What would Judi do?

I am not a patient person.  I don't like to wait.  I don't wait in lines at attractions (except Disney World/Land which is a given).  Patience is that ever elusive virtue in my life. I'm waiting for the end of the world to hit.  Sitting here on the couch with my daughters (watching scary movies) waiting and waiting.  And waiting.  Do we eat the food before it goes bad?  Watch tv?  Start a movie that might die in the middle? I am not good at this. The biggest mistake was watching the news.  Thankfully we did that only briefly.  Just long enough to see NJ drowning and NY about to be sucked up into the sky.  Okay, maybe not really but it feels that way.  The majority of my friends and family are right along Sandy's path.  My friends are without power (as we are preparing for as well) and have flooded basements - all along the east coast.  We're just waiting to see what happens here. I am looking forward to Thursday...

This was the most interesting day of all!  Zombie day! We woke a little late, which is unusual.  Chocolate chip pancakes are a good start to the day. A quick run to the bank and a few errands keep us busy until it's time to start zombifing. Mike (ex husband) came over full made up and with the girls bloodied clothes.  That was weird.  Then, using liquid latex, he gave them wounds.  I added make up and in a pretty short time, they were full on creepy. Mike helped me with my scars.  It felt weird.  It was wet when it went on but as it dried it felt like egg on my skin.  Odd feeling.  Then he made the scarring.  Even weirder.  Painting on the blood was cool.  Adding the make up was fun.  I like that part. My boyfriend and another friend joined us.  Amanda did her own make up (she passed on the latex goo stuff).  Andrew let me give him a few scars.  Mike painted him in blood.  It's like a modern day...

Thank God it's Friday.  Yeah, not original but true. You know the breakfast routine now.  The girls got to school on time.  I got to work early so I could eat breakfast there.  I like their breakfast better than my own.  It would've helped for me to look at my schedule first.  I was on the wrong side of the complex and had a technical meeting at 9 am.  Who schedules things like this on a Friday morning?  Clearly not someone who asked my opinion. I was not on my A game for this job.  Lucky for me my client wasn't on his A game for staying away.  It all works out nicely. It was a packed day.  Here's the summary: Leave work. Stop home to change. Take care to the shop for the endless list of things that need to get done. Pray the bill is under $400.  It was (barely). Lunch at Max's - best schwarma and falafel in town.  The 20 mins in line proved I am not alone in this thinking. Waiting for parts for m...

Thursday was a yo-yo day.  Certainly some ups.  And some downs.  And a little bit of everything in between. Again, it was an uneventful morning.  No phone waking me at 2:05 am but an alarm ringing in my early shortly after 6.  I decided to set it a little early so I could cook something for the girls' lunches.  Turkey pesto paninis.  Coffee and paninis done by 6:30am.  Not bad. I drove the girls to school.  I hate the school bus.  They hate the school bus.  I would never let my kids ride in a car without seat belts but here I put them on this bus that doesn't have enough seats for the all the kids so they're not only without seat belts but also without seats.  So when possible, I drive them. Lucky for me, my work didn't start until 10.  That means I get a real breakfast!  Pumpkin pancakes.  Trader Joe's pumpkin pancakes are this family's weakness.  I like getting them all to myself once in a while. W...

Wednesday is Zombie day. Not the I-didn't-get-enough-sleep-so-I'm-walking-around-like-a-zombie kind of zombie day.  I'll explain in a bit. Our morning routine is pretty standard.  If all is well, nothing changes.  This is exactly what I want. Today was a decent enough morning.  A new cereal made the girls happy.  Coffee makes mom happy.  All is right with the world. I was able to prove to myself today that I can, indeed, behave like a grown up when needed.  I had a job that made me nervous this morning.  I knew I'd be tired after the Alanis show but I had to voice a presentation for a client I really don't want to disappoint and would be broadcast on through a webinar.  So, yeah, I was nervous.  I ended up rocking the voicing part.  At the end of that part of the presentation, the other interpreter (who was sitting next to me) took over the signing part.  Then there was a smell.  Not a pretty smell.   Oh my god....

You might be wondering, what is this "A week in my life" stuff?  Alissa over at  http://www.clevercompass.com  is participating in Adventuroo's  "A week in the life" series.  So, because I like just about everything Alissa does, I'm doing it, too.  She's like my blogging mentor.  Or I'm like a puppy.  Take your pick. Tuesday was at least a semi-interesting day.  It started at the butt crack of dawn for me.  Yes, that's right.  My evil phone decided once again to start waking me at 2:05 like it's been doing for DAYS.  I NEED SLEEP.  My phone is possessed.  After turning it off (which I'm not supposed to do because I'm on call but seriously folks, I NEED SLEEP), I did indeed fall back asleep until the alarm started to torture me at 6:30 am.  Even though I don't need to be up that early most mornings for work, I do the weeks my girls are with me.  Middle school starts way too early for me. Thankfully the ne...

Monday is never a day I look forward to.  At least not most of the time.  Today wasn't a stellar day. My day started at 2:05 am.  That's when my phone started rebooting and yelling DROID at me.  That continued every 5 minutes until 3 when I just couldn't take any more.  I don't care if I'm on call.   I need sleep!   So off went the phone. Then the alarm started to taunt me at 6:30.  It took a while for me to realize I was not dreaming this.  It was really time to wake up.  Waking the girls up is always fun (not). Pumpkin pancakes made.  Coffee made.  We're ready to go to school.  Then work.  Starting out in Silver Spring, ending up in Gaithersburg.  Driving back to Silver Spring.....it's a lot of time on the road. On Sunday we designated Monday night an early-to-bed night.  A last minute change of dinner menu because M has a Very Loose Tooth.  Afraid it will come out mid-bite, she asked for so...

I have lived my life being the wrong age.  At every age, I'm the wrong age. It started when I was young.  My mother told me I was born at the wrong time.  I loved everything about the 1920s and 1930s,  I was born to be a flapper girl.  But I was about 60 years late. I was crimping my hair and dying it purple before it was popular to do.  I liked the way it looked but I got a lot of shit for it from the other kids in school.  Then a year or two later they were doing it.  I was ahead of my time. I was the last of my friends to get married.  By many years.  But I think I was the smart one.  While it wasn't perfect and didn't last for forever as planned, I was still smarter for waiting.  I was an older bride. When my kids went to preschool, I was closer in age to the grandparents than the parents of the other kids.  I hated that.  HATED THAT.  Now it's pretty much evened out as far as the ages of my kids' fri...

I hear a lot of comments about how my kids look like me.  My friends say they are  a lot like me - which is, in many ways, true.  They are outspoken and opinionated and (in my humble opinion) funny as hell.  I like those common traits (I crack myself up so that's why I think it's a common trait).  There are others that give me concern. I'm a nervous person by nature.  I've had anxiety issues for as long as I can remember.  I always assumed it was because of growing up with a parent who died - it made sense to me.  But now I have a kid with anxiety issues.  I see the look on her face and I know the feeling in her tummy.  She recognizes it in me, too.  When my anxiety levels rise, no matter how hard I try to conceal it, she comes over to put her hand on mine, a move that always relaxes me.  She takes care of me as much as I take care of her.  The other kid is aware of all of this, too, but she doesn't have the same anxieti...

I am the self proclaimed Queen of Procrastination.  This is my most honed skill.  It's amazing what I can get done when I don't want to do something. When I don't feel like invoicing or billing or running payroll, I have super clean toilets.  When I don't feel like paying bills, my kitchen sparkles.  When I don't feel like doing laundry, the girls and I spent a lot of time at the park, Brookside Gardens or anywhere else.  It's amazing the things I can find to do when I'm avoiding doing something that needs to be done. But at some point there comes a time when I need to be an adult.  I need to do the things I don't want to do.  If I wait long enough, that time will eventually come. Until that happens, I will continue to scrub bathrooms, do dishes, go for walks and watch endless hours of Dexter and The Walking Dead in an effort to distract me from what I need to do.  So now I will turn off the tv and turn off the computer and make my way to be...

My mother always told me there's a fine line between love and hate.  There's also a fine line between hate and ignorance.  There's a fine line between lots of things. This point was driven home to me recently.  One of my daughters said that an educator at school had used the term "retarded" to speak about someone who did something stupid.  My daughter immediately corrected him.  "That's not an appropriate word to use!" He immediately apologized and thanked her for correcting him.  She came home and told me about it.  I was proud of her for many reasons.  I was proud that she felt comfortable enough to correct a teacher and that she knew to do it.  I was sad because it knocked him off the pedestal on which she had him placed.  I was surprised that someone in that profession would use that term. While observing at school today, I decided to talk to this instructor about his choice in vocabulary.  It was an interesting discuss...

So often in my life, I want proof of things.  I'm not good at going on faith, though I have been known to try that once in a while as well.  Proof is preferred. I try different parenting strategies with my girls from time to time.  When I need to make a change in my life (generally some sort of kick of my own ass), I usually share this thought with my girls and there are discussions and attempts at fulfilling whatever goal I have set forth.  Some are more successful than others.  Tonight I got proof that my determination to think in a more positive manner is working. The girls had been separated all week thanks to different schedules for outdoor education classes.  This worked well for us - they missed each other.  After a bit of time together, A starts complaining about someone.  She didn't like something this other child did and felt the needs to share that in a pretty bitchy way. This is where my proof appeared. M said " I don't hear an...

When my kids are grumpy, I call them Grumble Bunnies.  I have become a Grumble Bunny. I am full on bitchy.  No, that's not right.  I'm sad.  No, that's not it.  It's a combo.  Bad.  Get it?  Bitchy + Sad = Bad.  At least I make myself laugh. Why am I Bad?  Here, let me list it for you. I have not had a good parenting week.  And what makes it worse is I've only had one kid (they changed in the middle) and they're staying with their dad!  That just sucks. I do not feel like being a good daughter.  But I have to.  There is no one else. Business is booming.  This is fabulous.  But it makes me work until the wee hours of the morning on a regular basis.  I am overwhelmed. I am still  in physical therapy, which hurts, for an accident that wasn't my fault.  This annoys me greatly. I feel like an alien around those who should know me best.  I don't understand how this is true. Now,...