Fed Up

Lately I find I'm making certain adjustments to my life partly because such adjustments will make my life better...and partly so I can eventually tell some people to just fuck off. Gee, is that unhealthy? (she asked sarcastically.)

I say who gives a shit, as long as stuff gets done. But check back with me in six months and I'll let you know if it was as satisfying as I'd imagined.

Plants of Doom

Okay, not really doom. More like major inconvenience, all right? The kiddo and I took the dogs for a walk by the lake yesterday evening. Well, I wrangled the dogs while the kiddo walked along and played his Nintendo DS, insisting to me, "Mom, I AM watching where I'm going. I have peripheral vision, you know!" Got it.

So I made the mistake of letting all three dogs (remember the giant Golden Retriever?) wander through the tall daisies that appear every year at about this time. Later, I noticed the primary dog rubbing his face. Hmm. What now? Oh, just about a hundred evil seed/corkscrew things stuck all over him, that's what. They were stuck all over his legs, his fluffy snout and his beard. Poor guy was loaded with 'em.

Needless to say, I spent about 45 minutes at home, pulling these things out of his fur. The thing is, you have to find the seed part and pull from that end, since the corkscrew part doesn't want to release backward, if that makes sense. The dog was pretty cranky and upset at first (much growling and struggling) until he realized I was trying to help him. Then he just rolled over on his back and let me unstick him. His fur is very fine and fluffy, so it was a tedious job. And there are still a few left that I'll have to cut out later. The things I do for love.

In other news, I'm sneezing like crazy. I'm hoping it's just the daisies and not a Golden Retriever allergy, 'cause that would be a sad thing indeed. Benadryl is kicking my ass, so I'm going to look for an effective, non-drowsy allergy medicine.

A life without doggies would be no life at all. :-)

Ah, spring, when a 40-something woman's fancy turns to thoughts of getting laid (and baseball).

Baseball season is kind of kicking my butt. My son has had games and practices galore already, and although I love that he loves the game, and I love his coach, I feel like it's consuming our time more than it did last season. I'll admit I was looking forward to the season -- talking to other parents during games and practices, watching the kiddo improve, checking out the hot dads (WHO SAID THAT?), but a part of me is glad we're on spring break and won't be having any games for two weeks.

That said, guess what I'm doing today: going to see the kiddo's dad play baseball. Yep, he plays in a 38-and-over league. Most of the guys, including the kiddo's dad, are over 55. The kiddo loves to watch, and gets to sit in the dugout with the players as long as he wears a helmet. I go to hang out with the kiddo when he wanders out of the dugout...and check out the hot old guys.

Ah, spring, when a 40-something woman's fancy turns to thoughts of getting laid (and baseball).

I've decided I've been single and action-less long enough, and have joined eHarmony. I even had a date last weekend. Okay, it was a coffee date, but humor me here. When I told my mom I met the guy on eHarmony, she exclaimed, "Agh! That's what I was afraid of!" She's still working on catching up to the times in some ways, bless her heart. Anyway, the guy I met looked good on paper, more or less: child development teacher, nice smile, loves kids, tall, reasonably good-looking. When I met him, though, the chemistry wasn't quite there. I'm a dog person, literally and figuratively (i.e., I love the animal and I'm comfortable with a certain level of chaos and slobber); he's a cat person (i.e., he had cats in his childhood and likes everything just so -- he also looked with "not-love" at the dogs that passed us at Starbucks, whereas I wanted to run over to each one and hug them). And he was a teensy bit...feminine...but not in a good way.

However, I'm a believer in chemistry sometimes taking a little time to come around, and he wasn't totally unpleasant, so I was thinking I'd be up for at least a second date. Give people a chance and all that, you know? Then I got his post-date email, asking me how I'd thought our date had gone. Well, in all my years of online dating, I don't think that's ever happened, and I felt a bit put on the spot. I didn't answer right away, and after a day or two I got a second email saying something like, "Perhaps you didn't receive my first email..." and I felt a tiny bit suffocated. What is it people say? That anything that bugs you about a person upon first meeting will bug you a thousand times more down the road? Do you think that's true?

I mean, in the past, I gauged a guy's interest by whether or not he called again. This guy has my home and cell numbers and I told him upon parting to call if he wanted to go out. Pretty straightforward, I think. So the email thing turned me off. I feel bad that I haven't responded yet, and yet I keep thinking this guy knows I have a kid and it's busy baseball season, I've told him that; we're not a couple, so he shouldn't expect instant responses from me; I hate feeling checked up on by someone I'm not sleeping with; etc.

So the email remains unanswered. Yes, I'll probably sit down and answer it sometime today. The weekend is my relax-and-catch-up time, whereas during the week is my crazy-rush-rush-to-baseball-omigod-the-dog-pooped-in-the-tub time. But first I'm going to let the dogs out, take a shower, hang out with my son and watch the guys play, eat sushi with my brother and his girlfriend (I got a 30% off coupon in the mail -- yay!), and clear the decks for my ex's Golden Retriever to come over tonight.

Oh...didn't I tell you? My ex took a contract job providing psychological counseling at a maximum security prison over three hours away and will be gone four days a week for a while. This economy thing kind of forced the issue. So to help out, I'll be taking care of his 70-pound dog while he's gone. My son is delighted. My stomach doesn't feel so good.

But I did say I was comfortable with a certain level of chaos, didn't I? ;^)