When we were packing for the beach late last Saturday, the weekly forecast looked divine: sunny, low 70s, only one day with a chance of showers. But Sunday, something weather-related shifted, and the forecast changed: cloudy, mid-60s, only one day with consistent sun. It was going to be chilly. And maybe even a little bit dreary.

Late Sunday afternoon, after we’d unpacked and unloaded and started the process of unwinding just a little bit, A. and I walked down to the beach to see exactly how long we could stick our toes in the Gulf without lapsing into hypothermia. The boy declared that the water wasn’t that cold if you just took some time to get used to it, but as best I could tell, there wasn’t a chance that I’d be able to get used to it before my toes turned blue. That is why I opted to perch myself on the edge of a beach chair while A. stood on the edge of the shore and tried to convince himself that the water was totally warm.

Monday and Tuesday we managed to find some pockets of sunshine that made it comfortable to hang out on the beach and chase the waves for a little while. D. had to drive back to Birmingham for work stuff on Tuesday afternoon, and since I had a touch of a headache (just a touch), A. and I enjoyed a perfectly adequate frozen pizza for supper before we fired up our respective electronic book devices and read and read and read and read and read. It was 62 and cloudy on Wednesday – not exactly beach weather – so we stayed inside all day and watched movies and IT. WAS. GLORIOUS. I haven’t done anything like that in forever, but I highly recommend it.

Thursday we drove to Mississippi so that the little guy (who turned ten a couple of weeks ago – can you believe that?!?!) could play golf with my daddy, but then it rained and stormed and rained some more, so we ended up just hanging out with our people for a couple of days and eating way too much fried chicken. We also continued the week’s trend of acting like somebody was paying us the big bucks to sleep upwards of 9 hours a night. Because if I remember any one thing about Spring Break ’13, it will be that we took our sleep all kinds of seriously.

Amen.

We drove home late Friday afternoon, and we have had the easiest, calmest weekend. Granted, A. has a horrible cold (he’s not running a lick of fever, but between his husky voice and his incessant cough, he sounds a little bit like a cross between Wolfman Jack and Hazel) and I’m trying to pretend that I don’t have a sinus infection, but all three of us have enjoyed being at home and reacquainting ourselves with Chuy’s and soaking up these last couple of days when we are not beholden to alarms and schedules and whathaveyou.

So if you’ll excuse me, I’m going to try to finish catching up on Revenge before the day is done. And that reminds me: does anyone else feel like they do a whole lot of whispering on that show? Because earlier today I was trying to watch for a few minutes while I was cooking lunch, and I honest-to-goodness said, “Oh my word – SPEAK UP” right to the TV – just like the characters could hear me. It just seems like the dialog is very covert and secretive and hushed, and before I know it I’ve cranked the volume up to stun and still might benefit from the use of closed captioning.

As you can tell, I’m a bit consumed by non-issues at the moment. If you stick around long enough, I’m sure to tell you about the horrible misfortune that befell me when the Walgreens did not have a single bottle of Essie’s Turquoise and Caicos nail polish yesterday.

(I’m kidding, by the way.)

(And also: I just re-read this post to proof it, and oh my goodness, I’m just as sorry as I can be about all the boring.)

(Seriously. It’s just a hair shy of saying something like, “And then I cooked some peas.”)

(I will try to do better.)

(But I still think the Revenge people need to speak up.)

(You can always count on me to address society’s most important issues.)

– March Madness is upon us again – which means that it’s time for our annual NCAA Tournament Challenge group. If you’d like to join, just click on over and join the BooMama group. We’d love to have you (but please don’t mock me – I am TERRIBLE at the whole bracket thing). As always, there will be a prize for the person who has the winningest bracket at the end of the tourney. WE’RE SO OFFICIAL-ESQUE.

– Emma Kate always finds the cutest tote bags, and this past fall she gave me one of these Scout bags for my birthday.

I can’t even tell you how handy it is. We’re at the beach this week, and it’s been so nice to have separate compartments for sunscreen, lip stuff, phone, headphones, etc. This morning I even though about using one of those pockets to carry a packet of hand warmers (it’s a little chilly down here today).

– Last week I was surprised to read that Google Reader is going away in July. And by that I mean that Google is phasing out the service, not that Google Reader will be spending a couple of weeks in Tahiti.

Anyway, since Google Reader is something that I use every single day, I immediately started looking for a feed reader replacement. And this past Saturday morning, I switched to feedly. It took all of about two seconds to set up my new account, and it was as seamless as you would hope these kinds of things would be. This post has some helpful information if you’re considering making the switch.

– There’s a Nissan plant in Canton, Mississippi, and in addition to making cars, the workers there have a gospel choir.

Yep. A gospel choir.

– This post by Jen Hatmaker has made me think. And think. And think. By the way, there aren’t many people who can write about tricky topics with as much grace as Jen can. I appreciate that so much.

– Matthew Crawley now has dark hair. My whole world is turned upside down.

When I was in college, I used to live for those little stretches-o-time when there was nothing due: no papers, no tests, no reading assignments, NADA. Emma Kate and I used to laugh about the fact that she was never happier than when she had her whole morning and afternoon scheduled with classes and study sessions and meetings and Bible studies, and I was never happier than when I had 48-72 hours to do nothing but watch old Letterman episodes on VHS.

What can I say? I’ve always been super motivated.

Over the last two weeks I’ve thought about Emma Kate about 96 times, mainly because my schedule would’ve been her dream come true in college. It’s not that I’m any busier than anybody else; it’s just that about four different projects – two at work, one at home, one with writing – were all demanding my attention, and I knew that if I didn’t hunker down and put on some sassy blinders and FINISH, ALREADY, I was going to find myself in a spiral of procrastination and deadline-related despair.

(For some reason I pictured myself standing in a mall parking lot wearing a leotard and leg warmers and holding up a boom box a la John Cusack in Say Anything when I typed that last sentence.)

(Which can only lead me to think that at some point in my mental life, leotards and procrastination have gotten all tied up together.)

(I think that there is more symbolism there than I care to unpack at this juncture.)

Anyway, this past Saturday morning I am so happy to say that I finished the last of All The Deadlines. And I am telling you that when I woke up this morning and didn’t have that immediate sense of TODAY I MUST FINISH SO-AND-SO, I almost conjured up a single tear to fall gently down the left side of my face.

(I am about to head down the most random rabbit trail ever.)

(CONSIDER YOURSELF WARNED.)

I have no idea why, but I always think of one particular Sheena Easton video when I make any reference to a single tear. So tonight, after I wrote that sentence about the single tear (all of six minutes ago), I wanted to make sure that my single tear video memory is accurate.

I am sad to report that it is not.

But that’s almost irrelevant.

Because if you have four minutes to spare, I beg you to watch this CERTIFIED TREASURE OF THE EIGHTIES.

I have so many thoughts and also questions.

1. Did anyone else notice that Sheena’s earrings mimic the shape of her bangs? Or either her bangs mimic the shape of her earrings? Regardless, that is a lot of spiral.

2. About thirty seconds into the video, I thought, That’s some of the worst fake piano playing I’ve ever seen – and then lo and behold she just stands up and walks off even though there is still piano playing in the song. But I guess that kinda makes sense because the piano was playing by itself at the beginning of the video.

3. No. It doesn’t make sense at all. This is all very confusing.

4. But clearly it’s safe to assume that she was tired of all the fake piano playing.

5. I imagine we can all relate. Sometimes it is exhausting to pretend.

6. After Sheena (that is in fact her real name; I just consulted Wikipedia) gets up from the piano, she takes a few steps into a portion of her music room / dining room / den where she keeps a couple of large video game consoles in the middle of the room. AS DO WE ALL.

7. Why is the guy in camo when he’s playing the video game? Is he a military man?

8. Is the piano part a flashback? Or has the guy snuck into her house so that he can show off his tuxedo shirt while he plays the piano and stares at her?

9. MAYBE he wore the tuxedo shirt while he was “paintin’ the town.” And now he’s “come back around” to play her piano and stare at her like a creepy piano-playing stalker.

10. I’ll tell you what: it’s a good thing that video game console was on wheels. It would have been the devil to move that thing across carpet.

11. I don’t know the nature of her specific gripe against the Defender game, but I think it’s safe to say that after she pushed that sucker off of the balcony, she’s certainly not going to have to deal with it anymore.

12. Truth be told, there have been times when I’ve considered doing something similar with our Wii. But it’s not nearly as dramatic to throw a Wii off the deck and into the backyard. It would just land softly on the grass and then I’d have to go pick it up.

13. I like how the glass shatters in the picture just in case we miss the fact that HE SHATTERED HER HEART.

14. You know what would’ve made the video even better? A SINGLE TEAR.

So there you have it. A post that starts with an update on deadlines and ends with a Sheena Easton video from 1983.

I guess it’s safe to say that things are almost back to normal around here.

Happy Monday, y’all.

Hi.

I’m not sure if you remember me, but I occasionally post some things here.

It’s delightful to see you again.

And I am happy to say that I am almost caught up on life again. Last week I finally finished some work-related stuff that’s been hanging over my head, celebrated the little guy’s (upcoming) birthday with a few of his friends, wondered if the house was going to fall in when roofers were here (thankfully the house remained intact), avoided certain frostbite (okay. slight exaggeration.) while watching a baseball game in 44 degree weather, and managed to be sound asleep by 10:30 every single night.

I can’t even tell you how proud I am of that whole asleep-by-10:30 thing.

I don’t think that’s happened since I was in 3rd grade.

Last week I also tried one of those little 90-calorie Snickers ice cream bars for the first time, and SWEET MERCY THEY ARE DANGEROUS. I mean, I appreciate that they’re only 90 calories and all, but as soon as I tried one, I wanted to eat three more. Which sort of defeats the purpose of the 90-calorie dessert option.

Anyway.

One of the things that I am determined to check off my to-do list this week is an article about summer vacations that I’m writing for HomeLife magazine. Earlier tonight I was wondering what would be the quickest way to finish a little sidebar survey that’s going to go with the article, and then I remembered OH, WAIT – I HAVE A BLOG.

It’s a handy little thing, a blog is.

So if there are a few of you who wouldn’t mind answering a couple of super-quick survey questions for the sidebar, I’d be mighty grateful. Be warned that I may quote some of your responses, but I’ll only use your first name if I do.

All righty. The questions.

1. What’s your favorite destination for a family vacation?

2. Typically, what is your state of mind by the time you actually arrive at your vacation destination?

Thanks in advance, y’all, for your help – I appreciate it so much!

So the thing about the work that I do (besides the fact that it involves very complex mathematical formulas and demands a high degree of skill in terms of applying the principles of quantum physics) (whatever) (I’ve never been very strong with the numbers and especially the symbols) is that there are a couple of times every year when it just gets cuckoo. It’s not a bad thing, mind you – in a weird way it is very fun and makes me feel kind of like I’m on the staff of the West Beverly Blaze and Andrea Zuckerman is my demanding but fair editor who is pushing me toward a seemingly impossible deadline – but it’s hectic.

So I think it’s safe to say that I’m going to be a little scarce around here for the next week or so. My days are a little more full than what is typical for me, and by the time I get home and tend to homework and fix supper and then clean up the kitchen (credit where credit is due: my husband cleaned up the kitchen tonight) (bless him), my introverted side is begging for some peace and quiet and maybe even some quality reality television.

How could I possibly deprive the introvert of Chris Harrison and Sean Lowe? HOW, I ASK YOU?

Given all of that, I think it makes sense to put the blog on the way-back burner this week so that Andrea Zuckerman and I can plow through our work-related need-to-do lists.

Those quantum physics problems aren’t going to solve themselves, you know.

Y’all have a good week!

Needless to say I will miss you terribly.

This is one of the sweetest, most selfless things I’ve ever seen.

Go ahead and grab a tissue.

(via)