True Romance

Sometimes the longest days of our lives are some of the best, despite the fact that people typically describe arduous, harrowing, or all-out horrible days as being long.

I have 41 summer solstices under my belt (er, girdle, I mean Spanx), and four years ago today, on the solstice of June 20, 2008 (yes, the solstice happened to fall on the 20th that year...this year, too!), I married a man who I love more and more every day.

The ceremony took place on a Friday morning and right out of the gate the forecast was calling for rain at any moment. Miraculously, it held out until late that afternoon. The day was perfect, really, going off without a hitch. We had an intimate, yet public, ceremony in the Boston Public Garden, foregoing a permit and decidedly having ourselves a rebel wedding. Naturally.

I was all nerves as we stood beneath a purple beech tree--our tree--to the point where my mouth was horrifically dry and my body was slightly, but noticeably, rocking back and forth (which I was completely unaware of at the time--only evidenced by our wedding video). My surroundings were blurred and muted, my senses attuned to our officiant's words, Vin's smile and adoring eyes fixed on me, and the elated smile on my son's face. I can't recall anything else (no, not even a squirrel's excited racket immediately above our heads, also evidenced on video), except for how I felt.

The contentment I experienced that day combined with the certainty that I was marrying a man with whom I could build and share a life were so completely resonant that I felt a lightness--a genuine peace--I had never before felt (with the exception of when I gave birth to, and held, my first child). It was a day, neither long nor short, in that kind of existential way, that has given way to a fulfilling marriage on which we work, to varying degrees, every day; two beautiful and amazing children; and a life I never thought I'd have with a man who is steadfastly loyal, almost always charming and has interminable wit and boundless integrity.

So, in a measurable 365.25 days from last June 20, on a day with approximately 15 hours of sunlight, Happy Fourth Anniversary to us!

Forty Eve: You're Only as Old as You Feel (Whatever THAT Means)

Okay, this is going to be quick and dirty, as it has been a ridiculously long week replete with two tiny and very snotty noses (no, make that snotty faces, the likes of which look like they've been dipped in gelatinous goop), a hacking husband, one extremely wakeful and tirelessly hungry baby girl, and an increasingly crabby mommy who most certainly feels that this recent lack of sleep will be the end of her. (I cannot stand when someone says "Lack of sleep never killed anyone." Just shut up!)

Anyway, the grit is this: tomorrow I am going to be 40 years old. Old. Not decrepit, but smack dab in the middle of my life. On one hand, I'm kind of taking it in stride. After all, there isn't a damn thing I can do about it. On the other hand, I'm grappling with all the changes my aging body is undergoing, like the fact that I need bifocals (I've been taking off my glasses lately to better see what I'm reading which is a total "huh?") and that I've had to step-up my hair dying repertoire to every 5 weeks, from every 7 or 8.

Technically speaking, I'm only going to be one day older than today. But now I'm going to join the ranks of the Forties, when I'd rather join the Thirties Plus Some club. Shouldn't there at least be some kind of perk to this "Welcome to Your Forties" club like a free bi-monthly Starbucks drink of my choice or a discounted oil change? The 65 plus crowd gets all the good stuff.

And no, forty is not the new thirty. It's just that forty doesn't look as dowdy and washed up as it did in the 50s or 60s. Forty-somethings have permission to shop in the juniors department and wear sneakers and listen to loud music when the kids aren't in the minivan. It's just forty feigning thirty feigning twenty.

I like to think the old forty is what sixty is today. Or fifty-five. Forty is just forty. Nothing more. And tomorrow, that's me. A woman of forty.

Tonight I leave the thirties behind, somewhat sad to see them go, but grateful for all the things they gave to me, namely a better head on my shoulders, a beautiful toddler-turned-'tween (to whom I gave birth in 1999 when I was 28), an amazing husband, and two lovely and adorable babies. With a few tears (right now, as I type) and a kick and a scream, I bid you adieu thirties!

Now where's my triple venti Caramel Macchiato?

Ode to my Recent Purchases

Okay, I'll skip the single space after punctuation issue for now, but it's a comin'...

In light of my last entry, and the fact that I actually hung most of the photographs and pieces of art and art prints (mostly art prints, unfortunately, though my friend asked recently if the Van Gogh "The Promenade, Evening" print was the real deal...if only!), I have to gush about our recent furniture delivery of a new sectional couch and the 6 kitchen chairs to accommodate our new, unfinished parawood (still unstained, but felt-backed-tablecloth-protected) kitchen table.

This might sound weird, being that I'm on the cusp of 40 and have birthed three children, but I almost feel like an adult now. Every new consumer milestone (buying a vehicle, doling out too much money for a washer and dryer) makes me feel closer to adulthood and infinitely farther away from that March 1990 day when I was newly 19 and in my first apartment which was bare of everything except my and my roommates' bedroom furniture.

So, out with the futon (I mean, how early-20s!) and dejected loveseat and in with the chocolate brown microsuede sectional and two-tone black and fudge Mission-style side chairs.

I really like my couch. It makes me want to sprawl out with a bowl of popcorn and watch Jersey Shore (I'm not kidding). Or lay on my back and just be, with no external noise. Not to mention that it feels good to have something on which all of my family can sit that doesn't tilt backward like some kind of back-breaking carnival ride. (Honestly, when I was pregnant with my two youngest, I wanted to mutilate the futon, alternating with a chainsaw and a battle axe, for being so incredibly uncomfortable and outright evil. But, it did serve its purpose. And, thanks to Craigslist, it's gone. For good.)

And a big table with more chairs than family members--whoa! Our old table quite literally cramped any ability to eat together, and I try to coordinate a family meal at least a couple of times a week. To boot, it takes superhuman powers to make everyone's meals magically appear simultaneously! (We're talking my youngest's pureed food; my middle child's cubed food; my oldest's food du jour; my vegetarian meal; and my husband's meal, plus whatever everyone else is eating, minus pureed stuff. And sometimes, just sometimes, I get almost everyone to eat the same meal, a truly miraculous feat, I admit.) It's even harder to work that magic when there is barely enough room for everyone's plates and cups.

What this is really about is taking the next step in my life toward being comfortable--a previously uncharted territory. Sometimes I'm not even really sure what comfortable means; somehow it's mostly been beyond my grasp. My husband and I are reasonably frugal, often foregoing all the gadgets, high-tech appliances, and popular clothing brands and trends. I like to think that we live simply, 'cause we do, for the most part.

It's weird writing about furniture. In the scheme of things, it's all rather trivial. But, on an everyday level, these possessions are creature comforts and an aesthetic oasis compared to our previously mismatched, uncomplimentary pieces of hand-me-downs (and there ain't nuthin' wrong with those!). On a deeper level (yes, apparently there is a "deep" when it comes to this kind of stuff), I feel satisfied.

Of course, I'll feel even more satisfied if everything survives the battlefield of two babies and a 'tween by the time it's all paid off. For now though, the focus is finding a stain to match our chairs (in a veritable ocean of stains and brands of stains and combination stains/polyurethane) and then finding the time (a dirty, dirty word) to sand and stain the table. The very thought of which necessitates a much-needed laze on the couch, posthaste!

I'll think about closet organization some other time...

Hot Fun in the Summertime?

Since the beginning of last May, I have pretty much been a hormonally-challenged, sleep-deprived lunatic. It's quite possible that I was all of those things before May, but it was in the month of May (I can say that with all certainty) that I was fully in the throes of pregnancy, packing for a move (thank god just a local one), and a hot and sweaty spring that turned into an even hotter and sweatier summer.

For the record, I don't recommend packing or moving whilst hugely pregnant and chasing a super inquisitive (and cute!) toddler around. And did I mention how I was also in the thick of fine-tuning my active toddler radar? My eldest child was content staying on one place as a toddler. My middle child (said active toddler) is on the move.

Fast-forward to May 31st--our moving day--which was really just a heinously disorganized, frenetic mess that I just want to banish from my memory stores. So, then, let's skip right to June 1st; we were in our new, bigger digs and trying to whip 3 bedrooms, a kitchen, 2 bathrooms, and a living room into shape before our daughter was born. No easy task when your stomach is the size of a keg barrel, your exhaustion level is dangerously nearing "comatose," your active toddler decides to really start walking all over the place, and your 'tween child's hormonal fluctuations are having daily jousts with your own.

As the summer inched by (and it was *insert expletive* hot, let me tell you), I grew increasingly huge and miserable, sick of being pregnant and sick of unpacking. Some days were so wretchedly exhausting that I would just cry. Seriously. And the wallop of heat and pregnancy made me insanely tired, to the point where I never felt rested. Ever. I'm not sure what I did in any of my past lives, but I was undeniably in the 9th circle of hell.

I got my long-awaited reprieve on Saturday, July 24th--the day our daughter was born. She blessed me (who am I kidding, us, 'cause I'm quite certain my husband was ready to have me committed) by arriving at exactly 39 weeks, 5 days before my scheduled c-section. I had said to my husband that very morning, "Wouldn't it be cool if she came today on the 24th, since Kai was born on the 23rd day and Trevor was born on the 25th day?" Apparently she thought it would be cool, too. I started contracting regularly at about 4:30 pm, and she was born at 11:13 pm. Chloe and I spent 4 days in the hospital, coming home on a Wednesday to an as-of-yet unpacked home and a toddler who was clearly pissed off at me for leaving for 4 days.

It took a while for all of us to become acclimated to our newly expanded family unit. For the longest time (i.e. until about 2 months ago), Kai pretty much ignored Chloe's presence, except to steal her binkys or make oft-botched attempts of sticking his index finger in her eyeballs. He still steals her binkys, but now he kindly puts them back from whence they came. And when she routinely screams in protest of an unwanted car ride or being strapped into any one of her lock-down devices, Kai giggles. Sometimes he just stares at her. So, I think we're finally settling in as a family of five in what is now a not-so-new home (okay, it's really an apartment, though labeled a condo; but we all know that condos are really just apartments that you may or may not own).

Our "condo" was finally unpacked in October. In a PMS-fueled frenzy, I unpacked the last of our boxes one Saturday afternoon and freed myself of the constant gnawing of Unfinished Business. The five boxes that sat on our dresser from June to October were a proverbial thorn in my side, mocking me each time I tried to relax--such a dirty word--in what little time I actually have to do such a thing.

Now it's January and I've been waiting out rapid-fire (with no end in sight) snowstorms with my cubs. My husband and oldest child venture out into the world every day to go to work and middle school, respectively, while I hang out with the little ones, fantasizing about seeing pavement again. (My alternate fantasy, particularly when both babies are disharmoniously dueting, is to laze on a chaise lounge in Hawaii, a bowl of fresh pineapple to my left, mountains off in the distance, listening to the rhythmic lull of warm ocean water ebbing and flowing.)

And just when I was getting to the good parts, an icy draft at my feet reminds me of this evening's temperature in Massachusetts: It says negative 1 degree Fahrenheit, in case you're having trouble seeing it. So, with a cold snap back to reality, I will end with this thought (another of the Unfinished Business variety): I seem to have forgotten about a dozen or so photos and pieces of art that are collecting dust in their positions against my bedroom wall. There are also several closet "issues" that need to be, ahem, straightened out. It will be with great satisfaction and pride that my next (or near future) blog will include how I really finished all our unpacking, organizing, and decorating by springtime. I hope.

It was a long 2010, at any rate. We're settled now, artwork and closets aside, and we're a hectic family of five. My next long-term goal is to find a way to get to Hawaii before I reach my mid-40s. That gives me five years.

Future blog topic: How I just heard the news that only 1 space after closing punctuation is acceptable and how I am too rebellious and habitual to not use two spaces.

The Long and Winding Road

...has led to blog neglect. I will, I will, I will write soon. I have to.

I'm Only Sleeping

Exhaustion has a way of taking your goals, lofty or otherwise, and squashing them much like I would a mosquito that just sticks its evil little proboscis into my forearm.

What I'm getting at here is that I am tired. I'm not talking about your run-of-mill-I-worked-a-long-day tired, but more like who-just-spiked-my-macchiato-with-roofies? kind of deal. By the time my husband gets home from work, which is on average around 5:30 (yes, I consider myself lucky on that front), my irises have been replaced by animated spirals and my tongue is lolling out of my mouth. Being pregnant can be relentlessly exhausting, especially in the first and last trimesters (I'm presently in the latter), and so can entertaining and chasing a highly inquisitive and active 12 month-old boy; a combination of the two creates a cocktail of fatigue that I've never before encountered. (Not to mention that I'm also dealing with an increasingly moody 'tween.) Perhaps in the near future I'll come up with a new word that can describe my present state of being.

Okay, so I'm complaining here, but I think I've managed to get my point across. I. Am. Tired.

But what I really want to say is how my level of exhaustion has managed to turn me into a lifeless blob on the couch, evening after evening. Against my better judgment, I sit on the couch each night in order to squeeze in some quality time (or speechless next-to time) with my husband. I guess that my desire to be near my husband for just a few hours each night overrides my passion for a longer get-together with our Tempurpedic (shameless plug here...).

Before I became pregnant this time 'round, I had plans to chase after my above-mentioned little guy, agonize over homework with my 'tween, and work on a children's book that I began writing last year for a grad school class. Knowing how tired I am, my girlfriend suggested starting a blog--something less daunting than a novel with which to wet my feet.

Problem is, I can't even seem to muster the energy to blog. Well, maybe I could get it up to type, but to actually think? We're talking about using several parts of the brain at once in order for that to happen. Typing is so much more simple. Kind of like breathing.

So, what prompted and produced some writing this evening? That's easy. I threw my back out on Mother's Day (not exactly the kind of stay-in-bed-and-get-waited-on-all-day celebration of motherhood I had in mind) and have since been making a concerted effort to rest. Also, at the moment, my husband is running a call for work, my little one is sleeping, and my oldest is reading in bed. As far as the actual production of the written word, I can only surmise that I've been overcome by a sudden and inexplicable surge in synapse activity.

If my karma has finally managed to right itself (dear god, I hope it has), my post-pregnancy hormones will harmonize, I'll endure a month or two of newborn-related fatigue (which also deserves its very own term), and I'll be back to feeling human at some point not terribly far in the future, all of which are far more conducive to both thinking (or at least thinking clearly) and being productive.

That all being said, I'm winding down into my oft-state of drooling incoherence, in five-four-three-two...

How Mr. Butch Unwittingly Arranged My Marriage

For those of you who are unfamiliar with the legendary Mr. Butch, he was a tall, wiry black man with a guitar strapped to his back; the self-pronounced Mayor of Kenmore Square, a bustling and once-hip Boston neighborhood (and home to the now-defunct Rathskeller “The Rat” nightclub, may you rest in peace); a punk rock street prophet who often asked whether or not you recently paid your taxes to him, but wouldn't bat an eyelash to offer up whatever he had, be it pot, beer, or cash; a unique, charismatic, and salty man who often crashed on people's floors and in their basements, as he had no home of his own. Tragically, Mr. Butch died during the summer of 2007 in a motor scooter accident in Allston, another Boston neighborhood that he commanded after being tossed out of Kenmore Square by the police (via Boston University officials who were “cleaning up” the area).

My husband, Vin, runs a MySpace page in honor of Mr. Butch, which he created in October of 2005. I spotted Mr. Butch's profile on a friend's page in January, 2007, and promptly sent a friend request and a brief message thanking “fake” Mr. Butch for honoring the real one. Fake Mr. Butch and I back-and-forthed briefly before I asked his identity (I made a judgment about the sex of Fake Mr. Butch), wondering if he is someone I know.

Fake Butch sent me to his actual profile and we started sending occasional messages to one another, bs'ing about music, t.v., and our lives. It was all pretty detached and fun for several months, as Fake Butch had a long-time girlfriend and I didn't think twice about involving myself--a single mother--with a tethered man 9 years my junior.

Then we decided to meet.

In making that decision, I was thinking along the lines of a new friendship with an interesting guy. Granted, there was a definite level of curiosity (my usual state of being), but I was often alone and bored every other weekend when my son has visits with his father. So, why not meet someone new and be entertained?

Vin drove to my house and came in for a few minutes so we could acquaint ourselves. (But why was I nervous and sweating???) We rode in his truck to a nearby Starbucks where I grew increasingly uncomfortable with and embarrassed by my apparent giddiness, which Vin inquired about. “Are you always this bubbly?” Me? Bubbly? “No, not really,” I truthfully replied. After coffee, we went back to my house and watched Little Miss Sunshine (love it!) while I self-consciously curled-up on my couch (Is he looking at me? How do I look? What's his angle? What is he thinking?) and he sat on a nearby chair. We hung out and talked for a while after the movie ended, intermittently watching a music infomercial (featuring Air Supply and the crappy like).

He must have left at about 1:30 AM, though I felt like hanging out and talking more. (Was I afraid of imminent boredom on a Saturday or was something else going on?) I was pleased (huh?) to see a message from him about 40 minutes later and we proceeded to send messages to each other until 4:30 AM.

From there, we went on a platonic "date" to SpiderMan 3, I received a dozen red roses (hmmm, some friend), and we talked about this seemingly messy situation that was clearly moving in an un-platonic direction. Then, more hanging out, more conversations, more red roses, and a break with the on-again/off-again girlfriend.

Never would I have predicted this for myself. We first met in person on April 21, 2007, and if you had asked me the day before where I'd be in 3 years, I would have reluctantly answered “Single mother. Teacher. Definitely headed for spinsterhood (though by definition a spinster is childless).” Yet here we are, married on June 20, 2008 and parents to my oldest “baby” Trevor, our own beautiful creation, Kai, and another baby (girl, we're almost sure?) on the way in July.

Oddly enough, I think we were the least likely candidates in each other's minds. But something happened, something which I cannot explain with words, other than to say that I fell madly and deeply in love with this man in such a way that I had not before experienced.

Before we started dating, Vin sent a message asking me to close my eyes, think of what I would say if someone said “Vin Dancer” to me, and give him an honest response. Instantly, I knew the answer, though I was forced to lie:

“My future husband,” I thought crazily to myself. Talk about a psychological double-take. I know I'm a bit off-center, but this?

Who knew that Mr. Butch would lend such a pivotal hand in uniting me with the love of my life? I couldn't imagine a better love story. At least for us.

Mr. Butch, I owe you one...