1.  I turned 44 today.

2.  I also ate…a LOT.  Like 3,200 calories-lot.

3.  But I worked out too so that makes it all better, right? (NOT).

4.  The Boy is out of school all week due to the pig flu…never mind that nobody in his school has it.

5.  They’re calling it “Swine Break”.

6.  And they won’t have to make up the days.

7.  I’ve had this weird creeping poison ivy-esque rash thing for like two and a half weeks.

8.  It’s gone away in some places and popped up in others.  In fact – I think it’s spread to my face.

9.  Clearly I must go somewhere amongst the unwell to get a cortizone shot or some special salve or something.

10. If you knew me,  you would know that I am a border-line Monk – what with all the opeing doors with t-shirt hems and hand washing and refusing to use public pens and all.

11.  No, I’m not wearing a mask and gloves when I go out and I don’t plan to.

12.  But for God’s sake people..cover your damn faces and wash your damn hands after you cough and sneeze and STOP wiping your noses with your palms and then grabbing door handles.  Yuck.

13.  My forearm is on fire and my face is hot and they both itch…even with cortizone 10+.

14.  So tomorrow I will share space with the unwell.  But I damn sure will not use public pens, touch door handles or  even put my hands on public counters.

15.  Because I can’t afford to catch anything else or bring something back to the house.

16.  Shut up, I am NOT Monk.

17.  Am not.

18.  That is all.

P.S.  44 wouldn’t be so bad if I didn’t have this creeping rash crud.

An extra day off to remember those who have served us so bravely, sacrificing so much to ensure that we may continue to live in freedom.

“Here Rests In Honored Glory An American Soldier Known But To God”

There is much to think about when we pause to remember why exactly we all have some extra time off this weekend. As someone with a family member currently serving overseas, I know that I will definitely take an extra moment to think of him and hope he is safe and well as he serves so valiantly to protect us all.

I think this is the longest I’ve ever gone without posting since starting this site. I’m sure we all go through these cycles of no motivation to write. Truthfully, Tommy’s been home a lot these past few weeks so we’ve just been enjoying some nice peaceful family time.

I hope everyone (everyone…well, the few of you who bother to stop by here) had a happy and peaceful Christmas whatever the politically correct term it is for what you and yours did last week, and that your new year brings good health and happiness.

As for us? We still have a few days to stay up late, sleep in, relax and prepare for what the new year brings. The Boy goes back to school on Thursday….which happens to be our 21st wedding anniversary. That’s right….21st. We’ll be passing that mark which represents the fact I’ve been married to that man for half my life. As far as I’m concerned, it’s the BETTER half, with more good years still in our future.

Go relax. Enjoy your day. I will sit here and admire the new sparkly thing on my ring finger while I listen to The Boy play his new Gibson Les Paul guitar.

Cheers!

No, silly. Not my REAL pilot I’ve been married to for 20 years……my vehicle called the Pilot.

Here’s my baby:

Isn’t she pretty (yes, she’s a “she”…mostly because the computer has a female voice…shut up….it’s a “she”)?

Wait….wanna see The Boy’s view from the back seat?

Nice, right? Did you check out the navigation screen to the right of the steering wheel? Sweet.

And we wounldn’t wanna be remiss in providing The Boy with his own climate control and convenient cup holders and massive leg room. Oh, yes. It’s all there:

Wait…I KNOW ya wanna know about the cargo space. Baby, we got cargo space! Third seat is there under the beautiful cargo mat which I will normally use. Because, seriously….we are only three people!

And now the big finish. Baby got back! Rear window wiper and extra lights around the license plate. She is a HAMMER!

Now….what shall I name her? She and I will be together for the next 10 years or so. Any suggestions?

And I work out to music from the 80s and 90s. There. I said it. And I’m not ashamed to admit it. I’ve decided that the music scene in the past decade or so has absolutely sucked…at least when it comes to music I’d be willing to listen to while working out.
Because while I was working I didn’t have time for anything (much less listening to music – or so I thought), I’d gotten out of the habit. But then…I got my Zen! Which has about 820 MB of music from our CD library…most of which we bought in the 80s and 90s (Tommy’s gone all download hi-tech with his music since then). So I’ve been listening to it…a lot. When I work out, when I clean, when I wait outside school for The Boy. Listening. To my (mostly) 80s and 90s workout music.

Here are some of the songs I heard so far this week while doing my 5.4 miles on the elipticals at level 8 (I try to do this 5 days a week, two of them with intervals….tough to do but okay if you have the music):

1. Hallelujah I Just Love Her So (Ray Charles)

2. Cheeseburger in Paradise (Jimmy Buffet)

3. Love Shack (B-52s)

4. Shake Your Hips (Lou Ann Barton)

5. Wild Women Do (Pretty Woman Soundtrack)

6. Keepin’ Me Up Nights (Asleep at the Wheel)

7. All Shook Up (Cocktail Soundtrack)

8. The Blond Stranger (Jimmy Buffet)

9. If Love Was a Train (Michelle Shocked)

10. You Don’t Treat Me No Good (Sonja Dada)

11. Mustang Sally (The Commitments)

12. All I Wanna Do (Sheryl Crow)

13. Good Thing (Fine Young Cannibals)

14. Legs (ZZ Top)

15. San Francisco Bay Blues (Eric Clapton)

16. Hit the Road Jack (Ray Charles)

17. Real Wild Child (Pretty Woman Soundtrack)

There’s no rhyme or reason for the songs on my MP3 player…other than we own them and I don’t find them annoying or hard to listen to. Rap? No thanks (I call it “crap”). Shrieking heavy metal lyrics with horribly loud, screeching guitar? Double no thanks. Alternative? Some of it’s okay (Michelle Shocked; Sonja Dada; Barenaked Ladies – I have some of their stuff on my player). I even have some Lyle Lovett tunes on my player…some of his stuff’s pretty good.

I guess my music selection is a little old-fashioned. But that’s okay. I listen to music from the 80s and 90s and I don’t care!

Yes, that’s right. I won’t dwell on congress ALL the time…just some of the time. So here’s something fun. A list of questions about Christmas courtesy of Cory. I won’t tag anyone, but feel free to play along if you like.

1. Egg nog or hot chocolate? Definitely hot chocolate. Egg nog is well..too eggy for me.

2. Does Santa wrap resents or just sit them under the tree? Sit them under the tree. How the hell can you tell if they’re from Santa if they’re wrapped?

3. Colored lights on tree/house or white? Colored. On the house and on on the tree.

4. Do you hang mistletoe? Um….no. There were times when we couldn’t afford a tree, much less the mistletoe!

5. When do you put your decorations up? We get the tree the day after Thanksgiving; then whenever Tommy gets back from his next trip we decorate. House lights go up kinda late usually. They’re a pain.

6. What is your favorite holiday dish (excluding dessert)? Stuffing. Definitely the stuffing.

7. Favorite holiday memory as a child: Like my sister (whose answers I won’t show you), I loved stacking all the presents that belonged to me on Christmas Eve so I could get right to all of them first thing in the morning. Stacks are good.

8. When did you learn the truth about Santa? Well…one Christmas morning the stockings were empty and my mom made us all go outside to play for a while after we told her…then (what seemed like an eternity later) she called us back in and the stockings were miraculously stuffed. Yeah, I was pretty sure before that by I knew for sure then.

9. Do you open a gift on Christmas Eve? Yes. We were always allowed one before the parents and aunts/uncles began to party. So I’ve carried that tradition and The Boy gets to open one on Christmas Eve.

10. How do you decorate your Christmas tree? Lights, ornaments, and tinsel – and sometimes those icicles. Tinsel and icicles go on last.

11. Snow – love it or dread it? Well, as a kid in Wisconsin…dreaded it. It was damn cold. Now we maybe see it once or twice a year, so love it!

12. Can you ice skate? Hell, yeah. Even had a unit of ice skating for P.E. when I lived in Wisconsin. Haven’t done it in years, but I’m sure I could hang.

13. Do you remember your favorite gift? Yes. It was a ski jacket when I was in 5th or 6th grade. I got a box of money (crumpled dollar bills) and a charm bracelet that year too!

14. What’s the most important part of the holidays for you? The chance that Tommy’s schedule will work and that he’ll be home. The years he is home are the best.

15. What is your favorite holiday dessert? Tommy’s mom’s cheesecake pumpkin pie.

16. What is your favorite holiday tradition? The boy and I tear up the bread for the stuffing on Christmas morning…then we make the pumpkin pie…then we eat a piece of the pie after it cools before the turkey is fried. So….stuffing and pie.

17. What tops your tree? It used to be a star, but it broke. So we let The Boy pick the next topper. Now it’s an old-world Santa.

18. Which do you prefer? Giving or receiving? Well…receiving is nice, but I always feel kinda guilty. So giving is better…especially to The Boy. Nothing like the bright shiny eyes of a happy child on Christmas morning.

19. What’s your favorite Christmas song? I have to say it’s “I’ll Be Home For Christmas”. Because Tommy has been gone for so many – serving his country (he missed The Boy’s first Christmas by a day because he was on the way home from Saudi), and also working for the airlines.

20. Candy canes – yuck or yum? Yum!

So are you ready? Thanksgiving is here and Christmas is around the corner. I’d much rather have holiday cheer than post-election blues…wouldn’t you?

Oh, get your mind out of the gutter. It’s not THAT kind of secret.

It’s a different kind of dirty. You see, I am known for having a clean house. I mean, a really clean house. Those things that you might do as part of your spring cleaning I do each and every week.

That being said….there is something that happens to the not readily visible parts of the house when I clean. You see….the closets and the drawers? Not so much clean, as they are stuffed full of the things I didn’t want anybody else to see. This drives the spouse nuts, ad he leaves things out so he can be reminded he needs to do something with them, and I go behind him like a maniac shoving things in this drawer or that, or the other closet or cupboard. So when he goes to look for them he cannot find them.

I can’t help it. I HATE CLUTTER (that I can see while sitting in the chair watching T.V. or reading).

Anyway, so our bedroom closet was COMPLETELY out of hand. There was old stereo equipment, luggage, letter jackets from high school, size four clothes from the 80’s, old training manuals….everything was in there.

So today I sucked it up and cleaned the damn closet. Three large leaf bags later, it is clean. And everything is lined up so neatly in there. It took more than three hours, but it is done. It is so lovely I walk back there every hour or so to marvel at its neatness. I had no idea a clean closet could be so nice.

It was pretty funny when The Boy got home. He was really worried I’d start in on his closet, but I promised him I would not. Oh, believe me I want to. But some things are better left alone. I can shut the doors and then it will look clean to the occasional visitor. As long as it looks clean, it’s clean. Right?

I was at work (as usual) that September morning. One of the earliest to arrive, I was in my cube when the event planner popped her head in and said, “Two airplanes just hit the World Trade Center.” I looked at her in disbelief.

We sat down in front of my screen and pulled up one of the news stations that was doing a live feed. It was true. We had been hit.

A jumble of emotions came over me, the primary one being absolute and uncontrolled anger that our government could let something like this happen. This was followed immediately by empathy for the victims’ families. The not knowing is the worst part of something like this when you have a loved one involved. I was catapulted across a plain of emotions and put directly back in time when a temp at work first notified me that Khobar Towers had been hit by a truck bomb. As I drove home that day in June 1996 I had no idea whether Tommy had made it through the blast. It was a brief two hours….but it was the longest two hours of my life.

So I could only imagine what the 9/11 victims’ families were feeling. Still, I did my job. I worked with the local papers and was able to score an interview for my CEO to discuss Internet security.

But I felt this undeniable pull to get home…as soon as I could. So I left the office and when I got home I was relieved to see that Tommy was there. He’d had jury duty that day and had been excused from a trip to attend. I remember feeling relieved that he was safe, but guilty that so many others were not. As we sat there watching the coverage, I think we both were still feeling that undeniable sense of dread that we’d felt five years earlier.

I did the interview call from the house. I didn’t go back to work that day. After the call we picked up The Boy. He was in 2nd grade and all of seven years old. As we watched the news coverage unfold, we answered whatever questions he had. We do not believe in hiding things from him. Later that night, Tommy had to answer the difficult question he asked. “Is Al-Qaeda gonna get daddy when he flies?” We told him that they were fixing the airplane doors and that daddy had an ax to protect himself. We had to. You just cannot ignore questions like that.

As I sit here on this day of reflection and realize that like a child pushing his limits Al-Qaeda was emboldened by our lack of response for the Cole attack….and quite frankly the bogus retaliation for the embassy attacks…and the fact there was no response to the Khobar attack….and the missed and botched opportunities to take out Bin Laden…..I wonder if 9/11 would ever have happened if our leadership had shown the intestinal fortitude to fight back and take out our enemies when they could – and should have.

When The Boy was younger…to be honest, I was working a helluva lot and the spouse was deployed in the desert twice before he was two. So I would have to say I had little time to watch the news, much less share it with an infant.

To put things in perspective…The Boy was not yet two when Tommy was a victim of the Kohbar Towers bombing in 1996. It was June 1996. Tommy was hired by Delta the following February (thank God). Our primary reasons for making the move were: the airlines were hiring; too many deployments from home made it impossible for him to be a part of our son’s life; and of course…who wanted to work for Bill Clinton? (one of the primary reasons most pilots got out that year).

Anyway…as time has gone on and The Boy has learned to read and understand what’s going on, we’ve tried to make sure we don’t shield him too much from what’s going on in the world. We try and explain why both sides feel the way they do, and tell him why we feel one way or the other about things. Because really, how can one form an opinion without understanding why both sides think the way they do? Of course…I usually land somewhere along the right side, while Tommy is a bit more neutral about his opinion. Sometimes he goes one way; sometimes the other. But always on the side of security and doing what it takes to ensure that.

I’ve known people that have absolutely no idea what’s going on the world. They rarely read the paper; they never watch the news. How can someone function like that? How can someone even vote in an election with a good conscious not knowing what the issues are or how who they vote for stands on those issues?

I feel as a parent it’s my responsibility to instill the good habit of paying attention to what’s going on around us and getting all the facts of whatever situation is current. We’ve always subscribed to the paper. And we don’t hide it from The Boy; we never have. When he was little and asked “what’s that” about a certain picture, we’d try and describe it in his terms and make sure he understood what it was.

And when 9/11 happened (let’s remember….he was 7) and he asked if Al Qaeda was going to get into his daddy’s cockpit? We made sure he knew that daddy had an axe and they were going to reinforce the doors to make sure nobody could get daddy when he flew.

I feel that if we protect kids too much from world events and the world in general, we only do them a disservice. Believe me, if you don’t explain things to them, then other kids or teachers will…perhaps in a way that you would not necessarily agree with.

Of course, there are certain things at certain ages that are definitely inappropriate to discuss with kids. But I think if your kid asks about something…you should try and answer it. Or others will.

At least, that’s what I think.

1. Nagging the spouse (after more than 21 years together and almost 20 married, this is a really hard one to break)

2. Going to McDonald’s (I gots ta have me some fries every now and then)

3. Drinking (hey, I’m Irish Catholic…it’s in my DNA)

4. Taking naps every afternoon

5. Staying up until 1 a.m.

6. Sleeping until 10 a.m.

7. Letting clutter bother me (if it’s out of place, I simply cannot relax until it’s dealt with)

8. Complaining (like I have anything to complain about…I don’t even have to go to work anymore)

9. Nagging The Boy about his room (it’s his room, I should let him keep it likes he wants)

10. Eating chocolate (life without chocolate would not be worth living, so this will never happen)

Do you have a list like this? If so, do tell….what do you do that you know you should stop?