Lori McKenna and a pierced ear
Last night Tom and I saw Lori McKenna and her band perform in Northampton, Massachusetts at the Iron Horse Music Hall. Mark Erelli opened for her (he is sensational) and Lori and her band put on quite a show. We had a fun night. Here is a picture of Lori (we were up in the balcony) but damnit it, it was dark in there and this turned out dark...but we had a great time! Be sure to check out Lori McKenna in Mom Writers Literary Magazine this summer June 2008! She is a doll. Lori is touring in January so check out her site, she just may be in your hometown.
So my youngest son says to my husband and I the other night at bedtime something about his ear...
ME: "What's that J? What about your ear?"
J: "I pierced my ear today, uh, with Chris."
ME: "You WHAT? Where?"
J: "Right here" (pointing to his ear lobe)
ME: "I know that I mean when and how?!"
J: "At school in the bathroom with Chris. We used a thumb tack..."
I leaned against the door to hold myself up trying to imagine this scene...
ME: "A thumb tack J?!!! What the hell where you thinking?...Was there any blood?"
J: "Nah. It was pretty quick...can I borrow some of your stud earrings Mom?"
ME: "NO. No earrings. A thumb tack J...?"
J: "Yea, it worked good, see."
It was off centered, but there it was just the same - a pierced ear on my 7th grade son.
The joys of parenting :)
Have a super week!
~Paula
Frigid days and Fridays...
always get me down. Has this ever happened to you? Picture this. Yesterday morning (Friday) I woke up...sick again. Only healthy for a few days from one cough and cold that lingered for weeks and I wake up with a burning throat, swollen, sore lymph glands in my neck, a pounding headache and a totally stuffed nose. SHIT. I was so pissed. Right in time for the damn holidays, my daughter's 6th birthday, my anniversary and New Years! I get out of bed and into a hot shower and head out the door as I have a totally packed day of errands that need to be done after I drop the kids off at school at 7:45am. Rushing out the door (kids already waiting in the cold car) I realize I forgot my glasses (but we are running late) so I jump in the car, make sure everyone is seat-belted and back out the driveway. After dropping off the kiddos I head to my first stop - the bank. It is too early yet and only the drive through window is open so I pull up and wait in a line for my turn. I put on the radio and find some great Christmas tunes (to relax me as I feel like crap) and sit and wait. Finally it is my turn. I slowly pull up to the window, turn and smile at the teller and push the button to put down my window. NOTHING. Hmmm, I try again. NOTHING. I peek up at the teller who is just staring at me blankly. Crap. It is so cold outside the window is frozen and stuck. I mouth to the teller that the window is stuck. She still looks at me blankly and I notice that the other tellers are turning and looking at me. I need to make this transaction now and I feel the anger rising as I lift my fist and proceed to bang furiously on the window to get it unstuck. After doing this for a good minute or so I look at the teller who is staring at me like I just escaped the loony bin and I push my finger on the button... NOTHING. I take a deep breath (in between coughs), look at the teller (and the other tellers in the bank who are looking at me) and mouth, windows stuck, I'll pull forward and get out of the way (as I have a line of cars behind me now). SHIT. So, I pull forward, drive all around the bank and through the parking area, park it, get out with a glove on my left hand and like a crazy lady beat on the window for 5 minutes. Push the button and the window slowly goes down. I get in the car, pull back up to the drive through and wait in another line. When it is finally my turn the teller says, "Oh, I see you got your window down." Great. I continue by telling her what I need, she takes all the information, and then looks at me and says, "I'm sorry, you can't do that. You don't have the funds in that account." HUH?! I tell her to check again as they should have been there as of this morning. Nope. NOTHING. I left, drove straight home skipping my other errands and got back into bed. I hate days like this.
On a brighter note - Mom Writer's Literary Mag is doing great this winter issue. Thanks so much for all your subscriptions :)
It's so good to have all my guys together again. Nevermind that they sleep until noon (or later) but it is good to see them spending time together. Today they spent time in the gym playing basketball together, jammed together on their guitars, keyboard and drums, and now they are heading out tonight for a couple games of bowling. I'm sure they will then invade the kitchen together (again) after they return and long after I am asleep. It is nice. They get along so well and I am one proud mama :)
Here's a couple of pictures of my gang Christmas Eve 2004 (3 years ago)...what can I say, we get crazy around food ;)
OK. I need some sleep. Happy Holidays everyone. May all your dreams come true... ;)
~Paula
Basketball try-outs and a loose tooth
I'm kicked back at the gym last night during my 7th graders basketball try-outs (as J noticed he forgot his inhaler when I was dropping him off so I run home to get it and come back and decide to stay. There were other parents hanging out so what the heck) and all is going well. I'm noticing the two coaches, noticing the thirty boys who are there trying out for middle school basketball (there will be two teams - A & B) and then I'm noticing my son running off the court, quickly, holding his mouth. I thought maybe he got clobbered in the mouth or nose and was running to me for a kleenex or something and just as he is heading my way I open my mouth to comfort him and he zips right past me - not even looking at me - and still holding his mouth. OK. He disappears out the door and reappears a few minutes later...with an enormous wad of brown paper towels sticking out of his mouth -and he runs back out on the court. WTF? At that point I did what any mom would do, I started yelling at him. "J!" "Joseph!" WHAT WAS HE THINKING? Finally, he runs over to me, mumbling with a mouthful of the paper and hands me a tooth - his tooth. Oh. Then he hands me the wet, dirty paper towel and says "Thanks Mom." And turns and runs back out on the court. That damn tooth has been loose for months and it finally decides to fall out in the middle of basketball try-outs?
I reminded him last night that he would be getting a visit from the tooth fairy (which he insists is a guy - yea right) and he was cool with that.
Here he is with a toothless grin five years ago at age 7
Happy Thanksgiving - Gobble Gobble!
Cheers!
Paula
The Queen Bee Stings Again...or So She Thinks
Personally, I think it's quite comical. Most of you don't know what or who I am talking about so let me fill you in...
I live in a small town - a very small town. It's a pretty village - and there are some really great people here that my family and I are friends with. However, ever since moving here five years ago, we have come to know some of the town folk who are, shall we say, bad news. I would say there are a handful or so of these town folk, so, we are polite if need be, but just mind our own business and do not mingle with them.
Up until today I have kept quiet and just laughed off this one mom in particular, however, starting today - I'm going to say what I feel like saying about her and you know what? I don't give a shit.
This mom that I am speaking of is very insecure, seethingly jealous and I do believe has serious mental problems. She enjoys being negative, she enjoys trying to hurt others and she is just plain miserable - so, she takes it out on others. Basically, she is a bitch and enjoys it. She tries to control all of her family and the few friends that she has and I have talked to others about grown women with this disorder - and guess what?! There actually is a name for it! "Queen Bee Syndrome" A friend of mine told me to check out this book entitled Mean Girls Grown Up by Cheryl Dellasega, Ph.D so I picked it up and read it. Bingo! I have diagnosed (let's just call her Kat) Kat's problem - or at least part of it. (Part of her issues may go back deeper in her childhood as she told me when I moved here that her father left her family for a neighbor mom he was hot after - great dad!) Kat is a CATTY MOM. She grew up a CATTY GIRL and now she continues her role as "The Queen Bee" (or so she thinks she is). As Cheryl states in her wonderful book - "The Queen Bee is all grown up and ready to sting - mean girls grow up to be mean women." In other words - she is a female BULLY (also called Relational Aggression). She has to lie to get where she wants to be, to have that control that she desires. She back stabs others continuously, even her so called friends. I remember when we moved to this town she was all over me - friendly, filling me in on everyone in the town, negative and positive, but mostly negative about her so called friends. She denies it to this day - but she forgets - there was a witness to her words - my husband, and he remembers very well her mean, negative words she had on some of our great friends here today. And what is very sad about the whole thing is that she is raising her two kids to be exactly like her.
I have told her in the past that jealousy is not a pretty thing and it is not becoming on her. You know what? She gets uglier by the minute.
So there. I have gotten that off my chest and boy do I feel better. Now, to get back to work and stop wasting anymore of my time on her.
I think I have just stomped on a bee.
A Day in the Life of a Mama Writer
OK, ok, how much excitement (good and bad) can one mom writer take in ONE day? This is how my day went yesterday...
I get an email from a well known, New York City literary agent asking me to call her regarding my second book that I am putting together. NO PROBLEMO, certainly. I call her in the mid afternoon, delirious with excitement, but nervous as hell, anxious to hear her thoughts on my nonfiction anthology. She LOVES the project and wants to represent me and my book ---OH MY GOD. After picking myself up off the floor and thanking her ten times we said our goodbyes and then like a lunatic mother I ran through the house jumping for joy. Thank God I am still in one piece today and didn't seriously injure myself *wink*
THEN ~~ just three hours later...
My youngest son, Joseph, comes home after spending three days at Lake George (NY) with a friend and his family.
"Hi J!" I give him a great big bear hug like I like to do while rubbing the top of his fuzzy head.
"Hey Mom. I knew you were going to do that," he says while pulling away from me with his cute smile.
"So, how'd it go?" I ask pulling up a chair for both of us.
He ignores the chair and goes for his scooter instead. He rides in circles around the table while telling me his story of Lake George.
Five minutes later I am in a panic and feeling very sick to my stomach. First he tells me about all the fun stuff they did and then he continues to tell me about the adventure he had.
He decided one afternoon to take his guitar and go for a walk -- A walk from Lake George to Fort Ticonderoga that is! I guess his friend's parents were at a house across the way and just my son, his friend and his friend's sister were there alone. (Great, where is the supervision here?!). So Joseph announces to his friend and the sister that he is going for a walk to Fort Ticonderoga as he wants to play his guitar there -- Huh?? Little did he know that he had quite the walk ahead of him and what was he thinking just up and leaving like that and NOT asking the adults in charge?! So, he set out and after walking on the side of a small highway with his guitar he began to worry and wonder just where this Fort Ticonderoga might be and why he has not seen any signs for it yet. As he is walking, with his guitar, and extrememly tired and sweaty, a car with a lady slows down and asks him where he is headed. He tells her his destination and she hands him a freekin water bottle for the trip! Can you believe this?! Then a bit later after he decides to stop and turn back (as he is still walking along the highway with no sign of any FORT!) another car slows down and an older woman asks him where he is headed - head hanging he tells her the name of the friends that he is staying with and she tells him to hop in as she knows the place - (This is where I really got sick to my stomach). So, HE HOPS IN! Where have I failed as a mama? What the hell was that kid thinking - oh, I know what he was thinking. He was thinking about how sore his damn feet were and how he was so ready to jump in the lake to cool off...How could he just get in a car with a stranger? He tells me, "Mom, it was an old lady. What would she do to me?" Apparently she knew Joseph's friend's parents and did get him back safely.
As you can imagine, I had a LONG chat with Joseph on this subject last night. I still feel sick to my stomach though...
So, it was quite the roller coaster of a day for this mom. From being Happy Happy Mama Writer to feeling LIKE A LOSER MOM.
Oh, the life of a Mama Writer...
Last night Tom and I saw Lori McKenna and her band perform in Northampton, Massachusetts at the Iron Horse Music Hall. Mark Erelli opened for her (he is sensational) and Lori and her band put on quite a show. We had a fun night. Here is a picture of Lori (we were up in the balcony) but damnit it, it was dark in there and this turned out dark...but we had a great time! Be sure to check out Lori McKenna in Mom Writers Literary Magazine this summer June 2008! She is a doll. Lori is touring in January so check out her site, she just may be in your hometown.
