traveling in style

When life gives you lemons, cruise a shopping cart.
When I was home this last weekend the kids and I tried to do some serious clean up in the back yard. Tami has the front looking perfect and so I wanted to pitch it. The yard is hard to keep clean. The wind blows stuff in, the kids don't always help, and the workers contribute in the most interesting ways. For example, the workers in the back apartment aparently "borrowed" a shopping cart and it was in the back yard. During the clean up I pushed it back over to their apartment. Later that day we came outside and it was back in the yard. Puzzled, I pushed it back over to the back apartment. Once again, next time we came outside, there was the cart. After taking it back over all day on Friday, Saturday morning I had already given up. In the morning we did clean up in the house and of course the cart was waiting in the back yard for us. At this point I have decided that their are imps involved (which is sometimes what I refer to the kids as), and at least for now the cart is a permanent resident.....so we rode it!
Turns out I love it! We can fit more kids in than a stroller and it has places on the front and side for them to ride. It was hilarious pushing them around the house and hearing the cars honk. (We usually get honks anyway and are aparently an interesting site normally, so the cart just put it over the edge.) And yes I know it is a little ghetto, but tack on fabulous and you have ghetto fabulous, story of my life and I love it.
Eventually I will actually load it up or walk it to where it belongs, but it was a good reminder that almost anything can be made fun.

Disasters in Dating

There has been a lot of hype about the problem that our generation has with "hanging out" instead of dating. MAYBE we wouldn't hang out if dating was such a ridiculously horrid event that could possibly scar us for life. Looking back through my history, I wish I would have written more of the astonishing and yet true stories, a few with battle wounds to match. Some have been forgotten, blocked out for my own mental health to be sure, but I can remember enough to know that some of us just weren't meant to date.
I have my favorites of course. The boy that called and called and called and then finally called at work where there wasn't caller ID and left it impossible to get out of the date, and then said NOTHING the whole date. When I say nothing, I mean it was literally full time work to try to make him talk, and when he spoke it wasn't that pleasant either. Surprisingly it was a miracle ending the date, since the few things he DID say were to extend the date and my torture as much as possible.
There was the guy that came straight out with his past (not judging for that) including medical problems and diseases. (THAT I wasn't quite down with.) I can't forget the guy that after date one introduced me as his girlfriend and asked me to go camp at a family reunion (and this was after I explained my commitment issues). One guy ended up making me pay for the first date. Another that broke down in tears and sobbed about his ex girlfriend. Who can forget the guy that actually had a list of interview questions? That one was classic. Of course the ringer date with the middle aged man that told me all about both of his divorces, his children, his conversion, the marriage videos that he watches every night, how much he just wants a wife, and about how radio makes you stupid and that was why he only listened to motivational tapes. (I was tricked into going on this one.) That was one of those dates where I spent most of the time in that happy place I created in my brain.
These are only SOME of the dates I can just think of off hand. Yet, like child birth and bikini waxes, after enough time has passed and I forget the horror and pain of the whole thing, I end up saying yes to yet another one. My most recent attempt is not one of the worst by far. In fact, the guy was an old friend, a good conversationalist, and really laid back. I really couldn't have any complaints...except that one little moment when his somewhat girlfriend showed up to the same restaurant, and was invited to join us. Thankfully she respectfully declined. Yes, it was awkward, but the sushi was fabulous and I can't really say I was shocked. Seriously, when I look at my track record, it could have been a LOT worse.
And people ask me why I am still single. I'm just thinking that the alternative isn't really looking so great. (kidding about that statement of course, mostly anyway.)