My Dark Side

No, seriously, there really is a dark side to me.... somewhere... hidden behind the "Sorry, my foot ran into your shopping cart" and the super-smiley face that won't turn off.  Oh, yes.  I have deep secret, nasty thoughts that come out from time to time.  Today, I will let you into my scary world of pet peeves. 

Laundry.  You seem innocent enough, but you mock me every time I go tackle a load.  The washer and dryer doors are backwards.  Aaagggghhhhhhh!  Can you feel the seething hatred?  I have to unload into a basket, shift over the basket and then load up the dryer.  Oh, the time wastage!  And if I innocently think I can skip the basket, I lose a sock or something on my not so clean floor. Does it have to be washed again?  Do I throw caution to the wind and put it in the backwards dryer anyway?  Way too complicated.  I am not even going to discuss the great drama of unmatchable socks that come out of the dryer.  I swear I put both in!  I need a drink.

People who are too obsessed with cleanliness to enjoy life.  Too annoying to visit someone and have them apologize for the mess (a shoe not in the closet or something) while I have to wear my sunglasses indoors to protect my eyes from the gleam off the counter.  Arrggghhh!   Mess?!  You can't handle the mess, lady!  Even more annoying is when you are trying to have a real conversation and she is mopping the floor you just walked over.  Way too much effort.  If those unmatched socks don't meet up before sundown, I ain't panicking.  I'm just sayin' there are more important ways to spend your time.... like on the internet reading blogs... for ... hours....

Also, people who do not pick up after their dogs (Yuck! Enough said.), that drinking alcohol can make you gain weight (very unfair!), that the morning that you have a good hair day is also the day you get a zit on your nose and when people don't get my strange sense of humour.  I'm sure I could come up with some more pet peeves but my moment of darkness has passed.  Anyone care for some sunshine and lollipops?  (Just kidding!  I hope you are following this sense of humour thing or I'll add you to the p.p. list.)

Phew!  It feels SO much better to get that off my chest.  Like a weight has been lifted.  Stay tuned for the next voyage into darkness where I talk about times I've given people the evil eye.  (I'm still working on that.  Mostly people think I have a twitch or something without much fear entering their hearts.) 

Lessons from my girl's birthday party

She's almost practically eight now.  No longer my wee bundle of pink sweetness and not quite ready to toss me to the wolves.  It's a great age (except when she melts down when I do something wrong like telling her she can't play with paint in her bedroom - but I digress.) It worked out better than I expected and I thought I'd share my rare words of wisdom with y'all.

 

Yesterday I did something my 25 year-old self would never have expected me to do - hosted a very girley pedicure party for my daughter.  So begins the lessons.  You don't have to be tough to be strong.  Go ahead and have colourful nails, wear dresses, allow the guy to open the door for you.  If it makes you happy, you are being true to yourself.  I will not say "Careful you don't chip a nail!", while you hang upside-down in your party dress on the climber after eating your third cupcake.  That's the kind of freedom my 25 year-old self wanted for her daughter.  Laura's the one who loves fixing things with power tools and wearing nail polish while she does it.  That's my girl. 

Girlfriends are gold.  My DH is out of town but I threw the party anyway.  My sister/best friend and Allison/BFF were there for me.  It was like having clones only way better and more fun.  I opened the door in my pre-party panic, grunted something in "stress-ese", and things magically happened.  Tables were set, photos taken and hyper little girls were entertained.  I enjoyed the party as much as Laura.  I am so thankful for wonderful friends and want my children learn the value of friendship early in life.  I hope I lead by example and she finds many BFFs that are more than skin-deep. 

Don't sweat the small stuff.  I usually make or order some kind of awesome cake for birthdays.  I've had fun with this over time but something has to give when the to-do list is running off the page.  So we had cupcakes, from a mix, with sprinkles.  Ta da!  Not spectacular but it doesn't matter - it's sweet cake stuff and there were no complaints (except from prima-donna girl who complains about everything so all I heard was "blah-blah-I don't do sweet things - blah" and I don't think she's BFF material for my girl anyway.)  There was purple and pink and the fruit went just as fast.  Priority was the pedicure part and giggly time with the friends so that's where I put my effort.

Finally, Pedicure parties need to be for grown-ups too.  It was awesome!  I had a local esthetician come over and do the thing with her colleague.  She brought all the gear including the lovely zero-gravity chairs with her.  We set up a spa room and the girls chilled out with peaceful music (I'm going to put that on ALL the time), vanilla candles, warm towels on their faces with cucumbers on their eyes, while their toes got painted a rainbow of colours.  Now I need to book one of these parties for me and my friends.  Any takers? 

Random thoughts about the great Florida escape

Oooo, catchy title!  Goes with my inability to put together anything blog-worthy in the last little while.  However, Disney vacation stuff will have to do for now.

Once you get over the fact that it takes two and a half DAYS to get there by cluttered automobile, it’s damn expensive and commercial extreme, it’s worth it.  We had a great time.  We knew that getting there was going to be a journey (never to be repeated!) but packed for road trip fun.  Taking the auto-train helped, even if you can’t sleep in the shoebox they call a family cabin.  And, hey, it’s Florida – home of the big Mouse, sun, surf, yummy orange juice and golf ‘n gators. What more could you want?