Seven easy takes

1. I yelled at my first Kid Who Isn't Mine To Yell At today. We were at the zoo; Jack had his nose pressed up against the glass fence looking at the ducks when he should have been looking at the giraffe within spitting distance. Suddenly some seven- or eight-year-old boy comes busting out of nowhere nearly trampling my kid and shoving him out of the way so he could get a good view. I said, "HEY, kid, look where you're going!" and "These are LITTLE BOYS you just stepped on!" and "NOW THEY CAN'T SEE, YOU LITTLE @*#($#!@ PUNK." Okay maybe I didn't say that last part. But I thought it. And then I looked around to focus my stinkeye on this kid's mother, who slowly sauntered up and handed her kid a granola bar, either oblivious or not caring. It took everything I had not to slap that granola bar clear to the giraffe, people.

2. I feel like I've received a lot of emails lately, and comments requiring email responses, and I just want to say: for someone who spends large chunks of her day in front of the computer, I'm pretty rotten at returning emails. I'm sorry. But I have good intentions. I will be spending all day Saturday at my in-laws' and I forsee some quality emails happening that afternoon.

3. I am cutting my bangs. I even made the appointment, although I think I need to reschedule it because I'm going to try and meet up with a couple local bloggers and 5 Minutes For Mom peeps [again!] at World Vision headquarters. Something about sharing my expertise with Social Media? My fabulous Web 2.0 tips? Whatever, all I saw was "free food". If you're local and want to go (Monday afternoon, Federal Way), email Shera for more info.

4. Oh, so my hair. PRIORITIES. It's long. And thin and straggly and greasy. But I'm going to keep it long because I LIKE thin/straggly/greasy. I'll think about chopping off my ponytail in the fall. But I am cutting bangs because DUUUUDE I am so very grossed out by my hairline. First it all fell out (shiny bald temples, anyone?) and now it's growing back so I have these sticky outy short little hairs all over and it drives me NUTS. And I know I'm not the only one who notices because OTHER PEOPLE! Keep POINTING IT OUT! GAH! So: bangs. Even though I've been growing them out since Molly was born and they're FINALLY grown out, but that's the great thing about hair. It grows. (It also turns gray, but that's a post for another day. WEEP.)

5. I have this friend who's been losing weight with me. Nearly every day we email each other and say what exercise we did and whether or not we totally fell down on the eating thing. She's been doing the 30 Day Shred and I've been mostly running. I throw some shreds in there every so often to mix things up, to tell myself I'm doing "weight training" and whenever I need a bit of Jillian's brand of ass kicking. Anyway, my friend emailed me today to say that we should publish our exercise email thread. She came up with all these names for our "book" and one of them is The Shredder And The Rye. And I was all, "No no no! We have to call it "Shredder And Not Allowed To Eat Rye"! Is that not the most AWESOME book title EVER? You would totally buy that, right? And this was her idea, by the way, to run it by the Internet At Large. Be nice so her opinion of The Blogging Thing is improved.

6. Remember last week when I was all, "Hey? Dubuque, Iowa? Anyone?" PEOPLE ACTUALLY VOLUNTEERED. Dude, if THAT is not proof of the Internet's awesome I don't know what is. So all week I've been in close and intimate contact with Sarah, who is now my BFF, and who may or may not have picked up what I wanted her to pick up in Dubuque Iowa as she is road tripping with a small child AND YOU KNOW HOW THAT GOES. Either way, I'm totally grateful. And one of these days I will tell you what I wanted that can only be purchased from a monastery in Dubuque, Iowa. It's one of the thinky/edity posts, though, so we're talking three, four years out? Maybe? Don't hold your breath. (You: "Don't worry!")

7. Phillip is working late tonight. I'm used to it, but I never enjoy doing sunup to sundown on my own with the kids. It's lonely and by the end of the day (now), even if it was an easy happy-baby day (it was) I am totally beat and worn down. I don't know how single parents manage, I really don't.

More quick takes here.

Comments

[Liz]

1. Congratulations - I hate zoo moms. they suck.
5. The Shredder and the Wry?

[Lindsay]

5 - wow that is very cool that you have an email thread going back and forth...
1 - good for you.
6 - lol at the thinky post that is three, maybe four years out.

[Jennifer]

"It took everything I had not to slap that granola bar clear to the giraffe, people."

That sentence up there. That is why I LOVE YOU.

You make me laugh. Mwah.

[Jen @ The Short Years]

My hair is turning gray too--weeping with you. Weeping with you. Clairol is my new friend.

[Elsha]

I have no problem disciplining other people's children unless that child's parent is RIGHT THERE. I think I need to start just ignoring those parents though because it usually goes something like this: Child misbehaves. I see parent and think, "oh good, parent will do something about this." Watch while parent witnesses the bad behavior and does nothing. And then my head explodes.

P.S. You totally should have slapped that granola bar to the giraffe.

[Jen]

My hair started getting gray when I was TWENTY FIVE. Unfair.

I went to the zoo yesterday too (too too) but it was so hot that there weren't many other people there. I did not have to slap anyone.

[Jess]

BUT I WANT TO KNOW. What came from the monastery??

[Amy]

Did you want one of the Trappist caskets the monastery makes? We spent last summer in Dubuque while my husband worked (we are from Des Moines-the capital of Iowa-which I am sure you know). I loved the candy from Betty Jane's. Yum!

[Kels]

I am not even a mommy (but a nanny full time) and I yell at other people's kids at the park. I don't understand why playground/zoo moms do not care if their kids throw sand/push kids over. Rude!

[Spin Mama]

Of course the kid misbehaved when the parent wasn't around. The parents are never around when the worst behavior happens. You want someone to take responsibility, so you look around and...*crickets*.

[annie]

Oh Maggie. My horns come out when the Big Kids are around...even more so when their moms are there too. The worst part is that you know they don't listen to you and you want to grab their little arm as they're blasting past you and your little boy is still spinning in circles at the edge of the bridge because they blew past him so fast. You just want to grab that skinny little arm, get your eyes about two inches from theirs and tell them to SLOW THE FREAK DOWN. But you don't, of course, because then ALL OF A SUDDEN mom would actually CARE and who would be in trouble? Certainly not the Big Kid who knocked over the Little Kid, but the MOM who had the nerve to protect her child. Not that it makes me bitter or anything.