the weather. we are under it.

So, everyone in Casa Me, My Dogs, My Life is sickity sick sick sick. I got the call around noon that Jane had a stomach bug (I will refrain from the details) and both Greg and I have a cold. We are all still recovering. Poor Jane! I hate seeing her sick and I want her to be better, stat. For those of you keeping track, this is the fifth illness in a month and a half. I could go on and on for paragraphs about all the reasons why I am miserable and so sick (literally and figuratively) of daycare, etc, etc, on and on, et al, to infinity and beyond. But instead, I will tell you the one reason I am glad I'm home sick today:

The cast of Sex and the City is on Oprah today! Hells to the yeah! I'm psyched.

I am also posting this pic of Jane that Lisa posted on her blog the other day - she took it at a party we were all at on Friday night, in ye olden days of healthiness. This is one of my favorite pics of Jane yet!

what have you done for me, lately?

Dear Blog,

Hey! Remember me? It's me - Jimmy! Yeah, the old lady keeps forgetting to talk about me on the blog now, because of that little drooly thing she's always lugging around. What is WITH that thing, anyway? It cries and poops and makes a mess, and she still won't get rid of it. Wait a minute - now that I think about it, it does sound a little bit like me.

Anyway, the old lady calls this blog "Me, my dogs, my life" but me and my bro are never featured anymore, which is obviously wicked lame. We've been pretty busy, after all. We've been going down to my new boat with the old guy, who tries to fix things on it and spends a lot of time screaming and yelling at boat parts. But Junior and I have a lot of fun. I'm glad they finally bought a boat for me, because I have my sea legs and I wanna use them!

I've been spending a lot of my time barking at the neighbors and birds and squirrels and stuff. Now that it's light out early in the morning, I can kick things off before 6 a.m., but for some reason, I'm always getting yelled at for it. Well, who's going to tell them about the rabbits in the backyard, if I don't? Yeesh.

I've also been enjoying the new toys that the drooly thing has. There are lots of nice, brand new stuffed animals and plastic things that I've enjoyed ripping apart. Hey, she's not using them - why can't I? The drool-factory has also been eating some delicious new foods, and whenever I can, I have a taste too.

So that's about it here. They've been ignoring me, so if anyone wants to invite me over or take me on a field trip this summer, I'm game, and my bro is too. This place has gotten way lame.

Peace,

Jimmy

homework

Isn't it ironic that I busted everyone's butts about not blogging, and then I've been MIA for a week? Blame it on the work, my friends. Blame it on the work.

I am emerging from the chaos with a long list of homework for the weekend. I am very backed up on my assignments, and here is what has to be done:

• Read the past two weeks' worth of New York magazine
• Read the mast two months' worth of In Style magazine
• Read last month's Oprah magazine (shut up, my mom gives it to me)
• Read last month's Parenting magazine (yeah, I need a manual)
• Speaking of which, read the "the tenth month" chapter in What to Expect the First Year
• Finish reading Good in Bed by Jennifer Weiner
• Start my book club book, Nineteen Minutes
• Attend to my DVR backup, which includes:
• Two episodes of "Top Chef"
• Nine episodes of "Sex and the City"
• Three episodes of "The Colbert Report"
• Two episodes of "The Daily Show"
• One episode of "America's Next Top Model"
• One episode of "Work Out"
• One episode of "The Bachelor: London Calling" (shut up)
• One episode of "The Hills" (I'm not apologizing)
• One showing of "John Oliver: Terrifying Times"
• One episode of "Desperate Housewives"

I'm very far behind, as you can see. I would hardly win the pop culture Olympics at this point. I don't even think I'd place.

Why do I feel like I've totally outed myself as a complete tool in this post? Oh, like you didn't know that already.

the street where I live

I grew up on a kid-packed street. My best friends now are the ones I grew up with in small-town Connecticut. I cannot stress enough how awesome it is that, at age 34, I've known most of my closest peeps for almost 27 years. They have been through every stage of life with me (for better or for worse - this also means they have a lot of photographic evidence of me in the 80s). I had a truly ideal situation growing up. I'd often leave my house in the morning, not to return for the rest of the day, because, hey! We had forts to build, clubs to form, bikes to ride, hikes to take.

So, I have been pretty dismayed at the fact that our neighborhood seemingly is comprised of 99.9% old people, my next door neighbors who have a 2 year old and a 4(ish) year old, and us. I really do like the next door neighbors and hope that they and Jane become fast friends, but I was hoping for more potential friends for her (and me!) in da 'hood. Lots of my friends have kids, and Jane will hang with them, of course, but I really wanted some kids close by, too. I know, I know, I'm greedy.

You can imagine my delight this evening, then, while taking Jane on a stroll in this fabulous weather, when I ran into a woman who lives down the street and around the corner with a NINE MONTH OLD BABY BOY!! YEAH!!! And, I have to say, I think she may have been equally psyched to see me. I am really happy about this new development, and we already said that we will have to get together soon.

Why do I feel like I'm in junior high all over again?

succinct

Jane = sick. Third sickness in a week and a half.

Work = all-encompassing. Hectic. Treading water.

Amanda = : (

unplugged

I was going to write a really interesting, comical, scintillating blog post about my fascinating life* - but then I realized that I haven't really heard from you. Or you. You either. You've been better than the rest of us, so you get a free pass from this shout out.

So while you are composing blog-worthy updates on your lives, I'm taking a break from the computer this weekend. I think I'm getting a case of ADD, because I'm constantly multi-tasking in the evenings and often that means the computer is in my lap, a book or magazine is to my side, and the TV is on. I'm finding that while trying to focus on everything, I'm focusing on nothing. So the computer will stay off.**

Talk to you Monday!

*Not really.
**Except to check work email. Because I have to worry about something going on on Sunday. Well I don't have to worry, but I will.

awesomeness

Way back in ye olden 1990s, I was a huge ginormous fan of alt-rock-whatever music. I went to zillions of concerts, spent most of my money on CDs, and nearly died and went to heaven when Radio 104 hit the airwaves. And my most favorite of all of the bands of the day was Letters to Cleo.

So imagine my joy - JOY - when I happened upon this website.

My girl crush of the 90s has herself a fancy new website, with a blog even! Blissful happiness over here, people.

525,600 people all lovin' our show

So as previously reported, my number one favorite musical of all time, RENT, is closing on Broadway. It was set to close on June 1, so I went and bought tix for the matinee performance, which would be the 19th time I've seen the show.

And then.

They changed the closing date to September 7! I knew something like this was going to happen. But what to do? I can exchange my tix for a show during closing week in September, but I believe I'm supposed to be in Cape Cod for the bulk of that week, so I will probably just end up going on the now anti-climactic date of June 1. As much as I heart this show, and as much as I'm happy they are squeezing three more months out of it, I admit to being annoyed as well.

BUT THEN.

The most excellent of theater news arrived today, via an email from Alan. I was just about to pop over to playbill.com like the huge theater nerd that I am when I received an email from Alan telling me that my second favorite show of all time, [title of show], was going to Broadway in July! YEAH! I was seriously screaming, people. You'd think I was an investor. I saw the show off-Broadway in September 2006 (pop back to that month in my archives if you want to read about how awesome I thought it was then) right before it closed, begged every theater person I know to go see it in its last weeks, and nobody listened to me. I have now threatened everyone I know that if they don't go see it this time, I'm breaking up with them.

If you have free time, PLEASE visit the [tos] blog on their website. It's hilarious. And join me on April 21 in buying tickets for the show. Or at least tell 9 people (this would make sense if you SEE THE SHOW).

And, in conclusion, SEE [title of show] ASAP.

the hits. they keep coming.

So, Jane's got herself a case of Coxsackie virus. Funny name, not so funny virus - it's also known as the hand, foot and mouth virus, because one of the symptoms is blisters in the general area of the hands, foot, and inside the mouth. Jane has been miserable for a couple of days, but I attributed it to teething, because she's getting her first two teeth in. However, daycare called yesterday to let me know they think she has this virus, which is making its way through the daycare. It certainly made sense, since she's been throwing up and refusing the bottle and completely miserable, and I had noticed some spots on her stomach, which are now all over her legs and arms, and indeed inside her mouth, as confirmed by her doc yesterday. There isn't anything you can do for this - the doc suggested a cocktail of children's Tylenol, Mylanta and Benadryl to help soothe the throat and mouth - but after running around to three pharmacies, talking to two pharmacists and calling the doctor twice, it turns out they don't make children's Mylanta anymore. So we're giving her the other two things, just in case it helps. Poor little baby. I feel so bad! Although her spots are more numerous today, her mood seems fair (knock wood!). The doctor said she would be able to go back to daycare tomorrow, if she seems better. We shall see. In the meantime, you know how busy I am at work? Yeah, it's hard to get stuff done when you're stuck home. Ah well - priority one is that Jane is OK.

do you hate me?

Dear Internets,

Do you hate me? I'm sorry I've been MIA. I thought about blogging a couple of nights this week, but I realized all I would do would be bitching and moaning as usual. What makes tonight different? Well, it's Friday! So the bitching and moaning comes with the relief that I have survived another work week.

Easter went well, thanks for asking! We had a load of people here and they all seemed to enjoy themselves. Jane picked that day to start her separation anxiety routine that apparently kicks in at this age. Yes, although there were plenty of people here who hadn't seen her in a long time and wanted to hold her and play with her, she only wanted to be with mommy. Mommy had lots of stuff to do, so she was hoping that Jane embrace her role as the pre-dinner entertainment, but it was not to be. Despite her crankiness, she sure looked cute and received a seemingly limitless number of stuffed bunnies and cute outfits. It was practically like Christmas all over again, with all of the gifts.

Work. Sigh. Busy times a million.

Jane's first tooth finally started poking out this week! Thank God for it too, because the fanfare - crying, drooling, general misery - has abounded over the past few weeks.

I'm going to see two shows this weekend! Tomorrow night I'm going to see Fatal Attraction: A Greek Tragedy at Hole in the Wall with Todd and Alan, who, I believe, plan on gloating about the fabulousness of their recent Tucson trip. Then Sunday night I'm going to see Twelve Angry Men at The Bushnell. These are the first two shows I'm seeing since before Jane was born. Can you believe that madness? And I call myself a theater person.

So, um, that's all here. Happy weekend!

Love,
Amanda

PS I've included some pictures that will hopefully go a long way in terms of earning your forgiveness for my blogging negligence.

stating the obvious

San Diego kicks Connecticut's ass.

Well, duh.

another thing that J Lo and I don't have in common

I am laughing my ass off over here, looking at these pics of Jennifer Lopez, Marc Anthony and their new twins that appeared in People magazine this week. Particularly the one of her breezily feeding one of them wearing some sort of designer gown, full hair and makeup, smiling oh-so-maternally. Because as those of you who visited me during the first month of Jane's life know, that's exactly how I looked.

I need a drink

Reasons why:

1) Work. I don't talk about work here, and I'm sticking to that rule. I will just say that my workload got considerably bigger today, on top of what was already considerable. So there's that.

2) My sister had surgery today to remove an aneurysm in her neck. She's fine but it's a very good thing they caught it, or this blog could have been a lot more depressing. However, bonus points to me for spelling aneurysm correctly on the first try.

3) Jimmy is trying to make sweet, sweet love to Junior tonight. Spring fever? The romantic pitter patter of the rain? Not sure what's got him in the mood, but neither of them are really equipped for this kind of activity and it's completely freaking me out, so I've separated the lovebirds.

4) The rain. I am so frakking sick of the rain, the cold, the misery. I want nice weather. And Alan's latest blog entry has enraged me even more.

5) The fact that I'm trying to dry my comforter right now, which is going to need about two more hours in the dryer, and then a load of sheets before I can go to bed tonight.

Blah diddy blah blah blah.

the return of the worst blogger ever

Yup, that's me.

Sorry I've been MIA, yet again. My life, it is not exciting. Certainly not exciting enough to be taking up room on the interwebs (sorry Lisa). But here I am, with an update. Easter is coming up, and we are having 17 people over on Sunday. We are abso-freaking-lutely not prepared for this in any way. We're having someone come over to clean the house (for reals) on Saturday, and then after that, I will clean what I feel she didn't clean good enough. I am completely neurotic when my family comes over - we live in a state of disarray over here and it's slightly embarrassing to me. Plus I have to cook, and we all know that's not a good thing.

Work continues to be madness.

Spring is coming! Or so the calendar tells me. I don't believe it because it's still ass cold out and I'm still wearing gloves, but it is March 18, and it can't stay cold that much longer. It just CAN'T - do you hear me, Mother Nature? I am very jealous of my friend who is going on vacation to Arizona. I am desperate for warm weather.

Uhhhh......yeah. Let's see. Cap'n Greg is continuing to get the boat ready, for our summer on the water. And..uhh...zzzzzz

Sorry, I just fell asleep reading my own blog.

a little Monday morning poll

OK, I totally stole this from another blog, but I thought it was interesting. Of course, I added my own answers!

It started out as "60 Things You Possibly Didn't Know About Me" and now it's 19. I thought it'd be a fun way for you to get to know me a little better... Read on, and then tell me about YOU, too.

1. What were you doing at 7am this morning? Working. Something is wrong with our hot water heater, so I am currently waiting for the guy to show up and fix it. So I was doing some work from home.

2. What were you doing 30 minutes ago? Yup, still working. In the middle I got Jane ready for the day and Greg took her to daycare and then went off to a meeting.

3. What will you be doing 3 hours from now? I am hoping by that point I am actually at work, and I'm sure I will be thinking about lunch!


4. What is the last thing you said aloud? "Jimmy!" because he was barking for no reason. At least no reason that I can figure out.

5. What is the best ice cream flavor? I am a fan of the Mint Chocolate Chip, except I feel guilty saying that, considering I am the Dairy Queen, after all.

6. What was the last thing you had to drink? Diet Pepsi, aka, my life blood.

7. What are you wearing right now? Oh dear. Valentine's Day sleeping pants, a t-shirt from when I did Carousel 11 years ago, and a CCSU sweatshirt. Hey, I'm being honest. Remember, I'm waiting for the hot water heater to be fixed, so no shower yet!

8. Have you bought any new clothing items this week? Not for me, but I did buy a St. Patrick's Day outfit for Jane. It's super-cute, and much needed, since she's 63% Irish (we figured it out yesterday).

9. What's the last sporting event you watched? I "watched" the Superbowl, kinda, as much as you can watch a game with 30 people in the room, lots of noise, and a baby to monitor.


10. Do you have a tan? I have a tan as much as anyone in CT who doesn't fake and bake can have a tan in March.

11. Do you drink your soda from a straw? I should, but no. Poor teeth.

12. Are you someone's best friend? Yup!

13. Last person you talked to on the phone? I think it was my mom, who I talked to on Saturday. Wow, I really don't think I talked to anyone on the phone since then! She told me she's going to Ireland for two weeks in September, and I'm so happy for her. It really brought me joy to know she's going on such an awesome trip. It was the best news of the weekend.

14. Have you met anyone famous? Quite a few people, but the most exciting ones were Mark Ruffalo and a couple of the Barenaked Ladies. I did kinda crap my pants when I met Hunter Bell too.

15. Last song listened to? No joke - "I'm F****** Matt Damon."

16. Are you jealous of anyone? No, not really. My life is hectic and not very glamorous, but I do love it.

17. Is anyone jealous of you? I highly doubt it!


18. Do you eat healthy? Sort of, but I really could do much better. I am feeling very badly about myself these days. I have these persistant 7 pounds or so that I want to lose, and I just feel overall very dumpy and gross. I really want to be better about this.

19. Do you hate anyone right now? Not specifically, but there are plently of people I don't like.

OK, now your turn!

Junior bolts!

So today we decided to take the whole family to West Hartford Center for a walk. We don't do this very often because, as you can imagine, it's a pain in the ass to deal with two rambunctious dogs and a stroller. But today we felt sorry enough for the dogs that we took them along. About ten seconds into our walk, Junior somehow got loose and starting bolting down the street - galloping, really. Greg had Jimmy and started running after Junior, but Jimmy was slowing him down. He's yelling to me, "take Jimmy, take Jimmy!," but I can't catch up to him, and in the meantime, I've totally ditched Jane on the sidewalk. As I catch up to Greg, I hear "Amanda!" and look behind me. It's my friend Beth and her fiance, who had been across the street shopping for wedding rings. I throw them Jimmy and follow Greg, who finally caught Junior before he hit the intersection. I basically had to sit on the sidewalk to recover from the experience, which took about 30 seconds in total but was very exhausting nonetheless! It was quite humiliating to have an audience for the whole thing, but luckily Beth and Jay were friends and not potential baby kidnappers, considering I'd just left Jane there, napping away, oblivious to the whole thing.

A while later, we were walking along, with Jimmy's leash tied to Greg's pants. I'm not sure why Greg did that, but he seemed to think it was an easier way of handling both dogs. Jimmy of course got excited about something (perhaps the seemingly hundreds of pooches walking around the Center?) and tugged Greg's pants so hard that his button popped off.

We left shortly after, figuring that if Greg's pants fell completely down, we'd never be allowed in West Hartford again.

hooked up

I got myself a fancy dancy new laptop computer. So now I'm playing around with it and half watching Michael Clayton, and asking Greg what is going on with the movie every five minutes. I can't help it - I'm entranced by my shiny new machine! This is the one I got. I picked green because it reminded me of spring.

hello, friends!

Just a little update from The Cold That Would Never End (TCTWNE) Headquarters. We've all got it now, with Greg and I tying for biggest babies with a cold. Jane, despite her constant booger production, is generally happy. I had to whisk her to the pediatrician's office yesterday, however, because when I picked her up from daycare, they said she had been fussy (read: whiney-ass baby) all day. But the man-child doctor that saw her (whom I love - it's not an insult, it's just that he's so young) said her ears and lungs were clear. So who knows what's up.



Greg and I actually went out, sans baby, last night to see U23D - yes, obviously we are huge nerds, so nerdy in fact that we had to put the 3D glasses over our regular glasses, rendering us six-eyed. Nice. Despite that, it was a really cool movie - a sort of flashback to the ye olden tymes (2005) when we saw them play three times on the very tour depicted in the movie. It was nice to get out, despite the fact that at any given moment, I feel like I'm going to collapse of exhaustion.



Not too many plans for the weekend. Greg's got boat-related stuff going on tomorrow, so Jane and I are flying solo, and with the Great Flood expected in this area, I don't think it's going to be a very exciting day. Hopefully we can make up for it with something fun on Sunday.



Have a great weekend!

am I crazy?

After months - actually, in all honesty, over a year - of being all "babybabybabybaby," I have agreed to co-direct a show this summer. This show is part of the summer young adult program that in previous years produced Godspell and Into the Woods (yeah, yeah, you heard all about those, whether you wanted to or not). I was supposed to co-direct last summer, but, well, I was busy. So I agreed to do it this summer, with the stipulation that I would only run two rehearsals a week, with the exception of hell week and the week the other director is on vacation.

I think I might be a little nuts. I'm so torn on this. One part of me says, "woman, you get no sleep as it is. You are stretched to your absolute limit. You are about to get super-slammed at work. WTF???" The other part says, "But I wanna do a shooooowwwww...."

I'm looking at it this way. Two nights a week isn't too much. It doesn't mean I won't see Jane, because I'm hoping I can arrange it so I can do most of her nighttime business before I have to leave for rehearsal. And even if I can't, it's not like Greg isn't completely capable. I think I need to get my creative juices flowing again. I need to do something for me, even if it means I'm going to be weeping uncontrollably from the exhaustion and insanity of it all. If it's a disaster, it'll all be over in probably less than two months. If it works, I know I can attempt to have some sort of external life again. No matter what, I'm fairly certain I wouldn't do another show for another year after that - I'm very partial to this summer program, which is another reason I'm doing this.

Yup, I'm crazy.

Now, dear internets, you have to tell me I'm not a bad mom for doing this.

**This pic is from backstage when I was in Life with Father. Jane was just a tiny little cluster of cells at this point. Mind you, a tiny cluster of cells that nearly made me pass out on stage during one performance.

Oprah's Big Give

Just watched this show. Love it. A nice mix of reality TV, good people doing good deeds, and competition. With a sprinkle of snarky disputes between contestants to keep it real. Another reason why Oprah will soon rule the world, if she doesn't already.