Me-lancholy

Maybe it's the weather. Or maybe I've mysteriously lapsed back into the seventh grade. Or it could be that haze that I usually can outrun has caught up with me as it does from time to time.

Whatever it is, I'm feeling so inexplicably sad and lonely right now. With no good reason to, mind you. But it's the kind of thing when you keep checking e-mail, or looking at your phone, just in case there might be a message. Any message, but particularly one from someone you haven't heard from in a long time, or who just had to call to say how great you were. And each time, you look away, disappointed.

It's a lot like those junior high years, where a message scrawled by your mom on a notepad that so and so called - or worse, no note at all - could make or break your day.

The vast number of communications methods that can you mock you with their silence is worse now though, and if it's this way for a grown woman, I can only imagine being 13 again. Rejection for me was limited to staring relentlessly at the French phone in my room, willing it to ring. Now, kids can be snubbed on Facebook, on Twitter, by e-mail, by text message. And worse, there's no hoping that maybe they were just too busy to call. All those status updates proclaim otherwise.

As for me, I'll push through the haze, probably much in the same way I did back in seventh grade: sometimes sloppily, sometimes gracefully, and mostly stubbornly, all while listening to too much 1980's music. And eventually, I'll make that French phone ring.

Overheard in the Kitchen

After hearing a short gasp coming from the kitchen, C stated the following wisdom:

"It's not good when you see the blood and you don't feel the pain, is it?"

(Postscript: Thankfully, it was a near miss, and the culprit was more strawberry juice than blood.)

Don't go changing

Money doesn't just stay put. We get a big check, a big bonus, a big payoff, and invest it, and think we've moved our gamepiece to a new spot on the board.

If there's anything this economic mess has taught us, it's that a move from the "Sorry" game does exist. You can find yourself sliding back to start. Just because you know have $100 doesn't mean that $100 will be more tomorrow, like we've all experienced for the past few years.

I just realized friendships are the same way. I'm fortunate to have very dear friends, whom I still equate to value they were at when they first became strong, even decades ago. But it just dawned on me (not for any particular reason, just some insight), that, like investments, they need to be checked in on and maintained in order to remain solid, and hopefully grow.

A good lesson in both the currency of life and love.

Well of Inspiration

I'm starting a new category here. I read a ton of stuff for work, much of which is on workplace issues, how to improve your career, creativity, etc.

I realize I'm not putting them all in one place.

So now I am. Anything I read that I:

a) Want to return to again for inspiration or ideas or thoughts
b) Find myself going, a-ha! Really? Huh, interesting

I shall now gather up and stash here.

Here's the first one: Copyblogger has a great list of ways of How to Be Interesting.

Enjoy!

Rock of Love

How do you know your husband loves you?

He skips the Pajama Gram Valentine's Day gift and instead goes straight for Guitar Hero.

How do you know your husband really loves you?

He gives you Guitar Hero nearly a full week before Valentine's Day, as soon as he brings it home.

How do you know your husband really, really loves you?

He cracks up at your level of GH excitement, refrains (mostly) from making comments about his wife acting like a 12 year old boy, and lets you sleep in when Baby doesn't seem to understand that Mommy HAD to stay up until 3 a.m. desperately trying to defeat the Beastie Boys' "No Sleep 'Til Brooklyn." (Special note: ridiculous, in case you had any strange dreams last night, it was because I was silently channeling your Beastie knowledge, as my secret weapon.) And that she's grouchy because those last few chords were just too powerful even for Super Mommy.

Rock on.

A Week to Remember

This week has felt like a month.

My job often takes to me to fun, interesting and sometimes plain ol' crazy places. But this week may top them all.

Monday was a Creative Coalition cocktail party, where I interviewed Tim Robbins while simultaneously screaming incessantly to myself "Do NOT proclaim 'The Shawshank Redemption' one of the greatest movies of all time." (I did not.) Yes, Susan was there. No, I didn't talk to her. I was too busy trying not to mention "The Shawshank Redemption."

Tuesday was The Day. I started walking from my office in the direction of the Capitol at about 7:45 a.m., looking like the little kid who can't put his arms down in "A Christmas Story" with an Al Franken-like video set-up strapped to my back. I returned at 2 p.m., having been walking almost the entire time. In between, I witnessed a moment in history that many talented journalists have put into words better than I can. Suffice it to say, the sheer volume of patriotism made my heart sing.

Friday, I found myself standing on a runway at Andrews Air Force Base, with the plane that becomes Air Force One off in the distance. I myself was headed up in a fuel tanker to watch jet fighters refuel. Yes, I went to the Danger Zone. And it was awesome.

All in all, it was an exhausting week, a wild week, but most of all, a hopeful week, for so many, including me.

Mommy and Baby's Adventure

When C. went back to work, and I was first home alone with Baby, I started referring to our outings as adventures. Adventures could be anything from a simple trip to Target, or a more complex outing to a new little town on the Maryland's Eastern Shore that we had never experienced before. They were adventures in every sense of the word, definitely for Baby, but maybe just as much for Mommy, too.

Yesterday, Baby and I went on another adventure, both to give C. some peace and quiet and for us to get out, escape the cold and do something different.

Yesterday's big adventure was to Tysons Corner Mall. Laugh if you want, but anything with a 16 month old can be an adventure. You don't even have to try hard to make it so.

Our adventure included such exciting chapters as how to dress Baby on a 13 degree day so that he wouldn't freeze on the hike from the parking lot, but wouldn't be sweating once we got inside. We explored the wilds of Pottery Barn Kids, and all the toys they have in store (enjoy'em here, Baby, because unless we tap into what's left of our 401k's, they're not coming home with us right now). Baby got a chance to amuse his adoring female fans, as they gathered around him in Sephora to ogle his lovely eyelashes (no mention was made of sampling the mascara, but I think there were thoughts of it).

Then there was the venture into Tysons' version of Lord of the Flies: The kids' play area. (More on that in a separate post.) Did I mention that it was 13 degrees yesterday? Lots of cooped up, Inauration-trapped parents apparently had the same brilliant idea as me.

But perhaps the most exciting scene took place when we were just strolling through the mall. A large crowd of people usually hustling along, had all stopped around all sides of a kiosk. As I drew closer, I heard a familiar voice, and suddenly got chills: Everyone had stopped because the kiosk had flat screen monitors, which were all focused in on the words of the President Elect, as he spoke from the back of a 1930's caboose.

It was an adventure I'll remember, not just for a lovely day with my child, but for the words that stopped a crowd to unite for a moment in the hope for the future of our country.