When Life Gives You An Open Fire Hydrant....

I was in a lousy mood today because I had to pay $200 to the electric company to keep from getting our lights shut off. How much money did I have in my bank account? $202. Yeah. Fun times around here at Chez Bedhead.

But on my way to the electric company, I noticed that the fire hydrant across the street had been popped open.







I'm assuming the city did it, since there was an orange cone on top of it, but whatever. The girls and I decided to take advantage of this on what has been a miserably hot and humid day.










We spent a good hour splashing around in the street, having a blast, getting totally soaked and laughing like hyenas. I've told them that if the hydrant is still open after naps, we'll go out and do it again.

It turned what started out as a crappy day into one full of fun.

Forgot to embed this....

Big Giant Beans, Big Giant People, Big Giant Bloggers

(Edited because I couldn't upload pictures from the conference and without them, the title of this post makes even less sense.)

So I'm here in Chicago. It's exhaustingly fun. So far, I've met Mr. Lady, Suebob, Rachel, ChickyChickyBaby, Fairly Odd Mother, Suzanne from CUSS and Kerri. Well, I've met Kerri several times before, so I don't know if she counts, but whatever. We've hung out.

Big Giant Bean

We went to see the big chrome bean in the park, which was super shiny and very cool and very shiny and slightly nausea-inducing to look at. Also? Shiny. Did I mention shiny? Did I mention I forgot my sunglasses? Yeah. Shiny. Ouch.

Big, giant people.

I've spied, from a distance, Bossy and Sweetney and Her Bad Mother but I was too chicken to go up to them and say hello. I'm lame like that. And I fear rejection. (And those would be the Big Giant Bloggers....)

I can't seem to get pictures to upload. A zillion women accessing twitter and blogs and facebook makes for a mightly slow connection, but I will try to do it when I get home. Or maybe on my layover in MPLS. Mission accomplished.

I'm having a great time. I'm also so hungry I could eat my left foot. One cannot exist on appetizers for three days, no matter how tasty they are. I believe Rachel and I are going to hunt down some real food tonight before the CheeseburgHer party. Poor Rachel kept waking up all night because she was so hungry.

Now I'm off to meet The Hotfessional (squeee!!)....

It's been inspiring, this conference. I have a slew of cards from women whose blogs I've never heard of and I'm looking forward to checking them out. It is just so cool to meet all these great women I've been reading for years and finding new people to connect with. So fucking cool.

It's My Blog And I'll Bitch If I Want To

I seem to spend all my time working or taking care of kids or trying to have a bit of a social life these days. I spend no time writing here or reading other blogs and my blog reader mocks me every time I open it. "You have 1,848 unread posts." No, I'm not kidding. And no, I'll never get them all read.

Like everyone else, I'm kind of freaking out over BlogHer. I've lost 35 lbs over the last few months so all the nice clothes I have in my closet fit me again. This is a good thing because we definitely don't have the money for me to be buying anything new. Broke doesn't begin to describe it. I'm not quite sure what we're going to do about the money situation. I called the cable company today to have cable shut off. We'll still have internet but no more television. I'll have to start taking the kids to the library to get some dvds for them to watch. They were the only ones who watched it anyway. That Canadian Boy I Married and I mainly watch movies or stuff online. So no more television. It's going to be odd....

I'm going to have to buy an outdoor clothes line, too, to save on electricity. I've got to figure out how else I can save because TCBIM has pretty much told me to stop complaining to him about how broke we are, to just suck it up and get over it; that this is how it's going to be for the next couple of years and he doesn't want to hear anything more about it. Which, y'know, yeah, thanks for the support, but whatever. I'll figure it out on my own and do what I can to cut more corners. I just wish I didn't feel alone in this. It's not that he's not worried - he is - but he doesn't ever want to talk about it, doesn't want to talk about anything bad or depressing or upsetting and it makes me feel very lonely. I tried explaining that to him but he doesn't seem to get it.

Honestly, I have days when I wonder why I got married. I love him but it's like living with an alien. He and I just do not see things the same way a lot of the time and when I try to explain myself, he doesn't understand me. Is it always like this? My first marriage was such a fucked up mess that I don't have anything to compare it to, really. I feel like we just go around and around and around and nothing ever gets sorted out. He throws the cost of my medicines and therapy in my face all the time, to the point that I want to just stop both of them. But he can't stand it when I'm depressed, so I don't know what to do. I know I'm tired of being stuck in this rut with him because it feels like I'll never get out of it.

Sometimes I just want to run away from it all. I'm so tired of feeling like Prometheus.

The Wedding

My oldest got married last Saturday. I was in a dither about it because it seemed like it was going to be a bit of a disaster, but it turned out beautifully.

Alex, having a minor freak out just before the ceremony.

Alex and Kristin (and yes, I know, he looks like a gangster in that suit.)

Awwww....

Alex danced with O and it was the only time I got teary.
They danced to this:



*sniffle*




And this is O. I'm so screwed.

The food was fabulous. If anyone needs a caterer in the New England area, Blue Ribbon BBQ, in West Newton, MA, is awesome. Best wedding food I've ever had and the prices are more than reasonable. The day was lovely, warm and sunny, everyone was relaxed and Alex and Kristin looked deliriously happy, which is all that matters.