Her musical tastes are getting there (NO KID MUSIC) March 24, 2011

Baby Girl and I were driving home from the zoo this afternoon, and this came on the radio. I love that song, so I thought it was really cute when she started singing along.

However, a few lines in I realized she was actually singing this:

Still awesome.

What’s your summer song? March 12, 2011

We’re having the first sunny day in quite a while here in Nashville, and I am now officially OVER the gray and ready for flipflops and car windows down. Bring it.

Please.

When this song came up in my car playlist the other day, I found myself hitting repeat because it just made me feel happy to crank it up and sing along, white-girl car-dancing and all. I make sure it’s the last song I hear before I get out of the car and head into work.  There’s just something about the silly little techno beat and the way you can hear the sound of fingers sliding along the guitar strings in the verses (I love it when that sound is prominent in recordings–I’m sure there’s a technical term for it, right?). I have no idea why, as the lyrics are totally dark and nonsensical, but this is my current warmer-weather-is-coming, get-thee-to-a-beach song:

Also, it’s from 2005. I’m nothing if not current.

Long Day Tuesday March 8, 2011

“Due to circumstances beyond my control…” — Michael
“…impulsivity and inattention to detail…” — Dwight

That may be my very favorite side-comment/interruption on The Office ever.

Anyway, that’s not what I came to say. That has nothing to do with anything other than I like it.

I came to say:

• I won’t, but I wish I could vent about my day here without A. Sounding like I’m complaining about a role I’m very grateful to have and B. Discussing things that have no business here. Sometimes, I collapse into my car completely drained of all human emotion. Makes me an enjoyable dinner companion, I’m SURE. You’re welcome, Andrew.
• Tonight, I registered my baby for Kindergarten. Hold me.
• We took her on a tour around the school (I used to work there and it’s humongous). When we passed by the gym, she asked, “Oh! Is that where we’ll go to scream?”
• Colin Hay. Gosh, I just adore this guy. Sweet friend Brian reserved a table for us, so we actually got to sit comfortably (3rd and Lindsley can be a crush on a night with a popular artist). I will say, he’s MUCH funnier when he’s not on live radio. And then, just to torture me, this guy  is there the next Sunday night. I don’t think I can skip out two Sunday nights in a row, so I’ll have to be content to listen on Lightning 100.

• BG is obsessed with the movie Tangled. Her current favorite activity is tying long things (almost anything will do) to her ponytail, carrying around a small frying pan, and talking to her imaginary chameleon. She will walk around the house for an entire day trailing this behind her:

 

• And y’all: I totally commissioned art! Classy. I saw this pretty mass-produced canvas at World Market (you know, where they keep all the things I love and wish I could buy), but it was quite small and WAY more than I would spend anyway. However, I have a thing for doors and took a picture so I could mull it over.

I showed it to my VERY talented friend Jennifer around Christmas, and (sort of) joked that she could paint one for me. I really was mostly joking, though everything she paints/draws/creates is beautiful. Well, she just brought me this:

How cool is THAT?

I would KILL for a nap, yet she’d rather sing November 30, 2010

Apparently, Baby Girl spent her “nap time” today singing this instead of sleeping:

Just some things November 7, 2010

Sorry, blog buddies. I was in a mood.

MOODS. I was in moods.

I still am, but I thought I should probably update anyway. How else would any of you manage to get through the black hole of despair that is Monday morning?

I kid. My dramatic flair is acting up again.

If you’re waiting for posts from me with bated breath, you’re probably disappointed with the random schedule I keep. I’ll try to be better, and I will fail. I do feel an abstract sort of bad when I see how many visitors are coming here to see A Big Fat Nothing New. Oh, well. Life is short, friends.

So…October. Was that really just last month? Here’s what I can gather happened, based on my photo archive:

1. Jimmy Eat World in Columbus, OH. This is one my very favorite bands, even though they did not perform my very favorite song. We drove the five hours from Nashville, crashed with old friends Brannon and Gloria, and (of course) ran into more Nashville friends at the show. They were so, so good. I should really be writing a music column.  Can you imagine the stunning imagery I would create with my reviews? Anyway.

You know what was stunning? The fact that I was totally distracted throughout the entire concert by the bartender across the way who was building what I can only describe as a towering maze of clear plastic cups. He was using the entire bar (not sure why he was just hanging out there, as his bar clearly was closed). By the end, he had used at least 100 cups and had them all balanced precisely in this intricate pattern…I’d upload the fuzzy photo I took of this phenomenon when I should have been paying attention to, you know, THE BAND I paid money to see, but you’d die from all the boredom and I’d have no blog readers.

  2. Halloween at the Nashville Zoo

I’ve forgotten all the words associated with this one, but it was lots of fun (in a loud, Chuck E Cheese sort of way). I was mocked for not having a costume, and no one seemed to appreciate that “But I’m a grownup!” WAS a totally reasonable explanation.

 3. Early Thanksgiving dinner with Tim’s family

Tim was home on leave (can’t talk about it or I’ll cry), and we (SURPRISE!) made a meal of it. Please enjoy the blurriest photos I have ever posted on my blog.

You should know that Tim’s sweet mama loves to give people things they can use. She’s a scavenger and a bargainer. In a secondary list that no one but me would probably find amusing, here are the things in my bag when I left her house:

• the CORRECT pumpkin-shaped flower girl basket that Baby Girl has been complaining about since Tim and Heather’s wedding last October 18th. She accidentally switched baskets with the other girl after the wedding, and we have never heard the end of it. I am so glad to end THAT saga!

(You see that baby almost-chub on her arms and cheeks? In the last year, that is GONE. She’s definitely all GIRL now, not baby. Sniff.) 

• camo-print earmuffs
• a glowstick
• two large bags of jalapeno and green peppers from the garden
• a pair of white men’s tennis shoes (to be used for mowing the lawn next summer)
• and a Fur Real cat that could not possibly remind me more of the cat from Pet Sementary. Y’all–it hates me and I swear it watches me when Baby Girl is not around. Creepy.

The next batch of titillating information will have to wait. I need to go mentally prepare for Migraine Monday.

Good night! I hope you sleep better than I did last night. I remembered to reset the clocks but neglected to reset my KID. As my friend Lori said: Hello sunrise!

Oh my grief. October 7, 2010

That is Baby Girl’s newest “expletive.” Yeah, I’ll take that for now!

I want to write but can’t quite form any meaningful sentences (at least nothing I’m willing to plaster all over the internets). I guess that means I probably would be wise to just be quiet.

Oh.

I’ve never been especially good at that. When have I ever let having nothing to say keep me from talking?

Never, that’s when.

So, in typical bullet form, here are some randoms floating around in my head:

• Thursdays are my favorite days most of the time. I get to have a slow-start morning, drink a cup of coffee before it gets cold (probably), and make my list of things that need to get done Thursday/Friday without feeling like it all has to be done rightthisminute.
• Instead of working at my regular school, I spent three days this week in a training with special ed teachers and another psych. As much as I complain about training (it takes serious effort for me to tune in no matter how fascinating the topic, which is why I often end up volunteering/getting volunteered to BE the trainer if I know enough to do so :)), it really does give me a fresh perspective and energy. I get so bogged down in the details of what I do, and I start fantasizing about looking for something a lot more clinical/therapeutic-based. Or, you know, becoming an accountant or a writer or a waitress or something–it’s a wide swing. Having a few days of academic-type interactions gives me the ability to not melt into a puddle of stress when I see the BOX of files I brought home from my (did I mention) only part-time job. Sometimes waiting tables sounds pretty good. I could do that.
• I foresee a lot of time spent at the Transmission Shop of Dad in the very near future.
• I am no longer blond (for the time being). I totally forgot how much fun it is to have a different hair color. My dad is going to HATE it. I get a tattoo and he just tells me it’s fine but for-the-love please tell my little sister it hurt like nothing else, but he gets all bent out of shape when I cut or color my hair. Weird.
• Did I forget to mention the tattoo? Ah, yes. It took six minutes and I still had to stop halfway through and try desperately hard not to pass out. Two little words on the inside of my wrist. Just what I needed, nothing more–a battle scar of sorts. The tattoo guy (“The Viking.” Seriously.) was, God bless him, trying his very best not to laugh at me. He failed, but I totally forgive him because of the whole only six minutes thing.
• Baby Girl is upset with me this morning because I don’t know how to make a paper airplane. I didn’t actually realize I don’t possess this ability AT ALL, but I truly don’t. I should have paid better attention in middle school when this skill was being mastered by my peers. I’m sure I was looking at the boys, but not for purposes of learning paper-folding techniques. Her unabashed disappointment in me is the same sigh she uses when she wants me to make her train tracks into a figure 8 and I just can’t do it. I just want to say, “Baby, if you want me to write you an original epic fairy tale with amazing historical cross references, I am all about it and can do that JUST FOR YOU because I love you forever, but your mama has zero visual-spatial skills. Take it up with my brain.”
• I can’t believe I have enough musical excitement to have a bullet point for it, but: road tripping for Jimmy Eat World in Columbus, OH this weekend (can hardly CONTAIN myself), Ben Folds with the Nashville Symphony in November (my sweet husband decided to ignore the screaming budget and my repeated insistence that it was too expensive–even though it IS), and a pretty-sure report that Colin Hay is playing the Sunday night Lightning 100 show at 3rd & Lindsley in March. I freaking love this city.
• I’m in a cooking club. Someone may have even called it a GOURMET cooking club. Surely she was mistaken (either in calling it that or inviting me). If you’re not laughing at the idea of me doing this, you don’t get it. I’m simply viewing it as a chance to wear a little extra makeup, chat with friends during the hours normally consumed with bath/bedtime stories/preschool witching hour behaviors, and eat things with fancy cheese on them.
• And I know it isn’t a blog from me unless it smacks of a therapy session just a little bit, but I’ve been sitting here long enough (and I didn’t upload any of last month’s photos for this silly blog, which is what I sat down to do in the first place). I’ll save my overwhelming run-down of preoccupations for another day.

Cleaning out my brain (I Can’t Focus/What Day is This? Edition) September 9, 2010

I have nothing real to say.

So, here are some words.

• I just typed an email to a friend containing the reply “Yes, please. Cheese soothes my soul.” What is wrong with me? And why am I jiggly in all the wrong places? A MYSTERY.
• Dear Gap Curvy jeans: You had me at “You may find you need to size down.” Bless you. However, I have mixed feelings on this, as Gap was the very last store where I could just grab my size off the rack and never worry about trying it on. I hate to shop for clothes. Again, what’s wrong with me?
• Thursday is my catchup day to attempt to restore order to (some of) the chaos that builds up Monday-Wednesday. Last Thursday I made a “Must Get Done” list. I got two things on it done, added six more, and now it’s Thursday again and I’m still working on the same blasted list. I can’t figure out how to prioritize it–it all seems important and pressing. Blah.
• I don’t talk about my job on here for many reasons, but this is about my reaction to it. It’s frantic and sometimes heartbreaking and is really taking an emotional toll on me this time around (and it’s only early September). Maybe it’s always been like this for me, and I just don’t remember it because I’ve been doing other things for most of the last year. I think my perception on this is skewed. As someone so kindly pointed out to me, I’m a mess and stressed out no matter what I’m doing right now. Well, okay. I guess that’s one way of looking at it. I suppose I might as well make some money. I KNOW I have it better than most, really I do. I think the problem is me, not the job.
• While “helping” me make scrambled eggs this morning, I asked Baby Girl to stir the eggs with a fork. She heard “please get a spoon and slurp down some raw egg while my back is turned.” BLECH. She told me I make delicious egg soup. Double BLECH. Good thing there’s not a nationwide salmonella freakout or anything.
• My mom’s birthday is today, Andrew’s birthday is the 12th, and Baby Girl’s is the 13th. That’s just really a lot of cake. Can I submit a request to change one of those to June? That would definitely help me out. Thanks.
• My car looks like a dumpster. Trash everywhere. This is not a good sign for what’s going on in my brain.
• Really, I just want to do some venting and complaining.I’ve been doing a lot of that in certain circles lately, but there’s always more to flow out. How can I do that and not be one of those exhaustingly annoying people who are always frazzled and stressed out and just a CHORE to be around? Any ideas? I want to be cheerful and sunny and energizing rather than draining, but good grief sometimes I just don’t have it in me.
• I put a lot of pressure on myself. I spend a lot of time telling myself that it really will be JUST FINE if things don’t get done within a certain timeline, the world won’t end if XYZ doesn’t happen the way I think it should, no one but me is even AWARE of the things I’m obsessing over and have deemed so arbitrarily important, etc. etc. So many of these things just aren’t on anyone’s radar but mine.  I just can’t get myself to believe myself. Working on that.
• Toadies. Tonight. Exit/In. I need it to be LOUD. In an only-in-Nashville-esque dilemma, there is also a free concert at the same time with Five for Fighting and Tonic right around the corner.

I feel like a hamster on a wheel. A loud, squeaky, annoying wheel.

Random side note: You know the theme song from The Office? That accordian-sounding instrument is a melodica. You may have known that; I did not. There is one in my living room right now. Baby Girl has decided it is her life’s work (for today, at least). In her musically gifted hands, it sounds like a cross between a kazoo and a wheezing duck. That’s been my soundtrack for the last hour.

Soothing.

The land of pizza and I’m pretty sure I want to move there June 27, 2010

Chicago, the home of deep dish pizza and everything I want to buy.

Did I really go to Chicago? It seems like years ago already.

Andrew surprised me with this trip. BIG DEAL would be putting it mildly.  You could have knocked me over with a feather, frankly. He also kept it secret for minutes days longer than I would have expected. We got Baby Girl all shipped off to the grands and hopped on a plane. Well, several planes, actually, as the original direct flight was cancelled due to weather. Not to worry–some helpful airline employee booked us on the next available flight. To Charlotte. No, no, not on a connecting flight through Charlotte. Just to Charlotte. Luckily, we got it straightened out just in time, ran through a few airports, and all was well in the end. I think that by the time we left Nashville and landed in Chicago, my blood pressure was approaching normal levels. That week, that’s about all I was asking for: the ABSENCE of all the things that were making me a crazy person.

Just to prove that I should always, always blog about trips right after they happen, this lovely weekend is about to get summed up using lame bullet points. I just can’t do any better this long after the fact. I’m sorry, trip. You were good to me. Let’s do it again another time.

• Most expensive meal of my life, I think. I love to get all dressed up and wear impractical heels, but I might be a tad too frugal to really enjoy something of this caliber very often. The view was totally worth it, though.
• We shopped in pretty much every unique store on State Street and Michigan Avenue, so of course I ended up going home with new Old Navy flip flops and a tank top. How does that happen to me in every city I visit? They have ANTHROPOLOGIE, people. What is wrong with me?
• Pizza, sushi, incredibly sinful lattes around every corner–basically negating every run I’ve gone on for the past three months. Again, worth it.
• As Andrew put it, we saw “the most drunk non-homeless person” either of us had ever seen (leaving a Cubs game). I’m pretty sure those poor boys were taking that really cute but very, very sick girl to the ER.
• And oh, Colin Hay. The show was at this small venue in Evanston, and it was nothing short of rock-your-world. I’ll admit that I only knew about this guy because he was played heavily on Scrubs, but now that I know about him, his songs are a constant fixture in my head. The songwriting alone is enough to rip your heart out (as he put it, “I’m about to sing you 20 songs about ‘she’s gone’ because that’s about all I’ve got), but the guy was also hilarious. That part reminded me of Robin Williams a little, actually (the funny, unmedicated, non-rehabbed version).

I kept leaving my camera at the hotel, but I did get a few photos so that I could later remember what the heck happened. I noticed that I took a lot of photos of many things that don’t matter, including but not limited to pretty much everything I ate, myself in several dresses that I later decided were unflattering, us with the Lego people, signs at the concert…you get the idea. I’ll spare you most of those in the interest of that I like you.

And that, my friends, is the lamest Chicago summary ever. My apologies, but I am celebrating the slight break in the heat by getting a sinus infection and making friends with a box of Kleenex. Cheers.

On repeat in my head February 16, 2010

I’m a little late to the bandwagon on this group, but this song may have just revived my once-passionate but lately-indifferent love affair with country music.