being out on the lake when there were few other boats, as most of everyone had already gone back to the “real world”, was just awesome. It is the life. Captain Tony cruises at the perfect putt-putting speed, we enjoyed a couple of Bud Lights, and the sun shone brightly overhead. The dogs settled down and even Samantha was just chillin’ in the back corner, happily chewing on her sunglasses. The only thing you can hear is the hum of the motor, and possibly whatever CD is in the player. The wind always dies down around 5 o’clock Sunday evening, and the gentle breeze was just enough to blow your hair around a little bit. The night ended too quickly, as we too needed to head back to the real world. But when you hear me talk about wanting to go to the lake, that’s what I’m talking about. Sometimes a boat ride is all I need.

Quickie...but not goodie.

Yes, I know it has been forever since I have blogged.

Yes, I am still alive.

Yes, we have been very busy.

For those of you who are my friends on facebook, yes, I still want to take a nap.

I have so much that I want to write about, but I have been creatively stifled by multiple things lately, most notably work. So maybe, someday, I’ll be back in full force. For now, I’m just trying to get to Friday.

Busy Busy Busy

Whew…what a weekend! First I took off work early to run down to Indy to watch my cousins play in the Class A state championship baseball game. (On the way there, I had thought that I would pump, as I am still breastfeeding. And then I realize that I don’t have batteries, so we stop and get some. And then I realize I don’t have the battery pack. Thanks to my sis for having an adapter in her car…I made it into the game just as some girl was singing the national anthem-whew!) (I also have a picture of me and my 3 sisters taken as the tornado sirens were going off at the stadium, but I'll have to upload it this weekend, Ieft the cord for my camera at the lake)

Check out the Lafayette news clip on the game and my cousin Emily here. And here is the Sun Commercial account of the game. Unfortunately, my alma mater was just too much for my family’s team, but it was an incredible, inspiring run. It was hot as hell, I am very thankful to my mom for keeping Samantha while I went to the game. My plan to wait until the thunderstorms got east of I-65 FAILED MISERABLY and we drove straight into a good one on the way back to Lafayette. Oh well…thank goodness for good windshield wiper blades and the lines on the road. Good thing the guy who drew them wasn’t drunk!

Saturday I headed to the lake…and drove through 4 construction zones to get there. That is just ridiculous. It was hot and humid and I drank too much draft beer at our friend’s wedding reception. Good times, Sam was a good partier. We are training her well.

After going to bed at 2 in the morning, I was awakened a couple hours later to hear my in-law’s chocolate lab Buster having a seizure. All I have to say is that it is a damn good thing that people and dogs have no memory when they have seizures. Because they would be traumatized ten times more than the people who have to watch it. The horrible thing about Buster’s seizures (you mean besides the violent shaking?) is that they last so. damn. long. I would guess that this one was about 20 minutes. Usually anything over 5 minutes is BAD. So this was very bad. Unfortunately he loses all bodily functions when this happens too.

So Buster gets all stiff and shaky, and Workaholic has no idea what is going on. He actually got up and went to the bathroom before realizing what I meant when I said, “Buster is having a seizure.” And then he sits there trying to calm him, as if that is possible, by putting his head right next to Buster’s wide open mouth with pointy, thrashing teeth. Yeah…that didn’t make me nervous or anything. Poor guy takes a few hours to get back any sort of semblance of himself after one of these episodes. Fortunately, he only has 2 or 3 a year. Also fortunately, my MIL was kind enough to take Samantha in the morning so I could get a few more hours of sleep. I just cannot function on 3 hours.

Sunday was a bit more relaxing; I slept in and lay out on the pier for most of the late afternoon. Samantha took a good long nap and I chilled in the water with the dogs. Everyone else went for a boat ride, but I am happy with my decision to avoid the rocking boat in favor of the stable pier. Because a hangover and a rocky boat do not make for a happy Gail.

Any-hoo...moral of the story is...I am exhausted, proud of the family, and looking forward to next weekend!

Oh Jon and Kate...

All I have to say is...I am sad. Jon and Kate have made me sad.

Yes, she is a bitch.

Yes, he let himself get walked all over.

But you walk away from 10 years of marriage after 7-8 rough months...when you realize that you never got to play in your 20s?? Please. Grow up.

I am sure it feels like they've been going through this forever, the way the media has been hounding them. But in a lifetime, even a year isn't very long. I just wish they would've really tried...and I really hope that their kids are OK. That they are the success story that Kate wants them to be.

Good luck Gosselins.

Karma's Going to be a Bitch (in about 13 years)

It’s no secret to anyone who has ever slept in the same building as me that I am not a morning person. I never have been…I remember as a kid one day waking up to see my sister’s friend who was our neighbor standing in our bedroom. I couldn’t understand why she was there, until she was like, “The bus is going to be here in 15 minutes!” I think I spent 5 of those minutes bargaining with my mother, trying to either get out of school or have her take us. I don’t remember how we got there, but we DEFINITELY went to school.

Workaholic is somewhat of a morning person. He rarely gets enough sleep, so waking up for him is extremely difficult. But once he is up, he is all happy, chatty, and generally really quite annoying. I would prefer if no one spoke to me before noon, and sometimes actually get angry when people say good morning to me. He has learned this…sort of.

For example, this morning I hit snooze for about an hour. When I finally did get out of bed, it was to go downstairs to get a bottle so I could pump. I climbed the stairs (slowly, because I wakeboarded for about 90 seconds on Sunday and am severely paying for it) back up to my bedroom and lay down on the bed to do my motherly duty. I didn’t turn on the TV, because I just didn’t feel like hearing any noise. Workaholic comes out of the bathroom (where he has the TV and fan on) and is like, “Hey Sweetie!! Good morning!! Why don’t you turn on the TV?!” I have learned over the years to not react violently (as is my natural reaction) to his happiness, as that usually just causes a fight. Instead I just close my eyes and say, “Good morning, because I don’t want to hear any loudness.” He gets the hint and leaves me alone.

Samantha is, oddly enough, quite the morning person. I have actually seen her wake up with a smile on her face. We are, however, being the responsible parents that we are, teaching her the value of the snooze button, in the form of a pacifier. I have this fear that she will not get enough sleep, and be one of “those children” that cries all the time. It is a somewhat irrational fear, as she LOVES to sleep. Generally, she gets at least 9 hours of sleep at night, and then at least 4 hours during the day. I prefer for her to get at least 10-12 at night, and then 3-4 during the day…she seems to be in a better mood. So this morning, when she woke at 7am, I popped the pacifier back in her mouth. She went to bed at 9, but I was running late, and if she’ll go back to sleep, then she needs more sleep, right? Around 7:45, Workaholic heard her crying and went to get her up. She full on smiled at him, accepted the pacifier, and then closed her eyes and went back to sleep. This happens on the weekends too, where she’ll wake up and we “convince” her to sleep for a few more hours. (which…last Friday night, wound up being 15 hours total….she’s already acting like a teenager!!) A girl after my own heart…which means she will HATE waking up to go to school.