Tying up loose ends

I have many random thoughts swirling tonight as the weekend winds down and the next week looms.

Carlie has no school tomorrow or Tuesday. Why do these no school days always sneak up on me unannounced? I know I receive a school calendar the first week of school every single year, yet, whoops, surprise, every time she has a day off I'm shocked and unprepared.

I need a few days off myself because, hello, I watched Episode 1 of Season 1 of Mad Men last night and I now have a burning need to watch every episode of Mad Men within the next 36 hours or my life will be incomplete. Addiction, much?

I went on a five-mile run this morning. I am almost afraid to say this out loud, but, OMG, it was unbelievably awesome. Awesome! My lungs didn't burst! My feet and knees did not ache. And, ready for this?, not a single rain drop fell as I ran between 7 and 8 a.m. It was a divine experience. It was only five miles, but for that 57 minutes I could actually see myself eventually running a marathon. It was THAT good. The sad reality, of course, is that my next little two-miler could easily knock me back on my ass again and that would be the end of that. But for tonight, I savor my little running victory : )

Carlie went to church today, Nov. 9th, in shorts. Yes, shorts, as in short pants. Needless to say, following church we went to Kohl's and bought her some pants. That fit. While we were there, I grabbed myself a pair of jeans too, that actually fit, because everything I own is way too big. In the scope of problems to have, this definitely falls into the category of a good one, but still, I need clothes that fit. I did not spend the last year losing 45 pounds to walk around saggin'.

I just finished reading "Bleachers" by John Grisham. I had no interest in reading this book, but it somehow ended up on my nightstand and eventually in my hands. I have to say, I found it somewhat moving even though it's not my typical genre. But coming from the south, the craziness of high school football definitely brings back memories of Friday nights. Two years dance team, one year cheerleader... bet you wouldn't have guessed that, huh?

My dad left New Orleans today to get checked out at MD Anderson in Houston to determine the best course of treatment for his sarcoma. While in Houston, he is staying with my ex-husband, who apparently has taken some time off of work to go to my dad's appointment with him tomorrow. You DO NOT even want to know the whole back story involved in our own personal brand of dysfunction. Seriously.

But now I am trying to mentally script a phone call to his wife (my ex-husband's wife) to thank her and apologize for my dad crashing into her life. Every family has someone crazy in it, and you just deal with it because it's your family. Then you get married, and you know that your spouse's family is going to have someone crazy in it, and you deal with it, because that's now your family too. But to have you husband's ex-wife's crazy father show up on your doorstep? That might be pushing it.

Final thought for the night. Do you read Dooce? Dooce is freaking hilarious. This is my new favorite quote. Dooce is describing how much her four-year-old loves her because she tells the four-year-old that, yes, she can eat her Halloween candy. She sums it up with: "There is a reason you give boxes of chocolate to your loved ones on Valentine's Day and not, say, a picture of vaginal stitches next to a thought bubble that says, "I love you THIS much!"" If that is not making you laugh out loud, you need to go read the whole post.