Growing Up

I took this photo of Allison at school this morning. One of my most favourite times of the day is after the chaos of making breakfast, digging clothes out of the dryer that should have been folded and put away, seeing if we can all be dressed by the time Lady Gaga is finished singing about bad romances, stuffing homework into backpacks, and fighting over what shoes the diva is going to wear to school- my favourite part is our walk to school. The walk to school is getting more pleasant now that spring is here, and signs of life are peaking out from the ground- daffodils, crocuses and hyacinths now decorate our path to school.

Ally's little hand is in mine, and we talk, and sing.Or rather I sing and she tells me I can't sing Lady Gaga or Pearl Jam as good as Eddie Vedder. And it's just the two of us. And I cherish these moments. I cherish them so much, that I break out my droid phone and photograph the moment almost every morning. Most of the time, my subject usually hides her face behind a tree, her backpack, or she sticks her tongue out. But this morning, after arriving at school, she let me take her picture, to which I posted it to my Facebook account- because I'm convinced that everyone loves to look at Ally as much as I do.

After I got to work, I looked at the photo, and though she changed 5 last week, and she's been growing constantly for the past 5 years, developing into this amazing person, this photo took me by surprise. In this photo, there is no babiness, no toddlerness, it's a little girl. And it's the first time I've been slightly saddened by the quick passing years. And as I look at this photo, despite the days where being a mom is more challenging than having my nose hairs picked out one by a bulldozer, I'm struck by the awesomeness that is Allison, and how amazing this journey is.

Spring has Sprung

In an attempt to become a real blogger, I've decided to try and start blogging on a daily basis. Even if it's just random rambling. Which most of my blog entries are anyway-some entries being more coherent than others.

Today's coherent entry is just random excitement that spring is here! This past weekend, the residents of our nation's capitol were able to expose skin that the sun has not seen in awhile, and finally get some doses of vitamin D that being snowed into our house for weeks almost succumbed us all to Rickets. It was a glorious weekend, and as we took the little cherubs to the park, my excitement for warm days ahead of us, was even more fueled by the dogwoods blooming in Lincoln Park, and being reunited with old friends at the playground. Yes, glorious spring.

Another sign for me that Spring is springing- is that we have begun our weekend ritual of trekking over to our neighborhood Mexican restaurant for chips, and most importantly- MARGARITAS! Pitchers and pitchers of glorious tequila and lime, to both make me feel tropical and to cure that pesky case of rickets I developed in February. These forays for liquid cheer, usually involve meeting friends to help us make the pitchers disappear. And being as tonights Margarita madness happened on a Sunday night, it gives me the strength to get through another week.

Thank you Spring for arriving, and none to late, to touch my soul with sunshine and 'ritas. Mmmm spring!

1

Freezbies

My brain can often be a scary place where neurons bounce and dance around in complete random array. And this random bouncing around can result in some truly random thought process. Which the snow has inspired more bitterness and randomness than usual. I feel this paragraph is needed before you read any further.

So the biggest topic of at the moment is snow removal. My husband being all practical and stuff and thinks something like lasers will get rid of those snow mounds that will be here until July. And my response was yhea- Woolly Mammoths with lasers on their heads... Which resulted in a blank stare. Dude, come on- Woolly Mammoths with freaking lasers!

And than it hit me. Woolly Mammoths are big. And well Woolly Mammoth poop all over the city could even be more damaging than giant snow mounds...

So, I was like, hmmm something that will eat snow. And my biggest genius moment of the week is snow, ice eating zombies, that are repulsed by human flesh- I would call them Freezbies.

However, my friend brought up a very good point, what would happen once the ice and snow is gone- would they turn to dine on the brains of the city that once welcomed there presence? And I thought about putting a salt that had an ingredient in it that would make them allergic to human flesh, but how do you make something that is already dead allergic to something that is alive?

So after a long silence, my response was, magic. Cus well aren't' ice eating zombies already some kind of magic?

Snowmagaddeaon

Okay, I'm in hell, and in case you were wondering, it has indeed frozen over.

The first blizzard hit us Friday bringing us 20 inches of glorious white stuff. No, not cocaine, but snow. Lots and lots of snow. So we spent the weekend mostly inside venturing out here and there to build a snow fort, watched lots of movies courtesy of our new DVD Netflix streamer. We bonded. And than we fell apart.

And than just when were were feeling safe enough to come out,safe enough to go on with our lives. Mother Nature apparently was having a bad day, and dumped another 14 inches on us. Yeah.

In case you're not very good at math, that's a lot of fucking snow.

And, I don't want to complain, because though when looking out of the window, it looked like a Siberian wasteland. Unlike my parents, and many others we had power and were warm.

But because I am a cynic. I would like to point out some of the lessons learned this week.


1. Yes, I grew up in Pittsburgh, yes it's freaking cold there. That doesn't mean I like the cold, and it doesn't mean I should naturally be all able to tough it out. I hate ice, I hate cold, that is why I went to college in Texas. This is also why, with the exception of Seattle because that is a rain forest, will be the farthest north I ever live.

2.After watching hours and hours of Calliou, a PBS kids show about a kid and his family and the trials of being a big brother, I've come to the conclusion that Calliou's dad is a complete douchebag. And I have to hear his dad sing "Eggs, milk, flour and sugar, put them in a bowl and mix them all together"- I'm going to stab my eardrum.

3. I like having my job at my job. I like working 9-5 and when I leave work, I leave it at work. This past week was one of our busiest work weeks where we had meetings scheduled. And just because I blizzard hit us, didn't' stop the meetings. We had them all via conference call. They went surprisingly well, but on top of trying to keep the children from going all Lord of the Flies, I worked 12 hour days. I do need to put a shout out to Jason here who took the children out to various friends houses,and took the brunt of children while I worked and hid from the snow. I mean while I was passed out drunk....

4. Eggs and milk are not what you need to stock up on during a blizzard. It's wine, good cheese and toilet paper is what you need. It might be snowing outside, but it's so much prettier when you're on the sauce.

5. That though there is a giant pile of laundry, dishes to wash, and a house that needs cleaned, being snowed in for an entire week doesn't inspire you to do any of those things. What it does inspire you to do, is to sit in front of the t.v. and space out.

None of those lessons are inspiring or even funny. But the snow has made me bitter. And long for sunshine. In fact, the minute it gets sunny and warm, and you can't find me- I'd look for a large rock. Because I'm going to be basking on it, naked, in the sun trying to forget this dark, snowy time.

Temporary Good-bye

My grandmother- Delores "Dee-Dee" Vargo - passed away this week. And though I'm saddened in the way the death makes us sad because it's final. I'm mostly comforted in knowing that she lived a full, long, and extraordinary life. Instead of falling into grief, I am embracing the memories and the wonderful amazing person she was.

My grandmother knew how to laugh at life. And when you were around her, you couldn't help but laugh as well. She touched everyone around her, and I remember the way her smile just lit your soul.

While other grandmas baked cookies and knitted sweaters. My grandmother could do neither. The cookies would have been charcoal and the sweater would have had been for an octopus. But what she could do was color some awesome princesses, put on a play, play dress up, slam down some brews, play a mean hand of old maid, teach you how to dance cheek to cheek, sing you to sleep with Mr. Sandman, show you the thrill of a roller coaster, watch old classics like "Gone With the Wind" and than reenact it with you, and give you dating advice such as date a boy even if you don't like him, he may have friends. These are just among many reasons that made her so unique and amazing.

I am lucky to have so many wonderful memories of my grandmother. And because Ally and Jack are so small, they will unfortunately not have the chance to know her. But I look forward to sharing the memories I have of her with them. That though they will only know her through a second hand experience, that they will know her.

This week, her children and grandchildren will gather, and as I see it, celebrate her life through stories. We will laugh through our tears, at the lifetime of memories and the lessons she taught us. And though the finality of death has taken her from this world, she will live on forever in our hearts and memories.

So I will not say goodbye, but instead- see you later.

Music Prodigy

A few weeks ago, my favorite cousin was in town visiting from Seattle. Jaci, Ally and I piled into the car to head across town for lunch. Though Jaci is a hip little hispter with a soft spot for Indie bands, like me, she also has a soft spot for pop music. We turned up the radio and Lady Gaga started singing to us how she wanted a Bad Romance, and Jaci and I became her back up singers. At the top of our lungs we sang " I want your love and I want your revenge" and Ally soaked it up.

Turns out the song made quite an impression on her, and it just so happened I had a copy of it on my Ipod, so every time we got in the car we had to rock out to Gaga. Well, Ally is a child full of questions, and she sang she asked me "Mommy, what's a bad romance?". Well, I used my best judgment and felt like a full on description of girl meets boy, girl wants boy to make out with her over over again, girl screws boy over, but she wants him to avenge her to show he loves her may be a bit much. So I stuck with this: "Bad romance means she wants a boyfriend." Her other assessment of Lady Gaga was that she knew a lot of rhyming words.

That large lead up brings us to the following conversation Ally had with her friend Eddie as I walked them to school this morning. The conversation that has me questioning Ally's music education.

Ally: Hey Eddie! You know what my favorite song is? Bad Romance by Lady Gaga. You know what it means? It means she wants a boyfriend!

Eddie: My favorite song is Mary had a Little Lamb.

Ally: Oh, that's nice. My second favorite song is The Fixer by Pearl Jam. I saw Pearl Jam in concert, and after they sang my favorite song- I fell asleep! I slept through a Pearl Jam concert! Can you believe that?

Eddie: My second favorite song is Old MacDonald had a farm.

Now either Eddie is a four old boy of few words, or he just couldn't wrap his head around what a Pearl or a Gaga was. And for a moment I paused, and thought should we be doing less punk and rock, and more nursery rhymes? And the rock goddess in me shouted, hell no!- buy that girl a guitar, some doc martins, and rock out.

And than we came home and danced to Social Distortion and Destiny's Child and lived happily ever after.

Dude, I'm Baked

So one of my NYE's resolutions was to do weekly blog entries. Well, over a week has passed and no blog entries. I have an entry that is a summary of 2009, and maybe someday it will get published. But as my attention span is so short- oh look something shiny- I'll ramble about something else.

One of my Christmas presents was a standing Kitchen Aid mixer. I've been wanting one for years, and well, I think Santa may have done one to many lines, because I don't think I've been that good this past year. But well, I'm enjoying Santa's little slip up. As I mix and mix, it's like- look mom no hands!

Ironcially enough, just like the rest of the planet, one of my NYE's resolution was to finally drop those pesky pounds that have been lingering on for the last few years. A 3 year break from exercise may be enough. But yet for the last few days I've found myself in the kitchen mixing all kinds of sugary and buttery goodness together, hoping that the heat will melt the calories away. And by some miracle of hope, that all the standing around as I bake will burn off enough that my ass won't look like a
giant snickerdoodle.

But than today as I challenged that dough hook to hook me up with some pizza crust, I convinced myself that I am being frugal and green. The pizza I made tonight cost less than an ordered pizza and I didn't kill any trees with a cardboard box. And the 7 dozen cookies- 2 different kinds- didn't come with any packaging.

So, one cookie at a time, I'm saving the planet, saving funds, and spreading world peace via happy taste buds.