I went to pick up Jaycee Junior from childcare last night and they were all sitting down reading a book when I innocently wandered in. This is a conversation I had with one of the kids (about four years old).
Him: Are you a nanny or a mummy?
Me: I’m a mummy, I’m Jaycee Junior’s mummy?
Him: I thought you were a nanny. You look too old to be a mummy.
Picture me standing there with my mouth open unable to think of a response to that one…
This came to me in my email so I have no idea who originally wrote it, but I sure can relate to a lot of it either because I see myself or have seen my friends in these situations.
20 reasons when a girl should call it a night…..
1. You have absolutely no idea where your bag is.
2. You truly believe that dancing with your arms overhead and wiggling your bottom while yelling “She Bangs She Bangs” is truly the hottest dance move around!!!
3. You’ve suddenly decided that you want to fight someone and you honestly believe that you could do it too.
4. In your last trip to the toilet you realise you now look more like Lily Savage than the goddess you were just four hours ago.
5. You drop your 3:00 a.m. kebab on the floor, pick it up and carry on eating it.
6. You start crying and telling everyone you see that you love them sooooo much.
7. There are less than three hours before you’re due to start work.
8. You’ve found a deeper/spiritual side to the geek sitting next to you.
9. The man you’re flirting with used to be your biology teacher.
10. The urge to take off articles of clothing, stand on a table and sing or dance becomes strangely overwhelming.
11. Your eyes just don’t seem to want to stay open on their own so you decide to keep them half closed and think it looks exotic.
12. You seem to think that it’s a really good idea to get your mates to push you down the street in a shopping trolley.
13. You yell at the bartender, who (you think) cheated you by giving you just lemonade, but that’s just because you can no longer taste the vodka.
14. You think you’re in be! d, but the pillow feels strangely like the kitchen floor.
15. You start every conversation with a booming, “DON’T take this the WRONG WAY but…”
16. You fail to notice that the toilet lid’s down when you sit on it.
17. You’re hugs begin to resemble wrestling take-down moves.
18. You’re soooo tired you just sit on the floor (wherever you happen to be standing)
19. You begin leaving the buttons open on your button flypants to cut down on the time you’re in the bathroom away from your drink.
20. You take your shoes off because you really believe it’s their fault that you’re having problems walking straight.
You probably laughed at the ones that apply to you.
I said a few days ago that I would start keeping a dream journal. I’ve been having dreams but they’ve been interrupted by midnight phone calls for two nights then Jaycee Junior waking up a couple of times last night.
On Sunday night the phone rang around midnight and of course it woke me up with my heart racing, me fumbling around trying to find the light switch and trying to do all this before the answering machine cut in. I picked up the phone anyway and it was a hang up. Two minutes later the phone rang again and I rushed out of bed and went to the other phone in the lounge to hear if anyone was going to leave a message before I answered. It was another hang up. I went to the toilet and then back to bed. Then Monday night around 3am the same thing happened, but only once this time. I didn’t bother answering it as the answering machine picked up but whoever it was on the other end hung up again.
The only thing I can think of as to who this might be is my son’s father who resides in London and could be trying to do this in the hope I can do the equivalent to England’s 1471 and find out the number so I can ring back. We don’t have that equivalent unless a person rings and nothing or nobody answers. I would love to have the England 1471 equivalent as I’d love to know who is interrupting my sleep. Don’t know if I would ring him back, however, as he could at least pay for a phone call to me seeing as he doesn’t pay anything else towards his son’s upkeep.
Then last night I took the phone off the hook and went to bed hoping for an interrupted night’s sleep but Jaycee Junior woke up a couple of times whimpering. This is very rare for him so perhaps he was having the dreams I was supposed to be having. Consequently I turned the alarm off and woke up 20 minutes after the alarm would have gone off anyway.
A couple of months ago there were some specials on trampolines in my local K-Mart so I thought I’d put one on layby for Jaycee Junior’s christmas present. The layby period was up so I paid off the rest, paid for delivery and we got it delivered in a long, heavy box on Friday. I must complain though, that I paid the delivery price for two people and one man turned up. I will ring K-Mart this morning and ask about that.
I knew it would be pointless trying myself to put this trampoline together so I asked my sister to help and as she was going out on Friday night she said she’d lend a hand after work on Saturday. We did a pretty good job of it until we had to put the two end pieces of the trampoline on. We managed to squish the sides together enough to actually put the ends on but couldn’t knock them on properly and the pathetic attempt with a block of wood, a crappy hammer and lots of swearing didn’t result in anything productive whatsoever. Meanwhile Jaycee Junior was hanging around saying is my trampoline ready yet? We had to end up giving up and I went to the pub to get some beer and then we watched some of the AFL grand final.
Yesterday I rang up a friend and asked for his advice. He took my heavy hints and ended up coming round with his rubber mallet and we got it put together. Yay!!!! Jaycee Junior loves it and hopefully it will provide hours of outdoor entertainment for him.
Had a bit of a windfall with my tax return today so went shopping at lunchtime. I bought two dinosaurs for Jaycee Junior and a summer outfit for him. I bought two tops for myself and the new Nick Cave CD – see my What’s wearing out my CD player to the left. It’s a beauty and I love it on the first listen. GET IT…
This morning I went to see a counsellor. This is the first time I have ever done this and as work offer a service in this regard, with outside consultants, it was free so I thought I’d utilise this work perk. I had no idea what to expect and wasn’t even sure what I wanted to bring up. So of course the first thing she brought up was why was I there? I started babbling on, while starting to cry, about the work/life balance and how hard I was finding it as a single mum. I was quite appalled that I turned into a sook as soon as we started talking but quickly got over the lip quivering. We ended up talking about three main things:
1 Finding time for myself and not feeling guilty about it
2 Finding a ‘true love’ and not settling for second best
3 Finding my passion and doing something about it
So, to start doing some stuff towards these three things. At the end of the session I said let’s summarise and she wrote a heap of stuff down which was great. This is the list in no particular order:
1 Use Bach Flower Rescue remedy when I’m feeling I might need it
2 Set aside 30 minutes a day for ME time
3 Ask people for help with looking after Jaycee Junior (small steps)
4 Get some meditation/relaxation CDs and use them
5 Visualise a happy/nurturing relationship with a man
6 Examine the men I have chosen in my life and see:
– what appeals and what doesn’t
– what is destructive
– why am I attracted to them
– how can I foster those qualities in myself
7 Keep a PMT/dream journal
8 Start a body dialogue regarding guilt
– find a quiet space to relax
– bring in the guilt, where does it sit in my body
– have a conversation with it
– write it down
9 Get the Woman’s Comfort book
10 Investigate some women’s healing circles
I don’t know how I will go with things like the body dialogue but I’m willing to give it a go. And I shall be going out after I finish this to get the Woman’s Comfort book.
Update: Had to order The Woman’s Comfort book and will be waiting around three weeks for its delivery.
Oh, and found this article on A List Apart website which I want to refer back to more often.
I like some sort of sense of order, in particular when I’m in a hurry and people are blocking me on an escalator. In the UK there’s a written (in tube stations) and unwritten rule that if you’re not walking up or down the escalator you stand on the right so people can pass you on the left. I think I’ve got the order correct but if not please leave me a comment and let me know.
It doesn’t work this way in Australia and it’s quite annoying. I walk a reasonable amount and it’s good exercise to walk up stairs and escalators but I can’t walk up an escalator if people are blocking the way. I just tend to stand behind them glaring at the back of their heads. One boy at lunch time even had the gall to stand in the middle of the escalator with a hand holding the rails on each side. I burnt a hole in the back of his head with my stare.
I vote for people making room so other people can pass them on escalators.
