Go Stuff It

I have this habit of sometimes stuffing things away. People around here don't really like it. But I don't really care.

Last night they all ganged up on me. Me, the one who cooks them all dinner every night, who makes sure their back packs are ready by the door each morning with their homework and lunches ready, the one who puts their folded clean clothes nicely back in their drawers, the one who hangs their current team kit on wood hangers in their closet, the one who cleans out the damn litter box now that no one will do it because it smells like ass.

Bunch of complainers.

I don't like a lot of stuff. I'm a minimalist. I don't like acquiring a lot of stuff. Too much stuff makes me crazy. Maybe it's a weird tick to have when in just about every other way in my life, I'm a perpetual teenager.

So sometimes, I stuff things away. But it's not like it's gone - it's in the general area of where it should be. Like manuals are filed in the filing cabinet near the manual folder. Receipts are in piles near the desk. All cords for all the power taps, garmins, ipods, sync, cameras and whatever other electronic gadget Morgan happens to be into that month are in two drawers in the office.

Bike clothes are in the bike clothes closet.

And then the legos, which hurt like hell when you step on them in bare feet, those are in his top drawer or his lego buckets.

But apparently yesterday, someone rode his bike at lunch at work and ended up wearing a size small team jersey instead of his usual XL team jersey. I'm surprised he actually got it on his boday.



And then someone else found his newly built star wars lego battle thingamajig in his top drawer in the wrong bucket.

And then someone else complained that she still couldn't find her tooth that I'd miss placed that fell out of her mouth a few weeks ago.

And then they all started in on me.

So then I told them all to shut up and I busted a few karate chop moves on them and grabbed my box of thin mints and my glass of wine and went into the other room and watched jackass. But only after I folded the laundry and made THEM all put it away themselves.

Bunch of big fat whiny babies, that's what they are.

Thin Mints

I almost couldn't remember my log in here. Sometimes that happens when I try to log into our online bill payment service too. I hate that, because then I usually get locked out after trying 10 times. And then I have to call them and give them my mothers' maiden name and my first pet rabbit's name and so on.

Maybe I should log in to things more.

I've already eaten a whole box of thin mints on my own. And because Morgan makes fun of me about my little stash, now I sometimes go into the food closet and shut the door and eat a few when I don't feel like getting hassled.

I hate girl scout cookie season. Never mind the selling part, it's the eating part. I'm like an alcoholic.

But thank god for the good weather, because now I'm riding some distance again. I'd feel even more guilty for eating all those cookies if I wasn't burning them all off. Yesterday I rode about three hours and then came home at ate some more cookies.

I better go ride now too.

This past weekend I learned how to play poker. Initially I was losing a lot. But then I started winning. After a while I realized bluffing worked. And then after I bluffed a lot, I started getting some really good cards, but they all thought I was still bluffing and then I'd win some more. And I ended up winning a lot.

But I felt a little guilty. And no one seemed quite as happy as me.

I don't think I'd make a good professional poker player. Too much guilt involved.

Ok, Ok, I'll Move It Down

But things are really boring around here. No cyclocross makes for a dull lifestyle. And I'm certainly not in any shape to race any mountain bike races. I'm trying to get there, but it's slow going.

And really, right now I just don't have any good stories.

So, um.

I guess I could talk about what I did all weekend, but nothing really exciting happened.

We hiked, rode bikes, saw the TOC prologue and had numerous kid sleepovers at our house. It all wiped me out. The hiking and riding and swimming is the easy part. It's all those kids that tire me out.

You know, kids always want something and I get tired of getting it for them so often I just put it all out on the table like a smorgasbord so they can help themselves.

But later, after I come in from weeding or fixing something or reading a book, or just sitting and dozing in the garden chair - everything is everywhere and it's all sticky and goopy and tissues and snots on the floor and smashed crackers on the floor and fizzy water mixed with lemonade and the cat is on the table with his head in someone's milk cup and it's the same karaoke song over and over but they're not really singing into the microphone it's more like this horrible moaning and screaming because boys are chasing and shooting nerf guns and girls and blah, blah, blah.

It's those sticky door knobs that still really gross me out.

And the way my flip flops stick to the floor as I walk across the dining room floor. And why are there blueberries smashed all over the kitchen floor, don't they know that they stain? And how come none of them flush their poops down the toilet. It's like a universal kid rule.

It all makes my head hurt sometimes.

But then sometimes just the littlest thing makes it all ok. The four year old who comes over to me towards the end of the day and says that she LOVES being at our house because it's SO much fun and we have such COOL stuff at our house (specifically) because of the straws they get to use in their drinks.

She says this while she's lovingly fondling her pink straw from which she just sipped her homemade smashed blueberry and sparkling soda drink.

"It's just like being at McDonalds" she then says to me.

That's the ultimate compliment, I think.

Be My Thursday Night Ride Valentines

It's Thursday night and you know what that means...



Time for them to ride while I sit on the couch and eat my chocolates.


Happy VD!

Little Things

When I was a kid and we were on some sort of vacation or trip or up at the pool in the summer or at some sort of party and we were right in the middle of enjoying ourselves, my father would pipe up with his "happy place" phrase and say to all of us, I wonder what the poor people are doing now.

And he'd raise his budweiser can or throw out the water ski rope or start down the ski slope or light up his cigar and sort of look out at the horizon as if he were thinking great thoughts. And we all sort of did the same thing and thought our own great thoughts.

Of course, I never really understood what he was saying. It always kind of confused me.

I knew we weren't rich and I didn't think we were that poor. But sometimes I was conflicted about why our electricity and gas got turned off periodically. I mean, weren't people who didn't pay their bills on time poor? So weren't we kind of poor? Although in later years, I learned that too many budweisers lead to many forgotten bills and late payments.

So then why was dad pretending we were so rich if we weren't? Did really poor people not take vacations or drink beer or go swimming or go to parties? And what did all those poor people do while we were taking vacations and having our fun anyway.

As a ten year old it was pretty confusing.

But now it makes much more sense to me - his way of reflecting during one of his perfect moments and how rich he felt in his moment. And how he wanted to share it with us.

And weirdly enough I find myself thinking it to myself sometimes. Like today. While I was riding my bike up Pinehurst. It was nice and warm out and the sun was shining and I hadn't seen a car in over an hour and I hadn't been on a road ride in a few months and it felt nice and I was climbing a steep hill and I was riding because I wanted to and I wasn't in a hurry and the air smelled wonderful.

I was taking my time, enjoying the day and smiling to myself and wondering what the poor people were doing right then.

Another Post About Nothing In Particular

Next week I start a little training plan for the swim thing I'm doing in May. And I'll start riding some longer miles. I can't remember the last time I used a training plan. I'm thinking it might work this time, maybe, because I have no structure in my life right now.

Maybe a small piece of structure will be good.

But who knows.

Lately I've been doing some long trail runs, with my iPod on, listening to silly stories by Ira Glass and David Sedaris. Sometimes it's just so much easier to put on shorts and running shoes and go run.

People ask me what I'm up to and I tell them nothing. Because really, I'm not doing anything exciting. But when you think about it, I guess I'm doing a little bit of something. A little bit of this and that. And maybe with some structure I'll actually feel like I'm doing something.

At least I'm off of the eating of "hotpockets and drinking lemonade while laying on the couch watching celebrity rehab" kick.

Today we went and planted some willow trees with the 5th grade class. Tuesday we went and visited a museum with the 3rd grade class. Tomorrow I'm working at the science faire. This weekend I'm filling in the forms and figuring out how to get a business license and a taxID and stuff.



And I'm cooking dinners.

But only because Morgan's on that Paleo diet. And let me tell you, what a pain in the ass that diet thing is. It's about going back to cave man times or something and only eating what they blah, blah, blah, blah and no grains and no GRANOLA and no something or other and blah, blah, blah and blah and meat and fish but no rice and no cheerios.

He's also on the no alcohol for the month of February cleanse. Which I find amazing. I tell him that while I'm drinking my glass of red wine with dinner each night. Even more amazing is that all he had at the party we hosted the other night for the Cyclocross World's was Perrier and Salad.



Enough about that and more about the cat.

I like the cat more then I thought I would. I like the way he walks around the house like he owns it. And even more so, I like the way he runs around doing laps through the house and then all of a sudden will lay down on the rug and stretch out and relax - like he's been laying there for hours all non chalant and stuff.

Like he's trying to trick me into thinking he's so cool.

Time for a Bike Ride

I just spent about 45 minutes filling out the unemployment forms online for unemployment benefits.

And when I hit submit, of course, I got a big fat error message with no confirmation number and a message saying to call in all my information instead.

So, I did. But then at the confirmation message on their phone tree thing after I got all the info in, it told me there were too many calls right now for my claim to be processed and to call back on another day or submit my claim online.

They don't even let you hold even if you want to. Not that I wanted to, but still. You would think for people filing for unemployment, they would let you hold. It's not like we have anything else to do.

So then I went back online and re-did it all and hit submit and still no confirmation number, but then a message appeared saying that it's a duplicate claim and I should therefore call in with my original confirmation number to confirm my processes.

But I have no confirmation number. And I have three processes that took me a long time to do.

The plan today was to file for unemployment and then file our tax return because I think this year we're getting money back and it would be nice to know how much more cushion we have.

But...

I think I'll go for a bike ride instead. And then I'll go make sure my lavender didn't wilt in the frost last night. And then I'll go mop the floor or organize the pots and pan drawer or clean the cat box or go to the dentist or something.

And then I'll try filing for unemployment. Never mind filing the taxes right now.