Did I have the game on? Yes. Did I catch every play? Hardly.
I was also busy playing "Pete the Cat - The Wheels On the Bus Game" during the Super Bowl.
Looking back on the pictures from this week, I realize there was a lot of balancing involved.
At one point I was even trying to explain to Zachary how to balance work and play. I hope I know what I'm talking about. I'm about to do a show Monday (yes, a MONDAY show), then fly off to Vegas for (ahem) business.
Alright. Now that THAT'S done, let's get to work. With so much happening, I really have to make a focused effort to make any progress on my own projects this week. That's the plan.
I'll make a list. I'll check it twice.
Because when you cut out all the noise and lights, and focus on one thing at a time...
You can really accomplish a lot.
Fa la la la la... la la la la...
Here's to making happy moments through this crazy, hectic and often stressful holiday season!
Russ came home for a few days, there was another disco gig, the dog had diarrhea, Zachary is STILL a toddler... but in the midst of everything, my favorite moments were in the garden, pulling weeds. There was the calm, the Zen, those therapeutic and inspirational moments when I reflected on life and all of its challenges. I remembered that sometimes when we are problem solving we work on the surface of the symptom and often we have to dig deeper to get to the heart of the matter - the root of it. Life is like a garden... blah blah blah.
Then one pesky mosquito bite got especially annoying. I thought it was starting to look like that tell-tale bullseye which typically indicates a tick bite/Lyme Disease. I went to Urgent Care. The doctor said it was not a tick bite, but an allergic reaction - maybe Poison Ivy. (Darn it! The neighbors were right! There IS Poison Ivy here!)
Sigh... We decided to test for Lyme anyway, just in case. After two tries, two trips to a different lab, and then two more tries back at Urgent Care, they were finally able to draw blood. It took all day which is why this blog is so late and also so funny. The root of the problem - is the actual root!!! I have GOT to spray down that section of "garden." The spray I bought at the nursery is supposed to get to the root of the plant. SMH.
Meanwhile, the gig was great fun and the moon was beautiful last night! xoxo
Tan: Whelp. I think we did a fine job of scaring her off.
The poor girl. Chaos reigns here. I'm just along for the ride.
She was only here for a few hours. It started off well. Introductions were made and she survived meeting the dogs. She and Zach were playing outside and I began to get some work done (disco songs galore). Then I realized the dogs had to go out (all downhill from there). Zachary heard me outside and knew I would come play. After finally making my second escape, I noticed a neighborhood dog loose and trotting down the street. I ran back out and passed them in pursuit of "Mickey." Of course Zach wanted to come (No, Zach). They caught up with me as I returned, with Mickey in my arms. Zach wanted to hold the dog. (Um... no. I wasn't sure Mickey was good with children). So I called the number on his tag with a screaming Zach in the background. After the dog's owner retrieved him, it was time to go inside. After some negotiation with Zachary, we finally made it back in. He was hungry. THEN, for no reason at all, the stove started freaking out. Mommy had to go trip circuit breakers until I found the right one to shut it off. I called Russ who called repair men and electricians on a holiday weekend (no dice). Zach was really hungry! I gave the kid Froot Loops and tried to immediately follow that with a bath. It was almost time for the sitter to leave and I hadn't finished one song yet!
To summarize:
One very polite sitter tries to help out.
Two household emergencies later, one very hungry kid eats Froot Loops.
Overtired and sugared-up kid takes reluctant bath.
Tan apologizes to sitter - hoping she doesn't feel bad or that she came for nothing because Tan still didn't get her work done.
Sitter goes home.
Tan wonders if we'll ever see that nice girl again.
Disco soundtrack plays on.
It's 5:30am. I've been up since 4:30am and didn't even start sleeping until after midnight. I just finished cleaning the tub and the floors for the sixth time in the last 16 hours... Hey! Just for kicks, let's see how many times I do it before the 24 hour mark! (It was nine - nine times in 24 hours.) It had been once every 2-3 hours for a while there. By the time I would finish, the dog would have diarrhea again and the vicious cycle would start all over.
#TheCulprit
If this wasn't all so time consuming, I'd tell you about the bizzarro course of events that constituted my week. It's as if God is playing a game of cat-and-mouse with me and I just keep running. Is there something weird going on with the alignment of planets? Any astrology experts out there??
Twists, turns and redirects have been beyond the absurd, well past comical, and into the "oh nooooo" realm. People who have made the mistake of asking me, "How's it going?" have probably been very sorry that they did. LOL - I really could just say, "I'm fine. How are you?" and bypass the need to have to follow up my long-winded answer with something like, "Oh. You meant like, did I find everything ok in the store?"
Actually, the weird happenings have been giving me hope. As strange as it sounds, running around in circles for hours in order to accomplish absolutely nothing has been adventurous. :) I had out-of-town company waiting for me, and left my purse someplace where they locked the building up and wouldn't be back. I hit construction on my way to return something to a store and the navigator sent send me back to the road closure. By the time I finally arrived, I realized that I had forgotten the card it was charged on. At another store, I didn't have the receipt, which would've been fine, but that item wasn't in stock. After a search through the back room and a flip through a big binder, the exchange transaction still wouldn't go through because of a typo by the sales clerk. Russell's two-month-long stay at home turned into a 24 hour scramble and it MIGHT have occurred to me that two-year-olds actually exchange Valentines at school if the water main break hadn't sent me into a tizzy. (Getting the picture?) That's just a few examples.
I could really do without this crazy dog illness though. (She'll be fine.) The first time, she actually had the good sense to go in the tub while Zach and I were out! (I'll spare you that picture.) I thought she was so smart! I swear that dog would've gone in the toilet if she had a stool or a platform to get up there. Anyway, after cleaning and sanitizing four or five times, I ordered Chinese food, mainly to start her "chicken and rice" diet. This was my fortune:
Sigh... They say, "Enjoy the ride!" So,
WHHHEEEEEEEEE! (Who is "they" anyway?)
It's like I'm on a sled. OK, God! Where are we gonna land?
Well, so much for that "diving in" idea. You know when you're cruising along, making your grand plans...
and then...
they fall completely apart? #Kaboom
Zachary fell ill (he's getting better now) and mommy had to cancel everything. Suddenly my most amazing accomplishment of the week was getting that kid to take a sip of water. He would do it only by squirting the water into his mouth with the measuring syringe that came with his baby Motrin. I had to do a "happy dance" (jumping jacks accompanied by a song), then advance to handstands (that looked more like downward dog with kicks) to get him to take bites of oatmeal!
Am I speaking in hashtags? Yes. I am too tired to think straight and I'm not even going to check this blog for spelling. I have to take him back to the doctor in the morning, it's after 11pm, and I am sitting on the floor in his room with him on the chair behind me, looking over my shoulder. Every time I turn around to see if his eyes are closed yet, he laughs at me. (Smile.) Laughing is way better than crying.
So anyway, this week I'm reflecting on the fact that things don't always (or ever) go the way you might expect. I'm just going to keep the music playing and get through it.
I've resumed the workout and by the time this gets posted, a professional assembly person will have arrived to put together my new exercise bike. #notfoolinaround. Swimming laps was fantastic exercise AND I started Zachary taking lessons! It feels like I'm finally getting it together.
Sometimes it's a long, slow climb just to get to the other side of the room.
But I know at the end of that long tunnel is...
four monster trucks, a dog's butt, a blue bouncey horse and a kid that refuses to say "cheese" LIGHT. So this week is all about "KEEP GOING!" One of my favorite authors reminded me that our true power has to come from within. #ThanksElla
"It never occurred to me to ask advice or assistance of others.
I am glad I did not, for the moment we lean upon any one
Last night I decided that we would make it to church this morning. I kept telling Zachary that's what we would do, so it was important for us to go to sleep early, and "get up and get going" in the morning. I already had a blog idea in the works and the computer was out and ready to go. I would get a head start on it after we came home from church and he took his nap. That was the plan.
All did not go well in the night. Despite having gone potty before bed, he got up three times with a wet diaper and then again several times after 2am. Maybe it was the howling winds. I finally brought him to bed with me because I couldn't stay awake holding him in the chair any longer. He twisted and turned next to me and in between all that commotion I worried he would fall off the edge after waking up to find my pillow wall had fallen (or been kicked) off the side. Eventually I heard, "Mommy! Your phone!" as my alarm went off this morning and he stared, wide-eyed at me as if he had lost no sleep at all. Luckily, he stayed there quietly, watching car videos, while I made my way to the bathroom and out into the five-degree weather with the dogs. We were still on track to make it to church.
He got cleaned up, dressed and through breakfast without any fussing and I still had a half hour to get ready for church myself - simply amazing. I kept thinking that it was a miracle. I told him that we were going to church for enlightenment, positivity and the spirit of gratitude. We slowed down looking for something, that I can't even remember right now, but when I checked the time in the car, we were still making it. We would only be a couple of minutes late and might even make it on time if we didn't hit red lights.
When we got there, the parking lot was empty. Shaking my head at the irony of there being a power outage the day we finally made it there on time (well, almost on time), I wondered what else we should do as long as we were in the car. "Where else can we go for enlightenment, positivity and gratitude? It's too cold to go someplace outside." I asked Zachary what he would like to do instead. He suggested we go to a hotel. I decided to narrow the parameters of the choice. Would he rather go to the other church or to the children's museum? (I first had to pull over and check the website to make sure it was open on Sundays.) He opted for the museum, so I made a left turn at the next signal.
I must have caught a glimpse of something on my phone that gave me a clue. The museum is only about a mile away from that left hand turn and it still didn't make any sense as we pulled into the parking lot. There were plenty of cars. I called Russ. "What day is it today?" My phone said it was Monday, but that couldn't be right. (Because the children's museum is closed on Mondays and the lot would be empty.)
Yes. It's Monday. Russ confirmed it. I guess we WERE late for church! SMH. How could I have lost an entire day? Wasn't it Saturday yesterday? I'm still not clear on where I went off the track. (Sigh.) ANYWAY, the museum was open because of the holiday. Zachary and I went in. He had yelled, "Whoo Hoo! We're here!" enthusiastically as I pulled into a parking space.
After successfully navigating an exceptionally crowded museum/playground, the cafeteria, and two cranky meltdowns on the way home, the kid is finally asleep for his nap and the blog is almost done. If anyone is trying to reach me later, I'll be busy saying Hail Mary prayers and reading the "I Have a Dream" speech to atone for my obliviousness, and will probably be unavailable.
#WheresTheCoffee ?
Backstory:
“What do you want from me?? I have a two year old!”
Earlier this week, I was too tired to drive all the way home from video editing sessions and had to stay in a hotel, where the check-in girl informed me that the fifteen dollar “resort fee” included two free waters in my room. (Can you just repeat that please?) I drove straight to physical therapy from there and finally arrived home, too tired to even eat, and found that the dog had diarrhea while no one was home (Russ had taken Zach to school and was still out). Luckily, the carpet cleaners arrived within the hour and the house was thoroughly disinfected and sparkly by the time the interviewer from the Au Pair agency arrived the next day. (They were coming to make sure our home was suitable for a foreign student residence.) Russ had left for the airport just in time to miss the two terrible weather storms, I had a cold, Zach wasn’t sleeping through the night because he kept asking for water right before bedtime, and somewhere along the way – I actually lost track of an entire day.
I think I was talking to myself out loud as I searched the muddy ground below the deck, in the freezing rain, looking for the little cloth squares that had fallen down:
I’m soaking wet... I think I have bird poop all over my hands... If I ever see one more Command strip I might cry... I wonder if these alcohol wipes are biodegradable... These lights are staying up until summer, dammit! My fingers are so cold they don’t work anymore... If those hooks don’t stick because they’re wet, I’ll have to just wrap the damn lights around the deck railing like I might’ve done in the first place. Why didn’t I? It was probably just because THAT would’ve been too easy... No, they would’ve been covered in snow that way... Fine. I need one more of those outdoor plug covers, that it took five Home Depot workers to figure out how to open, and one longer extension cord before I can actually hang the outdoor lights. Maybe tomorrow. I might’ve had it done yesterday, but the toilet clogged and Roto-Rooter had to come because Zach was napping and I threw out the plunger the last time it happened! Actually, come to think of it, I might not have done this at all if I hadn’t needed to go buy a plunger so THAT doesn’t happen again ($255 bucks later). I only managed to get Zach off his bike and into the car yesterday by getting him excited about going out to buy Christmas decorations! Maybe I’ll find that last alcohol wipe in the spring... “So what’s the number? Stomp! Stomp! What’s the number? Stomp! Stomp! What is the numberrr-er-er… ”
I was intermittently singing because despite all the Christmas carols swirling around in the air, THIS is the song stuck in my head:
Argh! I just realized that if I post this, I will wreck the surprise, that the outdoor lights were going to be, for Russ when he comes home. Oh well.
Zachary woke up, got changed, ate a snack, and “helped” me put batteries in the animated plush toys as my conversation with myself went internal:
I can’t drink any more milk. If we run out, I can’t get to the store before my coat comes out of the dryer. Meanwhile, I hope this gig dress survives the washing machine. (It was supposed to be dry-cleaned). Where’d that nutcracker figurine go? If it’s on the floor, Bentley might eat it. There it is on the trampoline! (It had been on the piano).
“Uh oh. MOMMY! COME!” (OMG What!!??)
It’s ok. It was just that his monster trucks were stuck under the bed where no one can reach them and I had to get the “grabber” to fetch them.
Welcome to my life.
I really don’t have long. He’s finished with his Cheerios now and has hung up on Daddy, who was FaceTiming, live from the stage, at the show in… (I don’t even know what country). Well, I did manage to eat a couple of cookies before he woke up from his nap anyway – and the hooks are up outside. That’s some accomplishment.
HO! HO! HO! Here we are at Christmas time again! I have about five minutes at any given point in time to do ANYTHING – as do moms everywhere this week. Here’s wishing you all survival and laughter in this homestretch before Christmas.
#HereWeGo
Argh!!! He is dumping water all over the couch from his sippy cup.
Why is it that we are surprised when things we already know present themselves to us in a new and fresh manner?
I feel like I already knew this one. I did. I swear I did. A lot of people "work" for a living. Musicians "play" a gig. Maybe we should start saying that we work at a gig so that people will understand the amount of effort that goes into it - and that's not even including the literal blood, sweat and tears! Or we could just remember that not everyone will see what we do as "work" at all (the price we pay for making it look easy). This subject has come up repeatedly this week, and from totally different groups of people.
ATTENTION TO THOSE STARTING OUT AS SINGERS/MUSICIANS:
You will have to work harder than almost anyone else you know.
Life is not fair.
You have no sick days.
You don't get paid if you're sick.
You can't get sick.
You don't get weekends or holidays off.
You might not always get to eat.
No, you may not take a bathroom break just because you have to.
You must stay hydrated.
You might not always get to sleep.
You still have to look and act like you are well rested and energized.
You must be kind and friendly to everyone.
Do NOT make any mistakes.
You will constantly be judged.
Your body is part of your instrument. Workouts and health maintenance are not luxuries. They are a requirement.
You must look well put together at all times - even with little or no budget.
Your gig clothing is NOT tax deductible - I don't care HOW much you have to spend on it.
You must keep and keep track of all your receipts.
No one is going to tell you to do your homework.
Your homework MUST be done.
You must act like you know what you are doing even when you have no clue what is going on.
OTHER PEOPLE WILL NOT UNDERSTAND THIS AND THAT DOESN'T MATTER.
People will see your pictures and videos and think you are just having a grand ol' time "playing."
There will be times when you cry.
This is your business.
No one will make you get to the office on time.
You will lose money if you don't get to the office on time.
You must get to the office before and stay later than anyone else. After your office hours, you will also have to practice.
There is no personal time off.
Personal problems are not allowed.
Other people will not view your work as "important." They will not understand the sacrifices you have to make.
You are exceptionally important.
You are a world leader.
Your success will vary depending on the importance you place on all of these factors.
Your success will vary anyway.
(This list can go on and on indefinitely.)
I had the privilege of performing with two fantastic bands this weekend! The musicians were all talented and truly wonderful people. It was a lot of work getting to Albany, then Baltimore and back - but it was absolutely worth all the effort. Great fun playing with you all this weekend! xoxo
Every once in a while a fantastic and clever blog idea just pops into my head. Then I might get hit in the face with a spoonful of SpaghettiOs and the thought is lost forever. This is one of those weeks. As I sit here trying to recall some long forgotten blog idea, the actual course of events is what comes to mind.
Traveling over 800 miles by car with a toddler was a daunting task to undertake, especially when there was an impending snowstorm and a funeral involved. We made it to my Uncle Ted's service and those closest to him agreed that he would have loved having the children there. Zachary informed some in attendance that Uncle Ted went to "go be an Angel." He doesn't really understand what that means, but he knew beforehand that some people might be sad, that we were going to give them a hug, and that it was mainly because Uncle Ted had gone to be an Angel. We didn't emphasize that we were saying "goodbye" because I didn't want him yelling "Bye Bye Uncle Ted" in the middle of the church service. I wanted to give him a sense of what was happening in a way he could understand without freaking him or anyone else out.
He was very well behaved throughout the services and during the journey itself. He was eager to help me - even when it was late and he was tired. It was heartwarming how he assisted me with the suitcases at hotels. He had a whole host of new experiences and embraced them all, while bringing smiles to the faces of almost everyone we met. For the first time, he walked into an elevator, stayed at a hotel, ate Indian food, and got up close to a very big train. Uncle Ted was exceptionally fond of trains, so it was particularly appropriate that we stopped at a restaurant that was also a train. At the second hotel (on the way home), there was a Christmas tree in the lobby and we noticed the pretty angel on top.
