Thirteen Thursday Tidbits

October 19, 2006 /

1. I had a dream the other night that I died. The good news is that there is an afterlife, and everyone I know and love was there. The bad news is that apparently we still have to work, pay bills, and buy groceries. WTF?

2. Maya and I have been fighting lately about her getting out of bed in the morning. Meaning, I go in and try to wake her up with kisses, then words, and finally I give up and yell. Don’t tell me, because I know, she should use her alarm clock. She turns it off and goes back to sleep. It takes her about 1/2 hour to get out of bed. I’ve tried starting her earlier, so that 1/2 hour gets her out at 7:00, but then it turns into 45 minutes, and she’s still not up until 7:15. What works is to yell at her. I don’t really like that, and neither does she. So, I decided that instead of waking her up and letting her doze for a few minutes, from now on the rule is, when I say get up, she has to get up right away. Then I read something on Tabitha’s blog, about her struggles getting her daughter to sleep at night. I decided to apply her same method toward getting Maya up in the morning. Slow down, enjoy a cuddle. After all, Maya’s 10 1/2, who knows how much longer she’s going to even WANT to cuddle me. So, yesterday morning, I got my OWN butt out of bed 10 minutes earlier, got ready without reading too many blogs or answering too many work emails (the downside of having your office in your bedroom), and then at 6:50, I went in and climbed in bed with her. I started rubbing her back and gently telling her it was time to wake up. She woke up slowly, we had a bit of a cuddle, and she got out of bed at 7:00. Hooray! Success! So much nicer way to start the day. I hope it works again today. UPDATE: It worked again today.  Two days in a row, out of bed at 7:00!  YAY! Kind of a nice way to wake up, too. 🙂

3. I have to give a demo class tonight for the resiliency training I’m going to be doing at Maya’s school. I really don’t enjoy getting up in front of people, and it’s kind of stressing me out. I’ve been dreaming about teaching classes, and my jaw hurts, which means I’m grinding my teeth. Thank goodness for the mouth guard.

4. Maya’s decided she doesn’t want to take guitar lessons anymore. She likes it OK, but not enough to put in the practice time every night. I’m glad we rented the guitar instead of buying one.

5. Ted’s right #1. I like the wordpress better than blogger. I like that I can have categories (could do that with blogger beta, I know), I like that when blogger is down I can still see my blog and work on posts. I like that I can set posts up to post in the future, and they’ll automatically do so. yay! Though WordPress does do some odd formatting things that get on my nerves…

6. Ted’s right #2. I bought the new Panic! at the Disco CD, and he’s right, the songs do all kind of sound the same. So far my favorites are “I Write Sins Not Tragedies” (link over there on the sidebar, under lyrics), and “The Only Difference Between Martyrdom and Suicide is Press Coverage“, (click to hear the song) which is the second song that I heard on the radio, and the one that made me want the album. Might have been better to get those two songs on iTunes, though, rather than the whole album. Sigh.

7. Ted’s right #3. I kinda like having a cell phone. Shhh. Don’t tell. I don’t talk on it to chat with people, because I don’t like the quality of cell phones, but gosh, it’s CONVENIENT to have that sucker with me when I’m out and about.

8. Ted’s right a lot, isn’t he? He might (JOKINGLY) say, “I didn’t get a PhD to be wrong all the time.” 😉 Because that PhD thing can be good for a laugh sometimes.

9. I’ve been paying Audible.com so that I can download “This American Life” to my beloved iPod, and listen to it while I’m walking the dog. They’re going to be offering it for free now, so that’s pretty groovy.

10. I’ve been coveting a new leather jacket, since my old one is pretty worn out and sad looking (it’s about 15 years old). The one I want went on sale for 40% off yesterday, plus another 10% if I used my Macy’s card. Guess who has a new leather jacket?

11. I’m down to 2 diet cokes a day. That’s from 4 – 5 a day last week. I’m thinking that by the end of next week, I’ll be done with them entirely. Bye bye, diet coke. I hope the 25 years I spent drinking cola didn’t ruin my bones completely, and that I can build them back up again over the next 20 if it did.

12. Py Korry wrote the other day about the earthquake in ’89. While it was nowhere near as bad as it could have been, that day scared me quite a bit, and I don’t like earthquakes anymore.

13. Tracy, Ally, and Autumn’s mom have all revealed their Yahoo Avatars to the world. This is mine. Her sari looks kind of like the one I wore when I got married, and we honeymooned in Paris. Pretty groovy, huh?

Yahoo! Avatars

22 Comments

  • jay lassiter

    October 19, 2006 at 5:56 am

    I think a diet coke a day is okay, especially as a treat on occasion. are you looking to stop or tojust moderate?

    regarding miss maya’s alarm clock tales, that is a tough one. maybe you should go alarm clock shopping with her and let her pick out a clock of her choice. alternatively, maybe it’s time to get her a cell phone with an alarm that she can set every night and get up on her own. of course, her having that privledge would give you something to revoke if she gets fussy in the mornings. make a deal with her and negitiate the terms and maybe if she feels respect (and not nagging) she’s come around on her own.

  • J

    October 19, 2006 at 6:00 am

    Hey Jay, haven’t seen you for a while. 😉

    One diet coke a day is apparantly enough to ruin your bones, if you’re a woman, and I don’t want to risk anything…so I’m looking to stop. Maybe have one with the occasional meal at a restaurant, but that’s it. I’m halfway there.

    A cell phone? Shudder. We’ll work on the alarm clock if this doesn’t work, though she does have a really nice one with a CD player in it and all.

  • jay lassiter

    October 19, 2006 at 6:40 am

    j, i did the same thing with my fancy coffee drinks. i used to have multiples everyday and now i have one as a special treat. (read: once a month) i had no idea that diet coke was so bad for the bones and i wonder i this is something men should heed as well.
    ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

    the reason i suggested a cell phone be becuase it gives Maya a sense of grownup-ness, while also making her a stakeholder in the solution to your little AM woes… Plus it gives you leverage. i can feel you bristle at the suggestion from 3000 miles away, sis!!!! but i am pretty sure that many cell phone plans make kiddie phones more practical. you may get it set so that she can only call certain numbers, like Py and Grannie and you.

    maybe just ask maya what she thinks would help this problem. All kids want (sometimes) is to feel like their opinion matters to mom and dad. so ask her opinion, she might have a brilliant idea that you’re not yet hearing.

  • Tabitha

    October 19, 2006 at 6:52 am

    Sorry about the death dream. Dreams can be so cruel 😉
    YAY!! About your success with Maya the other morning. I hope it continues! (and thanks for the shout out. VERY kind & sweet of you).
    And you are good woman to publicly acknowledge your husband is right. I need to take that lesson along with me when I leave your page today!
    Congrats on your small successes!
    And after reading your list, I’ve come to the conclusion that you are ‘mostly sunny’. And today, you are my inspiration.
    Good list.

  • Py Korry

    October 19, 2006 at 6:57 am

    I had the same problem with Maya when I had the “Morning shift.” Sometimes I would tickle her, sometimes, I would get into bed with her, and sometimes she would have to wake ME up. 🙂

    Oh, and I like how “right” I am in this post! Now I really have a superiority complex. 😉

  • Shelliza

    October 19, 2006 at 7:28 am

    I hate death dreams, that awful feeling usually stays with me all day. In Guyana, it’s said that whenever a person dreams of death, there’s an upcoming wedding. Still waiting for my wedding invite from 2 weeks ago:)
    I was just like Maya when it came top waking up for school. My mom tried the calm routine and after doing that for about 1/2 hour she was transformed into a Army drill sergeant. Ugghhh, I hated waking up for school.
    Good luck with the class, the avatar rocks!

  • Ml

    October 19, 2006 at 7:43 am

    Sometimes dreams are weird and you wonder what pings around in your subconscious to produce something like that. I like your solution to getting Maya up! Is she not a morning person? If so, then that makes it doubly hard.
    Loving the Avatar! So nice that you acknowledge when your husbee is right about things 🙂

  • Tracy

    October 19, 2006 at 7:52 am

    1. Congrats on the new leather jacket! Don’t you just love it when something you really like and want goes on sale? You go with your 50% off!

    2. Serious Kudos on getting off Diet Cokes. That is a tough one, but I think the benefits will be remarkable!

    3. LOVE the avatar! It really says so much about you and the unique life you live! A blonde woman wearing a sari in Paris. Hmmm….Julie, of course! 🙂

  • Beenzzz

    October 19, 2006 at 7:57 am

    Zoe can be difficult in the mornings too! She’s so slow and makes us late all the time. It gets frustrating, but she’s been a bit better about it lately. I don’t enjoy presenting either. I bet you’ll do a great job! I wear a mouth guard as well. I’ve ground my poor teeth into dust. 😉 Hurray on the diet cokes and yes, I concur about the Panic! at the Disco CD.

  • Dot

    October 19, 2006 at 8:13 am

    I’m so proud of the will power you have lately. First cutting down onthe wine now the diet coke. Do you think you could come over and lend me some of this will power? I seemed to have run completely. I’m very happy to say that Autumn seems to have gotten the I love getting up early thing from her dad. She’s up by 6:30. Me? not til 7 or 7:20. I wish she’d come in and give me a cuddle! I think it’s very normal that she doesn’t want to get up in the mornings. Today, you have the normal one and I have the weirdo 😉

  • Bev

    October 19, 2006 at 8:26 am

    If I crawled into bed with my 17 year old son and cuddled with him to wake him up in the morning, they’d arrest me and haul me off. 😉 The only thing I’ve found that works to get him out of bed in the morning is spraying him with cold water or uncovering his feet and tickeling them. Even Domino, the boxer, walking on him while trying to get my attention doesn’t faze him.

    Have a Happy!

  • hellomelissa

    October 19, 2006 at 9:33 am

    so far, so good on the kids getting up in the morning. now i know what i have to look forward to! good news about t.a.l., now i don’t have to try and catch it on npr. thanks!

  • Gina

    October 19, 2006 at 3:24 pm

    Cool avatar!

    I wlll have to listen to Panic! I think I have heard them before, but I can’t be absolutely positive.

    And you go on the leather jacket!