Ignoring Lao Tzu

If you noticed in today's Quote of the Day (look to the right, folks,) you'll notice that the strength is in the silence and I completely and totally agree. In fact, I've been silent a lot lately, a lot more than I usually am. I have taken Willie Nelson's advice when he says, "Never miss a good opportunity to shut up." I wish like hell some other people would avail themselves of that little bit of wisdom, but I digress. Silence is a good thing, but since it's a new thing for me, my friends are starting to freak out and think that I've been abducted by aliens or something, so today I'm speaking out. You know, just a few things on my mind. No big whoop.

Sushi is just as good at 10am as it is at 8pm. At least it was today. I've got one raging case of PMS and it was either sushi or a shotgun and, well, there's no application process or waiting period for the Full Moon Combo.

Speaking of waiting periods, you might recall that I have to take the online defensive driving course to avoid getting points on my license after my little fender crunch. Today I signed up for one of the courses and started the process. Again, no big deal. It's a course with 7 chapter exams and then a final exam. It mentioned that it was a 7 hour course. HA HA I thought. I'm a freaking fast reader and test well, so I figured that I'd be in and out in a couple of hours max. WRONG! The damned course is timed! Yes, indeedy, you cannot move on past each page until a certain amount of time has lapsed. Seriously, I think they must assume it takes folks 2 days to read a single paragraph. Stealth can read faster than this and he is 4! It is torturous to have to wait. Thank you, Sweet Elvis, for iTunes, online games, herbal antidepressants, whatever. JEEZE LOUISE, folks. Mind numbing, I tell you.

My beloved yoga class has been moved from 6pm to 4pm. CRIKEY, talk about childcare crunch, eh? I'm going to try to take Duck and Stealth with me today. DDFF will be there and she is bringing Garoo and Filbert - I'm hoping they all can play nice for an hour or so. And I'm also hoping that my little yogi, Duck, doesn't come bursting in and trying to attend class with me. Don't get me wrong, there's nothing that pleases me more than watching my little man twist and breathe and bend, but Mama needs some time.

My kids are obsessed with cars now. Yep, all kinds of cars. They know makes and models and scream with delight when they see something new. This, of course, thrills B to no end. My. Dear. Lord. PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE at least let us get a female dog.

I taught some friends of mine private childbirth ed classes this week (DDFF, muscle yaki on me, Mama.) Five and a half hours of talking and demonstrating and teaching and answering questions and watching videos and breastfeeding my Jerry Garcia doll. GAH!! It was a great class, but I have to admit that I feel it was wasted on the couple I was teaching. They are rather well off and prefer to do things privately so I believe they wanted me to teach them because they knew I would come to their house and do it privately, not because of what the class entailed. It was strange - like they were taking this class because they felt obligated to because "that's what pregnant people do" and not so much because they cared to learn anything. Or maybe they just didn't want to learn what I was teaching. Maybe they wanted to learn how to let their OB walk all over them. Maybe they wanted to learn how long it takes from saying, "I want the epidural" to getting the needle in their spinal column. Maybe they wanted ... I don't know what they wanted. It seems to me that they would have benefited more from the generic, bland hospital classes that don't really teach you anything other than how to be a good (read: compliant) patient. Regardless, I enjoyed spending the time with them, I enjoyed the money I earned, and I think that at least a few things sunk in. I just wish everyone were as passionate about this kind of stuff as I am - I wish people would learn to care BEFORE instead of after.

So Erzulie is having some issues and here it is, nearly her first birthday. Truth be told, I'm not sure it's Erzulie that is having the problems. I noticed a few weeks ago that I was having trouble getting some songs to sync from iTunes onto 'Zulie. It would get stuck, hang up on songs, and just get all pissy. SO I did a bunch of reading in the iTunes Forums and came up with the idea that perhaps I needed to get a new cable to connect it to my computer. Makes sense - the cable that came with it has been run over by the wheels of my desk chair a bazillion times and slammed into metal drawers and probably the wires inside are all gnarled up. So I went and spent $25 for a new cable yesterday - to find that it still got hung up on a song or two, but *not the same songs* that hung it up before. So now I don't know if the problem was the cable or if it's something else. I don't know whether to return the new cable and get my money back or if I should keep it. DAMMIT. I hate being up in the air.

I've not said one thing about this next topic yet. I'm going to say one thing and one thing only and I'm only going to say it once. Here it is. I've been hearing sooooooooooooo much about Anna Nicole and Britney Spears lately. I mean, it's everywhere. It's on the news, on the radio, in the papers, and all over people's blogs. What I find absolutely hysterical, however, is how many people are writing and complaining or making fun about how it's all over the news and papers and it's all anyone talks about. It's so absurd. Here's the deal folks - you are just as responsible for it being such a media spectacle as CourtTV, E!, NBC, People Magazine, etc. Media outlets write about it because there are folks like you out there that care about it. Think you don't really care? Then why in the hell are you taking time out of your day to write about it, talk about it, post about it, ask about it, care about it?????? If you are really interested, really concerned, then by all means, learn about it, talk about it, care about it, But don't sit there and say how horrendous it is that it's all anyone talks about and then obsess about it yourselves! Gimme a break, eh? End of rant.

It's so funny how things change. I spent Monday at JP's house and we had a clothing swap. She's gained some weight (and looks fabulous - she was too thin for too long,) and I've lost some weight, so we both cleaned out our closets and traded. By the end of the day, she got 7 new pair of pants / jeans and probably 5 shirts and I got 4 pair of jeans, a pair of khakis and a pair of brown pants that I love. Recycling at it's best.

Spring is coming - it's nearly here. HALLE-FUCKING-LUJAH!!! Sorry folks, this one deserves to remain unedited.

Tax refunds - one down, one to go. SCORE!

I got a great purple silk pillow yesterday for my bed for 75% off. Here's my public service announcement - If you see anything purple that is 75% off and it doesn't sing "I love you, you love me," BUY IT!!!!!! Purple is good mojo and we all know that we could all use the good mojo we can get.

I've knitted 4 baby hats in as many days. Heh. Babies. They're cute, they're adorable, they are NOT mine!!! I'm really looking forward to being an aunt again. Just a few more weeks and B & D are gonna have their little Nameless Wonder. YAY!

I need a haircut.
I need a massage.
I need a vacation.
But first...

I need a shower.

Later!