Wow!

Gosh, a random post from me about girl relationships spawned a plethora of personal messages that really helped.

Here's a sample of the kind thoughts that were sent my way:

I want you to know that I value you as a friend and as a mentor. Yep, you are younger than I am, but I think of you as a mentor and am so grateful for that fateful day that xx quit his job.

Do you have ANY idea how much you've changed my life? I would not be where I am today without TP gal. You would play a big part in my "it's a wonderful life" movie.

I don't just value you for what you've done for me. I also love hanging out with you and wish I was easier to get out of my comfort zone (my home) to socialize. You are one of the most fun girlfriends that I have and I have nothing but happy memories of any time we've spent together.

So, know that I love you and treasure you and I *know* that I'm not the only one.


And:

 I read your last blog and this is what I know for sure. No matter how long you have known someone, or how well you think you know someone, there are always things you will never know about them. And because of this fact you can never predict how they will react to anything said or did. Sometimes you can get back to the place you were in and some time you can't . It is because of them and you can't change that. I have lost a few friends in my life and pinned for the loss  a long time. It's how you take your losses that make you strong.


And:

Family is static.  We can’t change family very much unless there is a divorce, and  if you’re a (name of nice people), then you remain friends. Moms remain Moms and sisters remain sisters, etc.  However, as we age friends become like the tide.  When the tide rolls in, it deposits friends on our beach.  When the water recedes, it takes a few out with it.  You’ll find that as you age and your interests begin to differ greatly from your friends that this phenomenon happens more often.  It isn’t a bad thing and one should never, never feel guilty about that.  This friend could have been content when you were single and leaning on her.  But, when you married and had lovely Lucy, you leaned less and the dynamics changed.  Sounds like she is much more inflexible than you are.  (Go figure...Leo’s are never flexible.)

 

This friend is here to shore you up and say making friends and putting some into neutral is just how it is.  Don’t stress!!

Zoinks Shaggy, I didn't expect incoming comments and wouldn't have guessed that my little problem is actually just part of life.  I am humbled by the responses and truly grateful for everyone I have met and loved along the way in my charmed life.  

The sermon at church Sunday was about a piece of scripture where someone (someone old, maybe Jesus?) was talking about the insignificance of the mustard seed but that once planted it becomes a strong bush that supports the weight of birds.  Translation to our modern day world, you never know what small thing you might say or do that has an impact on others, or that might change the direction of your life.

Hopefully the awareness of that truth will help me to error on the side of kindness, but I have found that those mustard seed moments happen when I'm not paying attention.  Heck, I agreed to go out with a nerdy guy whom I KNEW I wouldn't really like because I wanted to go on a real date and good gravy look what happened:

a rejected holiday card option

That was one good date, I mean we're dressed alike for pete sake.  Don't worry, that seldom happens on non-picture day.  We will "coordinate" for a party, but the full on family in RED doesn't occur naturally in the wild.  

Yes, I am poking Lucy in the ear, but we were trying to make her smile.  We have at least 70 pictures that look similar with the baby making all sorts of indifferent facial expressions.  When I look at them in order, Jason and I look like crazy people with our eyes wide and our mouths open in gleeful smiles.  Next year we will solicit assistance with our photo.  The in-laws will be visiting in October, we may set up a tree and fake a "year end" shot at that time.  

Anyway, thank you for reading me from time to time and also for your support.  It is very appreciated.

Girl Relationships; I stink at it.

I'm still blogging in my head, I just haven't put fingers to keyboard in a while.  "Pen to paper" has better alliteration, but it just isn't the way the world works anymore.

There are many things swirling around in my world that I may have freely blogged about in the past, but I hold back these days.  For one, I don't want to hurt the ones I love, and the other is that maybe my reality on  day X isn't exactly clear. The mental illness that takes over my brain before "mavis" comes to visit seem petty after she moves out.   My beefs are still valid, there are moments when the activities of keeping our home cleaned up are lopsided but when I'm in my right mind I can see that those moments are not the norm and the significance is minute.  Mental illness is a strong term, but my perspective is certainly skewed.

Also, I've learned the hard way that no matter how hard I try to talk about an issue with a friend or family member in the abstract that they ALWAYS figure out I'm talking about them and the question is asked "why didn't you tell me that to my face?"  This is a fair question and I'm not sure the answer of "I feel better when I write about it" is acceptable.

I will share that I am in sort of a mourning period over a long-term relationship that has made a drastic shift from frequent, intentional interaction to a see each other every now and again.  I have many many people who are dear to me that I see infrequently and when we get together I'm genuinely thrilled to catch up with them and then we go back to our regularly scheduled lives without issue.   This particular situation has been (here I go being dangerously honest) painful and I've been doing lots of thinking about my 'friendship' value.   There are frequent moments when I miss my friend, but my pride and stubbornness holds me back from reaching out.   I'm not in the arms crossed, foot stomping pouting place, but since she was the one to withdraw I can not beg her to be active in my life.  I've been trying to accept and move my 'hurt' aside and be thankful for the years of friendship that we shared.  However, there are times when that childish "nothing is my fault" ugly side steps out into the forefront of my inner thoughts and I wonder why we spent so much time together if I'm clearly so hard to be around.   That kind of negative thinking is not helpful and it is squashed as soon as possible.  Clearly, it doesn't go completely away because as I write I'm getting sad, and truth be told we haven't reached that point of "every now and then" seeing each other, maybe we never will.

Jason has been helpful and makes every effort to hear me out when this backs up on me.  I talked it over with one of the long-distance girlfriends and she had lots of support to offer but it has been months and I'm sure this is a permanent situation.  Self help gurus (or me, if I was asked) would say "reach out, mend fences" but since her last direct words on the topic were "you said your piece, I said mine, let it lay."  I'm doing just that, and right now it's laying like dead roadkill.  I don't mean that to be flip, I miss her but I have enough pride to accept that just because I feel warmly about someone that those feelings don't have to be reciprocated.

I just wonder, do all adult (female) relationships shift, or do I simply use people up and they grow weary of me?  Will everyone whom I love tell me out of the blue that I'm making them crazy and then stop communicating?

ANYWHO... see, posts like that will get me into trouble.  If I don't have the guts to call her up and initiate conversation is it fair to discuss it openly?  Probably not, but I also think Jason doesn't need to hear this same thing over and over again.

The take away, besides the fact that at 43 I'm still insecure about my value to others, is that we need to nurture our friendships and be thankful for those whom we can't live without.  Jason and I have talked at length about my conflict resolution skills and roadblocks.  I need him to know where he has to pull me out of the quicksand if we ever get into trouble.  I'm will fight to work on issues but hurt me twice, and I'll retreat.   My stubbornness will work against me at that point and as painful as this friend thing has been, a rift in the Jason/TP world would be the end of me.  Thankfully, our issues are (thus far) limited to a kitchen cleaning inequity and when I sneak out to TacoTime for lunch I am a horrendous gassy mess to live with.   It's sad because TacoTime tastes yummy to me.

See what I did there, I talked about a deeply personal topic and then ended on farts.  I AM A GREAT WRITER.

Weiners, Liars & Cheaters...oh my

Boys, boys, boys...

Get it together, and by that I mean keep it in your pants!  This simple advice was called out to my prom date as we left his house my senior year.  It didn't make me feel like a princess, but the advice was reasonable.  There are times when you have no business showing your business to others. 

I know, it can be confusing to know when and where certain behaviors are allowed so I've laid out what I think is common sense that might be helpful to you:

1) If you're married and the person you want to show your business to is not your wife or your doctor... the answer is NO.

2) Unless you're being paid to be in a quality magazine like "The Dicks of Capital Hill" don't photograph your penis.

3) Unless it is your only source of income never EVER post images of your penis on the Internet.

4) If you think what you're about to do could cost you your job, that is a strong CLUE that you shouldn't do it.

5) If you have to hide from the media, this is another CLUE you're on the wrong path.

6) If the Onion.com is writing articles about you, you have already screwed up.

7) If you're married and you meet someone who turns your soul on fire, deal with your wife FIRST.  If this new thing is true love, it will still be there after you respectfully deal with the woman who has stood next to you during events like the death of your child.  (You're a slimy douche bag John!)  Word to the wise Miss thing...if he's willing to knock you up while his wife is unaware, don't expect him home for dinner every night.  I think the "once a cheater, always a cheater" line might actually be sound information.

8) If you're a Republican and FOX news is calling you a douche bag you've gone to far.  The same is true for MSNBC and you Democrats. 

9) If you've commented on the morals of others as part of your campaign platform then you should refrain from having sex with the maid, sleeping with your photographer or twittering pictures of your pee pee.  

10)  There is no such thing as discretion when having sexual encounters with anyone but your committed partner. 

Bonus Point  11)  It doesn't matter how 'important' you are, if the woman says no or you have to force the issue it is RAPE.  They teach that rule pretty early here in the US and I thought it was a similar understanding in other civilized parts of the world.  By the way, attacking the character of the woman you've (allegedly) sexually assaulted is a dirty play.  She cleans toilets for a living, do you really expect us to believe that she's running an on the side call girl business? 


So, do you want to know who I think is classy?  Al and Tipper Gore.  They sadly ended their marraige without any (credible) evidence of wrong doing.  They announced together that they were done being married and then both quietly moved on to their own personal lives and we don't have to hear about it.  While I hope they both have new hot lovers making them eggs in the morning, I hope we NEVER have to hear about it.

The rest of you...well, like Danny's dad said:

KEEP IT IN YOUR PANTS!

Potty Politics

I recieved a fictionary submission from a friend:

Not sure if you have this one, but I thought you might want to enter
it into your fictionary....

Spontaneapoo --when you think you only have to pee, but it turns out
you need to poo

It's the only explanation I can think of for the ladies who use the
first stall in the bathroom.  WHY do you want everyone to walk past
your smelly stall????  I don't get it!
 

hmmm.... I've never considered moving father into the restroom to poo.  It seems that I've been missing a key social skill.  Thanks mom for never teaching me this. How embarrassing.

I select my stall based on the following criteria:

1) availability
2) cleanliness / paper availability
3) not next to an occupied stall (if possible)
4) not the handicapped stall (unless there's no other option)
5) not the one with the crazy high seat (I'm short and hate it when my feet don't touch the ground.)
6) one that someone just didn't step out of
7) I try to avoid the second stall in the row because I saw a show on bathroom cleanliness and they said that stall #2 is the one with the highest use.

I guess now I have to add a criteria based on what I'll be doing in the stall.  Life is so complicated.

Jeezus...what is that? Wedding Fashion

When the disgraced Sara Ferguson is your mother, are you required to dress horridly?  Euginie (in blue) looks like she's wearing something that she had Cinderella's lesser mice fashion for her out of something my grandmother wore in 1978.  AWFUL.

Princess Beatrice looks a bit better in her sublte skin colored dress, but that hat!   Philip Treacy is THE go to designer for hats, but I think he might have been joking when he suggested he could make a hat that she could re-purpose as a door knocker. 

As for Tara Palmer somebody or other (British Socialite) her Philip Treacy hat makes me wonder if is it a shoe or a giant blue vagina?

The three ladies on the bottom who round out our hat fashion show are Earl Spencer's daughters (nieces to the late Diana, Princess of Wales) actually pull off the crazy and required hats with style.  You couldn't wear any of those items to a function in the US - but bully for them.

While I was trolling web sites for photo's to borrow I found several web sites that blasted the wife of the current Prime Minister for not wearing a hat at all.  So let this be a lesson, you can wear any bizarre piece of material on your head to a royal wedding including old shoes, used diapers, dead birds or even model airplanes but for f*ck sake, don't show up wearing nothing.

A very important question

There are certain events in our lives (as women) that are deserving of a tiara.  These include being crowned Miss Loyalty Day (happened to a very nice friend of mine, not me),  your birthday, your wedding day (if that floats your boat), and your quinceañera that's your 15th birthday when you are of Latin American heritage (not all these may apply to every woman.)  Other acceptable times to don a tiara include the annual Academy Awards party, and when you're doing an activity that has any reference to a crown.  The photo at the left is me with my tiara when receiving my new crown from Dr. Otto, DDS.    


I have also been known to put the crown on to elevate my mood while house cleaning or simply to let Mr. Wonderful know that I AM the princess. 

The true question on the table for today is that since the impending birth of our favorite child will involve something called "crowning" is it an event that calls for the tiara?  Do I put it in the hospital bag or not?

Part of me says keep the tradition alive and do it and part of me says "you're going to be focused on other things" so leave it at home.

I just don't know.  Perhaps I'll drop it in my bag just in case the mood arises.  


BTW, the quinceañera also generally involves a huge, fluffy, almost wedding dress, cake and a ceremony.  It is quite the event, if you ever get invited to one you should go.  Yes, it is a party for a 15 year old girl, but the food would be yummy and the spectacle would be worthy of your time.

Education for Lucy

The Women Rituals

I'm headed to a baby shower next weekend and it should be a lovely time.  I've got a cute outfit picked out and my gift from Babies R Us has already arrived and is wrapped.

The expectant momma was over last night and we were talking about the party and she announced that she has never been to a baby shower before.  Oh to be 26... (maybe 27) but even though she's got cousins galore with babies and friends who have had babies somehow she has missed this magical ceremony. 

I explained all the wonderful and mysterious things that will go on.  The games:

"Baby"  - every lady gets a diaper pin and if she utters the word "baby" then she has to surrender her pin to the gal who catches her.  At the end, the woman with the most pins gets a prize, like a Party Lite Candle or Lotion from Bed Bath & Beyond.  (While there is typically only one pregnant person at any shower, beverages or gifts like wine are strictly verboten!)

Memory - A covered tray of baby things are brought into the center of the room (at a baby shower the women sit in a circle - perhaps signifying the embrace of the placenta?) and the cover is removed for about 30 seconds and then replaced.  Each woman has to then write down as many of the items as she can remember.  This is especially hideous for women who haven't had children and for whom many of these items are nameless.  In my day I have noted many a "colorful noise thingy" and "odd suction cup" on trays at baby showers.

WHAT THE F*CK IS THAT? - labels from baby foods are removed, and then the blobs of colorful goo are passed around and each gal has to taste each one (usually from a rubber covered spoon) and then decipher the flavor.   Flavors like Apple, Banana, Sweet Potato and Pear are easy to point out, but combination "flavors" like Ham & Ham Gravy or Mixed vegetables & turkey are harder to pinpoint. 

Who made a poopie : This is a darling game of chance where every guest is pinned with a little diaper looking pendant and then later in the party you're asked to open it up and whoever has the "poopie" one (usually a smudge of chocolate) wins a prize. 

I forget the other games that as a childless, unmarried woman made me want to cry.  I do recall that there is a lot of helpful advice heaped upon the expectant mom and at one shower the advice seemed pretty universal until one of the moms turned to me and said, "we'll I guess you could use it on your cat" and then turned away after getting a big laugh from the room.  I wondered if murder at a baby shower was bad form. 



For this upcoming shower we were issued cards and are supposed to submit Advice for the New Mommy.  Is it funny, or just rude to write "How the h*ll am I supposed to know?"  Or better yet, "just keep smiling and be thankful that we wont all come live at your house."


I saved the BEST part of a baby shower for the last.  Since we're all seated in the mandatory circle when the gifts are opened by the super pregnant lady (who generally can't even reach her toes) she has to hold each pretty pink or blue item up and coo.  Then, if it is at all passable the gift is passed from woman to woman around the circle.  Each little item is handled and touched by no less than 12 pairs of hands before it is safely tucked back into the bag it came in.  

There is cake at every baby shower.  Genreally really good cake too - like from Costco.  Women don't bake anymore for their closest friends of friends.  Frankly a big ass sheet cake from Costco is totally worth the baby food tasting activities.  It's just too bad we can't be having champagne with our cake.  I know, it is not fair to the momma, but the thing I find funny about baby showers is that even though being naked with your man usually got them into that condition, baby showers are a chaste, sterile, no-raunchy humor, idealistic celebration of "perfection".  I've never heard a new momma ask "when can I have good hot sex again?"  It's almost as if every baby shower happens in 1952. 

Don't get me wrong... I enjoy a good shower and am thrilled for my friend, but she needed to know what she was in for.  The advice and cooing is the price you pay for all the wonderful and greatly needed items that are coming your way.  And... while she has never been to a shower before, I myself have been to plenty.  I've considered adopting just to finally get my investments in other people's kids back.  (it doesn't work that way, but wouldn't it be nice.)

After hearing all this, the soon-to-be-Daddy decided to go golfing with Jason that day.  Lucky bastards...

it was of course, wonderful!

Book group last night was delightful! We discussed the book for quite a while but there was a lot of catching up and some great lessons learned:

1) If your nanny says or implies you are a bad mother it is A-OK to fire them!
2) You may, for a period of time, have to give up your dreams of a clean and tidy house while you are raising little people.
3) The appropriate answer to "Are you going to have kids?" can be "We had sex this morning so I'll give you a call in a month and let you know."
4) It is OK to cry when your 7 year old pops off with "Only daddies do hard work". Someday they will KNOW how hard it was to let them live through that moment.
5) When you are hard core pissed at your partner person try with all your might not to say things you can't take back. TRY!
6) If you can't go all in on the save the earth front, don't try at all. If you can't compost, buy locally, organic, walk or bike everywhere, and generate your own energy then F*ck It! Hummers for Everyone!

And, for the record. If our hostesses daughter starts using the f-bomb it wasn't me who dropped it TWICE in front of those sweet small ears!

Just how politically correct can we be expected to be?

I was cruising facebook for a few moments during lunch today and came across a funny posting from an acquaintance who teaches art at a college in the Midwest. She asked what the appropriate response was when a student asks to share her ultrasound image.

Alison has a wide educator network and teachers from all levels were responding with their witty and real life answers that ranged from "think about something interesting while you look at the picture and then move on" to "ask is it mine?"

Then came the post that made me think:

When people do this, they are not being sensitive to others who might have had a recent miscarriage or are having trouble getting pregnant. I think we forget how intimately personal a picture like this is.

I agree it is a VERY intimate image, and think it is a bit awkward to show it to people you aren't extremely close with, but I don't think we have to stop being excited about the big life changes in the event the person we're sharing with might be caused pain by our news.

Granted, if you know the person well enough you'll know if they are experiencing infertility or have recently (or ever) miscarried. But, if that is the case I think you're still allowed to speak openly about your situation. I hope I would have enough grace to mention my pregnancy in a gentle way to my imaginary friend who is going through infertility issues. But, if she's a good friend she will celebrate my news just as I would for her.

I try to keep my "me news" to a dull roar in the real world because I'm more interested in what is going on with my friends, but that hasn't stopped me from all out bragging about being over the top (drug induced?) happy these days.

Holding back your joy because someone might be reminded that they are not in the same boat is a crazy concept. While I was single I celebrated with my girl friends as they ALL found the person they are supposed to be with. I will be honest and admit that there were times that their happiness did shine a light on my own singleness and I did wallow in jealousy from time to time. I kept that petty envy to myself because I feel that celebrating others life events is probably the best part of being in a community.

I have some wonderful friends who have yet to find their person and while I root for them (and make failed attempts to be a matchmaker) I don't pretend I'm not happy. I can't hide the fact that I'm well matched and I appreciate that they have welcomed my dude into their world. They don't expect me to hide it either. That's probably why we're friends.

Granted, I'm not giving them blow by blow updates on our intimate moments. I won't ever be blogging about super exciting sex (again). I have learned some things over the years. This blog would probably be a lot more exciting if I did share the more private things on a more frequent basis, but then my mom reads this so I think we'll skip it.

My over all point is that I agree it is wrong to share your intimate news with strangers, teachers, accountants, coworkers, but we can't walk around and not talk because what we say may offend someone. I'm not suggesting we forget the good manners that our Nana's hope they taught us, but if we hold back everything because someone may be offended we'll never talk again.

Fair warning, if you brag about winning the lottery while you visit me in my cardboard house in the freeway median then I might punch you in the nose.

Hey Ladies....

The "bump-it" hairstyle looks stupid.
Don't do it!

You are welcome!

Life goes on I guess...

I stopped at Target after lunch today to take back a pair of too small sleeping trunks for my husband (eek... I have a HUSBAND) and realized that I have clearly forgotten to have kids. The place was teeming with mommies and kids and a few pissed off infants. One poor kid was attempting to ride a smallish plastic non-motorized thing and was having challenges. He threw himself onto the floor and said in the most adult voice... I just can't do it. That's right kid, failure is your life!

My point isn't to mock the 3 year old, but to acknowledge the oddity of being a non-mom in the mom world. I'd like to think they envy my ability to get in and get out without having to argue over Snooty Pebbles or Hannah Montana stuff - but I think they are so frazzled that they don't see me.

If I'm thinking I'm too old to be a new mommy, the eye doctor today kind of put it right in my face. "We don't like to call them bifocals - they are multiple lenses dear."

BIFOCALS are BIFOCALS no matter what you call them.

I am, I guess in every way, Jason's old lady.

The Non-Vacation

I'm having a 1950's housewife vacation. Well, not the vacation of a 1950's housewife, but pretending to be a 1950's housewife. I'm cleaning, cooking being way too domestic.

Yesterday after I had lunch with Becky and ran errands (returning one of the swimsuits) I ran to the grocery store and picked up things for dinner.

In an homage to the 1950's I made a big garlicky meatloaf, homemade mashed potatoes and threw in some asparagus to green up the plate. It was a meal that I wouldn't have done just for me, and was way too much for just J and I. Fortunately, Thursdays are Survivor Nights with our friends (and family) D&C. The four of us devoured my heart attack special in no time.

The trick to my meatloaf... using two different kinds of meat - the leanest ground beef you can find, and plain old ground sausage. Holy Crap... it is a good combo. It also helps to not be shy with the garlic and the spices. I didn't find the bread crumbs until after I was done with the mix, so I took salad croutons, crushed them and used them as filler.

Over the course of dinner (and two bottles of wine that C and I mostly polished off ourselves) we hatched an evil, diabolical plan. Wanna hear it? Good!

In looking at my things with a critical eye (something I strongly recommend to you all after cleaning up Martha's things) I realized I have a rather large collection of arts and crafts supplies. I use to make my own holiday cards and scrap books. Now I have lots of rubber stamps, special paper, cutters and embossing materials.

Since I don't use these items anymore, but I do have a significant investment in them so throwing them away or giving them to strangers doesn't feel right. C is in the same boat in that she has lots of this crap laying around too... so here's my diabolical plan:

C will plant an idea in the ear of "the one they warned me about" to have a craft night with the idea that we'll swap stuff that we no longer need. C and I will bring all of our stuff, and intermingle it with everyone else's stuff and then suddenly get called away and leave EVERYTHING behind!

Yes, it would be easier to give it away but this feels more, oh I don't know...evil. And I like being a little bit evil.

I am moving so slow this morning... maybe it has to do with the two bottles of wine. I just can't seem to get going. I've showered, watched an episode of Law & Order but fell asleep so I had to watch it again. I'm a slug.

I am off though... I have a plan for today and it doesn't involve an elaborate dinner. J is working late tonight so we'll probably grab some quick chow later on and watch a movie. That's my plan anyway; he is allowed to have his own ideas. I haven't completely squashed his free will just yet. (In the secret rules of women guidebook it says to wait until after you're married to kill their free will. I may not actually get to that activity because I'm having so much fun in the "woo him" stage - why move on?)

I'm Breezy

I feel like such an ass.... I completely misread an encounter with someone and thought that there was a connection, you know like "wow, that person is really great!" and it turns out the feelings not so mutual. Or maybe mutual, but CLEARLY not on the same page.

I am 100% positive the mistake was mine - because while you all love me and know me to be completely perfect, it is in fact true that when it comes to the world of dating I am a novice. I would lay down money that there was no misrepresentation or second thoughts happening in this case. Trust me, this guy is not a jerk... but I am for getting ahead of myself.

The sad, embarrassing thing, and the reason for the post (to share my humiliation with the WORLD) is that I called on the Support Sisterhood. Guys may not want to know it, but even in our late 30's we still call each other to talk through people we've met or are excited about. It's not at the jr hi school level of "and then like he said... and then I go... and then he..." But it's close. So, I've blabbed my excitement (over nothing) to the people who most want to see me happy but now I have to retract.

The bright side, if you can get past the red of my face is that the flush of meeting someone really fantastic and making (or mistaking) a connection is still something I'm capable of.

Do you remember that scene in Friends where Monica tries to leave a casual message for a man... and ends the call with "I'm Breezy"? It's supposed to be an attitude not an announcement. Well for a day or ten I'll be living in Breezy-town.

Oh golly, I'm going to go hide under my bed until Christmas.

tit... tat

After a short hour of mulling it occurs to me that I AM worthy and that this self doubt could also be described as humbleness.

At the end of the day, if others find it difficult to see the complete and total wonderment that is TP Gal it is their loss and I pity them.

See the humbleness, let it wash over you.

Monday, Sunny Monday

(Sorry U2.)

Ah, morning brings good news from a non-profit called "the Hope Chest" that lo and behold is right here in my neighborhood. They are helping people get back on their feet, "one family at a time." It could be their family, but since they have the 503(c) status I do not care. The furniture should be gone by the end of the week!

I also discovered this morning that I bought the wrong milk - I'm a non-fat milk gal. It is just as nutritious but without the fat. Of course, it tastes like crap - but over cereal it doesn't much matter. Today I found out that I bought 2% yummy! Seriously, it's not that I'm stupid - in the organic brand the milk isn't marked by different colors instead they use words and come on... who reads?

MWR's comment about the street couch in his neighborhood made me laugh. It's sad that the other hip bohemian residents don't get your wry sense of humor. Although... and I encourage you take this in the best possible way... don't mock the woman who is bitching unreasonably. Women in that state of mind have a tendency to turn on the first live body that challenges them. Few dudes have survived such an experience which is why you may not know not to "poke the bear". You see, the bad mood may not have been caused by you, but in that frame of mind, it doesn't matter. I'm probably going to get a fine from the AoW (association of women) for divulging inner secrets but as your friend I couldn't not let you know.