hollyweird

so typical. i leave for a week, come back to find the Remember Me feature has malfunctioned and i am faced with remembering my 27th attempt at a user name to get into my own blog. so, after running through what were most likely the first 6 user names that i tried, i look in my little notebook where i write all of my user names and passwords for every random thing i have joined - because, you see, this is a problem for me - and it's not there. not good. but, after taking a little break and contemplating the potential of a 9 post blog with a cliffhanger that had me heading out to hollyweird, i rummaged through the pile of clutter on my desk and found a piece of paper with #27 and my standard password - thanks blogger people for small favors - in the lower right hand corner. it is pretty amazing that this piece of paper existed since it had about 5 different things on it that had nothing to do with each other and its just the sort of thing i toss in the trash. anyway, now that i have access, here are the details of the LA trip.

we manage to make it to the airport on time and clear security with reasonable ease. this is no easy feat with a stroller, car seat and baby in tow. especially for someone who prides herself on being completely efficient at this procedure. tickets and ID out. sneakers off. watch pre-packed into my carry-on. "do you have a camera or video camera?" uh, yeah, its in the bag that you JUST SCANNED. should i be concerned that you didn't notice? maybe a little. anyway, we are dumb dumb dumb and tell her about it and have to take the bag back and unearth the electronics. oy! i am going to skip telling you about all of the moronic airport/airplane behavior that we got to see because that will make this even longer than it will be.

we land in LA and are greeted by my brother who has chopped off the beatles hair that he has been sporting for as long as i can remember and we're off. first stop Canter's (i will be so impressed with myself if this link works) for some matzoh ball soup and an egg salad sandwich. YUM. by the way, michael used to live in LA, so this was like a greatest hits trip - without the hip bar scene.

we checked out my brother's apartment, checked in to the seemingly cooter-free hotel and went to dinner at one of my brother's favorite places with some of his friends. bridget was a trooper and fell asleep on my chest during dinner. it is so great to eat outside. i don't know why i love it so much but i do.

any idea where i can get a map of the stars' homes?

i've never been so prepared for a vacation the day before. its crazy. i'm ready to go right now. i don't even know what i am going to do with myself today. well, i'm going back to the chiropractor - CRACK. but other than that, i don't need to get anything ready. once i actually shower and put my every day stuff away, its really done. what's even better is that i have packed a record breaking amount of stuff - record low, that is. i'm impressed with myself. i put out everything i want to bring and then pulled out stuff that didn't go with one or more things. then i tried to figure out what my most likely vacation uniform would be - because i always pick one - and weeded out a few more things. bridget actually has the largest amount of clothes in the ONE suitcase that we are bringing. of course, they take up the least amount of room, but still, i don't know why she's bringing so much crap. we could even do better but the problem is that my brother told us that its beautiful out there at night - which we've decided is chilly. so now we each have a pair of pants (michael actually has 2!!!) and long sleeve items. OY!

now i just need to get a book for the plane and poolside. as if reading will be an option with bridgie badooga at the helm.


this is poolside by the by, i am psyched. next week, when you're missing me, you can picture me under that big palmy thing in the shade with a big white scarf wrapped around my head a la joan crawford in mommie dearest. i'm going to be so old school hollywood next week that i may have to order up my margaritas in martini glasses.

woo hoo! california here we come!

i'll take mine rare

so its restaurant week in boston. did you know that EVERY restaurant sells out during restaurant week? apparently $30 dinners are appealing to people. yes, it was a bit naive of me to actually think that 7 of us could go to one of the 15 places we were interested on a wednesday night. the super swank restaurants were officially sold out on the restaurant week website so i didn't even bother with them. that's right, they weren't even on the list of 15. we were cursed. we finally settled on eastern standard kitchen. outdoor dining, i was very excited. not to mention, it had to be great because it is the first solo project of garrett somebody who was the partner of barbara lynch - my favorite celebrity - in her restaurants.

so off we went. it was good. it was great to have dinner with the old restaurant crew - its been about a year. i got steak tartare which has been over a year (more like 2) because you can't have that when you're prego. and then i got spaghetti carbonara which was delicious. the best part was catching up on all the hollywood rumors that someone always manages to have. last night's big dish was that katie holmes is being paid $25M to stay with tom cruise for 5 years by the church of scientology because they are trying to turn him straight. that's right. they have an official program that converts gay men into hetero men. the other piece of it is to bolster the church membership for the younger generation. its true. at least according to melissa the hairdresser. you heard it here first. i'll check back in on this one in 2010. i think katie will wise up before then and dump the kook. especially if they have a baby and she suffers from any sort of post-partem illness. tom knows a lot about that.

channeling jo frost

today i did something i swore i'd never do. i went to a chiropractor. i am desperate, i tell you. i had decided from some 20/20 or dateline years ago that chiropractors were quacks with no medical training and why would anyone in their right mind let these people mess around with their spine? but there i was, lying on my back with my head and neck making what felt like a hairpin turn as the quack tried to remove my head from my body causing it to crack in a terrifying way. i couldn't even pretend that i wasn't completely shocked and i just shouted out a - HOLY CRAP! followed immediately by an OH MY GOD! mr chiropractor laughed. it really didn't hurt, it was just very scary to me - having seen the 20/20 and all. so he messed around a bit more and then makes the haripin turn facing the other way so now i know what's coming and i have a split second to relax myself because i decided that tensing up in a moment like this could have devastating consequences. the second one felt better, i'll say that much. i have to go back tomorrow, i am already nervous and have plans to ask him not to do the neck thing.

tonight michael and i are going out to dinner with our friends. sans bridget. is sans without? i'm never sure and i will use it and then immediately wonder if i just said with instead of without. i never took french. patti, bean machine and erica did, but not me, i speak spanish and latin. and i still can't shake the brogue from when my cousins were visiting this weekend. its so fun and i firmly believe that bridget responds to my attempts at discipline more when i speak with my version of either a british or irish accent. give it a try, i swear it works.

injured reserve

last night i was so certain that i was going to be taken to the hospital in the middle of the night that i slept in my clothes. my neck started hurting so quickly and badly that i had diagnosed myself with spinal meningitis. it actually sort of hurt during the day and i tried to ignore it, finally i realize that it is just getting worse and took 4 motrin at 3. then it spiraled out of control. by the time 7 rolled around, my right arm was weak and tingling with numbness. this would be when i officially began to get freaked out. a couple of hours later, i get nauseous. certain death - nevermind the now 8 motrin i have taken on a virtually empty stomach. at 10 i call the doctor's office and speak with a nurse who clearly hasn't seen webmd's schpiel for neck pain with weakness in the arms, tingling/numbness in the arms AND nausea. motrin and heat, if it doesn't feel better in a FEW DAYS(!) then call again.

so now, i am sitting here with this insane neck pain feeling very guilty about being a terrible mother. i can still barely move and can feel the knot of muscles in my neck pulsing when i have to actually get up to prevent bridget from eating all that is paper in this place. the bright side is that this can only get better. when is the question i need answered though. ouch ouch ouch. i can only take so much of this no airconditioning environment for fear of tightening up the baseball in my neck.

oh yeah, it took me 30+ minutes to get up out of bed in the middle of the night to use the bathroom. towards the end i woke up michael and told him i needed help only to tell him not to touch me when he came around to my side of the bed. poor guy.

i will try to refrain from such unabashed whining in the future, its annoying. but this is why there was no post yesterday.

viva maria

i'm not sure if i will ever get over the shock of the "flight of the angel" that caps off the fisherman's feast in the north end, also known as the feast for the madonna del soccorso. there are feasts just about every weekend during july and august in the north end. for some reason st anthony's is the one that most people have heard of and talk about - i assume because we've all prayed to st anthony at some point or another to find those !#$%ing keys - but as far as i'm concerned, the only one worth coming in for - year after year - is the fisherman's on sunday night at 8 o'clock - or 9 if you're smart because even though they've been doing it for 90+ years, they are late every year.

so anyway, the saint makes its way through the north end for most of sunday, collecting money from people and restaurants. i know this picture is incredibly dark but if you look closely, you can see a person lowering what is basically blanket of money. there are endless versions of the money blanket along the saint's route and by the time the saint is done, it is puffed up with thousands and thousands of dollars. so, this is crazy enough but nothing compared to the flight.

once the saint gets to the end of her route, she is put down in the street and two little girls on opposing fire escapes recite an age old prayer in italian that last about 10 minutes. back and forth. back and forth. then they shout slowly but in unison - VIVA! VIVA. MARIA. MADONNA. DEL. SOCCORSO! by MADONNA most of the crowd has joined in and goes crazy as "the angel" is thrust - and i mean thrust - out of a window on a pulley, moved to the center of the street and then lowered to about 5 feet off the ground where she recites a 5 minute speech to the crowd.

once she's done, the crowd goes even crazier, balloons fill the air and then an incredible amount of confetti is dumped off of every rooftop in sight. it is really something to see. this year my cousins from ireland were visiting so we brought them to check out the insanity. i think we've brought someone every year since we first saw it because everyone needs to see this. its as if you are on another planet, nevermind in another country. it is so lawless. a little girl hooked onto a pulley 3 stories above the street.

not much

can someone please tell me why we say tuna fish? i do it. i have always done it and i have no idea why. we don't say cod fish or salmon fish or any other kind of fish - save swordfish but i think that is because that's its name. its even weirder than that though - it only applies to sandwiches, right? who started this? starkist? chicken of the sea?

well it ain't bumble bee because i just consulted my can in the cupboard and that my friends is Premium Tuna.

i need a CAKE PLATE!

one day past the thrill of the 11 month mark and i'm stressed about the impending "big day." it wasn't even something i was conscious of, but about 20 minutes ago i started yammering to michael about where we were having bridget's first birthday party. and i didn't even give him proper warning, i just blurted out "what do you think of old sturbridge village?" somehow - through way too many similar outbursts by me - he knew what i was talking about. next thing i know, i've already investigated every state park in massachusetts and what they have to offer and i am on the phone with my father asking about using their house for a western mass soiree. it's done. rather than find a mid-point in massachusetts, we are having two separate groups. this is how everything gets done around here - every possible scenario covered in 15 minutes. decision rendered. tomorrow i will find the holes in the plan.

although...the eastern mass group consists only of my husband's immediate family - and they will surely be invited to my parents' house, so why bother having a second party? will we include our friends? no. two cakes? yes, its good enough for me - especially since michael's mother's cake is so freaking good.

these are the downfalls of not owning a home though. you can not host a party.

flossing rots

so, bridget is 11 months old today, which is completely insane to me. 11 months seemed like an eternity during those first few weeks of her life - and i sincerely doubted that i would make it. but here i am - one more month until whole milk, the marty the monkey chair and a bike seat!!! woo hoo.

we went to the dentist today and bridget has once again proven to be an excellent judge of character. she sat in her little seat and played in the waiting room, played during the cleaning and played in the hallway during the x-rays. enter dentist. she screamed bloody murder as he bent over - all smiles - to say hello. and she wouldn't stop. what can i say? she was as pissed about the cavities as her mother was. it became a little embarassing - but somehow gratifying.

btw - this is bridget and her dad











and her duck

ghost of a blog

this is it. my first blog and i feel as though i should have something monumental to say - like its my first album. the end result of all those thoughts and opinions that have been kicking around for the past years. unfortunately, i'm feeling like edie brickell and her crew working on their second showing - i've got NOTHING. its too early for the sophomore slump, yes?

yes. it is. however, i am going to relieve myself of the pressure and go mix up some carrots, beef and barley for miss b and come up with a Surfer Rosa for you for tomorrow. and dare i say, a Doolittle for the next day.