Metal Meredith

Bah Lovebug

Since my site has been lacking in updates as of late, I thought I would do a quick recap of the past few weeks:

Week of January 29th, our wall is finished and now I am stressing about doing the floor. We now have a bar at which to enjoy our meals (no more coffee table dinners, hooray), both kitchen and living room benefit from the sunlight they once hogged all to themselves, and I have cleaned the last layer of drywall dust off every piece of furniture. Now there is more painting to do, Phil has to put down baseboards and we must order the light fixture for over the bar. Luckily, we still haven’t received the bill for all this yet.

Week of February 6th, I catch Vivienne�s cold on Tuesday and feel like poo as Phil diligently works to get the office ready for the Open House on Thursday. Vivienne rolls off of her bed for the first time on Wednesday morning at 530am. I sleep through the screeching until 630am, when I get up and relieve Phil from Her Holy-Awakeness. Phil gets sick on Wednesday and we all cough and hack and feel gross until the weekend. Thursday is Suite C�s Open House. Lots of great food, more people than I thought possible to cram into the space and a few people who refer to Phil as �the Graphic guy�, which made me laugh and scowl all at once. I take Vivienne home way too late that night and she is a royal pain. Little did I know she would make me pay for this lack of sleep for the next 4 days.

Weekend starting Feb 10th, Vivienne starts to scream at school and does not stop until I come pick her up at 1045am instead of noon. There is no real reason for this outburst besides she is tired and giving a good bid for the Oscar. On Saturday and Sunday, Phil and I stay close to home because Vivienne is not only screaming, but refuses to poop, my child with the sphincter of steel. It has been 3 days and she is miserable, allowing us to share in every ridiculously grumpy mood.

Monday she stays home from school and is told she won�t be returning until she can see fit to rid herself of her backed-up-ness. She stays on the sofa all day watching Dora and not eating. At 6pm, Phil comes home and helps me administer (and I am sure you can guess where) the evil medicine that will force her to feel better. This lasts for a good 3 hours until she passes out. Phil misses his drawing class. My rank of favorite parent has been usurped by someone only known as �I want Daddy, I want Daddy, Where is Daddy, Daddy, Daddy, My Daddy?�

This is where you all say a small and quiet prayer that you weren�t me these past few weeks. I am not quite done feeling sorry for myself for not getting the proper amount of time to recover from my cold, for losing 2 days of childcare, therefore missing out on a few precious hours of freedom. It amazes me how much I can get accomplished in just 8 hours each week without my child. I have missed two trips to the post office and had to fight to keep a hair appointment. It is the little things that make weeks like these livable.

Now that the Open House has passed, Phil and I are concentrating on getting ready for our trip. We got the tickets today and looked up our hotels online. The Amsterdam hotel is a 4 star beauty on the canals (Phil tells me everything is on the canals, so it isn�t all that special) and looks lovely. The website boasts a multilingual staff, which is a good thing since words with more than 7 vowels make me a little nervous.

All in all we are excited and a little anxious about going. Although I am not a fan of Valentine�s Day, the trip is making me a little more tolerable. Of course, Saturday Night Live hit the nail on the head this past weekend with the skit about the teddy bear, �Not only is the little bear holding a heart available just about anywhere in the world, but, when used as a gift, it also shows that a man has put a lot of thought into his woman’s Valentine’s Day gift.�

I hope you get all the teddy bears holding hearts that you can handle.