My Real Life

Yesterday was Kim’s bridal shower.

It was absolutely lovely.

I’ve never seen such an entertaining and perfect bride.

She made the rounds to the tables multiple times, each time, having entertaining things to say to the entire table.

Before opening the gifts, she gave a speech to the room introducing Kerry, her maid of honor, Michaela, Erin and I, her mother-in-law to be and her mother.  It was quite lovely.

As she opened her gifts, she would not only read the card aloud to tell us who the gift was from, but she would also tell us how she knew the person and told a small anecdote about the person.

She would also tell us why they had registered for that particular gift.

It made the present-opening portion of the afternoon, normally the longest and most boring part of any shower, delightful.

Of course, when her friend, Jess, did push-ups in the corner, that was pretty entertaining as well.

My favorite part of the afternoon was simply the opportunity to celebrate Kim for awhile longer.

In her speech before opening gifts she mentioned that she has been a bridesmaid 13 times and can’t stop crying over the fact that it’s finally her turn.

And I’m so very glad it’s her turn, because it’s an honor to finally be able to celebrate someone who has been busy celebrating us all of these years.

After the shower, I headed to Monkey in the Middle’s football game and spent the evening with the family, but at 9, I hopped back in the car to pick up Erin and Michaela (Kim was all showered-out by 9) and we went to see Pitch Perfect.

Which I loved.

Movie review portion of the blog ahead.

This movie made me smile.

Big.

I wanted to just stand up and starting belting out the tunes with the group and harmonize with them right there in the theater.

Which might have been okay, because there were only about 15 people in the theater.

Many people call it Glee for college, but it was quite different than Glee.

It was edgier and I loved the songs that the groups were doing and the way they all mashed together.

Although I couldn’t stand Anna Kendrick in the Twilight movies and was surprised at the choice of her as the lead, she did a great job with the role and I really enjoyed her character, as well as almost every other character in the film.

It’s not a film for kids, so I won’t be taking Monkey Girl to see it, but man, did I love this movie.

As they knew I would, after dropping off the girls, I plugged in my phone and started belting out the tunes.

So, great day to celebrate Kim, great night to hang with the girls.

Congrats to my Kimmie.

So very, very glad it’s your turn.

1.  I discovered the magazine “Mental Floss” while at Michaela’s apartment a few weekends ago.

Total mind candy for a nerd such as myself.

I now follow them on Facebook as well and am delighted with the tidbits of trivia and articles they share.

Until this little feature.

Playgrounds from Hell.

Made me laugh as an adult, but would have set me up for decades of therapy as a child.

14 years ago today, I married the love of my life.

We’ve made a home, we’ve made a family, we’ve made a life.

Happy Anniversary to my sweetheart…Real Man.

I love you.

My sister-in-law has a blog named “Why We Yell.”

I thought that, today, I might share with you why WE yell.

Because, if we don’t, we won’t be heard.

Here’s a snippet of Saturday evening at our home.

Monkey in the Middle and Baby Monkey were sitting at the piano, creating commercial jingles.

Loudly.

They had been at it for awhile, and finally I realized that someday, they might like to hear it.

So, I turned on my phone and started recording, unbeknownst to them.

I put the phone on the mantel and sat down.

And it continued.

Love that they weren’t plugged into anything and were being creative.

Yet, it’s why WE yell.

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Don’t feel like you have to listen to the whole thing.

We have a phenomenon in our home called “GCA.”

It started years ago when Real Man and I started dating.

I noticed that every time he would chew gum, his attitude would change.

He’d become all tough and badass.

Pair some sunglasses with the gum and watch out Pacino.

When I finally made the connection between the gum and the attitude, I came up with a name for it.

GCA.

Gum Chewin’ Attitude.

I can tell when he’s chewing gum even when we are on the phone, and no, it’s not because I can hear him chomping.

“Hi sweetie!” I say.

“Hey,” is the response I get through the phone line.

“How’s your day?”

“Good.”

Pause.

“Are you chewing gum?”

“Yep.”

He likes to say that I get GCA, too, but that totally isn’t true.

I’m chewing gum right now and there is no GCA in sight.

And if there was, you wanna make somethin’ outta it?

Baby and Monkey Girl love to chew gum, but so far, they haven’t inherited GCA.

In fact, I think Baby has GCC.

Yes…Gum Chewin’ Cuteness.

So, if you see Real Man coming down the street and his jaws are working, if you engage in conversation with him, just know that he’s not mad at you.

It’s the gum.

“You’ll see.”

Two of my least favorite words in the English language

It used to drive me nuts, as a kid, when my parents would say that.

And now, my kids say it to each other all the time.

I find these words to be mental torture.

“Oh,” starts Monkey Girl.  “I want to show you something on my iTouch!”

“What is it?” says Baby Monkey.

“You’ll see,” she says.

“I reached an awesome level this morning on the xBox game!” says Monkey in the Middle.

“Ooh, tell me about it,” says Monkey Girl.

“I’m doing something else right now,” he replies.  “You’ll see later.”

They tease each other with little bits of information and then hold off on the reveal.

It drives me INSANE and I already know what it is that they are hiding.

I guess it’s a power play.

A way of saying “Na, na, na, na, na, na,” without doing the sing-song.

Even without siblings of my own, I know that this will pass.

But right now, it makes me nuts.

1.  Les Miserables

In a way I cannot even put into words, I am beyond excited for the release of Les Miserables.

I read the book in 8th grade English and was mesmerized by the story.

I have seen the Broadway show 6 times, and have sobbed my way through every single time.

And now, this, which brings so much more emotion to the story.

My friend, Tara, and I were talking about this the other day and she was saying that she’s loved the Broadway show, but she’s always wanted to see their faces up close while they acted and sang and I thought that hit the nail on the head perfectly.

I watched this extended trailer and cried and cried and then watched it again and cried some more.

It’s the story and the music put together, and this time, the raw emotion that you can see as they bring it all to life.

I simply cannot wait.

2.  V/H/S

I’m hopeful that this could be the scary movie of the season for me.

Someone passed out when they screened it at Sundance.

That bodes well.

Or says bad things about Sundance, but still.

Fingers crossed.

3.  Thanksgiving

We alternate holidays between the in-laws and this is our year with my parents.

We usually do Thanksgiving with my parents at their house.

However, our dining room table was delivered this week and now I can’t wait for Thanksgiving.

I just love the idea of a big family gathering here, in our space.

And, you know, it’s nice to have the leftovers in our fridge.

Cold turkey.

Nothing better.

4.  Halloween episodes of tv shows.

Since I was a kid, I loved the Halloween episodes even better than the winter holiday specials.

They aren’t necessarily scary, but they are fun to watch.

Especially when I’m watching with Monkey Girl, who is also a big fan of the Halloween episodes.

Fun.

5.  The next great book I read.

I’m in the market for a great book.

A really great book.

I spent the summer reading Nora Roberts books, and they were entertaining and had really good stories, but let’s be honest…they weren’t great literature.

I’m up for something great.

As I said in a previous post, I recently finished “Shadow of Night” and thoroughly enjoyed it, but now it’s over.

My book club (and I use the term “my” lightly as I’m dying to actually get to one of the meetings, but haven’t been able to make it work with our family schedule yet) is reading “Life of Pi” for the next meeting, and I have to be honest, I have no desire to read it.

I will, but I don’t wanna.

So, when I’m done, I need something great, because there is nothing like losing yourself in a book.

6.  October 27th

It’s when I walk in the Step Out: Walk to Stop Diabetes.

I’m excited to be around so many people working toward the same goal.

I’m excited to be part of something that can make a difference.

I met my original goal of $500 and am now working toward $750!

I would be remiss if I didn’t ask you, if you haven’t yet read my story, please visit my Walk Page and read it and consider a donation.

And if a donation isn’t in your future, please just keep the date in mind and send good thoughts our way that day!

It is 2:58 am and I’m wide awake.

Real Man and I tried, valiantly, to watch Revolution tonight, but neither of us lasted past 9:55.

I hit the ground running at 5:45 am and literally don’t stop until I collapse into bed at 9:00.

So, why am I up, when I could barely keep my eyes open through dinner?

Tiny woke up around 2 and I went and rocked him and put him back in his crib and covered him up in all of his blankets and came back to bed.

And lay here, eyes wide open.

Once I’m up, I’m up.

There’s no going back, for me.

This lack of even an iota of downtime means that my mind doesn’t have time to do the usual thinking and dreaming and worrying and planning that it needs to do during the day, and so it’s grabbing the chance.

“Body finally still?” It asks.

“Excellent…now it’s MY time to run.”

And so it does.

So, what do I do?

After setting it free for about thirty minutes, I try to harness it here. Try to guide my thoughts into a coherent, less frantic state of being. Try to force some order and sense into my mind.

So that when I put down the iPad again, all is quiet in my head and I can grab a bit more sleep.

Because, if I fall asleep right NOW I’ll be able to get at least two and a half hours of sleep.

Two hours twenty five minutes.

Two hours twenty.

Darn.

1.  Last summer, Real Man bought a Jeep.

Suddenly, he noticed people were waving to him when he was driving.

All the time.

At first we thought that maybe people just liked the Jeep, and then we noticed that all of the people who were waving were also driving Jeeps.

We started to think that, maybe, it was a “thing.”

So, we did what everyone does when they don’t know something.

We googled it.

And it is, in fact, a “thing.”

There are forums dedicated to the “Jeep Wave.”

Who knew?

2.  I spent all day Saturday and Saturday night in the city with Kim, Erin and Michaela.

We had a fantastic time together and I just love those girls.

Kim did a Mark Wahlberg impression that had me almost snorting my boneless pork ribs out of my nose.

(BTW…Buddakan has the most delicious boneless pork ribs I have ever, ever eaten.  They made them special for us because they cook a lot of their food in oyster sauce which would have had me stabbing myself in the thigh with an Epi-Pen, but I’m sure they were just as good in the oyster sauce!)

We slept in Kim’s apartment which was absolutely dead silent while we slept.

And yet…

6:48 am, guess who was wide awake?

Yep.  Me.

Hate that.

3.  How much do I love the fact that the entire adult cast of Modern Family was nominated for Best Actor or Best Actresses, and that two of them won.

That show makes me laugh out loud every single week.

Congrats.

4.  Here Comes Honey Boo Boo.

Stayed away for a very long time.

Caught one episode.

Sat like a zombie with my mouth open in complete disbelief of what I was seeing.

Can’t. Look. Away.

However, the one thing I will say is that they all seem very, very happy in their lives, and that’s gotta count for something.

5.  I wonder…if I ever won an Emmy award if I would remember to thank everyone I wanted to thank, or if I’d be in such shock that I’d thank the guys at the food service truck and completely forget Real Man and the kids.

I like to think that I’d be able to keep my wits about me, but I wouldn’t put money on it.

6.  I just finished the book “Shadow of Night” by Deborah Harkness.

It’s the second in a trilogy, and I read the first book last year: “The Discovery of Witches.”

So good.

So very good.

However, I had to wait a year for the second one to come out and now I have to wait a year for the third one to come out.

Grrrr…

Finding a trilogy after they’ve all been written = fun.

Finding a trilogy at the beginning of the trilogy = an exercise in extreme patience.

7.  The monkeys are interested in doing another video blog for you, however, we need questions!

So, if you have any questions for the monkeys, please drop them in the comments below!

Have a great week!

Today I thought I might post things as they happen.

I’m heading into the city today to spend the day and night with the girls in a little rest and relaxation centered bachelorette-type deal for Kim.

Nothing crazy…lunch, dinner, chilling with the girls.

Perfect.

So, throughout the day (providing my phone cooperates) I’ll be posting what I’m doing in real time.

Which means the blog won’t be finished until the end of the day, but seeing a work in progress is always fun, too!

7:24

Getting some last minute snuggles.

9:29 am
On my way!

11:00
Reunited!

11:56 am
SOHO street fair

12:17 pm
Bobo for lunch!

1:57 pm
Le Petite Puppy

2:31 pm
Shopping break

4:14 pm
A little shoe shopping

5:12 pm
The bride bought US all slippers for our slumber party!

5:49 pm
Snacks at Kim’s place
The best cheese ever

6:31 pm
Ready to go to dinner
Me and the bride 🙂

7:12 pm
Buddakan for dinner

10:30 pm
Back to Kim’s for our slumber party!