Archive for the ‘Uncategorized’ Category
grumble grumble
I hate thinking of blog tities. They’re so dumb! It’s not like I’m writing content I want to be searchable or anything. Sometimes I sit down in front of this thing, the cursor blinking impatiently in the title field, and I can’t think of anything so I don’t blog. How lame is that?
I am opposed to gift lists. I feel like if I love you, I know you well enough that I’m capable of buying you something you will like, without you having to place an order for it. I was ranting about this, however, when SB said something like, “I don’t think you’re that good of a gift giver for me. None of them ever blink or beep enough.” Well hmph.
Clark gives awesome open-mouthed slobbery kisses. But about one out of every 10 times he leans in all agape and drooly, he actually bites you instead. This makes it tough to know whether to allow it. I find myself flinching when my baby kisses me. For good reason. I am currently sporting a bloody cheek. He broke the skin this time.
We are all supposed to put a blue light in our windows to show support for law enforcement but NO ONE has any blue light bulbs.
I spent all day yesterday watching the memorial for the four police officers who were murdered 10 days ago. Oh my god, was it ever sad. SAD. The part that killed me the worst was at the end when they did this radio call thing. Whenever my sister stops by on her shift, her radio squawks the entire time. The sound of the dispatchers calling the officers is familiar to me. So when the dispatcher called each officer in turn, then said, “no response,” gahhhhhhhhhhh. Tearing up now thinking about it. After it was all over, my sister called me down to the station to take a photo of her and her unit in their dress uniforms. It felt nice to be able to do something.
Posted by Jenny @
4:04 pm |
Friday Ramblings
Hello my sweets! You ARE still here! That’s just wonderful. I am dismayed to learn that so many of you were checking here every day, and every day I was letting you down! I do apologize. Don’t you guys use the Google Reader? You totally should! You subscribe to all your blogs and when there is a new post, it’s right there in the reader for you. It’s excellent for blogs like mine that might go ages without a new post. Just sayin.
Another thing I want to clear up is that none of you reading are the “wrong moms” I referred to in my last post. I guess it just seems like we are all more likely to talk about the struggles than the joys, you know? I’m trying to be better about this. I want other people to have babies! Before we had a baby, most people with children said things like, “You should wait! You have plenty of time.” Maybe this isn’t what they meant, but I took that to mean something like, “Your life is over once you have a kid! It’s terrible raising kids but it’s something we all must do.” But I feel like this is the best thing I’ve ever done. I encourage anyone childless but considering it to get busy.
We just got back from a surprisingly not-awful trip to Ikea. We didn’t get lost, first of all, which for some reason we always do. We either take the wrong exit or get back on one of the two different highways the wrong way, or something else equally dumb. Then we found a parking spot fairly quickly, always a bonus. It was actually much less crowded in there than the parking lot foretold, another bonus. Clark was in a great mood and totally in to looking around at all the prettiness. Right when we were all getting a little grumpy we had mashed potatoes and meatballs, which Clark enjoyed as well. We found everything we went in there for, and after a gift card spent less than $100, which is a huge feat. Mainly we were there to buy a ton of gallery-type frames. We are going to make our new house look like a photographer lives here. SB didn’t even buy any strange fish in a tube or anything else smelly while we were there. A good day, indeed.
Well, friends, aren’t you so glad I’m back? This post is RIVETING. Please entertain me in the comments with your weekend plans, should you feel so inclined. This is the only weekend this month that isn’t crazy busy for us. I think we’re just going to get a Santa picture and that’s it. I hope Clark isn’t traumatized. He really likes beards and glasses, so here’s hoping.
Bonus shot of Clark from Halloween, just cuz. He is a monkey, obviously.
Posted by Jenny @
6:39 pm |
My Jesus Year
Today is my 33rd birthday. It’s been lovely. This morning, Clark was up at seven. SB took him away and gave me two blissful hours of earplug-cocoon sleep. When I got up, I found Clark napping and SB mopping, so I took a shower. (Clark sleeping, SB mopping, me bathing? What a miraculous trifecta!) Normally such a detail in someone’s day would not be worth sharing, but I’m sure the moms among you can attest to the noteworthy naure of getting a shower.
SB was able to get away from work for a little while in the middle of the day, so I got to get away. I got a mani, my first in a million years. Then I went to the mall (I will never again go to the mall without thinking about Robin Sparkles.) where I did one large, efficient, sweep through Macy’s, combing through rack after rack, loading my arms with about 35 shirts. I waited until the attendant was distacted and darted into the 4 garment limit changing room, where I tried on all 35 of them in about 3.5 minutes. (Always returning them properly to their hangers, of course. I worked retail.)
Anyway, there was some shopping. Then I went home and took a nap with Clark. It was very warm and snuggly.
We were about to leave for dinner at my parent’s house when all of a sudden I felt like making people meet us for drinks later. I called my mom and asked her if she would watch Clark. She said yes, though I did notice a weird pause. Then I started sending a text to about 10 people and SB had to tell me to Stop It, Please Ms Cruise Director, that it was already planned, my mom was in, and some pals were already meeting us at The Tempest and there were going to be cupcakes. Nice, eh? He’s a good one.
So then there was dinner at my parent’s house. It was lovely as always to hang out with my parents and sister, my SB, and my baby. I’m so lucky. And then drinks and cupcakes with fun friends.
So. Lucky.
It was a great day! I do plan to do my annual Birthday Goal Post, hopefully tomorrow.
Posted by Jenny @
12:00 am |
Touched By a Gangsta
Yesterday morning, Clark was up way too early as ususal. After he’d kicked and babbled and smiled his toothy grin at me from the side car for long enough that it was clear we weren’t going back to sleep, I finally scooped him up and headed downstairs to make coffee. As I blearily started grinding the beans, I realized that these lyrics were bouncing around in my sleepy head:
I love it when you call me me Big Pop-pa
Throw your hands in the a-ir
If you’re a true play-ah
I love it when you call me Big Pop-pa
etc.
I paused to to wonder at the utter random-ness of that song being stuck in my little, white, mom-head, bopped along with it, and went about my day.
But then later, I was in the car. I have a pattern I follow in order, of 6 radio station presets until a good song makes me stay. I usually end up staying with the first one or two stations, but that time, commercials and bad music had me on choice number 5, which happens to be KUBE. This is the station that all the kids listen to, the one with the current pop music on it. And I shit you not, they were PLAYING THAT SONG. Really! How random is it that I was in the car, listening to the radio, that I got five deep in my station rotation, and that the hot pop station was playing a song from 15 years ago?
And then, AND THEN, the song ended and they said it was the Notorious B. I. G’s birthday.
Can you believe it? Isn’t that crazy? So, perhaps I was visited in the night by Biggie Smalls. Let’s hope his message wasn’t too important, because apparently, I’m too fatigued to remember it.
Posted by Jenny @
12:35 am |
PSA
I’m sorry it wasn’t clear. The previous post was most definitely an April Fools. Clark is NOT sleeping through the night.
HAHAHA! Ha. Ho.
No. Not sleeping through the night. The largest chunk he EVER sleeps is about 3 hours.
There was further confusion as to my birthday in the comments. Dear Kelly thought it was my birthday because her neighbor, my BFF, was coming up here to see a show, the tickets to which were given to me by my sister as a birthday gift. It’s actually the 28th, though.
Okay. As you were.
Posted by Jenny @
3:51 pm |
It really ties the room together.
I am ridiculousy pleased with my new Lebowski reference mouse pad. Hopefully no one pees on it.
(I have a fatty deadline at work today and I don’t have time for the internets, so I will have to do the draw-ring tomorrow. Sorry! I want to print the comments out and cut them up and put them in a hat and be all scientific about it and whatnot, but unfortunately I have to WORK today. Tomorrow! I promise! Sorry!)
Posted by Jenny @
8:39 am |
Updates!
Hi there! I hate it when people blog about not blogging, so I shant bore you with that sort of post. Moving on!
You will be pleased to learn that my pretty pretty Prius is back to it’s beautiful self. No Obama sticker necessary. (Not yet, anyway, damnit.)
Guess what! SB received another free porno in the mail yesterday. It’s Finally 18 Eighteen, Volume 2. At a gathering of friends recently, we were talking about the mysterious unsolicited porn, and someone shed some possible light on the situation. He said he’d heard that they send out free stuff sometimes to random people so that they’re all shocked and surprised and go around talking about it at parties (and writing about it on their blogs) thus creating free advertising. Awesome. If they send us any more, I won’t tell you about it.
As long as I’m being random, join me in an intervention, should you know and love these folks. MELVERS: There was a devastating earthquake in the same country in which you live, your eldest child had a birthday, CAN WE GET A FREAKING UPDATE? Please? I’ve even given you a towpic, all Linda Richman-like.
Posted by Jenny @
4:15 pm |
…tumbleweeds…
Hello blog friends!
So, Thursday we went to New York for the weekend to celebrate my 32nd birthday and to help our dear friends with the clearing out, painting, and decorating of their nursery. With all the excitement on Wednesday of being mentioned on the radio, I never got around to posting a Hey I’m Leaving notice. Then, you get back and your life is a mess and there’s work to be catch up on, etc, etc. Anyway, here I am! One year older!
Because of my thing for even numbers, I’m feeling good about being in an even numbered year and an even numbered age. 32 in 2008 feels better than 31 in 2007. Yes, I know this is very weird.
I don’t have much to report at the moment. I have yet to do my annual navel-gazing, birthday, goalsetting and reflection post, and I haven’t uploaded the surprisingly few pictures I took in NYC, but I just wanted to say hey.
So, how are YOU doing?
Posted by Jenny @
8:55 am |
My constant companion
So, you all know I spend three to four hours in the car every day, yes? Of course you do. I whine about it constantly. This post is not going to be further whining, though, it’s about my good friend NPR.
I know I should probably start learning another foreign language or maybe get some books on tape, but I don’t. I just listen to NPR. I know it’s a bad day when the material starts over, because that means I’ve been in the car for more than 2 hours.
I’ve had various un-post worthy, NPR-related thoughts lately, so I’m going to put them all together. My apologies if you are not an NPR listener. (Here, go read this funny instead.)
Firstly, I’ve noticed that all of a sudden they’ve changed the pronunciation of certain countries/cities. How is this done? I wonder if there’s some big news organization that decides, a la the Chicago Manual of Style, how things are pronounced. Pakistan is suddenly POCKistahn. Beijing is suddenly, Bay-Jing, not zzhing. And most annoyingly, Venezuela is suddenly Venez-wella. What’s the deal?
Secondly, should you be a local NPR listener, you may be familiar with the uber-cheesy “Food For Thought” with Dick Stein and Nancy Leson. Each week, these two banter wittily about restaurants or recipes, or something else food related. Well! Guess what! My friend lives next door to Dick Stein, and on Saturday I was over at her house and I got to eat one of Dick Stein’s donuts! He had made some and offered them all neighborly-like to his neighbor. So! I’m hoping that this week, he will talk about making donuts and I’ll be so excited! That’ll be a good commute day.
Thirdly, recently the internets were so devoid of entertainment that I went to npr.org to check out the actual faces of my commute friends. Check them out!
Look! It’s my morning BFFs Renee Montagne and Steve Inskeep:
I thought they both would be older. Her voice sounds like a nice elderly aunt to me, and I definitely thought he would be grey and bearded.
Here are my commute home homies, Robert Siegel, Michelle Norris and Melissa Block:
Robert and Melissa look about how I pictured them. Michelle, though, wow! (yes, they pronoune it Meeshell on the radio, but it doesn’t seem to be spelled that way) She’s PURTY. I think I have a new girl crush.
I cruised through many of the commentators bios as well and didn’t see anyone worth remarking upon, really, except for this:
Who knew Washington Desk Correspondent Ari Shapiro was such a hottie? Campaign finance news just got a lot more interesting.
I am clearly a big fat nerd.
Posted by Jenny @
4:01 pm |
This is not a post about New York.
I bring you instead, a Saturday Night Mystery.
I’ve been sick with the plague the last couple of days. I am PERFECTLY happy to be home on a Saturday night, resting, futzing around, reorganizing life, etc. SB, however, needed to get out, so he is out having fun with people I would like to see, but alas, I have the plague. I sort of wish he’d stayed home with me, but on the other hand, it’s nice to be able to do whatever I want.
SB is also on one of his annoying uber-training kicks and is eating mostly air and cantaloupe. Since I was here all alone, and Mr. PlainChickenBreast was out, I decided to order a pizza, all extravant-like. I was in no position to go pick up a proper pizza, so I have to admit it, I went with a chain. (This is particularly depressing having just come form New York City) I called them up, ordered, paid with my debit card, and started catching up on all my blogs while I waited for my pie.
About 45 minutes later, I started to get annoyed. (And hangry.) I waited another 10 minutes, then I called them. I was put on hold for a really long time, so I hung up, figuring, it’s Saturday night, they’re busy, it’ll be here in a few minutes. Then I read some more blogs.
After it had been an hour and a half since I ordered, I called them again. I politely explained to a teenaged girl that I had ordered a pizza a really long time ago and I was just calling to make sure it was still coming. I was transferred to a manger to whom I told my tale again, and was then put on hold for a distressing length of time.
When he came back, he told me that my pizza had been delivered an hour ago and that I had signed for it. I assured him that, um, no, I am Jenny, I live at this address, and I am POSITIVE that there is no pizza here. (Have I mentioned I was hangry? And getting hangrier by the second?) His tone suggested he thought I was lying, but he said he would call back with more information when the driver returned.
When he called back, he told me that he had the slip, and that it was signed by Jenny. I told him again, OH MY GOD. DUDE. THERE IS NO PIZZA HERE. He asked the driver to describe who had signed for the pizza and I heard her say that they had wrapping paper on their door and that it was a man and a woman who answered. Finally! Evidence that I am not trying to pull some elaborate pizza scam. I insisted to the guy, sounding crazier all the time, “There’s a wreath on my door! And I’m home alone! This proves it was the wrong house!”
So, he says they’ll send out another pizza. When it arrives, a manager-type guy informs me that it will be free, and I have a credit for another free large pizza on my account. He also gives me the slip with the forged signature on it and tells me that they have called the cops. Obviously, they know who did it. What dumbasses!
After I shut the door, pizza finally in hand, I saw him take a picture of the front door with his cell phone, gathering evidence for the case.
Isn’t that crazy? So, someone was hanging out, and then there was a knock on the door and it’s a pizza! I wonder when they decided to roll with it? Were they counting on the fact that it was already paid for? Or, were they going to pay for it, even though it might not have been something they liked?
Posted by Jenny @
9:59 pm |
