i stand corrected

Lori Loughin, I thought you would forever be Aunt Becky, mom to two precocious toddlers. I never saw you with the chutzpah it takes to raise teenagers in Beverly Hills. But tonight, as I watched you impart sage wisdom to young Duncan, you also educated me. I didn't think you had it in you, but I raise my glass to you. You can school my kids any day.

hope

It's a cold day here in Greensboro, but I'm filled with hope that comes with the promise of new beginnings. As we take the day to celebrate Martin Luther King it feels almost prophetic that tomorrow we inaugurate our first African American president. No doubt, he will disappoint us from time to time for some it will be more often than not. I think that's the nature of being the President. People will definitely hate you. It's also the mark of what is truly great about this nation, we have the privilege of hating our president and doing so with gusto.

I'm looking forward to watching the inaugural coverage. The day after the election, one of the nurses gathered our co-workers for a huddle. She wanted us all to share our thoughts, though I'm pretty sure just positive ones, about the election. I'm sure what she did would be frowned upon by hospital administration and although I was certainly celebrating, I was a little uncomfortable too. My anxiety diffused though when I heard some of my co-workers' thoughts. I heard stories of African American men and women waking their children up and calling them to the television..."yes, you can" they said. The magnitude of what it means to see someone who looks like you in such an important position really hit home for me in that moment. I think our days of racism and prejudice are far from over, but I am thankful that my own children will never know a world where black man cannot be president.

I'm looking forward to change.

lust

Oh, Vera Bradley, you cunning temptress. Why must you seduce me with such cute patterns?

Purple Punch



Cupcake Pink



Cupcake Green



Hope Garden



(these are in order from the one I like the least to the one I like the best...just in case you're going shopping this weekend.)

Reading a magazine

Did anyone see Speidi on How I Met Your Mother Tonight? Love. it.

are you there margaret? Peter needs some clarification.

At work, we use these really strong cleansing wipes to help prevent the spread of infections. These wipes are seriously powerful, they'll kill MRSA, VRE, HIV, Hepatitis, etc.

Yesterday, one of our mental health patients was standing in the hallway asking my coworker for something. He was holding the container of wipes and looking really confused. I couldn't really hear all of their conversation, but I did pick up that she was asking him for a sanitary napkin. He stumbled over his words a bit and then handed her the package. At this point, I could only hear his part of the conversation. "You need them right now?" "Oh, you want them before you can go to the bathroom?" "Oh, okay....well, this is really the only thing that we have..." and then he handed her the wipes.

At that point she looked really confused, and I could barely contain myself. "Ma'am. I can help you. We have some right in here" and I headed for the supply closet. "Peter..." I called my colleage in. "She wanted a maxi pad."

"No. She said she wanted a sanitary napkin. I thought she meant an alcohol wipe."

I informed him, "She meant a maxi pad."

"Well why didn't she just say that?" he asked.

"She was probably kind of embarrassed. A sanitary napkin is a maxi pad."

Still confused and probably a bit embarrassed, he said, "Show me where it says that on the package! You don't put these things on your face, it's not a napkin!"

"That's what it says on the machines. It's kind an old fashioned word," I explained to him.

"Well, I'm was a history major and I've never heard that word."

snob

There are some words my mom says that just drive me crazy! I've learned, over time, that it's best if I just leave it alone and don't say anything. Although my first instinct is to jump in and correct her. This requires tremendous restraint on my part. Instead, I hold the corrective dialogue in my own mind and pretend I didn't notice. Sometimes I do go a little further and intentionally introduce that word, pronounced correctly, of course, into my next sentence. I may even need to use that word in the next several sentences. Apparently, I'm doing a good job restraining my feelings of frustration because she continues to mispronounce these words, Mexico, Toille, Laguardia, etc. Now, don't think my mom is a complete idiot. In some situations, it's not quite a mispronunciation so much as a weird pronunciation. She insists on calling them Joe Jeans instead of Joe's and it drives me crazy!

To give her a little credit, my mom isn't the only one whose verbal flaws drive me crazy. Pretty much every day there are a few folks whose banter hits me like nails on a chalkboard. I'm continually biting my tongue to refrain from correcting or snapping at them. A girl I work with says, gifth. Not gift, but gifth. Seriously, I saw her tongue between her teeth when she said the word...twice. Other people enjoy slipping letters into words like pastorial instead of pastoral. what is with this? Do people just not hear the difference between these words? Are they not hooked on phonics? Are they trying to spice up life?

Or, am I just the only insane person who can't handle it?

not feelin' it

I'm behind on the posts. I'm just not feeling it right now. I actually had a list of little silly things to post about, but alas, that list is in my stolen purse. I'm hoping inspiration will strike soon. Surely, a stranger will make me wear his jacket, I will insult a homeless man, or my husband and I will share some adorable banter soon. In the meantime, I'm watching tv.

I'm convinced

that there is a bug living in my nose. I've had a tickle in it for a couple of days now. It only acts up sometimes, but it is seriously intense and there is no stopping it once it starts. I've tried blowing it...HARD. No luck. That sucker it deep. It's right between m nose and my brain. It really is. I haven't had an x-ray, but I can tell.

I'm not ashamed to say that I have tried shoving my finger up there as far as it will go (in private, of course). What?! What else am I going to do? It is driving me CRAZY! It is so intense, I almost can't stand it. The worst part is, every time it flares up, I keep thinking of all of those horrible stories about people who have some kind of bug crawl in their ears and then the bug gives birth. Any minute now, I'm certain a swarm of insects is going to come from my nose in a Green Mile kind of moment.

I wonder if this paranoia has to do with the disgusting pictures of moth larvae living corrugated boxes that we have had displayed all over work this week?

We have since stopped keeping all of our food and medical supplies in said corrugated boxes. However, my nightmare, and my tickle, continues.

mr mom

I'm sure you heard about the pregnant man, Thomas Beatie. His story has been pretty controversial. I personally don't have a problem with it, although this picture is a little disgusting to me...mostly because it looks like a giant beer belly.


Freddie and I were watching a show about him on Discovery Health. He was talking about how upset people have been since his Oprah interview. Apparently they get hate calls all of the time. He was sort of surprised though because said that most men he knew stated that if they could have a baby in their wife's place, they would.

That inspired the following conversation.

me: "If I couldn't get pregnant and you could, would you do it in my place?"

fred: "No"

That's it. No. No explanations, no apologies, no pretending, just no. Seriously? It's not even possible. That guy was born a woman, he wasn't. It's not going to happen. I'm never going to recall this moment and tap you in. You can't even pretend that you'd do it for me? No.

In that case. I am NEVER mowing the lawn.

the right stuff

(Oh Gosh! I never posted this!)
On Thursday night, I headed down to Charlotte to meet my oldest girlfriends for a hot date. We met up with 5 guys we have been in love with for about 20 years now and a good time was definitely had by all.

Here are a few shots of the evening.

We gathered with two other friends for dinner at Brixx before the performance and practiced our dance moves. Remember this one?


We were very excited to see our boys on the marquis.

Not at all impressed with the opening acts, a very white girl with a Jamaican accent whose back up dancers looked like crack whores and Lady Gaga, so we took the opportunity to take a few snapshots and tried our luck at winning front row seats by texting the big screen. We really had a good time thinking of what to write.


OH MY GOSH...HERE THEY COME!


It was an amazing show. They sang a few of the new songs, which I didn't really know, and rocked out almost all of their most popular old songs. They danced, they thrusted and we swooned. We had awesome seats for most of the show and then they moved to a second stage that was right in front of us. I took a horrible shot so that you could see how close we were.

At the end the whole crowd had their hands swaying to Hangin' Tough. It was totally rad.

lawn mower

Back when Freddie was recovering from his broken leg and we had just gotten our dog, we were taking a little stroll around our neighborhood. We observed several folks doing the last lawn mowing of the season and Freddie stated that our lawn probably needed to be cut one more time. He was still on a cane and not quite capable. His uncle had kindly sent over his yard man, but we were uncertain if he'd be coming back. I suggested that we call his 11 year old cousin who loves to mow the lawn and told us he'd do it for $3 because we were family and "needed the money more than he did." (What must he think of us?) Fred suggested that I just do it.

I have never mown a lawn in my life. When I was little, I wanted to, but we lived in an apartment and my grandpa wouldn't let me mow theirs. He said it was too dangerous and that a rock could pop up and hit me in the face. I'm a little older now and perhaps more careful, but then what would I use when I play the I've Never Game?

Fred maintains that this is silly reasoning and for some reason, insists that I really should mow the lawn from time to time. On that particular day, he was pretty put out by my suggestion of paying someone else to do it. (For the record, I did plan to give Alex more than his requested three dollars.)

him-"Why don't you just do it yourself?"

me-"You know. I don't mow the lawn."

him-"because it's not safe? because you need it for I've never? That's silly. Our grass needs to be cut and you can do it and you're not willing to?"

me-"No, but I'm willing to pay someone. It's not that much. It's probably the last time of the season. I don't see why it's a big deal."

him-"I just don't see why you won't do it. Why am I always going to have to be the one to mow it?"

me-"I'll have the babies."

him-"What?! I don't even have a choice about that! That doesn't count."

me-"If we have three children and I carry them each for at least nine months, then I think that will easily cover the number of hours you'll spend mowing our yard. And I'm willing to give you some outs. I don't care if you hire someone."

This argument went on and on and occasionally resurfaces. I don't understand why it's a big deal. I'm not going to do it. I'm just not. I'll do other things. In fact, I do most of the laundry and the dishes. Not because we're conventional like that, just because it bothers me before it occurs to him to address it. For some reason it still drives him crazy.

Are there things you just won't do? (PS-my other thing is digging soggy food out of the kitchen sink. The thought of touching that stuff makes me want to vomit. I will, however, remove hair from the shower drain.)

working men

My husband is the operations manager for a Tibetan Wool Rug Importer. They make beautiful hand woven wool and silk rugs. Their main office is in Baltimore, but all of the beautiful rugs are in High Point, NC. Fred has two guys that work for him regularly, but recently my work new work schedule has thrown all of our schedules out of whack and he's had to call in some reinforcements.

The problem is, the new guy is a total goof off.

bah humbug

We enjoyed our Thanksgiving. My father in law seems to be in a funk these days and can only see the world through his black colored glasses, but I was feeling merry and bright. I came home and began putting the Fall things away. I gathered a few Christmas items and started putting them out. I didn't want to make a mess, so I just gathered things that were easy to pull down from the attic and put on display. I put out a few rugs, a few nutcrackers, and lit our little Christmas trees on the front porch.

Last night, we welcomed the Christmas season by seeing Four Christmases. This morning we were up bright and early to hit the Black Friday sales. All was right in the world....for a while.

At 9:30, we stopped at Mickey D's for breakfast. I walked out of the restaurant and did some adjusting. We left the parking lot and went one store down when I realized I was missing my purse...my fairly new, first ever, Kate Spade purse. The one that was holding all of my personal information, two credit cards, three debit cards, multiple gift cards, one check book, and my driver's license.

I'm not sure if I walked out without it and someone came right in and snatched it up, or if they took it while I was sitting there. We were gone about 4 minutes and there was a family sitting right next to us that was still sitting there when we got back. They say they didn't see anything. I'm beyond pissed. I came very close to crying.

I looked in all of the trash cans and at the gas station across the street...no luck. I tried to file a police report, but apparently the police are only handling emergencies today. They said they'd call me back.

I was in the Christmas spirit, now I'm just mad.

vamped

Last night was all about the vampires. We went to see Twilight. I was afraid hubs might be resistant since I used every ounce of my free time during our florida trip for HIS 30th birthday to read the book, but he obliged. I finished the final story in the series on Friday afternoon. I wanted to be sure to finish out the story before I allowed Hollywood to encroach on my own imagination, just in case they didn't do it justice. I thought they did a good job though. I have previously been on Team Jacob, but was willing to switch my allegiance during the film because Edward was pretty cute. Freddie even liked it. He enjoyed the fight scene and the running and jumping, typical boy. He even made me tell him the plots for the other three books because, let's be honest, he's not going to read them.

When we got home, we watched the first episode of True Blood OnDemand. I've caught bits and pieces on HBO, but thought I should see the first episode to understand what was going on. So far, I'm not impressed. I'll give it another shot, but it seemed a little hokey and some of the story line seemed to be ripped straight from the pages of Twilight.

27 times

I've already watched 27 dresses 4 times (not always in its entirety) since it was first featured on HBO OnDemand and I'm certain to watch it many more. Quirky wedding themed romantic comedy and one of my favorite leading men, James Marsden, aka Cyclops, makes the perfect weekend time waster or laundry folding distracter.

nonsense

Can anyone tell my why I'm still watching Kath and Kim? The show is absolutely ridiculous and not funny and yet I haven't missed an episode. For the record, I set it up on my dvr before I had even watched an episode, but I could cancel the recording or delete the programs instead of watching them. But, I don't. It's like a bad accident. I can't look away.

grey's

I still enjoy this show. Freddie likes to go off about how unrealistic it is. Performing an illegal appendectomy on a friend...unrealistic? Yes. Enjoyable? Oh yeah. For the record, I was kind of hoping the new girl would die because she annoys the mess out of me.

year of a thousand dreams

Did you hear that Ashlee Simpson had her baby? She named it Bronx Mowgli. The girl had an Alice and Wonderland themed wedding, a Pooh shower, and named her baby after a character in The Jungle Book. Do we see a theme here?

survey monkey

8 TV Shows I Love to Watch (in no particular order):
1. How I Met Your Mother
2. The Office
3. Desperate Housewives
4. Gossip Girl
5. 17 Kids and Counting
6. The Hills
7. Brothers and Sisters
8. 90210


8 Favorite Restaurants:
1. West End Cafe
2. Elizabeth's Pizza
3. Trolley Stop
4. Penguin
5. Old Town
6. Texas Roadhouse (classy, classy)
7. Filling Station
8. Village Tavern

8 Things that Happened Today:
1. Laundry
2. Facebook
3. Car Inspected
4. Oil Changed
5. e-mail
6. Target
7. phone call to client
8. sleeping in

8 Things I Look Forward To:
1. Mayberry Monday with the Harpers
2. Putting up our christmas tree
3. Getting the yard settled for fall
4. Getting the house organized
5. Christmas Shopping
6. Visiting my grandma in Indiana
7. Thanksgiving with the big fam
8. February plans

8 Things on My Wish List:
1. Massage
2. New cell phone
3. a clean house
4. a new raincoat
5. a good tax refund
6. a well stocked ipod
7. Dining room table
8. A flat screen tv

charge it

I definitely racked up last weekend with the friends and family discount for the Gap stores. This week I'm sharing the love for Ann Taylor Loft. Enjoy!