Sad news, my friends. In case you hadn’t heard, Nate Dogg died yesterday. ::tear:: Let us pause to pour a little out from our 40s in his memory…
No more will we get to hear those silky smooth vocals on such lyrics as “ooo I like your size.” Ah, that clear black night and clear white moon will always hold a spot in my hip-hop heart.
Regulators!! Mount up!
R and I went to the Willie Nelson and Family show last night at one of the small local theaters downtown and it was amazing! Fantastic, stupendous, ridiculously fun and awesome, I just can’t come up with enough adjectives to describe it. Amaze-balls!
Willie has long been one of my favorite musicians. And I mean long as in I’ve listened to him since I was a baby. Literally. His Stardust album is a staple in our cocktail hour music selection when we go on our family vacation, so each time I hear it I’m instantly transported to one of my favorite places on earth. Plus he’s just a legend. What more reason would I need to go see him? We saw him when he opened for Bob Dylan last year at Summerfest, but that show didn’t compare to this one in the slightest. That one we were up in the back seats of the amphitheater so he was just a tiny blip on the stage wearing a cowboy hat; this one we were in the 8th row, center section, so we could see each hair of his braids and the worn-out hole in Trigger no problem. That one we had to rely on the crappy amphitheater sound system to try to catch some lyrics we knew; this one was crystal clear and provided every opportunity to sing along to some of my favorite songs. That one he only played a brief sample of his hits; this one he played a solid hour and a half, non-stop, rockin’ compilation of new and old.
We missed him the last time he played a smaller, more intimate venue here, so when we saw he was playing one of the theaters again we jumped at the chance and I bought tickets the minute they went on sale. I ended up getting the best seats of any concert we’ve been to, and they couldn’t have been for a better show. He opened with “Whiskey River” (are you kidding?? one of my faves!!), threw in some “Beer for my Horses” and “Gotta Get Drunk”, slowed things down with one of my all-time favorites “Georgia”, did an off-the-charts awesome rendition of “Bobby McGee” (it was hilarious – at one point he kind of paused and said, “Ha, I forgot the words”. and Willie Nelson can totally get away with that!), went a little “Crazy”….. It was unbelievable! I can’t even list the whole fabulous set.
Are you ready for the best part? I GOT TO SHAKE HIS HAND!!!! Me, SM, got to shake the legendary guitar-strumming hand of the one and only Willie Nelson! At the end of the show he came up to the front of the stage to greet fans, and I couldn’t resist. I got right up there, stuck my hand out, and he grabbed it, pointed at me, and winked! ::swoon:: And just prior to that, he’d blown me a kiss at the end of one of the last songs, which I gladly returned. Ohmygosh Willie Nelson blew me a kiss!! And no, I’m not just speculating that said air kiss was blown in my general direction, it was right to me. The guy next to us and one further down our row both even came up to me and said, “He blew you a kiss!” Proof positive. The only thing that could’ve made the night better was if I’d caught one of the 3 red bandanas he tossed into the crowd, but none of them made it back to our row.
Those of you non-Willie fans are probably like woo great, SM, big deal. But I’m still riding that high, and will be for a long time. Oh, no, not that same kind of high that Willie enjoys – gheesh, it was a work night show, and I’ve got a 7 month old who’s still nursing. 😉
I love you, Willie!!
p.s. I have to give credit for “amaze-balls” to my sister M. Thanks, I stole it. 🙂
A box of Thin Mints just landed on my desk. And I’m hungry…
+    Growling stomach    =    
I’ve been waiting for the day I could finally post this entry, and that day has arrived…. The roof at Miller Park is open!!
I have kept an eye on it for a couple weeks now, as I can see the ballpark from one of the bridges I take to work each morning. I think because this winter has been so awful and I’m desperate for nicer weather to arrive, I’ve been awaiting that open roof as yet another sign that Spring is officially on the way. Each morning I’d glance over and see the snow-covered roof still firmly closed, but this morning the great park was wide open with the lights blazing inside. Hooray!!!
For those of you who have no idea what I’m talking about, Miller Park is where the Milwaukee Brewers play baseball, and the stadium is right in the city. We have spent countless spring and summer hours there, and a couple exciting fall ones too, rooting on the Brew Crew. It’s a great place to gather with friends, take your family, or just hang out on a warm Sunday afternoon when you have nothing better to do. Granted it’s not as great as it was a few years ago since they keep jacking up the parking fee and ticket price, but still.
Unfortunately I won’t be able to make it to opening day this year, so I’ll have to follow along with the play-by-play on the radio. But just hearing Ueck calling the game with the excitement of the crowd roaring in the background will make it seem like I’m there too. I can smell the brats grilling and feel the electricity of that first home game of the season now.
Play ball!
Ahh… doesn’t that picture just scream summer? I can’t wait!
Check out these videos from the tsunami last week. Talk about an incredible, yet horribly destructive, force of nature. The first one is a first-person view of the tsunami as it hit Japan, and the second one shows what it looked like by the time it reached San Francisco Bay.
http://gizmodo.com/#!5781566/this-is-the-scariest-first+person-video-of-the-japan-tsunami-yet
http://gizmodo.com/#!5781221/the-japan-tsunami-casually-hits-the-san-francisco-bay
My thoughts and prayers go out to all those in Japan and around the world who have been affected. Nature certainly is amazing and never fails to remind us who really rules this planet.
That is not the title I was planning for this post, but it’s now quite apropos seeing how this morning started off… Saturday morning I had set my alarm forward 45 minutes and completely forgot to change it back to my normal time last night. Nothing like having your first thought in the morning be “Oh shit” when you realize that mistake. And so much for remembering to set the clocks ahead for daylight saving time, since I woke up 45 minutes late today anyway. Oops!
Then I had to scramble to get ready this morning so I was out of the bathroom in time for R when his alarm goes off at 6:30 (I didn’t get up until 6:15, so getting ready in 15 minutes is a world record for me!). I got D changed and dressed in a flash and fed her so she was all set for daycare, but didn’t have time to pump the other side before work. So I’m now all lopsided and feeling ready to explode. (sorry, tmi, but it’s no fun being me right now) Double oops, or ouch, I should say!
Then when I took the floor mats for the car out of the dryer on our way out the door I discovered that a) they still weren’t completely dry, and 2) they had gotten dirty, muddy water all over the dryer that was now caked on the drum. Fantastic. The car wash shampooed them yesterday with just a big pressure washer/vacuum hose but warned that they wouldn’t be totally dry, so the cashier recommended putting them in the dryer to finish the job. Obviously their shampooing system isn’t the greatest, and putting floor mats in the dryer isn’t exactly efficient. Triple oops!
So you see, Monday morning strikes again, ugh.
But on to what I really wanted to write, which was a little weekend recap. Saturday morning I tested the waters in my first swim practice since D was born. It went well, probably because I swam shorter distances than everyone else and got out early. Hey, I can. 😉 But it was great to see everyone on the team again, and it always feels good to stretch out the flippers after a long break out of the pool.
That afternoon the second of our friends in this string of Ron Dayne 33rd birthdays celebrated his, so we went over to their house for a couple hours before everyone headed off to the bars on a pub crawl. D doesn’t crawl yet, so we headed home at that point to clean the house. Ooo-wee! Yes, very exciting. I must admit, though, I always feel great when the house is clean and laundry is done. Nerd, I know.
We have such a great circle of friends, and it’s so much fun getting out and about again with everybody. This coming weekend will make 3 weekends in a row of many of us being together, which is practically unheard of. We said that probably hasn’t happened since a bunch of us lived downtown within a few blocks of each other a couple years ago. Too bad it also means we keep spreading our winter germs around and getting each other sick each week. Ah well, c’est la vie. 🙂
Yesterday R watched D for a couple hours while I ran some errands, which were nice to get done. My final stop was at the Coach store near our house to take advantage of the 25% off offer I mentioned last week. And yes, I did end up getting that swingpack I’ve been eying. They were sold out of the one I wanted online and at the store, but they were able to order it for me and have it shipped directly to our house. Kudos to you, Katherine at Coach. So someday this week I should have a pretty little package waiting for me when I get home. It’ll be just like Christmas! Ok, or maybe St. Patty’s. 😉
I wrapped up yesterday afternoon with a little of this, which adds a bit of wonderful to any day:
That is a question I guess most everyone must answer at some point in his or her life – do I want to have kids, or do I not want to have kids? And if I do, in what way will I begin that process?
It is a very personal and sometimes very private decision. And I know for many it is not always that simple; some who so very badly want children are unable to have their own. It can become a very heart-breaking struggle, and in no way, shape, or form do I want to give the impression that I am making light of anyone who has had to endure such hurdles in building a family. I just want to share a little of my own tale…
Never was I the type of person who thought, oh I can’t wait to be a mom! Not that I definitely didn’t want to – I always assumed that someday I’d probably have kids – but more that it just wasn’t something I really thought about that much. I was always more of the vein, “Oh your kids are really cute, but you can keep them over there with you.” 😉
Even once R and I were married, baby fever never set in like it does for a lot of people. We didn’t really discuss kids either – when we wanted to start having them, if we wanted to start having them, how many, etc. I think we both just figured we’d have them eventually. I knew R wanted kids for sure, but I still wasn’t 100% convinced that being a parent was right for me.
Fortunately we never got the “So when are you going to have a baby?” prodding from either of our families, so I never felt any pressure to hop on that train.
I loved our life as a couple – we could do whatever we wanted, whenever we wanted, we could go wherever we pleased, and we could do it all with very little advance notice or planning. We had a ridiculous amount of fun, and it was just the two of us. That was my biggest qualm about having kids – I didn’t want to share R. Oh yeah, I’m selfish, too. 🙂
Then I turned 30.
Ugh.
The big 3-0.
Some people are like I’m 30, woo hoo, let’s par-tay!! I was like I’m 30, barf, I’m old, it’s the worst thing ever. I honestly wouldn’t have been surprised if the world ended on my 30th birthday, that’s how much I was dreading the day.
But it was also a biological turning point. I thought well, I’m 30, if we’re going to try to have kids, we’d better get started because I’m certainly not getting any younger.
I really believe it was not having a 2 to start my age that was the baby catalyst for me. Kind of like oo, 30, that’s very adult-sounding, you’d better have some kids soon if that’s what you want to do. Hmm, typing it out like this makes me sound more like a weirdo than anything, but that’s pretty much what my thought process was.
I was very lucky, too, that R was so chill about the whole thing. Like I said, he’d already revealed that he wanted to have kids, but he never pressured me either. So when I finally decided I was ready and asked him what he thought, I will never forget the sweetest words of his reply: “I’ve just been waiting for you.” ::melt my heart::
And when I told him that the biggest roadblock for me was not wanting to share him and missing having “just us”, he said, “It’ll just be a bigger us.” Well ok, now that you put it that way, it doesn’t sound quite so scary.
And so it began.
Now, I’m the type of person who likes to know exactly what’s going on instead of just leaving things to chance and seeing what happens. So I started tracking everything I could to figure out what my body was doing and how things were shaping up to make this happen. I had gone off the pill about 9 months before we really started “trying” to try to get my body back on its natural track. I was on it for roughly 10 years prior, so I was afraid I’d messed something up on the inside in that length of time.
Fortunately that wasn’t the case, and even though my natural cycles ended up being pretty long, I got pregnant on our second real attempt. D was starting to bake.
Fast forward just under 39 weeks, and we had a baby girl. Yikes!! Now what?
Utter and complete infatuation and love like I’ve never known, that’s what. As soon as we were out of the delivery room and trying to comprehend that we were now a family of 3, that’s when my baby fever set in.
I was in heaven.
It was the craziest thing I’ve ever experienced – in seemingly an instant I was a mom and it felt oh so right. Never in a million years would I have thought I would enjoy this, let alone love it. But I do. D is the most amazing thing we’ve ever done, and R was right – it is just a bigger “us” now.
Now here’s what’s been on my mind a lot lately. How do you know if/when you’re ready for more?
You’ll think I’m nuts, but as soon as D was born I immediately wanted another baby. I just really thrived being a new mommy and knowing that every single thing she needed came from us. That automatically became my #1 job – take care of and protect her.
And these past 7 1/2 months have been awesome. She is a beautiful, hilarious little person, and spending time with her just makes my day that much better. And I know we definitely want more kids, but I’m kind of back to my original question – how can I possibly share D with another child?
Will it be unfair to take time away from her to care for another baby, even though it will obviously be necessary? I certainly won’t ignore her when another one comes, but will she see it that way? Will she feel like Mommy loves the new baby more since that’s the one that will need so much attention at first? How long should we wait before trying for another, and how do we know what age span between the two (or more) we will be able to handle? And how can I possibly love someone else as much as I love this little girl?
I guess I just have to keep remembering that with each child I won’t be losing space in my heart or life for everyone else, I’m just expanding it exponentially for the newcomers. So, god-willing, hopefully we can add a few more to our brood and Mommy will be ok. Well, maybe not a “few” more, but hopefully at least one. 🙂
Stay tuned for D v2.0…
A mother is not a person to lean on but a person to make leaning unnecessary. ~Dorothy C. Fisher
