What's up with this Prince song inside my head?

My ankle is finally, finally feeling better.  You know, from hurting it by walking down a set of stairs.  Considering that I signed up for the SC Mud Run on October 13, I better get to stepping and start some serious exercise.  Unfortunately last week, I jammed my hand and now it hurts to open a jar or shift my car into drive and it's just in general bugging me.  I have made the sobering realization that I'm at that age where something on my body is bound to be hurt or aching.  At least something.

This getting old is getting old.  Some other loose observations as I age ungracefully:

- Earlier this month, former teen star Miley Cyrus made the news for cutting her long hair into a choppy pixie cut.  I was so jealous.  I really wish I had the face to pull off a short haircut.  But even if I did, if I got that haircut at my age, it wouldn't be a cute pixie cut--on me, it would be declared soccer mom hair.  That is so ugh and unfair, right? 

- Though I finally broke 150 this year, I probably won't really aim to lose much more poundage per se, because I already noticed that now when I lose weight, I'm not necessarily losing it where I want (my jowls, chins, saddlebags, calves, belly) but losing it in areas where I like to keep the weight to balance out my proportions (my bosom, rear end, hands).  Bottom line--I figured out that even if I were to reach my 20-something weight (which was around 135), I'm not necessarily going to have my 20-something body.  Because I don't remember being a pear with a shriveled rack and butt, fat head with 3 chins, and with veiny hands worthy of offering Snow White a poisoned apple in my 20s.  Sigh.  I guess I can definitively say I don't have that Benjamin Button disease.

- I'm in that zone where I'm more often not perceived as "cool" to my daughter.  When I recently started singing along to a song she had put on, she flatly requested, "Mom, please stop.  You're ruining it."  When she said that, her eyeroll cut harder than the one I gave the dad at the mall who was doing his back-to-school shopping with his kids wearing a "Senor Frog's Drinking Team" t-shirt.  Wow, is that irony, payback, or karma?

- The other day four different people told my daughter that she looked "just like her mother".  Her expression was somewhere between mild horror and the polite disappointment of a kid excited she was getting a present and it turned out to be tube socks.  Don't worry, I assured her that she is much lovelier than me as evidenced by this proof:

Exhibit A: 7th Grade pix of me & the girl

- I'm starting to lose a sense of decorum.  The last two times a cashier cheerfully picked up the bag of chocolate chips I was buying and excitedly asked, "Oooooo, what are you going to do with these?"  Both times I answered honestly that I would most likely (like the previous purchase) be eating them straight out of the bag, by first sprinkling them on a butter knife that I had dipped into a jar of peanut butter.

- I can't remember the last movie I saw in the movie theater where I didn't fall asleep in the middle of it at some point.

- Though I haven't reached Grandpa Simpson status of writing to the "sickos at Modern Bride magazine" for not publishing people with wrinkles in their pages, I could not help from responding to this crazy rant in the local Free Times:

With one of my own:

In hindsight I wish I had the mature tone of the response below mine.

Yeesh, did I say I was getting old?  Maybe I'm already there.

It's that time again soon

I was walking on campus and came across this:

The South Carolina marching band was practicing formation and music in the hot sun.  I don't know if marching band songs are supposed to be a surprise but I hope I can at least say...U Can't Touch Them. 

Did I mention that I love, love, LOVE drum corps?  I really could listen to hours of it, I think.  And I'm pretty sure I could dance to it too.  Just straight drum corps, without the rest of the band.  I really love it.  Oh yes, I saw the movie Drumline, though I would have preferred more drum corps and less pesky story line.  Though I always remember Orlando Jones' band director's line to competing drummers:  "I don't know what beef is between you, but you'd better grill it up and eat it".  Hee!

Anyhoo, if the marching band is sweating it out on the field, one can be sure that football season is around the corner. Looking forward to watching games on the weekends. I didn't grow up a football fan but now (with perhaps a little help from football pools) I enjoy it as an escapist excuse to relax on the couch and get sucked into a game for a few hours. Or a day. Or two.

First day of school

And off she goes to her first day of her last year of middle school:

FYI, she wanted me to mention that this is NOT a dress, she is wearing jeans.  She has become more fashion-conscious but she would say she isn't that far gone where she would wear a dress or skirt to school.  I just know it means I can't just pick up clothes for her while I'm running errands at the Target anymore.

Getting ready for Back to School

I took the girl for a bit of back to school shopping where she got a pair of jeans, a jacket, and some tops.  Though NOT this one:

Obviously a girl buys a shirt like this without her mom.  I saw a bunch of teens back-to-school shopping with their parents, with faces that clearly communicated they wished they were shopping without them.  I'm sure my girl had the same face.  Though I'd like to think she still wouldn't buy that shirt.

The girl also wanted to get her hair cut--this is the Before:

With her friends' advice she decided to get a side fringe (I suggested a little layering as well--you're welcome, Sweetie!):

Overall, a productive day--she's ready for school!

Charleston, SC

Some NY friends were flying down to SC to vacation with relatives down in Charleston, so we gladly met up with them.  My friend actually grew up as kid in Charleston before moving to Long Island, NY as a teen so we actually toured a bit where he grew up too.  Which is always kind of neat to see where your friends grow up, right?  Of course, like me, he marveled how much has changed since he was a kid there.

We started with a healthy, wonderfully positive-vibed lunch at Cafe Aluettes.  The owner/chef, Aluette Jones-Smalls, beat out cancer and decided to only prepare food prepared without harmful chemicals--it's a no-pork, no-sugar, vegan/vegetarian friendly restaurant which features local vendors for seafood and organic produce.  Plus the decor was cozy and comfortable:

We decided to walk around downtown Charleston for a spell.  It was unfortunately one of those humid 90-something days where the heat index said "it felt like 100-something".  We stopped in a few stores for fun and relief from the heat:, like Robot Candy Company:

King Street was full of fun shops and some really cool looking restaurants--it kind of reminded me of Abbot Kinney Blvd in Venice, CA, except that my face was melting off my skull here in Charleston.  I'd recommend a walk here in the fall.

We also walked a bit through the City Market, which my friend said as a kid was called the Slave Market because historically that's what it was.  It's huge--really long inside!  It's full of vendors selling various wares varying from hand-crafted baskets and metalcraft to t-shirts to fancy sheets.

If it were evening I would have loved to have gone to the rooftop bar at the Market Pavilion Hotel.  But in the heat of day, it was a lot less enticing and it would have maddening for the girl to be a near a pool that she couldn't swim in.  On the plus side, we all went to the Charleston Costco!

The best, best part was seeing how our kids have grown--here they were in 2009:

And now:

Yeesh, I wish these kids would outgrow their impatience for picture-taking like they did their old clothes! I mean--their expressions are almost the same! They're just taller and bigger.  Oh well, still cute kids.

I wanty: Polaroid Z2300

OMG, I have fallen SO HARD for this cutie:

Photo source: Photojojo

Photojojo has the newest Polaroid Z2300 available for pre-order now.  And I am wishing my birthday was like, NOW.  I wanty.

It begs the question: do I have 16 close friends? 16 close friends that would want to spend $10 each on me for an awesome collective Christmas present?  Or Labor Day gift?  Sigh.

What's not to love?  It's a simple (and totally cute) small, 10 MP digital camera that gives the option to PRINT INSTANT pictures:

Photo source: Photojojo

I love my Instax and Instax Mini-- they're perfect for fun, instantaneous pix at an event where I know I'd want a print of every moment. But sometimes there are pix I take on my iPhone or digital camera that I think, man I wish I could print this out right NOW. I've looked into separate photo printers for the iPhone but they are either too big or the ideally sized ones for mobility don't work with an iPhone (e.g., the Polaroid POGO).  So until the iPhone starts printing out instant photos or there is a mobile printer that will work with it, this is the closest to portable picture-taking and printing.  I love it.

It also has other features, like flash, video, etc.  But hello--INSTANT prints!  Anybody else craving this?

Goodbye to the Triple-X Olympics

Given that I ended up spending a good number of days with only basic channels (Mom!) and without bottomless internet, I was left with only the prime time coverage where I felt I was watching a lot of the same events and same teams going through semi-final and final stages.  Sometimes I wished I saw other non-USA competitors--I feel like previous Olympics I saw so many of the other gymnasts' performances and that was pretty cool.  Sometimes it was exciting--seeing May-Trainor and Walsh-Jennings win their 3rd gold in beach volleyball with some pretty good challenges was worth watching.  Sometimes it raised questions--some I was able to glean answers from the internet.  FYI, the player with the contrast jersey on indoor volleyball teams is the libero. 

Another question arose when an announcer mentioned during the qualifying heat of the 4x400 women's relay race that Sonya Richards-Ross may run in the final (i.e., she wasn't running on the qualifying team).  And yes, the following evening she was "added" (i.e. replaced a different runner) to the final race team that went on to win gold.  In hindsight, I recollect that similar comments were made about the swimmers in relay races (e.g., none of the swimmers who swam the heat to qualify the US a final spot in the 4x100 freestyle relay swam in the final--the team instead included Adrian, Phelps, Jones, and Lochte who won the silver).  My first question was that, barring injury of a qualifying runner, replacing runners was allowed?  It seems that similarly to individual races, one (or 4) have to earn their spots in the finals.  I understand that in the end, that it's almost a business decision to bring home the gold and put a faster athlete that rested (instead of raced in the qualifier) in the final race.  So my second question is, what does that mean for the members of the relay team that wins the qualifying heat but aren't on the final relay team?  Do they get a part of the Gold glory?  Or is all part of the Team USA spirit?

Anyhoo, overall I wished they had featured other sports like women's boxing (hello, it was first time it was part of the Olympics!) and the gold medal rematch of the finals from the 2011 Women's World Cup soccer/football game between Japan and USA.  But I guess folks who are say, Olympic Sailing fans were on the same boat limited to what was considered Prime Time worthy.  Bah!  What am I saying?  I'm sure anyone into Sailing can afford multiple cable channels!

When it was all over, I really loved the big music showcase at the closing ceremony.  Man, I wish I was one of those London volunteers just dancing around in a bright leotard costume to Pet Shop Boys, Queen, Annie Lennox, George Michael, etc.  It must have been just a big party in that stadium. 


On that note--it will be really interesting to see what Rio De Janiero brings to the ceremonies in 2016!

Sprained ankle

So mad at myself--I totally rolled hard on my ankle down the subway stairs. The embarrassing part was that it was due to me texting while walking. I realized I wanted to text my sister that I was getting on the train and wanted to send it while I had a signal before going underground. So I was scrambling to tap out a message and assumed my feet knew how to walk down stairs and the next thing I knew I yelped and was hugging the banister. I was like a PSA. A totally embarrassing PSA.

Anyhoo, my left ankle was pretty swollen at first:

But my sister had been on me about icing, elevating it, and wearing an ACE bandage and it got better over the weekend. It was still swollen--I could feel some fluid floating around on the top of my foot, but I was struck how much more youthful that foot looked.  It's not so clear in the picture below but the fluid totally filled out the skin that clings to my veiny, tendony foot.  All I could think of was if I could transfer this youthfulness to my veiny, tendony hands and arms.

Now I can see why they promote fillers in some plastic surgery--though I don't think it successfully translates on faces as much as it does on feet, IMHO.  Anyhoo, the ankle still hurts though I have to confess that I kind of laxed on the icing, elevating, and ACE bandage wearing (read as not done any of it at all while at my mom's until my SoCar Mud Run captain chastised me via text last night).  As recommended, I haven't exercised at all for a week and I kind of feel my body softening like my fluid-filled foot--frustrating.

Bottom line: don't text and walk down subway stairs--this could happen to you!

Me & him

Before heading down to Jersey to spend time with my mom, I got to hang with this handsome guy:

We watched some Olympics, like the Men's indoor volleyball games:

We hung out at the beach:

We both washed up after coming back from the beach:

We did a little stoopin' on his Brooklyn stoop:

We shared a shave ice:

And yeah, we got to hang with his dad, my outdoorsy BIL:

And his mom, my fat sister:

Don't worry, the joke's on me--I STILL outweigh my 7-month-pregnant sister (though currently, only by 10 pounds).

Can't wait to hang out again with him!