RELATIVES VERSUS STRANGERS

Friday, June 27, 2008

So in a pinch if you were in trouble - who would you rely upon, a relative or a stranger?

Before you answer so quickly, let me tell you a vacation story.

So there I was in the heat of a Southern Missouri morning. With my extended family, we were at a lovely resort overlooking a calm lake and enjoying each other's company while miniature golfing, and meanwhile Becca was working on her monkey bar callouses. I was with Becca - not because I am too worried about her on the monkey bars, but because I notice that strangers are QUITE worried that Becca will fall to her death.

So there's the first hint - here I am nonchalantly watching Becca hang 20 feet in the air and other moms are sort of walking around with outstretched arms thinking she's going to crack her head open.

It had rained the night before - really hard. If you haven't been watching the news, let me tell you, people in the Bible Belt are thinking they are going to see Noah float by any moment now. So the ground was extremely wet.

I started to walk down the hill between the playground and the miniature golf course - when WHAMMO - I slid on the wet grass and being in flip flops and on an incline and in complete slush, there was no saving myself. I went down. Kind of flat on my back. (and I might have made a little "umph" noise - I'm not sure)

And this is when anyone witnessing the event could easily tell exactly who my relatives were, and who the strangers were. My relatives laughed. Hard! And pointed! And made sure any relatives that had not seen the whole event, at least saw the aftermath! So they could laugh TOGETHER!

Including Becca, whom I had been spotting! (Casually, maybe, but I woulda caught her...)

(in fact if you are related to me - you're laughing now! QUIT IT)

The strangers rushed over and said "Oh my gosh! Are you OK? Can I help you up? Are you sure?"

And that made the relatives laugh even harder if there was such a thing. Blanche from Streetcar Named Desire did say "I've always depended on the kindness of strangers" - yeah baby.

TEETH WITH GOALS

Monday, June 16, 2008

Hey we were looking at a local freebie magazine over the weekend and our dentist is on the back cover! Pretty funny.

I remember when we first moved here and he asked me what goals I had for my teeth. This was pressure. I have goals for so many parts of my life, but teeth were not one of them... I started to get paranoid, thinking, am I some sort of dental slacker for not having teeth goals? The only thing I could think was that I wanted to keep them as long as possible.

But as you can see, Dr. Galli has teeth goals for himself. They are as white as the sailboat in the background painting, and they are big enough to offset his forehead. Well, I suppose if your dentist has lousy teeth you should worry.

My first dentist in Chicago (Dr. Shoneberg - who I went to till he retired) had really normal teeth. They were not Dr. Galli celebrity teeth. They kind of overlapped and there wasn't all kind of crazy tooth whitening going on. And he would say things like "you don't have to floss all your teeth. Just the ones you want to keep."

Sigh. In many ways, I will always be a Midwesterner...

DON FINALLY MOVED IN

Friday, June 13, 2008

Corvette photo shrine is finally hanging up in the garage.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TOOOO YOOOOOO

Friday, June 06, 2008

Today's Don's birthday. I figured with my schedule the best gift I could give him was time. So I took the day off. We ate breakfast out, walked on the beach, had an iced tea at a coffee shop - ahhhh it was nice.

I took Becca and Sarah shopping the other night while Don was at the HOA meeting, so they could pick out gifts for Dad. Here's what they got him:

Becca:

• post-it notes (cuz he is always complaining we never have any)
• chocolate (cuz Becca is always complaining we never have any)
• a book light (she originally wanted to get him a lightbulb, but there were too many varieties and she felt she was going to choose one that "wasn't his favorite kind")
• a really big spatula (the kind you use to flip burgers on the grill)

Sarah:

• salt & pepper shakers (the kind that grind the salt and pepper fresh for you - Don likes fresh pepper)
• a model Corvette car

They picked out their own cards too. It was really cute. Random, but cute.

A MINUTE AND 40 SECONDS OF MEMORIES

Thursday, June 05, 2008

Here's a bunch of events that happened over the springtime... all mashed together.

Baba's visit - during which we rode on the Duffy Boats in Newport Beach with my cousin Steven, his wife Marci, my Uncle Allan and Aunt Phyllis.

Mother's Day - during which we visited Balboa Park and some nice museums.

And my Grandpa Dave's stone dedication - during which we enjoyed very much my nephew Zach and my niece Nora becoming a preschool cousin's club.

OK the photos don't really go together - except they're people I love and days I'll remember.

Music: Beautiful Day by U2

MONDERWEAR

Monday, June 02, 2008

OK tip!

If you have an anally retentive child, do NOT I repeat DO NOT GET a set of underwear that is 1 for each day of the week.

"Mom?"

"Yes, Sarah?"

"Can I wear the same underwear to bed that I wore today to school?"

"Ummm... NO!?"

"How come?"

"Because... EWWWWW!!!!"

"What do you mean?"

"I mean - you know - EWWWWW!!!!!!"

"But Mom. They aren't dirty!"

"Sarah. You just took a shower. You cannot put your clean butt in dirty panties."

"But. I'm confused and I don't know what to do. The new underwear is sooooo nice, and it feels good."

"OK so put on another pair of them."

"I can't. It's not Tuesday yet."

"OK so what do you think is going to happen?!? You are going to hear a voice in the bed: SAAAARAAAAH. THIS IS YOUR BUTTTTTT. I CAN'T SLEEP BECAUSE IT'S NOT TUESDAY YET, I CAN'T GO TO SLEEP TILL MIDNIIIIIIGHT."

"Well no. But shouldn't I wear the Tuesday underwear tomorrow?"

"Oh for God's sake. OK put on some other day. Like Saturday. Saturday's party day. Par-tay!"

"Mom what are you saying? I don't understand."

"I'm saying - get a clean pair of underwear. On your butt now."

And it went on for 10 more minutes. She's wearing a pair of the old underwear to avoid day conflict. And now I need to go and buy another packet of days of the week underwear so there will be an AM and a PM pair.

My own fault, I have lived with this person for 10 years.