Life is Good

Today life is good. My life is charmed. I am enchanted.

Tomorrow I may change my mind, but that just keeps things interesting.

Ryan is at the Iron Bowl. For those of you who are not familar with SEC Football, that is the annual Auburn/Alabama game. There will be lots of drunken debauchery had by Ryan and his old fraternity brothers. I guess I should amend that to as much drunken debauchery that can be had by a bunch of fortysomethings! It should be a fun game, but I'm quite content to watch it in the comfort of my living room with my son.

This morning Zachary and I had the best time. We didn't do anything special, we just played around the house, watched a little Playhouse Disney (the DoodleBops and a few minutes of Charlie and Lola), and went to the grocery store. It was just nice to be. It was a little chilly this morning so we didn't spend too much time outside, but it's warming up nicely so when he awakes from his nap we'll go outside. Our neighbors are having a party for the game, so we may drop in for a few minutes.

Zachary is getting more and more conversational in his language development. It's so much fun! Our newest game is I'll say "who's the cutest boy in the whole world?" and he'll say "I am!" and then I'll ask "who's the sweetest boy in the whole world?" and he'll reply "I am!" and so on. He's also coming up with independent thoughts, which is both fun and frustrating. For example, I asked him the other day if he wanted strawberries or grapes for dessert, and he replied "Papaya!" This is all fine except we didn't have any papaya, and they absolutely cannot be found here this time of year.

Here he is, desperately needing a haircut, enjoying a pomegranete. We are eating lots of pomegranetes now, since they are plentiful at the market. Oh, yeah, and doing LOTS of laundry too!

Last night we went to the Bay Medical Gala. It was a veritable who's who of important people in town. We didn't decide to go until late last week, and I had no time to go to Birmingham to find one at Sax, therefore I had to find one in town. We don't have any high end department stores, and precious few boutiques so I had a hard time finding a dress. Ultimately I decided on one from a thrift store - for $49! My lingerie cost more than that. So I pulled out all my fabulous material possessions: my mink (it was in the low 50's last night - fur weather for Florida), my Prada stilletos, and my Judith Lieber purse. All complemented my thrift store find and fooled the masses, or at least that's my story and I'm sticking to it. If I ever have a daughter I'll pass along this wisdom: you can wear any old rag as long as you have a ridiculously overpriced (but still wonderful) purse and a pair of fabulous shoes. Oh, and a push up bra helps.

I spent most of the night recruiting friends and acquaitances for my belly dance class. Lots of folks promised to come, but lots of wine was consumed so we'll see. I'm working on a marketing strategy for my troupe. I'm trying to push our professional performances more, as well as my own "for pay" performances. Enough freebies. I was at our local jeweler Thursday scouting out a new watch for Ryan for Christmas, and let it "slip" that I was a professional belly dancer. The pushy but charming salesman (related to the owner, I think) asked about booking me or my troupe for their customer appreciation parties. Gulp, I have no business cards yet! He didn't flinch when I quoted him a price. I'm sure I can get the booking, but I may have to buy a $4,000 watch for it. While discussing other matters, Ryan decided he didn't want a new watch. This is a relief, since my personal finances are a bit stretched of late, except for the possibility of the booking. I suppose it isn't ethical to buy the watch, get the booking, then return it.