new shoes

I am a girly girl. Just wanted to make that very clear before I admit 2 things:

1. I never brush my hair.

It's true. I wash it and condition it and then, I'm outta there. No time for brushing. I am far too busy and important.

2. My husband has more pairs of shoes than I do.

I have two. These:
and these:


that I wear on special occasions.

The problem is I can never find shoes that fit. My feet are sort of triangular-shaped. They are wide across the toes and then very narrow at the heel. So it is a real problem finding shoes that are comfortable and I get lots of foot cramps, blahblahblah.

I think I used to have more shoes than Jonathan, but my feet got bigger when I was pregnant and they never went back to their original size. I had heard of this happening, but I didn't really believe it. Why should your feet get longer when you're pregnant? Makes no sense. Makes no sense, but I am living proof. I now have size nines where my size sevens used to be.

Anyway, I went shopping for shoes tonight. I need something more comfortable than my beat-up old Converse to wear in London. Plus, I refuse to be mistaken for some clunky German woman again. I am going to look very posh on this vacation. I am even packing a comb.

So after several hours of wandering around DSW and cussing under my breath about my stupid Hobbit feet, I found some awesome, awesome shoes. I may give up my old Converse forever. These shoes are so freakin' comfortable:
I am so excited! I wore them all through the store, and I told all the other women shopping in there how comfortable they are. It feels like they are hugging my poor, weird feet. I wore them home. I am wearing them now. I may sleep in them.

I was on such a high, I even bought a second pair of shoes. And they have high heels. Which Jonathan (being 6'4") is thrilled about.

So, watch out, London, here I come!

another book meme

Thanks to Me for the following book meme:

* Look at the list of books below.
* Type "READ" beside the ones you've read.
* Type "WANT TO" beside the ones you'd like to read.
* Leave blank the ones that you aren't interested in.
* Type "AGAIN AND AGAIN" beside the ones you could read again and again.
* "Tried" for those books that you've tried to read...again and again. (This one
Rob put in!)
* "??" For those books you haven't heard of (This one, Paperback put in!)
* "Saw it" For those books you shamelessly watched the movie of instead (This one, I put in)

1. The Da Vinci Code (Dan Brown) Read
2. Pride and Prejudice (Jane Austen) Again and Again
3. To Kill A Mockingbird (Harper Lee) Again and Again
4. Gone With The Wind (Margaret Mitchell) Read
5. The Lord of the Rings: Return of the King (Tolkien) Read
6. The Lord of the Rings: Fellowship of the Ring (Tolkien) Read
7. The Lord of the Rings: Two Towers (Tolkien) Read
8. Anne of Green Gables (L.M. Montgomery) Again and Again
9. Outlander (Diana Gabaldon) Read
10. A Fine Balance (Rohinton Mistry) ??
11. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (Rowling) Read
12. Angels and Demons (Dan Brown)
13. Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (Rowling) Read
14. A Prayer for Owen Meany (John Irving) Want to
15. Memoirs of a Geisha (Arthur Golden) Tried
16. Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone (Rowling) Again and Again
17. Fall on Your Knees(Ann-Marie MacDonald) ??
18. The Stand (Stephen King) Read
19. Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban(Rowling) Again and Again
20. Jane Eyre (Charlotte Bronte) Read
21. The Hobbit (Tolkien) Want to
22. The Catcher in the Rye (J.D. Salinger) Read
23. Little Women (Louisa May Alcott) Again and Again
24. The Lovely Bones (Alice Sebold) Read
25. Life of Pi (Yann Martel) Again and Again
26. The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy (Douglas Adams)
27. Wuthering Heights (Emily Bronte) Read
28. The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe (C. S. Lewis) Read
29. East of Eden (John Steinbeck) Want to
30. Tuesdays with Morrie (Mitch Albom)
31. Dune (Frank Herbert)
32. The Notebook (Nicholas Sparks)
33. Atlas Shrugged (Ayn Rand)
34. 1984 (Orwell)
35. The Mists of Avalon (Marion Zimmer Bradley) Want to
36. The Pillars of the Earth (Ken Follett) Tried
37. The Power of One (Bryce Courtenay) ??
38. I Know This Much is True (Wally Lamb)
39. The Red Tent (Anita Diamant) Again and Again
40. The Alchemist (Paulo Coelho)
41. The Clan of the Cave Bear (Jean M. Auel) Read
42. The Kite Runner (Khaled Hosseini) Want to
43. Confessions of a Shopaholic (Sophie Kinsella)
44. The Five People You Meet In Heaven (Mitch Albom)
45. Bible Read
46. Anna Karenina (Tolstoy) Want to
47. The Count of Monte Cristo (Alexandre Dumas) Want to
48. Angela’s Ashes (Frank McCourt)
49. The Grapes of Wrath (John Steinbeck) Want to
50. She’s Come Undone (Wally Lamb)
51. The Poisonwood Bible (Barbara Kingsolver) Want to
52. A Tale of Two Cities (Dickens) Again and Again
53. Ender’s Game (Orson Scott Card)
54. Great Expectations (Dickens) Read
55. The Great Gatsby (Fitzgerald) Again and Again
56. The Stone Angel (Margaret Laurence) ??
57. Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (Rowling) Read
58. The Thorn Birds (Colleen McCullough) Saw it
59. The Handmaid’s Tale (Margaret Atwood) Want to
60. The Time Traveller’s Wife (Audrew Niffenegger) Read
61. Crime and Punishment (Fyodor Dostoyevsky) Read
62. The Fountainhead (Ayn Rand)
63. War and Peace (Tolsoy) Want to
64. Interview With The Vampire (Anne Rice) Saw it
65. Fifth Business (Robertson Davis) ??
66. One Hundred Years Of Solitude (Gabriel Garcia Marquez) Tried
67. The Sisterhood of the Travelling Pants (Ann Brashares)
68. Catch-22 (Joseph Heller)
69. Les Miserables (Hugo) Again and Again
70. The Little Prince (Antoine de Saint-Exupery) Read
71. Bridget Jones’ Diary (Fielding) Read
72. Love in the Time of Cholera (Marquez) Want to
73. Shogun (James Clavell)
74. The English Patient (Michael Ondaatje) Read
75. The Secret Garden (Frances Hodgson Burnett) Read
76. The Summer Tree (Guy Gavriel Kay) ??
77. A Tree Grows in Brooklyn (Betty Smith) Want to
78. The World According To Garp (John Irving)
79. The Diviners (Margaret Laurence) ??
80. Charlotte’s Web (E.B. White) Again and Again
81. Not Wanted On The Voyage (Timothy Findley) ??
82. Of Mice And Men (Steinbeck) Read
83. Rebecca (Daphne DuMaurier) Saw it
84. Wizard’s First Rule (Terry Goodkind)
85. Emma (Jane Austen) Again and Again
86. Watership Down(Richard Adams)
87. Brave New World (Aldous Huxley)
88. The Stone Diaries (Carol Shields) Read
89. Blindness (Jose Saramago) Want to
90. Kane and Abel (Jeffrey Archer)
91. In The Skin Of A Lion (Ondaatje) ??
92. Lord of the Flies (Golding) Read
93. The Good Earth(Pearl S. Buck) Want to
94. The Secret Life of Bees (Sue Monk Kidd)
95. The Bourne Identity (Robert Ludlum) Saw it
96. The Outsiders (S.E. Hinton) Saw it
97. White Oleander (Janet Fitch)
98. A Woman of Substance (Barbara Taylor Bradford)
99. The Celestine Prophecy (James Redfield)
100. Ulysses (James Joyce)

leaving

It is really starting to sink in now that Jonathan and I will be going away. I was tucking Blue into bed tonight and she was just lying there in the halfdark staring at me. I was playing with her hair and we had just finished Goodnight Moon. I said, "goodnight, baby girl," and she said, "Mommy, don't go yet."

Yet is her latest habit. "I not sleepy yet." "No changin' my diaper yet." You get the picture. But for me, it was as if she knew I am going to leave her for almost two weeks and she was asking me not to go. Yet.

I'm not as worried about leaving Lion. Which is kind of funny since he is in a very clingy phase right now. If I even try to sneak into the bathroom, he will wind up right outside, crying and banging on the door. But I think if I can just manage to leave while he is sleeping, he will be fine. Jonathan and I went to Ocean City for 3 days when Blue was almost a year old and she was fine. We came back and it was as if she hadn't even noticed our absence. I know that this separation will be much longer, but I think he will be fine. He will be with his Grammy. And Blue will be here. Most of the time, he loves Blue.

It is Blue I am worried about. I know in the grand scheme of things, it is only 2 weeks. But to such a little girl, 2 weeks is a very long time. And she is older than the Lion, and she will definitely notice that Mommy is not around. We go downstairs together in the morning and if it is one of the days Jonathan is not working from home she's all, "Where's Daddy? Daddy workin'? Daddy at the store?" She looks for him in his office. She looks for him out the back window. It's sort of sad, actually. So she will definitely notice that we are both gone.

I know they will both have fun. They love Jonathan's mom and dad, and I know they will be very well-fed and clean and that they will probably get much more attention than when it's just me here with them. I know this. But I also know that Blue will miss me and wonder where I am and I just hope that she knows I will come back.

I have started trying to explain to her that Mommy and Daddy are going away for a few days and that Grammy will be here, but you never know how much she is getting. I'll tell her my mom is coming over for dinner and then when I ask her 5 minutes later who's coming she'll get all excited and tell me Santa Claus is coming. So it's difficult.

whose line is it anyway

This was from the first episode of "Whose Line Is It Anyway?" that I ever saw, and I have always remembered how funny I thought this segment was...

from the onion

Virulent Strain Of Soy Flu Traced To Single Tofurkey

SAN FRANCISCO—A virulent strain of soy flu has been traced to a single tofurkey at a Bay Area food-processing factory.

at 2 am

I decided it was time to finally go to bed. Jonathan had long since fallen asleep on the couch, watching TV, and I didn't want to wake him up. Finally, I crept quietly over to him and placed my hand on his cheek.


And of course, I shocked him right on the face.

Menses

(He speaks, but to himself, being aware how it is with her)
Think not I have not heard.
Well-fanged the double word
And well-directed flew.

I felt it. Down my side
Innocent as oil I see the ugly venom slide:
Poison enough to stiffen us both, and all our friends;
But I am not pierced, so there the mischief ends.

There is more to be said: I see it coiling;
The impact will be pain.
Yet coil; yet strike again.
You cannot riddle the stout mail I wove
Long since, of wit and love.

As for my answer . . . stupid in the sun
He lies, his fangs drawn:
I will not war with you.

You know how wild you are. You are willing to be turned
To other matters; you would be grateful, even.
You watch me shyly. I (for I have learned
More things than one in our few years together)
Chafe at the churlish wind, the unseasonable weather.

"Unseasonable?" you cry, with harsher scorn
Than the theme warrants; "Every year it is the same!
'Unseasonable!' they whine, these stupid peasants!—and never
since they were born
Have they known a spring less wintry! Lord, the shame,
The crying shame of seeing a man no wiser than the beasts he
feeds—
His skull as empty as a shell!"

("Go to. You are unwell.")

Such is my thought, but such are not my words.

"What is the name," I ask, "of those big birds
With yellow breast and low and heavy flight,
That make such mournful whistling?"

                                                      "Meadowlarks,"
You answer primly, not a little cheered.
"Some people shoot them." Suddenly your eyes are wet
And your chin trembles. On my breast you lean,
And sob most pitifullly for all the lovely things that are not and
have been.

"How silly I am!—and I know how silly I am!"
You say; "You are very patient. You are very kind.
I shall be better soon. Just Heaven consign and damn
To tedious Hell this body with its muddy feet in my mind!"

Edna St. Vincent Millay