Listy List

1. The title of this post will have meaning for my band mates and husband. I used to call things cuppy cups, listy lists, bookey book ect ect. I had the whole band of big tough guys doing the same thing. It was hillarious when half asleep they would tell me not to forget my cuppy cup when unloading to a hotel room.

2. My house is built on a hill and my backyard is a steep rocky hill that is good for nothing. Two summers ago my husband used all his ingenuity and built us the biggest most beautiful deck ever. Last summer the boys were in full on destructive mode, this year they are only in half destructive mode. They were so insane we were afraid to buy furniture last year. This year we not only bought a table and chairs but my parents, when in town, decided that they would help us buy this. My husband and I will not get anything for Christmas or our birthdays but heck I’d much rather have a screen gazebo. My husband oiled the deck wood with a honey colored stain the day after his test. This week in bits and pieces he put up the gazebo which is so beautiful. Then this morning when I was sleeping, after working so late, he put together the table and chairs. WOW. We have another room in our house. The boys and I planted seeds in pots for flowers and we ate lunch and dinner out here today. Tonight my silly husband set up our laptops so that we could hang outside on our computers. I am live from the deck tonight. I am giddy. I am sure my neighbors think we are nuts.

3. Next weekend we are going to Long Island where I grew up. My other sister, who I rarely mention because I never see her, is turning 50 and my parents are planning a huge surprise party. This is a big feat. When my sister was 33 years old and newly married, was diagnosed with Non-Hodgkin lymphoma. When she got her cancer diagnosis she decided to have a baby before treatment. My nephew is now 16. My sister when she started treatment had a 30% chance of survival. She had a ton of chemo, radiation, and a bone marrow transplant where they had her donate to herself after treating her bone marrow outside her body. She is 15 years cancer free. In my mind this is a real reason to celebrate.

4. The boys have decided that they have two favorite songs. This and this. The first song they heard on the radio in the car and kept asking for it by name. The second song my Mom used to sing to me. At least the boys have eclectic taste. I think the coolest thing about having older parents is that I know weird songs like Wild About Harry and Marizydoats. I also know how to do the Lindy. How cool is that!

What holiday??

This holiday has not been too fun. I am working today on Memorial Day. My only customers are the drunks who have no where to go, or have been kicked out of every other bar in a five block radius who, in turn have to be kicked out of my bar too. I forgot my power cord for my laptop so I am sunk with an hour of entertainment. It is going to be a very very long night.

The above is how the rest of my weekend went as well. The awfulness started on Tuesday. My husband found out the tests he was studying for were being “retired” this week. Great, he had officially 4 days to take his MCSE booster tests. He scheduled them for Thursday and rescheduled for his free retake on Saturday. I had to shuffle my work schedule around to accommodate study time. He studied and I took the kids out and about. My job was GET KIDS OUT OF THE HOUSE and make pounds and pounds of coffee. On Thursday he failed both tests. I kicked back into high gear of get kids out of the house and red bull caffine handler. On late Friday afternoon, I was returning from an outing with the boys and the car blew a power steering hose. We limped home in a car that was hard to steer. On Saturday morning the day of the test I called our dealership. They recommended that we do not drive the car and the we get to the dealer ASAP. Great. FUCK FUCK. I call a friend and she at the last second lent us her car so that we can get him to the test. He passed the core exam but failed the electives test. Better than nothing. He rushes home and off to work I go. Thankfully my friend lent us the car overnight and I got a ride to work.

On Saturday night I worked with my old friend Fred, who I have known and worked with since 1992. He trained me to bartend on a very very busy night when by fate I was thrown behind the bar. I am fast because of him. After work, my normal cab driver was going to be a little late. Fred dragged me over to the after hours club down the block that I had not been to since 2000. I have learned that I know every 20 something guy who drinks after hours near my job, and even though I had not been to the club in so many years, and I was never a regular the doorman and the bartender remembered my name.

I arrived home at almost 4:30 AM more drunk on lack of sleep than alcohol. I got up early enough that I was blinded by the late spring sun and felt rather vampirely. My friend C came over to help me nurse my hangover with Munchkins. We had the kids play as my husband “tried” to fix the car. He could not replace the hose and he fixed the hole enough so that we could get to the dealership on Tuesday.  He also oiled our deck and started building the gazebo that my Mom helped us buy.  My husband has been off since Tuesday but it has been a blur of studying, kids and projects that we have not had any time alone.

Memorial day must not be a good luck time for me.  Even though last year I was in the emergency room for Memorial Day I felt a ton more hopeful than I do this year.  Money is tighter and I feel under more stress. I hope everyone else had a great holiday.   Here’s hoping that the 4th of July is much better!

Rockstar Pose

Well my husband finished converting some more video. We had this video done for free by a guy who was trying to get director credit for his resume. We shot this in LA on a beautiful day. It was quite a production with the extra’s who were SAG actors and catering. Very swank and for a day I felt like an actual rock star. Thruthfully jumping around a storage container in the hot sun sucked!! It was very sweaty work. It smelled like fake smoke and barnyard by the end of the day. My husband is the guitarist on the left, Uncle Ross is the kidnapped guy, and our drummer’s name was Dallas.

All that traveling, work, things we got to do was an amazing time.  I would not trade it for anything.  I wouldn’t trade now for anything either.

I forgot……………I got married.

My husband has been transferring our precious video tapes to DVD. We have a ton of band footage and even a pro video that I will upload after it is transferred. He also transferred our wedding video. Our wedding was only 8 years ago but it feels like a lifetime away. We seemed younger and so much more idealistic. The best man and one of the other guests are dead. This is a big deal because we only had 35 people at our wedding. My sisters kids were just little kids, and they are now young adults in college or finishing high school. My Dad was old but he looks so much younger. What a happy happy day. I rarely get time to think about it. I remember so clearly it poured rain the whole entire day. I was not nervous at all, we lived together for 7 years before we got married and had been deeply committed for a long time. Watching the video really sent home for me that I really never needed a wedding to be committed. It was a fun party and I am glad we did it but my feelings really didn’t change.

We got married in my sister’s living room. It was a very small but cool wedding. I wore a long black dress because I never wore white or beige before why should I have started then. We were married by a woman who was from the Church of the Science of the Mind. Uncle Ross played the acoustic guitar. It is a sweet memory. I am glad he saved that tape before it self destructed with time.

I am a Twit

I have joined the evilness that is Twitter.

You can find me HERE

No Excuses

Sorry folks. It has been a hectic few weeks. It is so nice out and we are spending alot of time outside. My husband is studying for his MCSE exams and it has left me with the kids much of the time looking for things outside the house to occupy them. I usually get them to bed and pass out myself. So, the bad blogger I am.

I have also been thinking alot about what my friends Cecily and Sue have written about Mommy Blogging. I think that they both addressed some interesting things about Mommy Blogging and parenthood. In becoming a Mom it can be one of the most life changing experiences a woman can have. All you worked to become can change the minute the small baby is born, especially for us who waited till after our mid 30’s to have a family. Much of this is breathtakingly wonderful but it can be bone achingly isolating. So many friends without children can fall by the wayside with the baby’s arrival. Mothering can be so isolating. Beyond the classic stay at home Mom vs working Moms, there is the work from home Mom’s and the part time working Mom’s who fit in neither of the above camps. All these categories are set up for judgments and divide women. I have seen these divisions in action and I think they are all a load of crap not to mention all the parenting styles and the arguments of my style is best. Suddenly Mommy blogging came on the scene. Mommy blogging can go a long way in keeping the isolation at bay. You can find women with similar parenting styles, with kids who have similar issues, who are as trapped in the house by weather, or trying to juggle work and kids like you are. Suddenly the world is smaller and a stressed parent is not alone. Now Mommy Blogging is judged. Are we supposed to forget that this life changing event that has taken over our lives never happened as soon as we log onto the internet for the sake of our children’s privacy or to keep poop off the internet??

I choose to keep my kids identities private but think that it is ok if someone chooses plaster their blog with their kids names and photos. It is a personal choice that I doesn’t need to be judged. Blogs are a small part of someone and the choice is theirs. I rarely see things about kids in a blog I would consider exploitive. C’mon people leave the Moms alone and let it be. Kiddie porn is exploitive not Mommy blogging.