Sharing A Few Funnies

After a hike with my friend and our dogs on this gorgeous LA Sunday and a run to our local Farmer's Market, I just spent the last few minutes relaxing, watching these two clips and laughing out loud.
Nothing I say today can compete. 
So, if you haven't seen these yet, enjoy (and pardon the lead-in commercials, the skits are worth it.)
Have a great Sunday.

 

It's Good To Get Out Once In A While

I forget how much I like my friends. 

I spend much of my time in solitude:  writing, in my car listening to NPR, walking with my dogs.  And when I'm not alone, I'm with my family. 

I'm not a total hermit.  There's plenty of time in the day with people around:  volunteering at school, carpool, play dates.  And I cherish Thursdays with my writing workshop where I am amongst a group of people whose interests are the same as my own - HEAVEN.  But, when the day is done: the dinner dishes cleaned, the next day's lunches made, the kids asleep, what I most likely haven't managed to do is connect with my friends.  Days, weeks, even months go by without talking to people I love. 

Someone once said, "Absence makes the heart grow fonder."  I think it just makes you self-involved.

This is not an epiphany.  I just happen to be feeling it this morning after a particularly fun night with old friends that left me inebriated, suffering from insomnia, and emotional.

The thing about not getting out is that you forget there is a whole world out there full of interesting people who you like and who like you, too.  It seems I'm not alone in this.  That many of us, in our child-rearing years, between working and family responsibilities, suffer from the same inability to escape our fish bowls.

I wish I had an answer for this.  We all talked last night about having once-a-month rotating dinner parties.  (Of course, I suggested progressive parties, with grain alcohol, the likes of which I attended in college, but seeing how well I managed on just white wine, I think I'll reconsider).

I wish I could tell you (as I'm telling myself right now), that I'm going to be better about making plans with friends, better about calling them and my family, better about venturing outside of my bubble.  BETTER ABOUT BLOGGING. 

Right this moment, I WILL improve at all of those things.
 
Tomorrow, once this hangover has subsided and my emotions are once again pushed down beneath the usual daily hustle, who knows?

I'm off to fix myself a Bloody Mary and think about it.
Ugh.
Just kidding.

What do you do to stay connected with friends?

Andy Rooney's Ode to Women Over 40

I was sent this by a friend and thought it, if you missed it on 60 minutes as I did, it was well worth sharing in a blog post:

60 Minutes Correspondent Andy Rooney (CBS)   

As I grow in age, I value women over 40 most of all.  Here are just a few reasons why: 

A woman over 40 will  never wake you in the middle of the night and ask, 'What are you  thinking?'  She doesn't care what you think.  If a woman over  40 doesn't want to watch the game, she doesn't sit around  whining about it.   She does something she wants to do,  and it's usually more interesting.    Women over 40 are  dignified.  They  seldom have a screaming match with you  at the opera or in the middle of an expensive  restaurant.  Of  course, if you deserve it, they won't hesitate to shoot  you if  they think they can get away with it.   Older women are  generous with praise,  often undeserved.   They know what  it's like to be unappreciated. Women get  psychic as they age.   You never have to confess your sins to a woman over  40.  Once you get past a  wrinkle or two, a woman over 40  is far sexier than her younger counterpart. Older women are forthright  and honest.  They'll tell you right off you are a jerk if  you are acting like one.   You don't ever have to wonder  where you stand with her..  Yes, we praise women over 40 for a  multitude of reasons.  Unfortunately, it's not  reciprocal.  For every stunning, smart, well-coiffed, hot  woman over 40, there is a  bald, paunchy relic in yellow pants  making a fool of himself with some 22-year old waitress.  Ladies, I   apologize. 

For all those men who say, 'Why buy the  cow when you can get the milk for free?', here's an update for you.    Nowadays 80% of women are against marriage.  Why? Because women realize it's not worth buying an entire pig  just to get a little sausage!   

GO ANDY!  GO ANDY! 

Hey! It's merlotmom! Who?

It's been weeks since my last post.  Even BlogHerAds has deemed me a blogging sloth.  Oh, well.  I may be barely breathing in the blogosphere but in real life I am very much alive.

To prove it to you, here's what I did over this holiday weekend:

Flew to NYC for my SIL's wedding:

Lost my camera exiting the cab on the way to said wedding so took pix with my crappy iPhone:

Better that it's blurry, I have no idea if bride and groom want their picture on the internetz anyway.

Stayed in an apartment near Lincoln Center that's layout was a carbon copy of the one I lived in in Gramercy Park for six years  (cough, cough, twenty five years ago)

Do you have any idea how strange it is to be living with your husband and kids in what is essentially the same apartment you spent your SATC years (including the one night stands but excluding the designer outfits and shoes)? 

And then to top things off, I went back to the house in Long Island where I grew up

Which looks nothing like the red brick house I remember.  Unlike the town, which does look like I remember, just...older. 

And see this rock? 

I used to call this Plymouth Rock.  My sister and I used to CLIMB this rock.  CLIMB, as in Mt. Everest.   My sister says it must have sank into the ground because we both remember it as ginormous.


And after a busy weekend of celebrations and cerebral mind-f*cking,  we flew back to L.A.

Only to arrive in the middle of a thunderstorm and watch as my usually steady-as-a-rock husband white-knuckled the armrests and did his best imitation of Lamaze breathing while we pierced the thick, ominous clouds and circled above waiting for the precise point of entry.

Hey at least we weren't struck by lightning like these people!

And when we did get home safely (thank you American Airlines), my son and I put the finishing touches on his California Mission project (a long standing, well known tradition in fourth grade California curriculum) which was due today.

Not bad, huh?  I did help... just a little.

So, now you know what I've been busy doing even if it isn't blogging.
Not that anyone really cares, I just had fun sharing it.

So there my fellow bloggers.  Hope you've all been well.

Be back soon  (maybe).

Reflections (Not Resolutions) on the Millenium Thus Far

It is the end of the first decade of the millenium.

Was is really ten years ago that I watched with friends as the ball dropped and we held our breath waiting for the Y2K destruction that never materialized?

Was it really twenty-one years ago that I left all my friends, family, and furniture behind in NYC to start anew in Los Angeles?

The older I get the more I understand the phrase time flies.  How can SO much time have passed?  I'm still in my early twenties for god's sakes ...

Except now I'm in my early twenties with a teenager.   And a boy who thinks he's a teenager.  And a husband I've been with for 19 years.  And my third and fourth Labradors, my first minivan (ugh. did you hear me, hubby, I said UGH?)... so many things have changed.

Yet one thing remains the same.

My dream of becoming a published writer.

I've had this same dream for... let's see.... computing... wait for it  ...

37 YEARS 

OMG!  Holy crap.  Time really does fly.

F*ck!

(BTW, my trash mouth... remains the same).

So, will 2010 be the year I finish my novel?  Will it be the year I start the book of essays I've been thinking about?  (Cause I'm getting really bored talking about it and you're probably getting really bored hearing about it.)

Stay tuned to see if this will be the decade when merlotmom finally achieves her life-long goal?

F*cking better be.

Tha's right.

But for now,  I'll just hope for a happy, healthy, peaceful New Year for my family and all of my friends.

My best to all of you.

(And if I give birth to a novel, I'll be sure to let you all know where I'm registered ;)  ...)


HAPPY NEW YEAR EVERYONE.
LETS MAKE 2010 GREAT!