I Love A Parade.

There have been many interesting little tidbits of news to share in the past weekend. Let's go chronologically, shall we?

I got the Princess from R's mom on Friday night, and we were off. Shortly after arriving at my mom and dad's house, I remembered why I don't live "on the farm" anymore. See, they have well water. And apparently, it requires a nice loooooong pipe to go down into the well. And when it splits, because it's 30 years old, you don't get to have running water in the house. Do you know how hard it is to have a toddler running about without running water? Yikes. Luckily, my dad is really a "rain man" type with all things mechanical, and after spending $70 at Home Depot (Saturday morning) and about 4 hours later, he had it up and running again.

Saturday was spent running around, and getting my smoothie fix at Robek's. You know, it's pretty sad when your 21-month-old can say "WHOA-BECK'S! Schamooooooothie!" Saturday evening, I exploded at my mother. She is really overwhelmed right now with her lack of health and energy, and my dad's continual obsession with running the local youth softball league (hell, that's a drama in and of itself). And here I thought pageants were loaded with dramatic bullshit ... hmmm. I darn near picked up and left their house on Saturday night because I was so sick and tired of all the arguing. Yet another reason that I don't live at home. My mom and dad are trying to get me to move "home". As I've written before, I have no desire to move back "home". I don't really know where "home" is anymore, but it's certainly not there.

Today was the famous (infamous?) Miss Ohio parade. Before we left, Princess managed to dump an entire 1.5 oz. (a "blockbuster" size) bottle of Beautiful over her head. She smelled like a French whore. No offense intended to the French. Or whores. But good Lord, my kid STUNK. Mom was really less upset about it then I was. Maybe because I'm a single mom, and I get one bottle of perfume a year - I gotta make it last.

Anyhow, on to the parade. It actually was kind of, as Z says, "BUSTED". Don't misunderstand me, my favorite girlies all looked wonderful, and I yelled really loud for them. But I suppose that when you only have 21 contestants, the size of the parade really dwindles. I remember the days of having to stake out your spot on the route at 8:00 AM, or you wouldn't be able to see any of the 2-3 hour long parade. Well, today we arrived at 1:00 to a pretty empty route. We didn't really get the whole "experience" like we used to, as the whole parade was only like, 40 minutes long. :::sigh:::

Sweet little Princess had no less than NINE suckers. OK, so she didn't really eat all nine, she ate about half of each sucker, so I suppose mathematically, she only consumed about 4.5 suckers. She also had about 3 bit-o-honeys, and two tootsie rolls. Needless to say, she was sticky from head to toe. I let her go to her daddy's house for an extra nigh, because his mom's still in town from TX (till Tuesday). I've been really overwhelmed lately, so I am relishing the down time. Besides, I really need a shower. I'm kinda crunchy. When I dropped her off, they were outside waiting for me to arrive. She didn't want to leave my arms, but then she jumped on R and didn't want to let him go. This has got to be hard on her. And R's super-hot friend (hey man, I'm not married anymore, it is perfectly acceptable for me to comment on how attractive I think he is) was there, but ignored me. It felt weird, dropping my daughter off at what used to be my house, with our friends, etc.

Oh and when I checked in to get my badge from the Miss Ohio staff today, it was proudly emblazoned with my name. MY MARRIED NAME. I debated raising a stink about it, but finally I did. The business manager was apologetic, but the sheer sight of it just ruined my day. I'm just hoping that they remembered not to include my married surname in the program book or I'm really going to be pissed off. It's not that I hate it or anything, it's just that the harsh reality of it continually is in my heart, but I didn't want to stare it in the face during the one week that I shouldn't have to.

Anyhow, off to watch the super hacked-up (no pun intended) version of Hannibal that USA is airing. I was less than thrilled at the original bastardized version of the wonderful Thomas Harris novel, but I'm sure "editing it for time and content" will further ruin a wonderful literary experience. I really do like Julianne Moore as Starling, but no one can fill Jodie Foster's sensible shoes and L'air Du Temps.

News of note (as I am indeed, a current events maven):

J-Hoe got married. Again. Stop the presses. If I wasn't afraid of what sweet little Ben Affleck had caught from that slut, I would marry him. He's a cutie and a half.

Speaking of cutie and a half ... Hugh Jackman is hosting the Tony's tonight. He is so tasty. I think that Sean Combs got the shaft by not being nominated. He was only excluded from the nominations because I think that the theatre community is not ready for that sort of a person/performance. He really showed a lot of class by assisting Phylicia Rashad in presenting tonight, though. IMO, he should have rehearsed his lines and NOT worn those stupid glasses.

God speed, dear Gipper. Although I have made it abundantly clear that I am a raving liberal, I think that Reagan's presidency was one of the most telling events that shaped American foreign and domestic policy. It also changed the way most people perceived leadership and government forever.

Oh and regarding the nice guy I've been conversing with - he had tickets to the local golf tournament all weekend (his company pays for he and a spare to go each year as an "entertainment" expense), so I haven't heard from him since Friday AM. 9:30 update - I just got off the phone w/ him, have a date on Tuesday nite. We agreed to speak again tomorrow night to set up the details of such. Now, to pick out something great to wear ...

I'm constantly reminded of how much I hate dating, because of all of these mindless games and constraints. The vast majority of my heart really just wants my life back, but my head knows that it's time to move on and stop waiting for R to grow up. So, here goes nothin.