Getting back on the wagon

Because other people are doing it and I'm a sucker for group mentality, I am pledging to write something, ANYTHING on this here blog every day in November. I've got so much going on right now that it'll either help to get it all down, or it'll destroy me with the guilt I experience on the first day I forget. Either way, you know, it'll be an interesting story to tell my therapist.

In the two weeks since I've posted anything, I have:

  • Been to Baltimore, stayed with Adrienne, and picked all of the Oreos out of the mint chocolate cookie ice cream that I ostensibly bought for her. In her usual delightful hostess style, she said nothing and satisfied herself with some One Sweet Whirled, which was probably freezer-burned because my ex-boyfriends, Ben and Jerry, have canceled it despite our best attempts to save it. Adrienne, we did our damnedest.
  • Had lunch at Goucher with some old buddies, whose smiley faces and non-laughter at my job attempts made me feel like a real person with a real goal. (Suckers.)
  • Made said job attempts real, in that I have purchased the necessary equipment, had some shiny happy business cards printed (you want one? I have about 9000) and am meeting with a media rep to place an ad in the local parents' guide.
  • Swore loudly and had a panic attack every time I thought about actually doing something I want to do, instead of getting the Have-To-Have-a-Job job with the benefits and the steady pay, you know, little pokey things like that.
  • Danced the happy dance o' glee 45 times, because I have a real, non-friends, PAYING shoot on Saturday. And so it happens.
So! Thus explaineth my absence, blogaristas. This whole photography thing is really making me giddy, so I'll spare you the talk about that until after the shoot, at which point I will probably be either giddier or weeping. Pray for the giddier, it'll be easier to stomach.

It's Halloween! Norah was dressed as a duck, which was extremely cute (natch) and horrifically sweaty. We took her over to our friends' new house and then hit up the new Red Robin for dinner, where she had about 11 cups of milk and flirted mightily with the waiter while wearing only her onesie. Yes, we took the duck suit off and let her sit there in a onesie, because WE ARE THOSE PARENTS, the ones you fear have eaten someplace right before you and let their kid sit pantsless in the high chair. I did make her sit on my jacket, if that makes you feel any better, so hang up on that phone call to the child welfare office.

My sister and I are splitting a Napster membership. What should I download?

Heads up, Baltimore...

... I'm coming to see you on Monday.

The lovely and talented Adrienne called me tonight, and in the course of our conversation I agreed to come up next week, ostensibly to see her and to bring the baby to see her, but let's not lie to ourselves. There is one reason and one reason alone why I'm coming up there, and you can say it with me now: Don Pablo's margaritas. All this behaving-in-public, sitting-nicely-in-one's-highchair stuff I've been teaching the baby? JUST SO I CAN GET LIT WITH MY OLD PAL.

Those of you who are in Baltimore, if you have time to hang out, please do email me or call me or something. I'll have some serious free time on Tuesday, as my hostess with the mostes' will have to go to work, in order to support me in the manner to which I shall become accustomed. And that means tequila in the morning and tequila at night. Talk about a healing experience.

The thing last weekend was as good as could be expected, but I don't especially want to talk about it right now. I miss her, every single second. That's all there is to it, really.

Taking a leave of absence

This is just a short little stupid post to tell you that I won't be posting for a little bit. My grandmother (the one who was married to my grandfather who just JUST died) had a massive hemorrhagic stroke last week and she's dying. She asked us a long time ago to go ahead and pull the plug if she was going to be a vegetable, and it looks like my mother is going to have to sign a paper asking the hospital to do that tomorrow. My mother has to end her mother's life, and I feel like the whole world is flipping.

I love you guys, I do. I just can't be here right now. I don't even know if I can get out of bed tomorrow morning.