Month: May 2006

I hate to drive, but I love my car.

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When I moved to Singapore, I was sure I wasn’t going to get a car. We live about 2 feet away from the subway and a cabs are cheap and everywhere. I never took cabs during rush hour or from downtown at midnight on Saturday, so I never had any problem calling a cab and waiting 5 minutes until one showed up at my door, ready to take me to my destination. I also dislike driving and I like the idea of mass transport.

The first 6 months in Singapore, I took the subway everywhere with the kids and it was OK. It took a long time, but Vince and Edda seemed to like it. Then when Edda had to start going to therapy (about 15 minutes away from home by car – 45 minutes by MRT) I started taking cab rides. Now that Edda’s going to school and I have to drive during rush hour to get everyone to school on time, we are getting a car. We’ve rented a car for a few days before we commit to a year-long contract.

I went out for the first time today to do the school run. I’m driving on the wrong side of the road – that is to say the left and I’m sitting on the right side of the car. Freaky.

Back to Aiken

We left Washington DC at 10:00 AM and arrived at Aiken, SC around 7:00 PM. Not bad, it covered 550 miles + lunch & diner at McDonald’s and surviving a hail storm. Luckily enough there was an underpass right in front of me. I pulled underneath and let the hail storm pass. Or, I thought the hails were going to ruin my car & windows.

For the love of coffee.

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Do you know that I hate coffee? Why is Starbucks so popular? I really have no idea. Because of Jeremy, I go to Starbucks quite a bit for a person who doesn’t drink any coffee. Jeremy is trying to convert the kids to the dark side. Vince loves Starbucks and I think Edda is being quickly converted. Sigh.

Ahh, motherhood.

Well, happy mother’s day everybody. This is my 4th annual mother’s day and I have to say that I think I’m finally comfortable saying, hey I’m a mom and I’m OK with it. My first Mother’s Day (2002), I’m sure I was still reeling from giving birth to Vince 2 months prior – that boy was a crying/nursing/no sleeping champ and on top of it all, I was getting ready to move halfway around the world to a place where no one spoke any English. I don’t know how I made it through that little stressful bit of my life, but I came out on the other side in more or less than one piece.

I don’t know what I thought motherhood was going to be like before I had kids, but it sure is a lot more skin-to-skin contact than was advertised to me on television. I got all my pre-birth information on motherhood from (where else?) watching TV. When you watch TV show like Friends or Sex and the City or even Everybody Loves Raymond and there are babies around, these people can put the baby down in the crib in the other room and make dinner, watch TV, flirt, have affairs and eat at restaurants like they could before, and I was so naive, I believed them! I thought, gosh, I’ll leave my kid in the crib and I’ll just watch Days of Our Lives until my maternity leave is up and then I’ll find a great day care where he’ll either sleep or play nice with the other kids while the day care worker watches Days of Our Lives. Just goes to show you how little I know about anything.

When I was in labor with Vince, I had no idea that 4 years later I would be a stay-at-home mom to him and Edda. Before I had kids, I had no idea what it was like to be touched 24 hours a day. It still drives me bonkers, but I think less so than on my first Mother’s Day. Cheers to motherhood!

Big Daddy’s belly.

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This picture is a good sign, really! After every cold or flu, no matter how small, Jeremy gets 3-4 days worth of hives. Sometimes, the case of hives is worse than the actual illness. It looks pretty bad, and it’s pretty itchy for Jeremy, but it means that we are almost done with our round of illnesses. It seems like I haven’t gotten a full night’s sleep in a month and a half and I’m looking forward to everyone being well and sleeping well!

Getting up on the wrong side of the bed…

We all woke up grumpy today. Edda and Vince wouldn’t eat breakfast, Jeremy couldn’t get a cab and everyone was late to work and school. I missed my doctor’s appointment and by 9:30 am, I was ready to call it a day.

But I got a foot massage today – the foot massages here are pretty painful, they really press into your feet with their knuckles. But I was told two things by my massuse – I shouldn’t drink any more iced drinks and I have to eat more liver. I might be able to drink more tepid water, but there isn’t any way I’m going to eat more liver. YUCK!