Special Edition Life Coaching: Dream On

I have this recurring dream, well not so much a go-to-sleep-and-fantasize dream but more like a get-distracted-and-lose-focus-when-you're-supposed-to-be-working dream. And my dream is this: I am someone else, rather I am me but in another dimension. And frankly in this life, I am fabulous. I must have an inner desire for inordinate success or crave recognition because I can spend significant amounts of my workday imagining how different, how wonderful my life would be if only I were cuter/better/richer/popular/ skinnier/substitute your own adjective here. It's not so much that I really desire to *be* someone else. It's that I desire life to be different, to be easier, to be more satisfying, to require less effort, to offer escape...my own private "Calgon - take me away" montage. And I am not alone. If my girlfriends and I are representative of our age group, there are a whole lotta thirty-something mommies needing a small reprieve. So know this:

It's ok to dream.

It's Husker Time!

This is my favorite time of the year in Nebraska. I love how the lingering days of indian summer turn to the crisp, cool evenings of fall. I love transitioning out of shorts & tank tops and into pants & jackets. And I love Nebraska football...so do all of my girlfriends.

That's right. We love football.

Love

I have been neglecting the blog...but then that is true for nearly every aspect of my life. I have learned over the past few weeks a very hard truth: when your child is ill and away from home life does not just 'go on' despite your best efforts. Sometimes your best efforts in actuality suck. Grand Master B is still recovering. He 's awaiting placement in a residential treatment facility. It's becoming all too clear that the process of his getting well is going to be a long, drawn out affair. And when that is all you can think (obsess) about, everyday life just ceases to exist. I am having trouble focusing on household chores, work, socializing...even television requires effort to watch. Everything requires effort.

So I just wanted to take a minute to thank my husband for his love, patience and his support. I am quite certain that neither one of us imagined our first anniversary would occur among such discord. But we persevere. We communicate. We swallow anger and apologize when we forget to swallow anger. We remember that 'us' needs attention too. And we hold each other up.

Jim - Thank you for everything. I love you like crazy.

Life Coaching Saturday...er, Sunday

This weekend's segment is coming a tiny bit late but Grand Master B has been in the hospital all week and things have been crazy. He is doing better but has a long road to go towards full recovery. After everything that has happened over the past 7 days, I was having doubts about the wisdom of continuing on as a Life Coach. After all, my own life feels like it is spinning madly out of control and I know that I am managing to hold onto sanity by a mere shred of that oft mentioned thread. But then I realized that it is my very life experience, particularly the more challenging aspects that provides my deepest insight about survival and growth. Deana and the kids came over last night for a visit and Deana fixed me dinner. It was absolute heaven to sit back and let go, knowing that I finally didn't have to do anything. After dinner, D and I spent a long time just talking. It was funny, touching, sad and liberating to let the words pour out. I am left with the following lesson:

• Hang onto your sense of humor as it may be the thing that saves you in the end

Just when you think you've hit rock bottom and there is nowhere left to go, you'll find that there is a laugh at the end of the tunnel. Even when we are forced to confront our deepest fears, all is not lost if you remember to breathe deeply and look for the humor. I find it particularly cathartic to be able to laugh at one's self. Laughter is healing. Giggling is restorative. Sputtering, guffawing and snickering brings peace. To quote one of the best movies ever made*, "Laughter through tears is my favorite emotion."

As you might recall, Deana and I have been struggling with weight and self-esteem issues (insert reference to the Master Cleanse folly here). But while we continue to strive for healthier lifestyles, we've embraced the one upside to gaining weight - BOOBS. Comparing cleavage, hell, actually having cleavage is downright miraculous for me. And I'll go out on a limb and share that is a relatively new concept for Deana as well. Last weekend, we attended a Toby Keith concert in Kansas City and got absolutely giddy squishing our breasts together to maximize their new found lushness. As you can see, we've documented this silliness for posterity. Maybe not the most proper or mature thing we've ever done...but then we already know that neither of us is ever running for public office. The mega doses of funny produced by this endeavor went a long way toward easing my burdens this week...and for that I am extremely thankful.

* I am referring, of course, to Steel Magnolias.

The Littlest Potter...with a side of two complete witches!

I am so, so tardy in blogging about the many magical adventures of the littlest Harry Potter...but in my defense a heavy workload, a family vacation and an asthma exacerbation conspired to keep my fingers from flying across these hallowed keys. But I prevail! And let me tell you what a fabulous night it was. Deana ran to Nobbies & found Mr. Sam an actual Harry Potter ensemble, including wand and glasses, as well as a cape and Griffyndor scarf for Princess Izzy. Sam and I went early to save seats prior to the midnight debut of the film. There were actually MORE people in costumes than I would have thought...and I thought quite a few people would don witch's hats and wizard's robes in celebration of this spectacle. As you can imagine, Mr. Sam in full-on Harry garb was extremely popular with the crowd. He got asked to have his picture taken by many a costumed reveler and so I snapped several pics of him amongst the masses as well. He really was very cute.

And speaking of cute, Deana and I got into the spirit of things also:

I was kinda pleased to be able to get some use out of the $22 hat I got for Mr. Sam as a souvenir from our recent Wicked encounter. Deana found a fabulous glitter witch's hat at Nobbies when she was buying the kid's costumes and she *had* to buy it for herself. Personally, I think we were the cutest adults in costume at the movie...but I might be biased. At any rate, you'll find it no surprise that both of us were completely at ease in the role. You might even say, we're a couple of complete witches (kudos to those that immediately get the Charmed reference).

And so we leave you with this last charming photo - Princess Izzy, Gryffindor Poster Girl and Lover of Things Wizarding.

I want to be Harry's girl.......

So, yes we made it to midnight showing/opening night of 'Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince' and lived to tell about it. We attended in costume, but I will let Jenn blog more on that because she has all of the good photos on her camera. While watching the movie I just happened to notice that, hey that Harry Potter is getting kind of hot. So I googled 'Daniel Radcliffe' and discovered that he was born one year after I graduated from high school. But he's still legal, therefore any impure thoughts that I may or may not have have involving him are ok. Right?

Jenn says: Go get 'em, cougar. But I do remember when he was doing Equus on Broadway and promoting it all over TV land, I happened to watch a snippet of said promotion during "Inside the Actor's Studio" (it is on Bravo so I'm bound to see it sometime)....and he wasn't wearing a shirt and he looked yummy. Yes, I know - Hello, Pot!

Deana says: But do I have to be called a 'cougar'? I just hate that. Isn't there something else? How about 'sugar mama'? Nope. That is worse. And I'm broke, so that won't work. Hot old American lady?

We're Harry Potter Geeks

So Grand Master B is now 16 and, although he is seriously misguided, believes himself to "be a grown man, Mom." He has abandoned many of his old childhood interests, but not Harry Potter. No way. I discovered the book "Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone" (the original title as published in England) in 1998. Frankly, it was not my usual sort of book purchase as 1) it was about a magical world with witches & warlocks, dragons & evil sorcerers and I'm not generally a supernatural, Dungeons & Dragons type of girl and 2) it was a children's book. But B was just turning 6 and loved to read - just like me. I thought it was something that might interest him and that we could read together...and we did. We loved this book and anxiously awaited the next release in the series over the next 9 years. We read every book together, with me reading out loud to B using clever voices like the nerd I am (except for the last book because he was "too old" to be read to). Since the release of the movies, we have watched each one in the theater and collected all the DVDs. About a year ago, Deana's son Mr. Sam was spending the night. Grand Master B and I introduced this beautiful, creative, imaginative boy to the world of Harry Potter...and wonder of wonders he loved it, too. Since then, the love of all things Potter has spread to include Princess Izzy and Deana (Dave had already read all the books). So we've all been anxiously awaiting the premiere of the 6th movie "Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Price" which is this week - 7/15/2009. And like the geeks we are, this band of merrymakers already has their tickets...for the midnight showing on Wednesday the 15th. This is the first time I've ever been to the midnight premiere but we bought tickets online and all of us are going - even Jim (though it is possible that he is a bit less enthusiastic about this midnight adventure than the rest of us). Mr. Sam is going dressed as Harry Potter which is cute and funny because he is 5. I am going dressed in dark jeans/T-shirt with a large, black witch's hat purchased as a souvenir (for Mr. Sam) from our recent trip to see "Wicked" which is totally dorky, but still funny because I am not 5. I have yet to inform Grand Master B of this addition to my wardrobe because I want the mortification to be fresh on the night of the actual event. But I will end this post by sharing my new favorite pic of B. He got his braces off a few weeks ago and his teeth look amazing. I actually got him to smile wide for a photo of those gorgeous chompers. I love it!

Deana says: As for the Harry Potter premier, I told my husband, just for fun let's call him 'He who cannot be named' (What? It fits with the post!) about the outing and he wanted to know if we got him a ticket. Ooops. Well, he probably wouldn't have been off work in time any way......