Fragments on the Last Friday of February

Freezing—Is winter almost over? Not to complain, but these mornings and evenings in the 20’s are getting old. Last night was a typical day. Work all day, get home and 15 minutes later dash back out to watch middle son at a roller hockey game, outdoors. Hubs and I were both there. And it was his last game so I didn't even sneak in the car once. Oh, and take it from me. If you ever have to change your clothes quickly and grab the jeans you left on the bathroom floor, doublecheck that a small item of clothing is not still stuck in the pant leg. Thank goodness it was a sock and not underwear.

Fair Feedback?—Watched American Idol for the third night in a row this week. Tyler Grady was one of the Four eliminated. I feel bad and his comments to the judges afterwards were spot on (about not getting much Feedback during the process). Wed night they told him they were bored with his 70’s persona. But when he was told he was in the top 24, Ellen D. told him they wanted to see more of him like that.

Follow-Up—In my last post I talked about a classmate I Felt was mean in second grade and I loved the comments left for me. (Jenni said “Eff that girl! Loved it!). As predicted, Hubs told some Female coworkers about my obsession at the dinner table with this story and how he Found me in the closet later, not letting go shoving photos in his Face of that class and defending my story that she was indeed a mean girl and not just being playful. Here’s the reaction from 3 of them:

(from 20-something not married): “Hmmm. I don’t know, I can see both sides, not sure…

(from 20-something and married): “That girl was mean and I would have killed her plant too”

(from 50-something, married with grown daughters): “Hubs, you and the boys need to leave your poor wife alone”. (Loved those words of wisdom).

Full Moon—It is coming Saturday night! Again, on a weekend.

Feminine Pad—Have you read about my adventures with Pass the Pad? We spent time together and I hear the Pad made it to New Zealand!

TGIF. I am about to hit the road for a 5 hour round trip drive for a meeting. I don’t mind, really. It’s Me Time. It beats Flying. Which I have to do next week.

Have some Fun on your Friday.

It’s Not Like I Went All Stephen King’s “Carrie” On Her

Last week I was thinking about something that happened in second grade. I keep having all these childhood memories pop up. Perhaps it’s a combination of my age, having a blog, and having school age kids that has caused certain memories to surface.

In the spring of second grade I was on the school bus in the morning and I was in the back with several classmates. I was wearing a culottes romper type of outfit with a long zipper in the front. The zipper was white and had a ring shape the size of a nickel you’d pull to zip it up. I wasn’t wearing anything underneath.

There was a girl in my class who was really popular and the elderly teacher’s pet. I was standing on the bus, as were several others, and she pulled my zipper down to my mid-section. I may have had a seven year old body, but all 51 pounds of me were pissed off. I was so embarrassed. Boys were there and everyone laughed.

In the classroom we had been growing our own Styrofoam cup of wheat grass seed for a few weeks. This mean-girl-in-the-making happened to have her grass that had grown the fullest and tallest. A ledge in the classroom had all of our cups lined up like this:

I can’t remember if it was the same day she pulled my zipper down or not, but it was very close to that day that I retaliated. It must have been a recess or bathroom break that I was able to get into the classroom alone. I took the teacher’s scissors, went over to this girl’s grass, and Whoosh—I gave that grass a blunt cut and lopped off about 3 inches. And then went on my way back to wherever I was supposed to be.

Well, this old teacher was horrified along with meany girl when the class saw what had been done. Of course no one confessed. And no one ever asked me and no one ever knew. The teacher assumed it was someone who was jealous of her growing grass.

So a couple nights ago at dinner I shared this story with my Hubs and the boys. The boys were kind of shocked but they laughed. And I saw my Hubs staring at me and kind of joking about “Wow, this is a side of you I never knew”. And I’m all like, “Bwaaaahaaahaaa. What!?! She deserved it!” (plus it's not like I ripped the grass out. It will still grow. Gosh). And he actually asked if she was just playing around during the zipper situation and I vehemently described how I had Nothing on underneath even though just my sternum showed I was pissed. And I reminded him of the fact that although I was seven years old and in second grade, I had once again started a new school in a new state (Texas) a couple months prior, which made it my FOURTH school in my life (Calif, then FL, then Calif, then Texas and BTW back to Calif for 5th school) and not to mention once having a horrible experience in the spring of first grade.

And then my Hubs said, “Well as a teacher I have a problem with that behavior even though you had a hard time, that was very mean to her.” Can you believe this? So then I am all, “Well as my husband you have to understand where I was coming from, and guess what—there is not one ounce of regret. None!” And then we were all laughing at the kids each trying to be a comedian such as, "You should have said 'uh, uh oh no you dih-INT with the fingers snapping in a Z formation" and I said it wasn’t like I hurt her like in the movie Carrie for goodness sakes. Of course telling a bus driver or a teacher immediately would have been best. But I was the new outcast and I'm telling you these teachers were sooo biased.

Later that evening he found me in my closet rifling through a box of photos and I found the class picture. For all the schools I went to, it is amazing that I have these photos. I actually had a hard time identifying the mean girl, but then it came back to me. BTW, it was Hunters Creek Elementary in Houston, TX (Spring Branch School District).

I will be providing an update because I know he will mention this to all the women he works with. And I know the women will be behind me. Like that time years ago he got all crabby because I had several bottles of shampoo and conditioner in the shower (this was before kids) and he asked his coworkers how many items they had in the shower. He came home admitting that my pile of shower goodies was much smaller than others'.

I can’t think of any other time I needed revenge like that. Who’s with me? Or who was I too mean to the mean girl?

The Snowy Friday I Hijacked My Kids Off the Bus

Just as it was predicted, the snow began to fall in Georgia around 1:30 p.m. on Friday. I was thrilled to be able to leave work at about 3:30. After I stopped by the grocery store it occurred to me that my two middle schoolers would be on the bus near home in a few minutes. Perhaps I could intervene and get them off the bus before their actual stop.

One of the fights I have not yet fought is why this bus route goes within a mile of our neighborhood, but continues on for a few miles to take two sisters home who live out of the way compared to the rest. In fact one day my 8th grader was motivated to get home prior to 5:00 so he hopped off the bus (did tell the bus driver) at another neighborhood and borrowed a bike from a friend who lives near that stop and beat his 6th grade brother by 30 minutes.

So I had the idea to wait in this other neighborhood, I'd see the bus, the boys would see me and tell the driver they had to get off and they'd get home sooner to play in the snow. The boys don’t have cell phones.

As I am waiting in the neighborhood I called my Hubs and told him my plan and he said he’d be some soon with the Youngest son. It suddenly occurred to me that there was no snow build up on the busier road I had just been on, but in the neighborhood (which has hills) the street could no longer be seen. Well, here comes the bus but I was not in a good spot to be seen and I thought about hopping out and running over to the bus’s door but knew the boys would die of embarrassment so after its first stop I followed the bus in my car. And followed it. And followed it all through this curving, hilly neighborhood. And it keeps stopping and other kids -- but not mine -- are exiting.

We do have an SUV but it stays home M-F and gets taken out when the 5 of us are together on weekends. By this time my 8th grader is waving out the window and I am waving back. Actually I am yelling loudly inside my car, “Get off the bus”! And my anti-lock brakes are making noises. As the bus is about to leave the neighborhood my phone rings and it is my oldest (using a friend’s phone) and I ask if he wanted to get off the bus with his brother to get home sooner. Actually I kind of yelled it. He says OK but it’ll be the next neighborhood as the bus is now pulling out to the main street again. We see a small SUV that is in a ditch.

So now we pull into another neighborhood (farther from our home) and the bus doesn’t stop until we are well into it. My boys tell the bus driver that their mom is behind him in a car and he says “OK, yes, I know someone has been following me”. Next thing I know there are 5 boys walking over to my car. Apparently there are others who want to get home sooner rather than later (all live in our neighborhood and they know me). They squished into my Honda sedan.

Back out onto the main road I am going about 5 miles an hour because we are slipping around. One boy says, “Don’t brake!” (I knew not to). I stopped in front of one boys house and my brakes made crazy noises. Another boy lives down a steep hill so he got dropped off about a block away. Our driveway is a no-big-deal hill, you would think, but I slipped just going up it. I was done. Called the Hubs who was a couple minutes down the road and told him I was done being in my car and that he could pull it further up our driveway and into the garage. Turns out we have a snow shovel left behind by the older couple who used to own our house.
Last year when it snowed all day on a Saturday I stayed inside and cooked. That was fine, but I swore next time it snowed enough to do a snowman that I was going to play. And I am not sure why I took those boys home because all of them and more came over to our house to play. We made a snowman but then it was crushed to death by boys. I made snowballs. I made butt prints by sitting on a bench. I took pictures. Notice I say "I" because middle schoolers are not playing with a mom, and Youngest is playing with the middle schoolers. Another mom came out and she had a fussy 2 yr old in a stroller and in her arms and a 6 yr old hanging out with the middle school gang and after a little bit they all went back inside. She commented to the Hubs and I we must like being past the strollers and diapers stage. That was a good reminder for me.

And then I went inside and cooked meatloaf and mashed potatoes and we ate at 8:30 p.m. Last week I picked the kids up one early afternoon for one of those early release days. e were having a good time at lunch and I asked my 8th grader if he wished I had been a stay at home mom. He said "Yeah, and then I could be a car rider every day". On Friday he was a bus rider and a car rider.

We’re Gonna Need a Bigger Algae Eater

Looking at our fish tank makes me think of the movie "Finding Nemo". I easpecially love the scenes that take place in the aquarium in the dentist’s office. Maybe we should buy a different type of aquarium, to help this algae situation, but honestly our fish seem pretty happy. We have that largish algae eater that is on the back of the aquarium in this photo. He is so shy that once he realizes we are looking at him (her?) he scurries away. There are also two very small algae eaters in here somewhere. I was assured last year that they earn their keep eating algae, but as you can see it is very green in this tank. Other algae eaters have gone belly up after a few days but the tank seems to work out for the six fish and three algae eaters that live here.

I have to say that Finding Nemo is my favorite animated film. I laugh loud every single time I watch the part where the dentist’s niece arrives and the ensuing chaos when the fish are flopping everywhere—don’t they play Psycho music when she appears?

I asked my youngest son what his most recommended animated film dvd would be and he says hands down “A Bug’s Life”. Ever see it? I love that line where the bugs stare at the electrocuting bug device and his friends say “Stop looking at the light!” and the bug says, “I can’t help it, it’s soo beautiful!”……zap.

My middle son says that a more recent dvd--Surf’s Up is his favorite. It is a great Father/Son movie. We never saw it out at the movie theater, but one of my SIL’s told me that my BIL and their son love watching it (and they are ages 56 and 22).

My oldest son can’t decide when I asked him which animated film is his favorite. I can tell you that when he was one year old the first video watched (in the vcr) was “Jungle Book”. I enjoyed it and knew that it was going to be the beginning of many movies to come. (We watched the Fox and the Hound too. Too sad about the Mommy Fox in the beginning!)

Which is your family's favorite animated film?

(Update this a.m..: Did I mention that I forgot to ask my Oldest his favorite animated movie until after he went to bed...so I woke him up. And that's when he said he couldn't think of one.

This morning he and his middle brother were laughing about my waking him up to ask him that. But for the integrity of the blog he has advised that his favorites are the Toy Story movies).

I Ordered the Full Moon for My One-Year Blog Anniversary

I started this blog one year ago today. I picked my Middle Son’s birthday as motivation for me to put myself out there and talk about him. My blog and you have added a lot to my life. Every hour of my week day is jam-packed with my life (and sometimes I get mad at my life for not having more time to write or spruce up the place), but there was definitely room in my head and in my heart for this blog and for you. I am so thankful and happy for having “met” you. Commenters from day one are still around on day 366. It is all so special to me.

I chose a full moon theme because I have loved looking at the moon all these years. My first son was born during at night during a full moon in June. He loved to cry and fuss all night long for three months and I swear his first word was moon. For real. I also feel connected to the moon because of its female-ness and how my cycle’s claim to fame is a regular monthly cycle (always 27 or 28 days). OK, so that is changing a lot these days, throwing a kink in how I successfully “planned things” but it is all part of the craziness that is part of life. I named my blog “It must be a full moon” because many times when my Hubs and I talk about a crazy work day or a crazy kid, or crazy family member, we often say, “It must be a full moon because today this happened, and this happened, and then THIS happened”.

The full moon for January is tonight (the 29^th but some sites state it is the 30^th) and is known as the Wolf Moon (hungry wolves would howl at the full moon on a cold winter night) and is listed as either the 30^th or the 29^th. Tonight's full moon will be the biggest and brightest full moon of the year. The moon’s orbit around Earth is not shaped like a circle—more like an ellipse. In each orbit the moon reaches its closest point to us called a perigee. When the perigee coincides with a full moon, as it will tonight, the moon looks bigger and brighter than any other full moons during the year.

Unfortunately where I live it will be rainy so I will probably miss seeing the full moon at all even it its shining glory and I'll miss Mars (it’ll look like a star) just to the left of the moon.

So my Middle Son has had a birthday again and I still love all the same qualities of which I described last year. Don’t look for any posts about my other two sons’ birthdays—they only exist in my mind, but I hope to make that up this year. Just like I made sure I have the biggest baby book for Youngest so he won’t be left out, (and by biggest I mean I scrapbooked a bunch of things up till his 2nd birthday and then stopped), I try to give extra attention to my Middle son. He has to put up with the Oldest making sure he knows he may be the same size but he’ll always be 20 months younger. He's easy going and sensitive and doesn't have attention zoned his way due to the 13.5 yr old brother and the youngest.

And I really want to write about Middle School. People, I have so many stories. Oldest will be in high school next year. Before that happens I really need to write about some crazy things we have observed. Stories that are Crazy. Like this email from one of his teachers yesterday:

“I am concerned about Middle Son. His span of attention in class is almost non existent. I spoke with him a few days ago, and asked if there was anything else going on in school or at home that he was worried on. He said no.
Yet, he is many seconds behind all the other students when we change activities. He stares at the wall when I am at the front of the room.
He is confused by directions because he obviously didn't hear me explain them.
Could it be blood sugar? Need for a snack? Lack of sleep?
He is not problem or disruption. He is always polite. I am concerned for him, and thought you could add some insight.”

So here I am reading this as I am trying to get finished at work so I can stop at Target, get home and make a cake shaped like a skateboard with little doughnuts for the wheels, and then go out for his birthday dinner.

Readers, my son is in all "gifted" classes. This one is not his favorite. He has a B (a B people!). He has As and Bs in the others. He was voted "Mr. Citizenship" in elem school for the way he treats others. He is in freakin band class. He has longish hair. He wears skinny jeans. He has his own entrepreneurial business (see fingerboard in his hand below). If he feels like he's been singled out like this teacher does (i.e. tells him to read only accelerated reader books and not a non-AR book despite the fact that he reads lots of books) he'll be quiet and not "perform" in class for you. We know this teacher. My 8th grader had this teacher. My Hubs is a teacher in another school. They have been at a conference together out of state for a weekend. The teacher just can't figure Middle Son out.

So after wanting to tell her I think she has too much time on her hands, I instead just replied that today was his birthday, perhaps he had that on his mind and we'd talk about it later that night. We had a good time at dinner, laughing as the hibachi chef threw fake eggs around and flung shrimp into our mouths (only Youngest succeeded) and Hubs asked Middle Son if this teacher had asked him if everything was OK at home. He told us the teacher asked this with other kids around. He told our son maybe he should make up a story and then we made up stories of Crazy things he could say. We two parents work so hard as partners to provide for our 3 boys and make a good home for them; we talk to each other each and every day about our sons and our concern for their education, concerns for what schools are like now, have taken the time to have met with teachers. Yes, there are kids who have problems at home and it may not be too funny that I sang at dinner about mom going back to rehab but said no, no, no.....but I feel this was absolutely Middle School Teacher crazy. Maybe she should just email me again like she did 4 weeks ago asking me to do a favor and help her out and make sure Middle Son has a red pen and yellow highlighter because she has asked him to bring it in.

So yeah. It really Must Be a Full Moon.

A Belated New Year's Eve Kiss.....25 Years Ago

This is a story about how I met my husband……25 years ago. I was in my senior year at college and I would be graduating that May. I was in the College of Advertising and so was my Hubs to-be.

I saw him for the first time when a school club, the Advertising society, took a road trip about a month before winter break to Atlanta to check out some businesses and have some fun. I hardly knew any of the 50 other people on that bus ride going up so I was as quiet as a mouse.

(Here is the actual flyer. Those days it was two sheets of copy paper, taped together and pinned up on bulletin boards with tacks. Notice a champagne breakfast served!!)

I looked like a mouse too with my long hair pulled back and I was (I can’t believe I’m writing this) actually catching up in my journal on the bus. I still have all my journals and it says “I am on the bus trip going to Atlanta. I don’t know anyone but I think I’ll do OK.” (by catching up I mean I wrote of little else for 6 or 7 years other than boys). Anyway....after a while I noticed he was standing and talking in a small group of people in front of me. What I first noticed about him was his profile and strong jaw line. I stood up and tried to nonchalantly join in. He looked at me with his blue eyes and said, “Well, what is your name” and brought me into the conversation.

I didn’t see him much during the weekend in Atlanta. I don’t think he participated in any Advertising club activities. I was busy meeting people in Atlanta and by the time we got on the bus to go back I had made a bunch of friends and showed no more signs of shyness. In fact I was extremely loud and rambunctious. He sat across the aisle and one row back. This time he was quiet and alone. I kept looking at him to gauge his reaction to me--he was laughing and shaking his head. This went on for hours.

We spoke at school one or two times after that and before winter break started. He saw me in a typing room (yes, typing on IBM selectrics….no computers). I was typing out some form regarding an internship. So we saw each other’s more serious side as we talked internships and he passed along some tips he heard of on companies.

After winter break the Advertising club held a “Belated New Year’s Eve” party at an apartment clubhouse at the end of January. I think I went with my roommate. There was my Hubs To-Be and many other people. I think there may have been New Year’s Eve party favors because I recall suddenly there being a big deal about a countdown happening soon. We had been talking, but I honestly remember nothing about this night except for 12:00 midnight.

Right before midnight I said to him, “Well, this is a New Year’s Eve Party and it is going to be 12 midnight soon. I did not kiss anyone at midnight on the Real New Year’s Eve, but we have a new opportunity tonight. See that Ladies Room over there? (gesturing over to other side of the room in a corner alcove) I am going in there and when I come out it will be midnight. If you are standing there we can kiss at midnight.”

And off I went across the room and into the Ladies Room. I remember looking in the mirror doing a make-up check and thinking, “Michele, what the heck did you just say, and sure hope you meant it!!!"

And there he was when I walked out, smiling at me, and we had our first kiss. And then we started going out.

MLK Day and Pants on the Ground

Did you see "General" Larry Platt's audition on American Idol this past Wednesday? We've seen just about every American Idol episode together as a family for years now. We were still talking about him last night at the dinner table and things got rather loud and animated. I think I started it.

Pants on the ground
Lookin’ like a fool with your pants on the ground
With the gold in your mouth, hat turned sideways
Pants hit the ground, call yourself a cool cat
Lookin’ like a fool, walkin’ to the town
With your pants on the ground!

Turns out Mr. Platt's audition on American Idol last week was a timely addition to conversations and reflections on MLK Day.

From an article in the Atlanta newspaper Mr Platt says "he was inspired to create the song three years ago when he saw a guy walking down a downtown Atlanta street with a baby in his arm and his pants slipping below his hips. “He had his underwear showing,” Platt recalled. The song came to him spontaneously. He started chanting the chorus to “Pants on the Ground.” “He was being disrespectful so I wanted to embarrass him,” Platt said. “He rolled his eyes and pulled his pants up a little bit.” Platt has since done that to others as well.

(The article continues:) Platt was very active in the Civil Rights Movement as a teen in Georgia, and was recognized by the state legislature in 2001, having proclaimed September 4th, 2001 "Larry Platt Day." On that special day, the Georgia General Assembly declared that "For the past 40 years, Larry Platt has given of himself in service to the people of the City of Atlanta, the State of Georgia, and the nation...Larry Platt merits the highest recognition for his many valuable contributions to the Civil Rights Movement and his dedication to the struggle for equality and human rights." Mr. Platt, who is also very vocal and active in local Atlanta politics, is regarded by many as a community hero.

His audition on American Idol last week has had over a million views in a few days. He was on The View today. Too bad at age 62 Mr. Platt is over the age limit for going to Hollywood for Idol, but I hear he already has record deals sent his way. I hope he does well and sees dreams come true.