Good Stuff

Girl Date Photo, tonight

*TED talks: inspiration and motivation in 18 minutes or less. Today, this one made me laugh out loud and think in a different way, which is just what I needed. I'd really like to give one of these someday. I'd consider my life a complete and total success if I ever made the kind of societal contributions that is required to be a TED speaker.

*I really like it when ex spouses don't act crazy. Having one and being one myself, I understand that part of the ex spouse role is to sometimes act a little bit nuts, but seriously, some people take it to new levels of nut-jobbiness. So I especially appreciate it when they act like the sane, rational, good people they probably are anyway. (Please note, this is just a general statement. It is not reflective of my own ex spouse at all. He's pretty low on the nut-jobby scale these days).

*I *heart* Girl Dates with my daughter. Tonight, I needed some Riley time that didn't involve cooking or dishes or housework or arguing with her about TV time, so we went out to dinner and then she got to pick out a new toy, just because I felt like spoiling her. She and her new bathtub Dora are having a ball as I write this. On the way there, I said "Riley, I love you SOOOO much." She replied with "Mommy, I love you TOOOO much." Never too much, bugga. It's never too much.

*In honor of his birthday (March 2), my daughter's daycare has been celebrating Dr. Suess all week. There has been stripe day, polka dot day, funny floral day and tomorrow is the silly sock parade. Each day, she has come home with her face painted in that day's theme (you can see remnants of today's facial art in the photo). She loves it, and has been so excited to take part each day, and I love that they are emphasizing an amazing author and encouraging reading in kids as young as Riley.

*Taking a cue from my favorite New Jersey Amy, I'm writing a poem a day in March. If I can make myself brave enough, I might post some of them here. I find poetry to be a very intimate form of expression, and while I may share a lot of myself here, I'm still debating about that. Still, even in the three days of March so far, I'm enjoying the mental exercise and remembering how the lines and stanzas sometimes flicker into my conciousness unbidden. Often, all I have to do is capture them.