Let the Freak Outs Begin

Since I have a spouse who likes to collect stuff and doesn't realize how much stuff he has, and I have a son who is no good at transitions, and I have a dog who is very protective and three cats who are stuck in their ways, I'm the person who has to keep the "crap" under control in our house. I think every household has this person, if there are more than one person in the house. The one who makes sure holy socks get thrown away (I guess in olden days they'd "darn" them, but now I just go buy new ones).

This week, MacTroll and I are giving away our king-sized bedframe to a friend of ours. X-man very rarely climbs into bed with the two of us, we instead walk him back to his bed and lay down with him. He's not a baby any more. There's no need for the extra space for the sometime visitors. And, honestly, sometimes I feel there's a giant canyon at night between MacTroll and I. The dog likes to fill in that space, but I don't what her there. I want the canyon to go away.

So, we moved our queen-sized bed frame into our bedroom this morning after walking X-man to school. I'm wiping down the old frame and carrying it down to the garage. This Saturday, I will transport it up to my friend and her husband and their two little girls.

The guest bed has a mattress that's a bit old, and it suffered in our move from Virginia to Illinois 10 years ago (ripped a bit). So, we're going to run out next week when MacTroll is home all week (he leaves today for California) and get a new one for it. We figured it would be cheaper on this end than on the other end.

But it also means that if I take three pictures off the wall, I can pretty much close the guest room door and never enter it again until we move. One room -- empty -- and ready to belong to the new family.

We close on this house on June 21, but the housing selection in California has been kind of slow in the neighborhood that is our first choice. We have schools identified that fit the bill for X-man, but we need to go out and drive around the neighborhoods again. So, MacTroll and I are headed out there on April 20-23. We'll likely have to go back again in May, but when we do, we're going to take X-man, because he's starting to have some issues with the transition. This is not to be expected. This is a major life change. It helps him to know that what is going on and when as much as he can. So he can repeat it to himself and get more comfortable with the idea, even though his acceptance last fall is starting to turn into anxiousness. And I admit, it's hard not knowing where you're going to sleep on the other side. But I want him to feel included when we go.

And we'll see where we land.

A Wet January

Because giving up dairy wasn't enough of a crimp in my style, I've also decided to only drink water for the month of January. I want to see if I can do it. I can still cook with soy milk, but everything liquid has been ice water. I haven't even gone the tea route.

It's not hard. But I have had a lot of moments where I want to reach for MacTroll's beloved Cherry Coke Zero on the counter for a sip and then think, "Oh yeah!"

I'm terrible at hydrating. I always have been. But I'm working on it.

Museum Disappointments

Today I took X-man to the Children's Discovery Museum in Normal, IL. We've visited every 6-12 months since X-man was 15 months old. In a way the museum has kind of grown with him. It was heavy in building materials when he was Bob the Builder Crazy. We used to have to tear him away from the train table when he was a toddler. They built an Avanti's pizza shop exhibit when he got into cooking when he was 3. And at 4, he suddenly was interested in farming and physics. Now at 5, he enjoyed playing in every exhibit that was open to him. They're replacing the water table, which is nice to see. And he will always be totally into the grocery store concept.

But the main humdinger came when we checked in at the desk. The Association for Science and Technology Centers Reciprocal membership, which is one of the main perks for purchasing an Orpheum Science Museum in town, has changed their radius rules for free entrance into other museums. The way the Association works is that members of certain children's museums can pay more for their memberships, but they can use them at other science and children's museums around North America. We've used them all over Illinois, California, Pennsylvania, Maryland and Ontario. It saves a heap of money in the big cities where getting in is often well over $15 per person, and where parents usually follow their toddlers or pre-schoolers while they run from exhibit to exhibit in overexcited glee. The old rule was that you could get free access to any museum over 50 miles away. Therefore, we could get in free in Normal and in Decatur. The new rule is that the museum has to be over 90 miles away. By shear luck, the person at the desk didn't seem to care and just checked us in, even when she checked my photo ID. But next to the check in was a flyer. I saw the 90 miles in bold and flipped out. I picked up the flyer and double checked at the ASTC web site when I got home. And sure enough... the membership rules had changed.

When X-man was smaller, we visited the other cities enough that it was definitely a worthwhile purchase to get a Super Family Membership at the Orpheum. Now that he's bigger, he's outgrowing some of the exhibits in the children's museums downstate. He was the perfect age for a lot of the exhibits up at the Chicago Museum when we were there in March, however. I guess when we go to make our membership purchase next spring, we'll have to really consider how many museums we'll visit over 90 miles away. Now that X-man is in school, we'll obviously be doing less traveling. So, it's likely paying the $125 won't be worth it. Then we have to ask ourselves how often we use the Orpheum and if paying the $60 family membership is worth it for club and camp discounts. Mmmmmm...

All I know is that if I still had a child under 4 and was prone to needing to get him out of the house to somewhere new and different during the very long winter, I'd be disappointed that I had to pay in Decatur and Bloomington after not having to pay previously.

Metamorphosis

I'd like to say that I'm growing as a person, but lately I've been feeling more like I'm shrinking. I'm feeling a need to start over on many, many levels. And when I can't control something, I change what I can. When I was young, this usually meant rearranging a mass amount of furniture in my room. Alas, I don't have that much furniture to move in my house. So, I've been eyeing buying new furniture.

The flooring folks, this time from Flooring America near Meijer (they had the gray laminate I was hoping for) come to install on November 22. The week after, I'll (hopefully) be dropping X-man off at the Ikea kids room on a Tuesday and running around picking up items for my new room. Maybe a fuzzy rug, a small desk, etc. All the little stuff that I can fit in the car with him in his car seat. Tomorrow, I get to call the painters and get on their schedule.

But I've also been looking at new kitchen tables. I want a 60"x60" light wood table that will seat two small benches and 4 chairs in my kitchen. I'd also love a new light wood table in my dining room. I keep changing the house, because I feel helpless to change other parts of my life. And yet, I know, that sooner or later, the change is going to come, whether I like it or not.

People have a way of evolving that way...

From bankrupt state to bankrupt state

If you don't know by now, MacTroll works for a large company based out of the Bay area in California. He loves his job and according to his last review, his manager seems to really like him. But a repeating sentence has been being said to him for the last two years, "If you want to move up, you'll have to move to California."

The idea makes me wince. I'd much rather move to the other large corporate location for his company in Austin. No one has made any promises or set any time tables, but MacTroll and I are coming around to the idea that it would probably behoove us to start thinking or accepting the prospect that something might happen sooner or later. I hate suburbs. I hate miles and miles of concrete with people driving on it. I'm either suited for city where people walk and have mass transit or I'm suited for small town. Plus, I hate giant highway systems. Driving 95 on the East Coast used to give me road rage so bad that when I was pregnant and heading from Baltimore to Philadelphia, I almost took out two assholes at the rest area because they couldn't freaking hold a door open for an elderly person with a walker. They just let it slam in her face. Forget please and thank yous. Forget driving less than 80 mph. Forget turn signals. There are just too many damn people -- who appear to feel somehow entitled to ignoring everyone else. Such behavior goes against my midwestern sensitivities. It's no different outside Chicago, though. Or LA. Or Miami. Or any other suburb area I've ever driven.

The Bay area hits me as one big suburb. One big suburb that is overpriced and overpopulated. In November, MacTroll has some crazy conference where he'll be working from 7 a.m. until 2 a.m. every day. Since I'm a single parent most days, I figured it was a good a time as any to get my bearings. So, X-man and I are heading to San José for three days. We'll arrive Sunday and hopefully get some time with MacTroll's brother and his family. Then X-man and I will have Monday to explore. I'm not sure if I'll drive down to Monterey or maybe to Santa Cruz or possibly even just around San José and Santa Clara. I can check out neighborhoods, park systems, crowd issues...

Then on Tuesday, X-man and I were thinking children's museum, IMAX theater and possibly an NHL game that night. We'd fly out of SFO in the morning. (Yes, San José has an airport, but all the seats were full using mileage to get us out there.)

So we'll explore, take pictures, jot down our thoughts and try to have some fun. And maybe, if we're lucky, we'll wake up just enough when MacTroll comes into the room at 2 a.m. and kisses us both on our foreheads.

Changes

I had a physical therapy appointment on Wednesday morning at Carle Foundation Hospital. On my way to my appointment, I stopped to use the bathroom on the 3rd floor. A woman in her late 50s-early-60s was coming out of the men's room mumbling about poor signage. She lead me into the women's restroom after looking briefly at the door and shaking her head.

I noticed this, but didn't really comprehend what the issue was. I just thought it was a simple mistake. So, I went in, did my business, washed my hands singing the Happy Birthday song twice after reading a blog article the day before on rampant infections spread at hospitals (I know Rogers and Quigs are so proud of my random germaphobe thought since I'm the mother of the kid who eats everything he drops on the floor. Don't judge! You try and stop him. Seriously, I've been bitten enough by him this lifetime.) When I walked out of the bathroom, I almost ran smack into another woman, around the same age as the one I had gone into the bathroom with who was staring down the men's room door.

"Why do they put the baby changing sign on the men's door, too?" She said aloud to no one in particular. "It's confusing." 

Ahhhhhhhh. 

Times have changed. 

Before and After

By demand of Quigs...

Before

After

If you're looking for a stylist, I'd recommend Jenn Buck at Limited Edition Hair Salon in Savoy.