I'm Kind of a Mess

This comes as a surprise to no one, of course, but today I'm focusing on just a single area of my messy disorganized life: Le Wardrobe. I love color and texture (and natural fibers!) and unique pieces, and while this all makes for one riotous spree through the thrift stores (FAVORITE. way to shop. EVAH), it doesn't exactly lend itself to an organized closet with a cohesive "theme" (and the ability to make many outfits out of few pieces). Also, there is this weird thing that I do where I don't wear any of my fun clothes, EVER, because...I don't really know why I don't get all fun colorful with my costumes on a daily basis. Lord knows, having only one kid, and a relatively easygoing one at that, I have ample time for creating outfits and maintaining the resulting laundry/upkeep. I have caught myself, on occasion, thinking "What if I want to wear that SOMEWHERE, LATER, and it's in the laundry?" Which is a extremely ridiculous reason to not wear ONE outfit out of an entire closet full of them, especially since, see above re: never wearing any of the fun things EVER. I am vast, and contain multitudes. And they all disagree with each other.

ANYWAY. Enter Louise. Louise came into my life last May, while I was visiting Portland for my nephew's Baptism (and, no doubt, wearing something boring. See above), and I will never ever forget it, because I saw her at Mass, where I was futilely hushing my then 18 month old son in the back of the church. The choir processed up to Communion first (so they could then sing for the rest of us while we received), and in the parade of billowing robes and solemn faces, I caught a flash of marvelousness on someone's feet. These shoes are unforgettable, even if you don't then acquaint yourself with their remarkable wearer, who is pretty amazing even in the least marvelous shoes (although I think she leaves the wearing of unmarvelous shoes to me. See above). I've been following her postings and feeling some rumblings of inspiration. And I think I'm ready (ALMOST) to follow her lead, and start getting all dolled up to go to the dry cleaners (or whatever it is that I do with my day...)! And because I am nothing if not adventurous (/stupid) I've decided to start with our two-week interstate tour of special occasions: a Dallas graduation and then another Portland jaunt, to celebrate wedded bliss.

THIS should be INTERESTING. :D

So Much To Say

...and no way to say it! Part of the timing of the Endless Yattering launch pivoted on the acquisition of Mama's new laptop. And we bought a netbook, and I was blissfully loading pictures onto it, and downloading skype (hello, seesters!) and customizing all the little settings that make the generic portable computing device one's own, when it happened: the little fudger started malfunctioning. And in a REALLY irritating way. I *could* work with it, but I feel that at almost thirty I am beyond the days of standing on one leg and using only my pinky fingers in order to make a technological gadget work. So to speak. If I can't use it regularly, I don't want it, is my motto.

So I have lots to say, and lots I want to share, but I can't, because I am sharing THIS while standing up at our entertainments center, which is pretty much the most uncomfortable and UN-CREATIVE way to express oneself through type EVER. So, until we acquire an actual Lap. Top. Computer. that won't start doing things like open random webpages while I'm in Word, posting will be sporadic. And it's OK that I am more sad about that than you. :P

A Snippet

The sentiments expressed herein can be summed up in a single facial expression, and it's the one that is often given me the first time that I mention that I am Catholic, Pro-Life, Pro-Natural Birth, Pro-Breastfeeding, or any combination of the above.

Because I'm a Pansy Princess

OK, no, really, am I being ridiculous, here? Yesterday at the UPS store, Teddy was sitting on his bum on the floor at my feet, quietly playing with his shoes (?) while I sent off all the Mother's Day gifts, plus a couple more packages (it was taking a while, and he was being VERY manageable, for which I am grateful, since it was naptime...) A woman came to stand in line behind the person behind me, and walked up to Teddy, telling me how cute he was, and started running her fingers through his hair. Luckily, blessedly, THANKFULLY, this did not set him off, as it could have, since he was so tired (last errand of the morning, I was really pushing to get it done), but it still really bugged me. I was polite to her and thanked her for the compliments, had Teddy thank her, too and finally was able to leave.

I was thinking about it off and on later, and I realized why I was bugged, and there are a couple reasons.

First, one never hears of someone just going up to people and starting to touch them unsolicited unless the touched person is a) pregnant, or b) a baby or a toddler. In the first case it is flat out rude, and not only because the area being touched is usually the stomach. (Why anyone would ever think that any woman wants to be touched on  her stomach by a complete stranger, whether she's pregnant or not, is totally beyond me, but anyway.) (Note: this never actually happened to me. A stranger did ask me if she could touch my stomach, and I couldn't help it: I looked at her like she had three heads before saying, "Uhhhhh, no?") In the second case, well, maybe it isn't "rude" (in my opinion, it is), but it is certainly a bad idea. The baby could have stranger wariness, and the last thing any mom needs is someone setting her baby off in public. Maybe the toddler is being taught to not allow people he doesn't know to touch him, and he could start shouting "Bad touch Mommy!" or something. (Or maybe, as in this case, Mommy is reminded to start teaching her toddler to not allow strangers to touch him. After yesterday, I'm considering training him to bite....no, not really...!)

Also, not to be all "our children our are speshul friends for us to nurture and protect their widdle feelings" about it, but, it really does seem to me that it's kind of disrespectful to run your fingers through a strange child's hair when you wouldn't (I assume she wouldn't, anyway) do the same to a strange adult..

What do you think? What would you have done or said?

Also, a portrait of a boy and his hair: