BFAW's

So …
What is a BFAW?
It’s kind of like a BFF. Do you know what that means? If you don’t – stop reading. Because this is probably way too juvenile for you. Or maybe not.
BFF means Best Friends Forever. You know – like in grade 7 you buy necklaces and bracelets and various other trinkets to denote that the person you hang out with is your BFF.
To be honest, the person who was my best friend in grade 7 is not my best friend now, so the title does not hold up. No matter how many broken heart necklaces we had, no matter how often we split Popsicles, traded clothes, talked on the phone and shared our crushes, the best friendom did not last through the ninth grade division of popularity powers.
I’m okay with that.
I had many friends. I did find a really good best friend near the end of high school – and she still holds that spot. She was my maid of honour and helped deliver my baby. (she’s a midwife though she was not mine she was there).
Anyway, back the BFAW thing.
It struck me as really funny when someone at work called the group of us that e-mail back and forth and occasionally go for lunch her BFAW’s. Or …
Best Friends At Work.
I love it. It’s funny.
And, I think we all need BFAW’s. I totally struggle with whole issue of work friendships. I mean, you want to be social. I need to be social. But there are all sorts of boundaries you don’t want to cross.
Work is work. Social life is social life.
Should they cross.
I say yes. Not completely. Good Lord. The BFAW’s work in legal. I’m in a different department. There’s so much that we can’t talk about – that we’re forced to talk about things completely unrelated to work. I love that.
Besides, who wants to work all day and then talk about work at lunch. Who really cares how many files you sorted? Well, obviously it matters in the work context, but get me out of the office and I just don’t care.
I love that I can talk to people about kids and relationships and arguments and all of that. And part of the juiciness of it all is that they don’t know my family. Would I introduce them? Of course. But, most of the time it’s almost like an anonymous conversation.
And that’s cool.
And they are cool
That doesn’t mean that no one else at work could fall under this category. But, the truth is we’re not in grade 7. The more BFAW’s the BETTER!!!!

Cat Pee

We have a cat named Mojo (or Moj or Momo). She is usually well behaved. Though we call her poopy because she poops a lot. Matthew adores her. So do I. Mike tolerates her.

He also cleans out her litter box often. As do I. Matt is mostly responsible for feeding her. (we prompt him).

On Sunday I asked Mike to change her cat litter. I didn't pay that much attention. I was making dinner. He was dumping the cat litter. I vividly recall him bringing Matt to the garbage chute to dump the litter. Beyond that I wasn't paying much attention.

So this morning. As I am drinking my coffee at 5:30 Mojo starts scratching in the hallway. You know, that pre-pee scratch. Weird. I think to myself she must be affected by us moving. So ... I pick her up and relocate her just outside the litter box. She looks at me. Meows. Walks back to the hallway. Okay. Maybe she was chasing a shadow.

Scratch scratch scratch again. Hmmm.... I walk over. There she is - peeing on the nice tall black boots I was going to wear today. Lovely. Has our cat gone crazy???

So, I get annoyed, but pick her up and bring her to her litter box. I decide that this time I will put her in the litter box to ensure she clearly gets my message that cats go in the litter box.

I was actually concerned. My sister's cat had to go on kitty kat Prozac. She was depressed. I thought maybe my cat was going down the depression road. Which would be sad. But, she seems quite happy most of the time.

So as I am carrying her and trying not to let my anger show I was questionning her actions.

Why? Why did she not use the litter box?

Oh - well that is because Mike did not put more kitty litter in the box. It was just a big plastic box. With nothing in it!!! Not even, since we apparently ran out of cat litter, newspaper.

So, by this time it's 5:45. I wake up Mike. I'm not freaking out. Just calmly tell him that I need to decide on a whole new outfit since that cat peed on my boots. Since there was no kitty litter for her.

So annoyed today. So annoyed. I did fill the litter box with paper. Since I had to leave early. And I didn't know what else to do. I'm sure Mojo will survive. It's my clothing that I'm worried about!!!

PS - BFAW's (you know who you are) Blogging about you guys tomorrow. Because my cat pee story could not wait!

Matty and Mojo - in happier, not peeing on my boots days. And yes, she loves sleeping on my stuff.

On Haircuts, a Night Out and A Major lack of Sleep

Oh Yesterday.

It was fun.

First of all, the much anticipated date with Bill. Oh wait. I mean a haircut. For those of you who don’t know me that well, it’s hard to understand what exactly gets me so freaking excited about my hair cuts.

Okay, so perhaps it is because for the past (almost) 15 years I have known and loved Bill. No, get your minds out of the gutter. He’s gay. He has a partner. I’m married. It’s not like that. In fact, I think that is what makes it so special.

Anyway …

So, the Bill experience. It’s great. I always go in feeling good and leave feeling fantastic. It is about the hair, but it’s also about having someone spend an hour just telling you that you are fabulous, and letting you leave feeling like you really are. There’s no reason behind it. I figured out a long time ago that the money involved – well, I don’t go often enough for him to rely on the price I pay. So, it really is just about feeling good.

And, yesterday in particular was great. I told him I want to look like Stacey on What Not to Wear. I have some growing to do, but basically he said that was possible. And, then he made me like a poofy (in a good way) Stacey which was pretty cool. And then he told me that this was the first time we’d gone this mature with my hair.

Yes, I agreed. Stunning.

The funny part of the afternoon was when we got on the topic of one of my favourite writer who shall remain unnamed. I was like “I LOVE said writer.” Bill, was like “OH MY GOD! I HATE HER!”

It was hilarious.

We have never disagreed on something so vehemently. It was not brutal. I was just as gushing about my love for her writing as he was about his hate. Though I relented. He won when he said “I would pay someone to cut her columns out of my paper.”

To that I had no come back. And, he said “Is this the first chink in our relationship.”

Ummmm … yeah.

But let’s be honest.

Even my favourite writer could not compete with Bill.

So after the hair cut (which ended with Bill saying, “You’ve changed, you’re happy and whatever is going on you’re working it” – side note, Angela, that is such a Tyra line) I met up with some friends and went for drinks.

It was LOVELY. It was just a lot of fun. Laughing and joking. It was a couple of old friends me and I introduced them to a new friend. And, of course since one of the old friends there was Stef she got recognized from Mean Girls. And because I’d had a couple of drinks it was extra funny.
Too fun.

And, I actually got home at a decent hour. After a bizarre subway ride where the driver kept singing the subway stops. At one point the guy across from me looked up caught my eye and imitated her. It was so ridiculous that I started to giggle. Funny!

So anyway, I got home and went to bed. And man was I tired and ready to sleep. And since I felt a cold coming on I even took a couple of NyQuils.

And then 2:30 came. And Matt woke up shrieking. Poor little monkey’s diaper rash came back. But, we had no idea. So for an hour he cried intermittently while I tried cuddling, soothing, offering a bottle, soother and his hippo. Finally I thought about chaning his diaper. (He usually is dry all night). And, it was gross. And he had a really bad diaper rash. It was awful. I put the special cream on and thankfully he went back to sleep.

I did not.

I think I fell asleep at 4:30.

My alarm goes off at 5:21.

The good news is that Matt’s feeling way better.

The bad news is that I am one tired mommy. With good hair!!!

Green Beans anyone?

For reasons unknown to Mike and I, our child is in love with health food.
We try to be healthy in our house, but we do tend to enjoy the junk food. There's nothing Mike and I enjoy more than a night on the couch with chips and dip. (yum). I know we don't do this often anymore. But that's not by choice. It's because we were getting fat.
However, if you were to put, for instance, a potato and a brownie in front of either of us, the likely choice would be a brownie.
Like tonight. We made brownies yesterday and after dinner I pulled them out and gave one to each of us. Matt looked at the brownie (as Mike and I were filling our mouths) and decided to eat more potatoes followed by more corn.
we have tried buying Matt various kinds of cereal. We even bought Fruit loops cause we think they are yummy. He said no and asked for an apple.
And this weekend ... this was the clincher.
For 15 minutes Matthew kept walking around asking for green beans. I tried offering everything: cheese, apples, carrots, etc. Finally in frustration I said
"Matt we don't have green beans. Have some candy!!!"
Nice - I'm a great parent.
And then he went into our panty and pulled out a can of green bean. He looked up at me, gave me a huge smile and said
"Look, Mom, Green Beans!!!"
He was right.
What mother offers her child candy over vegetables. Me, I guess.

Bugs! - A Science Centre Adventure

So we went to the Science Centre today.
It's a good thing we are members because I was ready to kill someone today. It was Telus Family day. I'm sorry if anyone was there that is reading this - but all the Telus employees are idiots. Seriously.
We often go to the Science Centre on Sundays. It's usually nice and fairly quiet. At the KidSpark area Matt can run around, we wander, it's nice. Today it was crazy. We had to wait for an elevator and we didn't even bother with KidSpark because there was a huge Lineup. The people were rude. We got pushed when we were on the elevators. Even at the Sports Arcade (whch was unusually busy) people pushed, tried to get ahead. It was ridiculous.
Seriously. The people were such idiots that if I hadn't already cancelled my Telus phone I would go home and do so I was so annoyed.
So, to combat the crowds we decided to take Matt to Bugs! at the Imax Theatre. Someone suggested to me that Matt may be old enough for a movie. He did well for about half an hour. Then he got stir crazy and started to run up and down our row. No biggie cause it was relatively quiet, but when he started to climb the chairs we decided that it was time to go.
Honestly, the movie was boring. I mean, it was interesting, but by the time he lost interest so did I. Mike seemed a little more into it, but even he admitted that ti was a tad boring by the end.
So, all in all it was pretty good.
And, because we get a discount on the tickets it was a cheap movie.
I think next time we'll go to a good Disney movie and see how he does. Oh and candy would help, I think (the Imax doesn't allow it)