I haven’t be totally here lately and some of you know that I am currently getting yet another series of cortisone shots. This round has been kicking my butt due to the fact that my pain has begun to radiate down the leg. This means that the shots go deeper. Deeper=pain. Anyway, the delaudid makes me sick if I have more than one shot of that. Talk about nasty!! Migraine and nausea. Yeah I live for that shit!! Thank God that I only have one more Tuesday to go!!

Other than that, there’s nothing going on here. Oh yeah, little miss Three-year-old said the following sentence to me, “I’m gonna yell until you let me have what I want!” So I took away her snack of Skittles, put her on the couch and began to scream at the top of my lungs. She shut up quickly, apparently too stunned for words. I told her if she could scream then so could I. She forgot what she wanted. When I told her mom, she laughed her ass off and said “I woulda beat her ass!” That’s my kind of mom!

Mood-wise, I’m in a good place. I’ve cooked, cleaned, played with the kids and whatnot without feeling frazzled for a change. I have managed to read a bit and I am working a needlepoint for Son1. Who knew I could be so relaxed? And no drugs or alcohol have been involved!!

I’m gonna just go with the flow because I just know that the tide will turn. It always does. And when the riptide hits, I want some strength stored up to fight it!

Well,I laughed.

Come here and let me give you  a big sloppy kiss!!

I just want to say thank you to everyone who stopped in yesterday to offer suggestions on my daughter’s dilemma. We will both be taking your thoughts to heart.

I’ll be back soon. Yesterday’s round of shots beat the shit out of me. I’m heading to the bedroom to snuggle with the kids and a movie.

There is a delicate situation at hand here and Babygirl and I need some guidance.

She has been friends with M for a long time. She considers him to be her best friend. He is also best friends with her boyfriend. Somewhere along the line, M developed ‘feelings’ for her. She explained that it was not the same for her but that she valued his friendship. We had thought that he had moved on.

During the summer,  he again told her how he felt. Only now he also included that sometimes it was painful for him to see her with his best friend. This time, her boyfriend and she decided to see M separately so as not to aggravate the situation. Eventually, they went back to being in group settings.

Recently, I have learned that M has made references to suicide. Because of unrequited love? Perhaps. But I feel that there must be other things involved. Babygirl and he have talked to a teacher at school in the hopes that they could come to some kind of terms with all of this. I was glad of this and I hoped that now he would find guidance. (The guidance counselors at the school aren’t all that great and the kids have no desire to speak with any of them.)

Tonight, he let her know that he has spoken to his parents about his suicidal thoughts. This should be a great thing, right? Babygirl is devastated and wants to help her friend. But how can she do that when she feels that it is somehow her fault? I told her that this isn’t true and the brain understands and accepts this. The heart? Well, that is another matter.

Babygirl is a beautiful girl with a warm and generous heart. She is happy and flirty and loves all of her friends fiercely. I’d like to see her distance herself a little bit. You never know what can happen. But how can I ask her to do that when everything in her heart (and mine too to an extent) is screaming that she should be there for her friend when he needs her most? I am afraid that she may get hurt in all of this.

 What do I do? What do I say? Is there a middle ground for Babygirl? We have done the important things, right? His parents know. The teachers know. After that, are my hands and hers tied?

I asked her permission before writing this post. I told her that this was beyond my ability as a parent and we agreed to ask you…..to get an ‘outsider’s view’. It is important to her that you all know that M is not some creepy guy that is stalking her. He is not coming right out and saying that he is blaming his emotional state on her. He is a great guy who is in a bad place with his heart right now and we all need a little bit of comforting.

I have written before about the kind of emails I tend to get. However, I checked my spam the other day and I was amazed that someone left me the gift of a post in the “subject lines”!

You have yellow teeth. But here! Get free cases of cola! (As if I would need it if my teeth were yellow!)

Need a cheap car?  Need a job? Maybe to pay for that car!

Nurses wanted! But maybe you need Financial Aid to go to school for training.

Sexxxy singles! Congratulations!  I guess I made out okay at eHarmony dating. 

He Guangbe pretty happy. Maybe he has joined the Hetero Handjob Club. Congratulations!!

I swear that these were all email subjects (I’m sure you’ve gotten them too.) I also swear that this is the EXACT order they were received!

I couldn’t pass that up!

I got this email from Trukindog and I laughed so hard! I’ve nothing to post so I’m gonna share this. Thanks Tdog!!

Type out the sentence you end up with, in the subject line and forward to your friends…also, send it back to the person that sent it to you..
 
Pick the month you were born:
January——-I kicked
February——I loved
March——–I karate chopped
April———-I licked
May———-I jumped on
June———-I smelled
July———–I did the Macarena With
August——–I had lunch with
September—-I danced with
October——-I sang to
November—–I yelled at
December—–I ran over
 
Pick the day (number) you were born on:
 
1——-a birdbath
2——-a monster
3——-a phone
4——-a fork
5——-a snowman
6——-a gangster
7——-my mobile phone
8——-my dog
9——-my best friends‘ boyfriend
10——-my neighbor
11——-my science teacher
12——-a banana
13——-a fireman
14——-a stuffed animal
15——-a goat
16——-a pickle
17——-your mom
18——-a spoon
19—— – a smurf
20——-a baseball bat
21——-a ninja
22——-Chuck Norris
23——-a noodle
24——-a squirrel
25——-a football player
26——-my sister
27——-my brother
28——-an ipod
29——-a surfer
30——-a llama
31——-A homeless guy
 
Pick the color of shirt you are wearing:
 
White———because I’m cool like that
Black———because that’s how I roll.
Pink———–because I’m crazy..
Red———–because the voices told me to.
Blue———–because I’m sexy and I do what I want
Green———because I think I need some serious help.
Purple———because I’m AWESOME!
Gray———-because Big Bird said to and he’s my leader.
Yellow——–because someone offered me 1,000,000 dollars
Orange——–because my family thinks I’m stupid anyway.
Brown———because I can..
Other———-because I’m a Ninja!
None———-because I can’t control myself!

As for me? I loved a banana because that’s how I roll!
 
Now type out the sentence you made, and post it in the comments for everyone else to share. Have fun, and stop back to see what everyone comes up with!!

I have loved books forever it seems. I can even remember the time I realized that the words I had learned in first grade would string along into a story about Dick, his sister Jane and their dog Spot. I remember the day I thought I was the only one in my class that knew a new word. (Unfortunately, k-n-e-w did not spell “canoe”)

Eventually, I would move into the realm of third grade. This was the year that we moved from reading the classroom books and were taken to the school library. The walls were so high to my tiny 7 year old eyes. Floor to ceiling, corner to corner, individual books each held new adventures for my mind.

I solved crimes alongside my best friend Nancy Drew. I traveled to India with Rudyard Kipling, to Africa with Babar, and to the prairies with Laura Ingalls Wilder. I soared over the clouds with Peter Pan and through the looking glass with Alice. I was intent on reading every book there was.

When June came, I was deeply disappointed to know that I would be spending hours of summertime without a new book……

Until I found the public library.

It was a converted old house with a curved staircase in the center. Upstairs was the adult book section. It also held all the reference books. To go up those stairs was to enter a world in which dust motes danced in the rays of sun through the windows. Downstairs held all the junior books. God how I loved the smell!

When the library was rebuilt I waited on pins and needles. I couldn’t wait to see what it would be like. I was disappointed to discover that the new building smelled new. Sterile. It was air conditioned. Dust was nowhere to be seen.

But there were even more books.

Gone were most of the books with sparse illustrations. In their place were new editions. Their plastic covered spines held forth pictures to whet the imagination. The pages were pristine and crisp, not softened by years of use.

I got my first library card. I wore the hell out of it. Even throughout high school, I read voraciously. Two, three, sometimes four times a week, I could be seen riding my bike so that I could get to the library by ten in the morning (before the heat got too bad.) I would spend afternoons somewhere shady and curl up and read.

As an adult I read until I was a mom with two young boys. At that point, most of my reading involved story books. My sons and daughter, my nieces and nephews reaped the benefits of my enjoyment of reading. Silly voices and funny faces now accompanied the words on the pages. I was lucky if I read an ‘adult’ book once a month!

My own kids are grown. The guys read magazines and newspapers. They will still throw an occasional book into the mix. Babygirl is like a clone of me. If it has words, she has to read it. I have never censored anything that my kids have read. I was called by my kids’ teachers every year because Son1 wanted to read Isaac Asimov’s “The Illustrated Man” when he was in fourth grade. In her fourth grade class, Babygirl wanted to read “Cujo”. And yes, they had my blessings. We discussed these books together. They never had any problems understanding what they read.

The kids I babysit now have their own library cards. Going there has become a summertime staple with us. We enjoy packing a lunch to eat while we read in a park.

I have been asked what sense I couldn’t live without. I would be hard pressed to answer. As much as I love to listen to music, to hear the sounds of my family’s voices….I think I would still say that I would hate to lose my vision. Not only because the world is full of unrivalled beauty, but because a book is a window into infinity.

They stand center stage

Golden hair, perfect smiles

The hottest clothes fit the hottest bodies

And the boys watch.

She walks alone

praying no one makes eye contact.

Her lackluster hair hangs over her acned face

She travels the periphery

And no one notices.

The same halls

the same classmates

the same books

What makes them so different?

When did the change occur?

When will it no longer matter?

I lie here, alone

Your pillow barely cooled

My skin still tingles where your lips brushed against me

I blush at the thought

As I lie here alone.

I lie here, alone

languid as a cat in the ray of sunshine

that falls across the tousled sheets

I can still taste you

As I lie here alone.

I lie here alone

remembering your words

whispered against my ear in the dark

I am missing you

As I lie here alone.

Babygirl has taken the road less travelled by asking the hardest questions of all….Where do they make balloons? How come people from Poland are poles, but people from Holland aren’t holes? When you take a picture of cheese, what does it say?  Why, oh why, didn’t you just ask where babies came from or why the sky is blue? I will attempt this (or I will never hear the end of this!) Balloons are made when baby latex fairies burp, causing elastic bubbles to be formed. Their mommies wipe their mouths and toss aside the balloon which is gathered by elves and sold to stores. People from Poland are “Poles” because they are stiff when they dance. People from Holland are not “Holes”, because DutchBitch is always calling them “asshats” which sounds better. When you take a picture of cheese it says “geese”. Why? I don’t know.

And finally…..Froggywoogie asks: “If you could visit a country where topless sunbathing is permitted, would you still paint your toes nails?“  Of course I would! If I were topless, my nipples would be so low that if you could see them, you’d surely see my toenails!!