Come On. Oh My Star is Fading.

The shadow of myself.

This weekend The Guy did his first Cyclocross race in Des Moines. As I was still recovering from my cold and I didn't have the right clips on my shoes and I hadn't ever tried to even ride a cross course, decided to abstain from this one and hope to ride one this coming weekend.


The Guy charging over a barrier.

I had a blast just watching the race. I'm a little scared to do one myself, but I think the possibility of fun is outweighing my fear of getting hurt. I'll let you know if I'm singing a different song from my hospital bed after I actually race one...

El Bait Shop in Des Moines has an incredible beer selection on tap.

After the race on Saturday, we stopped at a cycling friendly bar The Guy read about on-line. it had an incredible beer selection and the bartender let us try all kinds of funky beers - ones made with chocolate and chipotle and raspberry. Very interesting.

The t-shirt The Guy won for getting 3rd place in his category on Sunday.

On Saturday night, we took Coadster and her boyfriend out for dinner. We wanted to do a family birthday dinner for Stinky, but since she had to work, we ate without her and will take her out another night.

On Sunday, we went back to the race and The Guy finished 3rd in his category. Pretty impressive. We went to Trader Joe's and stocked up, since we don't have one in Iowa City.

This weekend was also The Guy and my first anniversary. We've been through a lot this year, both good and bad and it's been great to have that support.

And Maybe We'll Get Lucky and We'll Both Grow Old

Here is a kitschy little thing.

Oh, kids. The big side effect of being this happy, apparently, is stupidity. But I guess it could be worse...I could be unhappy and stupid.

I know this is getting boring for you all, but I had another wonderful night with the guy. I decided to go back and make the meal that exploded on me on Friday. Tonight, went without incident. The salmon was perfect, the lemon spinach couscous was wonderful and the veggies sauteed in garlic butter and white wine were nice too. And all new and improved and glass free!

I got a text from a friend tonight letting me know that Erik and his friend Boom Boom were going to be in town and hosting a happy hour dealy at the Dublin tomorrow evening. I think I'll stop down around 6'ish when I get done giving a plasma and do a drive-by. I kind of like doing that - I breeze down, have one beer, say hello to everyone I want to say hello to and go on my merry little way. Easy breezy.

Well I Took a Stroll on the Old Wild Walk

Dude. I am so out of pictures, I have to steal them off of FB. Here is the only pic of me where you can't see my bad dance face.

Ahhhh. Tonight was lovely. Stinky went out to dinner with a friend and then to watch some show choir. I picked up the guy and he helped me finish making dinner. We had shrimp fajitas, refried beans and salsa and guac. It turned out really well.

The rest of the night was even better. We talked about books and running and writing and made plans to find cool places outside of town to go hiking and once it snows to go cross country skiing. We think he should be up for cross country skiing in a couple of months. I'm excited. I've only done it a few times, but it's one of those repetitive motion exercises like biking or running that I love so well.

So many things to look forward to...

What Will You Choose for to Share?

Some of the graffiti art we did at my art party.

So far, so good with the internet tonight. I'm so tired of it being all wonky. I'm glad it gave me a functional night.

The guy came over tonight. I made the soup and pumpkin bars last night, so I just had to throw together a salad and bake the brie and roast the garlic. He brought the bread, and we shared a bottle of Pinot Grigio. As usual, the conversation was great too. Lovely, lovely.

I love this time of year when it's getting cool enough to want to eat, but still warm enough to get everything fresh from the garden too. I feel so spoiled right now, in so many ways...

Wrap Around, Take a Hold of My Heart

Man, I am so out of pics. I'm not sure what I'm going to do if I can't get the USB port working...

So, I was talking with a friend of mine about how I ran too much a couple of weeks ago. My friend told me to be careful about running so much because there are any number of injuries you can get from it. Then he used some horrible, vile swear words like, plantar fasciitis, bone spurs and stress fractures as examples. Shudder, shudder. I did take heed, and didn't run for a couple of days, then it was the River Run and as we all know (so we don't need to belabor the point, thank you very much) I wussed-out and didn't run that day either. Yesterday it was raining after I got done giving plasma, so that added up to four whole days in a row without running. I can't remember when the last time it was that that I went that long.

Anyway, I finally ran my six mile route today, and holy shit! It's amazing what running does for my mood. I didn't really think I was even in a bad mood or anything the last few days, but halfway through my run, everything was suddenly wonderful and the birds were singing and the sun was shining and the world was full of rainbows and unicorns and puppies and kittens and anything was possible... Who the hell needs Prozac, anyway? I guess what I'm trying to say, is that I will be careful not to run 50 miles in a week, but it might a long, long time before I go four whole days without running again.

I Am Going Out to See What I Can Sow

The first flowers blooming in my new yard.

After my run tonight, I surveyed the side and backyard to check for flowers. I have no idea what's planted around, but today I saw evidence of daffodils, more Irises and possibly even some tulips. I'm excited to watch everything bloom. I think I've already mentioned that I want to do some English type gardens in my backyard. It will take me a couple of years to get them where I want them, but I'm planning on getting a good start this year. Right now I have Gladiola, Canna lilies, Dahlia and Oriental lily bulbs ready to plant. I'm also going to plant snap dragons, ditch lilies, lavender and every kind of daisy I can get my hands on. Feel free to give me suggestions for your favorite flowers too. I'm up for anything.

Stinky was notified that she got a new job at the Hy-Vee about 4 blocks from our house. Yippee! She has orientation tomorrow, so we ran to the mall tonight to get black pants and a white collared shirt. She's also supposed to wear either a broach or a tie, we think. They didn't go over the dress code with her, so we're waiting until they do, since I am not the kind of person who owns a broach or a tie.

I started reading Cormac McCarthy's Child of God this weekend. It's a very short book, so I'm almost done, but it is so dark and intense. I think if it were much longer I might have some kind of soul crisis. Sure, I'm crusty on the outside, but like most of us crusty people, I'm actually pretty damn sensitive on the inside. So, even just reading about someone so unhappy and depraved can shake me up quite a bit. It's an amazing author that can take you to that place, though. I'll have to read something a little more upbeat next.

And So This Is Christmas, We Hope You Have Fun

Here is the gigantic, singing, dancing Santa my cousin sent my aunt for Christmas. She loves it, but I think it's scarier than a clown.

Hey, kids. I just thought I'd drop in to wish you all a merry Christmas. Mine has been great so far. We got up and decided it was safe to head down to O-town. The drive was okay, except for the one thing I didn't count on...Fog. It was pretty soupy for about half of the drive.


As always, there was some holiday family wrasslin' going on.

We were so glad we made it. Our trip was so much shorter than we had originally planned, but we crammed all of the important stuff in it. We ate, we opened gifts and we wrestled with the little kids. Then we left.

We got home home around 4. I finished painting the bathroom and now I'm finally sitting down with a glass of wine. Ahhhhh. I still have to get the stockings ready, but I love doing that. And yes, we'll do Santa until my girls are 50 years old in my house.

Tomorrow will be as mellow as I can make it. We'll wake up, open gifts, I'll make a big breakfast of sausage, hash browns, eggs and pancakes, after I give that some time to sit, I'll try to run. They say it's supposed to snow tomorrow, and I love, love, love running in the snow.

I hope you all are safe, at home, drinking a glass of wine, eating some wonderful food, or whatever your drug of choice is, and preparing to have a wonderful day tomorrow.

Ah, hell. I'll just say it again, "Merry Christmas!"

Wouldn't It be Good If We Could Live Without a Care?

How about some nice graffiti shots for your Friday? I like this one.

Oh, kids. It's been quite a day. A wonderfully, warm sweet, tease of Spring 70 degree day, but quite a day nonetheless.

I hadn't heard from my landlord about resigning the lease yet, and I was starting to worry a little. Normally, he contacts me in February. I worried about Coadster's little party last year. Remember? When I was dating that long-distance guy and went to St Louis for the weekend and Coadster told her dad she was going to a friend's house, but went to my house and had a party instead? Then she went to bed, because she had a show choir competition the next morning and let everyone stay and make noise, and wreak havoc while she slept? Yeah, that. I have no idea what the hell she was thinking. It was like she suddenly forgot how uptight the German grad students are who live above us. Anyway, my landlord has his own teenage daughter and was totally cool about it. It just gave me something to worry about this week, is all.

Since I don't like to worry, I decided to email him and see if we could sign the lease again for next year. He wrote back and said, that would be great. He said he'd have to raise our rent, however. Property taxes have gone up like crazy around here and he hasn't raised our rent even once the whole seven years we've lived here. So, I wasn't surprised, I was just worried, because he was doing so much apologizing about it, that it would be so much that I couldn't afford it. You want to know how much he was raising it a month? $10. Even I can afford that. He also wrote this in his email to me: "

Mrs. Landlady and I feel very fortunate, and blessed, to have had you and the girls as tenants and hope that you don’t find this to offensive, so…..

let me know if you would still be interested and we can get things finalized.

Isn't that sweet? It was just one of the things that made my day today.

This was on a door. I'm not sure if it's really considered graffiti since it's more like a drawing someone glued on the door.

The other thing happened while I was running today. I was turning onto First Avenue, when I saw some high school track boys walking across the street toward me. Eventually, they started running and passed me. The other boy runners who had already finished the route, were all waiting for the slower runners to clap and urge them along and tell them they did a good job. So, when I ran past, they laughingly did the same for me. Me, being the worst, most horrible mom of teens ever, decided it would be really fun to yell, "Wooooooo!" as I passed them. The whole time I was doing it, I was delightedly imagining the horror on my daughters' faces when I got to relate the story to them at dinner. And let me tell you, I was not disappointed. If you could hear eyes rolling, the sound of it in my house tonight would have been deafening.

See what I mean? It has been quite a day...Quite an awesome day, that is.

You're Always Dancing Down the Street

I think this is the back of the Biology Building.

Hey, today was a good day and let me tell you why:

1.) The weather was amazing. It got into the 50's. I ran in shorts. I'm positive it will snow again this year, but I doubt we'll have to experience 20 below zero temps for the rest of the season. We are dangerously close to Spring and not a minute too soon.

2.) Along the same lines, I just got my gas and electric bill and it was $70 cheaper than last month. Just think of all the things I could do with 70 dollars.

3.) I went to supper club for the first time in a hundred million years and it was so fun. We talked a lot about movies and I got some great suggestions for films I apparently HAVE to see. The best thing was, that one of the couples who attend aren't able to have children, and decided to be foster parents for a while. Well, they were actually able to adopt a newborn they were fostering. She's is absolutely gorgeous and they are amazing parents. I almost got a little teary seeing their new family.

4.) After supper club, I met my friend S. at George's. A few years back, a guy we knew sold his life over the internet and wrote a book about it. Part of what he sold were experiences. At one point, he wanted to sell the experience of drinking a beer and eating a cheeseburger at George's with my friend S., but ebay won't let you sell people, so they had to nix that. I'm the lucky girl who got to drink a beer at George's with my friend S. while she ate a cheeseburger without having to bid on her. We had a great talk and laughed a lot.

5.) My iPod was so good to me on my run today. Here is what I can remember of the songs it played:

a) "My Best Friend's Girlfriend" - The Cars
b) "Yellow Moon" - The Neville Brothers
c) an East Indian song who's name I can't remember, but it's great to run to.
d) "Pressure Drop" - Toots and the Maytals
e) "Roll With Me Henry" - Etta James
f) "The Theme from Sanford and Son" - Quincy Jones
g) "Rock and Roll" - The Velvet Underground
h) "Magic Man" - Heart

Now, off to bed with me.

But Life is Just a Party and Parties Weren't Meant 2 Last

This was at a party on New Year's Eve last year. I hope to spend time with these two this year as well.

Since I'm not sure if I'll have time to blog tomorrow, I'm just going to do my New Year's Eve post tonight. Last year at this time I was at the beginning of a short-lived relationship with that one guy. He was a conquest guy and the thing about conquest guys, is that they definitely know how to woo a woman, they just tend to get bored and move on in a couple of months is all. True to that form, that one guy took me to Chicago the weekend before New Year's Eve where we ate sushi and played around in Wrigleyville on Saturday night and then went to a Bear's game on Sunday. Monday was New Year's Eve and we had a great time. Of course, I could never keep up that kind of pace, so it's just as well we're not dating anymore, because I'd probably be on some kind of life support after a year of that.

This year ends with me being single again, and though I'm ever hopeful that I'll meet someone I can have a long-term, healthy relationship with, I know I'd much rather be single than in an unhealthy relationship with someone who isn't right for me. So, instead of bemoaning the absence of something, I'm all for celebrating what I do have...And I feel like I have a lot to celebrate. My girls are great and we're all healthy and we have a warm home and I have a job with great benefits and I have a wonderful extended family and the craziest, funnest friends a girl could ask for.

The girls are at their dad's house and I don't have to work on New Year's day, so my plan for celebrating all of that tomorrow night looks like this: I'll get home from work around five, check out what I have and go to a store if I need something else, then make some fun foods. Right now I think I'll make a quiche and I have some potstickers in the freezer I'll heat up and make a funky sauce for them, and head over to my friend's house with the food and some beer around seven. We're all trying to do this as affordably as possible, hence the potluck and BYOB. We'll stay there for a while and maybe do some karaoke finally.

I have a couple of girlfriends who have to work the next day, so they were thinking about going out for a nice dinner and some wine, and I'll try to meet them for a drink somewhere before they call it an early night.

Around ten, we'll for sure go downtown. My crazy, fun friends are planning on hitting up the DJ'ed dance party at the Picador and the kids from the potluck party will be heading to the Dublin. Since my friend Alix is back visiting from Norway, I will try to find her somewhere as well. The nice thing about being single, is I don't have to worry about what anyone else does or doesn't want to do. I can go from one thing to the next or go home early or whatever. Don't think I'm not celebrating that kind of freedom tomorrow night either, because I am.

Whew! Yeah, I hope I make it home alive. I figure, I ended and began last year with a bang, and it went pretty well for me, I may as well follow that same plan for this year too.

Sometimes I Don't Speak Too Bright, But Yet I Know What I'm Talking About

Man, this weekend went fast. It was amazing and fun as usual and I feel like I was actually able to achieve that balance between, spending a lot of great time with my daughters and having fun with grown-ups...Oh, and of course the weather was perfect so I ran every day too.

On Friday night, another friend's band was playing at the new club in town called Industry (for those Iowa City ex-pats, it used to be The Q bar, or if you were here even longer ago, The Copper Dollar). It was a great live music venue. Plus, my friend P. was in town from Seattle and my friend C. was in town from Fort Madison. It was a great night.

Coadster went to the Quad Cities for a DJ'ing gig and Stinky was offered a babysitting job from my friend K.'s boyfriend, A. Stinky had just been saying how I should let my friends know that she would love to watch their kids, so this was perfect.

When the show was over, we came home to this. How Awwww inspiring is that sight? It was such a sweet contrast to all that noise.

During the day on Saturday, both Stinky and I went running on our own and met back home. We got ready and saw a girl movie. Since Coadster was still gone, we got some alone time and I used it to tell Stinky how amazing I thought she was and how lucky I felt that she was my daughter. I know I've told you I do that to people I love and why it's so important for me to express how much I love them. The upside of it, is that my girls can both take a compliment graciously. I still need to work on that myself, but it doesn't make my girls the least bit uncomfortable. So, if nothing else, I've done that right.

Okay. After I dropped Stinky off at her end of the school year party at the rec center, I met my friends at my friend Eggo's house. As you've probably already guessed from the above photo, my girl crush was in town. Yea!

After the deck party, we went down to the Dublin where we discovered it was the eve of my friend H.'s birthday. H. is one of my favorite people and we even got her to stay for one more drink with us.


Even though my girl crush tried to prevent them from leaving and make them stay and dance with us, both H. and her boyfriend eventually had to make their way home.

So, we were left to have our dance party without them. As you can see, we were total little troopers, and soldiered on.

On Sunday Stinky went to hang out with with her friends, so I got to have most of the day with Coadster. We got ice cream coffee drinks and walked around North Linn St area and she told me all about her weekend and her DJ'ing gig. I love it that she'll still make time for me. Especially since I know she'll be gone in two years.

I Heard You Singing, You Sounded Brave

Here is my friend W.'s dog wearing a Western shirt and with a bunch of different people's hands and feet in her face.

So, for not having any plans, last night turned out rather well. As usual, I trucked a bunch of junior high kids around, and then I let them off downtown where they were going to meet some more friends and dine at Panchero's and then go to the student union and see a free performance by a band called Quiet Drive.

I then met my friends' K., S., and H. and H.'s house where they were drinking tequila. I abstained, because I knew I had more driving of junior high kids planned for later and now when I think about drinking tequila, I hear my friend Rory's voice in my head saying, "You always take a wrong turn at tequila." After a little bit, we went to the Picador to see Jon Langford and Sally Timms of the Mekons perform for free. Free is good and their show was excellent. It was more acoustic than punk and Sally not only played a ukulele, but this accordion looking thing, and I'm not sure what you'd call it. Anyway, it sounded great and I am a big fan of using less ordinary intruments. You know, play a mandolin, or xylophone, or a zither or cowbell and I'm all in. It's just that I've seen a lot of live music in my life, and so much of it is guitar, bass and drums. It's just nice to see something different.

The show ended before 11, just as my daughter's show was finishing up, so it was perfect timing. The rest of the night included me picking up kids, taking them home and then watching a movie until I fell asleep. Again, not a bad night at all.

I Search for the Beat in This Dirty Town

I took this pic at the pool tournament. They just had tubs everywhere there.

So, my weekday life consists of going to soccer games or track meets almost every day. Since my ex doesn't have a working car, I also have to run the girls every single place they have to go. Which is fine. It's all part of having kids and stuff and I love going to their events. In fact, Stinky got voted athlete of the week at her junior high this week because she got first place in discus and third place in shot. But you want to know what else I love? I love Wednesday nights, because after 7, I have the evening to myself, that's what.

It may have been because the weather was so nice, but tonight was actually really wonderful. I picked up girls from their practices, then I ran for a bit and then dropped off girls at their dad's house. Finally, I went to Sam's Pizza for supper club. It was a little smaller group tonight, but all the people who ever come are wonderful, so it doesn't matter who shows and who doesn't.

After supper club, we stopped by my beautiful friend S's house for a cook out. Because it was so nice out, and also because it's supposed to be way colder and rainy tomorrow, our friend Rory and his fiance E. were also having a BBQ. The best thing about it, was that they only live two houses away from each other, so I got to make the rounds. S.'s cook out had young kids and they were all totally into having a dance party with me. Then I stopped by my friend Rory's BBQ and there were just really cool people there too. I've always loved my friend Libby's husband, R., but I didn't know him all that well. Tonight we started talking and realized that we had almost all the same friends. That's always been the weird thing about this town. I can know every person of a particular group of friends, but not have met that one guy for whatever reason.

Okay. As much as I hate to see it end, my free, fun, me night is over. Tomorrow it's back to driving and attending my kids' sporting events and grocery getting and all that cleaning that didn't magically get done while I was out this evening.

Don't Let It Get Away

Here is Stinky and her friend on New Year's Eve. Mr. St Louis taught them how to make sushi while I was at work. Mr. St Louis is a saint.

My internet has been down for almost a week now, and I haven't died yet. A couple times I felt like I might, but then I soldiered on. I'm not sure how much longer it will be, but the cable people are supposed to come out on Friday and check it out. According to my router software, the issue is with the modem. I'm going to switch that out today with a new one as soon as I get off work, but if that doesn't work, I might be jonesing until the weekend.


Here's a picture Mr. St Louis took of me at the Bears game with my camera phone.

Mr. St Louis is still here. He was originally going to leave on New Year's Day, but now he's going to stay and caucus on Thursday night and so we get to stretch our first date out even longer. Yippeeee! Maybe I can talk him into staying until the elections next November...

We also talked about my blog a little bit during our Chicago trip. He doesn't exactly understand the whole blogging thing. He's read mine before. He found it a couple of months ago when we were still just friends. But Mr. St, Louis said he had no problem with me using his real name and showing photos of him. Sooooooooo:

Here's Erik at the Bears game wearing his Saints gear.

I'll try to write about New Year's Eve and about our Chicago date here in the near future. I'm kind of waiting on some photos my co-worker took at the Dublin Underground before I got too drunk and scary looking.

Come Tomorrow, Feel No Pain

This will be a lovely photo post of my holidays. You know, half the talk and twice images. This was the first thing I saw when I looked out my window on Saturday morning. Yup, that is actual frozen urine from when the boys peed their initials in the snow for me. Pretty neat, huh?...Or not.

This is what all the snow looked like when I shoveled it for over an hour the day before Christmas Eve. Remember when I said that I liked to shovel snow? Well, let me amend that by saying I like to shovel snow, until there is a veritable fuckload of it.

On Christmas Eve, Stinky got to spend time loving up her younger cousins with mixed results. The baby girl cousin loved the attention...

...The older boy cousin? Not so much.

By Christmas Eve night, the girls and I had filled ourselves so full of the holiday spirit, that we had reached our saturation point and it was WAY past time to go home. I was even eating a piece of candy here and I looked like I needed a gigantic happy pill. That's how you know I'm exhausted.

Now most of the running around and stress is over. The girls head to Madison tomorrow to hang out with my brother and their beloved cousin, M. I will retrieve them on Saturday. Until then, I will be furiously readying myself for Mr. St Louis who should be here by the time I get off work on Thursday. I still have a lot to do to get ready. Maybe I should get my caffeine through intravenous drip for the next couple of days...

Choking On the Ashes of Her Enemy

Here are a bunch of cute little puppies and kittens hanging from their necks.

Tonight was my down night and boy did I do some serious relaxing. I won't even detail all the geeky lame stuff I did. You know how sometimes I set really big goals for myself? Well, tonight my goal was to be in my jammies by seven and I'm proud to say I made it. I got lucky by running into my landlord on my way home from work, so I could hand him the rent check right then. At least I didn't have to drive it over to his house after I got home from work. With me, it's not so much doing whatever it is I'm supposed to do, it's remembering to do it.

Tomorrow Coadster is playing in the powder puff football game. I think it's kind of a ridiculous name for a girl contact sport. If you remember high school at all, you know that teenage girls are rarely powdery or puffy. Most of the girls in my high school could be straight up vicious, which is exactly why I usually chose to hang out with guys.

Rumor has it, that a friend of mine who lives a little bit on the outskirts of Iowa City will be in town tomorrow night. A bunch of girls might meet for sushi and then go to the Picador to hear music. Because of Coadster's game, I probably won't make it for dinner, but I'm thinking of at least doing a cameo appearance at the bar. I don't normally go out late on a work night, but I would love to see my friend again. We had so much fun at T.'s birthday dinner. I'm also thinking that having a beer or two with my friends before bed, just might help me get to sleep before 2. Wish me luck.

You Do What You Wanna Do

Here is a picture of some pumps and some hoses.

So, I opted for plan B on Saturday night. Stinky was at an end of the Summer party at the quarry, and Coadster was at her DJ'ing gig in the Quad Cities. After hearing that Coadster made $50 per hour and got to eat the wedding dinner and cake, I've decided that I'm in the wrong industry. Once she's fully trained, she'll make even more money. So, yeah, maybe she can start giving me an allowance.

Where was I?...Oh yeah, on Saturday night, I stayed home and happily enjoyed my alone time. I worked with my friend G. over the phone on getting my XBox live thing going, but I'm apparently still a ways away. What I really want, is a computer fairy to come over while I'm asleep and set it up for me, but I don't think that will happen. Sigh.

Today, I actually socialized for a couple of hours. Weird, huh? I ran in the morning, so I could meet some friends at The Vine to watch the Steelers game. Personally, I fancy myself a Bears fan, but two of my friends really, really heart the Steelers and they're about my second favorite team. The game was a total blow-out, so after the first big play or two, people stopped jumping out of their seats and clapping, and started to concentrate on drinking and eating wings and other kinds of greasy food. We spent some time trying to write lyrics for songs about chlamydia. It's tough to find many rhymes - "There once was a girl named Lydia. She gave me a horrible case of chlamydia..." See? We did kind of stretch it and used fastidious, but then we got smart and put chlamydia in the middle of the sentence, so we could rhyme better words. I also took a poll to see which of the guys at my table shaved their balls. We were kind of on the subject anyway, and you can't tell me you haven't wondered the same thing about your male friends. You might be surprised to know that only one in four of the men, answered yes to that. Apparently, there was a big fear of nicks and cuts, and who can blame them?

The only drag about drinking beer (I was good and only had one pint) and eating greasy food at noon, was that I couldn't go home and take a nap after the game. I had to take Stinky to the mall to buy black pants for marching band, and then get groceries and come home and grill brats. I'm not complaining, I just think a nap would have been nice.

Sunday Morning Coming Down

I swear to god that I will take some new photos very soon. These snowy ones are starting to get a little ridiculous.


It was almost eighty degrees here on Sunday. Even though I was a little tired and still feeling kind of high from the night before, I couldn't pass up the chance to run and get even more buzzed. It seemed as though the further I ran, though, the more discord I felt.

Once I was almost to Scott Boulevard, I heard a middle aged couple arguing. At first I thought they were just kidding around, but then I heard the woman say, "Oh, so then you get home and it's four o'clock and you sit around watching sports for the rest of the night and nothing else gets done. Real nice, Joe. Maybe everything will just magically get taken care of by itself." I exchanged raised eyebrows with the couple walking toward me and picked-up my pace to get away from all the negativity. I didn't want the Bickersons to ruin a perfectly good buzz.

Once I turned on to Court Street, it happened again. This time a woman was sitting out on her deck screeching at someone inside her house. A male voice said, "Shut-up, bitch." And then she really got loud.

The worst part, after all the f'in' this and f'in' that, was that she finished by saying, "Whatever, bitch." I thought that was supposed to be my special phrase. I'm not sure if this kind of dissonance took place all the time on my running route and it had just been contained inside all winter by closed windows, or if there was some kind of bad juju in the air for some reason this weekend.

On any other day, I might have soaked up the discord like a sponge and let it take away from all the endorphins I'd been cultivating. On Sunday, however, I was working with two different highs, and I was able to make it safely home, still thinking about unicorns and rainbows and cute little puppies.

Shine on Me Sunshine Walk With Me World It's a Skippity-Dooda day

Because it's the weekend, I thought I'd help you navigate your way to a bar.

I know I've told you several times already, that I'm a sucker for false hope. Well, tonight I'm full of it. (and false hope too) Now, please allow me to count the things that make me stupidly hopeful.

1. I got an e-mail at work from Stinky's reading teacher today. It doesn't appear that she ever got her hands on my fake e-mail, because she was all effusive about how wonderfully behaved Stinky has been of late. She even thanked me for keeping her in line. Of course, Stinky came in with a splint on her arm after the weekend, so she probably thinks I used physical force and is grateful for that too.

2. This is another show choir competition weekend for Coadster. It means I have to get up at 5:30 am to get Coadster to the high school, but she loves it so much, it's totally worth it.

Coadster came home after choir class this week and told me she just found out she had a four octave vocal range. Being completely ignorant about such things, I asked, "Oh. Is that good?"

"I think it is."

"Well, then I think it is too." God, I sound like such a douche bag when I write down these conversations with my daughters. At least Coadster will have plenty of fodder whenever she applies for legal emnacipation.

What I'm trying to say here, is that I'm glad that Coadster is really good at the thing she loves the most. Ever since she was little, she has loved to sing. Once when she was in first grade and completely unaware that she was crooning all over the house, I asked her, "So, do you sing like that at school, too?"

"Not anymore I don't," but I know even now, she forgets she's doing it, she loves it so much.

3. Yesterday, someone got to my blog by googling, "Shut-up with the I'm a single mom bullshit" and I can't imagine anything more perfect.

4. I might actually get my tax refund direct deposited into my account tomorrow. I think it was downloaded to the IRS last week on Wednesday, which means I should see it tomorrow. It was originally rejected because the drop down box with my birth year slipped to the year behind and it didn't match what the IRS had. I corrected it and resubmitted it, so hopefully, tomorrow I will be as giddy as a 41 year old school girl.

Because I'm nothing if not a woman with a back-up plan, I'm going to try to distract myself if my refund doesn't appear. On Saturday, I was thinking I'd eat some comfort food, (I'm taking suggestions of anyone's favorites) drink some of my bottle of cheap Shiraz, and watch two African movies that should be really good, but will inevitably make me cry. I kind of like these frigid temps when I don't have to leave my house.