Really?

An Open Letter to the Lady Smoking at the Gas Station:

Have you ever read the warnings when you are pumping gas?  The very first one is "No smoking or open flames." Have you ever wondered why they put that on everything around a gas station?  It is that gas is highly flammable and is likely to EXPLODE!

I have worked very hard to attain my very boring life.  I have two kids that like having me for a mother, and a husband that likes having me as a wife.  I also have 20+ relatives that kind of enjoy having me in their life, and that is just my car.  There were five other cars at the pumps at what could easily have been at ground zero. 

Perhaps you could wait the five minutes it takes to pump your gas to light a new cigarette.  I know I would really appreciate not getting on the front page of the paper or the headline story on the news tonight. 

Thank you for your consideration. 

The Not-So-Beautiful Part of the Day

Okay people, I do realize that I am 40.  I am making the assumption that I am no longer hip and happening.  Okay, who am I kidding?  I was never really hip and happening.  There is one thing that I do know.  It is not now, nor was it ever, cool to have your thong showing above your pants.  Quite frankly, underwear preference of a total stranger is not something I want to know about.  This is exactly why we wanted to control who we sat by and didn't want to sell our extra U2 tickets on Craig's List. 

As the World Turns

This post is dedicated to all new moms.  Your baby is amazing and beautiful.  All babies are worthy of stopping to try to get him to smile.  You are indeed a very lucky woman.  While you may think his every move is grounds for a break-in to primetime television to report on the wonderment that is your child, I assure you, only your world revolves around him.  Don't be embarrassed, all new mothers fall into this trap.  How can you not, your baby has changed every aspect of your life and is a fascinating bundle of joy.   

I say this because I encountered one of these moms while at the hotel when we were visiting my sister.  After we had dinner on Saturday night we all headed back to the hotel to let the kids work out some of their energy in the pool.  We had eight kids and there were three more from another family in a very small pool.  They were having a great time jumping in and out.  Dave and I were sitting there watching because Ryan was the youngest and is not a swimmer. 

After we were there for about 45 minutes a woman comes with a 6 month old baby and asks us if we can not splash the baby because she didn't want to scare him.  We did talk to our kids and asked them if they would please leave the baby alone and try not to get him wet.  They agreed and went about their business.  Instead of this woman staying in one area of the pool, she kept walking around, right by all the kids, and complaining when she got splashed. 

Ordinarily I am a people pleaser.  I am all about making sure that everyone is comfortable and making sure that nothing I am doing is adversely affecting others around me.  This, however, went over the line.  I ignored the nasty looks this woman was throwing to me.  I ignored her loud talking to her husband about how the splashing was scaring the baby.  I half-heartedly asked the kids to move away, which I am sure they could not hear over the caterwauling they were PLAYING IN THE WET WATER!

I am sure one day when this woman's baby is about 10 and she finds herself in the same position I am, she will look back on that day and realize how insane she was to think that I could get 11 kids to evacuate a pool so she could take her baby in a body of water, AND NOT GET WET. 

Then again, maybe not.