Imitation is the best form of flattery?!

Z: I need a tissue.
E: I need a tissue.
Z: My nose is dripping.
E: My nose is dripping.
Z: Please.
E: Please.
Me: Z, here you go. E, you do not need a tissue – your nose is fine*.
Z: Can I have some water? I’m thirjty.
E: Can I have some water. I’m thirty.
Me: (sigh)

A couple of days later, all the other kids are inside for story-time except E & R.
Me: E, what are you doing out here? The story’s about to start.
E: I have sand in my shoe.
R: I have sand in my shoe.
E: No, I have sand in my shoe.
R: No, I have sand in my shoe.
E: Why’re you copying me? I don’t understand why you constantly** keep copying me
Me: (sigh)

* - even though it was coloured black and had ‘whiskers’ drawn near it.
** - a little difficult to believe since it was R’s second day there and that was the first time I saw them both play together

That explains it !

No wonder they call this part of town Paradiso.

Conshohocken

Tiny town, PA.

I got to travel. Between missed connections and distances from coast - to - coast, it took me close to 18 hours to get there. Thank God I love airplanes :)

I made new friends. I'll probably never see them again. I might send them a couple of work related emails. But there is something about being one of the 16 women in a room (of 21 people total) that makes for good camarederie (or however that's spelt)

I had dinner in a fancy French restaurant - it was so fancy French, the waiters even spoke French to each other. My food choices were limited - but who cares when you have five kinds of forks?

I got totally pampered. Not only did D drive me around - he also held the door for me. And entertained me with his stories.

I found out guys can be sappy too. In a good "I'm so in love with my wife I can't wait to see her again" way.

I lost a* an earring while I was there. It was a present from my husband :(

* - I found out I say earring weird - or used to at least.

Arbit and Arbiter

Apparently this is what happens when I'm "Addicted to friends"

I give you some music? Yes?

Lady on the phone: Ich sprache kein Englisch
Me: Ich sprache kein Deutsch

At first she just thought I was mimicking her. After a couple of minutes, she believed I really didn't speak German (well not enough to book tickets at least), I got transferred to someone who knew English.
Who turned out to have the best way of asking if she could put me on hold - "I give you some music? Yes?"

The end

Today's the last day of Nablopomo 2007. And I made it. I posted every day, all November.

And we all live happily ever after. The end.

ps: Next November, if I even talk about signing up for this again, somebody please spank me (twss).

Where I belong

For a while now I've been telling people I like my job and the company I work for. Today I found out why. And no it's not that they pay me $$$$$ (because they don't).

We were watching an important presentation by our company today. And all of us were engrossed. Even though most of the terms they were using didn't make sense to most of us.
But we still watched - I know some people who got up really early (it started at 8 am Eastern time), I know some people who missed lunch.

Some of us even had our fingers crossed when it was time for the vote. And after, everyone was excited as if they personally had won. It was as if all those fingers being crossed had really made a difference.

A few people started walking around, telling everyone they ran into "Hey, did you hear? We got the approval".

That word is what gets me. Everytime. We.

:)

I had a great day today. It was one of those days where you're thinking "it can't get any better than this", when someone gives you a hundred dollars.
All day there were many things that made me smile, laugh out loud, jump up and down, excitedly call my husband...
All day long I was thinking of how I had so many wonderful things to blog about.
Now that I'm sitting here though, I find it difficult to describe exactly why today was wonderful.
Except that I went back to Kickbox Aerobics class and was so happy I did. And someone really did give me $100.

Days of my life

L (Guy I work with): Hey, you ok?

Me: Ya. Why?
L: Well you've not been bugging me much recently - so I thought you were coming down with something.

Me: .....

*****************************

This is a picture of the box my fries came in at lunch today:

At least now I don't feel so bad about all those carbs.

I will survive

Today I went to the gym after a long time. No baby steps of 20 minutes on the treadmill for me. I started with a 1-hr class of Kickbox Aerobics.
For the first 5 minutes, I huffed and puffed and did everything wrong. I spent the next 15 minutes watching the clock - if I can just make it till the hand reaches 8...9...10...and so on. And humming "I will survive" under my breath.
By the time the class was half over, I realised it was actually fun (shhh...don't tell my husband I said that...I do have an image to maintain) to try and be in step with 5 other people. Almost like a dancing class would have been if I'd ever gotten up the courage to try that.
I'm very proud of myself for staying the entire hour, and more importantly, making a promise to myself that I will go back there on Wednesday (whether I keep that promise or not will depend on what my sore back says tomorrow).
For now I'm high on the endorphins and happy as a penguin.

You think I'd crumble
You think I'd lay down and die
Oh no, not I
I will survive
- "I Will survive" - Gloria Gaynor

Love is a girl's word

As soon as he opened his present, we were the coolest aunt and uncle ever. He gave both of us a quick hug and ran off to show his friends what his "cool aunt and uncle" had brought him.
Ten minutes later, he was back and looking quite upset. And with him four other 6 year olds.
The book we gave him had a "With love from" inscription inside.
His friend explained "Love is a girl's word".
I was speechless. I looked around for my husband so he could give them a man-to-man talk about how love is a wonderful thing and so on.
When I couldn't find him, I spotted my sister in law's husband and thought of asking him to do the honours - luckily I didn't. He was busy looking for a piece of cake that didn't have any strawberry cream on it.
"Pink is a girl's colour", his exasperated wife said by way of explanation.

When 32 is perfect

My husband got the mileage on his car to touch 32 MPG. To put it in perspective, that is the upper limit per the manufacturer's spec. Understandably, I usually stay away from driving his car.

Today I found out I do pretty well under pressure too. We went out and I drove on the way back (3 different freeways and close to 45 miles) and I maintained the MPG (and only told 4 people the whole internet about it)

ps

Just a few things to add to yesterday's list -
A dinner "date" that I even "dressed up" for
A table with a view of the bay
Watching planes land and take off
Talking about everything and nothing
Falling in love all over again

Giving thanks on Thanksgiving

No turkey this year (or any) - but I thought I could still say thanks for:

Just in time

The long weekend couldn't have come at a better time. I mean I know there are many times when by Wednesday I'm so knackered, I wish it were Thanksgiving week. This time I have a laundry list of high-priority things to do - and we're not even talking things like "tackle organize my closet" here -

• Difficult conversations to have
• Accusations to make
• Fences to mend
• Fights to hash out
• Anger to leave behind
• Harsh words to eat
• Owning up to do

It's not going to be easy, but I hope I'm strong enough to do it.

I'm done

Everything that had to be has been said
All the tears that had to be have been shed
I caused the hurt and now I'm in pain
I can't wait to feel the sunshine again

I'm spent. I have no more tears, no more words left. I just want to go lie down and ask someone to hold me. Time to call Mom I think.

A weekend of lessons

• Sometimes men ARE allowed to look smug.
• Loudly giggling at this every couple of minutes may not exactly be the best thing to do. Especially with a husband who's reading this sitting across the room from you.
• In public restrooms of questionable hygiene, open the tap BEFORE you get soap on your hands.
• You know when you're watching a scary movie and you cover your eyes, you have a serious urge to peek? IGNORE the same urge when in said public restrooms of questionable hygiene.
• When you're going to be irritable for something like this - you'd better come up with a "real" reason for that craziness emotion or better still, zip it.
• When you have a "feeling" something bad is going to happen, you don't have to keep pushing things so something does.
• It's ok to occasionally cry over nothing and tell yourself those are "cleansing" tears.
• You look forward to Monday not because you love your job (well maybe that too) but just as a (good) sign the weekend is over.

"Oh-my-God" *

I read this a while ago and today I know what it really feels like.
I had a dream nightmare last night and I'm MAD. Thank God that person doesn't live here or she'd be toast by now.

In unrelated news, I just found out I'm not as Addicted to Friends as I'd like to be - time to remedy that. If you need me, I'll be on my couch watching my Friends DVDs. With a slice of cake ton of calories for company.

* That would be the "Joey-just-found-out-Chandler-made-out-with-his-sister-Oh-my-God"

Fire on the mountain......run, run, run...

Except there was neither a fire, nor a mountain. Only an out of breath me running to silence the fire alarm. Every 5 minutes.
Apparently our neighbours got their carpets steam cleaned. And our fire alarm thinks our house is filled with Carbon Monoxide and we should "move to fresh air".
Either that or the alarm's trying to indicate a low battery.
Whichever it is, I spent all afternoon today climbing on a chair every 5 minutes, to stand on my toes and reach up with a pen to push the "silence" button. When I finally gave up and got the husband involved, he just reached up and removed the battery.
Duh!

What real men say

I have a horrible one, makes me look fat (about an ID photo)

Do you think my hair's looking a little frizzy?

I "yuvve" you too (well at least he tried)

I think my nose looks better from the side. What do you think?

Which one's better? (looking at two different brands of sunscreen)

Do you think this color's too bright (trying on a red shirt)