Category Archives: NaBloPoMo

Monday

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Not much to report from our end of the world, I’m just doing the gratuitous NaBloPoMo post at this point. My dad is at the grocery store fetching stuff to make dinner, Catie is watching “Blue’s Clues,” and my mom is reading. It’s been a pretty mellow day.

Since I don’t have much to talk about, here’s a quick story about how my dad, God bless him, can sometimes drive me insane:

Yesterday afternoon, the weather was nice, so my dad and I took Catie to the playground while my mom took a nap. We had a great time; I never thought I’d see my 72 year-old father on a swing or going down a slide, but apparently he’s game for pretty much anything to make this little girl laugh. So that was a lot of fun.

On the way home, we decided to stop to pick up take-out for dinner. (For you locals: we went to Sal & Phil’s on Old Canton Road. My oyster po-boy was great, but the fried pickles were waaay too salty.) While we were waiting for our food, Catie started to get fidgety and whiny. I told my dad that I was going to take her outside so she could get some fresh air and calm down, while he waited for the food.

My dad, hand to God, said, “Ok, just don’t let her run out in the street.”

Now, if you aren’t from around here, you probably don’t know this, but Old Canton Road is one of the major streets through Jackson. It’s about six lanes and has constant traffic. Oh, and it was dark outside. So yeah, of course he needed to warn me to keep Catie out of the street.

My response was, “You know, Dad, I’ve been doing this parenthood thing for almost two years and I haven’t gotten her killed yet, so I think we’ll be ok.”

I know he means well, he’s just being an overprotective grandpa, but he does that sort of thing all the time, and it makes me want to tear my hair out. I mean, seriously, like I’m going to let her go run out into a major thoroughfare at night? I have no common sense whatsoever? WTF?

the mini-high school reunion

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Last night was – oddly – totally normal. It’s bizarre to me how there are some people that you can go more than a decade without seeing or speaking to, and then when you do, it’s just totally natural. You just pick up where you left off and it’s all smooth and easy.

One of the girls who was supposed to meet up with us, Allison, was a good friend of mine and a close neighbor when I was growing up. Sadly, she couldn’t come because her baby came down with a fever, so she stayed home to take care of her. It was a bummer, but hopefully I’ll see her next time.

The other two girls, Melanie and Michele, have obviously stayed close friends over the years, so it was a little weird at first that they have this entire rapport with each other, and I didn’t really fit into the equation. But then after a few minutes it was totally relaxed and fun and nice. I even got an apology from one of them about an incident in high school, which I never really thought was her fault to begin with, but it was nice to know that she thought of how the whole thing must have affected my feelings.

It was also funny that Melanie married a guy who we went to high school with – even though they didn’t date in high school and weren’t even really friends at the time, if I recall correctly. Apparently they started dating a few years after they finished college, and now they’re married and have an adorable baby girl. Weird, but very cool.

So yeah, it was good. Great, even. We’re going to try to get together one more time before I leave town – and hopefully Allison’s baby will be better by then so she can join us. Maybe I’ll even remember to take my damn camera out of my purse next time, since that was one thing that I intended to do and totally forgot. Oops.

Oh well, my mom did get this one of me and Catie:

Catie and me

It cracks me up because Catie was saying “CHEESE!” when my mom took the picture. I have no idea how she learned that, because we sure didn’t teach her to do that. But I think it’s a contender to be the next picture on the sidebar thingy over there on the right.

the hot shirt

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You want to see the shirt, right? Well, here you go:

the hot shirt

This is the not the most flattering angle, it looks better in person. Also, please ignore the fact that I look slightly panicked and crazy. I am working on a SERIOUS case of nerves, since I’m leaving for my girls’ night in about five minutes.

More pics tomorrow, I’m sure.

teenage neuroses strike back

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Tomorrow I’m going to be meeting up with three girls who I’ve known since somewhere around the second grade. I mentioned it a while back, but the last time I saw any of them was sometime in 1993 or ’94. So, about 15 years ago? The whole thing is very weird, and I’d be lying if I said that I wasn’t wigging out just a teensy little bit about our get-together tomorrow night.

So, besides the new haircut that I got last week, yesterday and today I’ve gone shopping during Catie’s naptime. (My parents were here, it’s not like I abandoned her.) Everything in my wardrobe is pretty casual, to put it mildly. I own way more hoodies than anyone should, and during the summer I often wear Dave’s old t-shirts with a pair of jeans and consider myself good to go. I very rarely go shopping for myself, and when I do, it’s usually to scour the out-of-season clearance racks. (Two of my favorite long-sleeved shirts I found at Kohl’s last spring for $2 each. Score!)

Anyway, since I’m a neurotic weirdo who feels like I need to prove that I’m not the same boring fat nerd that I was in high school, I’ve been looking for something that screams fabulous. (Or fierce. Where’s Christian Siriano when I need him?) I found a couple of cute tops, and one unbelievably fabulous shirt that does everything I could want it to do: it’s a bright print (I only wore dark solids in high school, the better to conceal my weight), it hides the tummy area without making me look pregnant, and it gives the illusion of boobs. It’s perfect. I would daresay that I look pretty smokin’ hot in it. Problem is, it cost $72. I haven’t spent that much on one article of clothing for myself… um, ever? (Well, there was my wedding dress, of course. But generally, I’m a $20-and-under type girl.) Oh, and it’s hand-wash only, which is totally impractical with my current life.

I took a deep breath and bought the shirt anyway, figuring that I’d try it on again when I got back to my parents’ house, and I’d find some huge flaw that would allow me to return it and never think about it again. Instead, what happened was that I tried it on, I modeled it in front of my parents, and my dad told my mom to write me a check to cover the cost of the shirt. So I think I’m keeping it.

I’ll take pictures before I go out tomorrow so y’all can see what I mean. Now I just have to find some fancy occasions so I can hopefully wear this shirt more than once. I’m thinking Dave and I might have to have a Date Night when we get back to North Carolina.

mom's surgery recap

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My mom’s surgery was… bad. I mean, it went as well as they were expecting. Her skin was too tight from the double mastectomy to do the implants, so they put in what they call “tissue expanders,” which from my understanding are basically deflated implants that will be filled up later, after her skin stretches a bit to accomodate them. I’m sure plastic surgery experts out there are rolling their eyes at my misunderstanding of what exactly happened, but that’s more or less the idea.

Anyway, that part was all fine and good. What sucked is that the anaesthesia made her really, really sick. And then they gave her demerol for pain, which made her even more nauseated. So yesterday and last night were pretty rough. She couldn’t eat or drink anything, she kept dry heaving. It was bad.

Also, with the amount of pain she was in, she couldn’t get herself out of bed. She slept in a guest room so she wouldn’t wake up my dad, and we gave her a cowbell (swear to God, a literal cowbell; my parents are big Mississippi State fans, so they have a couple of them in the house), and she rang it when she needed help with something so I could run from the room where Catie and I were sleeping to go help her. Miraculously, the cowbell didn’t wake up either my dad or Catie, just me. She only needed me twice in the middle of the night to help her up so she could take a pain pill or go to the bathroom. It was really no big deal when you compare it to the amount that a new baby wakes you up.

She’s a lot better today. The anaesthesia takes about 24 hours to get out of your system, so the nausea started to pass this afternoon and she’s been able to eat a little bit here and there. So that’s good.

Unrelated: last night, Catie talked to Dave on the phone and actually seemed to understand that it was her Daddy’s voice that she was hearing and talking to. It was pretty cool, she was so happy to talk to him that she wouldn’t give the phone back to me. Later, when I had to call my dad’s cousin to tell her how the surgery had gone (my dad had me call her, since talking about the surgery entailed “female stuff,” i.e. boobs), Catie thought that it was still Dave on the phone and she had a huge meltdown when I wouldn’t hand the phone over to her to talk. Poor baby. She’s having a great time here, but she is going to be SO happy to see her Daddy when we get home.

Oh, and per Dave’s request:
Catie in her new "Melmo!" shirt
Pics from the trip so far are here.

productive morning

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My mom’s in surgery right now. My parents left really early this morning, and told me to stay here with Catie, since hanging out in a waiting room for hours with a toddler is not exactly anyone’s idea of a good time.

It’s oddly quiet with just me and Catie here, but we’ve had a good morning. We got up, dressed, fed, and then set off for the grocery store (my mom had a list, and it’s one less thing for her to think about). Catie fell asleep on the way home, and she took a nap for about an hour & a half. While she was asleep, I took it upon myself to clean out my parents’ refrigerator. And I mean, I cleaned it – I took the shelves and drawers out and scrubbed down the whole thing. I’m guessing they haven’t done that since they moved into this house in 2004. There was a jar of horseradish in there that expired before I got married. Yikes.

Compared to the last time we were here in August, things are a thousand times better. Catie seems to remember my parents and this house, and she’s been totally chilled out and having fun. She went to sleep with no major issues and she’s let both of my parents pick her up. (My mom was happy about that, since she won’t be able to pick her up again for a while after today.) So it’s been good.

The weather is really pretty, but cold. This is not the type of Mississippi climate that I’m used to. I’m sure it’ll get hot before we leave, it’s just weird. But in the meantime, Catie and I are going to go bundle up and play in my parents’ backyard for a while. Hope y’all are having a good day.

P.S. to Dave: I was right. Last night before bedtime, she asked for Daddy and cried when I told her you weren’t here. Poor kiddo.

heading out

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Catie and I are about to set off for the airport (well, Dave too, since he’s dropping us off), and we’ll be flying to Mississippi in a few hours. I’m frantically packing, but I had to make sure I got my obligatory blog post up. I’ll have more to say later, live from the Magnolia State.