shark boy & sugar fiend
Originally uploaded by bnims.

This is an older post that I never got up from October 5th.

This afternoon I took the boys thrift store shopping downtown Ventura. It’s a favorite afternoon past time of ours. I like it for numerous reasons: I feel like I’m saving money, recycling, basically, being a B- citizen instead of a C+ one. I love the colorful characters and the conversations I overhear. I can sometimes feel creative while I’m shopping. I love the names: The Salvation Army, Humane Society Thrift Store, Goodwill, Retarded Citizens Thrift Store. Compare those to the boring names like Target, Mervyne’s, Macy’s, JC Penny’s ect. Of course there are things I don’t like about thrift stores such as how your hands feel like they are coated with clear chalk afterwards or how the carts always have a sticky wheel or two and rolling over polyester moomoos can be difficult. But then there are the “finds”, such as a complete Jr. Scrabble game (I’m not always so lucky, the Operation Game I bought was missing a bone.) or a fantastic vintage Guccie Sweater. One of my all time favorite dresses came from a thrift store in Florida where I paid a dollar a pound. But, back to this afternoon. We were in the first shop we visited when Noah lazered in on a green Razr scooter. This was it. He didn’t mind the torn handle bar foam or the rust on the bolts. The store was going to out of business so it half off and was only going to be six dollars…what a steal. Before we paid for it, I reminded him we were going to the store across the street, the one with the “good toys’ and if he got the scooter he couldn’t get anything else. He agreed. I said,”Are you sure? Because I don’t want you to start asking for something else over there.” He said he was sure he wanted the scooter. So we paid for it. Speaking of strange characters in thrift stores. The clerk asked me if I had ever seen the Leave It To Beaver movie because Beaver rode the scooter we were buying was in movie. And her son had played Beaver. I asked if he was still an actor, wondering how she ended up working in the thrift store. “No, he is in college now, studying genetics. He wants to cure cancer”, she said. What do you say to that? I told her that was great and left wondering if she was crazy. Across the street at the “good toy store”, the boys began to rummage through piles of abandoned and discarded toys. I heard Noah shreik with joy. I looked over and he held up this crazy looking half shark-half car thing. In case you don’t know, Noah LOVES LOVES LOVES sharks. “A shark car”, he said wide eyed with sheer amazement. I watched him look at it longingly, remember what I had said about not asking, and then slowly set it down back on the shelf. It was the look on his face, that revealed he cared more about pleasing me and keeping his word than getting the incredible shark car, that moved me. When it comes to my kids I’m usually not a hard ass, so of course, I said, “Noey, you can go ahead and get that shark car if you want.” His face glowed as he reached for it. He couldn’t be more content at the moment, but Nathanael was another story. It would be another ten minutes before Nathanael reluctantly decided on a bag army toys. But on the way out, I spotted an Icee maker on a shelf with some vases. I pulled it down and Nathanael’s face lit up, at the thought of sugar I assume. Good, two ecstatic little boys. We paid for our purchases and left. As we walked to our car, I felt like Mrs. Thrift Store America with my adoring little fans trailing after me.

Yesterday was our first full day in Phoenix. There is so much sky here, it’s makes me breath a little easier I think. Yesterday, my dear friend Dawn, came into town for a business trip. We went to Papago park where we had a picnic by a pond. I kept imagining what it would be like to be lost in the desert and then find an oasis, like Alec and Raja in The Black Stallion Returns. This pond reminded me of that part of the movie except there weren’t any camels, turbans, horses, men with knives and there were minivans in the parking lot, but aside from that it was similar, I guess. After the picnic we climbed the Hole in the Rock trail where we reached a hole in the top of a huge rock. The boys had lots of fun until….until Nathanael fell down and let the entire park know he was in pain. He then continued to question, rather loudly, why God made rocks. I supose it was because he thought it to be the rocks that caused him to fall not running too fast in the slick bottom Chuck Taylors he insisted on having that he still won’t put on himself, but I’m getting on another tangent. After we got down the trail, where along the way I was reminded by my sweet son’s screaming voice that he was not going to walk on the rocks anymore (I’m not sure if he thgouht we were going to fly down the trail) we packed up and begin to make our way to Trader Joes. I will never live in a place that doesn’t have Trader Joes. Hear that God? Make sure you put one down the street from my tiny little room in the basement of the mansion in heaven. K? But along the way to TJ’s we got sidetracked, it happens, by the Goodwill. Dawn who is forever cheerful didn’t mind if we made a pit stop. We went in and and came out with a tube top, sari tank top, Batman gun, Matchbox Pirates Cove, and a flyer for the 50% off sale for Saturday. That’s another post. By the way, if you are wondering where Brent was during all of this, he was at lunch with a friend from Santa Barbara who was also in town for business. Finally, we made it to TJ’s were Dawn cheerfully offered to push Noah in the cart. Except Noah decided he would love on her by spitting, poking, and finally punching to the point Dawn actually started to lose her cheerfulness for about a minute and a half!! We made it home for 30 minutes and then left for Oregano’s, a pizzeria we discovered on our last trip out here. Unfortunately, we had to wait an hour even though it wasn’t even six o’clock, but I must say, it was worth it. And so are the five pounds I gained.

Yesterday, Nathanael took a plastic pole from a scary skull ax that daddy had bought from The Big K and started swiping my bum. After about 5 “strikes” from the pole, I asked him what he was doing. “Trying to light your butt on fire”, he replied.

We had the curtain call. All that work for one show!! Overall, it went really well. The songs were a little shaky but I pushed through my fear and just sang!! For me, that was an accomplishment. Nathanael and Noah loved it!!! It was fun to steal glimpses of their little faces during the show, that made it all worth it.

I had my first rehearsal, where I actually got to get up, for Alice in Wonderland today. I felt really good about it, with one EXCEPTION, the songs. AHHHHH…they felt horrible. The show is the day after tomorrow and, hopefully, I’ll get to rehearse one more time. And I’m thinking I’m going to sing the songs more child like rather than “singerly”!! This has actually been a great exercise in discipline for me because I have had to memorize all the dialogue, learn the songs, and the blocking by myself, for the most part. All for just one show. BUT, it will be worth it when I see how happy Nathanael and Noey are after the show!!

Okay, so you know how I can be sort of frugal or as some would say cheap? Well the other day I took a deep breath pulled out my plastic and bought a $159 Zeno or zit zapper. “She’s” a device that look sort of like a cell phone that has a warm tip that you put on your zit for 2 1/2 minutes twice a day. She is supposed to make it go away in about 24-36 hours instead of 1-2 weeks. Anyway, after using Zeno a few times, I thought to myself, “She is just heat. Why did I pay $159 for a hot plate the size of an erasure tip?” So I plugged in my curling iron and set it to low heat. A few minutes later I started tapping a zit on my chin. I had to tap because it was too hot to set the curling iron on the blemish. At first it really hurt but after a few taps it went numb and so I kept tapping away determined to prove to Zeno she was worth no more than a $9.99 curling iron. Well, later that afternoon, I glanced into my visor mirror and thought, “What the hell is that?” Now instead of a tiny little red pimple, I had a small but shiny blister on top of the pimple. I could just hear Zeno’s snickery beeps when I turned her on that night, “I told you so.”

Last night the boys got into an argument. It went something like this:

Nathanael- You’re a cry baby Noah.
Noah- I’m not a baby.
Nathanael- A cry baby.
Noah- (louder) I’m not a baby.
Nathanael- Not a baby. A cry baby.
Noah- (esculating anger) I’m not a baby.
Nathanael- You don’t know what a cry baby is, you’ll have to go to college to learn.

I knew blogging was a bad idea.

Sometimes I obsess on things, really obsess on things, even random things, even in my sleep. This was the case the other night. Around 3 am, I half-awoke frustrated and unable to fully wake and unable to fully escape the dream that had been playing over and over in my head. The dream was not a story, it was an image of Zach Braff, that continually dissolved to an image of Brent, then back to Zach and back to Brent. CONTINUOUSLY. Driving me MAD in my sleep. And I kept commenting continuously. “Brent is way better looking than Zach Braff.” “Zach Braff looks like an koala with lip injections.” Zach Braff looks like lizard with lip injections.” ” Brent is way better looking than Zach Braff” “Zach Braff looks like a horse with lip injections.” “Zach Braff looks like a fish with lip injections.” And on and on. In my sleep, I was trying to find the perfect animal comparison to Zach Braff and every animal had lip injections. And until I found that animal, I was not going to be able to quit obssessing. I tried to wake up, but couldn’t. I tried to go to sleep but couldn’t. I kept, in my half sleep, trying to convince my subconscious that this was about the stupidest dream I could be dreaming. Around 5 am I fell into a deep sleep. The next morning I was exhausted. I spent a few minutes trying to figure out why Zach Braff’s face ruined my night. I have never watched Scrubs. I saw Garden State. But that’s it. I have never disliked him. I’m still not sure what animal, I think he resembles. I’m leaning towards a rhino. I’m not sure what I had against him that night. I haven’t thought about him much since. And I do really think Brent is cuter than Zach Braff. But of course, I’m biased! In my eyes, Brent is the most beautiful man on the planet. Oh yeah, I have gotten a kick out of finding animal resemblences in people since I was a kid. When I was in 4th grade, I wanted to be called mouse. Whatever.