Halloween Take 2

Last year, Jillian was about three weeks old for Halloween and I was still recovering from the fairly traumatic experience of losing all my blood during childbirth, so we didn't do much. I had just been cleared by the doctor to go up and down stairs and wasn't up for much trick or treating.

This year, Jillian is all about Halloween. I think her enthusiasm comes from her love of putting things in buckets and taking them out again. Halloween allows her to capitalize on this weird obsession. She gets to take candy out of a bowl, put it in her pumpkin bucket, and then take it out again. After she chose a Mounds bar at the first house, I started putting better candy up front so she would grab it. Like snickers, peanut butter cups, etc. No, I don't care what the other parents think of me. And I was hungry.

Now she is tuckered out and I am about to dig in to the candy....

But first some random thoughts:
1. I bought magnetic letters for J to play with on the fridge, and she loves them. I on the other hand, hate them. I hate coming into my house and seeing the fridge with rainbow colored magnets. I am not sure why. My dad always hated having magnets on the fridge - to the point that he went out and bought a fridge that was not magnetic. We used to just tape stuff up to annoy him. Perhaps I inherited his hatred of magnets? Perhaps I hate that it screams I HAVE A YOUNG CHILD!!!! It is my first time really dealing with the second theory, at least in the "common living area." Don't get me wrong, I realize I have a young child and that is good, but at the same time, it is weird to have it be part of my decor.
2. I hate you US Airways. This Friday (one week after they flew a plane without enough gas to get from Philly to Texas) they almost bumped me and J off of our flight, with the next flight being 7 hours later. I lost it. I fly them alot, bought a full fair ticket two months ago, and had a lap child (not to mention the whole, ooops we don't have enough gas incident the week before) and of all the people on the flight I was the one that didn't have a seat. So I sent Jillian loose - when people said, "oh she's so cute" I told them our story. No one gave up a seat. Luckily at the very last minute someone who checked in still wasn't there and we got on. I supposed I should just be happy.
3. I may be done dating. I have had no success meeting someone who I like AND find attractive. I find attractive jerks and nice guys with great "personalities." I am not looking for a 10 or the captain of the football team, just someone I find attractive. I am a walking cliche.

Alright now time to eat candy.....

Philly Finally Wins One

Philadelphia was ranked by some survey as the most unattractive city in the U.S. Awesome.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20071022/od_nm/philadelphia_unattractive1_dc

I don't know if I am happy about this (less competition for single men/maybe an ugly dude will not care that I have a baby) or sad (poor Philly/am I shallow?). Either way, I hope to not lose sleep over it. I do hope to get hit on more though, you know since the bar is set so low.... (I am kidding of course, unless you want to hit on me...)

And in the background of the picture above, is someone who is ugly on the inside, MSTBX's girlfriend. Jillian tempers the ugliness with her cuteness. Hey, Philly is not in the running for the city with the most mature people either (and I needed a transition here)....anyway, this picture is from his birthday party for J. J looks good in a party hat.

Despite my snarking at the girlfriend, I am in a pretty good mood for a Monday. I went to Austin, TX this weekend to celebrate TFry's soon to be end of singledom. It involved many drinks, one blow up doll (not anatomically correct but with a killer mustache), a surprise pit stop in Shreveport, LA thanks to US Air who didn't put enough gas in the plane to get us from Philly to Texas (seriously - so ridiculous), a ginormous hotel room, lots of queso, and being chatted up by a 2007 graduate of the University of Texas. Overall, a good time.

By the way, northern boys are so fascinated with southern girls. Whenever I told a male friend that I was going to a bachelorette party, that got a sly look and questions about what we would be doing (and suggestions of pillow fights in our underwear). When they found out it was in Texas, every single one made a statement that implied he knew it would be so much naughtier than a regular bachelorette party. If they saw the attractiveness level of the ladies in attendance at this party, their collective minds might have exploded.

Too bad all the attractive people live elsewhere, huh Philly?

Please Touch

Jillian and I went to the Please Touch Museum today, which was quite an experience. Hopefully neither of us got any communicable disease or random sickness. When the point of the museum is to have kids touch things, the likelihood of walking out of there with more than you went in with (viruses, microbes, flu bugs, etc.) is high. I should say that I am by no means an uptight parent when it comes to germs. I think I am fairly low key. But this museum is like when in horror movies, the campers go into the woods to make out even though they know the serial killer is out there. Here, Jillian and I are the campers, safe toddler fun is the making out, and the serial killer is the dirty ass touch based museum.

Plus, while I am not in the running for any parent of the year awards, I cannot believe some parents. There is a baby area, a "barnyard," for children under 3 years old. This is where we spent the bulk of our time. The point of the area is for "crawlers and new walkers" to have a safe place to play. Jillian falls into the latter category. Anyway, people brought their older kids in, I swear one kid was eight, and then didn't pay attention to their offspring. So eight year olds were jumping off the play tractor, a 5 year tried to drop kick the "fluffy sheep" repeatedly, and another older kid ran around like a banshee knocking over new walkers at every turn. At one point one parent knocked over Jillian and didn't even notice.

I don't want to be "that mom," but I was ready to kick some rule-breaking-parent ass. Jillian and I went there because she needs a safe place to toddle about and the Cole Haan shoe store just isn't cutting it anymore. I paid my $20 (granted that is a bargain compared to a new pair of shoes) and damn it, I wanted to make the most of it. Not have it ruined by kids who don't know better because their parents simply don't care. I was annoyed. And super disappointed in my parental brethren.

Anyway, that is enough of a rant. We most likely will not go back to the please touch museum, at least not on a weekend. It was ok, Jillian just wanted to walk around holding two ears of play corn, and was happy with that. So no worries. Unless of course we get some weird illness.

Happy Birthday!

Now big J is officially 1. You can see what she looked like when she was born on my old blog. She had a pretty good day as far as I can tell, she had some cake, partied with her friends, and then came to work to visit me. She loves coming to my office because she can walk through the halls (usually carrying a highlighter or post-its) and poke her head into offices and say "hi" in her little baby voice. It is hilarious, and generally well received. Then she hides behind document boxes and pops out a wicked game of peek-a-boo.

Now she is all tuckered out, asleep resting up to start year #2. It is weird sitting here alone though. No one to reminisce with about the day she was born and alot of mixed feelings about that time. I can't believe I have been a mom for a year. It has been a tough, but rewarding year. Yes, cheesy I know.

So here are a few more pictures of the lady of honor. Enjoy.

My attempt at a Birthday Cake

Today my family and friends celebrated Jillian's first birthday. Her actual birthday is tomorrow, but as most of us will be at work, today was a good day to have a birthday brunch.

In my attempt to be a good mom, I decided I would bake and decorate Jillian's cake. So after she went to bed last night, I made the cake, decorated it, and put aluminum foil over it. It looked pretty good, I must say. In Curacao, I tried doing henna tattoos on myself and others and they came out alright, so I channeled those skillz to prettily write "Happy Birthday Jillian" and draw some flowers. I even selectively placed rainbow sprinkles.

But alas, when you just put aluminum foil over a cake pan, it sticks to the freshly decorated cake. Thus, when I served the cake today, it looked, well, jacked up. Please see above. Jillian didn't care, as you can also see that she enjoyed eating it.

The only cake that can be considered lamer than the cake above, was the cake my mom sent to me for my birthday my junior year in college. It arrived at 4011, I opened it up, and it was a sheet cake with the traditional flowers and ribbon icing decorations, but it SAID NOTHING. It was a blank cake. Totally sad. No "Happy Birthday," nothing, nada. While it was the lamest cake ever, it was hilarious. Oh and we totally put the hurt on that cake anyway.

CHILL CHILL CHILL

A bit more on the CHILL CHILL CHILL shirt, since the experience was so traumatizing. Above is a picture of a CHILL CHILL CHILL shirt that is, believe it or not, less heinous than the one I wore on that fateful day. Mine was bright aqua, the CHILLs were written in black, red, and white, and it was hella tight on me. Oh and I mentioned it was a "thermal" shirt, you know with the waffling? Nice.

So bizarley, justsomeguy, DT and I jumped in the car to drive to C-ville one boring evening in Metro-Lex. We got smoothies at Smoothie King, went to the lame mall, and then Old Navy. Bizarley found the infamous shirt, saw it was only $5 and dared me to wear it if she bought it. Since I rarely turn down a challenge (unless it involves me working harder at things I don't like to do), I said sure. After the purchase, she put all these caveats on me wearing the shirt. First, I could not tell people that she had bought it and dared me to wear it - I had to pretend that CHILL CHILL CHILL shirts are all the rage. Second, I had to stay at the law school all day (I couldn't go home between classes). Third, I could not wear a sweater or sweatshirt over it.

People stared at me all day. One friend was afraid to ask me about why I looked so weird, for fear I would kick his ass. The ex-friend with benefits of the guy I had just started dating probably got the most pleasure out of my attire. She hated me. I am not sure I ate lunch that day, for fear of ridicule. So basically I made an ass of myself for a day, in a skin-tight, aqua, thermal, CHILL CHILL CHILL shirt.

And yes, we had a lot of time on our hands in law school. The CHILL CHILL CHILL shirt was just one example of how we used up that time. Now that I am gainfully employed you would think I wouldn't have time to google "chill chill chill old navy" and actually find an image of the shirt. I got it the picture from ebay, surprisingly there are no bids. It is at $0.01, but shipping is $3.99. I would buy it for bizarley, but it is a size large and since she fits into a kid's pink power ranger costume (see above re: too much time on our hands), I don't think it will fit.

A swing and a miss...

Yesterday, I got the following email, which was sent to the entire firm:

"All lawyers and staff are permitted (and encouraged) to wear Phillies attire to the office tomorrow, unless client meetings or court appearances prevent you from doing so. (no sweatpants, please)

Go Phillies!"

So, since I am a sports fan in general, and know that Philly needs a win in some professional sport (last national title - 1983 76ers), today I got up put, on a Phillies t-shirt, jeans, and sneakers and headed to work. Of course, I was psyched to wear jeans as much as the Phillies attire.

I get to work and I swear I am the ONLY PERSON in jeans and the ONLY ATTORNEY in "Phillies attire." I totally thought that everyone would be all over this opportunity. But I guess my firm is more uptight than I originally thought. Did I read the email wrong...I figured "no sweatpants" meant anything but sweatpants, i.e. jeans. That goodness I scrapped my original plan of coming in dressed as the Phanatic....

And today is a lunch for our new first years, which I am supposed to go to. I am not sure if I will now. I will probably just sit in my office all day, ashamed to show my Phillies pride. Kind of like when bizarley bought me a henious thermal shirt that said "CHILL CHILL CHILL" and dared me to wear it to law school for a day, pretending that it was fashionable (in Lexington, I was considered somewhat fashionable). I got a lot of work done that day, because I just hid where no one could see me. Except I got called on in Torts II and had to deal with her cracking up as I uncomfortably answered questions about design defects in that awful shirt.