A day in my life: Tuesday, March 10

Last week, my friend Kimberly posted photos on Facebook documenting a typical day in her life. I loved the idea, so yesterday I decided to take a crack at it. I'm not tagging anyone, because this is a little time intensive, but if you're into it - have at it (and please let me know you did it so I can come check out your photo essay).

The rules are simple:
1. Pick any day.
2. Photos should all be within a 24 hour period. (I'm hoping you'd pick a 'typical' day, if possible. But it's really your preference.)
3. Take one photo every hour that you are awake. Aim to do so in one hour increments, ie, 5:40, 6:40, 7:40, but it's okay as long as it's close to it. (You can skip shower photos.
4. The photo can be of anything you choose that gives a glimpse into your life in that hour. It doesn't HAVE to be of you.
5. Self-portraits are welcome but, really, you choose what you want to photograph to document that hour.
6. Upload the photos to Facebook, Flickr or your blog and label the album "24 hours" or "A day in the life of XXX" -- anything that makes it clear it's part of this photo challenge.
7. Have fun!

I want to apologize for the quality of some of these pictures. For all the love I feel for the iPhone, it's not really the best camera, but it had to do. So here we go!

7:30 a.m. - Breakfast



In the interest of full disclosure, I have to say that this happened a good 45 minutes later than usual thanks to some later-sleeping children (but who is complaining?!) Can you guess whose is whose?

8:30 a.m. - Getting ready



At this hour, we are in the throes of getting ready for school. The girls get dressed, I make their lunch, we brush our teeth, etc. On Tuesdays, Peanut has ballet right after school, so she wears her leotard. We also have to put her hair up, so that was what was about to happen here.

9:30 a.m. - YMCA



So the girls are at school and I've gone off to the gym. Here I am cruising for a spot in the YMCA's very, very, VERY crowded parking lot. As you can see, there are a number of cars ahead of me also looking for spots. After this loop, I gave up and parked on the street behind the Y waaaaaaay down the street. I really should start counting the long walks I have from my car to the Y as part of my training.

10:30 a.m. - Post-swimming



Here I am fresh out of the pool looking very much like a drowned rat. After this, I took a shower and then drove back to my town to pick Loaf up from preschool.

11:30 a.m. - Pick up time



I pick Loaf up from school at 11:30 a.m. After this, we went across the street to a local cafe for lunch and then to . . .

12:30 p.m. - The library



. . . the library where we killed about 35 minutes before having to go back to the school to pick up Peanut and her friends for ballet.

1:30 p.m. - Waiting



Like I've mentioned, Peanut takes ballet on Tuesdays with two of her classmates. We three moms carpool so we each only have to drive (and also sit around and wait for 50 minutes) every 3rd week. This week, it was my turn, so here Loaf and I are chilling in the hallway while Peanut and her friends learn to pirouette and all that other good stuff.

2:30 p.m. - Driving the ballet bus



Class is over, and we are on our way home. And just to be clear, I was parked when I snapped this photo. No worries, people! Safety first!

3:30 p.m. - E-mail



We're back home and the girls are having a snack so I took a moment to get a little work done. Here I am checking my email. On my lap is Janey. The second I sit down, she hops into my lap, so this the view I have of my screen.

4:30 p.m. - Laundry



Believe it or not, somewhere under all that laundry is a pool table. At about 4:30, I decided to try and find it. And I just know this photo makes you want to break out singing "Glamourous Life," by Sheila E. <----Yeah, me neither. Le sigh.

5:30 p.m. - Bath



It probably seems odd, but I've gotten into giving the girls their bath before dinner (unless we're having something ridiculously messy). After dinner, they're just too tired (and so am I) and a bath usually ends in screaming (them) and/or crying and pleading (me). So to make life easier on us all, we bathe before dining in this house.

6:30 p.m. - Dinner



After the bath, I explored the kitchen hoping to find a nice wedge of salmon or a big breast of chicken, but alas, the grocery elves had let me down again, so we went with a frozen vegetable pizza from Trader Joe's (which was actually really good!) and a spinach salad with red onions, dried cranberries and walnuts. Not bad for having to pull it out of thin air.

7:30 p.m. - Work



After dinner, I read to the girls for about 30 minutes and then put on an episode of "Curious George" for them to watch. They don't watch TV all day, but they typically are allowed one show before bed. While they watch, I try to squeeze in a little more work. Here I am sitting before the (highly unflattering) glow of my laptop.

8:30 p.m. - Still working



The girls are nestled all snug in their beds and I am still working away.

9:30 p.m. - Winding down



Brushing my teeth, washing my face, packing up stuff for work tomorrow, etc.

And no, I have no idea why this photo looks like it was smeared with Vaseline.

10:30 p.m. - Bed



If you look closely under that cat and that book (which is not a cheesy romance novel, but the classic Rebecca), you will find a very sleepy me, just about to switch off the light. It's been a long day and my alarm goes off at 5:30 a.m. tomorrow so I need to get to bed. Good night y'all!

(I'm considering doing this again tomorrow, since it's an office day for me, and as you can imagine my work days are vastly different. But we'll see. I'm not sure how exciting 8 consecutive shots of my laptop would be, but maybe I can find some more creative things to show.)

The well-read meme

So Kate, from the very cool blog Sauciewee tagged me to participate in a really cool Bookworm Meme.



The rules are simple:
1. Find the nearest book and open it to page 46.
2. Write out the fifth sentence on that page, and also the next two to five sentences.
3. You must choose the closest book, not the coolest, or the one you think will sound the best. THE CLOSEST!!!

I've been in a book club for just under a year. For December, we wanted to read something short and light, so we selected Maya Angelou’s Letter to My Daughter and it was sitting right here on my desk not 18 inches from my laptop when I read that she tagged me.



I will say, it could be the world’s fastest read. It’s only 166 pages long and there are blank pages between chapters that count in the tally, so I’ve been whizzing right along. So far, I'm really enjoying it. Angelou is a phenomenal writer and very wise woman.

Page 46 is part of a chapter titled “Violence.”

The fifth sentence is:

He experiences the same vulgar rush as the flasher, save that his pleasure is not satisfied with brief shock, he has a surge and moves on to the deeper, more terrifying, invasion.

The next four lines are:

I am concerned that the pundits, who wish to shape our thinking and, subsequently, our laws, too often make rape an acceptable and even explainable social occurrence. If rape is merely about the possession of power, the search for and the exercising of power, we must simply understand and even forgive the natural human action of sex in the extreme. I believe that profanity directed at the victim of rape or equally lugubrious declarations of eternal love dribbled into the terrified victim’s ear, have less to do with power than with sexual indulgence. We must call the ravening act of rape, the bloody, heart-stopping, breath-snatching, bone-crushing act of violence, which it is.

So, how’s that for some fine writing?

I now know who (or what) I want to be when I grow up.

Feel free to play along on your own blog. And happy reading!

Super secret name game

I'm finding National Blog Posting Month a lot more difficult this year than I have previously. Other than being completely exhausted, swamped at work, exercising like crazy and fighting a cold for the last 10 days, I just can't think of a reason why I can't sit down and write awesomely creative, hysterical and/or moving posts every single night. <--Sarcasm

I think I've had one post I'm proud of so far this month (maybe two) and the rest have been fluff. ::sigh::

So in keeping with that theme, I am stealing this meme from Mayberry Mom to fill today's requirement. I'm hoping to deliver better content next week if I have to sit here until midnight swilling vodka to make it happen. <---Could get very interesting

Here are all of my secret names. The codes to get them can be found below. Enjoy and feel free to play along on your own blog.

1. ROCK STAR NAME: Chit Chat Odyssey

2. GANGSTA NAME: Chocolate Mary-Jane

3. NATIVE AMERICAN NAME: Red Cat

4. SUPERHERO NAME: Purple Mojito

5. NASCAR NAME: James Ray (Or Ray James?)

6. STRIPPER NAME: Jasmine Twix

7. TV WEATHER ANCHOR NAME: Herzig Helsinki

8. SPY NAME: Autumn Daisy

9. CARTOON NAME: Strawberry Slippers

10. HIPPIE NAME: Oatmeal Willow

If you want to play, here's how:

1. first pet, current car
2. fave ice cream flavor, favorite type of shoe
3. favorite color, favorite animal
4. 2nd favorite color, favorite drink
5. the first names of your grandfathers
6. the name of your favorite perfume/cologne/scent, favorite candy
7. 5th grade teacher's last name, name of city that starts with the same letter
8. your favorite season/holiday, flower
9. favorite fruit, article of clothing you’re wearing right now
10. what you ate for breakfast, your favorite tree

High fives for meme

I was tagged by the fabulous Binky to participate in this meme so here goes.

First, the rules:

1. Each player answers the questions about themselves.

2. At the end of the post, the player then tags five people and posts their names, then goes to their blogs and leaves a comment letting them know they've been tagged and to ask them to play along and to read your blog.



Five things I was doing 10 years ago
:
1. Living in sin
 with Mark
2. Working in New York City
3. 
Getting ready to be a bridesmaid in my friend Tracy’s wedding
4. Buying a three-family house
5. Getting engaged (December 1998)

Five things on my to-do list today :

1. Folding an enormous mountain of laundry.
2. Watching "Into the Wild."
3. Snuggling with my husband throughout #2.
4. Eating something really good for dinner.
5. Finishing a work project that has been a thorn in my side for two weeks.

Five snacks I enjoy
:
1. Chocolate
2. Bananas
3. Yogurt
4. String cheese
5. Pria bars

Five things I would do if I were a billionaire:

1. Buy (or build) our dream house here in the greater NYC area.
2. Buy (or build) vacation homes in Colorado and Hawaii.
3. Travel (non-commercial air only of course.)
4. Hire a staff that includes a chef, maid, driver and personal trainer.
5. Give lots away to numerous charities to help people, animals and the environment.

Five of my bad habits
:
1. I have a wicked sweet tooth.
2. I weigh myself two or three times a day and let what I see on the scale influence my mood.
3. I get snappish when I haven't had a good night's sleep. 

4. I procrastinate.

5. I shop too much.

Five places I have lived
:
1. Clarksburg, MA
2. Utica, NY (where the average snowfall is almost 99 inches and it rains 2/3 of the year. Seriously.)
3. Amsterdam, NY
4. Ridgewood, NJ
5. Weehawken, NJ

Five jobs I've had
:
1. Assembly line in a box factory 

2. Employee in a department store
3. Newspaper reporter
4. Public relations account executive
5. Employee communications manager for a major electronics corporation

Five bloggers I tag to go next:
1. A Madison Mom
2. Part of the Miracles
3. Laryssa
4. True Tales of Little B
5. Mayberry Mom

A holiday meme

My friend Beckie e-mailed this to me, so I thought I'd answer it here.

1. Wrapping paper or gift bags?
Wrapping paper generally, though for really bulky or weirdly shaped things, a gift bag is a wonderful thing.

2. Real tree or Artificial?
Real!

3. When do you put up the tree?
Usually the first Saturday in December.

4. When do you take the tree down?
I like to leave it up until the second or third of January, but last year I took it down two days after Christmas because I could not stand the nightly reassembling another day.

5. Do you like egg nog?
I do. But I try not to think about the raw egg thing too much or I may vomit back into my cup.

6. Favorite gift received as a child?
The Barbie townhouse. It had an elevator!

7. Do you have a Nativity scene?
Yes, but I haven’t put it out in three years for fear of the damage little fingers will do to it. Hopefully next year.

8. Hardest person to buy for?
My husband. Seriously. The man is impossible. He wants nothing, thinks he deserves nothing and rarely offers up a single idea.

9. Easiest person to buy for?
Peanut. Walk into the Disney store. Pick up any random item. You are done.

10. Mail or email Christmas cards?
Oh mail, definitely.

11. Worst Christmas gift you ever received?
An Office Max gift card. What the hell?

12. Favorite Christmas Movie?
The Polar Express. I cried rivers

13. When do you start shopping for Christmas?
October

14. Have you ever recycled a Christmas present?
Yes. Sorry. ::ducking::

15. Favorite thing to eat at Christmas?
Cookies!!

16. Clear lights or colored on the tree?
I like white. The kids like colored. If you read regularly, you know who won this year. If not, scroll down to see.

17. Favorite Christmas song??
I like so many. Do You Hear What I Hear, O Holy Night, Silver Bells and Sleigh Ride are my favorites though.

18. Travel at Christmas or stay home?
We travel to Massachusetts every year. On Christmas eve, there is a large family party with all of my aunts, uncles, cousins and their children. It is a wonderful, fun time, though I must admit it makes me sad to think my kids won’t have any Christmas memories in their own home. I would hate to miss the family party, but some year before they outgrow Santa I think we’ll have to stay home just to give them a chance to wake up and experience Christmas morning around their own tree. I haven’t been able to bring myself to actually do that yet though.

19. Can you name all of Santa's reindeer?
Easily.

20. Angel on the tree top or a star?
A star.

21. Open the presents Christmas Eve or morning?
We open some gifts – from my aunts, uncles, cousins, etc.- at the above-mentioned party on Christmas eve. The rest we open Christmas morning.

22. Most annoying thing about this time of year?
Stress, trying to make everything “perfect,” rude, obnoxious people.

23. Favorite ornament theme or color?
I have an eclectic tree with everything from expensive blown glass balls to the popsicle stick reindeer my daughter made at school last year.

24. Do you have a stocking?
No! But my kids do.

25 Favorite for Christmas dinner?
Ham.

26. What do you want for Christmas this year?
A new winter coat and maybe something smaller and sparkly to wear with it. ☺

Tag! I'm it.

So Ryssee my extremely cool, world-traveling cousin, tagged me for the following meme. Here are the rules:

1. We have to post these rules before we give you the facts.
2. Players start with eight random facts/habits about themselves.
3. People who are tagged need to write their own blog about their eight things and post these rules.
4. At the end of your blog, you need to choose eight people to get tagged and list their names.
5. Don’t forget to leave them a comment telling them they’re tagged, and to read your blog.

Eight Random Facts About Myself

1. I don't like scary movies. I can't even bear to watch promos for them on TV. Even the really dumb ones, like Cabin Fever can keep me up for hours in the middle of the night.

2. I cannot bear to watch TV without Tivo. When I am at someone's house who does not have Tivo, I constantly find my fingers twitching in a futile attempt to fast forward through commercials. Our Tivo remote broke three days ago and we haven't watched TV since. Yes, we have ordered a replacement. Yes, I am counting the hours (about 29) until it arrives.

3. For the first 33 years of my life, I swore up and down that I did not want children. Then one day - BAM! I woke up and thought, "I must have a baby. NOW!"

4. I really wished I had learned to do something artsy - sing, dance, play an instrument. Anything. And don't tell me it's not too late. It just is. Maybe someday when my kids are in high school or college, but right now? No fucking chance.

5. I have a whole community of women friends who I met on the internet while planning my wedding. I've been talking to some of them for nearly 9 years, have met bunches of them and check in with them on an online forum several times a week to this day. They're a very cool, wise, fun, supportive group and I feel very lucky to know them.

6. I wish I were 2 to 4 inches taller.

7. I once lived half the winter in an apartment in Utica, NY without heat because I didn't want my landlord to come in and find out I had my cat there, which was forbidden in my lease.

8. Best trip ever: my honeymoon in Hawaii. Worst: Probably one of the times we went to visit Mark's sister and the two of them fought like cats and dogs the entire time with me stuck in middle. Fortunately, they get along MUCH better now.

So that's me. A quick perusal of some of my favorite blogs shows this meme has already made the rounds, so I'm tagging just one person. Yoo-hoo Maureen? TAG! You're it.

My letter to Santa

Dear Santa,

About a week ago, I wrote you a note on behalf of my eldest daughter outlining her Christmas wishes. And while I can hardly wait for her to receive the baby doll carseat (for Blanket), the TMX Elmo and the train table, I thought maybe, if it’s not too much trouble, you could pack your sleigh with a few things for Yours Truly.

After all, I’ve been pretty good this year. Sure, I’ve maybe yelled at my kids a bit more than I’d like, but I’ve also read them endless stories, played countless rounds of hide and seek and logged many hours when no human should rightfully be awake rubbing Peanut’s back or standing with the twenty-something pound Loaf pressed against my chest until either one was finally again in a sound sleep.

I also stopped short of flipping off that guy who cut me off in traffic last night, causing me to slam on my brakes. I also did not smack the idiot check-out girl at Kohl's yesterday who deemed it too much trouble to say hello, look me in the eye for even 1 second or thank me for shopping at that shitty store (sorry, I'm working on the cursing). Unless I’m in the most pressing type of rush, I hold the door for other people and say “thank you” when others hold it for me. I am usually kind to people, even when they don't deserve it, and always to animals. I reduce, reuse and recycle. I respond to all my emails in a prompt manner (I'm working on returning phone calls with the same promptness, but I swear it's not intentional).

So please, here are a few of the things my heart most desires. I hope you’ll take my wishes under consideration:

1. A clone – I really need this so I can devote more time to my kids, to work, to my husband and to myself. A clone would also prevent me from taking half a week to respond to a simple meme when tagged by the fabulous Mrs. Chicken. As an alternative, you could lengthen the day. I’m sure I’m not the only one who would appreciate that.

2. A good, reliable babysitter—We’re looking now so just give us a little magic blessing and hopefully we’ll find the right person so that we can start having date nights more than twice a year. Maybe one of the elves or Mrs. Claus is looking to pick up some off-season work?

3. A six pack—I’m not talking beer here. I want flat, hard abs. And I’d like to get them while still eating the occasional pizza and chocolate. I’m counting on you for this one.

4. A crate of Dove Dark Chocolate—See above.

5. My sweet baby girl back—This preschooler? This wild, 3-and-a-half-year-old, talking back, throwing things, having hissy fits, and dramatically screaming “NOOOO! I DON’T WANT TO!” is not nearly as much fun as the sweet ray of sunshine I birthed and raised for three years prior to this month. Please help.

6. Children who sleep—You know, I really think I’ve paid my dues on this one. There was Peanut, who would not nap anywhere but in my arms for the six months of her life. And then Loaf, who did not sleep through the night (and technically still doesn’t) until she was over a year old. And lately? Peanut getting up at 4:30 a.m. and Loaf crying in her crib for an hour and half instead of napping and then crying again from about 3 to 4 a.m. is really sucking. I just want them to sleep from 8:30 p.m. to 7:00 a.m. every night until they are out of the house. I don’t think that’s asking too much, do you?

7. World peace—What’s a wish list without this one? I’d be remiss to include it.

8. A play room—I can’t tell you how happy it would make me to wake up Christmas morning to find a large Play Room complete w/ storage bins, shelves, a blackboard, and indescructible carpeting attached to my house. While you’re at it, why not tack on a mud room too? I’m sick of tripping over the 18 pairs of shoes piled at front door.

OK. I know some of that stuff is probably asking a bit much. I mean really? A clone? A child that doesn’t talk back? World peace? I realize these things might be a bit difficult to attain, so I’ll end my list with something a little more manageable that I’m confident can be bought and purchased in an actual brick-and-mortar store:



So really, that’s it. I know it’s a lot, but if there’s anyone who can deliver, I figure it’s gotta be a man who zips around the world in a sleigh pulled by flying reindeer, dropping off toys to all the good girls and boys without ever once being sighted or getting lost. Thanks Santa! Looking forward to Christmas morning!

Now, tag to Diane!