29 January 2010

Overheard in the Lewis Household

Yesterday evening after putting Lorelei to bed at a shockingly early nine pm, Brian and I snuggled down in bed for some good ol' fashioned cuddle time. You know what I mean, right? That time where you're just lying there in the dark and whispering quietly about random and stupid stuff. I love cuddle time. So, for some reason, Brian was telling me just the punch lines to jokes. Potatoes! and Only Hugh can prevent florist friars. If you have ever been subjected to Brian telling these jokes, I'm sorry. So I come back with the groan worthy, A priest and a rabbi walk into a bar and the bartender says, 'What is this a joke or something?'

As reigning champion of horrible jokes, Brian couldn't let that slide and had to come back with his own. A priest and a rabbi are sitting in a bar and the priest asks the rabbi, 'Have you have tried bacon?' And the rabbi says, 'Sure, once. Have you ever, you know, had sex?' And the priests answers, 'Once. Before I was ordained.' The rabbi says, 'Better than bacon, isn't it?' I'll let you all groan for a second...

Done? Of course this joke lead to the question, "Sex with me is better than bacon, right?"

"Well, bacon is reeeaaally good," I replied. And then I was craving bacon all night long.

The End

28 January 2010

Celebrating the Small Victories

I honestly never thought I would get this excited about making the bed. Or folding laundry. Or unloading/loading the dishwasher. But I am. Ridiculously excited. After a week of pure crap and the feeling of ice picks being hammered into my skull; today, I celebrate the small victories. The chores that actually get done, the baby who goes down easily for a nap, the legs that get shaved. (There's a nice mental picture for you all, over a week's worth of hair growth on my legs. Sexy.)

Tomorrow, when everything goes down hill again, I'll be back to whining. But for today, I'm feeling good.

This Week in Books 1/20-1/26

Whoops. Forgot to do this yesterday because - well, let's face it - yesterday sucked giant donkey balls.

Leviathan
By Scott Westerfeld
Pages: 440

In all honesty, I can't decide if I love this book or just have generally positive feelings about it. In a nutshell, its a steam punk alternative history of World War I. Yes, you read that right. It's an interesting concept and he's come up with some pretty cool inventions/ideas, but I'm just not sold on it yet. Plus, I really hate it when books end in such a way that it is obvious there is a sequel coming. Like really obvious. It almost felt like the book wasn't completely finished. Oh well, will probably have to wait awhile for the sequel. One more book to read by him and then I'll be all Westerfelded out.

Dead Until Dark
By Charlaine Harris
Pages: 292

Ugh. I can't believe I actually willingly read this. Okay, it wasn't that bad. The writing was pretty juvenile. I thought we had gotten past the need to describe in detail what everyone is wearing. Vomit. And the sex scenes sucked. And not in a sucked vampire blood way. In an oh-my-god-I-can't-believe-someone-writes-sex-like-this-way. Also, was it really necessary. I'm all for romance novels with lots of sex in them, because that's what they're all about, but this is pretending to be a mystery novel, it just doesn't work for me. Also, doesn't do it for me.

26 January 2010

At the Edge

Of my sanity.

I am a strong self-sufficient woman, right? Well, perhaps not. I won't lie, in the past eight and a half years (holy crap!), I've become pretty dependent on Brian. Not in a THE-WORLD-WILL-END-IF-HE'S-NOT-THERE kind of way, but I have gotten used to him being around to pick up the slack. And, let's be honest, keep me from descending into a pit of depression and self-pity. He's good at that sort of thing.

Unfortunately, he's been gone since early Thursday morning. (Yeah, yeah. I know its only been five days, but this is the longest he's been gone since Lorelei was born.) Thursday itself was not so bad. Fortunately for my flu-like self, baby was generally well-behaved and as inclined to sleep as I was. Friday sucked the big one. But I've already mentioned that and last night and this morning have pretty much killed me. I don't know. Lorelei and I - or so I thought - had reached something of an understanding. Up by nine, nap around noon, bed by eight-thirty. Oh no. That was just not going to happen.

So I yelled at my two-month old. I feel like a horrible horrible mother. I know I shouldn't have done it, but she was just frustrating me so much. On top of which, the cats have been driving me crazy and I just really need a break. Five minutes to myself. Thank goodness Brian is home in about six hours because I don't think I can make it much longer.

25 January 2010

Blink Blink Blink

A blinking cursor. Mocking me. You don't have anything interesting to say, it's telling me. Who really wants to hear the mundane details of your boring little life?

Blink blink blink.

Sometimes, I listen to that annoying little cursor and I close my new post window without writing a single thing. Sometimes, I don't.

I remind myself that this blog is as much for me as it is for anyone else. I want to be able to look back, many years from now, and remember what it was like. Remember when my daughter was just a tiny baby. Remember the mundane and stupid details of my life. Maybe I'll never do anything truly spectacular. Maybe I'll never publish a book. Maybe I'll only be remembered as a mother. I'm trying to accept that. I still want to remember

---

In that spirit. A brief recap of this past weekend in bullet form
  • Lorelei completely freaked out on me Friday night. Everything I did made here scream. I would try to feed her, she would scream. I would change her, she would scream. I would try to put her in her crib, she would scream. I would hold her, she would scream. I was so close to losing it since I was at home by myself, but by some miracle and after many tears - hers and mine - she still was in bed by ten. Phew.
  • Saturday I managed to leave the house and run a few errands before noon. A miracle considering the night before. I also managed to do a bit of cleaning because...
  • Julie came over to knit. Whee! We watched Zoolander and Elf and Lorelei spent most of that time napping so I managed to get mostly done with one of my belated Christmas scarves.
  • Yesterday was pretty chill. Took a three hour nap - probably accounts for all the trouble I had getting baby to go to sleep last night - and then hung out with Desiree for a few hours.
  • It's worth noting that I have some pretty awesome friends. They knew I was going to be pretty lonely and stressed with Brian being gone and me being sick (I'm much better now, thank you) and I had lots of offers for help and company.
  • Thirty-six hours till husband returns. I really miss him.

22 January 2010

An Open Letter to the People of St Louis

Dear St Louis,

I loathe despise hate have generally negative feelings about you. Well. Not you. I like you as a city. You have such wonderful institutions like Companion and the Cupcakery and Mississippi Mud. My library is in an awesome old building and not old in that built in the 70's way. And then there's those Cardinals. I can even look past your pathetic excuse for a public transportation system. But there's just something about you.

1) You have a complete disregard for traffic laws
Now, I have never claimed to be the best driver on the planet and I do speed and, occasionally, I will run a yellow light. But you seem to believe that 70 is not fast enough when the speed limit is 55. Or that 55 is not fast enough when there is still ice on the roads. You tailgate instead of passing until you can't take it anymore and then you'll whip around and cut people off. Or you'll cut people off because you didn't see the three signs for your off-ramp and have to triple lane change to make it. You run red lights. Like really run them. Not just it was yellow and then it turned red while you were in the intersection but it was red and the two cars in front of you also ran the light.

2) You think the street is a parking lot.
As in, instead of pulling over to the side of the road to drop someone off or wait to pick someone up, you just stop in the middle of the street. Frequently even if there is a space not ten feet away. And then when you see another car pulling up behind you, instead of moving you continue to have an argument with your baby mama in the middle of the street. You pull up at a stop sign and someone will run up to your car (probably to make a drug deal) and you completely disregard the fact that there is someone behind you at the stop sign. Now, I recognize it may seem like we're in the suburbs because its mostly residences, but we're not. This is still the city and the streets are too narrow for you to do that.

3) You honk your car horns too much.
Instead of getting out of the car and going up to someone's house, you honk your horn. Repeatedly. Over a several minute period. Did you ever thank that perhaps they weren't home or didn't know it was them you were honking for? Perhaps you should just knock on their door.

4) You have arguments in the middle of the street.
Sometimes late at night. Like 3 in the morning late. Much like your car honking, is it really necessary to do this outside on your front porch or in the street? Wouldn't it be better to go inside and fight with your baby mama.

5) You think it's okay to blast your car stereo late into the night while your friends hang out in their front yard smoking weed.
I've told you this before. But not everyone likes rap music and not everyone wants it blasted at them from a car that is parked less than twenty feet from their house. And we especially don't like it when you do it until midnight or later. And I can smell your weed. Seriously. Go inside and do that.

6) You invented Imo's.
Seriously. That is the most disgusting pizza on the face of the planet. It is a sin against nature. Why would you do such a thing?

So I hope you'll understand St Louis that I can only ever consider myself a temporary resident. I don't think it's wise for us to pursue a long term relationship since you and I both know I will always be on the look out for something better. I hope this doesn't ruin our friendship.

Love,
Me

21 January 2010

Bitch Bitch Moan Moan

Can I whine for a minute? Of course I can. This is my blog and if you don't want to read my whining, you don't have to.

I hate my body. Not that way I look - although there is room for improvement - but the way my body works. I can't ever seem to catch a break. Every Christmas I get sick. Like really really don't-wake-me-up-for-five-days-and-maybe-I'll-be-better sick. It's usually the flu or something flu-like - or in 2008, an intestinal parasite - but this year I got lucky and just had a very minor cold. Which, unfortunately, I gave to Lorelei. I thought, maybe getting that seasonal flu vaccine was a good idea and maybe I should do it again even though I don't plan on being pregnant again for a few years. But, no! My body, she hates me. I've had a migraine-y type headache for the last couple of weeks; but I didn't think anything of it because headaches are a common side effect of the medication I'm on and I figured my higher dosage was screwing with my system. Yesterday, I took my nap as per usual and Lorelei actually cooperated and slept for almost two blissful hours but when I woke up, I felt like I had been hit by a bus. I shrugged it off because my friend was coming over and we were going out for milkshakes (how very 1950's of us) and I thought well maybe it's just a sleep hangover. Does anyone else get those? Where you actually get a really good nap in but when you wake up you almost feel worse than before you went to sleep.

Where was I?

Oh yes. Felt like I was hit by a bus. Sore all over. My neck hurt. Etc etc. And then the chills came. Oh fun. My favorite part of being sick is the feeling of not being able to get warm enough and then sweating profusely. Fun. I kid you not I was under a down comforter a quilt and an extremely warm throw blanket and I was still freezing. And the shaking. Oh my god. I felt like...well, I felt like I did after giving birth, like a weak thing that could barely move.

On top of all this, Brian left this morning for a five day trip to Cleveland and Pittsburgh. So, feel like dying and husband gone and oh yeah two month old. Two month old who was a serious drama queen and didn't fall asleep until 11 last night. Kill me now.

Oh. And said two month old spent most of this afternoon freaking out about something although I don't know what and wouldn't take an effing nap. Is it Tuesday yet?

20 January 2010

This Week in Books 1/13-1/19

I'm going to try this new thing where I document what I've read each week along with a few comments so that I have some record of what and how much I've read and for any of my readers if they are curious.

Extras
Scott Westerfeld
Pages: 417

This is technically the fourth book in a series (and yes I have read the other 3) but it reads well on its own. In fact, I would almost recommend reading this one by itself instead of with the other Uglies books. Although some of the characters from the first three do reappear in this one, they are not the central characters and I find the story doesn't mesh as well with the other books. That being said, it was still a great read. Very fast paced and an interesting commentary on today's society. Without giving too much away, the society depicted in the book is based on fame in which where you live and what you can buy is based on how popular you are. Can you say Twitter anyone?

Liar
Justine Larbalestier
Pages: 384

So funny thing. The authors of the two books I read this week are married. Heh. Anywho. The narrator of this book is a liar. She admits it in the first sentence. If you can't stand unreliable narrators, this is not a book for you. But if you like a bit of a mystery and you like to be left wondering what exactly is happening, I highly recommend it. I'm still going "what the fuck" and I finished it several days ago.

Can I Gloat?

I have a freakin' adorable daughter. She's so curious and active and she loves her zebra. Stop growing up so fast!

19 January 2010

I've Got That Itch...

No. Not that kind. The itch to move again. I love my house. I really do. Unfortunately, I think it has almost reached the point where - without some major remodeling - it's just not going to work for our little family anymore. It has one bedroom. One! In the middle of the house with no doors. Which is why our bedroom is actually in the basement. A few years ago, when we were looking to buy our first house, we looked at a converted duplex that, at the time, was out of our price range. Guess what? It's on the market again for a mere $24,000. I wonder what kind of horrible damage has been done to the interior in the last four years (there are no pictures of the inside on the website). But if it's not too bad, perhaps it would be worth it to move. Then we would have a bedroom with a door and a bedroom for Lorelei. Want to see it, then click here.

I've definitely got that itch.

15 January 2010

There Are Moments

There are moments when I am paralyzed with fear. Oh my God, what have I gotten myself into? There are moments when I wish with all my might that I could rewind the last year because I am so not ready to be a mother. What the hell am I doing? I'm not working - a fact that I am sure many other mothers out there would damn me for - but I still find it hard to juggle everything. How do I take care of an infant and keep house and keep doing the things I love to do? I can count on one hand the number of hours I've had to myself since she was born. The longest stretch was when I went for a massage - with travel time a grand total of 2 hours - and I honestly felt guilty about it.

There are moments where I don't feel like myself anymore. As if the only thing I am is a mother. I don't want to deny that part of myself, and I recognize that being a mother is going to be huge part of my life. But that's not all I am. I am a woman who loves to read, who loves to write, who loves to take photographs. A woman who loves to play stupid video games with her husband, who loves to watch stupid movies. Someone who loves to sit quietly with a cup of coffee (or tea) in a quiet coffee shop somewhere with a book or a laptop. Those things that I love don't seem to fit in anymore.

I knew that it would be like this. I knew that I would have a much harder time adjusting than a lot of other women but this last week has been one of the roughest yet. I hide it pretty well I think. From everyone except for Brian. But sometimes I think he doesn't know how hard it is for me. I cry.

Then there are these moments which make it all worth it. Which remind me how much I love baby Lorelei and how I couldn't imagine my life being any different. It's just going to take me some time.


14 January 2010

How We Can Help

I don't watch the news. I admit it. The reason I generally don't watch the news is because when ever I do there is always a story about something terrible happening in the world. I know. Ignoring it, won't make it go away. Hearing about what is happening in Haiti makes me sick to my stomach. Here is a country that was already struggling. According to Wikipedia (and yes I looked it up), it is the poorest country in the Americas and eighty percent of the population was living in poverty. Most Haitians live on $2 a day or less. This earthquake has completely devastated the country with the Red Cross estimating at least 3 million people were affected by it.

So. Here's what we can do. One of my favorite bloggers to stalk read is encouraging everyone to leave a comment on her post for the day and she will donate $1 for every comment. She even wants her readers with blogs to send people over. So that's what I'm doing. Go and comment on her post here. She has links to other people who are doing the same. And although my readership is small and I'm sure the husband will kill me for doing this without asking first, if I can get at least ten comments, we will donate $10. That is unfortunately the most I can do right now.

For more ways to help, see this article on CNN. Or you can write your own post. Link to me. Link to her. Let's see what we can do!

EDIT: Didn't reach ten comments by midnight. Sad panda. But since I'm not heartless, I've already donated my ten dollars to the Red Cross.

12 January 2010

Cross One Off the List

I have procured a library card! Actually, I have been meaning to get one for the last week, but it never seemed like a good time what with the snow and single digit temperatures. But tonight was the night! The husband and I took the baby with us to the library on south Grand. If you haven't been, it is a very nice library and considerably better looking and cleaner than the one back home in Vancouver, but the fiction section smells vaguely of feces. That's right feces. It's not a particularly strong smell, but it's there and it sort of detracts from the overall niceness of the building. I might have said something mean and slightly inappropriate about why it smelled to Brian, but I won't repeat it here. You all can just imagine what it is I could have said.

So. Where was I? Oh, yes. I have a library card now and I checked out three books. Yes, three and I have two more that I requested because they were checked out from that location. That is five books which I will attempt to finish reading before the first week of February. If you are curious I got Extras and Leviathan by Scott Westerfeld, Coraline by Neil Gaiman, JPod by Douglas Coupland and Liar by Justine Larbalestier. And yes I know four of the five are considered "Young Adult," but I just can't help myself.

On a related note: I have finished reading my first book since September! It was Up Till Now: The Autobiography by William Shatner. Truly high class reading. It was actually not that bad and there were both some truly funny and truly touching moments. I admit, I started tearing up when he was talking about the tragic death of his third wife. And the story about the skunk, tomato juice and an EMT is worth the price of the book. Hilarious! I am using too many exclamation marks!

10 January 2010

Nine Weeks

Dear Lorelei,

Just a few hours ago, you officially became nine weeks old. Congratulations! I cannot believe it has already been two months since you were born, it feels like just yesterday I was lying in labor and delivery with my feet up in the air...wait, too gross. Moving on.

Little girl. Little peanut. Little bit. You awe me. Every single day. You are so curious about the world around you, always looking about. Right now you are attempting to knock over the toy bar on your Merry Monkey Gym. So cute. It feels weird to take you out places and it feels like people are always giving me weird looks, but you like it. Remember in the Climatron you made that weird cross-eyed face when we first got there. It was as if you were saying, "What is this shit?" Although, perhaps with slightly less vulgar language.

So. What has happened in the last two months. You met the majority of your relatives. Grandma and Grandpa Lewis were here just after you were born. They cooked and cleaned and helped mommy and daddy through those first few rough days when you were hungry all the time and refused to be put down. Then Mam-Ma and Pap-Pa were here for two and a half weeks. They cooked and cleaned too. And Pap-Pa held you a lot. He loved snuggling with his grandbaby. Then before Christmas we went to Toledo and you met your great aunts and great-grandma. You were such a good baby on the drive there, but the hotel really freaked you out. That first night you didn't want to sleep because you were too busy crying.

You went to two - count 'em: two - Christmas parties. You were so well behaved and even let others hold you and play with you. Then you had your first Christmas. Although you slept through all of the gift opening, including the traditional one gift on Christmas Eve, at least you got snow on your first Christmas. And although mommy and daddy were both kind of sick we still had a good time. We even went to the Botanical Gardens the next day and daddy got to share his love of model trains with you.

What else? You've started to smile. All the time. It makes me so happy when you smile at me. This cute little grin. And you make the cutest little happy noises.

Time seems to be flying by. Fast forwarding. I can't wait for you to start crawling and walking and talking and all that, but I'm really going to miss these first few months when you were so tiny and everything was new.

I love you so much,
Your Mother

07 January 2010

Snow Day

I miss snow days. I miss the anticipation - watching the news channel to see if maybe, just maybe, my school would be among the ones closed. Then, after a blissful extra couple hours of sleep, my mother would awaken me. We would have bacon and eggs and biscuits. You know, the things we would only eat on the weekend because there was just no time in the morning. I would pull on my snow pants - you know, the oh-so-attractive overalls - and about five layers of shirts and long underwear and huge ski gloves. I would meet my friends Lily and Rachel (we all lived within walking distance of one another) and we would make snowmen or get into a snowball fight with our brothers. Building a fort. Maybe, if it was a really good snow, we would take trash bags and go sledding down the hill by Lily's house. This was before they added the new development. Usually, one of us would end up in a ditch but we still did it. And then, after we had worn ourselves out and every piece of clothing was soaked through we would curl up on the couch at one of our houses (usually Lily's because they were wealthy and had a bigger house) and one of our mom's would make us hot chocolate with extra marshmallows and we would watch Disney movies. I miss snow days.

Today, we had an unofficial snow day in our house since Brian's boss told them not to come in if the weather was bad. We snuggled at home. Had pancakes and drank coffee. Didn't get dressed until almost noon. Baby and I snuggled in bed all afternoon and Brian worked on his laptop. It was glorious. But I can't wait until I get to purchase snow pants for my own daughter and her and her friends get to build snowmen and get into snowball fights and ride trash bags down a hill. And I'll be the mom who waits at home with hot chocolate and extra marshmallows, cookies and Disney movies.

06 January 2010

If I Had a Million Dollars...

What would you do with a million dollars? Me? I know exactly what I would do. First I would pay off both mine and Brian's student loans. Then it would be credit cards and then the car. And after all that, if there was a decent amount left, I would buy us a new house. Then I would be set. Sure, there are things I want but I just can't imagine spending large amounts of money on them. I don't get the whole designer clothes and shoes and purses thing. I have two Coach bags which I bought at the outlet store at the lake and neither of them are obviously Coach. I like it that way. I don't like it when people judge me based on what I spend my money on. Sure, I like nice things and I like to look nice and put together when I leave the house, but I can do that just as easily spending a hundred dollars as I can spending a thousand. So, what would I do with the leftover money? I would give it away.

Ever since graduating from Wash U, I've known that eventually I want to be able to afford to have a scholarship in my name because I know I would never have been able to attend such a good school without one.

I would want to help my friends. I know it sounds weird and I know that most of my friends would probably turn down any help, but if I could...if I had that million...that's what I'd want to do. Too many of my friends live paycheck to paycheck. Too many of them feel guilty when they buy something nice for themselves because they've worked hard and they deserve it because they feel like they should save that money for bills. It's just not fair.

But I don't have a million dollars. So, all of this will just have to wait.

05 January 2010

Dear St Louis Weather

You and I used to have an okay relationship. Sure, I whined when it was 100 degrees outside and I had to walk half a mile from my parking spot to work in air that was basically soup. Or when I had to walk to finals in several inches of snow and below freezing wind chill. But, I thought we had an understanding. This summer, you were so pleasant for the majority of the time. I got to laugh at all the people I knew back home who were sweltering in their 100-plus heat for a week with no air-conditioning because it's never that hot in Washington. When Lorelei was born in November, instead of being cold and snowy, you were mild and sunny. And then you graced daughter's first Christmas with snow. That was nice. What happened? Why did you decide to all of a sudden bitch slap me with highs in the low teens? What have I ever done to deserve this? I think my toes are permanently frozen from my trip to the dentist yesterday. If you are going to be this cold, could you at least snow some so there is something pretty to look at and play in. I mean, I don't have anywhere to be, so being stuck inside is cool with me.

Well, consider this relationship over. St Louis weather: I hate you.

Love,
Me

04 January 2010

A Perfect Moment

Lorelei has started to smile now. Like real smiles. This afternoon, because I was tired and she was a bit fussy, we cuddled in bed together. She would smile and reach out to me. It was a perfect moment. And then she pooped.