Me.

I’ve been meaning to take pictures of the local foliage for several weeks now. But every week it seems to get more and more vibrant so I kept waiting. Waiting until they were the brightest they were going to get. Then this week? I knew it had peaked. I just needed to set aside time to go out and get some snaps. And then last night we had a lower temp and some strong winds. On my way to work this morning I realized I had really missed my window. Many of the trees that were stunning the day before were losing their leaves minute by minute. The trees were brighter this season than I’ve ever seen them, and I wanted to kick myself for missing the chance to photograph them.

But - I wasn’t going to let every leaf drop before I tried to capture some of the vibrant colors of the season. So, before I went to work this morning I stopped and snapped some photos. Then, during lunch I grabbed some more. I think I caught enough of the colors to feel partially satisfied, I’ll know better next time. Just take the pictures. If it gets better tomorrow? Then take more tomorrow. Lord knows no one every died from taking too many photos. What’s that saying? Life is too short to put off until tomorrow what you can do today? Well…I need to remember that. Even if it does sound like the words of a KRAZEE person.

There’s a great spectrum of the colors I found. There are so many gorgeous trees around town, I could have done so much more. Of course, many of them are in yards of homes and I’m too big of a chicken to knock on doors to ask if I can photograph the trees. And photographing them without warning the homeowners is just asking to get shot. So, my fear, laziness and procrastination limited me to just a few stops today en route between work and daycare. And of course, you wouldn’t know it by the pictures, but I was right in the middle of suburban commercial mecca taking pictures. These trees are in front of Target, Barnes and Noble, in the yards of a few churches. Every time I saw a great tree I just pulled over and started snapping.

And you know what I realized? I’ve been doing that a lot lately, with my new desire to take pictures of things other than my children. Just pulling over in empty parking lots to take pictures. I even found myself photographing bushes trees at a cosmetic surgery office today. (Inappropriate initial word choice, don’t you think?) Since I’m sure this seems peculiar to outsiders, I’ve decided to put a new bumper sticker in the spot where my Obama/Biden sticker was.

Perfect. I’m not a real photographer, but I think this will serve as adequate warning to those worried I’m the new Paparrazi of church goers, book buyers, or boob lifters. Nope. I’m just a dork taking pictures of trees.

Random Photo Of Cuteness

I’ve noticed something lately as the cleanliness of the house goes the way of the pooper. (I have no idea what that even means, it just sounds funny.) I’m a big fan of the Put It In A Pile method of cleaning. And I probably should have put cleaning in quotes there, since I don’t know if the Put It In A Pile method qualifies as cleaning, but for the sake of argument we’ll leave it without the quotes. I like to pretend it counts as cleaning.

What I mean is, I only have - let’s say - seven minutes to clean the house. On a normal day, before I go to bed, I like to do that. Quickly pick up the crap around the house to make it look nicer so when I wake up in the morning I’m not so disgusted with my home that I just crawl back into bed. (Trust me, it’s a possibility, I’ve done it before.) Since I obviously don’t have time to really clean, I just implement the Put It In A Pile method.

I choose an area that is cluttered, like the kitchen counter, and just find ways to take what is out on the counter and Put It In A Pile. Now, if it’s something is really foreign to the counter, like a shoe, I’ll put that somewhere closer to where it actually belongs. Like, I’ll throw it in the bedroom of the person who normally wears it. And possibly yell, “Why the Hell did you put your shoe on the counter?” But that’s part of my Yelling All The Time parenting technique, we’ll discuss that some other day.

But the general clutter on the counter? I’ll just scoot it all into a pile. Coupons, keys, pacifiers, stickers. Push it all in a pile and leave that pile somewhere kinda hidden. Like in front of the recipe box on the side counter you don’t always notice. This way, when I walk in the kitchen in the morning I’m all “Oh! Clean kitchen!” But really? The shit has been put in a pile and scooted out of sight.

Many of these piles in my house are disguised and hidden better than others. Like, we have a huge bin in the living room for toys. Throwing everything in that bin (toys, books, crayons, children) is part of the Put It In A Pile method, the bin is just a way to contain and hide the pile. We have bins for art supplies and toy kitchen paraphernalia as well. Essentially we just put it in a pile, the pile just happens to have a container to live in.

It really works for our family on surfaces like the desk and the bathroom counters as well. Every flat work area in our home has a small pile o’ random shit somewhere on it. Usually in a back corner, maybe hidden behind a pen jar, or a candle. Just look closely and you’ll find it. NikkiZ’s room has several piles of randomness because if I tried to actually put all of her hair clips and bracelets and ribbons up every time I found one on the floor? I’d spend my entire life in her room. Instead? There’s just The Pile. It is in her room and it has everything from rings to lotion to hairclips.

And then, a few times a year (usually before we’re expecting out of town guests) I’ll actually sort through the piles and put the things where they actually belong.

And that last for about 36 hours. Then the Piles return.

Anyone else use this method? If you don’t - you should. It gives the illusion of organized and clean with only about 1/10th of the workload. Giving you more time to be lazy. And that is my goal in life: Maximum Laziness. I’m driven, you know.

• For those of you sympathizing with my pain last night - thank you. I find the comment section of that last entry quite entertaining. It was half “Poor Boob!” and half “Go Obama!” Hee. I think that says a lot about my blog, don’t you? Anyway - Boob is Better. (And all of my family is thinking quit with the boob talk already!) Hot rags, hot baths, excess nursing seems to have helped and I’m back down to mild aches as opposed to searing pain. Which is always a good thing.
• Did you know it’s hard to hide your gluttony if you work in a small office? Especially if it involves bringing a dozen bagels in for everyone, but only having 8 to show for it by the time anyone else gets in. Should I pretend I only bought 8? Or that the people at the store miscounted? Or should I own my gluttony and be proud? Decisions, decisions.
• NikkiZ has been saying she “doesn’t feel good” for several days now. Of course - she feels fine. But since she got strep she realized how much attention being sick can get a person. And when she’s feeling a bit neglected, she decides she is sick. The other day she said she needed to go to the hospital. And then she told me that she DID go to the hospital and then she DIED. But she’s fine now. I’m not sure exactly how to respond to that, so I did the responsible parent thing and ignored it.
• AndyZ is doing better with sleeping. Or I’m doing better at ignoring him, I’m not sure which. This is good because I’m not ready to put him in his crib in the same room as his sister yet. Do any of you have tips for making a shared room situation between a 3-year old and an infant work? I worry NikkiZ will hear me get AndyZ if he wants to eat and then she’ll be up too. If that happens I’m likely to take them both to MrZ and run away from home. I’m just saying.
• I took the political links and the Obama graphic of the sidebar. MrZ reminded me last night that now is NOT the time to try to brag about My Guy winning. It is time for us all to forget who we voted for and to try to come together in our communities to really make a change. I’ve been swept over by the feeling of transformation and I hope to make big strides in helping my own community as I’ve been inspired by so many community organizers this election season. I don’t want to think anymore about stickers on cars and signs in yards. I just want to think about my part in making this country the best she can be. I am no longer an Obama supporter. I was one last night as I openly wept listening to our next president address the nation. But today? I am simply a US citizen who is suddenly so proud of her country she feels like she has no choice but to strive to make it the best it can be.

I had meant to write an entry by now for NaBloPoMo. Unfortunately, two things are going on today that are distracting me. First? The election. I can not think of anything else. I have cried 100 times already today - either out of pride or fear or hope. I can not even begin to discuss how amazing it felt to cast my vote for Obama with my teenage son looking on as I put my faith in a better future for him. Everytime I tried to write something it came out OBAMAOBAMAOBAMA and I was afraid that might get annoying.

The second thing distracting me? I seem to be working on a clogged duct in my right boob. My boob hurts beyond any pain I’ve experienced since the first weeks of nursing. My boob is also very hot. I keep going around saying, “My boob has a fever! My boob has a fever!” because evidently when election fever and boob fever are combined? Boob fever wins.

I’m going to spend some time elsewhere tonight - probably twitter - so I can discuss my anxiety with other Obama people.

In the meantime, can I please share with you a video that speaks to my soul. It stirs up amazing emotion in me and it embodies everything that has inspired me this election season. This video speaks of the hope Obama has stirred in me and I just felt I needed to share.

We all agreed on one thing this morning: The time changes ROCKS. (Yes, I’m aware I’m the minority with this view.) It is so much easier to get up and moving to leave the house by 6:20am if the sun is UP. Even though logically we know the rest of the world is sleeping, it’s easier to delude ourselves into thinking it’s a normal time to leave the house if the sun is already up. And on the flip side? It will make me feel much better about going to bed at 8pm if it has been dark for awhile already. I won’t feel like such a loser.

However…it won’t matter as I probably won’t be sleeping again. Because AndyZ has adopted some sort of weird behavior the last few nights and it is up to YOU to explain it to me.

For the last three nights, he will not sleep unless he is nursing. As in, if he wakes up and the boob is NOT in his mouth, he cries. During the day? He’ll take a pacifier. At night? He wants to nurse. Since he was eating a lot, I thought this was a growth spurt. But - his appetite hasn’t increased during the day. Can he be going through a growth spurt just at night? The pacifier, which pacifies him during the day, only pisses him off at night. I try to fool him by slipping it in as I remove the boob (is this TMI?) but he is having none of that. He’s no dummy! There’s no milk in that thing? GET IT OUT OF HIS MOUTH.

Three nights we’ve been doing this. I think tonight I’m going to test out a theory by putting him in his crib for a change. Instead of in our bed. Now - I need my sleep. If he wakes up just as often and can still only be soothed by nursing, then it will be back to bed with us. But - I’m suspicious that my presence so close to him is doing something in his subconscious, making him think he wants to nurse when he really doesn’t. Like, maybe my smell is confusing him in his sleep? Is this a good theory or is my exhaustion making me stupid?

Any bets on whether or not this will work? Whether he’ll still waking up consistently wanting to nurse? Or will I actually get to sleep for more than an hour at a time?