I'm an adult now.....

Okay, this week sucked balls big time. I think I have been cruising through life, living like a teenager, and God all of sudden realized he forgot to give me real, grown-up issues to deal with, so He threw them at me all at once. Here is what the Big Guy dished out to me this week:

- At work I usually do really well, get the job done, get along with everyone, and enjoy every minute of it. Well, this week I dropped the ball on task big time, disappointed colleagues and really felt the brunt of it. Uggh.

- Last night while driving the kids home from day care, I felt the overwhelming responsility of the two little lives in hands while I navigated home on the treachourous, scary roads (surrounded by scary drivers I might add). Ugh.

- When I dropped Edie off at day care this morning, I could hear her screams as I left the building and felt the most guilt a mother could ever possibly feel. (It didn't help matters at well when once in the car Grace said "Hey Mommy! I think I can still hear Edie screaming!") Ugh.

-When out grocery shopping today, I stopped in at a shoe store and tried on the most delicious pair of boots....then I realized that this is an extra big grocery shop week because we were out of a lot of stuff, so buh-bye pretty boots. Ugh.



And how am I dealing with being an adult? Even though I highlight the bejeezies out of my hair every 8 weeks, a gray hair sprung to life on top of my head. Double ugh.

http://youtube.com/watch?v=pSDF8VvU13M

Do you have a happy place? I do. It's my nice hot shower at the end of the day. A place to be alone, froth myself up into a lavendar stupor and forget earlier events. We have an ensuite off the master, no bath tub (yet - it is in the "plans") and the girls have their own bathroom, with a tubbie and a shower. You would think that they would be satisfied with that.
Well, imagine my chagrin when I noticed that my happy place had been invaded (by "noticed" I mean I screamed out in pain when I plunked the ball of my foot down on a dinasaur horn and my heel on a marble).......






I thoughtfully left the scene of the crime intact for Jo's 6:30 a.m. shower, I'm good like that.

I had a pretty proud parenting moment tonight. Out of respect for Grace, I won't go into details, but basically she did something that wasn't so great and it was bugging her enough that she wanted to trust me and tell me about (heh heh, she inherited my guilty conscience). When she did tell me about, she immediately voiced her concern over how I was going to deal with it. We came up with a very reasonable solution together and I know that she feels good about how it was dealt with. I'm so glad that a) she trusted me enough in the first place and that b) I won't have to breach her trust. I know, I know, you seasoned parents out there are probably saying that this is only the beginning, but it really meant a lot to this relatively "fly by the seat of her pants" kind of parent.

Edie on the other hand, I'm a little worried about. Girlfriend has gotta lay off the acid. I caught our 2 1/2 year old staring down one of our vents saying "don't let me monkeys come and get me". Wow. Anybody ever watch that show Intervention? I think my family may be next.

On the subject of hair….

Like many other mothers out there, my mom swore by the bowl cut. Hey, why not, it was practical, low maintenance, and because your hair looked like a helmet anyways, hat head was never an issue in the winter. Of course, you could play with the bowl cut a little bit. For example, I clearly remember at Christmas time, my mom attacking me with a curling iron and burning my tender little ears in order to fancy up the salad bowl on my head for the Christmas pageant at church. I also remember attempting to adorn my bowl with barrettes and clips to distinguish myself from the boys for our class pictures.

Now I have my own daughters and I can see how I impose my own fashion views on them. Of course, I would never dream of giving them a bowl cut. Instead, with my eighties sensibilities and rock’n’roll spirit, I view the Joan Jett rocker cut to be the most versatile of all cuts for a young girl. As I was brushing out Grace’s hair last night, I realized, short of dying her hair black, I have been bringing her to the hairdresser and slowly having her hair styled into this 80’s rock-goddess. Grace has no time for barrettes, ponytails or ribbons. Her favourite pants are black velvet, and her winter coat is hot-pink and black leopard skin. I think this haircut is quite appropriate for our almost six year old.

I lightheartedly resent my Mom for making me look like Friar Tuck for a good chunk of my childhood. I wonder if Grace will resent me for making her look like a rock'n'roll legend?

So Alison posted a challenge of sorts – to share hairstyles of days gone by. While this particular photo doesn’t capture the essence of what was going in the my head in the early eighties, it definitely conjures up memories for me:

• An almost Sapphic obsession with Belinda Carlisle. Do you remember when Belinda quit the Go-Go’s and started her own career? Do you remember when she cut one side of her hair shorter than the other? Do you remember legions of young woman walking around with their head tilted to one side as if weighted down by the longer hair?
• Note the helmet like quality of the hair. It looks like I could pop that hair on and off on a whim. To achieve this lego hair, I probably popped a hole or two into the ozone layer with my heavy consumption of French Formula hairspray. The.best.hairspray.evah.
• Sore neck. See above entry for the longer hair on one side thing. All that holding my head to one side for hours on end left me with a huge kink in my neck.
• Pimples. See above entry for heavy use of hairspray. All that hairspray on my bangs in particular left me with tons of pimples on my forehead. This led to an inappropriate use of foundation clearly not matched to my skin tone, but that is an entry for another day.
• Party in the front, business in the back. Because I could only see the front of my head, I assumed the rest of world could only see me that way too. I spent countless hours on the front of my hair, but don’t remember caring a whole lot about the back of my head, and definitely did not waste a drop of French Formula on something people couldn’t see!

It is probably because of this “Belinda Syndrome” that I now use hairspray so sparingly and have a perfectly balanced haircut.

I do have “Heaven is a Place on Earth" on my MP3 though……

WHOO HOO I'M LEARNING STUFF!

I'm at a conference all week (local) and the hours of the conference differ from my normal work hours. I am seeing what a creature of habit/routine I am because I am royally messed up! Everything from what time to catch the loser cruiser in the morning to the crowds on the later afternoon buses are messing with my psyche. Therefore, I don't feel I can give you the kind of quality blogging you have come to expect of me so I am taking the week off.

(Why oh why is this conference taking place in Ottawa and not in say, Vegas or Hawaii? Lucky me, Ottawa in November, much like Paris in the Spring time, I'm sure).