Wednesday, October 29, 2008

"it never rains in sou-thern ca-li-for-nee-ya..."




Oops, it's been a while since I've added any new posts, I've had a few great ops for posting some funny crap on here, but was too lazy I guess to actually get on and do it. I'm trying to be better at it, and now that Jay got me my own laptop, hopefully I will be.



Right now we're in sunny So Cal for a wonderful week while Jay does some training for his new job in Poo-SoN! I'm so excited to be moving there. not. At least I get this little retreat to my favorite place at the taxpayers expense (thank you, everyone!).



Mia has been good considering how crazy our lives have been living out of hotels and suitcases and not having much of a routine.



It was really easy adjusting to Jay being home, at first, but now we're over that "honeymoon" phase and starting to have "differences of opinions." Not too horrible, and I think the stress we're both under to move to a foreign country without our official orders complete may have something to do with it.



The weather has been incredible here. We are in Long Beach, just a few minutes on PCH from Huntington Beach. I love going there and watching the surfers, it's calming for me. But Mia doesn't care for sand between her toes and I have a hard time getting her to sit still with me. I would love for her to be a baby who likes to dig in the sand, but she doesn't like it touching any surface of her body, so it hasn't been working out the way I'd like. Oh well, I just wonder if I should be laughing out loud at her the way I do... she should work on not being so cute when she cries about the sand and desperately tries not to touch it even though we're surrounded by it. Have you ever put foil on a cat's paws and watched their reaction? It's hilarious, and Mia reminds me of that with the sand.



Now that everyone knows my penchant for cruelty toward animals and children, allow me to describe my love for shopping, even when I'm piss ass broke (like now). Right across from our hotel is Loehmann's (ooh-oooh), a discount clothing store for designer labels, and I've been there, not everyday, but most days this week. I bought a few items I have decided to keep and have returned items twice after deciding they don't look quite right after trying them on back at the hotel. I can't try things on there b/c Mia doesn't allow me that luxury while shopping.



Speaking of Mia and Loehmann's... let me tell you a funny little story. The little booger has a leash b/c she doesn't like to stay in her stroller and she refuses to stay next to me. I forgot her leash at the hotel and had her in the stroller on my first outing to Loehmann's and what did she do? She threw a fit until I released her from the stroller straps and started running around. At first it was fine, annoying, but fine, b/c she ran around the racks of clothes I was looking at, but then, quite suddenly, I couldn't hear or see her and realized she had disappeared right before my eyes.



Picture crouded, overstuffed racks and racks of disarrayed clothes everywhere and me running between them with my arms full of potential buys, pushing an empty stroller, quietly calling, "Mia! Mia, where are you? Mia, Mommy doesn't think this is funny, stop hiding from me!" I was embarrassed to be one of "those" moms who lose their kids at the store and didn't want to call too much attention to myself. Luckily the doors to the store ring loudly whenever someone walks in or out of them and I had a vantage point of the doors where I went to make sure Mia didn't make it in or out of the store.



But my heart was beating too fast, I was starting to hyperventilate, and I could feel the adrenaline and fear pulsating throughout my body. Finally, (like, 2 minutes later) I hear a lady laughing and I guess she recognized the panic in my face b/c she asked me, "is this your little girl?" "Oh, Thank God!" I responded and the lady giggled as she told me Mia was looking at a purse saying, "cute bag, cute bag..." but as soon as Mia saw me, she took off from the purses and ran into the ladies laungerie section to get away from me. Obviously, she thought we were playing a game, and I should have scolded her but I was just relieved to see she was okay.



So as I was casually walking after her, concentrating on slowing my heartrate and breathing down, a different lady (much older and uglier) asked me, "is this your daughter?" "Yes", I replied. "Well you need to control her, she's destroying merchandise," the lady retorted nastily. I quickly scanned the lady and didn't see anything identifying her as an employee of the store and then looked at Mia to double check what she was doing. She had in each of her hands 2 bright blue bras that she was waving wildly back and forth while laughing hysterically, which I thought looked rather comical and cute, and had me just a little worried b/c she seriously looked insane. But the lady made a mistake talking to me in that tone of voice at that particular moment b/c I was coming down from my fear-induced adrenaline high & I responded just as ugly as she had, "She's playing with a couple of bras, I hardly consider that destroying merchandise." Then I bent over to pick up Mia and added, loud enough for the lady to hear, "come on, sweet baby, I think it's time to leave b/c this bitch doesn't understand what it's like to shop with a toddler." "Fucking whore", might have escaped my lips, too, but not because I actually considered her a whore, but b/c I was so overwhelmed by the emotions of thinking I had lost my baby, then finding her, then having some nasty comment thrown my way by a stranger that was uncalled for, and I felt the need to vent my frustations, and really wanted to punch the lady in the face but knew I shouldn't, so decided to demonstrate my anger through super ugly words instead.



I admit, it wasn't nice and not the best thing to do, especially in front of a toddler when she's entering a mimicking phase, but sometimes things just slip out... I can't be perfect all the time! (99.2% of the time is pretty darn good, after all)



Oh well, I'm trying to let it go, but I also have a penchant for holding grudges and that was the ugliest experience I've had here, (aside from a few tart words that escaped my mouth while battling unusually heavy traffic on the 110 a few days ago), so I think I'm doing pretty good and consider this trip to be rather zen-like. It's also catharctic and helps me purge bad thoughts and feelings by posting them on the internet for all the world to see. And I'd like it to be known the whole "fucking whore" comment I made, I did say under my breath, and not as loudly as the other comments I made. I was able to exercise just a little self control in that horrible moment, and for that I am very proud of myself. Plus I didn't hit the old hag... who's to say I'm not still capable of maturing at 32 years of age... let this be proof there is hope for us all!