[1] if i wasn't an attorney, i think i would like to be a police detective. or a private investigator. one of my favorite parts of my job is meeting with and talking to my clients. i love the interaction and the getting to the bottom part of what i do.
[2] speaking of police detectives, "the wire" is such an amazing show. stringer bell is deliciously attractive, ps. he makes drug dealing look glamorous. like after i see him, i'm all like, "oh, i could put up with that lifestyle. uhhhh huhhhh, yeah i could be his shawwwwty." which is ridiculous because NO I FRICKIN' COULDN'T. but that's beside the point. the bad part of watching "the wire" for me is that i end up doing exactly what i did the first time i watched it... researching the crime rates in the baltimore city projects, searching old news articles that discuss the problems facing the city and trying to decide just how much of the show is real (most, it seems). inevitably, each 53 minute episode spawns a 37 minute pillow talk discussion with john that goes something like: me: "john, you know how stringer tells d to withhold money from the hoppers to find which one has enough? because that one is the one who's dealing on the side or working with another outfit?" john: sleepily "what are you talking about? what time is it?" me: "i was just thinking that that's a very intelligent way to figure that out. i mean, these people are very savvy business-wise. if someone could go into these projects and offer these people a legitimate business opportunity, they could really be successful." john: "please go to sleep, stephanie. i beg you." and while the conversation might end there, my thoughts on it don't. but i love it so. i'm actually limiting myself to one or two episodes per night so i don't watch the entire series too soon.
[3] does that happen to other people, too? you finish a book or a television series and you feel depressed? happens to me everytime. i guess i form intense bonds with television characters or the heroines/antagonists in the books i read, and when our time together has ended, i always feel that pang of "no, wait, don't go." and i feel out of sorts for a few days because i poured so much time into really getting into the storyline, and now it's over.
[4] speaking of pouring myself into new storylines, bethenny ever after is back for another glorious season. it started yesterday evening, and no, i haven't yet watched the new episode. john came into the kitchen at approximately 8:30 and said, "i have some bad news and some good news. do you want the bad news first?" i looked at him nervously, and then he replied, "well, the bad news is that bethenny ever after started up tonight." "OH NO!" i interrupted, "i thought that was next week, and i didn't DVR...." he continued, "and the good news is that i already set the DVR to record it for you at 11:00." john might publicly shame me for my reality tv watching, but the truth is, he's a very supportive enabler, and i love him for it.
[5] john and i don't watch many shows together. it's not because we don't like the same things. it's because I AM TOO INTENSE ABOUT MY TELEVISION. we did watch "the wire" together the first time around, but when i got to the point of being OBSESSED and feeling that it was perfectly acceptable to watch 8 episodes in a row in one day, i
[6] i do that with music, too. john is, and always has been, the creative genius behind our music collection. meaning that he does the legwork and spends his time on pandora, the music cable channels and in the library finding great new music for us to enjoy. and then he introduces it to me. and i promptly hate it for 3 days (because i'm a creature of habit), and then i start to sing along with it (*this is how john claims to know i'm about to fall in love with it), and then i play it obsessively and declare my undying love for it. the upside to this obsessive behavior is that particular albums always remind me of a particular phase in my life because i play them so much around that time. and that's sort of nice and nostalgic for me.
[7] speaking of music and nostalgia, i recently got into our escape (which is pretty much john's car) and a cd he had made me back in 2005 was playing. it was christmastime 2005, and he and his family were about to head to germany to visit his brother who was in the army and stationed in stuttgart. i was going to miss being with him over the holidays, and before he left, he gave me a cd that he had made for me. he had made the cd jacket to look like a professional one, and the front cover depicted a little boy giving a girl flowers, and there were lots of random letters on it that i didn't understand. the music was amazing. and then, a few days later, after he had left, i was getting ready to meet some friends at the bar, and the cd was sitting in front of a full length mirror on the ground. and i could read the words, which had been backwards, but in the mirror read, "little bean, you are a great person and an even better girlfriend. i love you." of course, i cried for like 15 whole minutes.
[8] on the day after valentine's day (last wednesday), john and i went out to dinner at a local italian restaurant, mario's. john ordered a steak, and for some unknown reason, i decided to order panzerotti. i had never eaten it before and truth be told, i wasn't really sure of what it was. i still have no idea what i was thinking. when it arrived, it was a deep fried pizza. i took two bites, and the grease overwhelmed me. usually mario's is spot on for me, but i should have known better than to have ordered deep fried dough. john cut his steak in half and we shared it. it was amazing. (the steak and my husband's generosity)
[9] it is also amazing to be able to communicate through words with your baby. i am CONSTANTLY in awe of how much jack is learning. i look at the picture of the little one week old baby he used to be and then i see the boy that's running, laughing and playing in the living room, and i can hardly believe this has happened. if i say "it's time for a bath," he goes to the bathroom, and starts getting undressed. if i say, "let's go up to your room," he's scaling the stairs immediately. if i say, "do you want some milk?" he hightails it to the fridge and waits for me to catch up with him. it's so fun watching him learn and grow.
[10] i like to rotate coffee creamers based on the season. which means now that valentine's day is behind us, i am flavoring with irish cream (in honor of the rapidly approaching st. patty's day).
[11] i did my entire week's worth of grocery shopping at fareway last night. i have stopped in there a few times to grab items here and there, but never completed an entire list there. i like that place. the meat counter men are very helpful. also, the grocery baggers accompany you to your car and pack all your groceries into your vehicle. this is extremely appreciated when you are wrangling an almost 16 month old.
[12] speaking of which, yesterday i settled a big case at work and since i was scheduled to have been out the entire day (and today and tomorrow), i left my office at 2 p.m. to spend some QT with my boys. jack and i accomplished several errands. i brought a little bag of the aldi version of goldfish "shark bites," in case he started getting antsy, and when we got to our last destination (fareway), i was keeping him pacified solely through the use of the tiny cheese crackers. can i confess that i always feel like that's cheating? whenever i do something like that, YOU KNOW - APPEASING MY SON AND EMPLOYING RESOURCES TO KEEP HIM ENTERTAINED - i always feel that twinge of "you should really be able to handle your baby without the use of these aids." that's silly. i know it is. like, do i really expect to be able to keep jack calm and entertained by reciting poetry or something? i'm ridiculous.
[13] i feel that same twinge of whatever-it-is resembling guilt when i buy storebought spaghetti sauce. my mom always used tomato paste to make hers from scratch, adding veggies she grew from her own garden and letting it simmer all day. or at least that's what i remember. i have since discussed this with my mom and she informs that she bought the pre-made sauce now and then. yet another reason i should let that go...
[14] when john and i were engaged, his grandfather was moving into a nursing home, and we drove to his home in indiana to assist him in packing up his things. he gave us a bedroom set of furniture (including a tall dresser, a shorter dresser with a mirror, a beside table and a headboard), our dining room table and chairs and a china hutch. because (as previously noted) i am a creature of habit, i had a difficult 2 - 3 weeks of adjusting to having all this new furniture in our apartment. it did not seem to fit my general design aesthetic, and it made me feel all crazy and out of control for a little while. and now, i love that damn bedroom set. i was on overstock.com looking for a bedside table for our spare bedroom, and i picked one out. when i showed it to john, he said, "it looks exactly like the one in our room." and it did. i have grown to love these pieces, and now i can't ever see picking something else.
[15] i get sentimentally attached to people's houses. like, for example, my friend liz's house. she and her husband bought a foreclosure and did an ENORMOUS amount of work that's resulted in a fabulous end result with a to-die-for kitchen. and she and i have talked about how that's not going to be their forever house. and when i think about it, i get sad. like, "oh, but i love your house, and i love your yard, and i love thinking about the memories of parties and gatherings we've had here, and oh, you can't ever leave." and that's silly. but really, whenever anyone tells me they're thinking of moving, i feel sad/stressed about it for a few hours. maybe even a day or something. isn't that weird? very odd.
[16] speaking of houses, my sister lives in michigan, on this cobblestone street that reminds me of the street that steve martin lives on in father of the bride. whenever we pull up to their house for a visit, i immediately feel all cozy and ready to snuggle up in their living room with a mug of hot chocolate. it's just that kind of vibe in there. so they better not think about moving any time soon. (see #15)
[17] i am not a good swimmer. like i can swim/doggy-paddle for a while, but it has never been my forte. on our honeymoon, we went "scuba-diving," and john was diving way down and looking at an old shipwrecked boat, and i was staying right at the surface, content to peer down with my goggles and observe from afar. i want jack to be able to swim like john. so i should probably get the little guy into swim lessons or something. my parents have a pond at their house, and we spent every summer swimming almost every day in our own private "lake," and still, not a strong swimmer over here. we would float for hours on rafts and noodles and in innertubes, but i just never had to hone my swim-without-a-flotation device skills.
[18] we have a wooden box with blocks in it in our living room. and apparently it did not get moved back under the window were it is normally stored, and i went downstairs in the middle of the night on sunday to put something in the kitchen, and i fell on it. like tripped over it, fell hard, hit my head on jack's wooden play kitchen, sprawled out on the floor, moaning in agony, fell. when i went back upstairs, john was very concerned and asked if i needed stitches. which i didn't. so then he concluded that i was being dramatic. well, it is black and blue and purple now and hurts like hell, so yeah, john, NOT SO DRAMATIC.
[19] when john and i lived down in carbondale, we routinely loved to go to dinner at 17th street bar and grill in murphysboro (a tiny town a few miles west). it was a little hole in the wall place with EXCELLENT, EXCELLENT barbeque. like, national contest, award-winning eats. everytime we go back, which is not often enough, we make it a point to stop and have lunch or dinner, and we make sure to buy some of their bbq sauce and their dry rub to bring home. i was DYING for some bbq last night when jack and i were wandering through fareway, so i brought home some of their bbq pork. it wasn't as good as 17th street, but we both liked it. i immediately missed living in southern illinois for the rest of the night.
[20] i finally got around to unclipping the fabric i've had hanging in my living room and dining room to actually hem for curtains. first i decided to throw everything in the wash in the event that it would shrink a bit. WHY THE HELL DID I DO THIS? the fabric is now so frickin' wrinkly i almost contemplated driving to joann's and buying new stuff. ARE YOU KIDDING ME?!? i should definitely have just sewed it as is. like i would ever really wash my curtains regularly in the future anyway. who do i think i am, martha stewart herself? i actually offered to buy john the new gun he wants if he irons my curtains. that's how DESPERATE i am to avoid having to do it.
[21] i made a valentine's day garland using some burlap (among other fabrics). it was super cute (i realize i forgot to share it). i also made another st. patty's day garland for my front entryway that involves burlap. i really do think i have a burlap obsession. no matter what happens, i'm all like, "put some burlap on it." got a problem to solve? use burlap.
[22] i got jack this melissa & doug puzzle as part of his little valentine's day treats, and the damn thing is pretty involved. it's like 6 puzzles in one and each piece is a cube with the picture of a different puzzle on each side of each cube. it's pretty awesome, but it takes awhile for me to put it together. i spent 10 minutes last night doing the goldfish one with jack. he wasn't even interested, but it was my own personal mission to complete this puzzle.
[23] going right along with things i bought for my son, i love the kohl's cares program. it's a good cause, and they always include the best children's books for five measly dollars. right now, they have more books by eric carle. of course, we bought them all: the very busy spider; brown bear, brown bear, what do you see? and does a kangeroo have a mother, too? jack apparently shares his mom's bursts of obsession over things because we read each of these books like 5 times a day. he is especially fond of "brown bear, brown bear." uncle chris stopped by last night, and he was not allowed to leave without jack climbing up on his lap and requesting one read-through.
[24] i wish i lived closer to my sister-in-law, oksana. she has a ukrainian accent that makes me feel calm and happy when i talk to her. she's younger than me, but sometimes i swear she seems 20 years older and wiser. wish i could share a cup of coffee or a long island iced tea with her right. now.
[25] i can't believe i actually made it to twenty-five things. i can't believe you actually read all of them. i am about to go consume a lot of food at my firm's fat tuesday potluck. yes, we celebrate this gorge-filled day. and yes, i love it.
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