Wednesday, January 7, 2009

Now Wait Just A Minutiae

So we're back to school ...hang on while I do the happy dance for a minute, okay? I am back now. That was fun.

Rather uneventful winter break for us. We seemed to have passed that flu bug around the house. First the little one. Then the big one. Then Hubby and I.

On New Year's Eve we played some games (our new favorite is Pictureka) and had lobster and caviar ((an annual tradition for me). I didn't even have a drink 'cuz I felt like crap. The best thing about living on the left coast is we can celebrate NYEve at 9pm and not have to wait until 12am! So- we watched the 'ball drop' in New York .

The following is the real conversation between the 4 11/12ths year old and her Nyquil -ed up mommy:

Rachel: "Where's the ball? I don't see a ball."
Me: "It's not really a ball, it's more like a big crystal light up on top of that building"
Rachel: "Where do they drop it?"
Me: "Well, they don't really drop it - they sort of lower it as they count down to 2009."
Rachel: "You mean they drop a crystal ball on the street on top of all those people?"
Me: "Not really, Dolly -- it's sort of a symbolic representation of the new year - aaah fuck it. Ready for some chocolate?"

After a little strawberry and bananas dipped in chocolate (nuthin' fancy, just melted some chox chips ) - and a tuck in...they were in bed by 10:00, and I was in bed by 10:30. I think I slept until Sunday. It was truly the best nap I've had in a long time.

So - maybe it's because I am trying to do this on my own , without benefit of cold and flu meds..but since the weekend , I have a slight bout of insomnia. I roll around for hours on end and just can't fall asleep. I keep thinking the same things over and over again. You wanna know what these things are? I am not contemplating world peace or the state of our economy, for crap's sake...but I seem to fixate on minutiae (and I googled that word to make sure I spelled it right BTW)

1) Is it New Year's Eve or New Years Eve? I believe it is grammatically proper to use the apostrophe s. The Eve belonging to the New Year making it a possessive. Pet Peeve #2564938....when people say "What did you do for New Years?" They should say, "what did you do for New Year's Eve? or "Have you made any resolutions for the New Year?" not " Have you made any resolutions for the New Years?"

What the fuck does that mean anyway? More importantly, why does it bother me so much and why am I rolling around at 2:00am for two nights in a row in a self-debate about this?

2) Remember the song "Same Auld Lang Syne" by Dan Fogelberg (R.I.P., Dan writer of one of my all time favorite songs "Part of the Plan")?. Aside from that being an annoying song, and arguably one of the sappiest songs in the history of song-dom...I confuse it with another annoying Fogelberg song called "The Leader of the Band" . And for some reason, the past few nights have afforded me the time to 'sing' the words to myself over and over and over again. Well, I couldn't remember the words to "The Leader of the Band" and it was really bothering me.

"The leader of the band is tired and his eyes are growing old. But his blood runs through my instrument and his song is in my soul. My life has been a poor attempt to imitate the man ...I'm just a living (insert the word I can't remember here) to the leader of the band. "

So my mind starts to wonder and insert all kinds of words there..and in the process, I start 'singing' the other song and now I just have to get up and out of bed and Google the frickin' songbook so I can get the stupid words to two songs I don't really like in the first place.

By the way - the word I couldn't remember is "legacy". "I'm just a living legacy to the leader blah, blah, blah.."

3) How come whenever I have tried the old stick toothpicks in an avocado seed and put in water trick , it never worked for me? I have a green thumb and I love avocado. (I actually prefer sliced avocado to guacomole which, if blended too smooth, is rather like baby throw-up, no?) I even have a Chia Pet Donkey and can make that grow and grow - but no avocado. Woe is me.

4) I am almost 45 years old and I have seen more shooting stars in the past few weeks than I have seen in 40 years. Seriously, I have seen about 10 in the past month. Where do they go when they fall? Is this some cosmic event or another effect of global warming?

5) Can you get addicted to tylenol PM? I'm willing to try it out and I'll let you know.

6) What I want to know is where that frickin' owl is living in my neighborhood. We have an owl. An honest to goodness hooting owl. I don't live in the woods or anything, There are not tons of trees or prey for that matter. But we're hear Hooty just about every night. Our Planned Urban Development is just a hop, skip and a jump from the Santa Monica Mountains. Don't you think Hooty would find better eats over there than the occasional mouse that he might find in our 'hood?

7) How can I turn all this rumination into an interesting blog post? (abject failure on this one, I guess)


Okay- so that's the rundown. Lather, Rinse and repeat. Over and over and over again.

Last night I finally did get to sleep by midnight or so...and let me tell you - it's a good thing I did.

Now that I have tackled the minutiae - I'll see what I can do about that world peace thingy.

PS- Hubby has agreed to join this major Bloggy event ...oy.

26 comments:

sassy stephanie said...

I wanna nap! No fair!

The avacado thing cracks me. I was at my SIL's house last week and she had that going on by her kitchen sink. I'm all "WTF" b/c, obviously, not knowing WTF it was, I do not have a green thumb. Hmmm...I will have to call and see if it worked.

jill jill bo bill said...

I think this synapse was a huge success. And I have had insomnia too. Up til 3 last night. WTF does that mean? Do u think our dads are up to no good and pranking us? heh

Mama Dawg said...

Thank goodness. I thought I was going crazy. I've been seeing of shooting starts lately, too. I can literally go years without seeing one, yet I've seen 2 in the past two months. What's up with that?

Mariah said...

I totally think you need to use the apostrophe and I have had that conversation in my head several times. I agree there has been a lot of shooting star lately

Anonymous said...

I think it might be dangerous for you to think too much. You might sprain your noggin.

And if it bugs you so much about the correct grammar for New Year's eve, then shouldn't you at least spell remmeber right?

Crap! Now I have the song "The leader of the pack" running through my head! Damn you swirl girl!

What is the toothpick/avocado trick and why wasn't I informed of it on an earlier date?

YES! You can get addiced to Tylenol PM. Don't take that shit! YOU WON'T BE ABLE TO GO TO SLEEP WITHOUT IT AND YOU WON'T BE ABLE TO WAKE UP IN THE MORNING.

OH! You linked to me and my crazy idea! Thanks dude. I apoligize for the previous making fun of you. But I'm still leaving it in my comments.

Anonymous said...

Have you been wishing on those shooting stars?
Maybe it just means you're more "aware" than you've been for the past 40 years? Hubby and I always run and walk together and he ALWAYS sees them and I never do...must have something to do w/ how observant we are.

I think it's New Year's.

Anonymous said...

Hahaha! That convo gave me the image of the New Year's crystal ball being like on Indiana Jones and all the ppl running away! hahahaha!

for a different kind of girl said...

We love Pictureka at our house, too. It's one of those games we can all play and pretty much no one ends up in tears or claiming there's cheating involved! That's a win-win as far as I'm concerned, because board games with the kids could drive me to drink!

Also, I take a pain med-free OTC sleep aid. If you can get addicted, please, oh please, don't tell me!

Weith Kick said...

There was an owl once on the telephone pole in our backyard growing up and we lived in the city! At the time it scared the shit out of me because I thought it was some sort of evil omen because it only showed up at night. The little fucker.

Yes, I think you can become addicted to Tylenol PM because everytime I see it in our medicine cabinet I want to take one, but I don't. I have been sick lately too and I have stayed away from the drowsy drugs and gone for the day drugs. But I really want the sleepy kind.

The reason I don't post more is because I'm a lazy bastard. What's your excuse?

Hey!!!! Wait just a God-Damn minute!!! I like that Dan Fogelberg song about meeting his old lover in the grocery store and the snow was falling christmas eve and their tongues were growing tired running out of things to say. It is sappy and is not played enough on the radio.

I want lobster and caviar.

Keys to the Magic Travel said...

We used to have an owl. I miss him. Her? Them? They ate all the squirrells. And now the owls have moved on and we are overrun with rodents.

And I have grammar issues too.

Doublebanker said...

I usually just say New Year Eve... or NYE.

Susan said...

Oh my god. I'm laughing and can't stop. The best thing about this is that every single one of us can relate. And you wrote it so perfectly. PS...totally got me hooked with the husband guest blog thing....checked it out and I'm gonna see if he'll do it! Thanks for the link.

Susan said...

Come get an award I left you - NO WORK OR ASSIGNMENT necessary - I promise. Just saying I enjoy your blog, and appreciate the comments these past days when I haven't been so good in recipricating!

Outnumbered2to1 said...

Love it. I could have written the first part of the post minus the lobster and cavier. But the happy dancing, the flu over the break and the New Year's Eve celebration except that our local station went all fancy this year and instead of showing the ball drop live, postponed it until our actual Midnight. So my kids missed it again.

Good luck with the insomnia, there is nothing worse. Except back pain and labor and getting cavities filled and dealing with this annoying mom at school...

Linda S said...

what is it with insomnia? I'm usually out like a light. now, up til 2,3...and i'm tired. Tylenol pm doesn't do crap.

Lula! said...

I almost didn't make it past lobster and caviar, 'cause I seriously--kid you not--began to daydream about how I could make it to your place next NYE.

THEN...
you went all Dan Fogelberg on me and now I'll be singing his swill for the rest of the night.
"Met my old lover at the grocery store..."
I HATE THAT SONG.
Mostly because he talks about them buying a six pack at the liquor store and drinking it in her car.

Yeah, right...they drank it in the car. Unless they were funneling, that stuff got warm quick, and ain't no beer worth drinking if it's not ice cold.

Wait, what was the rest of your post about? I'm still singing Dan Fogelberg. Darn you.

Kelly said...

Holy Guacamole! (The chunky kind of course!)You covered a ton....I am not a grammar queen by any stretch, but New Year's/New Year thing bugs me too.

Have you always been on the "Left" coast? I guess I was a little surprized by that...I assumed you were on the right coast...don't know why, just did. I lived on the left coast for a few years and I loved that things like NYE and the Superbowl were over so early!

Anonymous said...

Dan Fogelberg is dead?

Anonymous said...

I'm pretty sure "his blood runs through my instrument" is a euphemism for something naughty. But that could just be me searching desperately for another opportunity to say "That's what she said."

Tiffany said...

A major bloggy event... oooh, sounds exciting!

We've got a hawk at my MIL who lives a few minutes from you.. the thing is nuts. Scared the CRAP out of me one day trying to peck through the skylight in the bathroom...

Ash said...

Dan Fogelberg - sigh. I was just thinking of why (as I was listening to "Hard to Say" on XM) it is that I CANNOT listen to one of his songs without getting misty.

Damn him.

And Hubs is getting in on the action for Tuesday too. He keeps offering up topics for my approval. I think it's cute he's getting sucked in by this vortex as well.

P.S. how I have not made it to you yet is beyond me, but glad I finally have!!

Debie Napoleon said...

I love Dan Fogelberg sap and all. Wow, I thought I was pretty alone with that.

And Advil PM is my crack.

Wendall K said...

OMG, I can't tell you how many times I have had to fire up the puter to figure our songs or artists. The last one was who sang point of no return in the 80's? I'm save you the search it was Kansas. Hahaha, thanks for the laughs.

Cristin said...

Holy crap...your poor brain! I'd go heavy on the wine with a side of Tylenol PM.... hope you're sleeping better!

Scary Mommy said...

Oy. I'm exhausted just reading that!!

I'm not sure if I trust my hubby to join Tattooed Minivan Mom. I'm still thinking about it. ;)

Anonymous said...

How's the Tylenol PM working out? That stuff just makes me hyper.