Metal Meredith

Like I have mentioned before, I am on a message board with 50 other women. We became friends on one of those public baby sites where all of our kids were born in June of 2003. After all hell broke loose, we decided to take our little circle of people and go private.

Every year for the past four, we have done a swap during the holiday season. We do not allow gifts for the kids, because we figure kids get enough crap. We just do one for each other. This year is no different.

I enjoy setting these things up. I like the work of hashing out a plan, setting up a time line and instructions and making it all happen. Sometimes without errors, most of the time with a few, it call comes together and I get to enjoy the Thank You posts on the board with photos of what people have received.

I am selfish in the fact that I like who people swap with to be a secret. I like to buy for one person and receive from another. It is always more fun to not know who might be shopping with you in mind. To get that present on the doorstep and have no idea what might be inside is pretty cool. I have also been lucky enough to swap with my friend in New Zealand two times now. Nothing is more fun than getting items that can’t be found at my local Target. I love to buy local for gifts that are being sent away.

This post really has no other function than to show you what a freak I am when it comes to organizing this thing. Everyone thanks me and says it is ‘such a big job’, but I just love it. I have a system that changes yearly. Allowing myself to become completely focused on creating an even exchange list lets me get away from the every day life that is my family and house.

I believe that I have a sickness. I have always enjoyed ‘busy work’ and puzzles. This is just the best of those worlds, combined. Perhaps I have a future in party planning or corporate contact organization.

I will fully admit, I love living in the suburbs. So now, I will probably get a swift and immediate refusal letter from the ‘cool people organization’ that I have been campaigning to join for years.

Once, I lived in the city and loved it. It was my first apartment, a 12 unit building built long ago. I occupied number 5, downstairs in the back. I had a parking space outside my door. I would leave leftovers from Starbucks on the top of the garbage bins for the homeless guys that lived in my alley. I walked to the coffee shop and the local restaurant/bar on snow days, when the rest of the city was incapacitated. Phil rode his bike from his house to mine when the weather permitted.

I was in my 20s. I was childless and husbandless and worked my 40+ hour a week job. I loved being where all the action was. Now that I am a wife, mother and in need of diapers and earache drops at 10 at night, being a cool kid never meant so little.

A new Target opened up on October 14th, less than .5 miles from my house. I can only listen to one song on the iPod before landing at the front doors. I watched the darn thing being built for months and months. Vivienne commented each time we passed it. We packed up the family on grand opening day, drove the 3 minutes it took to get there and took a look. I took pictures, Vivienne acted like a goober, Phil tried to convince me to buy a plasma TV and remote helicopter, and Henry ate Cheerios in his stroller. We went down as many isles as the kids could handle. It was great.

I realized shortly after that I love the suburbs. I do. I freely admit it. I love being able to jump in the car and get gas, diapers, food, furniture, a tan, a cell phone, a manicure, screws, and a super jumbo 50 roll pack of toilet paper within a 10 mile area. Urban sprawl sucks and I don’t see the need for one more strip mall with a Verizon Wireless, tanning salon and nail place. But I am a total liar if I didn’t admit to doing a giddy happy dance when I saw that an Old Navy is coming near my house. I dare any of the cool city kids to promise they wouldn’t drive the 25 minutes it will take them to peruse the new Whole Foods that will be opening 10 minutes from my house.

We went to the Apple Festival today near Charlottesville. Phil and I fantasized about living on one of the farms, in the rolling, plush hills of western Virginia. It all looked so peaceful and serene and quiet. Then Vivienne whined about being hungry as she watched Dora from the back seat, Henry needed a bottle and a nap and Phil was telling me about needing a better wireless connection. Then we headed back, happily. 

I am going to give this a try all the while cheating on this first post (and posting it on Nov 2nd).

It is National Blog Posting Month where people try to post every day for the month of November. Trust me, you will inevitably see a lot of photos, which is unfair. But as a mother of two, who is currently suffocating under the task of catching up the husband’s accounting after allowing it to fester since....*cough* March *cough*.....I will be posting when my mind feels like it needs a reboost into the land of the alphabet from the land of numbers.

Until then, enjoy this logo:

And visit the ridiculous site that the logo is referring to: I Can Has Cheezeburger.

Vivienne did a great job picking out my presents. Phil took her to Target where she picked out a few things for me. She insisted on getting me chocolate, because it is my favorite. She chose a mint chocolate bar, because I like mint.

It was ‘Intense Mint’.

She also picked out some slippers that just scream “Meredith!!!”