Sweet. Cool. Now Get Back to Work.

So today’s the first day back at it after five solid days off. (Now it’s tomorrow though. A deadline slayed me.) I’m not happy. Time off has that effect on me. For most people, it means time to unwind and refresh. For me, it has the effect of coming off of a really nice Percocet buzz. (No, I’m not an addict, but I did have the pleasure of this wonder drug post-c-section and it was blissful. I can see why people make up doctors’ names and steal those Rx pads…☺) But you know what I mean – where you’re going along in this sort of unreal state, like you have a Teflon coating that surrounds you and things just hit and slide off to the floor as you keep walking. Then that coating is abruptly ripped away and things are sticking to you like flypaper and all of your nerves are exposed. I wish I wasn’t such an eternal optimist…

And that’s how I started my Monday. I had a few con calls that were productive, came up with some campaign ideas, solidified my plans for my personal holiday card. Not too bad. I even got in a work out. Then the bean woke up so I had to lock her in the bathroom (with me!) while I took a shower. Never good. This time she decided that she would pull all of the paper off of the toilet paper roll, shred it into tiny pieces and then throw each piece into the shower with me. I can’t tell you how fun it was to clean up.

I did manage to dress, clean up the paper, feed her lunch (that she flatly refused to eat) and get her back down to nap in time to get back to work. Now I’m tired.

The run down of the past few days goes like this: Miss 6 and I took the day on Wednesday and made it a date day. We woke up to snow, so it was a perfect day to take the bus and go to a movie. We talked and laughed and walked all the way from Twenty Ninth Street after the movie to Pearl – grabbed some lunch, hit the retro candy store and headed home. It was so obvious to me how much that little girl needed my time. She said, “You don’t have as much time because of the baby, huh?” Crack. (That was my heart.) But she’s right. It had been almost a year since we spent a whole day together alone like that. Way overdue.

For Thanksgiving we ended up having our new-ish neighbors over, T2 and L Rocks. They’ve been in the midst of a kitchen re-model and it was only just wrapping up as the holiday approached. It added a lot to the day having some extra warm bodies over. Miss 6 is quite taken with their son, so she was over the moon. We spent most of the day either videoconferencing (love Skype!) with our family back in SC or watching them via webcam. It was funny and strange and Miss 6 must have stared at the computer screen for hours, reporting, “Grandy just walked into the kitchen!” “The dogs just jumped on the couch!” Etc. At one point, I was on the phone with my mom and the hubby told me that they were setting the table. Mom didn’t even know because she was in the other room. Surreal.

But the day was close to perfect and we so enjoy our newfound neighbor friends. T2 has a few blogs of his own that I’ll start linking to here. Here’s one: Everyday Companion. He’s a huge fan of Widespread and live music in general. Here’s another: Riding the Dinosaur. He’s Ted too…☺ Between them, Neighbor Jane and fam (now friends of the old, true sort), ATSJ (another goodie) – and many others I shall not have time to name, (as well as those who don’t live on our street, but close by) we have a little commune in the hippie community of Boulder that is a perfect fit. We love you guys!

So then Friday I spent all morning editing a video that I just couldn’t wait to send out to my fam back east. I thought, “How perfect. They can see us too.” Then I realized that I couldn’t load it onto YouTube because I had used some of my favorite tunes (copyright infringement). So after a few minutes of trying to come up with other alternatives, I decided that a quickie QuickTime on my iDisc may do the trick. And it did. Except that none of the intendeds could open it and those who could found white space from the 3rd or 4th scene on. Some glitch with the export. Sh**. Only five hours flushed. The hubby kindly chimed in, “Well at least we have it…” He’s so special.

I licked my wounds by taking a nap and then grabbing the fam for a bus ride downtown to see Boulder get lit. (In time for Christmas.) We got there moments after and missed the whole thing. That left us following Twinkles the elf to the ice rink to watch some local girls skate to Baby, It’s Cold Outside. Their outfits were a little too Jon Benet. But Miss 6 was all into it. The below frigid weather worked in our favor (as did Bean’s still running-like-a-faucet nose). So we headed to Prima for dinner. When we figured out that it was a Kevin Taylor restaurant (read: chi-chi), I spent the last 10 minutes or so of our meal on my knees wiping up the floor around Beanie’s high chair. There was enough down there for a couple more kids to eat free.

On the bus ride home, Bean kept yelling at our driver, “Ife! Ife!” Which means, “Five!” As in, “Gimme some skin, dude!” Needless to say, he was a bit too busy to give a 14-month-old five. So she was left hangin’. The driver did recognize us from the ride down though and comped the ride. Very nice.

Saturday was tile shopping day. We have to replace the plumbing in the bathroom upstairs because it has decided that perpetually running a stream of hot water would add a nice ambiance for the pot sitters. Yea. Seriously. So this means pipes and tile must be ripped out and replaced. I decided it had to be subway tile and we spent the day driving around the fringes of Denver looking for just the right thing. Since either the places were closed or they only sold granite, we ended up right back at Home Depot. And there they were. Right there and in stock. We’d missed that four hours before. Someway. Could have been Miss 6’s insistence upon pushing the stroller. Which meant running it into things which caused people to give us that look. You know the one. The “can’t you control your kid a little better?” one. We were innocent though. Nothing fell. Nothing broke. No harm. No foul.

That night our good friends, Vancy Pants and E-vil, came for dinner. It was great to catch up and we talked for hours. Everything from politics, to European healthcare, to making wine and gourmet cooking. It was amazing. We always love seeing them. It just doesn’t happen enough.

Sunday was welcomingly mellow. We got out to buy Bean a slick little Red Rider walker/push wagon that she proceeded to push around with a maniacal grin — like she’d been walking for months and had just decided not to tell. We then took Miss 6 to ice skate. (She wore jeans. No little flirty sequined number for her.) The weekend was coming to a sad, sad close. I wanted to cry. I mentioned this above…

And even though I had all of these cool topics in the queue, “I hate snow driving!” “Why I do color my hair!” “The empty promises of a business-owner/mom…!”, I’m going to stop here. Enough is enough.

I will add, however, that I met an insane deadline today after cramming late into the night (thanks team!), I found out I have to go to Connecticut to meet with a client (they’re actually flying me out!), and I talked to the Flotown artist and we are going to be featured on a talk radio show there… plus we may continue our collaboration. Fun stuff…

AND: Bean’s talking! She’s been saying: Ma-Ma (her first word!), Da-Da, Tee-ta (sister) – but we were driving the other day and she says, “Hi guys!” Just like that. Waving and all. The hubby almost wrecked. It was just that shocking. Like she’d been waiting this whole 14 months to finally say hello. After that, she said, “Coooool.” Very.

TODAY’S THEME SONG: The General Specific. Band of Horses. In time I'd find a little way to your heart, down to the general store for nothing specific, gonna wash my bones in the Atlantic shore — only for you and me… I mean, you gotta love a band that blows off the Seattle scene in favor of South Cackalacky. What’s not to love?