Positive Reinforcements

Positive reinforcements are very important (Child development 101) They also work with pets (Puppy Training at PetCo)

What I just learned is that positive reinforcements work incredibly well with husbands. You see, yesterday my dear husband was home all day. He did laundry, he worked around the house, he cleaned the first floor. For this, he was handsomely rewarded. We’re not talking pat on the back here.

This morning he got up early, made coffee, folded and put away laundry, got the kids dressed and THEN made French toast with bananas and whipped cream. If he keeps this up I’m going to have a stripper pole installed in our bedroom.

Screeeeech!!!!

That, my friends, is the sound of me dragging my feet and trying to stop the calendar's relentless march forward. Yes, my 3 inch heels are digging in here, trying to avoid slamming headfirst into the holidays.

All of a sudden Thanksgiving menu planning is upon me, closely followed by Christmas, New Year's, my pal's wedding, my *gasp* 30th birthday and then our 10th wedding anniversary. Stop the world, I wanna get off.

Right food ahead of me, left foot planted for balance, head and shoulders leaning back, yet time is clutching my hem with it's icky old man hands. And it's my favorite leopard print hem, too. How could this be?!?!?! The Holidays already?? Maybe if I whimper and cry I can get out of it.

It's not that I don't like The Holidays. When you have kids it's almost mandatory. Every year it's as if I stress so much over it that I don't allow myself time to enjoy it. Every year we say this year we won't go overboard with Christmas gifts just because we like to see them stacked 3 deep and 6 high around the tree. Then 3 days later they're broken and scattered around the house and we're asking ourselves, "Why did we do that again?" Although I must admit that Christmas music makes me happy. When I was about twelve I had the New Kids on the Block Christmas album. I love Tchaikovsky. Thanksgiving is overrated. I don't like turkey all that much. For my first Thanksgiving on my own, I ate White Castle and watched basketball. New Year's Eve we spend with the kids and a bottle of sparking grape juice - not exactly party central. Right now I've got no idea what to get my husband for Christmas. I haven't yet figured out what I want to do for my birthday, either.

No - I'm not avoiding it. I'm just surprised that all this came so fast at me. Yes, at me, like it's a personal assault :) Just look at the mish mash of thoughts above and you'll see what thinking about the holidays does to me!

Email Etiquette

Have you ever felt the wave of nausea and panic after hitting "send" on an email that is, shall we say, not nice? Twice in my younger (and less professional) days I accidentally sent an email to the wrong person. Both times, the wrong person was in management. Oops! One was innocuous, I simply stated that the frog I kept in a tank on my desk had died. For that, my boss kindly sent her condolences, and probably wondered why I felt it necessary to share that news. The other time, the manager from a department I'd been promoted out of, sent an email rife with spelling and grammatical errors. I thought I was forwarding that email, with my own snarky comments, to a co-worker and it turned out I hit "reply" instead of "forward" - I took a deep breath and with knocking knees I went to apologize face to face with the woman I'd offended. Luckily, she was very nice about it.
This afternoon I received an email I didn't like very much. I forwarded it to my mom, along with some comments that are just not printable here. As SOON as I hit sent I felt like someone threw ice water on my head - I was that sure I'd just replied to the person who angered me. I'd have been far more diplomatic! I'd have omitted the extraneous use of the F word! I checked the sent file at least 5 times to be sure - absolutely sure - that I sent that email to my mom. It has her name there, it says I forwarded the message .... so why do I still feel like I'm about to get fired?? Never mind the fact that everyone knows you shouldn't write anything in your work email that you wouldn't mind being plastered all over the kitchen. I know this. My reaction to that email was just too fast and strong to remember that.

Panic and pending joblessness aside, Sunday was report card day. Now I don't mean to brag...

Don't you hate it when people say that?? If you didn't mean to brag then you'd just be quiet about it. Not write it all over the place and tell everyone who passes you on the street. So yeah, I do mean to brag - Golden Boy got straight As! Even he was surprised! His face lit up and you could just see how happy he was. I'm so very proud of him. He's worked hard this year and it shows!

Halloween

Trick or treating was fun with Batman and Zombie Doctor. There was a guy dressed as Michael Meyers that I swear was following me. Lots of friendly kids and parents, orderly lines at the houses with the best candy, and plenty of Power Rangers, Supermen and Hannah Montanas. The only negative came when one woman grabbed her little ninja by his costume and threatened to "smack the **** outta" him. The rest of us stopped and stared at her, so she let him go, straightened his costume, and was overly nice the rest of the evening. I'm afraid she beat him when they got home though.

As we were walking home, we passed a police car with seizure inducing lights going. So I asked who was going to go up to the squad, knock on the window, and say Trick or Treat. No one?? Okay, fine. Then we passed driver of said squad car who was talking to someone on a front porch. Belly asked if that was the police. I said yes, then thought about it and said, "Unless he's just dressed like that for Halloween. Convincing costume, but I wouldn't go anywhere with him if I were you." That earned me quite a dirty look from him. No sense of humor!

Liquid Lunch

My office is a strange place. This is what I see in the closet each day on my way into the kitchen. What are they suggesting? And why don't they just keep it all IN the kitchen with the coffee and tea??

And Lunch With My OB/GYN

In my post explaining the horrors of prednisone, I talked about my eye doctor that accused me of snorting coke and then mis-read my blood work and told me I had syphilis. This same doctor, he's a nice guy. Happily married, has a baby. Just always seemed a little too... familiar with me. He'd call me about an eye appointment and then he'd want to chat. He'd given me his email address, but I never used it. One time, he asked me about movies, I said my husband and I like all kinds of movies (because when a male is being too chatty, sometimes you have to repeat and reiterate "my husband" a lot) and he said his wife doesn't like horror movies, so as a result he doesn't get to see them. Yeah, okay, whatever dude. Then he gives me his phone number and says to call him next time we're going to go, and he'll come with. Weird. Who hangs out with their eye doctor? Yet every time I see him he says, "You've got my number, right?"

Last weekend my mother went to the dentist. He used to be my dentist, too. Really cool guy. He's into tattoos and motorcycles. Above all, he's a fabulous dentist and I trusted him like no other. Anyway - I last saw him when I was pregnant with my little guy who is now 4. He sold his practice and went to one that doesn't take my insurance. So, my mom goes to see him and she comes back and gives me a little sticky note with his phone number and email address. Huh? She said that he kept telling her "Jesse rocks!" and that we had always planned to hang out but never did. So I ask my husband what he thinks, does he want to go double date with the dentist and his wife? His reply, "Yeah I guess so, but who hangs out with their dentist?"

Fun with ipod Shuffle

This is what's played so far this morning:

Sheila E - Glamorous Life (wait while I tease my hair)

Grease Soundtrack - Title track

Coal Chamber - Dreamland (morning music)

Paula Abdul - Forever Your Girl

Elvis - Surrender (off the 30 #1 Hits of course)

Tool - Ticks & Leeches (Who doesn't love Maynard?)

Ashford & Simpson - Solid (..... as a rock!)

Vapors - Turning Japanese (My Golden Boy loves this song)

Atmosphere - Free or Dead (sing it, Slug)

Interpol - Rest My Chemistry (how did this even get in here?)

Scott Weiland - Where's the Man? (Scott's my dad.... long story)

Cold - Send in the Clowns (Whatever happened to Scooter?)

Yeah Yeah Yeahs - Bang (rock on)

George Michael - Careless Whisper (Stop acting like you don't know that song)

Norah Jones - I've Got to See You Again (I love Norah)

Now playing: 2pac - Holla if Ya Hear Me (Tupac was spotted at a KFC is Tacoma last week)