Alabaster Mom

I went back to the orthopedic place on Tuesday to see my podiatrist. The last time I was there was one year ago. At that time I received a cortisone injection in my left foot.  It lasted about six weeks before the pain came roaring back.  For the past year, I've just been managing the pain and doing my best to wear flat, boring shoes.  I know I need surgery but wanted to put it off for a while. So, what is wrong with my foot? I have something called Hallux Rigidus , which (and I think you'll agree) sounds super sexy. My big toe joint is all jacked up (the joint where it connects to my foot). There is a bone spur and some other stuff going on in there. All of this is apparently a result of me falling up the stairs years ago and stubbing my toe while I was at it. My toe no longer bends properly and it hurts all the freaking time. I was motivated to go back to my doctor because I need to wear heels at my sister's wedding and wanted another cortisone injection. I promised...

My daughter. My only child. The day she was born was truly the best day of my life. Before I became a mom, I never gave much thought to the need to give my life for another person. I suppose one hopes that such a test will never, you know, come up. However, once I saw my baby girl, I knew: she is the one for whom I would trade in my beating heart if doing so would ensure that hers would continue to thump-thump away. She makes me happy. She is smart, beautiful, funny, feisty, and full of life.  She is everything I'd hoped my child would be. However, she also possesses a couple of traits that were not specifically on my wish list: lying and cheating. Oh, and stealing. It's kind of a weird feeling, this realization that your baby has become a full-fledged person with character flaws and ulterior motives and whatnot. A couple months ago, she stole her dad's tip money off the bed and shoved it in a container in her room. He was headed to the bank that day so it didn't ta...

All the arguments to prove man's superiority cannot shatter this hard fact: in suffering the animals are our equals. Peter Singer A couple months ago, my husband and I joined a new gym. And yes, we actually show up there pretty regularly! We like the new gym. The demographic skews to folks much older than we are. I see one senior citizen who - no lie -  hobbles from one machine to the next using a cane. More power to him, right? Some days, P and I are the youngest, hottest people there. And that's saying something. My old gym had a wall of televisions, set to a variety of stations. All of the cardio equipment faced the wall o'TVs. You could just choose one, tune in, and listen via your headphones. The new gym features televisions as well, but they are mounted on various walls and at various angles throughout the cardio area. During my second week there, I hopped onto a treadmill without paying too much attention to the TV that was mounted directly in front of the tre...

Every so often, I think to myself, "Crap. I've finally run out of topics for my blog." And then, almost as if by magic, some cohesive topic will form in my head. And I write. But not this time, mister. Nope. Lately I am primarily occupied with my sister's wedding (I still need to lose about a gazillion pounds - it could happen, right?) and my child's seemingly rampant insolence. Twice this week she went to daycare with no breakfast. When you spend a solid hour rolling around in your bed because your father offended you by suggesting that you wouldn't see the Kindle for two weeks if you didn't get moving . . . well, let's just say that there's no time left over for Honey Nut Cheerios. Fortunately, they do provide breakfast at the before-school daycare center.  I suspect it's primarily intended for low income kids who don't get much grub at home, but what the hell. Instead of a cohesive topic, here are a couple of things that are on my mind...

For the past few weeks, I've been working on a photo montage for my sister's wedding. I'm using One True Media to build it. The video will play without music at the wedding reception, but I'm adding music to it anyway. I figure my sister and her husband might like to have it with the music if they watch it sometime in the future. This project has been a lot of fun for me. I really don't consider it a chore at all.  Sorting and editing all of the photos has been a walk down memory lane, as the saying goes.  Recently, my sister borrowed an old photo album from our dad. She and her fiance scanned a bunch of childhood/baby photos and sent them to me for the montage. Naturally, I'm in some of them. As both of my readers are undoubtedly aware, I have some chronic self-esteem issues. I can trace many of my issues to growing up with a fun little treat called Vitiligo.  I went through de-pigmentation treatment when I was 14. It took about two years.  Most people with...

Me and Khau Today is the birthday of two of my friends. One of the revelers is my friend Khau, who lives in Ohio. I'm planning to visit him next summer. Happy birthday, Khau!  I have appreciated your friendship over the past 29 years. Thanks again for teaching me how to drive. I owe ya one. The other birthday boy is Kevin . He would have been 44 today.  I still miss him terribly and think of him all the time. I still have his email address saved in my virtual address book. His Washington Post business card has not moved from its spot in my planner. I am not sure why I am unable to part with it. Maybe I am more sentimental than I thought I was. I also have a key to our old house in Springfield, Virginia. My parents have not lived there for several years. It would be funny if my key still worked. Maybe I should try it next time I'm in town. "Don't mind me! Just checking out my old room!" Kevin I'm going to serve as a bridesmaid in my sister's wed...

We attended two Halloween events yesterday - the first road test for the cat costume. I did make a couple of improvements on the costume since you last saw it. I am not artsy-craftsy and I cannot sew, so this puts me at a distinct disadvantage when it comes to Halloween costumes. I picked up some fabric paint and added a white belly to the leotard. I said, "You'll be like Sylvester!" and she replied, "Who?" Kids these days. They do NOT know good cartoons. I also retooled the make-up. I decided to skip the kitty nose. She said she couldn't smile while wearing the nose, because the nose would sort of slip into her mouth. And I think we can all agree that having a nose in your mouth is a bad thing. I decided it would be best to stick with a standard whiskers scenario. Finally, I felt like the costume still needed something, so the kid and I decided that a boa would be just the thing. I tried several stores, looking for a black and white boa. Boas are not ...

I admit it - I haven't got any fancy drawers in my drawer. I wash my bras with my jeans and my towels and then throw the whole shebang in the dryer. I don't have any matching sets of anything. I just don't see the point, I guess. When I'm shopping, I tend not to wander into the lingerie department at all. I think the last time I had to buy a "special" undergarment was for my senior prom, when I needed a strapless long-line bra to wear under my prom dress. Fast forward 25 years. I need something similar for my sister's wedding. I didn't even know what options exist these days. As I was eating lunch at work the other day, I jumped over to kohls.com and did a search for bras. I took a quick look at the options and then decided I'd better close the browser. It seemed like a bad idea to risk having a co-worker walk by and notice that I had a sea of boobies on my screen. On Friday, I went to Kohl's at lunchtime to look at the booby options in perso...

As much as I know it frustrates retailers who would prefer that I plow straight into Christmas, I hope it's okay if we acknowledge Halloween.  This year my daughter wants to be a cat. I figured it would be pretty easy. I bought her a long-sleeved leotard and some tights. We happened to find some cat ears in a store about a month ago. They have sequins on them, so that's a plus. The next challenge was to find a tail.  I figured I could find one online.  The kid was sitting in my lap while I started doing Google searches for furry cat tails. Um, yeah. So it turns out that this search will generally lead you to various fetish sites. You know, the whole furry thing? People who dress up as great big kitty cats and whatnot? Scared to click on anything, I just said, "Hey, how about we have Meemaw make you a tail?" Whew! Last weekend the kid and I went to a Halloween store - one of those joints that opens up in an unoccupied store in a strip mall this time of year. We wande...

Much of what I write in my blog is meant to be humorous. If I were to blather on about nuclear proliferation or the decimation of the rain forest all the time, I'm sure both of my readers would bail.  So, I usually keep it pretty light. Same goes for Facebook. I post funny stuff, photos, and bits of randomness. No one wants to hear about the bone spur on my left foot (which hurts like a sonofabitch, by the way) or about my angst over the eyelashes on my left eye falling out. I mean, I'm all about over-sharing on Facebook, but I feel like I have to set limits on that. Funny is easier. I recently came to the realization, however, that my sense of humor seems to have left some of my friends and acquaintances with an inaccurate depiction of my life. Last Sunday, I asked my other half to take the kid to a movie so that I could steam clean the carpets. I sweetened the pot by telling him that I'd make him an apple tart while I was at it.  I posted an innocuous joke on Facebook a...