A Mommy Milestone... The Play Date

Wow. Someone actually left their kid with me... that was a very new experience for me. I don't think I've been responsible for someone else's kid in over 10 years at least, and at that time it was my ex-boyfriend's kids. Anyway, big-man decides to go out shopping for a new flat panel HDTV with a friend of his. Well his friend has a 3 1/2 year old son... anyway, he left his son with me while they went out. I was terrified lol!

Actually, when they left I didn't even know how old this kid was. I knew his name, that was it. I didn't know if he was potty trained or not, though I assumed he was - and very much hoped he was. I didn't know when he had last eaten, whether or not he had any allergies... oh man, was I nervous! Mostly I was scared that he was going to freak out and want someone who knew him and there would be no one around but me to deal with it.

The two boys quickly settled into playing together and had a great time. It didn't hurt that I basically imposed no rules lol, but give me a break here, I'm a first-time play-date-er.

Sidenote: Please disregard the state of my coffee table; I assume it's easier to just sand off the junk when my kid is older than to try and keep it free from stains, markers, spilled food and beverages etc. Besides, I like that the stains on the table offset the large quantity of play doh that is currently gluing the carpet fibers together beneath it.

Trucks, cooking utensils, duplo blocks and play doh... all were a hit. Then they got a little unruly and had a hard time sharing the coveted play doh machine that squirts out any number of noodle-like shapes. So I figured what better way to entertain two small boys than a couple of knives...

Okay, for those people who also worried about my parenting skills after reviewing my "Mama's Mean" video (some people worried that my son would try and drink anything out of a squirt bottle because I'd allowed him to suck on a water spray bottle once), I'll add a caveat: these are toddler knives and there's not a sharp edge to be found.

That said, I just read a great post on The Art of Manliness called "Quit Coddling Your Kids" and found Gever Tulley’s lecture on “5 Dangerous Things You Should Let Your Kid Do", which suggests that letting your kids play with knives is a good thing.

Anyway... my first play date was a great experience. Little buddy didn't eat a thing, though he did accept a glass of juice during his stay. He turned down a couple of my suggestions to use the bathroom, but turns out he was wearing a pull-up, so no harm done. He was sad to leave, which I suppose suggests his afternoon didn't suck entirely... turns out his parents don't know any other people with kids his age as they're new to the area, so mini-man's first experience of having a friend over to play was a good one for both of them.

While over all the experience was positive, I am more certain than ever that I need to replace my 780 square foot apartment with a large house... preferably before the next play date.

It's always something with Telus...

I just hate them. I hate Telus with every fiber of my being. I have hated them since their sales people lied to me to get me to sign up for Telus TV (they told me I'd be able to get all UFC PPV fights, but the truth was they were still in discussions over licensing) and I have hated them since one of their customer service reps told me, "My manager is only here to make sure I get a pay cheque," when I pointed out their error and requested to speak to someone who actually gave a you-know-what. Apparently, if you do get through their automatic talk-to-a-machine-but-it-can't-figure-out-what-I'm-saying system to a human being, you can't get past the power-tripping CSR who was clearly in the right place at a time when there was a labour shortage in the service industry... oh, like now.

Today I decided to bite the bullet and add a data plan to my mobile device. I have the HTC S640 Iris. I don't mind the PDA, but I still haven't figured it all out even though I've had it over 6 months. I suspect it's actually harder to use than the Blackberry, but I figured I'd be impulsive... what else is new?

Having added the unlimited everything plan I decided to add the Telus Mobile Email. Sounds logical, right? Get my email to my PDA... it's unlimited data, so why not? Well... in the process of installing their handy-dandy software and trying to connect my work email to this thing, it ended up clearing all my contacts and my appointments on my Outlook. Nice.

I now have lost every single contact I had in both my phone and my Outlook - that's all my personal AND business contacts. Not only that, but the lovely Telus Mobile Email says it's working just fine, but it's not actually sending any email to my phone. To make things even more annoying, Telus Mobility said there was absolutely nothing they could do to retrieve the lost records; they referred me to HTC Tech Support. Guess what? Yep. HTC Tech Support can't do anything for me either.

I'm at the mercy of my IT guy. Please let him know what to do. I'm nerdy, but this is really beyond me. I think I'd like a drink...

Cats

So I have an old-ish cat... she's about 12. And she's fat. I'm trying to get her slimmer by switching her over to wet food from free-feeding her dry. She LOOOVES wet food; hasn't had it since she was a kitten. But with her advancing age, I'm not sure her little teeth are doing so well with the dry, so anyway...

I finally have gotten to a point in my life where my mini-man is sleeping past 6am and now the cat is the one insisting I'm up at 5am. At 5am on the nose she takes, I swear, one claw and slides it up the side of a wall next to my bed. A cat claw on a wall in just the right way actually sounds like nails on a blackboard. Well, okay, it does if you're dreaming peacefully.

I keep looking around for things I can throw at her. I'm not kidding. She brings out the worst in me - I'm not a fan of starting my days angry, but I'm not doing so well with this new routine. When she hears me yell "shut up!" I suspect she figures, "Right then, she's up yay! I'll make some more noise." And she starts to wail. All this so she can hurry up and inhale her 1/3 tin of cold yuck. EW.

Champions "Social Night"

I'm not much of a socialite. I'm a little more socially-awkward, nerdy girl with a strange combination of Type A personality and shyness... it's hard to explain. It often gets mistaken for UBER-snobby, but really I just don't feel comfortable making conversation with people I don't know very well unless it's for business and we have something specific to talk about.

So Thursday night at kickboxing I was reminded of the planned "Champions Social Night" by a few equally unsure individuals who asked if I was going, presumably to know if there would at least be someone there they didn't feel horrified to try to have a conversation with.

I've been training at Champions for something like 8 years now. I've basically lost count. The truth is, though, that although I've known the people I train with for that time, I've not truely gotten to really *know* any of them. Those I did get close with don't train anymore. To make matters worse, in the last 3 years I've taken a collective year and a half off, so friendships have formed and tight-knit clicks abound.

A few people asked me if I would go (the self-critical me figures it was likely out of politeness only) and so I reluctantly agreed to step in and check it out. I arrived WAY too early; I thought it was to start at 7:30 or 8pm... yeah, checking the details would have been a good way to go, but that's just not my style these days. So I arrived at 8:30 thinking I'd be there late enough to at least be inconspicuous as I enter. Not so. I was the first person there other than Champions staff... nice. That doesn't make a wall-flower type cringe at all...

Thank GOD for small miracles, one of the gals at the club I've been closer to in the last few years showed up relatively soon after I did, so we had a lovely chat. I came to find out she's got a regular role on Stargate Atlantis, so I now have to watch it even though I don't like science fiction shows, but it's just really cool seeing someone you know on TV. Anyway, I digress...

I ended up having a super fun time, more to drink than I'd like to admit, and didn't get home until 2am even though Mini-Man gets me up well before 6am on a daily basis. Other than being a little tired today (okay, well... a lot tired) I felt pretty good. Not like cardio-class Saturday good, but able-to-drag-myself-and-my-toddler-through-Superstore-for-our-weekly-grocery-shopping-trip good. So at least that was something.

I cringe at the thought of some of the photos that were taken. Something about drinks and dancing makes you feel likely more attractive than you really are. I don't really want the reality check, thank you very much.

Whistler Weekend 2008

So I finally made it out to my friend Mrs. Little's annual Whistler Girls' Weekend... what a fun time! Who knew I'd still enjoy squeezing 17 women into 3 hotel rooms for a weekend of silliness in my 30's? I also finally spent some real time with my new-found half sister - I mean, more than just going for coffee, which was nice. I met her last year after searching for my birth mother and it's been very cool getting to know her; she's a fantastic girl and I really admire her.

Anyway... we got to Whistler about 4pm on Friday the 27th and proceeded to ditch the car with the valet. No need for it when you're staying a stone's throw from everything in the village. We found our rooms, settled in a little and proceeded to socialize around the penis-shaped chip plate as the ladies arrived until our dinner reservation at 7pm. Dinner was awful lol... I mean I didn't really care much, but Mrs. Little herself was mistakenly served a beef burger when she's a vegetarian. EEW... she wasn't at all impressed. The bellini's were good though.

I'm not sure if it's a function of age or something else, but I honestly have no recollection of what took place after dinner on the Friday night *shrug*.

Saturday we got up, got cleaned up, had coffee (no shortage of great coffee shops in Whistler) and went shopping. I spent some good money that I don't have on things I don't need, so all in all a successful shopping outing. After shopping we hit the pool with some refreshments in hand and got friendly with a series of sexy white loungers. The afternoon was made complete with a nap and another shower before attending the pre-bar party...

The pre-bar party began at 6pm with more refreshments, a rousing game of "pass the purple penis", party favours and "how dirty are you" style drinking games... you'd have thought someone was about to be married, but no... this was all just for fun. After the pre-bar party we went to Buffalo Bills for some more refreshments and dancing. The music was awful but we made the most of it...

Those of us no longer used to the bar-star party life left the club at a rediculously early hour and went back to one of the rooms to order pizza and have civilized converstation for the rest of the night. I spent a short but not insignificant amount of time worried about New Young Sister and whether or not she was out on the town alone or if she had a room key, but all was well... she stumbled in at 2am and the photos showed she was well and had a great time...

Sunday morning we all pulled ourselves together and with comfy clothes as the order of the day, made our way to the closest coffee shop to soak up the last of the sun (not to mention caffeine, and ginger ale for those less-fortunate) before piling into our caravan of carpool arrangements to make our way to our final stop - breakfast at White Spot in Squamish.

I arrived home around 1pm on Sunday to hugs and kisses from both Big Man and Little Man. My two greatest loves. Life is good.

Can't wait to do it again next year...