He must have wanted to be more Irish

I get asked often .. and I mean often.. what having three boys is like.  Well..



It's like this

Everything you've heard is true and every moment of silence when I can't see them, terrifies me.

the religion of tradition

This may be the first time in 6 years we'll have to trick or treat at the Mall.   The Mall.  First, I have an unreasonable attachment to celebrating things on their actual dates.. if I've deemed it important then it might as well be a religious holiday.  Second, as a seasoned Vet of Trick or Treating like yours truly I'm experiencing a mild anxiety attack.  My childhood was spent scavenging the streets for hours with my friends, including all the unintentionally creepy houses you were sure some kids were trapped inside, and we didn't use no fancy buckets we had pillowcases and we liked it!  One year I literally fireman-carried my friend Andrea back to Candy Central (our friends house) when she got sick and couldn't walk back.  It helped that she weighed merely 8 pounds but still.. we didn't leave a man behind, a lit house un-tricked or treated, and we didn't care to dress appropriately for the weather.  The year I went as a cheerleader? my blue little legs brought in 3 pillowcases that year.  It was hardcore candy times, so you can just guess that the very idea of MY kids trick or treating in the Mall just.. annoys me.. but, Hurricanes be crazy! and it's going to pretty much rain all week as we all know by now.  I'll give the boys some time to become MEN.. I guess ;)

My only consolation is that they at least got to dress up already for a spooky fun Halloween Party with some friends on our street on Saturday night.

Sir Gabriel and his dragon Kierfire.. and Lego version Captain Rex with beard.

The Evil Witch ..of the bathroom!

Sean was missing due to being sick that day but his costume was Rick from Walking Dead, if you're familiar.  Maybe he'll get to wear it at the Mall and scare some teen shoplifters into making better life choices.

Here's to a wet but Happy Halloween 2012 everyone!

Nobody knows what it means

I have avoided this video for weeks but, sadly, anything Andrea sends me I feel compelled to watch.  

I have no idea what gangnam style means either, I think its like one of those ink blot tests of life.. Andrea thinks someone might get hurt and I assume we're high on goofballs wearing sunglasses and using "jazz-hands" as currency.

In case you were curious we wanted to see Carrot Top but he was out of town that night.  Also, I saw Penn Jillette going to catch his flight while waiting for Andrea (she was delayed twice.. I now know McCarran Airport REALLY WELL.  Let me take you for a tour sometime!) and he looks just like the Undertaker with a tan.   I guess I should actually write a real update on my trip to Vegas but someone has all the pictures still and hasn't sent me the USB drive in the mail.  Hint: that someone isn't ME.

66%

Before there was this blog there was a little thing called a paper Diary, I'm sure everyone used to also write in these things.  I have no clue if anyone still does.  Also, no one was meant to read them.

"If you read someone else's diary, you get what you deserve."  -David Sedaris

Dragging out the Halloween decorations this week lead me to open a box full of old diaries.  In the photo up there is years 1993-2002.   My first diary was the turquoise one in the middle and it had a sticker of Aladdan on it, a real key lock, a kitten bookmark that says "you are special" and an O-Pee-Chee baseball card of Duane Ward.  

Also the first 10-15 pages are ripped out because I didn't like my handwriting enough for a 'first diary entry', even though I used pencil I couldn't erase it good enough.  I finally settled on what I wrote (and erased re-wrote) because I wasted too many pages already.  It was only a quote from the diary of Anne Frank... a much more famous story than mine!

This perfectionist, book and baseball-loving kid liked watching Arsenio, writing short stories with my friends and having sleepovers.  Oh and figuring out my chances with Frodo Baggins.  

I'm 30 years old now but even still.. posting this is almost unbearably embarrassing.  66% love is HARDLY PROMISING, YOUNG ANN-MARIE!  Elijah Wood doesn't read the internet does he??

If I didn't find it so funny I likely would keep this to my own musings, but, it's all history isn't it?  It's all a little bit of everything that ever was.  It's what storytelling is all about. It caused me to wonder what exactly changes when we finish a book full of nothing but thoughts?  The story isn't over but the thoughts, in ink or type, you own them; could you (would you) throw it in a box?  Yes I would in a box and I would with a fox, and on a train, and in the rain.  Yadda yadda, uh .. I have repeated too many Dr. Seuss stories to my kids.

Ahem.

If history often repeats itself it is good to refresh yourself on the narrative once in a while.  We spend so much time in life being uncertain, impetuous, brightly naive... I enjoyed reading in that voice for a change.  If we can talk to ourselves and get an answer.  Alternatively it can be disturbing, the very last entry in my very last paper diary is something that I still wonder about often.  

The perspective, and the hilariousness, were equally nice.  It makes me curious if when the time comes to give my own kids the advice I'd give myself at 11 years old, if I should just hand them a stack of journals and throw my hands up in the air and say "You know what, I don't actually know!"