time with Mom / stupid driver's license

Had some good times with my mom the past two days: last night we went minigolfing and out for ice cream (with Dad, too) and today Mom and I went out to the Elmwood Park Zoo and then for water ice and then shopping. Tonight she and Dad and I and two of her friends went to the Hatfield community concert in the park--listened to a jazzy band and ate hot dogs and pretzels and klondike bars and stared at the man with the crazy comb-over. Good times.

I had an offer to go to the beach in NC this weekend, so I had been considering extending my road trip by another few days. I decided not to go because it's the last few days of Mom's summer before she goes back to work, and she really wanted to spend some time with me. She had such a good day today, and was so fervently happy to have the time together. As fun as the beach would have been, coming home was definitely the right thing to do.

I did good yoga this morning, and yesterday afternoon also. Need to make up for some of my slothful road trip time. I'm planning to do some sort of yoga every day this week. This morning I did three circuits of the strength training thing and already it's easier and doesn't take as much out of me as it did the last time I did that much. I feel all strong. If I could tone the jiggle out of my tummy and upper arms, I'd be content. All the squats are definitely helping my thighs--not really visibly yet, but I can feel the muscles getting stronger. It's a good feeling.

New band name: Cavemen Don't Have Comb-Overs
Album title: What's with all the hay?

My new moving-related stress is that apparently, my new car insurance policy stipulates that I need to switch to a PA driver's license within 30 days of getting insured. Didn't know that till last week. And the PA DMV says that I have to present two proofs of residency, like tax records or W-2s or leases or utility bills. Um, I'm unemployed and living with my parents, I don't *have* any of that stuff. I realized I could get a copy of the W-2 I filled out at Vanderbilt last month, and the guy there mailed it to me today right after I called, so that's cool, but I don't know what will work for the second proof of residency. I'm going to try to use my unemployment paperwork--it's like a W-2, it's from an official MA state office, and it lists my address as PA. I think that's a pretty good proof of residency, right? I've also got car insurance stuff with the PA address on it.

The other pain-in-the-neck thing is that in order to cancel the old car insurance policy on the car I sold, they need to receive the old car's license plate at the MA RMV. I left the plate on the car when I sold it because the dealer said he'd take care of it, but apparently the RMV hasn't gotten it yet because Amica still won't cancel my policy. It's been almost three weeks since I owned that car, yo. Once they can finally cancel it, they'd better do it retroactively to August 3, because I am not paying to continue to insure a car I sold weeks ago.

Tomorrow Mom and I have big plans to take the Cliffster to the baseball field and let him run, first thing in the morning. I still have never seen him full-out run. Then we're going to have a leisurely morning in which she sweats to the oldies while I do my yoga routine, then we'll read the paper and have breakfast, and I'll shower up, and we'll go to the mall and have a nice lunch at Ruby Tuesday's (Mom has a coupon). I'm bummed she has to go back to school on Wednesday, actually. I'm lucky--unlike a lot of people, I honestly enjoy hanging out with my mom.

for once, I can be happy about weddings

(continued from the end of the last post, because I ended up on a completely different and long-winded train of thought)

Thursday night, I'm cooking dinner because Mom has a late meeting at school (I'm making the honey mustard salmon), and Saturday Laur's going to go with me to see Tom's band play downtown. I might get to meet up with T&A on Sunday for dinner or something, which would rock, and Laur & Rose & co. are talking about starting up our series of "Sex and the City brunches" (Rose is so excited about this idea now that I'm back in PA) with a really nice brunch on Sunday morning to celebrate Missi's engagement.

I guess I didn't mention that--Missi and Mike finally got engaged! So now I get to be in TWO weddings next year! (I should clarify, Missi hasn't mentioned bridesmaids at all yet, but considering we've been good friends since we were 8 and that she doesn't have a lot of close girlfriends in NYC, and Mike has no sisters, I think it's likely.) And I know being a bridesmaid sucks but I've never gotten to do it before, even though I'm always hauling my ass up and down the east coast to go to somebody's wedding, so I'm excited. And Amy's wedding will even be local for me! I've never been to a friend's wedding that was local before. AND I get to be a bridesmaid. I could just pee, I'm so happy.

It's funny--now that I'm single, I can get excited about weddings again. For a long time weddings were torturous because they represented all this stuff I couldn't have, and going to a wedding almost always resulted in a flare-up of the "what about the future" conversation with Jorn, and it was upsetting and stressful and really sad and I cried a lot. But now, it's completely not an issue. Things with Jorn aren't hanging over my head anymore, so I can just go to someone's wedding and celebrate with them and enjoy myself and have fun at the party. I really had a great time at both the weddings I went to this month, and that was so refreshing and different! It's nice not to be carrying that pain around. It was heavier than I thought.

Similarly, I currently know seven different pregnant women and two with newborns. Which is INSANE. (Jorn, the pregnant women include Angie, who is so freakin' cute, and Brandon's Jennifer again, and horrible Melissa, and Nina if you remember her.) I'm not going to list off the others, because several of them are still keeping it quiet till they're further along and you probably don't know them anyway, but I can actually be excited about this for them. Well, except for Melissa, because I honestly hate her, but I can be excited for all the others. And yesterday--I visited Joanna Chancellor and saw her beautiful son Connor. He's two weeks old. So little! I didn't even know what to do with him. I can reasonably expect to spend a bunch of time with her, though, now that I live here, so hopefully I'll learn more baby stuff and won't have to be terrified of babies anymore. Unlike our poor dog, who really is terrified of babies and is unlikely to ever get comfortable with them.