He came...

He saw, he annoyed me, he left. That is I think he left. He SAID he was leaving and not coming back but I've heard THAT before so... fingers crossed though. Although this particular visit was admittedly unlike most of our other interactions, i'm still just not feeling like I want to try parenting three kids. :-]

Good-bye DB. Thanks for stopping by. Let's do it again in a few years! I'm exhausted. I think i'm going to go to sleep now.

Blah...

I am UNBELIEVABLY tired. I had a VERY nice (hot, sexy, sweet) visit from my boyfriend last night which lasted until the wee hours (I do this awfully adorable thing where I stay awake as long as I can then fall asleep on him and he has to show himself out. Cute that he hasn't robbed me blind/given up on my pathetic ass yet! ;-]) This was tiring in and of itself but THEN, right around 4am i hear an eerily familiar "tap, tap, tap..." I wake up disconcerted. I stare around. i swear under my breath. put on my robe -- go open the front door and ... lo and behold ... guess who's back from Texas? Hopefully, it's just for a (short) visit. Hopefully, someone is not planning on staying at my place beyond last night/today. Hopefully, I will remember the (albeit still being "discussed") vows i've made to the very nice boy I'm dating vis a vis not having extra-relationship sex in general/screwing 20+ year olds in particular -- even if those 20-somethings seem to have vastly improved their attitudes and/or are still scarily attractive. Man. See, this is where I could really use a "sponsor", preferably someone who has been able (for at least 10 years) to resist having sex with random beautiful boys who show up in the middle of the night promising to "finish" what some other boy "started"...!

Never kiss your baby...

So, I was telling my kid about this study i heard about on This American Life which was focusing on love as it affects babies' development. So, there's this guy Harry Harlow who did this series of tests with baby Rhesus monkeys where he gave the baby monkeys two "mommies": a wire one and a "cloth"/soft one. the upshot of the experiment was that even though the wire mother was the one with the food, the baby monkey preferred to spend time cuddled up to the "cloth" Mommy. The upshot of recounting this upshot was that at one point last night I had both of my babies on my lap and the eldest one announces: "Mmmmmm... Cloth Mommy!" Killed me. seriously. what did i do to deserve such a sweetie????? k. This is what else we managed to accomplish this week-end.

1) Made THE world's coolest mix tape for the Spark (we made one for Boo about a month ago but I was waiting for some specific CDs to show up before I put together the littlest one's. Serious, Jason mraz singing "Rainbow Connection"? A ska version of Animal's "Manamana"? How you gonna top that???? Yeah, I couldn't think how to do it either so we waited...)

2) introduced the big girl to the world's second coolest musical, Jesus Christ Superstar (Grease being the first) and while explaining why all those dancing people want to kill the nice guy with the sweet smile to a kid who hasn't exactly been raised "within the christian church" was a bit of all stretch, it all worked out in the end. (I mean, really it's all about belting out the soundtrack at the top of your lungs in the car/restaurant/laundrymat etc. so watching the movie itself is more just to provide context.)

3) Had breakfast with the CP. Boo got a drink named after her (half and half lemonade and orange juice. Next time you're at the Park Restaurant on Piedmont Ave. in Oakland, ask for a "Dakota" and see what they give you!

4) Did more laundry than should be allowed in a free state

5) Went on the world's nicest walk in the world's nicest weather to the store where we ended up getting A-Freakin-Dorable halloween hat things; one of which has cool purple braids attached.

All of this and still managed to get my work done for work so.... have to say it's been a good coupla days! :-]

---

Note to Travelin' Man -- I need your phone number! Yes, i am just that lame but i would also like to add that it is customary, even among friends who have known each toher forever, to occassionally leave a number at which they'd like to be called back when leaving a message just in case the person they're trying to hook up with is away from their datebook, or out wnadering the streets armed only with a cellphone or really just that lame...! Please??? I want to talk to you! :-]

Just got back from Boo's new school

So, basically Boo walks into her new class and it's like Cheers, circa 1990 -- "Boo!"

I'm telling you, man, I don't know where she gets it but that kid's a freaking celebrity. At least she's low-key about it. One smallish queenly wave then straight to her seat where she instantly becomes VERY interested it her new text (which I'm gonna assume is the same as her old text but whaddaya want. She's being modest fer chrissakes!) Oh! And yay me, the *new* school's back-to-school-night is TOMORROW! {grumble} At least they have a really amazing garden. :-]

YES!

My kid got into her new school!! Whoo Hoo! O.K. for those of you who haven't had to listen to me obsess about sending my sweet little baby into the middle school hell of suddenly being one-of-2000 instead of one-of-450 students, here's the sitch...

Kid is currently in the 4th grade at a medium-sized K-5 elementary school; meaning next year we were faced with three scenarios:

1) Try to get her transfered into a K-8 school along with every other parent who is also terrified that their children will be swallowed whole at the bigger middle schools.

2) Send kid to uber-middle school and pray she doesn't get squashed.

3) Spend what was supposed to be her college tuition sending her to a private middle school which (on all sorts of levels) just seems really wrong.

OR

we could try to get her switched to a K-8 now since she's guaranteed to have a place for the next year or so in a school we know we like so if she doesn't get in for whatever reason we've still got some wiggle room... And now we've just heard she's IN. Yay! new school starts tomorrow.

Super cool things about new school include: Boo already having friends there, the fact that she still gets to go to the same aftercare program at ther "old" school so she'll still see all her same friends and that there's now a slightly greater chance (not like I'm crossing my fingers or anything but you never know) that her little sister can go to her same school since SF has that sibling policy thing and i could maybe get a working-in-SF waiver so my officially oakland-based little one could come here as well..... (!!) It's all just so exciting!

Funny strange, not funny "ha-ha"...

Witness the following conversation [setting: a standard san francisco birthday party]

Relative of the birthday girl: [to another relative whilst watching some cliff climbing happening] So, who's the boy she's climbing with?
2nd Relative: that's J. they've known each other forever. He's kind of got a thing for her.
ROBG: Really?
2R: Yeah, he tried to invite her over for dinner last year for Valentine's Day but it was her brother's birthday so she had to go to his party instead. {smug} But I think she likes him too.
Me: No. [both turn to look at me, eyebrows raised] {knowledgeable tone} I mean, she likes him alot as a friend but D. told me she actually likes K. in her class. [shrug as all three of us turn to look sadly at poor unrequited J.]

K. So. typically SF drama, right? Except these are 9-YEAR-OLDS we're discussing!! I know. At some point I'm going to get all blase about his but seriously. right this second it's FREAKING ME OUT.

{sigh} Anyways. Thanks to the Bee fam for short-notice little girl watching so I could go be a party to this cliff climbing, non-gift giving (we brought a gift and were soundly reprimanded by the kid's mom) hen party party. You guys are the best. And I'm NOT just saying that because I secretly harbor a fantasy of all of us riding off into the sunset of our middle years safely esconsed mere doors from each other in lovely Las Vegas, NM. Also, Happy B-day to the precocious-est five year old I know! Good job getting older. Your moms and I couldn't be more proud!

Not a huge fan...

of Back-to-school night. Oh sure, I mean, I get the concept all about going to the school and meeting the kid's teacher and finding out what the child will be learning and all of that but honestly, isn't that what open house is for? Actually, this whole thing is like an open house but not as much fun. The kids are supposed to be in "childcare" so they don't detract "from the message" which is just plain wierd since the whole point of the message is the KIDS -- and also slightly ill-planned if you have little-little kids and you're single-parenting them since the kid-care has a nice open door and only two adults and lots of OTHER kids so your littlest one gets to experience the thrill of hunting you down (three flights of stairs and around a corner!) but again... not the worst experience just a little, well, a little tiring/stressful for the grown-ups is all. Actually, I'm sure all the other parents were fine. Probably just me who was thinking about all the other ways I could be hanging out (or not) with my kids. {sigh} Anyhoo....

Dammit!

I was thiiiiissss close to having this whole work situation wrapped up! Shoot. o.K. sorry. breathe..... back to the drawing board. :-]

A so goes another week-end...

In the overpacked life of a single-parent(ish) 30-something working, schoolgirl mother...
So, this journalism student over at SFSU just called me to do a phone interview (she's doing a piece on "women in technology" -- no idea how she ended up with me (more like "women who front in technology!") and we went through the standard questions, what do you do, what do you like, what is difficult, blah, blah, blah and she wraps up with "O.k. enough about work, kids, school -- what do you do for fun? Like do you go out or watch TV or what?" I have to say, I was a little stumped. I mean, I describe the LIFE to someone my age and they nod sagely and offer me more wine, but to a kid...? Seriously. What do I do for fun? I think hanging out and looking at my kids is fun. I think getting a sitter and going to my BBQ's house for the world's most amazing chicken/squash/red things dinner party with my new boyfriend and my favoritest set of "happily-marrieds" is fun. I think (in a kind of sick way) staying home from work so I can crank out yet another 30 page paper on my way to my doctorate is fun.... Which (I think) either means I am unable to ascertain any longer what "real" fun looks like or it places me pretty soundly in a whole other category of life-being from this aspiring journalist that may not be easily understood but it seems pretty authentically come by and so is jest fine by me. (Tee Hee. I just used the word "authentic" in a non-ironic way. I'm such a grown-up!)

Alyssa Kiearra!

My baby brother and his lovely gal-pal have chosen to name my newest niece Alyssa Kierra I was gonna call her "Ally" but now that I've seen the most recent sonogram pics, I'm thinking she looks more like a "Ki-Ki!" Yay!

Yesterday I was in a bad mood (I think i'm getting sick again. Grrr!) and I was being all snappy and short-tempered and so of course the childrens were all miserable too (although, remarkably the baby isn't being as tantrumy of late. This time when i snapped at her to finish her supper she just got all sad warbley voice and sat up and ate. Sniffed alot and did the lip pooch out thing but no screaming. Interesting.) So, at one point i go looking for the big kid and she's in her loft and I notice that she's written "Nobody loves me" on her white board with a sad emoticon face! Seriously. If the Feds weren't so busy fighting terrorists, I swear CPS would be knocking at my door tomorrow! Sheesh...

WHO just gave their kid the cutest haircut ever?? Yup. That would be moi. Of course, said haircut was helped along greatly by the fact that I have the cutest kid ever pretty much regardless of current hairstyle but still. Not nearrly as short as we'd originally discussed but she kept pointing to seriously short layered cuts as examples but then talking about having ponytails so... I went with the "O.K. we'll do this in stages" cut and let her check it out every so often so we ended with layered bob thing with chin-length bangs. A-dor-rable! Yay!