Soooo sick

Ok, I'm sooooooo sick. I don't get sick. I take multiple horse pills (vitamins, fish oils, probiotics). I eat right. I don't drink coffee. Yet I'm sick. Not just a little, but the achy chills/fever/mucous factory/sinus pressure and headache sick. Ryan's just arrived in Aspen for a weeklong ski trip with the guys. My mother in law is in a boat of the coast of Chile headed towards Antarctica (another story, I'll tell later). I need groceries. It's very cold outside. It hurts to walk. Oh yeah, and I have a very active two year old running around. Ohhhhhhhhhhhhhhh.

Must think positive, right? At least Zachary's not sick (please God, don't let him get sick). I only have one child. The sofa is soft. The grocery store isn't too far (ohhhhhhhhh).

I must go now back to the sofa. At least horizontally I can practice my singing (nice with the extra mucous). Zachary is watching his Thomas video for the 5,897 time. He's such a good kid, he patted my face and said "Mama not feel good" this morning. I don't know where he got that, I didn't tell him that today.

On the Road Again

Zachary and I are driving to Birmingham to spend the weekend with Ryan before he leaves for his ski trip. I've been up since 5:30 getting everything ready. I'm astounded by how much stuff we require now for an extended weekend visit. It's crazy! It's going to be cold, however, so a lot of our stuff is cold weather clothing.

I won't be blogging this weekend, since we don't have internet access at the condo. I'll post our adventures when I return Monday. Or actually it might be Tuesday, since we'll get back Monday afternoon and I have class and rehearsal Monday night until late.

Have a great weekend everyone!

Be Careful What You Wish For . . .

Today I got a phone call from the director of Cabaret. One of the girls, "Texas," fell and broke her foot. He wants me to take her part! It's a logical jump, being that Texas is a chorus girl and is singing and dancing in all the numbers I choreographed. Other than that, she has two lines. So now I am IN Cabaret! Yikes! Just when I thought things were settling down.

Today I finished choreographing the last dance for Cabaret. It's "Two Ladies" and Erica, the girl I'm replacing, is supposed to be in it. Only the singing part is difficult so they have already recast another of the Kit Kat girls in it. I'm sort of bummed, but I guess I shouldn't get too greedy 4 hours into my first musical theatre part, huh? I'm relieved that the choreography part is done, it gives me back my time during Zachary's naps and the time after he goes to bed at night. This significantly lowers my stress, however I'm not sure how much stress rehearsals are going to cause. We'll see. It's more nights away from Z, but I'll just have to really make the days we have together count.

So my thought for the day, however unoriginal, is be careful what you wish for. You just might get it!

The Bug

No, I'm not sick. I'm not getting sick (thank God!). Zachary's not sick (double thank God!). But it's been raining for two days, and I've been idly sitting at the computer some of the time. My screen saver is a slide show of my pictures, and today the pictures toggle between sailing pictures and bellydance pictures - odd isn't it? Don't tell Ryan, but I've kind of got the bug to go sailing.

The dolphins are calling me.

Today it was pouring down rain, again. So I took Z to the mall. We had such a great time. We just walked around checking out the sights. He was a perfect angel, and I was so proud of him. He is such a fun companion these days. I love how much he communicates now. We didn't really do anything special, in fact it was quite an ordinary day, but it was blissful. Well, except for the fact that Ryan left today for 2 weeks. We'll meet him in Birmingham Thursday for the weekend, then he leaves for a week in Aspen skiing. Don't feel sorry for me, I had the chance to go and declined.

Dancing Queen

This weekend I was the dancing queen. It was exhausting but exhilarating. I cannot wait to do it again, just not all in one weekend!

Friday morning I took Zachary to the jumpy house place. I forgot my camera, but remembered my iPod. That was useful because once Zachary got used to the really big slide he just did laps. He would climb up it and slide down it by himself. This is a huge thing for him, socially he's always been a bit shy. I was so proud of him, and tried to tell him so, but he was in "the zone" so I popped in an earbud and rehearsed my solo.

Friday night I became Mahira. My eyes are closed in ALL the photos, and the group pictures of Dawn, Jamie, and me we all look too weird. So this is the only photo of the evening. Denise, do you recognize the tribal bra? It was awesome! Dad & Karen, I'm also wearing the blue kuchi pendant and puka bead belt, it's just not visible here.

Saturday we had a full group performance, a hafla. It was fun, but it was more dancing for the joy of dancing. Friday night we were all about getting tips! We made $33 in tips Friday night, not too bad!

Today I rest. Our sailing friends are here, and we're watching football all day. My son still loves me, and I'm not wearing makeup, earring, or a fake hair at all today! Oh, and I got plenty of sleep last night. Life is good again. I think I'll go have a beer before Z wakes up from his nap. Go Colts!

Another Suitcase, Another Song

Okay, 100 points to who knows what musical the title comes from! Who will guess? Who will know?

I got another pro gig. A tiny bit of nepotism at work, but heck, I'll take it. Two other girls from my troupe and I are dancing at Dee's restaurant Friday night. They are trying this new thing where they close down half the restaurant at 9:00 p.m. and make it like a nightclub with music and a DJ. So they thought some belly dancers would liven up the joint! Woo hoo! The only problem - we go on at 11:00 p.m.!!!! Ooooooohhh, that's a challenge! Not to mention I have to walk out the door 8 hours later to drive to a workshop and performance 3 hours away. The whole group (as opposed to the "professional" offshoot) will be performing Saturday and as their trusted leader I need to be bright eyed and ready to go. I couldn't say no to Dee, however bad the timing, since I've been bugging him for months to book us. Plus I'm hoping to have us booked as a regular thing maybe once a month or so.

I skipped yoga tonight to have dinner with Ryan and Zachary. It seems like I've been gone so much lately, but actually I was with Z all day yesterday and most of the day Monday. I had to leave right after his nap for rehearsal then class. I guess it just doesn't seem like we've gotten enough mother-son time in the last week or so. I think he's feeling it too because he was quite snuggly with me this afternoon. I'm so glad I got to spend the afternoon with him.

The next three days are going to be BUSY. Tomorrow I have class all day, then rehearsal tomorrow night. Friday Z and I have playgroup - we're going back to the jumpy house place, so that should be fun! Then Friday evening I'll leave right after dinner to go to rehearsal, I may come home to get ready and then it's my late night dance gig (of which I'm quite excited, I just wish it were 3 hours earlier). Saturday I'll be up with the proverbial rooster and probably not back until close to Zachary's bedtime. I REALLY hate that (being gone all day). Sunday I just want to be wife and mommy, not my alter ego Mahira.

As I re-read this last paragraph it sounds like I'm really complaining. I suppose I am, to a degree, but I realize I made all these choices and could easily unmake those choices. But I will not for two reasons: 1. While I'm away Zachary gets special time with Daddy. It's so important for them to have their special time together, without me around. 2. Having a life outside of being mommy makes me a better mommy. It's so easy to revolve yourself around your child, and there is certainly a time for that, but I want Zachary to see me as strong, independent, and interesting. All that being said, it's still hard to be away from him so much.

Weekend Recap

Well, it was another wonderful weekend in the world's prettiest place. We had wind on the nose on the way there on Friday, so we had to motor all the way. About halfway there it was naptime for Zachary. I went to get his berth ready and noticed this, can you mothers tell what's wrong with this picture?

Look closely at the fishing rods in the holders, keeping in mind that this is above where Zachary sleeps! The rods still have the hooks and lures attached! Fortunately I discovered this before I put down for his nap.

We woke up Saturday to the most glorious day on the beach. Zachary had such fun drawing in the sand. This if from our "morning session" when it was a little chilly. Fox III and Southern Cross are rafted together in the background. Our friends, D-Day and Stef sailed down with us on the Fox III.

After Zachary's nap it was a little warmer.

For cocktail hour Zachary played "Zach Attack" where he would run from me (port side) around the bow to Ryan (starboard side) and jump into us. It was so funny.

Sunday was even warmer - we got to shed a couple of layers in a hotly contested game of beach bocce. This is not the best photo of Ryan, Stef, D-Day, and Z, but it is the only one I took that day.

Zachary discovered his footprints in the sand, which made for a great new game for him.

The sail home was unbelievable. We got to fly the spinnaker. It's the big blue sail. It's so much fun because it's a downwind sail and the seas were just gently rolling behind us. OK, technically ours is asymetrical and therefore a gennaker, since we are a cruising boat and do not possess a spinnaker pole, but I doubt anyone truly cares about that. It was a perfect sail home. Photo courtesy of D-Day!

Isn't that pretty? That's what sailing is all about. Remind me of that next time I'm puking in 8 foot seas, please. The stars are the constellation Southern Cross, on visible in the Southern Hemisphere. Hopefully one day we'll get her down there and see the Southern Cross for ourselves!

And, lastly, in a radical and impulsive move I got my hair cut SHORT today. I was getting my color done - damn those gray hairs - and I just decided to go for a new look. I've always had some neurosis about having long hair. First it was practical since I was in ballet class, rehearsals, or performance and always had my hair up. Not to mention that it added to the whole ballerina thing to have long hair. Then I was teaching and decided my "look" was still important, therefore I kept my hair long. Now I have no excuse, except I've transferred it over to the whole belly dance thing. It doesn't really matter how long/short my hair is because I have plenty of fake hair that I usually wear when I'm dancing. So I went for it.

Activities this week . . .

Okay, when I'm not choreographing, teaching, or freakin' organizing I am being mommy. So here's our week in photos. Tuesday night before bathtime Zachary wanted to sit on the potty. He still has pizza sauce on his face from the veggie pizza he devoured for dinner!

Nothing happened (meaning he didn't use the potty) but it is a start. I'm not really pushing this right now since I've got so many other stressors going on, but when he's interested I'll certainly oblige.

Wednesday morning we decided to bake some cookies. Zachary "helped" by eating all the extra chocolate chips.

Wednesday was fun, we stayed in pajamas until naptime. Wednesday night I had yoga class and Cabaret rehearsals, and today I had two classes, rehearsals, and Cabaret rehearsals. I did, however, get to enjoy a good afternoon being mommy and we had a nice dinner before I had to leave for the theatre.

Tomorrow we are going sailing. We're off to Crooked Island for the weekend. The weather is supposed to be great - SE winds and temperatures in the 70's. The only catch is we may not have enough wind to sail there. Oh well! I'll have good beach pictures to post when I return. I'm on a mission, all the pictures I have of Zachary at Crooked are so old. It should be a fun weekend. I will, however, still be working. I've got two more dances to choreograph for next week, plus my usual classes to plan, and also my belly dance troupe has a hafla (performance) next Saturday! Busy busy busy busy!

Under the gun . .

Ok, this is a figure of speech, I'm not literally under the gun. This is such a busy week.

First, I've got Cabaret rehearsals Wednesday and Thursday nights. That means two numbers to choreograph. I finished one of them today, the opening number. Of course now I've got to get it on paper, which is the hard part, for the cast to understand.

Next, I've got three classes to plan, make playlists for, and teach this week. Some can overlap, but I need fresh choreography for the combinations. My creative brain is on hyperdrive.

And finally, the house needs to be put back together after my endless decorating. The house is a bit if a disaster, and Ryan's read my blog concerning the organization thing. Jeez, I had no idea my random thoughts would be held against me. So when my creative juices aren't being tapped I'm organizing. Ick. I'd rather do my nails, of course. Doesn't leave much time for blogging. Hopefully I'll get caught up soon!

Sleeping with the Lights On

Today I'm at a loss for words.

I am trying a new babysitter at my husband's request. There is this sweet young girl that works in his office that they had to let go because they didn't have enough work for her to do. Oh, and she's GREAT with kids. Here we go. So she shows up yesterday with little skull earrings with bows on them, and oh yeah, she has a lip ring. Ok, I don't want to judge, and she seems nice enough. She listened earnestly to my instructions and, most importantly, Zachary likes her. I can deal with most anyone as long as my child is well cared for.

So today she comes back, and I go to teach my classes. The day apparently went well, I called to tell her I was on my way home and she said he was sleeping. She said he didn't eat much, but then backtracked her story a bit. I attributed it to nervousness. I also noticed she hadn't turned on the monitor and mentioned it to her. She nervously replied she didn't know about it, and she was right, I hadn't mentioned it. However, every other sitter I've ever had has either asked about the monitor or figured it out themselves. Ok, so it's 2:30, and Zachary normally wakes up at 3:00. She leaves, and I turn on the monitor and hear he's jumping in his bed. I groan, because I still had some things I needed to do before I got him. It quickly becomes obvious that he's fully awake so I go upstairs to get him. When I get there I discover she's left the lights blazing brightly in Zachary's room. She didn't turn off the lights! No wonder he wasn't asleep, and it appears he didn't go to sleep at all. It's the craziest thing I've ever seen. How could anyone put a child down for a nap with the lights on???

Life is a Cabaret, Old Chum . .

So is life a Cabaret? What exactly does that mean? Is life a nasty little club in WWII era Germany? Ja? Don't zink so!

So I met some of the cast of Cabaret tonight. One great dancer, some adequate ones, some s0-so. It's all good, the director likes my choreography. More importantly, we had fun in rehearsal tonight. I kind of like this "walk on the wild side" into musical theatre. It's a genre I love but have not ventured into before.

I'm still doing prep work for our venture into toilet learning. I'm nervous as hell about it, I still don't really know what I'm doing, but I guess that's been true all of my parenthood and Zachary's done fine so far. Things will get interesting around here really quick, I'm sure.

Today I got Zachary a new placemat with the planets on it. He thinks it's a toy and walked around clutching it all afternoon. To get him outside I had to promise him we'd draw the solar system in chalk. Here he is enjoying the "pwanets."

That's Mars he's standing on, and Jupiter in front of him. We had such a fun afternoon playing outside, he didn't even care when I had to go to yoga. He stopped for a moment, gave me a perfunctory kiss, and resumed his planet "surfing." Karen had to drag him in kicking and screaming for dinner.

New Year . . . New Day

It's the New Year! Happy New Year everyone. It's been a whirlwind of a day. This morning Kurt and Denise left (again) to get home. It was very emotional, especially watching Zachary in his footie pajamas and flight jacket running outside to Uncle Kurt, who was packing the car. Denise and I exchanged tears, and they were off. Just like that. Zachary was whiny and cranky a little while after they left, I know he was sad to see them leave.

Ryan had to leave this afternoon to go to Birmingham, so I made the traditional New Year's Day lunch for us. Joanne came over bearing Christmas photos to have lunch with us. I made black eyed peas (for luck), steamed collard greens (for money), sweet potatoes (for health), ham and cornbread. I don't know what the ham and cornbread do, but they compliment the meal nicely. It was all so good, even Zachary enjoyed some collard greens. He didn't care for the cornbread too much, he kept asking for garlic bread! Who's kid is that??

All day long we've had college football on television. I LOVE bowl week - but it sure seems longer than a week. Auburn won today (woo-hoo), Wisconsin won also (my mother in law's team), and now OU and Boise State are playing. There is nothing quite like college football. I love all the stories and the drama.

Ryan left this afternoon, and both Zachary and I were sad to see him go. Fortunately I called Michele and she cheered me up (as usual). Zachary got very involved in his toys, so I turned on the Cabaret music and began working on choreography for "Money." I got so much done this afternoon, and finished it tonight after Zachary went to bed. I am so pumped now to have this behind me. Now only FIVE more numbers to choreograph. But getting started is the hardest part. This week I'll map out two more songs and begin putting steps to them. I suppose I should be more careful what music I'm playing because tonight during dinner Zachary was singing "Money makes the world go around, the world go around, the world go around . . " complete with the German accent like the musical. That cannot be good.

Zachary is going through some changes with the new year. I'm going to start toilet learning. Yes, it's way passe to say potty training - now they learn to use the toilet, they are not trained like dogs. Besides the semantics, not much else is different. At least I don't think it is. I don't really know what I'm doing, but fortunately Michele has just been through this, so I'll just do everything she did with her triplets. That way if I screw up Zachary can just blame Michele! Tomorrow we're going to the bookstore to pick up a couple of books about using the potty. I bet we leave there with another train engine. It won't be Zachary's begging, it'll be my weakness. I love playing with the trains as much as he does!

Which leads me to my New Year's Resolutions. Ok, I'm not so organized that I have enough to list. But getting organized is at the top of the list. I mean it. I'm really going to do it this time. I really need my friend Sandra to come visit again and help me. She's got the cleanest counter tops known to man, she's got to be very organized. Plus she's wicked good at laundry. Sandra, please mentor me! I am going to get with it this year. I'm cleaning out closets, organizing files, paying my bills on time (a real weakness on my part), and I'm even going to work on photo albums. Yes, I'm finally going to print and organize my family's life in pictures. Ooh, the prospects of being SO organized makes me so giddy! Of course I've got to get through Cabaret first, but my energy level is high (especially now that all the Christmas cookies/brownies/chocolates/cakes are gone and I'm back to eating right). This is going to be a great year.