BloggingDangerously

Some Things Are Better Left Unsaid...

This may be the biggest week of my career.  On Friday, I'm making my final presentation for the deal I've been boring you all to tears with for the past 4 months.  The president of my company will be in the room.  There is much money on the table.  

So yeah, I'm a basket case.

But this past weekend was fantastic.

We went to the beach on Friday night and stayed until Sunday night.  We had friends visit us.  I made delicious dinners.  We walked to the harbor for icecream.  I made fried dough and waited for the dough to rise.  We walked on the beach.  We skipped rocks on the water. I swam in the frigid water with my children.

And then I saw this:

Can someone PLEASE tell me what ON EARTH you would need TWO plungers for?

On second thought, I do NOT want to know.

P.S. I could use all the positive thinking and extra good karma you've got going on this week.

 

Fighting Fire with Fire

When my older daughter was born I nicknamed her Belle.  I figured there would be enough things in the world that made her feel insecure about her appearance that if I called her "beautiful" 100 times a day I might stand a chance at outweighing the millions of subliminal messages making her feel otherwise.

"You are so smart and powerful and strong and beautiful and I am SO PROUD OF YOU." I tell her every day at least twice.

But when she started school she didn't believe me because it was hard and she is not confident and while she could DO the work she was afraid to give her answer out loud in case it was wrong.

And then she was afraid to try so the work became harder and we were spinning wildly out of control so I chose another tack.  I gave her work to do that was WAY TOO EASY.

And she FLEW through it.  And then we did more and more and I told her that letters were just symbols but so were words and that the more she practiced the more "big symbols" she would know and wouldn't have to sound out.  And she BELIEVED me.

Tonight I taught her how to multiply - and she totally got it. And then she drew a beautiful picture of a flower and I said, "That's Beautiful!"

And then she drew something tiny beside the flower that I couldn't make out and I asked her, "what is that?" and she said, "It's a person."

And I said, "Hm, it's a VERY SMALL person." And she corrected me, "No, he's just very far away from the flower."

And her perspective FLOORED me and I said, "You are VERY, VERY smart."

And she looked up at me and smiled and just nodded like she TOTALLY KNEW THAT ALREADY.

So my plan is working.

 

Being a Stay At Home Mom is Hard, But...

On Sunday I took my kids out to ride their bikes around the neighborhood and we bumped into my neighbor and her son.  "We never see you!" she said.  

"I'm shocked I'm seeing you now." I told her.  "Why aren't you on your boat?"

"My son had a lacrosse tournament." she told me, then added, "Of course I never see you, We're usually on the boat on the weekends and during the week I take the kids to the beach EVERY DAY."

And then I stabbed her.

 

Flick's Ass and Other Cabdriver Wisdom...

I walked out of my hotel this morning feeling a little pessimistic about some of the projects I've been working on.  I asked the doorman to grab me a cab and stood there watching him hail his little heart out as they all drove by.

Until one stopped.

I hopped in and was surprised to see a woman behind the wheel.  I've taken a hundred cab rides in NYC in the past few months and have never had a female cab driver.

"I think you're the first female cab driver I've ever had!" I exclaimed.

She laughed and said, "Well let's see how it goes!"

Then she added, "It's already a great day!  I'm healthy, you are healthy.  We are both working."

I had to agree with her.

Trying to get across Manhattan in the morning isn't as easy as it sounds and as we were stopped dead at a light the cab driver turned to me and said, "That woman is smiling while she works."

I turned and looked - the woman was handing out free copies of the METRO newspaper.  It's sort of a thankless job because only a few people grab the paper and you don't make any more money the louder you hawk - yet, sure enough - there she was, smiling.

My cab driver was smiling too at the newspaper woman.  She shook her head, "Some people, they start their day, they are ALREADY miserable!  What's the use of that?" she asked.  "You are not working for anyone else." she told me.  "You are working for yourself.  You should enjoy it!'

She was so motivational that I was sad when the ride ended.

After work I was supposed to meet my cousin for dinner but I got stuck at work and was running late.

It's IMPOSSIBLE to hail a cab in NYC at rush hour so I hailed a pedicab instead.

The weather was gorgeous, the pedicab driver, FLICK, was a MASTER at navigating New York at rush hour - immpressively so.

He had other impressive qualities that I enjoyed during my ride as well.

Fiction

I keep telling myself that I'm going to write a book but it seems so DAMN overwhelming.

So, I figure I'll just start with a blog post and then maybe if you like it I can add more and more and more until VOILA!  A book deal with a HUGE advance on the sequel which is set in Hawaii and requires MUCH on site research...

P.S. This is a work of fiction and any resemblance to real people and places is COMPLETELY accidental-ish.  Ok, the woman IS me but the story is not true...

Jennifer Walsh sat at the bar of the West End Grill sipping Diet Coke out of a highball glass.  She wasn't trying to be fancy - all the bars in NYC served $5 sodas in highball glasses and none of them gave free refills.  

It wasn't like that back in Boston where Jennifer had left her husband and 4 children while she went on this business trip.  It was her fourth trip in as many weeks and the city was beginning to feel as much like home to her as home did.  Which was sort of depressing.

But the city made Jennifer feel young again.  

It wasn't the energy of the city or anything as poetic as that - it was the late nights in the office, the restaurants she frequented, the free time she had, hell, it was being able to go to the bathroom by herself.

She laughed to herself at this thought.  "I haven't just traveled 400 miles, I've traveled through TIME." 

Across the room she noticed a 20-something blonde woman resisting the attentions of a gorgeous 20-something guy.  Jennifer shook her head at lost opportunities.

Just then the gorgeous guy walked over and sat down beside her.  

"Hi." he said.

She looked up at him and smiled.  "Hi." she answered.

"Rick." he said, offering his hand.

Jennifer paused briefly then smiled and shook his hand.  "Kate." she answered, shocking the hell out of herself.