Unfinished thoughts...

Did you ever stop to think, and forget to start again?  ~ Winnie the Pooh

I can't finish anything these days. I just can't. Nor can I remember much... There are about five loads of dirty clothes hanging out in the laundry room on any given day, fully ignored and depressed. Poor guys. Every time I throw a new load in to be dried, and another hopeful lot into the washer, the dried ones end up getting stale, wrinkled, and pissed off, and the washed ones just rebel over time with stench. It's like Occupy Laundry Room: I'll open the door and immediately close it, ludicrously fearing and ignoring the smart, worthy protests going on inside...


I'll scoop up AJ's tiny trucks and tractors every single day, about eleven times a day. But each little vehicle will secretly kick it into 3rd gear and park itself in front of my feet, no matter where I am. Especially when I'm sleepwalking to the fridge for some 3am, 2-liter Diet Dr. Pepper action.


I do remember to pick up flowers, wine, new sneakers (scored BIG at Marshall's today with surf-colored, low-top Chuck Taylors), Cheerios, chicken nuggets, Pantene, and some pumpkin Coffee Mate for Ang. But I'll get back home and ultimately utter something along the lines of: "Shit. I forgot milk." or, "Now we just need dinner." Hence, a lot of Cheerios for supper and shiny hair 'round these parts. Rough few weeks...


Real life can end up getting in the way of organized life, I guess. So. To continue with this theme (See how I did that? I made my lack of organization of late a theme, folks! Just as if it was my original intention!), here are some unfinished thoughts of mine these past few weeks:

• Why do audiences on cooking shows clap when someone finishes using the blender? I walked through our bedroom the other day while the t.v. was on and caught a millisecond of that "Doctors" show where guys in scrubs talk about health issues (?). A guest was making a healthy drink and threw a bunch of stuff in the blender, pressed *mix*, and the audience went wild, clapping like maniacs. I was dumbfounded. I still am.
• I was listening to the worst possible NPR spot the other day on child sacrifice in Uganda. I was on my way to pick up the monkeys from the YMCA. Moments after hearing of the nightmare that is going on (still) in Africa, I switched over to our Justin Bieber CD (once the kids were in the car), and joined in their happy banter about their day at school. I can't shake it. It was too easy to shut it off. To shut it out. The ease of switching from FM to CD after listening to real-life horror is haunting to me. [Lila caught a snippet of a fundraising commercial on the killing of tigers the other day, before I swooped in to turn it off. No sooner had I flicked the switch when she admonished me for doing so. "Mom! Turn that back on! We need to save the tigers! It's our job!" 
• Andy Rooney left his post on "60 Minutes" and I miss him. Someone asked him what he would have done if he could have done anything differently in his life, and he answered something along the lines of, "I would have gotten a job at a great place like '60 Minutes' and finished each show with whatever was on my mind." Man, that's perfect. A life well-lived. He did what he wanted. Brilliant.
• I swear I've lived before... The music in the new Calvin Klein television ads brings me to a place where, when I close my eyes, I'm transported to a long, long time ago. I can almost remember it. Odd, right?
• Rachel Zoe pissed me off the other day. I don't watch her show, but I did last week when Ang was in Cali and I was trying to lull the kids to sleep with a boring, G-rated program (that wasn't on the Disney Channel). Her assistant was in awe of how 'easy' her pregnancy was and they giggled on and on about her pre-baby ease. And then she said something that irked me. Something like, "I figure maybe I've had an easy pregnancy because someone up there noticed I did this all on my own. Like, I built this and worked really hard to make this all mine and they were up there like, good job, Rachel. Here, we'll give you an easy pregnancy as a thank-you." Nice self-importance, Rachel. What about the women who don't have easy pregnancies? Did they somehow deserve it? Ugh.
• I definitely need to lighten up, here. It's just that these were my past weeks' thoughts and I'm being oddly shareful right now. I did have a pretty cool idea for an invention (?) this week: I think Disney should create an app of some sort that allows parents to plug in info to result in a voicemail or phone call in the voice of a character (Buzz, Aurora, Rapunzel, Lightening McQueen...) saying, for example: "Hi AJ!  All of us here at Disney want you to come and visit us! How about this weekend? Can't wait to see you!" We spilled the beans to the kids today that we're heading up to Disney this weekend, but something like this could've made the delivery that much cooler. (It's the little things, right?)
• It's probably so not cool or hip to say this but, one of my favorite movies is "One True Thing." The message, the autumn scenes, the acting... all good...
• "Bridesmaids" is one of the funniest movies I've seen in a long, long (long) time.
• Oh, and thank God for Pirate Booty.

So. Like my poor, unattended laundry, our ninja vehicle collection, and my recent, somewhat melancholy, silly, bumbling days, this post stands here as a representative. It's a collection of mismatched thoughts and incessant ramblings. It is what it is. I guess, perhaps, this is life.

To live is so startling it leaves little time for anything else  ~ Emily Dickinson