Wednesday, May 6, 2009

Moxie's Secret Hideout

When I got to my desk this morning at work I was blown away by two things:

1. Holy shit! It's May 6th! How the hell did that happen?
2. I've been MIA on a lot things in life. Where have I been? I feel like I somehow lost a week and a half of time...

I know these seem like weird revelations, especially given the fact that deadlines are a big part of my job and I'm constantly looking at the calendars in my office/cellphone/home office.

So, what the hell have I been up to?

Last weekend was a Do Nothing Weekend. Since I work 2 weekends a month at the museum, I glory in doing nothing when I can. I have exactly 2 days this month that require me to do nothing more strenuous than eat, sleep and play with my kid. I enjoyed it.
Last Saturday, I did make Dana's Root Beer Cookies, which were all sorts of awesome, and coincidentally, Handsome's favorite soda beverage. If you are unaware, I'm sort of fascinated by weird recipes.

Last Sunday I made one of the biggest, dumbest mistakes in recent memory. Darling had a Princess Birthday Party at Chuck E. Cheese. I had a headache and had forgotten to restock my purse with more Excedrin Migraine. I'm pretty sure there needs to be a sign outside of Chuck's saying: "If you are an epileptic, afraid of germs, have a headache or are easily frightened, turn back now!" Seriously. What made it even worse was the fact that the "Ladies" restroom rivaled The Dirtiest Toilet In Scotland (Trainspotting ref, btw). I'm not a germ-aphobe, but I almost puked. But at least Darling had a great time.

I've also realized that I haven't seen a play/musical/improv show in over 2 months. (Kris Kristofferson concert doesn't count.) This is a personal record for me. I have never gone this long without live theatre since roughly 2001. I'm completely serious. Not even when I was pregnant or right after I had Darling. In the 12.5 years we've been together, I've seen at least one performance of Handsome's shows except the one I was planning on seeing the day I gave birth. When he isn't in shows, we go see other people's shows. Handsome opens in a new show next week and it will be the first I've seen since late February. We've just both been so busy with work and Darling that we haven't seen anything else since his last show.

While this probably means nothing to you, it's huge for me. It means I'm hermitting in real life AND on my blog. Not good for me. I'm a social being and other than the Adult Easter Egg Hunt, a few intimate gatherings with friends, and 2 Royals games, I've been MIA on the social scene. Handsome has these tendancies, I don't usually. I need to be out and about amongst the people. I like to go to parties and socialize. But I've had no desire to do so outside my very intimate group of closest friends.

I haven't quite figured out why I am so busy and yet some things, like theatre shows are being put to the side. It's not a bad thing to be somewhat anti-social for a while, it's just really unusual and I guess it bothers me that I didn't even notice. I glibly sent Handsome off to see shows and go to parties while I either stayed home or did something else. Theatre shows have always been a bonding time for us as well as a stress-reducer we could share.

I've been totally wrapped up in Darling lately, getting her ready to go to Big Girl School's Kindergarten Summer Camp (mid-June). Her birthday is mid-August and she'll be the youngest in her class (barely making the 5th birthday cut-off) but I know that she's ready to go this year.

I won't even start in on the debate about red-shirting a Kindergartener until they are almost 6. That whole thing bugs me. My brother and sister both have August birthdays and they both started at just barely 5. My brother is a successful HR Manager and my sister is an oncology nurse with a BSN. Plus, Darling's parents have 2 college degrees each.

The kid is as smart as a whip and making her wait will only make her bored. Nonetheless, at her Kindergarten evaluation, the evaluator told us that she's perfectly ready for "normal" kindergarten but because she is going to an "academically challenging charter school" Kindergarten, her age "might be an issue".

Bite me, lady.

I'm 90% sure Darling will be able to hold her own with all of the almost 6 yr olds she might encounter. She's a very social little gal and loves to be challenged. She's tall for her age and the only thing I worry about a little bit is her language skills as she was a late talker. She'll be fine, but that lady has got me freaked out now. Darling and I have been doing Kindergarten worksheets every night since then.

We really debated sending her this year or waiting another year. We consulted her pre-school teachers who said she was more than ready. We talked to both her aunts that are teachers and her uncle that is a grade school principal. They think she's ready.

So, why am I freaking?

Because that's what I do. I'm good at it.

See what I mean?! I just told you I wouldn't discuss the Kindergarten thing and look what I just did! Another reason I need to go out and have more fun is so I can stop fretting over stuff. I need more relaxing. Less stressing.

This week I'm back on a work jag. I've got my regular job and my museum job this weekend. Plus, there's a group of paranormal investigators coming in Sat. night, so I'll be ghost hunting until late. Handsome has his tech weekend this Sat/Sun for his show so that means Mother's Day will be celebrated the following weekend.

Plus, I have to figure out when in the next 3 weekends I'm going to see Handsome's show, which should be a step in the right social/stress reducing direction.

I promise not to ignore my blog for a week at a time. Sorry 'bout that.

2 comments:

kcmeesha said...

1. I saw "Master and Margarita" at UMKC last week- I was blown away-short review upcoming
2. Everything related to kids is retarded by about 2 years here (in a sense of held back) so your kid's readiness is pretty normal, it's sad that they chose to line everything up to slow kids to make their parents feel better,instead of the way it's supposed to be - smart kids in front and everyone else is encouraged to catch up. As an example -potty training can be done before one year of age, reading 2-3 years old, etc. Here it's considered advanced.

Stacey K said...

Banker's dozen opens this weekend, so I'll be off to the theatre too.

We've been to Chuck E Cheese parties. brave and foolish of you to have one!!

Each kid starting kindergarten is different and I wish schools looked at the kid, not the age. My oldest son started at 5, (august bday) but was NOT ready. At the time we didn't know he had Asperger's, but socially he was not capable of handling school yet. The result is that he did 1st grade twice. My oldest daughter (may bday) could have started school a year before she did. For my younger son & daughter 5 was about right.