Happy Birthday, Baby!!!

Today my Spark is 5 years old!!!! Whoo Hoo! We had the mondo-uber blow-out celebration (watch this space for pics of the world's coolest racecar cakes On . The. Planet produced entirely by the amazingly Crafty RSP! coming soon....) on Sunday which was awesome and spectacular and which COMPLETELY tired this old lady out but gosh. So many beautiful people under one roof celebrating the grand-ness that is my Spark turning 5.... well, it just brings a tear to my eye. {sniff} Double thanks to the all who attended (watch this space as well for pics of Mistah Lovah-Lovah crouched on the carpet surrounded by rapt 5/6 y.o as he explained the intricasies of the "Cootie" assembling process.... Classic!)

Did I already say "Whoo Hoo!"??? Whoo flippin' Hoo! Man, I do love you guys......

Lalalala

I am having a massage today. I cannot stand how exciting that is to me!

Other things I'm excited about include:

1) Spark's B-day celebration which is happening on Sunday and which i just made the "definitely confimed" list for (sheesh, how are there so many people who love my kid/like helping us celebrate her entry into the world????)

2)My job. I still really like it here.

3)Little wedding books that the Bees/my best-est buddies in the entire world are going to mock-up samples of and which I CANNOT wait to see...

4)Getting my big girl tonight! That's right folks, I get her extra this week (not sure why I'm so blessed. I can only ash-hume I saved someone's life in another of mine.)

Yay. Happy me.

Perspective

Use it or lose it. I gave an ex boyfriend of mine a shirt that had that written on it. Over time the letters started to drop off so in the end it said "Persp tiv use or ose it!" We thought this was kind of hilarious.

So, just coming off a tiny tiff with the fiancee (c'mon! it can't all be wine and roses all the time right???) and I'm checking my e-mail and i find that an old friend of mine has just recently lost his mother to a series of illnesses beginning with chronic heart failure and culminating in a lethal infection in her legs. Reading his words made me think (again) about exactly what it is I think I'm in this life for (kids, GalPal, intellectual stimulation, happiness, justice, etc.) and that I would do well to stop getting my proverbial panties in a bunch about (e.g. petty jealousies, whose turn it is to walk the dog/how can i get out of it being *my* turn! the L Word, etc.) and anyway, just made me rethink my earlier decision to be sad/resigned/bummed versus grateful/sappy/content.

Anyhoo, all my condolences go out. I'm so sorry for your loss, my friend. I hope the life brings you a new beginning to help fill the old (or an entirely new) spot. And, of course, if there's anything I can do to assist the happy part of continuing on, please do NOT hesitate to ask!

I love my professor.

and I hate The L word. Now typically I'd go ahead and put a link in here that goes to the offensive piece of sexist, stereotypical pandering but I'm actually not going to. I'm not going to because I don't think it needs any more "publicity" than it currently gets from all those "girls who love to hate it!" out there. Seriously. How is it possible that smart, funny, well-reasoning people (e.g. the majority of my friends) are on-board with the whole "Maxim-Live" aspect of this show but at the same time make it clear that they are not at all amused when confronted with the actual magazine. Is it because this show is supposed to be for "us" whereas the mag is more open about it's representing a straight male gaze? It weirds me out because I happen to like the magazine. I think it's taken satire and raised it to a new level. Sure it panders but at least it admits that that's what it's doing. It's not all "tackling real world lesbian issues while at the same time making sure to include at least two tit shots for each policy point just in case, you know, the (definitely NOT straight male) audience gets bored or something with all that discussion of why it's o.k./feminist to wrestle in cooking oil. Take back the oil! Wait. Whatever. I feel bad for having such a gutteral reaction to what is generally dismissed as "just a TV show" but to me it's a little like saying "Why is everyone so upset, he's just the president! It's not like he represents us or anything!" Admittedly, i've only seen it twice. It's possible I'm missing something. I still have to say though, watching that kind of thing makes me think back to the good ole days of I Dream of Genie. Remember, when noone thought it was weird that some half dressed blonde chick would be at "the Major's" beck and call? "Groundbreaking!" I hear the sudio execs/writers shouting as they patted themselves on the back for scripting a show about a "strong, independent female character who didn't have to be married to be happy!" oh. wait. except. At the very end there where she did......Well. At least it was entertaining, right?



"'No longer a show about lesbians, this series has evolved into a show about people.' Will they have to call it The P Word now? No wait, that sounds like a show about urinary infections, and I don't think I want to know what that would evolve into ..."

I'm happy.

Just really, really happy. Great job. Great Gal. The world's best kids. Awesome friends. Even the dog is doing pretty spectacularly!

Now then, in keeping with the new job/cultural learning segment of our life, I offer you a thought for your Shabbat (courtesy of one of the resident rabbis -- Rabbi Eve)

Sometimes

Sometimes things don’t go, after all,
from bad to worse.
Some years, muscadel
faces down frost; green thrives; the crops don’t fail,
sometimes a [wo/]man aims high, and all goes well.
A people sometimes will step back from war;
elect an honest [wo/]man; decide they care
enough, that they can’t leave some stranger poor.
Some [wo/]men become what they were born for.

Sometimes our best efforts do not go amiss;
sometimes we do as we meant to,
The sun will sometimes melt a field of sorrow
that seemed hard frozen;

May it happen for you.

-Sheenagh Pugh

Scratch that... start over...

O.K. so what I MEANT to say was "Yay me! I'm going to work for JCC!" Yeah, the Birken-peeps (heretofore known as the Birkenflakes!) couldn't get their sh*t together long enough to work out a contract so I had to respectfully decline thier semi-sorta-offer-of-employment (maybe) in favor of the OTHER really nice company that was not only very excited about having me start immediately but who also proved exceptionally flexible/charitable in terms of not being mad that i essentially told them they just weren't going to be "able to meet my needs" only to come crawling back, still with a bunch of other conditions for them to meet (which they did!) Suffice to say, they are awesome. i am happy and as of Monday, I am once again working in the City! Whoo hoo!