Primary Colors

Back in high school, there was a rule: All the crap needed to be picked up before the election results were announced...

Girls, Girls, Girls

Shana moved out. Well, for the weekend, at least, giving me a taste of what next month will be like when she's really gone. Spending a two day straight slumber party celebrating Avery's last Scottsdale weekend before trekking off to Canada for grad school (and maybe for life), the gang reminisced at a house down the road while making even more memories. But the kid couldn't stay away, and I was treated  to a revolving door of girls, in ever-changing combinations, running in to pick up clean outfits, tangled up bodies watching movies on the couch, bikini-d bathing beauties in the pool and "meet us for lunch, Mom?" texts,

proving that even when she's gone, hopefully, she won't be too far away.

Vroom, vroom

If you build it, Shawn will come...

The Formula 1 is coming back to the US, November 16 - 18 at the brand new track in Austin - Circuit of the Americas.

In between race festivities -

The Alamo

San Antonio River Walk

Austin fun

Double Feature

Sweet Saturday double feature with the ladies, with a Pita Jungle Happy Hour sandwiched in between. Union Square - wait for the DVD. Good premise, good cast, crazy sister pops in on normal sister during family crisis, but too many unbelievable moments. The Intouchables, on the other hand, wow! From beginning to end, a lesson in what's important in life, full of laughs and perspective.

Lit Lounge

Scored a last minute ticket to the sold-out Lit Lounge with date Kim P. for an incredible show of amazing writers telling hilarious little tales, mixing in with the three girl lesbian band The Pubes, singing their hit song Cameltoe at the ever-so-hip smoca.

Book Club - The Shoemaker's Wife

Met up with the Divas and a bunch of little mini-me Divas for an end-of-summer, gossip girl book club fest. Gave up on The Shoemaker's Wife, but loved Gone Girl and

 the Amazing Amy. Almost as much as I love the book club.

Movie Madness - The Queen of Versailles

It's a good thing my life's been so dull lately, nothing fancy to report, no pithy anecdotes to share, no big welcome mat rolled out in front of my brain screaming "come on in and look around!" Maybe that's why sneaking out of the heat into this neon-flashing "Open House" documentary was so jaw-droppingly amazing. A true "riches to rags" story of a beauty queen and her baby daddy. A billion dollars, eight kids, a dozen nannies and an almost-done-but-now-crumbling-90,000-square-foot-house later, Mr. Seigel bet it all in Vegas and lost (just like his Hershey-bar eating parents did). Talk about your Daddy issues. There were moments you almost felt sorry for them. Not during the shopping sprees or the fights or the sad looks on the kids' faces or the obviousness to the shit piling up around them (literally), it was the bits of perspective they gained, tiny bits, like looking back to when he handed the 2000 election to Dubya, swinging swampy Florida to the right, when Mr. Time Share Seigel seemed to have a tinge of regret (thank God Vegas-y Adelson still has $$$ left to buy the sunshine state). Then there was the end, when the little Mrs. took a break from Botoxing, looked around her current digs, spun toward the water, took in the view and decided maybe it wasn't so trailer trashy after all. 

Into The Woods

Seems like the Phoenix fever finally broke, but we're heading up north to play in the pines anyway... 

TGIF!

Three Noodles and a Lisa

Back in June, the middle of August sounded like a lifetime away. I figured if I could make it 'til then, I'd have made it through Summer '12, so I signed up for water yoga as a desperate attempt to fake myself out. No other plans out there, really. Just water yoga. I thought I'd pretend I was in La Jolla, maybe, splashing around. But class didn't turn out half bad. Camelback Mountain right there at the not quite churchy, more kumbaya, sort of campy with a bit of a rehab "Casa" feeling place. Susan, the yogi guru, led us with an always good bit of wisdom for the low maintenance crowd as we stretched, pushed, pulled and then, on this last night of class, noodled up for some floating-in-the-dark meditation on this cloud-packed-sort-of-chilly-screw-La-Jolla-it-feels-like-Fall-tonight-in-Paradise (Valley). And it worked. Now that's using your noodle.

Next up not in the pool - World Day of Peace 9/21

Yoga in the grass - Thursdays in October

XXX

Still smooching Shawn...it must have something to do with that hot, August night thirty years ago. Friday the 13th, 1982 - first kiss.

MMWWAAHHH!!

ReinCARnation

My car died. My big, comfy couch-y mom ride bit the dust. When the lady on the other end of the phone said,  "I need you to pick up your car," after only a couple of hours into what was supposed to be a two day sleepover, I felt like I got called in to the Principal's office. She told me to get rid of it as fast as I could. I knew there were problems. I had stopped parking in driveways of people I like a couple of months ago due to the oil drip. I watched in disbelief as the odometer turned over to 172000. I had skipped three day weekend road trips, working hard to save three grand before dropping her off for her current spa day - A/C flush, oil pump, timing belt, cams (whatever cams are) and some other stuff. That wasn't even including the non-dangerous items I've been ignoring over the years - the shot suspension, the worn out hood and trunk lifts, the broken radio volume button, the down to only one drink holder in the front problem. So when those honest folks at Tony's called to say it just wasn't worth it and they closed her up, I guess I wasn't surprised. Just sad. 

I thought of all of those drives to and from school with Shana, collecting the free-association thoughts from the back seat, all the family vacations, the date nights, the girls' trips, the star-gazing through the moon roof. Yeah, she was big. Yeah, not very sporty. Some people even made fun of her. Like she was a minivan or something. The nerve. 

So I began my search for some new wheels. Something cute, finally. Something zippy. Something cheap. Something non-momish for this new phase in my life. Since I felt too guilty selling it to some unsuspecting chump on Craigslist, I found a big, bad dealership that appreciated my sweet car almost as much as I did and before they bandaged her up, getting her ready to roll into auction, I got in to something fresh, something close to zero miles and drove away, looking for something fun to do.

Anyone wanna go for a ride?

Golden

OOOObsessed with the Olympics! The house is full of whistles and cheering and buzzers and splashing, tons of excitement and lots of tears as Team USA cruises to the top of the medal list.

A few words of wisdom picked up from the deep, deep announcers...

Don't come in fourth

Touch the wall first

Just run fast

It's not perfection that matters, it's who makes the fewest mistakes

On the day of the event, do the best you've ever done

Stick you landings

Sol to Soul

Jo just keeps getting better and better! The Divas gathered at Sol to help bring in the happy, happy new year for the Luscious Leo, speeding through life while we all just hang on and bask in the sweet glow.

Movie Madness - Beasts of The Southern Wild

Powerful look at how we all fit in to this big, bad beast of a planet.

The Roots

Getting back to our roots, met up for a little mother-daughter melee at Grassroots. Seems like the daughters are now having more fun than the moms - how did that happen??

Tee Pee

Every single time I've walked into Tee Pee I've thought, "When are they going to change something around here?" The ripped up red booths, the weird hallway, the tiny bathroom. For almost forty years, no matter the crowd or the chips or the pitchers of margaritas, it's always the same. Until today! 

Check out the non-enchilada-sauce smudged new Tee Pee menu! The owner was even walking around helping those of us that needed assistance, pointing to the lunch special section on the new colorful, laminated work of art. After a text to Amy (stuck in NY with bad Mexican food), she was so excited I had to drive back over and grab a decades old smudged one for a souvenir. Ole!

The Wheels On The Bus...

My first back-to-school day in almost two decades without a back-to-schooler. Shana sat on the counter this morning, legs dangling down, all dressed up, eating one of the little eggy quiche muffin things she made ahead of time on Sunday to help the morning rat race before work go more smoothly. She's figuring it all out. She's all grown up. The tank tops and flip flops have been replaced with pencil skirts, cardis and heels. I asked her if she misses school and right away she said yes. The friends, the Tucson house, the campus, I'm sure. But then came reality. "Well, I don't really miss the tests. Or the studying. Or writing all of those papers." Then she gathered up her laptop, the just-texted Starbucks order from her new BFF at work and hit the freeway, leaving me to watch the neighborhood kids walk by the window to the bus stop. And even though I've got her at home for another month before she moves out for good, I took one look at the bus today and cried.

Crazy Cat Lady

'Cuz four would be weird, right?

Movie Madness - Ruby Sparks

Write on!

If I was going to make up a life-long soul mate character that would trek through my days with me, he might look a lot like this.

(Not the shake, the adorable guy behind it)

But instead, I snagged my in-the-flesh Dr. Everythingwillbealright from out of the Monday coal mines and dragged him to Movie Madness where we laughed ourselves through a great flick, putting a big, fat cherry on top of the day.

Put 'er down ('94)

A little boy wanted Shana. Not more than three years old, the kid walked right up to Shawn in the adorable Montessori classroom, sized him up, looking six feet high straight into Shawn's eyes and quietly, but firmly, demanded, "Put 'er down."

Shawn was still laughing when they got home.