OK, ok, how much excitement (good and bad) can one mom writer take in ONE day? This is how my day went yesterday…
I get an email from a well known, New York City literary agent asking me to call her regarding my second book that I am putting together. NO PROBLEMO, certainly. I call her in the mid afternoon, delirious with excitement, but nervous as hell, anxious to hear her thoughts on my nonfiction anthology. She LOVES the project and wants to represent me and my book —OH MY GOD. After picking myself up off the floor and thanking her ten times we said our goodbyes and then like a lunatic mother I ran through the house jumping for joy. Thank God I am still in one piece today and didn’t seriously injure myself *wink*
THEN ~~ just three hours later…
My youngest son, Joseph, comes home after spending three days at Lake George (NY) with a friend and his family.
"Hi J!" I give him a great big bear hug like I like to do while rubbing the top of his fuzzy head.
"Hey Mom. I knew you were going to do that," he says while pulling away from me with his cute smile.
"So, how’d it go?" I ask pulling up a chair for both of us.
He ignores the chair and goes for his scooter instead. He rides in circles around the table while telling me his story of Lake George.
Five minutes later I am in a panic and feeling very sick to my stomach. First he tells me about all the fun stuff they did and then he continues to tell me about the adventure he had.
He decided one afternoon to take his guitar and go for a walk — A walk from Lake George to Fort Ticonderoga that is! I guess his friend’s parents were at a house across the way and just my son, his friend and his friend’s sister were there alone. (Great, where is the supervision here?!). So Joseph announces to his friend and the sister that he is going for a walk to Fort Ticonderoga as he wants to play his guitar there — Huh?? Little did he know that he had quite the walk ahead of him and what was he thinking just up and leaving like that and NOT asking the adults in charge?! So, he set out and after walking on the side of a small highway with his guitar he began to worry and wonder just where this Fort Ticonderoga might be and why he has not seen any signs for it yet. As he is walking, with his guitar, and extrememly tired and sweaty, a car with a lady slows down and asks him where he is headed. He tells her his destination and she hands him a freekin water bottle for the trip! Can you believe this?! Then a bit later after he decides to stop and turn back (as he is still walking along the highway with no sign of any FORT!) another car slows down and an older woman asks him where he is headed – head hanging he tells her the name of the friends that he is staying with and she tells him to hop in as she knows the place – (This is where I really got sick to my stomach). So, HE HOPS IN! Where have I failed as a mama? What the hell was that kid thinking – oh, I know what he was thinking. He was thinking about how sore his damn feet were and how he was so ready to jump in the lake to cool off…How could he just get in a car with a stranger? He tells me, "Mom, it was an old lady. What would she do to me?" Apparently she knew Joseph’s friend’s parents and did get him back safely.
As you can imagine, I had a LONG chat with Joseph on this subject last night. I still feel sick to my stomach though…
So, it was quite the roller coaster of a day for this mom. From being Happy Happy Mama Writer to feeling LIKE A LOSER MOM.
Oh, the life of a Mama Writer…
Posted by: Paula on July 27th, 2006 | No Comments »
The other night I left my husband and children home alone while I went out and relaxed…One of my girlfriends picked me up and I waved bye-bye to the family for the night – Ahh, yes. A few hours of girl talk over dinner and a movie, with Meryl Streep no less. Heaven….
It was great to catch up on gossip with my friend and dinner was Italian, so I was all good with that. No dishes to clean up and I actually got to have a one on one conversation with another adult and a great friend.
Have you seen the movie The Devil Wears Prada with actress Meryl Streep? Cute chick flick and Meryl plays an awesome bitch. Over the years I have enjoyed watching her cry and sob in all of her roles, but now, she is one wicked bitch and very good at it indeed. So over the past couple weeks I have seen Pirates and Devils so what’s next…possibly The Omen. :)
By the end of the night as my girlfriend was dropping me off at home we got in another half hour of gabbing in the drive and then I waved goodbye. It felt so good to get away and go out for a few hours with a friend, and then I was back home again. I felt refreshed and recharged and ready to be wife and mom again — until my next night out :)
Posted by: Paula on July 23rd, 2006 | No Comments »
This afternoon while adding some dirty breakfast dishes in the dishwasher I had the pleasure of chatting with my two younger sons, Phillip and Joseph, on the subject of reincarnation. I’m not really quite sure how the subject came up but they had both just returned from their morning at basketball camp and they were hungry and chatty so they ended up in the kitchen, with me, discussing a subject I don’t know much about.
Here is a brief run down of our chat:
Joseph – Well, I think after I am gone I will come back as something else, ya know?
Me – Like what, maybe a drum, or better yet, a drum stick?!
Joseph – Funny mom. I mean like some kind of an animal, like a bird or something.
Phillip – I think people come back as trees. You know dude, the weak people are the smaller trees and the strong people are the bigger trees. That’s what I’m going to come back as.
Me – Oh, that should be a good time Phillip. Dogs will be your best friends :)
I just get the look – you know the look. Then I notice I am in the kitchen ALONE. Guess that’s it for that conversation….
Tomorrow (which is a Friday) I promised my guys that I would take them to see the HOT new film Pirates of the Carribean: Dead Man’s Chest with the even HOTTER star Johnny Depp. There has been so much talk about this movie that we just have to go. Rumor has it that it is better than the first release which we saw a couple summers back when my two younger guys were younger themselves and the scene where the skeletons are walking underwater scared the doo doo out of them. Of course, they do not remember any nonsense about them being "scared by skeletons"!!
OF COURSE NOT.
I’m sure they are looking forward to watching Kiera Knightley in her lovely push up, low-cut peasant gowns – and they will surely remember that….of course.
I’m hoping for more skeletons. :)
Posted by: Paula on July 13th, 2006 | No Comments »
I recently attended a conference for the National Society of Newspaper Columnists in the beautiful city of Boston. When signing up for the conference I was having a good day and had happy thoughts of taking my entire family along for the trip and making a vacation out of it. What the heck-it is summertime and I figured the seven of us could enjoy some real quality family time together. And as I mentioned before, I was having a good day.
Going to the city is a big deal for our gang as we live in the country. So, after talking with the hubby about my idea, which he was all good with, I decided to ask the five kids if they would like to go hang out in Boston for a few days and get away from country life.
"Hey guys! Do any of you feel like a vacation, you know, getting away from the quiet countryside and heading over to the big city where it’s nice and crowded and noisy?"
My son Phillip perks up and says, "We’re going to New York City, dude?!"
"Relax Phillip. NO, we are not going to New York City."
"L.A.?" Nick asks.
"Boston!" I say out loud. "We are going to Boston."
"Boston?" Joseph asks. "Cool dude, so we are going to a Red Sox game?"
"Well, not exactly unless your father wants to dish out $700 bucks to ticket scalpers for one night of baseball pleasure. Sorry guys, I don’t have tickets for a Red Sox game. I have a conference to attend and your Dad and I thought it would be nice if we all went. We were even thinking of going to see the Aquarium and a show at the IMAX theatre."
"The Aquarium?" our oldest son Tony squeaks out. "How about the beach, or maybe even the hotel pool, you know, where the chicks are?"
"Baby chicks are in the hotel’s pool?!" Anna, our four year old daughter asks, excited at the thought.
"No sweetie, but we will see Penguins at the Aquarium" I tell her, giving Tony the evil eye.
While in Boston I had a great time at the conference and actually learned quite a bit from other writers. After the conference, it was family time. Time to put on our walking shoes and hit the streets. Walking was fine. It was keeping track of five kids and walking through the city that was the difficult part for me.
Ok everyone, we are approaching a crosswalk so lets all stay together." I say as I hold on tightly to Anna’s hand and as I grab on to eleven year old Joseph’s hand.
"Um, Mom. What are you doing?" Joseph asks looking over at his older brothers who are snickering at him.
"Nevermind, hurry, it’s our turn to cross!" I yell out dragging him along.
Then every few minutes…
"Tom, where is Phillip? Nick, where is Anna? Tony, where is Joseph?"
I couldn’t help myself. I’m a mom and I need to keep track of all my children.
Overall, we did end up visiting the Aquarium, which was enjoyed by all – even our oldest son Tony who got to see chicks – Penguin chicks that is. We saw wonderful street shows, shopped and ate great food for three days.
Maybe next time we head to the big city of Boston this mom will think to order Red Sox tickets well in advance…
Posted by: Paula on July 8th, 2006 | 1 Comment »