Silent Night

Guess who slept through the night last night? Go on...GUESS!

Today is a good day. The Boy slept for 12 straight hours last night, the Husband is home and we're having lunch. And me? I'm typing this in my pre-pregnancy skinny jeans. Today is a good day.

Me too.

So, Miss Emily just left a comment saying that she's ready for our men to come home and I wholeheartedly agree!

I'm missing the Husband like crazy. The Boy misses his Dad. Burnstopia is a lonely place without the Husband.

He'll be home late tonight, which should be fun if he gets up to greet the Boy in the morning!

Hey! You remember how I said that I was going to do all sorts of things while the Husband was away? I was going to blog! and cook! and sew! and workout! And you know what I did? None of that! I worked. I got a freelance project that took a few hours over the past couple of days and it was fun because I am a dork, but now I'm down to the last day of the Husband's trip and I'm looking around and thinking, "Wow. I should probably get some stuff done."

So, once again, I'm putting off the David Copperfield post in favor of being productive in Burnstopia. Not to worry though, (HA! am cracking myself up at the thought that any of you are waiting for a post about a 900 page novel!) I will get to it by the weekend, I'm sure.

Follow-up

So, in answer to Whimsy's very pertinent questions, the Husband is leaving for the ACHE conference in Chicago, America. In fact, he just left to go to the airport and I am sad.

Also, very, very tired, but mostly sad.

You know how marriage is, sometimes everything is great and you date and talk and laugh and have wonderful discussions (like we've had recently) and sometimes you're leading two distinct lives and it's more passing conversations about what happened in the course of the day. Even when it's not so great, he's still my best friend and the love of my life and I'm going to miss him like crazy. I count it as no small success when I can make him laugh, because, dude, he's a tough audience.

Anyway.

We watched the Fountain with Rachel Weiz and shoot...the guy who plays Wolverine...Hugh Jackman! It was billed as a sci-fi love story and it was...sort of. We're not entirely sure that we "get it." It was good in a very abstract sort of way, but there's no getting around that it's about DEATH.

Anyway, it was very touching how much he loved his wife, and I quite enjoyed it, if only because I've read so much Tolkien and when seen in context with Tolkien's views on mortality and death it was a very powerful movie. I would watch it again, but NOT before the Husband has to fly away for a conference.

We were talking last night and he said to me, "Airplane's are perfectly safe." And my response to him was, "Airplanes are perfectly highjackable and subject to crashing because, Dude, GRAVITY."

I'm pretty sure that he was not amused. Also, I'm pretty sure that "highjackable" is not a word, but I'm a little distressed so I think I'm allowed.

We had a marvelous time in Bed Sweet Bed talking about all the things it would be nice to be able to say, but lo, we need a job. So he will go and schmooze and hob his nob off, and be his charming and wonderfully intelligent self, and the Boy and I will stay here and hope that the airplanes do not crash and are not highjacked. Also, I will be reading books about LIFE and LIVING and NOT death.

And I may even get around to writing that post about David Copperfield (about LIFE and LIVING and NOT about death) and identity...you just never know, for I am unpredictable in that way.

Note

When your beloved is going to be flying in an airplane to go to a big hoity-toity conference for four days, DON'T watch a movie about DEATH.

March Madness

When you live in North Carolina you get asked about basketball. A Lot. I usually give people my patented Blank Stare when they ask me about basketball. And if they really don't get it then they ask me, "Aren't you a fan?" To which I respond with my Scornful Sneer. No. I am not a fan. In all fairness, I did the same thing in Georgia but with football. I don't like sports in general, though I have been known to enjoy some Olympics upon occasion.

So in Burnstopia, March Madness takes on a different flavor. It looks a bit more like this:

Behold, the new car seat NOT in the car!
[edited to add: it is now installed, we only had to remove one headrest to make it fit!]

The Boy having grits and eggs for DINNER not breakfast.
We are wild and crazy cats around here.
[edited to add: he was nonplussed about the whole grits and eggs experience.]

This isn't that crazy at all, he's just really cute.

Ok. So this post is totally one for the Grandmas, I'm coming back with my next post about David Copperfield. So stay tuned for more free associating stream of consciousness!

Am Cracking Myself UP!

So, I've been exchanging emails with one of my bestest friends for a few days now. It started about the doldrums but now it's just spiraled out of control.

Example:

She emailed me because she is setting herself up (legally speaking) to do dietary and nutrition consulting and she was soliciting ideas for a business name, something appropriate to put on a business card.

I started thinking of everything I know about one of my best girls and this is what I came up with:

S____ S_____, RD: It's ok to eat M&Ms for dinner sometimes.
Dietary and Nutrition Consulting

OR

S____ S_____, RD: I drank gravy once on a dare, and so can YOU!
Dietary and Nutrition Consulting

Knowing her, she'll be tempted but end up doing something sensible, so HURRY! Vote for your pick for what you'd like to see on a nutrition consultant's business card! She reads the blog, so she'll see them and you never know, she just might take you up on that dare! (For she is awesome!)

Doldrums

Well, hello there. I didn't forget. I keep a blog. Just not very well, of late.

We've had a bit of the doldrums here. Well, more than a bit. Really since...well, December. And since it's such a perfect word to describe what's going on in Burnstopia (for all of you who might be interested), I googled it.

dol⋅drums [dohl-drumz]--noun (usually plural)/ˈdoʊldrəmz, ˈdɒl-, ˈdɔl-/ Show Spelled Pronunciation

1.	a state of inactivity or stagnation, as in business or art: August is a time of doldrums for many enterprises.

2.	the doldrums, a. a belt of calms and light baffling winds north of the equator between the northern and southern trade winds in the Atlantic and Pacific oceans. b. the weather prevailing in this area.

3.	a dull, listless, depressed mood; low spirits.

And that about sums it up. I do apologize if I have abandoned said blog, but it's starting to feel like I should be funny here, and well, there's nothing funny happening right now. There is a great deal of waiting. Waiting for the Husband to graduate, waiting for a job/fellowship, waiting for the Boy to crawl, waiting for the rest of our life to begin...

I know I should enjoy this relatively peaceful time. But people, I'm a PLANNER. I want to be planning for the FUTURE. I want, nay, I NEED to know where we're going to be and what we're going to be doing. The suspense, is literally KILLING me. Drowning by drops.

Which is probably what has led me back to Dickens. For some reason, when I'm feeling particularly listless and dreary, I turn to my lovely Friend Dickens. He makes me laugh, he makes me cry, he makes me think.

Three years ago (I think it was three years ago), I had reread this article about the declining readership of dear old Dickens and the author was saying that 100 years ago every middle class household would have had 3 staples in their libraries. The Bible, the collected works of Shakespeare and the collected works of Charles Dickens. The Bible was for edification, Shakespeare was for culture and Dickens was for FUN. She was lamenting the fact that since the advent of television, children are no longer raised on Dickens as they would have been at one time. And at that point I resolved that I would read ALL of Dickens. And I would raise any kids we should have on Dickens.

I started out fairly methodically, I read Sketches by Boz, Pickwick Papers, Oliver Twist, The Old Curiosity Shop and Nicholas Nickleby but then I got up to Barnaby Rudge, and well, I just didn't feel like reading Barnaby Rudge. So I moved on to Martin Chuzzlewit and I didn't really feel like reading that either so I switched to Dombey and Son and got so DEPRESSED that then I decided methodical shmodical--I reread the Christmas books every year so I would read the novels in the order I wanted. I reread Bleak House (an old favorite), I reread Tale of Two Cities (was BLOWN AWAY by its brilliance) and then moved on to Our Mutual Friend (a NEW favorite). I've now gone back to pick up David Copperfield.

And that is where I leave you for now. I had some interesting revelations during the first 100 pages of that lovely novel. But you'll have to stay tune to find out what I've learned.

Choices

Well.

I have this post that I want to write about identity and how mine is a-changing, but...well, the Boy is asleep and the Husband is playing another round of golf, so instead, I'm going to take a nap too.

Life. It's all about the choices.

This is Spring Break!

I would like to welcome you all to Spring Break in Burnstopia.

The Husband? He is golfing.

The Wife? She is sick...and thus, home with the Boy and a box of Kleenex.

The Boy? It is perhaps easier to show you...

I'm happy...

I'm happy...

I'm SAD!

WOE! Why isn't this working?!?

How about if I lay down and look cute?

As Promised...

Behold, Beef. It's what's for dinner...




Please try to ignore the enormous piles of laundry in the back. We don't normally set our child down to play in the dirty clothes.

Lovely, lovely snow day...

Yeah...it snowed.

Have I mentioned that LOVE snow?

Anyway, last night we had a family dinner at my Beautiful Sister's house and I had the opportunity to re-steal West Wing from my Charming Brother-in-law. And not for nothing, it was just in TIME! We have ourselves a snow day and the Boy and I are snuggling under fleecy blankets and watching my favorite episodes.

Thank you Sister of MINE!

Also, there's this...we were hanging out last night and the Beautiful Sister sent one of my hilarious nephews upstairs to get some plastic food for the Boy to chew on and of the assortment delivered by the hilarious nephew, and what does the Boy choose? The big plastic steak.

I'm still trying to get a picture. When I do, just know that it shall be posted.