wildflowersoul

So I guess we've reached the point in our car's life where it just falls apart? In the last 3 weeks we've had to get the mass air flow sensor replaced twice. Today, driving home from the mechanic that just replaced the sensor again, the car sounded weirdly loud. The muffler had detached from... whatever holds mufflers onto cars. Completely coincidentally and not related to the mechanic fixing the damn sensor. WTF, car. We still have a couple of years left on the loan, so I think we're stuck with it until something really catastrophic breaks, but I am now seeing some of the wisdom of possibly leasing in the future. Even though leasing seems like a scam and I'd prefer to own a car at the end of making payments for 5 years.

Writing out some thank you cards tonight, I am reaching the bottom of my usual stash of cards. And, behold, I pulled out from the very bottom a card that I have apparently been carrying around with me since 1996. It is an edited draft of a thank you card I must have sent to the people who interviewed me for my college admissions applications. Like the Harvard alum to whom I claimed I had an abridged version of Ulysses. Sadly for me, the book I was thinking of was the Odyssey. James Joyce's Ulysses has yet to be abridged, and I am still yet to have read a word of it. I'm not even sure I've actually read any kind of version of the Odyssey. Gaze upon the glory of the card I needed to practice because two sentences is too difficult for someone applying to 13 colleges to remember. I am particularly tickled by the placeholder of "so + so" for someone's name, and the fact that upon editing I needed to remind myself of my full adult sounding name. Just in case I'd forget, I guess. 

I think I prefer insomnia over the Unisom hangover. Urf. There is not enough coffee in the world to help me this morning. On the plus side, I got the best night's sleep I've had in a while last night.

So the lightbulb that makes our tv work finally blew out yesterday. I could not be happier that if it was that close to going, it waited until Drew got home from ComicCon. I would have been absolutely bereft without it while he was gone. Because I started watching Orange is the New Black on Netflix and it is AMAZING. Also, Teen Wolf. Send help. It's tumblr's fault.

Thanks to Pandora on the iPad I am rediscovering the joys of listening to music while mindlessly surfing the interwebs. Nice! Also I apparently really like Tegan and Sara.

Got some new shoes for work to stop looking like a frump with falling apart shoes. They are heels ($20 on amazon!) and people, I have forgotten how to walk in heels! It has been a few years of flat shoes due to baby and I have lost my lady skills.

Reading a dinosaur book to West the other night, I discovered that there are a crap ton of new dinosaurs I've never heard of. What?! Look at this guy, he has a unicorn horn on his head! Crazy. I have a feeling I'm going to be learning more about the world than I otherwise would have without a kid.

Ahhh, nap time. Dishes washed, laundry going, and meat sauce for tonight's lasagna completed. And he's still sleeping?!

It has been a while since I've done cupcake reviews. Here you go!

Cakes for Occasions in Danvers turns out some surprisingly delicious cupcakes. I say surprisingly because their Yelp reviews are kind of all over the map, so I went in skeptical. But there was a Groupon for a dozen for, like, $12, so the price was right for a trial. I'm not sure how much they cost normally, which is going to be the tipping point for whether this becomes a mainstay cupcakery for obtaining a dozen. My favorite cupcakery is way too expensive to buy a dozen unless it's a really special party, so I'm hoping this place is Lyndell's level of cheapness. Anyway, great moist cake with just the right crumb, tasty frosting, just the right size (on the smaller side for gourmet cupcakes, but not ludicrously tiny like Kick Ass Cupcakes).

Coven in Salem has also really stepped up their cupcake game. They are a bit pricey and are huge, so I hold myself back from chowing down too often. But around St. Patrick's Day they had Guiness cupcakes with Bailey's frosting, and OMG, those cupcakes were amazing. In fact, Coven now ties with Beverly's Cupcake Cafe for Most Favorite Cupcakes In the World.

Kind of surprised that so businesses actually close for Easter. Tried to go to Market Basket this morning but was denied.

Oh, and The League on FX turns out to be a really funny show. It does not look funny at all from the previews, but we gave it a shot and have been in stitches.

These two blog posts are really resonating with me.

I don't like that I've become exactly that cliche of talking so much about the baby, the lack of sleep, the poop. But my life is pretty dominated by that right now. I get an hour on the train each day for "me time" to read/nap/catch up on podcasts, and if I'm lucky I get maybe an hour at the end of the day before falling asleep at 9:30. I feel bad talking baby stuff so much, though, because I know it's one of those things that people without kids don't like talking about (though, really, I don't mind listening to people talk about their pets, and that seems to be pretty equivalent; if it's something that's interesting to my friends then I'm interested in hearing about it). Anyway. Sorry to all of you that are bored with baby talk, hang in there with me and I hope to become more interesting when I can sleep through the night.

I have all this working mom guilt, and it's not so much that I want to do everything perfectly, it's just that I don't want to mess something up so drastically that I ruin West's chances of living a happy, healthy life. I'd like to also retain my own life, my own individuality that's not wrapped up in being A Mom, because if we do our job right then in 18 or so years he's going to be off living his life and we'll need to be not completely subsumed into an identity of only being parents. If that makes sense? I don't think I'm doing a terribly good job at that aspect of things right now, but I hope it will get easier with time.

Also, Christina Hendricks is in Boston today filming around Fanueil Hall.

Phrase I am so, so sick of: congress critter. OMG, stop it, internet!

There is a truck commercial that drives Drew & I bonkers, but now that I've noticed it I can't get its jingle out of my head. And I mishear the jingle as "bus stop living" instead of "push the limit," which makes me giggle every time it echoes through my brain.

I'm currently a pretty interesting book on baby brain development. It's more heavily scientific than I'd expected, but a surprisingly engaging read. I'm remembering vast stores of stuff I learned when I was on track to be a neuroscience major. Neurons and cells are pretty neat. It's kind of strange to think back that Immunology was one of the best classes I took in college, along with PoMo Lit and various gender classes.

SNOW DAY!!

Argh, MBTA! "Express train right behind this [egregiously late] one" does not equal "local train coming in 10 minutes." OMG, massive train fail this morning.

Salem in October is so awesome, I'm loving it. One sad thing, though- the local independent book store is closing on Nov. 1. It's a bummer to not have a bookstore in easy walking distance, but to be honest, their selection was kind of crap and they never had anything I was looking for or browsing for. My Borders coupons unfortunately made Borders a wiser choice for my wallet, and the Kindle solves both money and travel problems so handily. Still, it's too bad to see a local business go under, I can't imagine they'll find a buyer this week, and I can't see another book store coming into downtown Salem any time soon (or ever).

Baby West continues to be adorable. He peed on his face this morning and had managed to pee through his clothes by the time we got to daycare. So much pee! I had a hard time getting his huge noggin through the head hole in his shirt this morning, so I think tonight it's time to get serious about digging out some 6 month-sized clothes and laundering them. The kid has a ginormous head. If anyone is curious, the formula situation at daycare appears to be working well. I pump once a day at lunch time and send him with one bottle a day of the good stuff. He seems to be growing just fine, so I am totally over the anti-formula mindset (I swear, some people react like you're giving your baby crack if you use formula). Edited to add: And it looks like we'll be taking a baby sign language class in Salem in February!

Finally, I am totally loving Vampire Diaries, Modern Family, and 30Rock this season. Supernatural continues to be rather lukewarm (though they appear to have finally received a music budget again- yay for The Gambler!). The Office is not as meh as last season (Timothy Olyphant guest appearance!!).