Though I wouldn’t say my boys are total opposites because they share lots of the same fundamental characteristics, they do have many differences. Take, for example, the way they both reacted as college freshmen to receiving packages from me. D, who is now a senior (finishing up this December, one semester early…HOLLA!), did not like packages from home. If you can believe it, he actually found it embarrassing. I have never heard of such a thing. Here I was, sending all kinds of goodies–in quantities that he could share with his friends, too–and after being at school for less than a semester he asked me to stop sending packages. After…
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Six Reasons Why Solo Road Trips Rock
I arrived in Columbus yesterday afternoon to spend a couple of days with Momo (we’re lunching with Christina while I’m here, too!). It took about six hours to get here (plus an extended lunch stop and visit with Tabatha in Dayton), and the drive was positively glorious. Nothing against my husband, boys, sister, or anyone else with whom I’ve ever hit the road, but solo road tripping is pretty darn amazing. Here’s why: 1. It’s quicker to get out the door when you’re traveling alone. I was only ten minutes behind my planned departure time of 5:00 a.m., easily made up before my first restroom stop. Not too shabby. 2.…
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DIY Brain
I have a confession to make. Inappropriate thoughts have been taking over my brain and making it hard for me to focus. You see, I’m thinking about DIY home renovations again. IT WASN’T MY FAULT. I blame Jim. He took me to Home Depot over the weekend so we could procure the supplies we need to re-roof and re-paint our shed, which we built about ten years ago. It’s in dire need of repair. Unfortunately, in order to get to the roof shingles at Home Depot, you have to walk through pretty much every single other department. I started drooling. It’s been nearly a year since we spent any time…
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Actively Waiting For College…
The raw emotions I was experiencing last week seem to have gone away (for now?) as we creep closer to Wednesday, which is “Take J to College Day”. We’ve moved into a different phase of college move-in prep, too: the “actively waiting” phase. Just like his older brother (who also chose a college in Wisconsin, where school doesn’t begin until after Labor Day) did, he watched all of his friends head off to school ahead of him. Now we are just shuffling around, trying to keep ourselves busy until it’s his turn. We all know that this is happening, that it is supposed to happen, and we wouldn’t want it…
- Childhood Memories, Confessions, Do I Really Want My Readers To Know This?, I'm Apparently Old., Something That Could Change Your Life
TV Or Not TV? That Is The Question.
It is not an understatement to say that television has been a major presence in my life. I’m convinced that the reason why my skin is so fair is because as a little kid I was much happier sitting in front of the TV than I was outside in the fresh air and sunshine. It’s also probably part of the reason why I was reading at a third grade level in Kindergarten, because “Sesame Street” and “The Electric Company”. It’s also probably why I never could perform a proper cartwheel. During the 1970s my TV habit grew, and this was BEFORE CABLE, kids. We had the rabbit ear antenna attached…
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We’ll Be Back To Your Regularly Scheduled Blog Posts…Soon.
Probably tomorrow, in fact. Today though, I feel the need to bump the Skydeck Chicago post down since it was a lead-in to a giveaway that is now over (Congrats, Shannon!), yet I don’t feel like writing much of anything. I am in the middle of my pre-empty nester mini-crisis which involves quite possibly the most manic behavior I’ve ever personally experienced. Full disclosure: I’ve been on the verge of tears since last Wednesday or so and did the ugly cry off and on all day Thursday and Friday. Yesterday and today were better. While I’m emotional (understatement), I can totally function in public like usual because that’s how I…
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Son Set
I really didn’t want to write about this–the emotion surrounding sending my kid off to college–since I wrote about it at length three years ago when I did it the first time, but I can’t help it. The fact is, I’m doing it again and I have returned to that state of mind. Under the circumstances, I feel an intense need for a cathartic release–again–especially because this time involves the added element of becoming an empty nester. Though I still carry a smile on my face and am truly, extremely happy, I have this inner shrieking and squirming that ebbs and flows underneath it all. The act of putting these…
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After The Conference That Shall Not Be Named
I couldn’t believe it this morning when I checked the date on my last post and realized it’s been nine days since I’ve blogged. I’ve never been “away” that long. (Remember when I used to post almost daily? hahahaha!) I plan to write a recap, like so many others, of my experience at “the conference that shall not be named”, but I need a little more time to gather thoughts and pictures for that. Right now I’m in the thick of my work–though you would think I would be back at normal levels of work because the conference is over, I’m actually just getting started. A big part of my…
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Foiled again.
We have a long history in our house of food labeling. I’m not talking about anything having to do with nutrition facts: I mean literally labeling food. As in, “J’s cereal”. The two people mostly likely to label their food are Jim and J, because they like many of the same things, meaning whenever I buy said items they don’t last long and one always blames the other for finishing it off. (You can read a great story–with pictures–about it in this old VINTAGE Suburban Scrawl post!) It’s been a while since the last kerfuffle over food, and I put it out of the front of my brain for the…
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PSA: Listen To Your Body!
Show of hands: how many of you listen to your body? Uh-huh. Same here. Over the years I have been a pretty stubborn person when it comes to going to the doctor. I’m not talking about physicals and womanly checkups and such. Those I do, no problem. What I mean is, when something out-of-the-ordinary comes up, I typically dig my heels in for as long as possible (Queen of Denial) rather than call my doctor. I usually make the call once Jim and I get into an argument discussion about how hard-headed I am. I don’t know for sure why I am the way I am when it comes to…