I paid her $100 today

I came home from work today and I could smell the Pine Sol from outside!! I found a new cleaning lady (thank you Tewwwi) and she spent 5 hours scrubbing my house today.

It's been a few months since I've had a cleaning lady and my house was DISGUSTING. When I say disgusting I mean that when I walked barefoot in my son's room the other day, I felt at least 4 unknown substances in the carpet.

I've had many cleaning ladies over the years and the one bummer is that you can't always find your stuff. It gets put somewhere different. My new "cleaning angel" not only put moved the clutter but she rearranged furniture!!! And ya know what? I don't care. So far I have found everything I was looking for in a nearby location . I actually like the way she rearranged my bedroom.

I do however need to explain to her that she can't shut off my cable box 'cause then my TIVO doesn't record. So I missed a day of soaps and I spent $100 today, but the removal of germs and dustbunnies and sticky stuff on the carpet, is soooooooo worth the price!!!!!!!!

Kai Man (aka poopboy)

This sweet little boy is a cancer survivor at 3 1/2 years old!! He had a brain tumor removed in July and then endured 6+ weeks of radiation at the Children's Hospital at Stanford.

I created a blog to share info. with his friends and family and to raise money for the huge costs of medical treatments.

On October 23, we're having a Benefit BBQ at the Santa Margarita Park, just blocks from his house. We're got Tim Jackson playing music and a silent auction. It's been a big undertaking but I hope will be fun and successful.

Beauty

My sister and brother-in-law went on a 2 week adventure around Arizona. Beauty, heh?!

I will not say it another time

Capricorn Horoscope for week of October 6, 2005
In his poem "Jerusalem, Easter," Stanley Moss writes,
"On this bright Easter morning
smelling of Arab bread,
what if God simply changed his mind
and called out into the city,
'Thou shalt not kill,' and, like an angry father, 'I will not say it another time!'
They are praying too much in Jerusalem . . ."
With this as your inspiration, Capricorn, I'd like you to meditate on two themes:
1) What crucial message do you keep getting from God or life but continue to ignore?
2) Is there a certain ideal you say you believe in but sometimes neglect to carry out in your day-to-day encounters?

Those are some heavy questions to ponder. I read Brezny every week in the New Times. This week's is particularly good!

AS IF

My son was reading a book before bed tonight in which the characters are Lego's (there's a cartoon of these Lego people on Nick Toons or some such thing).
First, I must say that I'm so very relieved that my son is actually sounding out words by himself and not throwing the book across the room in frustration when he can't read every word perfectly. And because of this amazing new skill of his, I'm listening to him read in more of a read-me-a-story-and-I'll-fall-asleep kind of way.
So tonight Wayne's reading and I'm relaxing and one of the Lego characters says "I can't believe my ears" to which he mutters...... AS IF LEGO'S HAVE EARS. I found this hilariously funny and I laughed and then he laughed and then we laughed together. He has this great new laugh that is childlike and sweet and innocent. I find this totally delightful because my child isn't often childlike and sweet and innocent.
These are the moments that make me think "I will not strangle him today" and "I will not pack my bags and run away from home".

I was not properly warned about motherhood

Note To Self: when the bathroom smells really good it is because one of your very expensive hair products has been used by your son as part of some game he his playing while bathing.

You would think after so many years of this behavior, I wouldn't be surprised when my son plays with my always-expensive hair products. I often say my son is a "funny little guy" but what I mean by that is that he is often unexplainable, odd, & downright weird.

At perhaps the age of 2 or so, he started emptying mass amounts of not only my hair products, but his own shampoo & bubble bath, into his bath. I started taking all the stuff out of the bathtub before he got in but he figured out he could get out to rummage the bathroom for fun, yummy smelling stuff. He has explored many options over the years; recently he found it fun to spray the air freshener all over the mirror.

Here's the thing. This is an expensive and messy behavior. I don't clean my house much as it is so cleaning up unneccessary messes is SO out of the question.

I punish him. I make him give me money from his piggy bank. I make him get out of the bathtub early. I make him go to bed early. I lecture him. I talk incessantly about my frustration. And the thing with punishing him is that it usually punishes me too. Taking away TV or toys or hog-tying him to his bed makes MY life more difficult. Yes, that sounds stupid.

Of course parenthood is difficult and takes time and energy and is a full-time, thankless job. I knew that or so I thought! What I didn't understand is that there ARE NO words to actually describe parenthood.

And to think I actually applied for this job. I signed up for it. I signed the contract. I "prepared" for it. I studied for it.

Note To Self: tell future parents that there are no preparations, no books, no words that adequately describe parenthood. It's a learn-as-you-go job.

Computers and Cars

Computers and Cars have one very important thing in common; they just need to work. Life's too short to spend time fixing them. I have two co-workers that had cars completely break down in the last two weeks. So not OK.

So the fact that my blog has been giving me grief is so trivial and yet I bitch.

First the navigation bar wasn't working right for weeks and it bugged me so much that I didn't write anything. Thank gawwwd Jess fixed it this week. You'd think I'd have found someone at work to fix it but alas it was a friend I haven't talked to in about 16 years.

Then I tried to upload a picture (3 times) to this blogentry but there is an error. Buggers.

Oh well. My flickr account is updated and re-organized (I upgraded to Pro). Plus I just figured out how to add a hyperlink.

And my car works! Yippeeee.

One of THOSE dreams

Have you ever had one of THOSE dreams about someone you know and when you see him (or her, if that's your preference), you can barely look him in the eye because you KNOW him intimately now but you're not supposed to??!!
It was a great dream. Very hot! Lots of forbidden intimacy. I can't tell you anymore because then I wouldn't be able to look you in the eye either.

GIRL POWER

18 women from my work gathered for a baby shower luncheon last week.

For most of the first two years at my work there was less than 10 women. Now we have 20!!

Other than two other women who has come and gone a few times over the past 5 years, I've been at WA longer than any of us.

And only 5 of us are in Mktg/Actg/HR/Admin jobs. The rest are "billable"!!

I salute the women who came before me at WA!! This is a victory for all of us.

Maybe Tomorrow

I logged into iTunes and choose the soundtrack from the movie Crash. The first song is called Maybe Tomorrow. The chorus says:
Maybe Tomorrow
I'll find my way home

Very appropriate. There are amazingly positive things happening as a result of Katrina but it won't bring back the lives lost; the horrors experienced. Do we ALWAYS have to learn the hardway?!

One of the many scary things I've read lately are the Rants & Raves on SLO's Craigslist. There are actual human beings that say awful , stupid things about the victim's of Katrina. Can people really be that judgmental? I can totally understand why people were looting and shooting and crying and feeling sorry for themselves. But I can't understand why people think they can judge others.

The movie Crash should be required watching for every human being.