A-ha!

Yeah. I definitely need Blackout Night on Wednesday to prepare me for Thursday. Sorry to put you through that yesterday.
I work really hard not to step into the frenetic pace that moms and kids keep these days. I don't think it should be a badge of honor to be so busy that you can't brush your hair and you have to drive the fam through takeout windows for supper four nights a week. Bearing that in mind, I have to say that having only one day a week that's crazy is pretty good. It's hard to say no to stuff, though, when we want our kids to have a little bit of everything in their lives - sports, music, art, friends, culture - it all adds up. And I just won't do it.
Period.
Do I feel guity? Oh yes. Lots. Guilty for not trying to find a way to squeeze tennis lessons into our schedule this year. Guilty that I haven't already found a new piano teacher for Emma. Guilty that we don't take family bike rides four times a week for thirty minutes (or however long it is you're supposed to exercise). And guilty that we haven't bought into the modern myth that soccer is essential for every child's development.
But not guilty enough to force myself into the Confines of Normalcy. No. You're talking to a girl who spent a good portion of her junior high hears wearing a giant, hot pink sombrero in public places. I don't mind bucking the system a little bit.
But we do lots of fun stuff and I hope my kids will turn out to be unique and will feel quite comfortable wearing giant sombreros if they want to.
Like dancing in the car. We did a lot of that this evening as we went about our merry business.
I can't go anywhere without music, and even if there's not music playing for all to hear, there most certainly is a sound track in my head. I wake up in the morning with random songs on my mind and I suspect they may have something to do with my dreams. And the only thing that gets my morning song out of my head is what comes on the radio once I have dropped the kids off at school. That's when I turn it up and boogie all the way to work (this is because I am afraid that I may fall asleep if I don't keep moving). Seriously - if you ever spy me on my morning commute, you might just want to look the other way. I don't claim to be a good dancer, but I'm having fun and staying awake.
I think that the music in my head has a lot to do with the way I handle what comes my way. Some mornings, I am stuck with only Neil Diamond or the Red Hot Chili Peppers, which are both bad omens in my world. Some mornings, I will catch my theme song on the radio and that bodes well for the rest of the day.
This morning was a good morning. I heard a song that takes me back to my childhood. My memory of childhood is always a bit fuzzy, but I think I remember my brother being captivated by it, having heard it on TV - maybe it was the Grammys. We only had one TV. It was tiny and was, for some reason, located in my parents' bedroom that year. And we were supposed to go to bed. And Jon was riveted and I really wanted to be, but knew I shouldn't because it was secular music (you have to hiss when you say that "s" - and no, I'm not bitter. I had a perfectly happy childhood filled with perfectly good music ). But Jon was always bolder than I. He was a dangerous one.
Even from far away, and even at maybe eight years old, I knew that it contained the awesomest keyboard solo ever. I was a pianist already and I knew things like that.
A-ha's "Take On Me" - I heard it twice today on the radio.
That song always makes me smile. My sound track today was a happy one. And I danced through most of the day.

DAILY BLISS: simply the knowledge that it is Friday