here's another one

Sorry, I'm sure these are not interesting to anyone but me, but they make me laugh. That was such a different time in my life working full time, grad school full time, parenting a young child. Isaac is so easy and managable now. August 2007 So today I wake up. My clock reads 7:08. I completely panic, as I supposed to be at work at 7 and I am already in a bit of trouble with attendance, so I can't be late and I am pretty sure a new person will be in my house and I should be there to help them out, and now I will hit traffic so who knows when I will get in.... I call the overnight supervisor, frantically shout at him that I overslept but that I am on my way, and hang up before he can really respond while pulling on clothes and simultaneously brushing my teeth. I am running through a mental list of what I need to grab before I run out the door and I am like,okay, I have school today, I need to remember to grab my schoolbag. Then I remember, if I have school today, I must need to turn my final in, which I know I haven't done. Why haven't I done it??? OH BECAUSE TODAY IS SUNDAY. I call the overnight supervisor back and he is just laughing at me like, "Yeah Lisa, I will see you tomorrow, take your time coming in". I'm losing it people. I really am. This one was entitled "The saga of getting ready." From July of 2007. My mom must have been out of town. So I am trying to get ready to get out the door. Why is life with a toddler one step forward, two steps back? Here is the story of my morning: Open closet. Look for skirt. Put skirt on. Ponder shirt. Hear Isaac in bathroom (never a good thing!) He has found the bleach bottle I carelessly left on the counter and is spraying it on himself. I clean him up, get him distracted by brushing his teeth and set off to find the shirt. Can't find the shirt, but I slip on my shoes. He sees my shoes are on, and wants to put his shoes on too. I want to throw some sandals on him, but he insists on the nearly impossible to put on (though terribly stylish) camo hightops. Almost ten minutes lost jamming the darn things on him. I set him up with a movie, back to search for the shirt. Decide I look fat in the shirt. Glance in on Isaac. He has found my purse and is dumping the contents everywhere and his legs are somehow covered in magic marker. I take my wallet from him (I can't tell you how many times I have gone to pay for something or show ID only to have the card missing because he has gleefully dumped my wallet earlier that day). He starts to cry, hanging on me and trying to grab the wallet and then starts coughing like crazy. I decide to get him some cough medicine since he has been coughing all morning. Twenty minutes go by trying to persuade him to take it. Spray self (and Isaac, at his insistance) with perfume. Set him up in front of Youtube. Set off to look for specific flattering black shirt that may or may not be clean. Find shirt. Put it on. Ignore crashing sounds coming from Isaac's room. Brush hair. Isaac is comes in crying because "My shoes are too hard". Take shoes off him. Send him on his way. He returns a minute later because his "Yips hurt". Can't find any chapstick or clear lipgloss. Put pink lipgloss on him to appease him. Send him on his way. Make mental note to wipe off lipgloss before we get to Daddy's. Decide to attempt eyeliner. Line one eye. In the reflection in the mirror near a pile of discarded clothes on the floor I notice something suspicious. Is that? It can't be? When would it have happened? I almost can't even bring myself to look. Yes, confirm that there is a large chunk of poo sitting proudly on my white carpet. Ponder how and when the poo could have been left there without me noticing as I find paper towel (not hard, as the whole roll has been unwound on the bathroom floor when Isaac was brushing his teeth). Scoop up poop. Flush away. Clean floor. Enter Isaac with a pair of scissors in his hand "Mommy-- hair cut?" Take scissors away to the office and while passing by his room observe that earlier crashing noise was Isaac overturning his toybox everywhere. Hear bathtub water turning on and find Isaac giving his stuffed dog a "Baf!" Glance at self in the mirror. Realize only one eye is lined... Need I go on? Man I am exhausted. Thank God my mother is coming home today!

blog flashback

Sometimes it's fun to look back at my old blog, when I was in the thick of things with Isaac as a toddler and living at home with my folks. Here is one from Sept. 2007 when Isaac was about 2. Oh speaking of sports games. The past two weeks Isaac has had major regression in bedtime and I don't know what to do. He has not gone to bed before TEN o'clock and he is getting up either at the crack of dawn (5:30) or throughout the night. It's killing me. I am a zombie and I need that evening alone time to regroup. I don't want to be looking at him at 10:30. Anyways, last night I had just HAD it. I so wanted to watch the Ugly Betty DVD with my mom and he just kept coming down and coming down. At about 9:15 my dad said he would put him down for us. In the past, he has always had a special magical power over Isaac so I was confident. Well, we finish the show, chitchat a little and around 10:30 I go to look in on them. My dad is sitting on the rug in Isaac's room intently watching the TV. Isaac sees me and gleefully yells "Mom, we're watching FOOTBALL!". So much for my dad putting the smack down. Bwhahaha. Not much has changed.

and now back to your regularly scheduled life

• Ugh back to work tomorrow. Part of me looks forward to the return to routine, but part of me knows that it will be a disaster since Isaac and I have been staying up and waking up way too late. I have enjoyed the long lazy days, but a lack of structure definitely takes its toll. Too much TV, too much wii, too much junk food, etc.
• I did get all of the Christmas decorations taken down, do some crafting, read some books, excercise a fair amount and finally catch up on laundry. Usually I just root through the laundry baskets and pull out socks, underwear, pajamas and workpants to wash. When we were briefly snowed in I did load after load of laundry. It got to the point where the drawers were totally full and there was still more to be put away. I counted, and I have 27 clean and ironed pairs of workpants in my closet! I was shocked. I mean, I only work five days a week and I frequently wear skirts or dresses too.
• This inspired me to go through and get rid of clothes that are worn, faded, stained, just don't fit right, etc. I also managed to get Isaac to sort through a bin box of toys that have been in the basement for over a year now. I was reluctant to let some of them go, but he didn't seem to mind as much as me. Now I have a huge bag to take over to Goodwill this week.
• I have quite a bit to look forward to this week though. I know some of my friends get annoyed by my insistence of planning ahead for social activities, but this is how I survive. I know that if I can hang in there x days, then I will get to do something fun. This week I am having dinner with a friend on Wednesday night, Friday I am hopping on a train to Philly to celebrate my girl Becca's birthday with some close girlfriends. We tend to celebrate our birthdays by dinners out and then going to dance clubs and/or piano bars in the Gayborhood. I believe that is the exact agenda for Friday, so I am looking forward to that.
• Saturday I will be getting my car inspected (the brakes are really squeeling which is not good) and then going back into the city to see Mary Fahl in concert at the Tin Angel. I saw her in concert when I was hugely pregnant and sort of fell in love with her. I listened to her cds over and over during that time in my life, and her music takes me right back.
• So looking forward to fun things should help me get through what will likely be a rough week back at school.
• I will report on last year's goals soon and identify some new ones. I haven't updated that tab in ages. I didn't get to everything, but I did get to quite a bit.
• Someone must have heard my rant because today they announced that our weekly FHE's are going to be replaced with monthly service projects. Now that I can handle. It might mean I can occasionally make it to Monday night yoga. I've sure missed it! They also asked me to speak in church next week, and asked me to sub for the Sunday School teacher. I will be very busy preparing for all of that.
• I managed to remember to register Isaac for spring soccer. Thank goodness after the fall season fiasco. He is old enough now that he will have a practice on a weekday in addition to a Saturday game.
• I think I'm getting the hang of Twitter. Although, I don't really need another social networking site to engage in heavy cyberstalking waste time. I decided I must become active on it though to prove that I am still young and relevant. It makes me feel so old to not understand it.
• I ended up actually having a very enjoyable New Year's Eve, despite my prediction that it would be another unmemorable one. A few of my friends got together for a small party. The girls who hosted had their nephew there who is a year older than Isaac, so it worked out well to bring him along. I figured we would just drop by briefly, but Isaac was so well behaved we ended up staying till after 12. I was honestly impressed he could stay up so late. It was low key but very enjoyable.
• Anyways, I should get off the computer and do lunches, lay out clothes, pack up bags for tomorrow. Have a lovely week!

help!

Anyone out there use twitter and can help me understand it? It makes me feel so old that I am baffled by it.

525,600 Minutes

It's been another great year. I am truly blessed.

I'm now the mom of a smart, friendly and happy kindergartener!

I turned 29 and had several fabulous celebrations including a family dinner in at a Hibachi and a dinner with friends in the city at Tria.

Birthday Nutella Panini.... yum!!

I've made it to a couple of concerts. I started off the year seeing Vs. the Earth on New Years Eve. I mingled with some friendly lesbians to see Sarah McLachlan and Sara Barielles at the Lilith Fair. And thankfully 2010 didn't pass me by without a chance to see the best band in the whole wide world: Counting Crows!

**Swoon**

I've been to a bunch of good plays including The Merry Wives of Windsor at the PA Shakespeare Festival and Wicked. This was also the first year the Isaac was old enough to appreciate the theater and we took him to several productions including Harold and the Purple Crayon in the city, The Emperor's New Clothes, and Frosty. He was also able to come with us to seee the traditional Christmas Panto at People's Light and Theater company instead of staying home with my dad like years past. "Grandpa and I are finally old enough!" he declared this year. It's so exciting to be able to share that with him now.

I had a great tan. I logged many, many hours by various pools and on the beach. I put some miles on my bike (though not as many as I should have).

I got a new phone when my old one died. Had a good laugh when the guy went to take the sim card out and a huge pile of beach sand fell out.

I successfully jump started a car without causing an explosion or electrocuting anyone.

I've been fortuneate enough to go on some wonderful family vacations.

There was our quick get away to Florida in the spring:

Our annual week at the Jersey Shore:

My sister got married!

So did one of my good friends from college Nicole: I went through a break up. I listened to a lot of Alanis. I moved on and went on more dates. I saw my old long-time college bf WJM in the flesh and didn't die. I've made some new friendships.

And rekindled some old ones.

I figured out how to use my sewing machine and did some crafting: I have one tooth less than this time last. Tooth 31 is now gone! I stopped eating red meat in July. I rejoined a gym, started (and subsequently quit, whoops) a running regimen. I got back into yoga. I discovered Zumba.

It's been a pretty great year. I can't wait to see what 2011 has in store for me.

blah

My New Years Eve is looking pretty lackluster. It's always my weekend with Isaac. This year my parents have tickets to something so they are out as babysitters. Not that I have anything going on that I would potentially need a babysitter for. I even offered to babysit for one of my girlfriends so she could go out, but she ended up not needing me to. Not that I have ever had a truly epic New Years. Looking back at New Years last year, I think it was the beginning of the end for me and PDH. Which sounds more dramatic than it actually was. PDH drove me down to the Baltimore to see one of his favorite (local) bands who he claimed were all his closest friends at a big party in a fancy hotel. We got there on the early side and so we killed time walking around the inner harbor. It had snowed all that day and I was wearing little black flats from Target and black tights and before long all of the ice water had seeped inside my shoes and they were frozen and soaking wet. We ended up spending the first part of the party sitting in his car with my feet and shoes held up against the air vents in his car trying to dry everything out. We ran into the band before hand and they chit chatted for a few minutes-- long enough for me to ascertain that while there was no doubt that PDH was the band's number 1 most devoted fan, he had exaggerated quite a bit on the best friend's part. Anyways, the party was pretty amazing. Fancy food, several different dance floors with DJ's, stand up comedians and the band we had come to see. I wanted to dance, but PDH doesn't dance. Even when his favorite band came on he just stood there woodenly watching them leaning against a pillar in the back of the room. When midnight rolled around there were fireworks above the water and we got a good spot to watch them. It was my fanciest New Years by far and had the potential to be a really good time, had I been there with my girlfriends. However, it fell a little flat. Another year for New Years my friend had been out visiting me for a few days when he was home for holidays. We had no official ending time to his visit, but I ended up sending him on his way that afternoon. It ended up being snowy weather and he got into an accident on his way home and totally his parents SUV. I worked at least one New Year's when I worked at Melmark. I got done at 11:15 which is not nearly enough time to go anywhere before the ball drops. Lame. One time when I was still at Pitt, I drove back early before the semester started. Oakland was a ghost town and my one friend Colleen and I rang in the New Year at the only place we could find, this total dive bar in South Oakland with, like, three other people who were all wearing sombreros. I definitely rang in the new year at a church dance at least once. And apparently the rest of my New Year's celebrations have been so uneventful that they are actually unmemorable because I can't dredge up anything else. Or I'm just really old and losing my marbles, which is also totally possible. I am 29 after all. Anyone have any fun new years plans?

Book Review

The New York Regional Mormon Singles Halloween Dance: A Memoir

I had this one on my wanting-to-read list since I saw a review of it in People Magazine and so I was excited when my mom gave me a copy for Christmas. It was refreshing to read an account of being a single Mormon girl in a big east coast city trying to navigate the minefields of dating, and LDS culture. Sure there are some books like that out there but this is the most true to life I've read to date. I guess because it hasn't been white washed and sanitized by Deseret Books. The picture she paints is accurate. I will totally vouch for that.

Here are a few excerpts from the beginning of the book:

Cue: this place. And by this place, I mean a lame dance held in a church gym..... Let's not forget tonight's DJ Brother Mo, who's wearing a polyester suit and tie with no trace of irony. He occupies the stage at the far end of the gym. To his left there's a long plastic table for refreshments: lemonade and cookies, as if we're a little league soccer team.

....If it weren't already painfully obvious, these events are organized to facilitate marriage. How else would we Manhattan Mormons meet, marry and then make more Mormons? (Take that, Sally and your seashells at the seashore). No one acknowledges this, though; that's another unspoken rule of the Mormon dance. We're all just here to "have fun". The effect is pretty horrifying. It's like watching a bunch of assembly line workers at a factory pretending they're there because they love screwing nuts on bolts. I want to should "Can't we just acknowledge that we are here eventually to screw a nut on a bolt?" But no one would get the joke, and the ones who do would be terribly offended.

However, this book may not be for everyone. I could see that more conservative members would be offended by certain parts (or even rallying for the author to be ex'd). She's very open about her faith, her doubts, and her sexuality. I was a little turned off by how much of the books focused on the importance of being physically attractive. And sometimes her naitivy (spelling?) was just annoying (she doesn't know porn is available on the internet? Come on, you only hear about porn at every single General Conference).

Overall, I give this book two thumbs up and would recommend it to my Mormon and non-Mormon single gal friends alike.