Ring a Ding Ding

My ears are ringing. I just arrived home from an evening of dancing. My old school friend/DJ was in town doing a gig at a local boutique/eatery (weird location). I would just like to say that I am officially old. Don't. Don't argue with me. Because my body would like to tell you otherwise. My back is stiff and aching (I don't even want to think about what it's going to feel like tomorrow), my knee is hurting as is my ankle which also got stiffer and stiffer the longer I danced. I suppose I shouldn't be too hard on myself. I can't remember the last time I danced for about 3 hours straight.

I went by myself and not one of the people I invited were able to make it. I ran into an acquaintance who invited me to dance with her which I did, the whole night. She is this drop dead gorgeous Czechoslovakian woman and I was staring at and coveting her cheekbones all evening. The music was superb but the crowd was irritating at best. The following would be my personal messages to some of the characters I was surrounded by.

To the girl with the hooker boots on that ended up in bare feet by the end of the night - Those boots aren't very practical for dancing. They aren't really practical for life actually.

To the two eighteen year old amorous couples - I could do without seeing you grind each other on the dance floor. This is not a club. People like you are specifically the reason why I decided to come to this event and why I avoid clubs. Please take your dirty business elsewhere.

To the drunk woman with the sparkly shirt - Please stop bumping into me. Your shirt is giving me road rash every time you touch me. If you are too intoxicated to dance perhaps you should sit down. Or another novel idea would be, go home, sleep it off and rethink that shirt.

To the guy with the 90's Matchbox 20 hair - You are not cool. No one is attracted to you. I know you were a stud once and could probably get any girl you wanted but those days have long passed. Now you are just a short, drunk guy with an outdated haircut who everyone is trying to ignore.

To my Czechoslovakian acquaintance - Why must you be so beautiful? You are very nice and I love listening to your accent but you are making me look bad. Also, I can't stop envying your cheekbones.

And this is what several people were probably thinking about me.

To the lady in the pigtails - Dude. Don't you think you are a little too old for pigtails? Why don't you get a cute short haircut like that gorgeous Czechoslovakian woman you're dancing with? You dance like someone who doesn't get out much and what is with your boobs? You totally look like you need to go and feed a baby or something.

And guess what? I do.

Just Calm Down Mom

So I totally underestimated my daughter on Saturday. At the end of my work day my coworker asked if I was taking Miss A to the Santa Claus parade. Firstly, I had no idea the Santa Claus parade was that evening. Normally it is on Saturday mornings. (And I am working so I could never go.) Then I explained to her how I wasn't sure that would be such a good idea because it would likely just involve a lot of screaming and certain individuals trying to jump on floats or end up getting run over by one. I wasn't optimistic.

But later on I felt guilty. I decided that I wanted to try to take her. Even if it was awful, we could always pack up and come home.





And then it wasn't awful. In fact, it was pretty fun. I bundled her up warmly, buckled her into the stroller and we watched the parade together. She sat very patiently even between gaps in the floats. She gasped appreciatively at the lights, animals, vehicles and people. Pointing and asking "What's that?" frequently.

(A pretty impressive 'Transformer' float)





Finally Santa and his reindeer came. I thought they were in a bit of a hurry. I didn't even have time to get a decent picture. In the end I was so glad we went and I was so proud of my big girl!


(Quite frankly, this picture scares the crap out of me.)

My Eyes, They're Burning!

I had an um... interesting weekend. I was invited to a Halloween party. I love Halloween. I love Halloween parties. Many a year has passed me by that I had no Halloween party to attend. Thankfully, I have a wonderful client who throw a kick @ss Halloween party every year. Peter and I went together last year but he declined this year in favor of staying home with A. You see he's not really into that kind of thing. No problem, I asked a friend to be my date. The thing is my friend is only 20.

She called earlier in the evening to check and see if I wouldn't mind leaving the party for an hour to go to the bar where she works. (Who wants to go to the place they work when they aren't working?) I said sure. How bad could it be, right?

Wrong. So wrong. Possibly the most wrong I have ever been. See I was never really into the bar scene. Not even when I was younger. I've never been much of a drinker and it would bother me to watch everyone become more and more intoxicated and less and less inhibited. HA! HA HA! even. That was nothing. Those kids back then? They were chaste!

Upon walking into this bar with my 20 year old friend I was aghast at what I saw. Kids on the dance floor making 'Dirty Dancing' look like a Saturday morning children's program. It was a miracle that many of them were still able to stand up considering the amount of alcohol and possibly illegal substances they had ingested yet, remarkably, they were able to simulate sexual intercourse right there on the dance floor without any difficulty. I tried to avert my eyes but it was impossible, they were everywhere.

All that kept coming to my mind was that Reverand Shaw Moore had been right!

"Even if this was not a law, which it is, I'm afraid I would have a lot of difficulty endorsing an enterprise which is as fraught with genuine peril as I believe this one to be. Besides the liquor and the drugs which always seem to accompany such an event the thing that distresses me even more, Ren, is the spiritual corruption that can be involved. These dances and this kind of music can be destructive, and, uh, Ren, I'm afraid you're going to find most of the people in our community are gonna agree with me on this."

Which is funny right? Comparing myself to the guy we all loved to hate, or at least scoff at, as we watched that movie. But really, I'm thinking Rev. Moore had a point. Sure maybe what Ren and Ariel were doing wasn't SO bad. But I suspect if they made a movie about their grandchildren going to the clubs today dancing to 'Gimmie More' it would be a whole different story. AND I think Granny and Grandpa McCormack would be thinking that maybe their dad had been right all along.


Britney Spears Lyrics
Gimmie More (Remix) Lyrics

I'm not a prude. I'm not. But I have standards. And rules. There are certain things which I believe are not appropriate in public places. I felt horribly depressed about the degradation of our society and especially of young people's morals. I couldn't help imagining my daughter on that dance floor in 16 (16!) years, and wonder what that would look like. It makes me weak in the knees and sick to my stomach.

I'm optimistic and naive enough to believe that I will be able to raise her better. That this sort of thing will disgust her as much as it disgusts me when she is faced with it. That she will choose better than those kids. I have to believe it, otherwise the depression would render me useless.

Wow! I think I've come off as a complete nut job. Oh well! While I'm at it I might as well include the photo that will put the nail in that coffin.

Hippie to the Core

DISCLAIMER: This post is in no means meant to be insulting to hippies. It is meant to be comical. Besides, I like you people. I've even been called a hippie a few times myself.

On Sunday I took Miss A to our local Folk Festival. Once upon a time long, long ago when I was about eighteen I sat on a blanket at the Folk Festival and thought 'One day, when I have a child, I want to bring them here.' Little did I know I would give birth to a hippie. She loves to be shoe less, naked and play in the dirt. And so my dream was finally fulfilled. Unfortunately, it was 36 degrees outside that day. I loaded us up with sunscreen and packed my bag with drinks for us and we went on our merry way.

It was $20 for admission which I felt was rather steep considering that we would only be staying for around 3 hours. I let it go knowing what a good time she would have. We headed directly to the kids tent where a very nice lady was singing and playing her guitar. Miss A wanted out of the stroller and immediately proceeded to take off her sandals. She then went right up on stage. Before I grabbed her I quickly got the nod that that was okay. So she stood up there and danced. And when the song was over everyone clapped and her face lit up as though she thought they were applauding her. She also clapped for herself.






There was another group that played and several of the kids went up on stage and danced. The only problem was that they also had scheduled dancers and when they were on stage I had to keep A off. She didn't like this one bit. Obviously, SHE was the best dancer and should not be keep off the stage. There was also an enormous sand pile that she could go and play in when she wasn't permitted to be on stage.







Over all we had a lot of fun. I can imagine how much more she would enjoy it next year and hopefully we could make it more worthwhile by staying a bit longer.

My Yard Sucks, but it can still be fun

Our yard is a mess. We cut down some trees weeks ago and don't have a truck to get rid of them. My garden is only growing weeds this year because I didn't bother planting vegetables until the trees were cut down and it could get some decent sun. Our shed is ugly and we want to replace it but it's all we got so for now, it stays.




I've been avoiding the back yard as much as possible. I've been focusing on my front flowerbed and the flowerbed along the side of the house. They are pretty and make me feel happy.





Unfortunately the back yard could be avoided no longer since the play structure was built. The kid, she wants to play. And it's been so ridiculously hot here that I set A's pool up (on the garden of weeds) and filled it up. My girl, she loves the water. On Sunday I set up my lounger with the funky 70's flower pattern and sat in my ugly (but has potential) yard reading and watching my daughter splash in the pool or play on the slide.





I have to say, it wasn't so bad. I dream of having a gorgeous backyard. A backyard oasis if you will. And it will happen, one day. We're working on it.

Summer Fun

It must be summer, I'm getting really slack with blogging.

We recently made a great purchase. It's called a WeeRide. Great name which can be interpreted one of two ways.

One - The child is 'Wee' and gets to go for a ride.
Two - The ride is fun and the child goes “WEE!”

Miss A prefers to say “Yee Haw!” instead of “Wee!” but whatever. Last night was only the second ride we've gone on and the first was just her and I. Last night we went on a family ride. It was so much fun.




I have been missing bike riding and knew that we couldn't afford a fancy pants chariot type thingy so I thought we were out of luck. But when we went to my niece's grad in another province I saw a guy and his kid using this WeeRide thing. When we got home I called a cycling store to ask about it and they directed me to Canadian Tire. So off I went and for what I thought was a very modest and reasonable amount we can now go riding as a family.

Now all we need is more time together to actually go riding!

A Fair Time

So we took Miss A to the Fair on Saturday evening. We met one of my coworkers there whose son is four. He was her ride buddy. Although I had been excited about going I was also nervous. Was she going to have a fit after every ride? Was it going to be one big fight after another?

Thankfully, it was not. We did have some outbursts, yes. While standing in line for our first ride, the Carousel, she nearly clawed my eyes out. But once she got a taste for the sweet, sweet riding... we were pretty much good. Just as I suspected, she had no fear. We went on the swings together and then her and T her riding buddy went on a Jeep ride and she rode on the back of his motorcycle while he kept popping wheelies. In between smiles she seemed to spend a lot of time staring at the 'guts' of the ride and was trying to figure out how it all worked. I have my suspicions that she may grow up to be an engineer.







The Petting Zoo was also a hit. She loved the baby chicks and ducklings. She saw kittens for the first time which must have been shocking since our cat weighs nearly 20lbs. I think she enjoyed the baby goats or 'kids' the best. She ran around to each of them and pet them on their backs. Unfortunately I didn't seem to be able to catch this with my camera. This is the best I could do.



We each enjoyed this part the best. I because it was an enclosed area so I just had to make sure she didn't scale the fence to escape. And she enjoyed climbing on the hay bales as much as seeing the animals.

We also sampled some classic 'Fair Food' such as the hot dog and the mini donut. (Okay, I sampled many of these!) All in all we had a pretty fabulous time and her behavior was as near to angelic as it ever is. We captured almost everything on video but not enough on camera. It's difficult to capture people when they're whizzing by. And Miss A is pretty much always whizzing around whether she's on a ride or not.

I'm thinking if the Fair was so fun this year I can't imagine how much better it will be next summer.

Visiting

This weekend we went to visit some friends in the city. We had an absolutely lovely time. I hadn't seen my friend 'M' in so long and it always amazes me how we are so easy with each other as though no time has passed at all. She has the sweetest little boy who is so gentle and kind. I think Miss A kind of overwhelmed him what with her running around yelling, squealing and dangling from death defying heights. They seemed to get along though and the two of them had the cutest little kiss before bedtime.

And thankfully it turned out that I worried for nothing about her disrupting their whole household routine and everyone's ability to sleep. A little time spent laying with her on a bed in the room she slept in and she was out like a light and didn't make a peep till morning. Hurray.

She also had nice naps on the way in and out the city. We took this picture in my friend's driveway right after we arrived.

Last night a DJ Saved my Life

First of all I was lazy on Sunday and I didn't announce that BON won Say WHAT? this week. 'Red Dawn' is one of Peter's favorite 80's movies. I mostly just like it because it has Patrick Swayze and Jennifer Grey in it, pre-Dirty Dancing.





And speaking of dancing... I went dancing on Saturday as I mentioned here. Almost everything went according to plan.

-Baby to bed on time CHECK
-Babysitters settled in CHECK
-Dancing attire donned CHECK
-Husband CHECK
-Have a great time CHECK
-Baby sleeps till morning ?

Unfortunately not. I had a 5:15 wake up call and a baby that didn't want to stay in her bed. So I did something that I haven't ever really done since she was tiny and we were desperate. I let her sleep in our bed. I have tried it other times in desperation but it has never worked. She has never actually slept. She just picks our noses or puts her fingers in our ears. But this time she did sleep. And I grabbed whatever extra ZZZ's I could so my fatigued body could somehow function the next day.

Was it worth it? Absolutely. The evening was perfect. I was so happy that Peter actually came along. He sat with our friends and chatted while I was on the dance floor. Every once in a while I came back for a kiss and a glass of coke. He looks a little pained in this picture but that's probably because I was ridiculously hyper.



I danced. And danced. And danced. DJ Hunnicutt and Mama Cutsworth were amazing. Everyone loved them. The dance floor was packed until the bitter end. Between sets I was able to have a chat with my former school mate which was nice. I asked for his permission to take a photo and put it on my blog. He told me he would “love that”. So, cool. Here we are. For some reason I look bored, which I absolutely wasn't. Let's pretend I look cool instead.



And here is a photo that appeared on the front of our local newspaper yesterday. I usually miss hearing about these events until they are over. I am glad that I made it to this one. It was worth losing sleep over.

The Wondersitters

We have been blessed with the worlds best babysitters. They are two sisters who have been clients of mine for a couple of years. They have recently moved to the city from the nearby small town the lived in. They are the sweetest, friendliest, greatest girls. They let me know that they would be living nearby and that they'd love to babysit for us if we needed them. How could I pass up an offer like that?

They have been babysitting while Peter and I go to our small group. This past week was their second time looking after A. Each time went smashingly well. It was totally clear how much Miss A adores these girls. When we arrive home they tell us about everything they did together and how much fun they had. Last time they even took pictures of her with their camera phones! They think of things to do with A that we would never think of. They spend the entire time playing and doing fun stuff. (I wish I had the time to do that.)

The most amazing part is that they genuinely enjoy looking after her. They think A is hilarious and when they talk about her it's almost as if she is their little sister or their niece or something. It just makes Peter and I smile and feel so relieved to have these girls watching A.

I can honestly say that I don't know very many girls their age that are as responsible as they are. Not to mention girls their age that actually want to babysit. Shouldn't they be doing more important things like going out with friends, text messaging, chatting on the internet, talking on the phone or washing their hair? If Miss A grows up to be anything like either of these sisters I will congratulate myself on a job well done as a parent.