late night dinner, originally uploaded by sblc.

burger, onion rings, and lemonade!
yum!

Ik voel me de hele dag vandaag al een beetje niet helemaal toppiej, ik ben moe en heb nergens zin in. Toch zijn we vandaag op pad geweest omdat mijn achternichtej jarig was en we dus op visite gingen. Voor dat we er hen gingen hebben we eerst in Alfen aan de Rijn (waar ze woont) even door de stad gelopen en beetje rond gekeken ect. Daarna bij een bloemenzaak bleoemn voor haar gehaalt en naar der toe gegaan. We hebben daar echt tot 5 uur gezeten en we waren er rond kwart over 2 denk ik? Best nog wel lang. Ook nog haar dochter van bijna een jaar oud gezien echt een lief meisje (: Verder heb ik eigenlijk niet zo veel meer te vertellen dus ik gaat er weer vandoor! xxx

Kort uitgelegd.., het ziekenhuis waar ik werk is aan het verbouwen. Nu zitten we dus tijdelijk in een noodgebouw, en in oktober gaan we weer terug naar het hoofdgebouw. En vandaag was dus de kogel door de kerk, de beddenverdeling was bekend. En waar iedereen al voor vreesde werd werkelijkheid: "we worden als team compleet uit elkaar gehaald". Er is ons zo’n half jaar geleden beloofd dat dit nooit zou gebeuren, nou vandaag dus wel.. Gelukkig zijn verschillende artsen het hier ook niet mee eens, dus samen gaan we hier flink tegen in. Met de uiteindelijke hoop dat die verdraaide directie ook eens naar ons luistert!!

Maar nu heb ik eerst vakantie!! Morgen laat ik alle "bedden-verdeling-stress" achter me en stap op het vliegtuig richting het zonnetje in Griekenland. M’n koffer staat inmiddels klaar, en het meeste wat ik mee wou nemen zit erin.. Iedereen die in de tussentijd ook op vakantie gaat, fijne vakantie!!

Tot over anderhalve week!!

Anyway, I feel like I owe you kids a boy update or something after my little confessional, yesterday. I have no plans to STOP handing out information about what I'm doing with who I'm doing, but I felt inclined to explain myself because passing judgment makes the Baby Jesus cry, and crying babies are one of my least favorite things in the whole world.

Remember when I mentioned Popped Collar's friend The Dean? And how Popped Collar is trying to set me up with The Dean? Should I choose to act on that particular plan of his, it would be in the bag, thanks to some well-phrased text messages. I now have a standing, carte blanche invitation to visit The Dean at his sweet condo, any time I like, for any reason I like.
This could certainly be interesting.

And the super retardo hot potential coworker? Has been made an offer by our HR department, but has yet to respond. I am seriously considering sending him an email (I MAY have stolen a look at his resume) that says something like, "Really good things will happen if you work here" or something to that extent with slightly dirtier verbs and adjectives. I swear, if this kid doesn't work here, I am going to pull out my hair and cry into my beer.

One evening, during our before-bed routine (wherein we lie together on Mommy & Daddy's "big bed" to sing songs, retell what happened in our day, say a prayer, and then usher Smooch off to bed in his own room) he suddenly reached down, clutched his crotch, and said, "I pee-pee!" with a look of urgency on his face. Gruff was doubtful he knew what he was talking about & thought it was a new stall tactic, but I took him off to the bathroom anyway. And what do you know? As soon as he was seated comfortably, he did exactly what he said he had to do!

The next morning, he asked to put on his "unna-way-uh" and it was just steady progress from then on, for a few weeks. He seemed to increase the amount of time he'd spend dry in his underwear each day, still accepting diapers for naps and bedtimes and excursions. Then one day he protested as we were on our way out the door. "Unna-way-uh to liberry! I do it!" I didn't let him - the mental image of a puddle amongst the stacks just mortified me, so I wrestled him into his diaper and off we went. Upon returning home, do you know what I discovered? A completely dry diaper. I felt horrible - he could have worn his underwear. He was fine. So I emailed a few moms who've been down this potty learning road with a bit of panic in my tone - what on earth should I do?

Basically, I was advised to just chuck the diapers - other than sleeping, and even then, maybe try to be sneaky (let him fall asleep in underwear and rush in and change him into a diaper after he's zonked out) - get a few pairs of waterproof trainers, especially if I could get my hands on ImseVimses, for outings - and buy a portable potty to keep in the car and diaper bag for "emergencies" when we couldn't find a public toilet to use. Then, just go for it. Be prepared for messes and successes and just see what he does.

So I girded up my loins. I bought the necessary equipment, plus another dozen pair of teeny-tiny boxer briefs. And then... I don't know what happened. Maybe I seemed too eager? Maybe it became less about his interest and more about mine? Whatever it was - a cosmic shift in the universe or something - my no-accident boy turned into what feels like a willful pee-er. He stopped telling me he needed to use the potty - so I started offering and reminding. Each of my comments was met with a forceful "No! No potty!" If I insisted he sit and try, say right before leaving the house, he'd hop off in two seconds waving his hands in the air. "All done! No pee-pee!" Then, literally moments after leaving the toilet? A puddle would appear.

My frustration level is, shall we say, rising. I'm sure it doesn't help that I'm hormonal. I know for certain that it doesn't help that yesterday, I raised my voice and got a little bit scolding at the last accident. (It didn't help that Daddy has had social things after work the last two days in a row and hasn't been home to pitch in during Smooch's waking hours since Tuesday - Mommy is fried at this point.)

We headed out to the mall yesterday and stopped in at Bear Central, where, on a whim, I decided to try a motivational technique. We chose a new T-shirt for Smooch's previously naked pal Bobo the Panda. Then we picked out a pair of underwear for our furry friend! Back at home, Bobo got dressed in his new duds and Smooch proclaimed him a "big boy!" A few times yesterday, I remarked that both Smooch and Bobo had dry underwear - how wonderful. We were accident free for the evening, which was a real blessing for my sanity.

Laying in bed just before bedtime, Smooch cuddled his panda and recalled what we did all day. "An'... Bobo new unna-way-uh and g'een shut too!" I couldn't help myself, and piped up,

"Yep, and his underwear is still dry! Bobo is getting so big!"

"Psssssssssssssshhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!" Smooch sound-effect-ed. "Bobo go pee-pee!"

So much for motivation.

******************
In other news, the other thing we did at the mall yesterday? "Mama hair all gone floor!"

Of course people would mess it up later again la, don't understand the difficulty we had in shifting and packing up. Not appreciative!!! FAIL. Mummy would be shaking her head, I believe =D

I collected the stupid parcel at the post office today. Waited for 15 minutes(can you believe it), and when it was finally my turn, I looked behind. There were like only 2-3 people behind me! LAWL. To think that when I joined the quene, I had like 9 people in front of me -.- And inside the box.. was a cushion. I really wanted to kill myself for being a coconut. This is what I get when I don't check my online orders. LOL. And the release date was totally brought forwarded! T_T

When I came back from toilet, I saw youtiao on my table. Haha. So amused. Very nice, thank you MUMMY! =D

World War 2/3 started, and it drained me =X

The shattering of glass was heard just nw.. HAHA. Someone will get me.

I reached home to watch my tv show, but I ended up dozing off for 2 hours(haven't bathed too -_-) And my mother woke me up by switching on the aircon, making me shiver! And I caught a cold because of that. Lol.

and suddenly i got an idea lol

this a new chapter [maybe ] lol

...

semalam merupakan hari yang agak baik untukku walaupun sekolah tamat pada pukul 1:40PM kerana .. er, tidak ada kelas tusyen wtf. so aku boleh tidur lepas aku balik dari sekolah. sebab aku letih. like, amat amat letih. (did i just violate one of the stupid laws in the language, like how you can't use amat amat and amat sungguh and sungguh sekali and shit?)

anyway sekolah was kinda cool, sebab aku tidur masa chemistry and .. entah lah it was just sungguh stress free :)

aku nak tengok The Dark Knight!! pkmk betul :( hidup aku sungguh .. er, packed with tuition and school work and shopping wtf so aku tak ada masa nak tengok wayang. bukannya ada ticket pun. sebab it's all sold out. TDK was rated like 5/5, and plus i think Heath Ledger would probably win an Oscar for his final performance as the Joker.

OHMIGAWD that pair of red open-toed pumps i so badly wanted at Tangs? it's gone. GONE. hatiku hancur :(

sigh aku sungguh letihhhhh. nak tidur. selamat malam hadirin sekalian.

and yeah i know this is super retarded. i'll write better next time i swear. my bm essays aren't like this. seriously.

teehee :)

Some delicate and beautiful old books. Includes a French, color illustrated "Le Petite Prince" and a 1945 version of A.A. Milne's "When We Were Very Young" children's poetry book. They're absolutely beautiful. Kelly came over yesterday and took a stroll through memory lane flipping through the A.A. Milne book, because she used to memorize the poems and perform them for her family when she was...very. young. Ha. Ha.

I also got this antique locket. I've been half-heartedly searching for one for quite some time, and I love it. Have I mentioned I miss Sean? He's doing well, by the way. I've gotten a few e-mails and he says he's got to hike, see some interesting animals like zebras, impalas, rhinos, and of course, worked in a hospital. He has a week in PEDS, a week in Internal Medicine, and a week in Surgery. He watched 3 babies be born, and he was thoroughly grossed out. Haha. Oh, Sean.

17 July 2008

No, it's not December.  But, if Kelly were ever inclined to send Christmas cards, this might be a perfect image for it!  This is her cat, Hazel, the more gregarious of the two.  I was working on a new waistband for this red and green skirt for Mrs. Claus, and while I worked on the top edge, Hazel found her way underneath and claimed the bottom edge.  When I went to move the skirt and it was heavy, this is what I found!

Great day in the workshop---much productivity.  Tomorrow I'll head to the post office to mail off all the little things I've accomplished for folks this week.  Kelly and Ginger and I ended our respective work days by getting together for sushi for dinner, and then a few hands of Mah Jong.  It was a much-needed, long-overdue time for the triumverate!  Spending time with those two beautiful, witty women that I love so much, is rather like recharging my own personal battery!

~MB

3 Who may ascend the hill of the LORD ?
Who may stand in his holy place?

4 He who has clean hands and a pure heart,
who does not lift up his soul to an idol
or swear by what is false.

I can not say that my heart is pure. I have done well to clean my hands of the obvious sin in my life and my heart is pure in that area, but there are other falsehoods that I cling to. With sexual immorality gripping me for so long it was easy to ignore all the sin in my life. Slowly though it is becoming apparent. I am gradually identifying the idols that bind my soul. Cleaning my hands of these and purifying myself to God's standards may take a great deal of time, and a supreme effort. It is all worth it. I have lived in fantasy and subscribed to falsehood. I have given away my soul, and turned away from God. Now I am convicted to put myself right, and turn myself over to His hands.

I was reading Sundry's entry from a couple days ago and she was talking about how she produces these amazing blog entries in her head and when she sits down to write, the magic dissipates. That's how I feel sometimes. When I'm sitting in the car or when I'm watching tv, I think up these great blogs that just flow and slide across the page, but when I actually have time to sit down and write, I'm at a loss for words. I used to carry a pad and paper whereever I went, but I haven't done that in, at least, six or seven years. The only problem with me writing things down is that then it's not taking up space in my head and I forget about it or I move on to something else.

Ok, I have a lot more to write, but I'm way too tired and I need to finish what I'm doing before I leave work today.

Oh, I did want to talk about the conversation I had with A. (the ex) the other day. He called me last Saturday, but I was out, so I called him back on Sunday night and we talked for 45 minutes or so. It was one of the best conversations I've had in a long time. It felt like old times. We laughed and we joked and talked about music and what we've been up to lately. I didn't mention his girlfriend/fiancee and neither did he. I wanted to, but I didn't want to ruin the magic. And that's what makes me ashamed. That I held onto my question so that I could trick myself into believing, if only for a moment, that there was hope. When will it ever end? When will I rid my mind of him? I've gone out with several people since we broke up (in 2005), but somehow, my mind always goes back to him. I've read book after book, including He's Just Not That Into You and It's Called a Breakup Because It's Broken, but even with their sly comments and can-do attitude, it hasn't worked. What do I have to do? How can I cleanse myself of this man?

Wouldn't you think that after the Ashlee Simpson gaffe on SNL, these teeny boppers would learn to actually sing their own stuff? I'm just wondering...

I found the greatest cooler at Food Lion this morning. It has a divider that you can remove, which means I can separate my bottled drinks from the food I pack. I love plastic. And technology.

Happy Friday! I'm off...to beach it!

Three people who know me extremely well (my mom, Chris, and Erin) all had the same reaction when I gleefully announced I was starting a blog:  "How will you sustain this when school starts?"  The truth is, I have no idea.  And today was the first inkling of facing this question myself. 

Here's been my blog strategy thus far:  write my entry at night, post the next morning.  During the summer, I can basically take evenings off (a luxury I don't often have in the school year), so those are "free" hours.  But Wednesday of this week, after my George Michael concert fever subsided, the larger version of the Sunday Panics--the Summer Panics--hit hard.  You see, I teach a week-long workshop the week before school starts, and so not only do I have to be ready for the semester a week ahead of time (believe me, for me this is no small feat), but I have to do a large amount of summer work for the workshop, and this is coinciding with some research deadlines and some things I agreed to do back in June when I still had that, "eh, it's summer, what's one more journal review?" feeling (stupid, stupid).

So instead of thinking, "when should I write about my addiction to Franklin planners?" or "I must write about my neat female exterminator," I've been thinking: "stay off Wordpress, mad woman."  

In addition to the time factor, there's this:  basically during the school year, all I have to talk about is how much I have to do and how annoyed I am at this or that or them or whatever.  The first is boring, and the second can get me into too much trouble to write about.

And as long as I'm metablogging, I wonder if there's enough of a draw for people to read besides the people who are close enough to me to know everything I'm writing anyway.  I'm no LO, after all, a woman who just got on NPR for her blog in which she lives as Oprah advises for one year and blogs about it.  What a fab idea. 

I figure that in the next few weeks I have to make some choices, and you can help make that choice by voting here:
[polldaddy poll="795690"]

Jezebel said it best:

But at the latest tournament, one little girl named Emily — obviously wise beyond her years — approached President Bush and then, for whatever reason, hightailed it out of there, Forrest Gump-style. And she just kept running.

Emily has made my day.

Now, excuse me while I go smoke a cigarette and ponder about my extremely low self-control.

He did reply, but still-

It's the principle of the thing, right?

]]> http://automatics.wordpress.com/?p=451 Fri, 18 Jul 2008 11:51:43 +0000 automatics http://automatics.wordpress.com/?p=451 ¡SORPRESA!

una semanita en madrid disfrutando de la ola de calor

y de buenas charlas con amigos y familia

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