Normally, I wouldn't care who they have lined up for the upcoming season of The Bachelor. But for some reason tonight while I was browsing TWOP, I wondered the the show's link was up near the top in the "Competitive Reality" show section, and they were reporting on the newly-selected chasee.
Who happens to be someone with whom I went to college...only 10 years older and a doctor, but minus the flannel shirt and backwards fraternity hat.
I love the sound of independent play in the morning. I hear The Gov. pushing his cars around on the living room floor, and while I'm halfway listening to make sure I can intervene should there be crashing/killing/fighting, it's nice to have 15 minutes to tap away here and wish the .01 folks reading a retroactive Happy Thanksgiving. :)
This four-day weekend has made Conan and I tired, but it's not that we've been doing tons of stuff. Whenever we have an extended weekend or holiday, the "all systems go" instinct that we have to survive through the weekdays gets an error reading that states "system failure" and we find ourselves lying on the couch with the TV on for 3 hours...or sitting comatose in front of the PC screen with only our fingers capable of movement. No shopping is going to get done today, frankly because we're too lazy right now to even think about fending traffic. Oh wait, strike that-I already bought something today.
It was online.
Just taking care of some down time, seeing as I will have absolutely no privacy beginning when I come home from work, and extending throughout the weekend. You see, the in-laws will be visiting. It's times like this when I wish that I could just put my mother-in-law in her separate place of the house, away from me, where she could talk to herself until she got exhausted.
Hey, I just figured out why they call that separate, fully autonomous house addition the "in-law suite."
They are really kind people, but it sure does get crowded in our house when they come to visit. Crowded with clutter (they come packed to the gills with gifts bearing this wonderful cartoon characters that The Gov doesn't really know about or like for that matter), crowded with people (house population doubles), crowded with talk (per the above, MIL just LOVES to talk).
The only places I have to myself during in-law visits are my craft nook and my bedroom. Since Hobie apparently likes to poop under my craft nook table, it's gotten a little hard on the olfactory senses to be there as of lately. And so, I'll be holing myself up for the most part in my room reading. Or taking The Gov. out for long bike rides. Or taking Hobie for long walks.
Really, it isn't that bad-I'm just a typical introvert who needs totally alone time just to recharge and rebalance myself. So I'm slightly selfish--not that one shouldn't be, from time to time.
Apparently, you're never too young for your first crush.
Cupid has made an early visit to a certain four ("and a half!!") year old, which should give us an early start in bracing ourselves for the onslaught of teenage lust/angst that will hit our humble family like a maelstrom in just a couple handful of years. The Gov. apparently has the hots for one of his female classmates, and is happy just to be near her when she's using the computer in after care. He is reported to get perturbed when he cannot sit next to her at lunch. The boy does have good taste-the girl in question is quite cute and very sweet. I just wasn't prepared for affairs of the heart so early. But hey, if he's enjoying the tugs on his heartstrings, that's fine with me.
Also, you're never too old for crushes either. This is particularly evident if you work at a company whose office buildings are pretty much teeming with attractive twenty-ish/thirty-ish people. Some of these not-too-shabby folks happen to be my clients. One of my colleagues has actually commented on the various array of cute men that seem to visit my office for legal advice. I think really there are just a couple, but they do make the work environment quite, er, interesting.
I don't have a "work boyfriend" though. You know, that guy with whom you spend a substantial amount of your 8.76 workday hours. You have chemistry with this person, but would never admit it because you work with him/are married or in a relationship with someone else. But you would have to have chemistry, or you else wouldn't be able to spend the amount of time that you do with him without going absolutely bonkers. Your work worlds intersect frequently, and part of the reason that you accomplish a lot on those projects-is because you just plain like the guy.
I'm starting to think that folks who enjoy their work actually enjoy (in part) being around their co-workers. We value interaction and I think we as human hunger for relationships. Certainly, the work itself has to be fulfilling and enjoyable, but I'm not so sure that accomplishment by itself is enough to keep someone in the same job for over 10 years.
If it may please the court, I would like to enter into the record the following evidence intended to prove that a man's smile is by far his sexiest attribute:
Business travel and the working mom-who knew it created this incredible, gaping, hungry void that you fall into and don't ever seem to escape? It's been two days since my Friday night flight back from the new "home office" and I can't seem to feel rested at all. Of course, I know I've got this mountain of work to return to and all of those neat follow-up tasks that result from business meetings brimming in the back of my mind (not helping).
The pros of business travel: don't have to cook. Don't have to walk the dog. Don't have to make breakfast for toddler. Don't have to try and wake up slumbering spouse four (4) times. Wake up in quiet, clean hotel room with newspaper outside your door. Can read 3/4 of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince on plane uninterrupted. Meet new clients and co-workers.
The cons of business travel: forget critical items (BlackBerry USB cord). Miss young child who gives fantastic hugs. Can't get evening hugs and kisses from cute husband. Dehydration from travel. Work piles up. Don't have jersey-knit sheets and pillowtop bed.
The Gov. has converted a Mini M&Ms container to a bath toy, which is nice. I have no problem with that.
I do, however, question his naming of his toy, as "Mr. Earwax."
His Honor's explanation of the name is the following: "He goes into the ocean and he just collects earwax in his mouth and then spits it at people."
Sometimes I just lose it, and I feel like I'm in this itty bitty raft in the middle of a big black ocean with gigantic waves pulsating around me. When The Governor has velcro'ed himself to my side, and wants me to fix everything for him, and to cater to his every whim. When Conan goes and sequesters himself outside or downstairs or in the garage. When I've been on my feet all day playing baseball or helping Q get his trucks or tractors to "do construction" and then spent two hours assembling dinners for my family so that they can be frozen and then cooked. And then attempted to purchase a suit for a business trip with my 4-year old figeter trying to do cartwheels in the middle of the store, even though I've told him 3 times to play "the statute game." And then had to put him to bed because it was "my night," and therefore had promised my husband that I would do so.
When your child gets up 4 times exactly when you need to take a break and your nerves are so raw, sometimes just "having a good cry" doesn't goddamn cut it. Sorry.