Wednesday, November 29, 2006

MILE.STONE

Have you ever had one of those moments where you realize, "OH. MY. GOD. WHAT IS THAT? RIGHT THERE? THAT I'M PASSING? IS THAT...IS THAT??? IS THAT A MILESTONE???"

I wasn't feeling well all day yesterday - nasty weather here and stubborn sinus headache. I'd skipped lunch and just wanted to eat a good dinner and go to bed early. We decided to head up the highway here to an Italian restaurant and Big Daddy said, "Good, then we can go by the mall. Kid wants me to take him to Brooks Brothers."

Well, I thought that was odd, given that we'd just gone clothes shopping for The Kid last weekend (different mall) and couldn't get him to buy anything but hooded sweatshirts and a Billabong t-shirt. I thought maybe he'd gone online and found some dress clothes he liked at Brooks Brothers.

In the car, I said, "What are we getting at the mall?"

And, from the back seat, The Kid says, "Shirttiepants."

Like maybe if he runsitalltogehterrealquick I won't notice what he's said exactly.

But it was obvious we were shopping for something specific, so that blew my online shopping theory out of the water.

"Oh," I say. "For what?"

"A dance," he says nonchalantly.

Ahh, it's coming back to me now. Last year they'd sent home a sheet about a winter dance for 7th & 8th graders. I'd asked him if he was going to go and he'd answered with a curt, "No." I asked if any of his friends were going and got that same "No." so I dropped the subject.

So I start to get a little excited inside because My Boy! He's going to A DANCE!

"Are you going with someone?" I ask.

"Yeah," he says.

"Bailey?" I ask (this year's girlfriend, although he told me that they broke up, but they still talk on the phone/IM everyday).

"Yeah."

Oh my god. He's going to A DANCE. WITH A GIRL.

(This is the point that I maybe started to hear the angels humming just a little bit.)

"Did you ask her, or did ya'll just talk about it and decide to go?"

"I asked her."

AAAAAHHHHHH (that's the angels breaking into their glorious chorus.)

My Kid is going ON A DATE to a DANCE with a GIRL.

(A girl, BTW, who is very cute and had a second boy ask her to the dance after My Kid asked her, so must be at least a little bit popular, too.)

And I had this overwhelming - like take your breath away, make your heart skip a beat, feel a little lightheaded - sense of being right in the middle of something big. Something huge. And being there, in the moment, present for it. Sober, aware, witnessing, part of. So I said the most helpful, Mom-thing I could think of:

"We'll need to buy her a corsage."

Sunday, November 19, 2006

Who voted on this thing?

I like the song okay, but "Living on a Prayer" - best song of the 80s??? Seriously?

OK, first of all, let's just establish that there are two very separate classes of 80s music. There is the early 80s New Wave sound, and there is the later 80s Hair Bands. As someone who was a teenager in the early 80s, I actually resent the latter being lumped in with the former. But then I guess the show would have to be called "the 50 Greatest 80s Songs."

So, here's my own list - top 10 Best Songs of the 80s:

1. "Rio" Duran Duran
2. "Pride, in the Name of Love," U2
3. "Our Lips are Sealed" The Go-Go's
4. "Beat It" Michael Jackson
5. "Jump" Van Halen
6. "Under Pressure" Queen & David Bowie
7. "Everybody Wants You" Billy Squier
8. "Everybody Wants to Rule the World" Tears for Fears
9. "Come On, Eileen" Dexy's Midnight Runners
10. "Your Love" The Outfield

Tuesday, November 14, 2006

Pardon my disappearance

I've been working A LOT. My program launches next monday so of course this is my week from HELL.

The good news is!!! My work's been picked up by not one but two of the biggest blogs already. So yay! for viral marketing.

Sunday, November 05, 2006

From this vantage point

I find that I have misjudged a lot of things about what 40 looks like:

1. I thought I would be taller.
2. I thought I would know a lot more divorced people.
3. I thought I would have mom hair. And reading glasses.
4. I thought I would be a stay-at-home mom. Or a school teacher. Or a bank teller.
5. I thought the shoes in my closet would be fewer in quantity and more sensible in style.
6. I thought I would be an active member of a church women's group. And the PTA.
7. I thought I would be wearing slacks.

Which is to say that, even though nothing in my life has been usual, or average, or even normal for that matter, whatever higher power that controls these things, whether you call it God or Spirit of the Universe or Destiny or the Fates or Baby Jesus and his pet cow, this power greater than myself is obviously doing a much better job at mapping out my life than I ever could.

Saturday, November 04, 2006

The End of an Era

Now that I've quit drinking, all my oats neatly baled and stacked and stored away, I spent the last night of my 30s by myself - eating sticky white rice and puffy fried chicken in a small, dark Chinese restaurant with Carrie Underwood on the radio and CSI on TV, followed by a good book and a coffee at Starbucks. It was lovely.

I mean, what could I want, really? A Mercedes convertible? A diamond watch? A photo with my Democratic hero? I couldn't ask for any more as I begin mid-life than a chilly November night with Augusten Burroughs and a chai tea latte.

Friday, November 03, 2006

Mark it up to Experience

If I had known I was going to have my picture made with The President, I would have fixed my hair.