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I spend a lot of time without adult companionship – I’m usually the only one at work and when I leave work, I’m with my kids – which is possibly why I started a blog or text a whole lot more than I used to (which was not at all and now, let’s just say, I’m very thankful for having unlimited texting). Sometimes you think things and you want to share them with someone but talking to one’s self is a bit strange, even if no one else witnesses it, and discussing an annoyance with Uma Thurman is not really appropriate conversation to be having with my kids. So… here’s a list of things I’ve thought recently, it feels so good to get them out there.

• Oh my goodness does it baffle me that people find Uma Thurman pretty or remotely attractive. But I do admire the fact that the role she is playing on SMASH is one of an actress who is not quite up to par for the task of headlining a Broadway musical, not all actors would take on a part playing a bad actress. And I kind of love and hate SMASH. I enjoy musicals. I do not always enjoy Katherine McPhee but she’s quite tolerable in this show and her legs ARE TO DIE FOR, seriously, whatever she’s doing, she needs to keep doing it. And Angelica Houston should maybe fire her plastic surgeon. Debra Messing is gorgeous and fabulous in a non-comedy role, who knew? And the British director, I kind of have a crush.
• Christina Aguilera was on Leno last night and she looked great and then they showed a clip from The Voice and she looked horrible. I’m not sure how this is possible. I assume she uses the same stylist and hair/makeup people everywhere but if not, she needs to only use whoever got her ready for Leno. Also, she’s not as much of a b***h as you would think she is, at least not on Leno. I still don’t like her.
• Kevin Smith was also on Leno and I’m pretty sure he was high, or else he rambles a whole lot when he’s nervous, but considering he gave a shout-out to his dealer, I’m sticking with high. But his rambling stories were actually funny and well-said, just very long-winded and non-stop. I sort of want to read his book now… sort of. But first I shall read The Bloggess’ book – it arrived yesterday. I’m so excited to read it.
• The people working out at the gym yesterday (the one next door to my office) were quite, um… loud yesterday. As in I needed to question whether or not they were dying or in ecstasy, but never did they sound like they were working out. Awkward.
• Jack was on the jungle gym yesterday, climbing up on one of those ladders that arch over like a half rainbow and I just kept envisioning him falling through but he did it over and over again without falling. He was proud and I was relieved (and proud). Glad my worry about what might happen didn’t win out and stop him from the experience. Does anyone else imagine the worst in these situations?
• My husband has been obsessed with finding a missing shoe of Liam’s. He has searched the house numerous times, even called my mom to see if we left it there. I know we didn’t leave it anywhere, therefore it is somewhere in the house and it will turn up. It doesn’t worry me, but Simon is fixated on finding this shoe in an almost annoying way. He just texted me to tell me he found the shoe in the dirty clothes hamper – crisis averted. Whew.
• Why are there never enough checkout lanes open at the grocery store? And why don’t the cashiers at least pretend that they care and would like to move quickly?
• The people who work at the McDonald’s drive-thru on Michigan are the nicest, happiest people I’ve ever encountered at a fast food drive-thru which makes me go out of my way to stop there over other, closer McDonald’s locations when the boys earn a Happy Meal. I wish all people had the same kind of cheerful attitude, can you imagine how much happier the world would be? It should be noted, the people at Starbucks are also super cheerful, but for that I blame the coffee they are probably ingesting in mass quantities.
• Last week my boys had four different babysitters, four nights in a row (this is highly unusual) and they LOVED it. Four different sitters meant that none of them were weary with my boys and all of them played outside with them. It also meant I didn’t have to do the bedtime routine for four nights in a row (my main mantra with sitters is that if I’m paying someone to watch my boys, I better not have to put them to bed).
• Jack is on the fifth day in a row of no accidents – I’m sure that just saying that will ensure that he both poops and pees in his undies today but oh well, it’s still five more days than he’s ever gone. He’s finally taking it upon himself to tell us when he has to go, rather than us prompting him so I’m hopeful a corner has been turned. Also, I hate potty training.
• We’re doing a really good small group study, watching videos on marriage from a church in Seattle but I find the pastor’s voice and mannerisms so off-putting that I’ve taken to reading the transcript instead of watching the video and that is so much better. It’s really too bad his voice is so annoying and condescending because he really has good things to say (though he does tend to repeat himself and be a little long-winded and unlike Kevin Smith, I’m pretty sure he’s not high).
• Yesterday I was at a stop light with my window down a few inches and I could hear the teenage girl in the car next to me just yelling at her mom so of course I looked at them (don’t tell me you wouldn’t). I could hear what she was saying specifically, just that she was yelling it. And her mom, she was just sitting there with a knowing little smile on her face, taking it all in. When the girl was done with her tirade, it would appear that the mom calmly replied, because I did not hear her yelling back. When I have teenagers, I want to be that mom.
• Last but not least… it would appear that we saved George from a puppy mill when we got him 7 years ago. In the local news recently was a story about a couple in a nearby county who had over 350 small dogs taken from them due to neglect and not being able to care for them. Most of the dogs were not very well off, it’s very, very sad and serious. In a follow up news story, they mentioned the couple had been living in our city which made me take notice and look up the address on handy Google Maps. Guess what? That old location was where we got George. In our defense, she came recommended from two other people who got dogs from her and we didn’t see any other dogs than George and his littermate when we were there; though she clearly had other dogs. George was healthy when we got him, aside from having dried litter in the hair on his paws (all the puppies were litter-trained). But I still can’t believe we had anything to do with this and supporting those horrible people. How do you accidentally end up with 350 dogs? Poor dogs.

I realize this list isn’t very different than my normal random posts but I put the effort into writing an intro so I get to call it something different.

Sometimes you need to go off the books and do something out of the norm, push the reset button on life. Yesterday was one of those times.

When I met Simon at his work yesterday to do the kid trade-off both boys were in fine form. Even though I remembered to park on Jack’s side (I’d parked on Liam’s side the last time we met there and let me tell you do they keep track of who was last), he was still crying because I didn’t hug him before I got in the car but I did hug Liam, who was crying because I didn’t hug him properly (apparently). The level and intensity of their whinging was above normal. And while I was trying to zen out and maintain a calm voice, I had an inspired moment and decided that we’d go to Millenium Park for the afternoon. I needed to get back on the workout bandwagon and the boys needed to blow off some steam.

Now, my moment of clarity didn’t mean the boys were all on board with my idea but after a little convincing and coddling, they came around to see my way and were excited to go someplace newish to them (we’ve been there before but not in over a year).

I promised them that after we walked the trail around the lakes, we’d go to the playground. 45 minutes later, after a pit-stop for fruit snacks and their new favorite Mio-enhanced water (oh my goodness, they ask for Mio all the time, apparently that marketing campaign is stellar), we were all refreshed.

The weather was gorgeous and the views were so much nicer than our normal neighborhood walks. We apparently needed that change of scenery. Everyone was happy once again.

When I was tucking the boys in for the night, Liam said to me, “I had a great day today, thank you.” I’m pretty sure he wouldn’t have said that if we’d done our normal routine because at 2:30 we were on the road to him losing the Wii and me losing my patience but we averted that disaster and instead had a great afternoon. Mission accomplished. Reset achieved.