five

feeling
less teeth grindy and nailbitey these days.  i actually kind of think it might all be OK (i think.... in the end... it might just work out......)

needing
to go to Costco today - for realsies this time, we are out of absolutely everything :|  which i admit was my plan.  but the kitchen is looking positively empty and there are still four weeks of lunches and cereal dinners to go ;)  also we have no ginger cats left.  this has NEVER happened before - like ever :|  i had to have quadratinis with my morning coffee... it was just awful ;)

adhering
very poorly to my moving plan: pack one box, give one box and toss one box of stuff every day...  i keep finding pictures... and beautiful handwritten letters that smell like my Grandma's perfume.... and tiny pairs of Gap overalls and 0-3 months hats with puppydog ears on them... and adorable messy preschool art.... and i get derailed for hours everytime, sharing with Aaron and sniffing them and making sure they are tucked away in a very safe watertight box to someday be unpacked at that perfect Cape house (sigh)

looking 
for orange sweat pants for a Halloween costume.  H&M usually has garish colors ;)

wishing
i was going to Vegas today to watch the Bellagio fountains.... have sooooooo sooooo much fun there, Angela!!  i hear you can get married there too!!!!!!!!! Caesars Palace mall = awesome.  Crystals = stunningly beautiful but definitely NOT awesome ;)  if you see In-N-Out at least stop in for animal fries.  you can thank me later ;) 
 
a couple more of the beaaautiful house (i love it soooo much!) morning coffee in snuggies on the deck!!! 

Massachusetts

exasperating
that the second i leave Orange County they get a smiley warm-blooded person working at the Canon factory.  they usually only employ sociopaths and meanies, so that nice man (from Massachusetts of course) was refreshingly lovely and said "never tell them you dropped your lens - never!!  it voids the warranty!"  yes i know that, nice man, but it's already out of warranty so i might as well fess up then you guys will fix it properly for the flat fee :) 

rejoicing
that there is a Canon factory in New Jersey too!  because that's like right down the road from Massachusetts :) 

wishing
everyone would stop telling me they are now moving to Massachusetts too - since Mitt Romney went on and on about it being the best place in the world, all i hear is "we are coming too!"  oh no you're not!!!  i am not hitch-hiking all the way across America with kids and pets and hard drives only to find the classrooms over-crowded and under-staffed there too.  forget about it!!  there's only room for one family in this lifeboat!

refraining
from going anywhere that requires gas.  because apparently it's running out...?  (i blame those republicans, they are trying so hard to make Obama look bad.  but what they don't realize is: all he has to do is take off his tie and fold back his sleeves and he looks really really good again ;)

please send gas!!!!!!!!!

i really should be packing, not painting my nails a different color everyday ;)

friday six

finally definitely taking the dumb bunny 50mm f/1.4 lens to the Canon factory today.  ohemgee -  what am i going to do when the Canon factory is not right by my house.........?  maybe not drop my camera anymore, huh?  for sure :|

i need to call Saks in Palm Desert today - long story but it involves shopping, it being Christmas soon and obsessions ;)  i should just tell the story, it would be quicker :)

i now know what every sex offender in and around Attleboro, Massachusetts looks like.  and also what they did (disgusting horrible dirty men)  either i am way too obsessive about this stuff, or there are a lot of faces to memorize :|  i gave up even counting the ones in Hyannis and moved on.  we have one in our zip code and i am pretty sure he is afraid to ever come out of his house because everyone knows what he did (filthy little man)

Sam is home sick today - he is genuinely sickish but hopefully will be able to go out to lunch... feed a cold, starve a fever and all that (or vice versa if you have a fever ;)

i need to find OPI Nail Envy today - Ulta maybe?  but that means i need a coupon because i can't shop there without one :(  so i'll just go somewhere else and pay full price ;)

dinner tonight with our (republican but actually very nice and human) friends :) i am taking my famous pumpkin bread for the grown-ups and chocolate cupcakes for the children.  oh gosh, i hope we are not going to talk about politics!  however i secretly placed 6 of the cupcakes in red cases and 6 in blue... let's see who the kids vote for :)

back later xoxo
  

is it just me.......

or is there nothing on earth more painful than doing homework?  i'd rather stick pins through my eyes.  i'd rather bend back my fingernails and toenails till they fall off exposing raw bloody nailbed (cringe)  i'd rather... brace..... get my earrings torn out by a thrashing toddler. yes indeed. it's that bad.  it's like going to war - i close all the blinds and lock out all the animals.  i set a timer.  i curse, i sweat, my heart races (91 on the heart rate meter - i am not even kidding) and my accent gets soooo pointy with consonants so sharp they could give paper cuts to the bone.  so yeah, i kinda hate homework and wonder what life with little girls who do give a shit might be like....

psst wanna see a pretty house?  a house that will soon have it's halls decked with multicolored flashing icicle lights and a family of mechanical deer grazing on the lawn and a huuuuge 20 foot tall inflatable penguin...?  since i have no clue how to actually insert pictures into a blog post, you'll just have to scroll down :)  then scroll back up and tell me that isn't adorable!!!  and did i mention the lake it's on...?  and the acre of fenced land for pets and children to frolic and build snowmen on, by a lake entirely crafted by Mother Nature???  and it's not even got an ugly utilitarian fence - nooooo, it's a white picket fence!  which sure, won't keep out predators and coyotes but it's soooo CUTE!!!! 

today i had a coupon for Kohls, a store which i hate more than life itself.  i went in there expecting to find absolutely nothing worth buying because everything is so ghetto and nasty.  but they had Essie - not only that, but they had every color of Essie on earth :|  and with the magic coupon, it was entirely free!!!  (look out for that coupon - it's a keeper!)  i bought 'midnight cami' because i really needed more dark, foxtressy nail polish ;)  hmm now i wonder if they have Kohls in Massachusetts. and if they do, if they have that awesome coupon... and if the clothes there are still trashy or if they're nicer because everyone dresses like Jackie there and looks wholesome and STDless....


we are so stopping at this adorable store for Christmas cards :)



postcard i meant to mail in August to my Mum - it's on it's way!!!

things to do! and places to see!!

visit Martha's Vineyard and take pictures of beautiful homes all day long

go to the Black Dog tavern for lunch ;)

eat pizza at Bertucci's often

and get Country Kitchen donuts every Saturday!

find a pretty new library with pretty light

go to the Ben & Jerry's factory

go to the North End for Italian food and Mike's Pastry

make peanut butter and jelly sandwiches with Goldfish bread :)

watch the Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade!!!

visit Paul Newman's favorite donut shop in Connecticut

get to know each and every Cape Cod beach

shop for kitchenwares at the Atlantic Spice Company (i hope they don't close for Winter... if it was open in April, it must be year round, right....?)

go to NYC to see the Rockettes!

visit the Museum of Modern Art

share a long table with cute firemen at Grimaldi's again :)

houseswap with Melissa

capture the Mall, snowy and still and perfectly empty in Central Park

ice skate in the park (Danny's request :)

let the dogs socialize in Central Park and pose them next to Balto in Santa hats :)

go for frrrrozen hot chocolate and take the boys to FAO Schwarz (is 12 too old for FAO Schwarz...?)

actually wear sweaters and jeans without having to tear them off by 11am ;)

fly to Dublin for a long weekend with my family

go to the Kennedy library (again and spend HOURS poring over every artifact without the foot tapping, permahungry children in tow)

get my hair cut and colored at Vidal Sassoon in NYC

mall hop in New Jersey

spend a wintery Cape Cod afternoon learning to make jam from scratch

build a huuuuuuuge snow dog

have four starfish in every window

spend an entire cherry blossom week(end) in Washington D.C. visiting the museums and having breakfast with senators and visiting the Oval Office and having lunch in Clinton's favorite McDs :)

go to the Holocaust museum

also even though i kinda hated that D.C. Cupcakes show, try a cupcake - just so i can check it off my list :)

pick wild blueberries

drive to Florida (but not on a Greyhound bus like in Midnight Cowboy ;)

find a perfect Cape to buy with grey shingles and unkillable hydrangea bushes and apple trees (near Target and Trader Joe's and not too far from Costco ;)

be happy and home(ish) again xoxo

up (again)

skipping
the second half of the first Presidential debate because of that annoying animatronic talker-overer... he is so completely rude!!  Teddy Ruxpin was never that rude, clearly someone new and very obnoxious is operating him :|

loving
very long lunchdates with the sweetest, kindest, loveliest friends xoxo

especially loving
that they are both Republicans but i still love them to pieces :)  (i wrote a song about it, and it goes a-somethin' like this: it takes every kinda people.... yeah, i can't remember the rest ;)

hating
the glittery polish i tried today - it looks just like shiny calcium deposits :(

needing
these shoes for Massachusetts.  because i bet you need real shoes there ;)

also hating
having to spend tomorrow morning at the dumb dentist - it's a never-ending cleaning dentathon around here.  but we can't go to Massachusetts with un-white teeth..... we have to represent the Golden State :)

also kind of hating
the people who are buying our house.  they are so Orange County and i'm so not ;)  they spent 3 hours in our house today trying to find fault with it and all they could come up with was that the bath tub was missing the stopper (i think because someone once pooped in the bathtub, Angela ;)  anyway when they finally left, the house smelled like pizza - which totally made my porcupine quills stand on end - they actually ate dinner in my house??? who are these overly entitled monsters????  also the Mom is named Spring - because i guess the names Summer and Autumn are sooooo last season ;)

wishing
Danny would just go to bed already.  enough with the ten thousand questions and twenty thousand requests.  go to bed now, little boy - after 8pm i'm on call for emergencies only

listening
to Sinead O'Connor 'Universal Mother' (because that's me in a nutshell ;)  Aaron gave me that CD when i was pregnant with Sam :) 

loving (times one hundred thousand)
the latest house we found (there have been 3 so far... i love to house shop.....)  but this one is so so so beautiful and on a LAKE: a real life, not-even-slightly fake lake :|  i am already dressing it with my eyes for Christmas :)

helping with homework :|

the awful hair day :|

we are young we run green keep our teeth nice and clean :)

new collars

oh heavens to betsy noooooooo, i didn't buy it :| 

no way, Siri got it right for once!

united colors of America - at the Obama statue ;)

Bumps vomited on Danny's homework - Gerald was horrified

 

it's these little things, they can pull you under...

it's been an out-of-luck, impatient, migrainey kind of day

it's been a traffic-down-to-zero-lanes kind of day (in rush hour of course)

it's been an unbearable still 90 degrees at bedtime kind of day

it's been a stressed-out cat in a cat box meowing every 5 seconds for 2 hours straight kind of day

it's been a not-enough-coffee kind of day

it's been an "i wish it would rain" kind of day

it's been a zero privacy kind of day

it's been an 'automatic for the people' kind of day (with absolutely no time to escape to there)

it's been a bluetooth-less kind of day (life without an interactive steering wheel is awful)

it's been a "parking in the red zone and i don't even care" kind of day

it's been an "i wish i wasn't a grown-up" kind of day

it's been a second guessing, self doubting, clothes-tugging-at kind of day

it's been an "i-hate-my-hair" kind of day

it's been a deliquent notice for $20 kind of day :|


it's been a breakfastless, lunchless, dinnerless kind of day

it's been the kind of day where you go to pick up your kid early from school and they give you the wrong Danny

it's been an impossible left turn kind of day

it's been an everyone is running 30 minutes late kind of day (and i hate late...)

it's been a 'he bear she bear' reading aloud kind of day (seriously the dullest book ever)

it's been a playing-ball-with-the-boy-and-accidentally-hitting-a-frail-old-man-with-a-walking-frame kind of day :| 

it's been a one cashier and a huge line at every store kind of day

it's been an "oh this tire is too bald to fix" when i just want it patched kind of day

it's an in-bed-before-the-kids-with-pumpkin-bread kind of night xo

i'm not one to complain white person complaints but.......

oh my gawd i hate times a million the new maps on the iPhone - i want to smash my phone to bits everytime i use it :|

and that tune wiki never has the dumb words to anything anymore - how am i supposed to sing with passion and conviction without the right words in front of me?  stupid app!

and that i can't possibly type in a password without it capitalizing some random letter and then telling "we know typing on a phone sucks, right?!" yes it does, but i GOT IT RIGHT!!!  the stupid phone got it wrong :|

i wish Johnnie Boden would stop emailing me.  i don't want his overpriced, scratchy wool clothes... maybe if i press unsubscribe......?

i am so canceling Katie Couric (if i can figure out how - oh, to be a man)  yesterday she had that regurgitated haybag Donald Trump on her show.  seriously is she blind????  if she hasn't got this shit figured out by OCTOBER she's dead to me.  officially

also Ricki Lake really needs to stop talking about vaginas.  it's just not ladylike and i hate that awful word (i have never said it out loud - ever.  EVER!!!!!!!  wawatutu, front lady bottom, baby maker, ladyparts - but never the V word... and don't get me started on the P word)

also Jeff Lewis needs to fire Vanina - and not just because of her name :|  but because she is the most uninteresting person ever

i hate when weekends are all booked up by Tuesday - it's just not fair

i am stressing about Costco.  i don't know.... where will i buy milk from?  and paper towels?  and print my 12x18 pictures...?  and get a huge pizza when we have to feed the 5000?  it's such a long way to Massachusetts Costco and there are like 3 in the whole state :|  i bet it's full of people all grabbing samples and pushing through tiny spaces, like my worst shopping nightmare....

breathe.  and write to Costco to open one in my new town (yes, a cute little TOWN!!!)

i am going back to the vet today, this time with Courage the cowardly cat.  he has been 'manscaping' his fur :|  either he is channeling my anxiety or he has a fur condition.  please don't make it cost more than $400 (which seems to be the standard vet charge)

got to get more coffee and read Sneetches and Other Stories since Danny's homework is to write about the book he read that day, but if he does his homework right after school, that means he has to read after doing math and spelling and it's just too much time at the table!  so we read in the am and write in the pm

the trick is to keep breathing.......

stressing
over school dress codes and bell schedules and curriculums and whether PB&Js are permitted and if everyone is cliquey and unaccepting of new kids.... i just want the boys to be OK and have someone to sit next to at lunchtime........

completely and utterly stressing
over sweet Danny.  he's the friendliest, kindest little boy and he's worrying he won't make any friends there :(  being a Mum just sucks... i feel his anxiety tenfold and it's completely exhausting, i'm in a stress coma everyday
 
trying
to stay positive when i just want to cry with him and call the whole thing off and fix it for him :(

loving
the owner of the rental.  she's as sweet and kind and easygoing as can be (and i soooooo need that right now)

needing
to take my 50mm lens to Canon.  i dropped it on it's head and it's not going round anymore :|

also needing
to fix the flat tire.  and service the car.  and fix the windscreen.  and get a moving quote.  and sell the other car.  and get everyone's teeth cleaned.  and make a change of address postcard.  and take Courage to the vet.  and get the dogs groomed.  and tell my Mum not to book a flight to LAX for Thanksgiving.  and will the little mouse to pleeease die peacefully in his sleep before 6 November because there just isn't a spare inch in the minivan :|  i love him dearly, honestly i do - but he must be 300 in mouse years.  he moves like a little old man these days and i have to brace myself everytime i check on him incase he's not breathing.....

making
roast chicken with mashed potatoes and cornbread for dinner - comfort food even though i can't actually eat the chicken ;)

not making
anymore pumpkin bread.  honestly it should be a controlled substance.  it's dangerous.  it turns me orange every Fall :(  no more pumpkin bread!  at least today.....

keeping
my eyes on the prize....  like painted cottages on Martha's Vinyeard, lobsta rolls and Danny's favorite little store ever (and mine - it's adorable)




 

wondering
if there will be apples left on trees in November in Massachusetts... i hope we're not too late for this season.......

wanting
to find apple trees in the backyard of our future forever home (because that would be a dream come true - hmm, maybe not... you know i'd probably kill them with kindness within a year)

hoping
my Mum (and her best friend!  and my sister!  and her little boy!) will please come visit us for Thanksgiving... my homesick heart would really truly love that... i'm already feeling lonely for family and we didn't even leave yet.... this is going to be so hard

wishing
we could take a quick trip back to MA.  to make sure it's definitely 'home'... i'm sure it's home but i'd still love a quick trip back, just to make doubly sure ;)

buying
more red shoes.  sigh, it's like a disease without any cure.  oh gawd am i turning into one of those obnoxious old ladies with the red hats who are louder and more annoying than small children in restaurants...?  OK i'm not buying them :|

needing
to get rid of more stuff that i thought i needed but oh no, the little shingled cottage has e.v.e.r.y.t.h.i.n.g. - even a stand mixer.... even two homework desks.... (i love this semigrating feeling of freedom)

walk. boo.  it is soooooooo ridiculously hot here.  back later xoxo