Personal Landscaping

I heard on Cosmo Radio that it was important to men that a woman be "well groomed"....like as in, well, you know....a little "landscaping," so to speak. My interest piqued, I applied more effort to these ends and it did, indeed, elicit a definite interest from my husband. Okay, maybe not enough, since he moved out of the house within the month, but hey....

Now I'm a single mom.

Now I find myself left with the questionable experience of being a girly girl, pampering myself, soaking in a bath, thoroughly grooming myself, not for a man, but because I have a gynecological appointment in the morning!! Is that sad or funny? I am not sure. Think I'll go with funny....

Tide Coldwater

After reading a consumer reports article regarding laundry soap, I decided to stop buying the "cheap brand." I would always look longlingly at the Tide every time I went to the store and discovered, in Consumer Reports' data, that Tide Coldwater formula would only cost me 6 cents more per load to use. I decided this was an acceptable "splurge," particularly since I do 99% of my laundry in cold water.

Sadly, it ended up costing me $4.00 a load when Nathaniel decided to pour the ENTIRE bottle of Tide detergent into the laundry machine after I'd only gotten to use it about three times. It's just so unjust.

Where's Daddy Bear?

Nathaniel went through an interesting stage with his beloved Daddy Bear. Daddy Bear went missing for about a week and I was in a panic. It's his number one special stuffed animal. I kept looking for him and tried to not mention his name so as not to remind Nathaniel of his existence and consequentially kick off some major freak out about his disappearance.

Then, one evening, I was walking out of our bedroom and glanced over at the bookshelf by the door. There was Daddy Bear stuffed behind of display of cars. I realized then that Nathaniel had hidden him away for what reason I do not know. I can only imagine it has something to do with mine and Matthew's separation.

I left Daddy Bear there and after a couple of weeks, Nathaniel went and got him out again...obviously he'd known where the bear was the whole time. It was interesting.....

Unsolved Mysteries

It is generally accepted that girls use way more TP than boys. If so, then why does my bathroom tissue last forever now that my hubbie's moved out of the house?

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Some time ago, I bought ten adorable juice glasses at Target. I now have two left, although I never saw or heard of any of them being broken or lost. What did he do with all of my juice glasses over the years?

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I would think that the toddler in the house would create the most trash. However, since splitting with my husband, our household trash output is less than half what it was.

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A roll of paper towels lasts me two weeks or more. We used to go through two in a week. What was he using all those paper towels on?

Bad Hair Day

I wish I'd taken a picture of the bad haircut I gave Nathaniel the other day. It didn't even fall into the "so bad it's cute" catagory. He looked like a 30 year old man from 1970. I ended up by taking him that same day to get his hair buzzed.In lieu of a picture, I have recreated what his hair looked like after I was done.....

My future indie rocker

glimpse into my day

Halfway through the morning, my co-worker untucked my shirt collar where it was massively folded and crumpled under. How many patrons did I serve looking like that? Then tonight, as I climbed into bed, I noticed I had put my underwear on inside out this morning.

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Mmm, life as a single mom. Priceless.

Independence Day

I hadn't planned on taking Nathaniel to any fireworks display tonight. I didn't think he'd notice or care, or even know what a firework was. Halfway through Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, a friend called to encourage me to go out to see the fireworks. I asked Nathaniel if he wanted to and was surprised how eagerly he said yes and then how he went on to warn me that they would be loud and scary. Where does he learn this stuff?

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It was fun and I'm so glad we went. I've never really struck out on my own to do things like that...too shy, too self conscious. How will I know where to park when I get there? What should my posture look like when I'm standing around? What if people look at me? While Lexapro helps with much of this, there are still times when I am reluctant to try something new and that's where Nathaniel comes in.

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It was such a cool feeling just the simple act of pulling my car out at the end of the night, joining lines of other cars driving over the grass field down to the highway and then a long, long line of us heading back to town. It felt "grown up," while at the same time feeling nostalgic...a hundred half remembered nights driving home in the back seat from some event, windows open, summer.

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All these small rites of passage from child to adult that I'm only now beginning at 42. What an odd and interesting experience.