On motherhood…
It’s been six months since Lucy was born. In that time, I have learned a lot of things about me, my family and my husband.
1. People love giving unsolicited advice
Never have I ever had so many people telling me what I should do. It comes out of nowhere and they just know they are right.
2. I still don’t like kids
I love my child and the children in my life (Eli, Ady, Gavin, I am talking to you) but as a whole, I am not really a “kids person”.
3. It’s not a bad as everyone makes it out to be (actually, it’s pretty neat)
I don’t know if it’s a type of hazing or people have a different perception of what parenthood is going to be like but I have a good time with Lucy. I think she’s funny and cute. She amazes me constantly and sleeps through the night. That’s pretty solid in my book.
4. I don’t know what I am doing but I am starting to get the hang of it
I read pregnancy books like a fiend but not a single parenting book until Lucy was almost 2 months old. Kinda a fail on my part but now we Google like old pros.
5. I haven’t turned into someone I hate
Of all the things I was scared of, this was the biggest one. I was afraid I would turn into a mom-beast that wouldn’t be able to hold a conversation. I haven’t. I am pretty much the same but more powerful because there are two of me (muh-ha-ha).
6. I now know what busy means
It’s crazy being a working mom but thanks to my awesome mother in law, it’s been an easier transition than I thought it would be. I have to plan ahead, schedule weeks in advance and shop online but life still happens.
Thus far, it’s been really great and I wouldn’t change a thing.
Black swan bitches!
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Thank you Steve
On Wednesday we traded in my college car for a Jeep Compass. Yes, a glorified station wagon.
My old car, Steve, was a great car. He was with me for 8 years. I drove the crap out of him.
This is for you, Steve.
H
I got Steve just before I turned 21. He was a 1998 Mitsubishi Mirage and the newest car I had ever been allowed to drive. From day one he just fit.
Steve and I, along with Janice, Valarie, Tiffany and Kristen, went on so many adventures. I drove him all over the midwest and beyond.
Because Steve was the newest of all of my friend’s cars, he was the go to road trip vehicle. Although his interior was cramped, we didn’t mind one bit. Steve easily met the criteria for an awesome college car, he was good on gas, always started and had a CD player.
Steve got his name after one particularly crazy night when the whole of the west side flooded. I was driving to my mom’s house and the bottom of St. Joe was flooded, just before the hill started. I was young and silly so I tried to drive though the two feet of water.
The car stalled.
I got out of the car, the flood waters coming up to my thighs, and pushed him up the hill enough where the water wasn’t coming in anymore. In the dark of night, I asked my car to start, even though it had flooded. He did. Thus his name became Steve.
Why? Steve was a guy who worked a Hacienda with me. Steve looked dead on like Jesus. It had been proven that my car could walk on water, like Jesus and Steve looked like Jesus. So…there you go.
(Off topic: Steve later dressed like Jesus, strapped a cross to his back and walked across America, seriously)
After 6.5 long years of college, Nick and I finally graduated and as a gift to ourselves we bought a Jeep Liberty. Steve became Nick’s car and I got the Jeep. But Steve was still in the family.
The last couple of months Steve’s health has been failing. First, he started overheating. Right before I had Lucy he needed a new distributor cap. Then on Monday, his right turn signal came on and wouldn’t go off.
It was time to put him down.
As we drove to Mt. Vernon to pick out a new car, I thought about all the great places Steve has taken me. We rolled the windows all the way down and talked to him. I told him that his adventures might not be over and I thanked him for all the great times.
We picked out a new car, a Jeep Compass. It’s more practical, I know that.
But it was hard to leave Steve sitting in the parking lot. I hope he’s made some car friends by now.
Here’s to you Steve. I will never forget you!
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Let’s Settle This Bet
Let me paint a picture for you.
You are at a dinner with friends and seemingly out of nowhere a friend spouts off a fact so ridiculous that it is instantly a point of contention. Be it whether or not the graphic novel “The Watchmen” won a Pulitzer or that Nikki Sixx’s real name is Frank or if the blind guy from “Roadhouse” is dead. And what was his name anyway?
In the old days, before smartphones, these friendly debates couldn’t be settled without a phone call to your favorite comic nerd or that guy you once knew that loved the Crue. Even then, could it really be settled on the basis on one other person’s opinion? Then the internet came. Sure, it wasn’t on your phone, but at least the bet could be settled for good when you got home and looked it up.
But a new day has dawned. Folks, we are living in the freaking future. With smartphones we can answer any question, any time.
Has it made things better? In some ways, yes. But as I sat with my friends last night, briefly debating the facts above, our minds grew lazy and my hand instantly grabbed for my Droid.
Did I have instant gratification? Absolutely yes. But I have to say that I missed the joy of hashing it out and leaving the “fact” unsettled.
Just so you don’t have to wait, “The Watchmen” won a Hugo, Nikki’s Sixx’s real name is Frank Carlton Serafino Ferrano, and Jeff Healy died in 2008.
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DVR: From Hater to Addict
I used to make fun of it and the people who loved it. “Can’t live without your DVR,” I’d sneer. “Really?”
It started when we needed to get cable to get even local channels at our new house.
We got what my friend Tiffany so awesomely coined, Kinda Cable. That’s channels 2-25.
Then, we wanted it to be in HD. In order to get HDTV from Insight Cable you must have a DVR. We kicked, screamed and kicked some more but after a while, our need to utilize our HDTV won us over. Now we were in.
It started off innocently enough. We’d pause a show to get a snack or take the dogs out. Now it has morphed into a full-out addiction. We don’t want to watch shows in real-time anymore…too many commercials.
This is a very scary fact for a couple who make their money at a local TV station.
We DVR things that we aren’t even sure we want to watch. We record shows, wait 15 minutes and start watching them, just to avoid some of the commercials.
Now I am part of the DVR mafia and I am not sure if I can ever go back.
I hate eating my own words.
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Gone to the dogs
My dog is getting schooled.
His problems came to a head on a sunny Tuesday not long ago. We were taking a leisurely walk with our dogs. But that good, clean fun turned ugly. It was an event that will forever be known as the Wills and Franklin Meltdown.
We only went two blocks before it happened…
On one side there was a shrieking Dachshund, darting from one side to another behind the fence.
On the other, a Jack Russell running a circle around his yard. He runs that circle so well that you can see where he has worn the yard out.
See the spot!
Coming towards us was a stray dog and rounding the corner was a lady with a baby front pack.
It was on for my leash aggressive, crazy, little dog.
He went crazy. Barking, snapping. He couldn’t be contained. I tried and tried to get him under control but he would squirm out of my arms.
The wiener dog got in trouble, the baby people ran away and the stray dog kept following us.
It was a Class A meltdown.
Here is my amateur sketch…
The meltdown, thanks photoshop!
I’d had enough…Spliff was going to school.
After taking some suggestions from fellow dog lovers on Facebook, I promptly enrolled him in the Tri-State Canine University Freshman program.
It’s a five week course that teaches you and your dog about dominance, aggression and awesomeness.
In the last three weeks, Spliff has learned how to sit, heel, and walk on a treadmill (my favorite part).
I’ve learned how to take control of a dog that I had pretty much given up on ever being good.
We went for our first walk yesterday since his training. There were a few incidents of barking in my puppy packed neighborhood but we were able to get his attention and move him out of the situation before it turned into a meltdown.
I know every time we take him out is will get better, not worse. With some time, and a lot of treats, the Wills and Franklin Meltdown will become a distant memory.
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My Watering Hole
For six years, we’ve met at Lamascos to celebrate graduations, birthdays, engagements, new babies, marriages, and promotions. More than that, we gathered to celebrate being young and alive.
Most Fridays, and some Saturdays, you could find Nick and I there, hanging out with some of our favorite people.
I started going to the bar when I was 21 but really didn’t become “a regular” until I was 23. The main attraction was karaoke. Something Nick and I mastered very early in our relationship. More than that, it was a chance to enjoy the types of people a west side karaoke bar brings out.
We’d laugh, sing, split pitchers and enjoy some of the best pizza in the Tri-State.
The bar being sold is kinda perfect and poetic in a way. One-by-one we are all settling down. I think we just expected our bar to be there, just as it was, when we came out for the occasional play night.
Don’t get me wrong, I am not old but I am a little too old to start over with a bar, to really put the time in to become a regular.
In the early days I was only partially employed and down for week nights out on the reg. Nowadays, it takes some serious event to get me out on a school night. I am sad to see Lamascos change hands but I am happy to know that I was a big part of making it great.
Thanks for the memories…
Stef, Tiff, Jamie, Nick
Rachel
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Woof!
We have officially hit the dog days of summer. It’s hot. It is so hot that you sweat when you get out of the shower. It’s so hot the robins are laying their eggs sunny side up.
That means one thing…it’s time for fall TV previews.
The summer blockbusters all sucked this year, I hate reality shows and True Blood is about to be over. It is time for the writers to put down their daytime drinks and start putting their pens to paper.
Here you will find, in no particular order, the shows I am most looking forward to…
Big Love
30 Rock
The Office
How I Met Your Mother
I know I am forgetting some. I know that I will like at least one new one.
I can’t wait to be sitting in the cool blue light of my HDTV, soaking in the escapades of fake people all over the world. Best of all, I will be wearing a cardigan.
Look at this striped beauty!
I love cardigans.
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Taking Back Sunday
I set out this week to define Sunday.
I wanted to have the kind of Sunday I always see on TV. I went on a mission to have it, dammit.
It started with a slow wake up. So far, so good. The dogs were sweet and sleepy. We were groggy and noncommittal.
We rose and cooked up a breakfast feast. Biscuits and gravy, eggs, and sausage.
We patted our bellies and watched the secret Folz family fav, CBS’s Sunday morning.
We decided we needed to do something. A light bulb went off. “How about the flea market?” I asked. Nick was excited at first. Then he realized that the Giant Flea Market is only open once a month. This was not that week. But I never had that dirt mall in mind. Instead, I hoped to journey to the Diamond Avenue Flea Market. The real dirt mall. A place where McDonald’s toys, commemorative plates, and collectible glassware goes to die.
Then, Nick said something that rocked my world to the core. “I’ve never been to that flea market,” he said, somewhat sheepishly.
It was settled, we were headed to the trashy dirt mall.
We called to invite our “wife”, Tiffany. She agreed to go and we were out the door and headed downtown to pick her up in minutes.
After a brief pit stop at Penny Lane so Nick and Tiff could get their iced chai fix, we were at the flea market.
It was better than I remembered. After some heckling we scored a sports coat ($2), the first three (last three) Star Wars movies on VHS (pre Lucas sfx editing, $3) and some white wall boxes ($3).
From there we took Tiff home and headed for some fun at Valarie’s grandparetns pool.
Their pool is magical. Even though I didn’t know Val when I was 17, being in a grandma’s pool takes you back to that kind of careless youth. I am too old to freeload off someone’s grandparents but they are fantastic and very inviting.
After lounging in the pool and talking to my favorite bride-to-be, we headed home for a brief chill out before dinner at my mom’s.
On the way home, like an oasis in the desert, was a shaved iced stand.
The ice was delicious, the sign was a white trash tragedy.
“Honk if you like it shaved”
Yes, I am serious and I have proof (thanks BlackBerry).
- Evansville, IN
Dinner at my mom’s is a Sunday staple and can’t be missed. Like every week before, we show up a little after 5:00. Dinner is almost ready. My grandma talks to Nick while he looks at the comics in the newspaper. We eat, we catch up, we laugh. After dinner, we walk out back and talk about the progress on my grandma’s garden. Then we leave, full and happy.
I am going to change tenses now. Try to stay with me.
We just got home. We are making preparations for next week. Laundry, dishes, meal plans. Nothing fun. Here in about 20 minutes True Blood will be on. We’ll veg out, pile dogs on us and dread the morning.
We’ll go to bed tired and happy. Worn out from the weekend behind us and curious about the week before us.
Today was a Sunday’s Sunday. It was filled with family, friends, fun, shopping and laughs. It was mellow and busy and fantastic. I suggest you do your best to have a Sunday’s Sunday too.
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Laugh track
It has occurred to Nick and I that our late-20-something lives are nothing like the ones we’ve seen depicted on shows like “How I Met Your Mother”, “My Boys” and “Friends”.
One could argue that we aren’t whiling away our days playing poker, drinking and pontificating on the meaning of life and relationships because we don’t live in NY, LA, or Chicago.
So, hubby and I are taking up a challenge. We plan to live one week like we are in a sitcom.
We will walk and drink coffee out of paper cups. We will spend every night after working drinking in the same bar. We will read in bed with matching lamps. We will….well I am not sure, and that is where you come in!
What do the 20-somethings do in the sitcoms you watch?
Keep in mind that we are old married folks so sleeping around is not a possibility.
Hit me with your favorite sitcom clichés and we will try to incorporate them in to Nick & Rachel’s very special sitcom week.
Cheers!
P.S. We already have a red couch like the one from HIMYM, so you can mark that off your list.
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I am in the midst of a super busy week at work. New toys are coming to the site and I really can’t wait!!!
At home I am still getting used to my west side life. I’ve been looking for a groomer, an eye doctor, a decent clothing store and a good breakfast place. I would be fine for the most part, but Wal-Mart doesn’t do dogs or breakfast.
The strangest thing about not living downtown anymore is that I don’t miss it. Not at all. We have had more visitors in the last month than we had the entire 2.5 years we lived downtown. It is crazy. Plus, I love walking the dogs for fun. Not because they have to go. There have been moments I doubted our move.
One guy drove down our street in a go cart, texting on a BlackBerry. Seriously, priorities.
But, for the most part, things are nice over there. I like having things nearby, like a grocery. I love having a yard. Most of all, I love having a place that is truly my home. Warts and all.
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