jubyred

Another Year Wiser

Happy Birthday to me. I turned (ahem) thirty eight yesterday.  Obviously I've been in a bit of a whirlwind since leaving full-time work behind.  I'm not sure how it is that I'm busier now than then, but somehow that's the case. Must get caught up.  Must get caught up.  Must get caught up.

I have loads of stories and pictures to catch up on here and will make a diligent attempt to do so soon.  Each year, I go back through these stories and photos to create a book for my family of where we've been and what we've done and who we were.  So far, I have nothing to account for the past two months.  Oops.

So, let's see, Thirty Eight.  Yikes.  I've never been one to freak out about birthdays.  I've never had a problem with the actual number.  Not when I turned thirty or thirty five.  Honestly, I was feeling better about myself at thirty six than I did at twenty six, so it was never a big issue for me.

But thirty eight?  God, that's so close to forty.  I'm practically middle aged.  Ok, ok, I won't think of that.  Here are the good things about this age...

• I know who I am now and I'm not reliant on someone else telling me or showing me that.
• I can ask for what I want.  I know I have rights in relationships to demand communication and respect and I don't feel guilty for asking.
• I know that everyone else is responsible for him/herself.  it is not my job to fix or change anyone.  if other people want me to participate in a relationship with them, I have some standards and if they can't cut it, let's agree to move on.  I have spent so much time wishing and wanting for people to be different.  In the end, it's a waste of time for everyone involved.
• That being said, I think I am also much more aware now that everyone is just doing the best they can.  I no longer take it personally when people can't be what I need.  I can either accept the good parts and that will have to be enough, or, I can decide that it's not and keep walking. 

I'd honestly take all that over being young and cute any day.

The Birthday Girl on Her Birthday

Self Portrait Tuesday

This month's assignment, me as blank . 
Me as seen by my son.  Myself as mother in the background.  Taken by BoyChild.

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Self Portrait Tuesday

I just can't seem to keep up with this assignment.  I would say I have 2 weeks of really good excuses, but still.  I just suck. I fully admit it.

This month's topic, April Fool.  I am 2 weeks behind, so here's the one from last week (April 11th), if you're interested.

This week (for Tuesday, April 18th), I  took some shots of my boy and me being silly in the backyard.  He has a hard time not busting out his routine of funny faces when the camera comes out.  This day, no exceptions. 

Click on image to view larger

Self-Portrait Tuesday

April Fools...
For Tuesday, April 11th.  Being silly with the kids, BoyChild took this...

Self Portrait Tuesday

Look!  It's Virtual Me! 

I don't need to take up smoking.  I just need a few hours to play virtual paper dolls with Miss Thang, here and I'm good to go.  I got an email yesterday from Speedo telling me how I could create my very own Virtual me and then I could try all kinds of stuff on her from lots of different stores.  It's shopping without having to lug 2 kids into the dressing room.  Ok, so far, pretty appealing. 

So, you go to the website (www dot mvm dot com) and enter in your stats (height, weight, body type, chest size, etc) and it makes a new you, only better.  You'll notice my Virtual Me has not given birth to two children.  Also she is probably about 26.  She has a sassy way about her.  She's my new BFF.  We like to hang out and drink martinis together and flirt with the boys at the next table.  I love her.

I soon discovered that the real fun in Miss Thang is to take her down--to find the most awful clothes you can for her. The problem is, she looks good in most things.  Damn her!   However, I'd just like to point out that if you catch me strolling down the street in either of these MOM numbers below, just shoot me, please.  Put me out of my misery because the joke has obviously gone on way too long and I am taking it seriously.  If it gets to that point, you know what to do. 

Self Portrait Tuesday

Yes, I know it's not Tuesday, but I am running perpetually a day/day and a half behind.  It's a good thing I'm not getting graded or I'd totally be failing this class and would have to do all sorts of make-up work with the teacher after school and be late for drama rehearsal and take the late bus and...oh, wait a minute, this is totally optional? Ok.  I feel much better now.

The last week of the TIME theme.  Thank God.  It's hard to do Time as a self-portrait, you know?  So, I freely admit, the first one doesn't pass the "self" part of self-portrait because I didn't take it and the other one doesn't pass it because it isn't even a photo of me, but whatever.  Here's my late and off-topic entry for SPT...

Mommy and BoyChild at the same age. 

Who says he looks just like his Daddy (other than all my in-laws and complete strangers on the street, his doctor and all the nurses in his pediatricians office, and the woman at the grocery store, I mean)?  Admittedly, it helps that I look like a little boy here in my Dorothy Hamil haircut.

Self Portrait Tuesday

The March theme is TIME, or How Some Things Stay The Same and Some Things Never Change...

1994 with my pal I just visited in Austin.  We were living together in Atlanta, holding down ridiculous jobs and going out about 5 nights a week.  In fact, here were are at a bar looking for cute boys.  We both just got some sassy new haircuts (very 1994) and thought it would be a good idea to carry a Polaroid camera with us everywhere.  (I think it was also the year I discovered a push-up bra because I didn't have boobs like that for real until I got knocked up 7 years later.)  I was a dork and she was hilarious and smart and years ahead of her time.

Flash forward to last week, 12 years later.  Same girls, another bar.  I'm wearing cableknit, married, 2 kids.  She's in grad school doing performance art and video.  Her cute boy is taking the picture and driving us to another bar after this.  Mine is home with the kids. Still carrying the camera.  I'm still a dork and she's still the coolest chick I know.

Self-Portrait Tuesday

In honor of this week's theme, Time, a quick shot of me and no post because, well, I'm out of Time.   I ain't got none.  Zillion things to do before I leave tomorrow.  Stay tuned for Austin stories when I return...

Self Portrait Tuesday

Another month, another SPT Theme.  This month, the theme is TIME.

It's strange to thnk about how my identifiation has changed through the years.  It seems when all I knew to be was a daughter and a girl, I had a slew of IDs to carry aorund to prove I was a student or an employee or whatever. 

It's ironic.  Now that I'm a wife, a mother, a writer, a woman...now that I see myself as so much more, I don't really have any proof of that.  The only ID I carry with me now is a Driver's License and I have no idea where it is, infact.  I think it's lost and I now I have to go stand in line just to get the one ID I'm supposed to carry.  My latest passport is set to expire next year and barely has any stamps in it this time around yet I feel like the journey I've been on the past 4 years trumps any of the overseas trips I've taken through the years even if I didn't get any stamps along the way.

In honor of Time, I present you with a timeline of identifications through the years:

My  passport:

One of three college IDs and also proof that perms are a very very bad idea.

My driver's license from Atlanta.  Ran across this the other day and thought, "If I ever decide to have bangs cut again, I should look at this picture." 

My work ID from a previous life:

 

Self-Portrait Tuesday

Is it Tuesday already?  I'd like to entitle this week's SPT, "Attack of the Killer Teeth"

Here we are, my little brother and me in all our adorable teethiness.  This is my favorite picture of the 2 of us.  I love the lighting.  I love Jason's over-sized Nancy Reagan-ish head and his Toughskins.  He fell and lost his 2 front teeth when he was just 2 years old so he was toothless for a long, long time.  I remember this day well...we were at the Zoo, riding the little train that led us around all the exhibits.  Gulf Coast Florida in the summertime.  I'm sure ice cream cones soon followed this snapshot. (Although now I'm thinking my parents probably should have avoided sugar with us--our teeth were starting on shaky ground as it was. )

In the context of "All of Me, " I thought I'd give you a good look at that killer smile of mine.  I never did get braces but I guess my smile turned out okay.  Or at least I thought until I was in my 20s and a friend/booty call buddy once told me, "You have the cutest little overbite."  You know who you are!