Exhaustion

Friends. Where do I even begin?

1. A week from tomorrow, my team and I will be giving a presentation to The Powers That Be that will try to a) justify our existence thus far and b) ensure our existence moving forward. Everytime I think about this, I want to vomit. When I think of how hard we've worked and how much we've gone through over the past few years, I am utterly offended by this task. However, I'm also insanely* hopeful about the fact that someone is (finally) asking us what we think and what we want to be doing. My team has been simply amazing in terms of their enthusiasm and creativity in the face of this latest challenge. I am very, very proud. But I'm also a total stressball. I just want to grab the leadership of my company by their non-existent lapels and shake some goddamned sense into them.
*By "insanely" I mean literally, I'm not right in the head.

2. As you know, The Geej's 6th b-day was last Friday. That night, Dah, BH and I took her out to dinner (with pumpkin pie for dessert, her choice!) and then we came home and opened presents. I gave her the Birthday Book I'd made with the "We're Going to San Diego" story in it. And although it took a while to sink in, she finally "got it" and got super excited. Now we're--literally--counting down the days to the trip on a calendar.

Yep. That's my girl. And that's the shirt Dah bought for her. Sigh.

And these are the shoes Dah bought for her. Sigh, again.

2.The big "Geej Turns Six" fiesta was also last weekend, and OMG it was fun, but it wore me out and cost way more money than it should've. It was perfect weather for a water-slide party--sunny and 100 degrees. There were a lot of munchkins who showed for the party, but not TOO many, which was good. It was also nice combo of her school friends (and their parents) mixing with her other friends (who are basically my friends' kids). The bottom line is that she had a blast.

Goody bags. Which, from this day forward, are deemed illegal and rude for hosts to provide.

So sayeth Karla May.

Waterslide Madness!!

3. Geej started her theatre camp this week, and I was nervous about it. New location. New teachers. New friends. But so far, she's really been enjoying it. This week, they've been making a movie (totally doing all of the story creation, sets, props, costumes themselves), and tomorrow is The Big Screening. Next week, the "theme" is songwriting/performance. So next Friday (right after the Big Presentation mentioned in item #1 above), I'll be attending THAT performance. Keeps life in balance, I suppose.

4. The Summer/Fall of Concert Attendance (which includes Louis C.K., Pavement, The Pixies, Levon Helm/Ray Lamontagne, Aziz Ansari, etc.) began last night with a trip to see Crowded House. I cannot tell you how much it meant for me to see them and how much I needed them last night. Neil Finn is one of my all-time favorite songwriters. His lyrics, compositions and harmonies can bring me to tears in a heartbeat. Plus, his vocals are always right in my range, so he's a blast to sing along with. Last night, they were at Stubb's and (thanks to the simultaneous Bob Dylan show going on at The  Backyard) it wasn't uncomfortably packed (which is good on a steamy, August night). Plus, with an older crowd (like Crowded House brings out) most people were there to actually LISTEN to the music. It was easy to get up front, leave to go get a beer, and get right back up front.

My boyfriend, Neil Finn.

There were more than a few magical musical moments during the show (especially when Neil's very talented son, Liam, came out and joined him on several songs).I found myself beaming throughout the night.

5. I am not a huge "Reality T.V" fan. I mean, I can watch nd laugh along with the best of them, but rarely do I get, like, emotionally invested in a t.v. show. But y'all? "So You Think You Can Dance" has totally KILLED me this season. I'm not even sure why I started watching. Maybe it was my friend Jaye assuring me that I would love it, but whoever reality t.v. crack dealer it was who gave me my first dose, I was hooked after episode one. And now we're down to the last three and I don't know if I can even handle it.

See what happened to me while watching this week's performance episode?! It's NOT pretty, people!

(BTW, BH makes ruthless fun of me--as he should--for being such a weeping freakazoid about this show. And it was HIS idea to photograph me "emoting". Bastard.)

6. Back to The Geej. Here's what a clueless dork I am: I totally forgot that you have to actually register your child for school when s/he is beginning studies at a new institution. Forgot!! Aren't I an awesome mom? Thankfully, a much smarter and "with it" friend of mine who has her child in public school reminded me of this fact in the nick of time. Registration is next Wednesday, and I just got clued in about my need to register the Geej this past Tuesday. I hope AISD will accept a Russian birth certificate. What a DUMBASS!! Plus, I've got to get her after-school care situation figured out. I've got tours with two potential after-care providers tomorrow morning. Oh, have I mentioned how busy/stressed I am at work?

7. And public first grade starts at 7:45am in the morning?! WTF?! This is going to take some major adjustments for our household. I mean, the good thing, is that I'll be getting to work way earlier and will (almost) be guaranteed a parking place. But the bad thing is that I'm going to be even more grumpy than usual. So, yay.

7. As I mentioned in my previous post, we're (accidentally) growing effing watermelons in our backyard.

It started out with a seed packet that The Geej brought home after a trip to Home Depot. Then, with all of the rain we've been blessed with this summer, it turned into The Vine That Ate Our Yard. In fact, BH had to cut it back substantially, aborting several watermelon fetuses in the process, prior to The Geej's b-day extravaganza--a fact she was pretty pissed off about. But we've got about three of these suckers left and I, for one, can not wait to chow down on them once they're ripe.

8. I am praying for a calm, uneventful, productive weekend ahead. I'm also hoping to catch up on some damn sleep. We'll see how that all goes.

Some recent images from my life.

A tofu, cherry tomato, penne and green bean salad that is SOFA KING good.

My sweet little car turned 10,000 miles old. Aww... And yes, I'm still in love with it and am very happy that I traded the big ol' Murano in on it.

BH brought this lovely work of art with him when he moved from Colorado. It now proudly hangs in our purple-walled dining room. We one day hope to have our very own den where we have a BITCHIN' paint-by-numbers collection on the walls.

The other night, while the Geej was bathing and I was folding laundry, she said in a VERY insistent and plaintive voice, "MOMMY!! Come here! You've got to SEE THIS!!" When I walked in to the bathroom, this is what was awaiting me. And she said, "Mommy! TAKE A PICTURE!!"

I worked from home a bit this week. Because we don't have a room that we can designate as an "office" (a MUST for our next house), I set up in the dining room. This time of year, in the late afternoon, the shutters make the most fantastic shadows on the wall in the afternoons.

This also makes for some pretty awesome kitteh-ready sunbeam action (as shown in my previous post). But here they are SHARING the sunbeam. I know it's kind of dark, but PLEASE look at Doug's face. Fookin' adorable.

No, that's not an armpit hickey given to me by BH because he finds me utterly irresistable. What that IS is the worst of several injuries I suffered while falling on my ASS tonight. I tripped over the power cord to this very laptop upon which I reach out to you fools, and boom, bang, bing, SMASH, I went down. On the way I hit my head, elbow, top of my foot. And my armpit caught on the corner/top of one of the dining room chairs and resulted in this loveliness. Man, I'm a spaz.

Okay, that's all for now. More soon...that is, IF I survive the goddamned "Build-a-Bear" birthday party The Geej and I have to attend tomorrow morning. I smell Xanax in my future...

I sleep better when I'm organized.

I proved this statement by sleeping like a baby last night after an intensive day of cleaning/reorganizing my horrible, HORRIBLE closet. I mean, even The Geej had said to me recently, "Mommy, your closet is MESSY." And when a four year old calls something messy, you know it's got to be bad.

But it wasn't just my closet: my dresser(s) were in a total state of chaos as well. What this led to was me doing laundry, folding clothes, and then putting away everybody's stuff but my own. Instead, my clothes would just sit around in random piles all over the house until I eventually (and literally) wore them down. So yesterday, I took advantage of being Geej-free for the day and the fact that poor BH was out of the house working to spend around six hours cleaning out, weeding through, and reorganizing. That's right: I said 6 hours.

Here are some of the stats from the day:

• Number of pairs of shoes thrown away = 8
• Items found with tags still on them/never worn = 17
• Bags of clothes ready to be taken to Safeplace = 3
• Number of items I found on hangers from the dry cleaners I used while living in Chicago...NINE YEARS AGO = 2
• Number of skirts discarded because I will never, ever be young enough or crazy enough to wear something that short in public again = 3

So yeah, I'm pretty proud of myself. And guess what, there are currently ZERO piles of clean clothes lying around because I have no room to put them away.

Now for some photographic evidence (La Turista, you may want to look away because you'll probably stroke out):

BEFORE

DURING:

AFTER:

Say it with me now people: Aaaahhhh...MUCH better. I was actually able to VACUUM the carpet in my closet (something I don't think I've done since I moved in nearly 3 years ago...YIKES)! And I can find things! Like, fast and shit!

And as if this weren't enough for one day, I sat down and did two hours' worth of work work yesterday evening so I could cross a few things off my never-ending "To Do" list.

Then I took a shower, read a magazine, and passed-the-hell-out. And 24 hours later? My closet is still clean and organized. Yay for me!!