“When he left here, he had an eye.”

Sometimes I just don’t know whether to laugh or cry.  In the old days I used to cry a lot more.  Now, most of the time I don’t care enough to cry, and the WTF-moments are so ridiculous that I’m beyond crying.

Tonight was supposed to be a double-sleepover, with Adlani at Shane’s house and Victoria here with Aliya.  Adlani has literally been counting the days since we picked the date a month ago.  Every morning when he wakes up, he asks how many more days until the sleepover.

So we got everything packed and went over to the Funsecas’ to drop off Adlani and pick up Vic.  Karen and I needed wine after a long, hard week, so we ordered pizza and let the kids run around the yard while we chatted.  Norah was home with Ben, so it was a little more relaxing than it would have been otherwise.

There were several altercations during the running-around-the-yard period, with various kids coming to us crying that so-and-so had hit her with the swing, somebody stepped on his hand, etc.  Just as it started to get dark, Adlani started shrieking and walking across the yard with his eyes closed.  Ever since the pencil-in-the-eye, Adlani has been really sensitive about his eyes, and the sound that he makes when he gets poked in the eye makes me want to pierce my own eardrums.

The shrieking went on, and on, and on, and finally I decided that the boys’ half of the sleepover would have to be postponed, at which point both boys were crying.  Ugh!  I thought this was supposed to be fun!  What a blast!

I drove home with Aliya, Vic, and the shrieker, gave him some Motrin and put him to bed.  After he woke up crying for the 8 zillionth time, I told Ben it was his turn to comfort him.  It is now 12:41 a.m.  The eye-poke occurred at 8:30.  Ben just came downstairs and told me that the eye-poke was my fault, I was supposed to be watching them, I let it happen, so he was washing his hands of the problem and going to bed, leaving Adlani crying again/still.  I was incredulous!
Me: “You’re saying that it’s my fault that the kid got poked in the eye?!?!”
Ben: “When he left here, he had an eye.  Now he doesn’t.  You deal with it.”

A little part of me wanted to cry at the unfairness of the accusation.  A big part of me wanted to scream, “BITE ME, DINGLEBERRY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!”

The girls tried to make the best of it and have fun despite the shrieking.  Here’s their rendition of the Taylor Swift hit, You Belong With Me:

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iIEIRZK6IyI&hl=en_US&fs=1&rel=0]


Ladies of the ‘Ham

A private screening of Sex and the City 2, organized by Luscious Lana and attended by 92 Ladies of the ‘Ham…a great time was had by all but those who get annoyed by people talking during a movie.

Before:

During:

After:

Thanks for organizing, Lana!

Canon Rebel T1i

When I was getting ready to go to Costa Rica I realized that I HAD to upgrade my camera.  I hesitated because it was right after Christmas and I didn’t feel like I should spend the $$, but I got a great deal on Amazon.com, and my friend Rob did the research and told me what to buy so I just took the path of least resistance and went for it.

I’m so glad I did.  I LOVE this camera – seriously.  L-O-V-E.  Aliya did her project for the research fair on bees, and when we were at Old Sturbridge Village last weekend she saw a bee on some flowers and asked me to take some photos for her project.  The photos came out so great!  There were some challenges with the papier-mâché and clay beehive but after the structural collapse I had the brilliant idea of re-inflating a balloon inside until it dried (I had to pop the first one before putting it in the oven to speed the drying process).  It’s looking sort of like a brown clay balloon, but Aliya put it all into perspective when she said, “Don’t worry about it Mom.  We’re in second grade.  They don’t expect that much.”

Anyway, here’s one of the bee photos (click on it for higher resolution).  Isn’t it cool??  And if you think it’s easy to take a photo of a bee, give it a go.

Camp

Last spring I mentioned to a friend that it was almost time to head out to our camp and she responded, “I don’t know what you like about that place.”  She went on to say that I spent my weekends there doing some of the same stuff that I do at home – cooking, cleaning, and listening to the kids fight over nothing.  We have to pack up every Friday and fight the traffic on the Pike.  We share the camp with my brother and sister-in-law, so we clean up when we leave on Sunday.  Seems like a hassle.

For some reason it feels different out there.  In fact, it’s not even so much about liking the place, it’s more of a NEED.  I NEED to go there because it’s the ONLY place that I relax.  I know, I should just learn how to relax at home but so far I haven’t been able to master that.  There’s always laundry piled up, errands to run, or emails demanding my attention…if I ever lay around for a day at home I’m almost always deathly ill.

Our camp in Holland (MA) is a tiny (600 SF) ranch, on a tiny (.16 acre) lot that’s basically vertical.  We have a small beach on Hamilton Reservoir that we share with 7 other houses.  I honestly don’t know why I can’t relax anywhere else, but as soon as I turn onto Holland Road on the way out of Sturbridge I feel so happy, even though just 10 minutes prior I was wearing earplugs to cut the volume of the whining and screaming coming from the back seat.

We arrived at camp around 6 p.m. last Friday, with pizza that we picked up on the way.  I ate dinner, drank 2 Oranj & Frescas, and fell asleep at 7 and slept for almost 12 hours (I usually sleep 5-6 hours per night).  Over the 3-day weekend I read 2 entire books, took at least 3 naps, played games, made s’mores, and went for a couple of walks.  We made a trip to civilization on Saturday to load up on provisions, and spent a few hours at Old Sturbridge Village, where we take full advantage of our membership.  Today I found the energy to knock a few things off the to-do list, followed by more reading and another nap.

I expect that the kids will eventually think camp is boring and start giving me trouble about going, but right now they love it as much as I do.  They love to play in the water and fish, but tonight when I asked Aliya why she loved camp, she said it was because we get to spend a lot of time together there.  I don’t know how many years I have before the kids get sick of spending time with us, but for now, that’s what I like about that place.

Travel Photos

Anyone who has spent any time with me in public knows that I often whip out my camera at unexpected moments and take photos of doors.  It’s a little bit embarrassing, especially when I’m taking pictures in the ladies’ room, but I need material for my other blog which is about doors and hardware.

Most people take doors for granted as long as they open all the way and the doorknob doesn’t fall of in their hand.  But when I look at a door I’m immediately registering what type of hardware it has (usually including brand and model number), whether there’s anything unusual about the opening, and if there are any code violations.  It’s a curse, but it’s deeply ingrained in my personality at this point.

This morning I got an email from my friend Gia, who recently visited Paris with her husband and two of our other friends.  Attached to the email were two photos that she had taken for me in Notre Dame Cathedral.  I expected that they would be door photos because I’m sure Notre Dame has huge, beautiful doors.  I cracked up when I opened the files and they were photos of a code violation!  Phase 2 of my plan for worldwide door domination is coming together – I’m turning my friends into hardware nerds!

So during your summer vacation keep an eye out for doors – beautiful, ugly, broken, chained, blocked, or otherwise interesting in some way, and send me some photos!  And have a great Memorial Day weekend!

Here’s a link to Gia’s photo:  Click Here