I've recently taken up running. And I kind of hate it. It's boring and it sucks, but it is a quick form of exercise that you can do anywhere. And when we were snowed in I could even do it on the wii and run around their pretend island. But I was complaining to Doug about it yesterday and said, "seriously, the only time I want to be running is when I'm running away from a bear."
I started a new medication that has a warning on the side of the bottle that says "call your doctor if you notice sudden mood changes, depression, sadness, or fear." After reading that last night I said to Doug, "I get the sudden mood changes or depression, but sadness, what if I should be sad? Like what if something bad happens?" And Doug replied with, "or what if something genuinely frightening happens? Like you see a bear?" And I said "exactly. Should I sit around and wonder, am I afraid of this because of my migraine medication or am I genuinely afraid of this? Should I call the doctor and ask if it is ok to be afraid this?"
And Doug, said "maybe that would be a good time to run."
It is probably a really good thing we married each other, because very few other people would think we were funny.
We do this fun thing at MamaPop where we wax on poetically about one topic or another and we call it the MamaPop Roundtable. It is one of my favorite things that we do.
This week the topic was to pick our favorite pop culture topic of the week and talk. I talked for 3 minutes about Tiger Woods. Apparently I have a lot to say. The brilliant Palinode edited me, as he should, because there are a lot of us talking.
It took me months to get comfortable with me on video. My voice, my hair, and UGH, I look fat! But I loved my little rant. So I decied to post it unedited here. Enjoy. How can you not love air quotes?
I don't like the Olympics. I just don't. Okay, actually, I have nothing against the Olympics but the coverage is so g-ddamn annoying. The other night I turned it on and they were showing bears. Bears. Are bears an Olympic sport? It is like 5 minutes of Olympic coverage for 20 minutes of Bob Costas. And bears.
But 2 nights ago there was nothing else on and the Olympics were all a twitter and I got sucked into snowboard cross. First of all, this is a sport? Since when? And an Olympic sport? And then I stayed up until midnight to find out if the Chinese married ice skaters who have been trying for 18 years to win a gold medal won. 18 YEARS. 18 YEARS. I know, because Bob Costas told me, every 5 minutes.
Doug, who also doesn't get into all the Olympic hoopla was like, what the hell are you doing? And I'm like, "SNOWBOARD CROSS AND BEARS AND 18 YEARS. And Canada has never won a Gold at home and they just did and it was a moment and I may have shed a tear. And I'm not Canadian. And I have no idea what the Gold was for. But it was lovely." And he rolled his eyes. But he should shut up because he still cries at the miracle on ice hockey game that he will watch voluntarily on ESPN classic whenever it is on. Or, just the movie can make him cry. (Newsflash, they win.)
So last night I turned the Olympics on, voluntarily, not even under duress, to find out if whatsherface who lost the female snowboard cross last Olympics won this time. (Not that I watched a minute of the last winter Olympics or even for that matter, know where they were.) I think it's time to admit I'M ALL IN. I'M POT COMMITTED. FINE, ALL YOU OLYMPIC PEOPLE, YOU WIN. But I refuse to care about the summer Olympics. That is my line in the sand. Because I still need one. Apparently.
I confess, I watched the Oprah with all the Mommy bloggers. I have no idea why. I don't watch Oprah. I take that back, I rarely watch Oprah. I don't read Dooce, and I have never idea who the rest of them were. And I've never seen a Momervasation. But I got sucked in by the ad and I DVRed it.
And feel free to flame me now, and yell at me in the comments, but I hated it. I thought it was a bunch of people whining for no reason. You don't want a mini van? Don't get one. You don't want to do arts and crafts? Don't do them.
Of course motherhood is hard. I would never say it wasn't. But sitting around and whining about it and joking about it isn't going to make it any easier. Oprah has an amazing platform to talk about things we could do to make motherhood easier and she wasted it on on not showering and wanting take out. So take a shower and order dinner.
Let's talk about public breast feeding laws, and the fact that in Canada you get a year of leave, and the difference between paternity and maternity leave. Let's take about health insurance coverage and whether school schedules actually allow moms to work. Let's talk about why moms are so competitive with each other and why when kids come into the picture we stop paying attention to our partners.
Let's talk, let's really talk. Because whining is not going to make a difference.
I'm not anti talking about it. I'm not saying we always have to be positive and never speak the truth. But let's be constructive. I don't let my four year old whine, and I don't think moms should whine either.
And yes, I fully expect none of these people to talk to me at BlogHer. And I'm okay with that. I'm entitled to my opinion. That's why I have a blog.
I felt like it was important to commemoratethis. Because for the rest of my life, the Superbowl will remind me of the night Michael was admitted to the hospital.
And I will forever be grateful that if Michael had to be admitted to the hospital on Superbowl Sunday, it was not the year the Steelers were in the Superbowl.
Something tragic happened last week. No, not this, my tivo died. And then I had a 45 minute argument with DirectTV where I explained to them that if the equipment no longer works, and I have the protection plan, they need to send me new equipment. Makes sense, right? I thought so. It took 45 minutes and 5 people before someone agreed to send me a DVR. And yes, I said DVR, and not tivo, because DirectTV and tivo had some fight and they no longer work together.
I no longer have tivo. I have some stupid generic DVR thingie that totally bites. The menu makes no sense and is totally counter intuitive. It took me 15 minutes to figure out how to make it record something longer than the guide said it was going to be. Sometimes football games go long and Doug would have my head if he missed the end of the Steelers game. And don't even get me started on the non "season pass" season passes. And why can't I get it to to list my recorded shows alphabetically? Most recently recorded does not help me FIND IT.
I do have to admit I totally yelled at it for something that was not its fault. It didn't record Desperate Housewives. I know, I'm the only person left on the planet still watching Desperate Housewives. I figured it was because new sucky non tivo tivo didn't realize it could record two programs at once on different channels and then I realized I hadn't told it to record Desperate Housewives. Fine, user error. But the DVR still sucks. It has all these blue lights that glow and move around and light up. Doug calls it Kit the DVR.
I miss my tivo so much. I miss the little smiley tivo guy and the bong bong noise he makes when he starts.
Its like losing a family member I tell ya.
Fine, I admit it, I'm a TV junkie. To be more accurate, I'm a tivo junkie. I live, live, live for tivo and when it broke, I cried for days. So, when Yoplait and Parent Bloggers Network asked what I couldn't live without, the answer was easy, tivo.
Look, it's not just for me. It's not just so I can watch the shows I want to watch after Michael goes to bed, and I watch some really bad TV. It's also for Michael. Michael has no idea, and will probably never know, that TV has a schedule. When he asks for Blue's Clues, I give him Blue's Clues. The problem is he has started to ask for shows I don't tivo and I'm not sure what to do about that. Shows I've never heard of. I suspect his little friends at school are talking about them? Otherwise I have no idea.
If tivo was a person I may leave my husband for it. It's definitely my second favorite thing in the world behind my iphone.
1. I love High School Musical. The first, the second, the concert, the musical, the reality show, and I can't wait for the major motion picture! Granted, I do all these things with my 7 year old nephew, but still, pitiful.
2. My favorite item of clothing is my Juicy sweat suit.
3. I love Gossip Girl.
4. I can't wait for the new version 90210.
5. I still watch Dawson's Creek reruns. (Maybe I just have bad taste in TV).
"If you are really honest about what you want out of life, life gives it to you."
End of Season 2, and I, am caught up. Not that I picked D or anything.
Legen-dary.
