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procrastinating
We’re leaving tomorrow and I’m not one bit ready. I have to do laundry still and wash the car. I also have to pack some suitcases and figure out some kind of emergency fun kit for an eight hour road trip with a toddler.
What am I doing instead? (Besides typing this blog of course.) I’m sitting here making a Baby Bug calendar for 2008. Some of you asked how I made my calendar that you saw on my card wall of fame. I use Qoop through Flickr. They are decent quality for what they are.
Just make sure you don’t position your baby’s head on the page so she gets a punch hole right next to her eyeball and it looks like someone shot her in the head. I’m sure that was lots of fun for all my relatives to gaze at for the month of May.
Speaking of gazing, I’m also looking out my front door (that is a sliding glass door so I can look right through it) at a giant box. A giant box that is going to be a shelf (except it will be horizontal not vertical) in Baby Bug’s room to store all her toys. I’m so excited about it. I’d put it together myself right this minute if I could just lift the dumb thing. It seriously weighs 200 pounds. I know IKEA furniture is cheap but this shelf must be made of solid lead or compound wood matter or something. It is HEAVY. Or “Hehbby” as Baby Bug says.
I know I’m not supposed to be shopping at IKEA anymore after the great desk explosion of 2007 but where else am I supposed to get cheap furniture that I can track down in a single afternoon? I have no time for shopping or scouting out garage sales and Craig’s list anymore. I’ve snooped in the trash and there was NOTHING. Finally, I just buckled and bought exactly what I wanted for ONLY $79. You can’t beat that. Let’s just hope it isn’t made of lead or explodes.
I love IKEA and I hate IKEA. I love the simple lines of their furniture but I hate that it falls apart. I love that everything is affordable but I hate that they keep their prices low by cutting other places, like in the customer service department. I love their fun show room that you can walk around and pretend to play house in but I hate that you have to hoof three-thousand miles to get to your box of furniture in their warehouse. I also hate how when you are three thousand miles away down some long dark alley of towering boxes, there isn’t a soul around to help you lift a 200-pound box.
You see that box up there that Baby Bug is surfing on? I bought that all by myself. I mean ALL BY MYSELF. I did not speak to one human being from the time I walked into IKEA until the time I walked out. I didn’t even talk to one person in the parking lot as I teeter-tottered it into my trunk ALL BY MYSELF. Not a peep. Not counting Baby Bug of course. With her I had a running commentary about the whole episode.
I was just waiting for someone to say, “Please don’t let your child ride on top of the box while you wheel it down the aisle.” To which I would reply, “Oh! Please help me! Can you push my cart so I can wrangle my toddler and get this GIANT box to check out? Please! Please! Somebody pleeeeeeeese help me! Anybody!”
But no. Nobody helped me. Nobody even cared that Baby Bug surfed on top of a 200-pound box on top of a wheely cart. We were fine-and-dandy just helping ourselves because we are fancy-free and independent like that. Plfffff. I actually made three trips in and out of IKEA, checking the size the 200-pound box and the size of my 200-pound car to make sure that one could fit inside the other. I wasn’t sure.
I wheeled that thing through self check-out, wrangled Baby Bug before she teeter-tottered off the end of the 200-pound box and wheeled it right out the door with my receipt without speaking to a single soul. It was so un-American. But hey, it only cost $79. I guess I got what I paid for.
And that is what I am thinking about instead of packing my suitcases. I am not putting the bookcase together no matter how badly I want to. I’m leaving it for my Dad who will be staying in our house for a day while we are gone. My mom is house-sitting and my Dad will be home from the road for one night. Of course he wants to spend it putting together a bookshelf! That’s what Dads are for.
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Feeling Festive!
It’s beginning to feel a lot like Christmas around here. I think I’m finally finding my Christmas groove. As you know, I didn’t grow up with Christmas so all this decorating and candy-cane eating is a little foreign to me. For years I’ve been fascinated with it but never really felt like I got it. I understand people like to make things cozy and festive but where do you store all this crap when Christmas is over? That’s been my biggest hang up.
This year we are not spending Christmas at home. That means no tree. The tree is the best part for me. It’s big and pretty and it smells divine! I LOVE fresh tree smell! The best part for me though is that when Christmas is over, you can just throw it away! No storage dilemmas!
I don’t mean to be environmentally irresponsible or anything. I know there are all kinds of politics about recycling trees, planting them or using something fake over and over BUT I just love a real tree! Someday I will have a yard and I will plant my real trees. I’ll have groves of them when I’m old. But right now I’m all for making the landfill smell a little better. Please don’t kill me!
Anyway, I’ve been thinking about decorating our house a little bit because it’s fun and we’re here right up until Christmas anyway. We aren’t actually leaving to spend the holidays up north until the night before or something. So why live in a boring old apartment when you can walk to the Christmas tree lot down the street and bring home some branches!
Yes! There is a Christmas tree lot within walking distance of my house! How fun is that? Baby Bug and I had a lot of fun there the other night poking around in the rain and bringing home a handful of FREE branches. I would have taken pictures but it was raining and I was having quite a time of it holding the umbrella, Baby Bug and my branches.
The branches are not quite a tree but they do smell lovely AND they’re disposable. No storage! I wanted to make a wreath with them but I don’t have the patience to bend a hanger into a circle. I’ve tried it other years and it was just foolishness. Hangers do not come in circles for a reason and I am not a welder. I am just not She-Ra enough. That’s all I have to say.
Then there is my Christmas Card Wall of fame. It’s terribly cluttered but I like it. At least I like it until January when I will rip it off the wall with that fresh-clean-sweep feeling. Christmas clean-up is so rewarding that way. Maybe I’m just a nut.
I didn’t mean this post to be about my on-going battle against entropy; it just sort of seeps in when I’m not looking. I think I’m back-lashing against the season of shopping. Christmas is about clutter and I HATE clutter.
But that doesn’t mean I’m not a sucker for buying things. Check out the giant hedgehog I bought Baby Bug. I love it! I think I love it more than she does. Isn’t it so cute? It’s fun to flop on too. You can throw yourself on it like a bean bag and it makes a satisfying “fwomp” sound. I think everyone should rush out and buy one. Just think of the fun you could have with this at the office! Launch pad anyone?
If I had to pick a mascot for the season, I’d pick a hedgehog. I know everyone loves penguins and owls but in my book hedgehogs are IT. I don’t even know what they are. I don’t think I’ve even seen one in real life. I just know they are cute. If I had more time I would develop a whole line of hedgehog greeting cards. Maybe I’ll do that next year.
I wanted to make a free downloadable Christmas card for you guys this year but I think it’s too late. What happened to December? Is this what it’s like to have a life? Remember when I was pregnant and I was bummed because I had no plans and I just sat around with my fat self feeling all lonely and bored? Those days are gone. I don’t need a social life, I have a kid!
Everything that ever matters is happening right in my own living room now.
