No Seriously, BREATHE

In the darker moments sometimes I'd go from Keep Breathing... calmly ... to a more serious plea to my baby girl.



Breathe in breathe out, tell me all of your doubt
Everybody bleeds this way, just the same
Breathe in breathe out, move on and break down
If everyone goes away, I will stay

We push and pull and I fall down sometimes
I'm not letting go, you hold the other line
'Cause there is a light in your eyes, in your eyes

Hold on hold tight if I'm out of your sight
And everything keeps moving on, moving on
Hold on hold tight make it through another night
Everyday there comes a song with the dawn

We push and we pull and I fall down sometimes
I'm not letting go, you hold the other line
'Cause there is a light in your eyes, in your eyes
'Cause there is a light in your eyes, in your eyes

Breathe in and breathe out
Breathe in and breathe out
Breathe in and breathe out
Breathe in and breathe out

Look left look right
To the moon in the night
Everything under the stars is in your arms

There is a light in your eyes, in your eyes
There is a light in your eyes, in your eyes
There is a light in your eyes, in your eyes
There is a light in your eyes, in your eyes

Baby's First SCHOOL Photo

Holy mother of what. My baby is not a baby. I've been told, time and time again, not to call her "the baby." Sierra tells me weekly, but I don't listen. Home girl has 4 offspring... all babies if you ask me, why don't I listen to her? My thought is she's the baby, or maybe not.

Then there was this....

L: Febuary 2010

com·mit·ted : Through the Other Side

Chapter 4: Through the Other Side

3:00 pm: 3+ hours of sitting in wait, while stuffing my face, wrapped up in the fetal position, doing what work I can with the soothing sounds of the epic The Real Housewives of New York play in the background. I awaited for Don's call but to no avail. Who makes a girl wait? So I called him. Truth be told, I'm not 100% of exactly what he said but the jest of it was: the car won't be ready until tomorrow (Friday - yes people at this point - 4 chapters deep we are still in day one). And not only tomorrow, but the end of the day - no dice. Not an option. I have a meeting to attend.

On the road again...

GPS thanks be, says it's less than 2 hours away. At least it wasn't 2+ hours away....

7:00 pm: For those of us in the house where math isn't our friend... we're pushing 3 hours at this point. There is snow, rain, sleet, sunshine and then soon after - darkness. I used my GPS to get me to my final FINAL destination. Unfortunately and obviously only they way my luck can deliver, the address on the website was:

100 College Road East

Go ahead... put that address in google maps. Go ahead. See what happens. Go ahead.

That's right if you did it - you'll see... it'll bring you right to where I found myself after 7pm that fine night. In the back end of Princeton University. It's lovely this time of year.

100 College Road W

Not lovely? Trying to get out of there. That right there is a clear road block, right where my trusty GPS said I needed to go.
By the time I got to my final destination, while I was originally going to just go to bed how could I when drinks and food were awaiting me?

15 total times in route... and it was time to let loose. Including my hair which had been pinned up since 4am this morning.

(that is indeed my beer AND wine - car parked at hotel and ready to be taxied around!)

Final mishap? Because you know there is one... upon getting back to our hotel room we may or may not have needed to open a bottle of wine. That bottle... it may have given us a little more trouble than we bargained for - or frankly that I felt at that point I was really due at this point of the day.

OH. No that's not the end of the story... not quite yet.

com·mit·ted : The Eye of the Storm

Chapter 3: The Eye of the Storm

8:04 am: As I near the George W Bridge on the road to from New York to New Jersey, talking about how my drive is (not) moving along I begin to put put putter. While I am on the right side of the road, but not quite the shoulder and trying to explain it is going to take longer than I expected to get to the meeting - that time line immediately extended.

With a car stalled out 3.2 miles from GW bridge, blocking traffic breathing slowly after screaming "F a duck" or another favorite "Mother F'er" in the ear of my poor unsuspecting phone a friend. Her response? "Do you want me to look something up for you, on the Internet?" While I appreciated the thought and offer to help I had all that covered - what I needed now? A way out and off to Jerse.

I called AAA, however inconvenient, and awaiting help. As I waited, so close to the side of the road, yet so far - I was warmly received with honks, middle fingers and the love that only New York can show. Two guys pulled over and while I thought there was nothing they could do to help, how I was wrong. As usual. These two angels came over and helped me steer (backwards) down the slight incline I was on, onto the shoulder. Ah and finally the silence set in - no more cussing, fingers flying or honking as I await for the tow truck. Tow truck #1 that is.

Oh yeah, that's right because of the road I was on, AAA couldn't send a truck. What they could do is let a company who could pick me, pick me up - tow truck #1 and when I get towed off the exit, call again and get into tow truck #2. Honestly. While I waited for the first pick up, C found a place to bring my car. If any luck my piece O junk could be fixed at my final destination where the guy there has a level 3 English. Sure we didn't know what he said, mostly, but the hope was you didn't need to speak English well to fix a dang car. He told C he would 'call me' (we think) and he never did. At this point, I'm thinking there was a misunderstanding, miscommunication perhaps I didn't give him enough time. I'm hopeful his optimism will be contagious and not his business etiquette of returning phone calls.

9:40 am: Tow truck #1 dropped me off in the BoogieDown Bronx, with a special little surprise. He decided to "shake" my car before dropping it. Apparently, that did the trick and before demanding a tip, the tow truck driver #1 informed me that the car started. Of course it did, and unfortunately this has happened before.

I called AAA again, as instructed and was told to "Sit tight" (where would I go) and the next tow truck would be by to get me on or before 11 am (I repeat, it's 9:40 am at this point). He dropped me off, right in front of a D&D. Where my morning really began, but was so not soon to end. At this point in my journey, despite my recent pit stop, I got worried. I needed to use the ladies room, but didn't want to leave my car on the side of the road in the BoogieDown. And then it hit me, oh yeah - it's broken down. Where would anyone take it? Event though the car started, I could tell there wasn't a whole lot of power left in her, and so what if it got stolen?

10:40 am Tow truck #2 arrives, and oh boy was that fun. First the truck itself stalled as he was loading up my stalled car. While I sat on the side of the road awaiting the next leg of my journey I just laughed. I laughed so hard I'm fairly certain the driver was going to call the police reporting a 5150. Despite that scare, he really wanted to push the envelope.

Tow truck driver: "Your car is pretty strapped in there."
Me: "I hope so."
Him: "We don't want to get there with out the car."
Me: "No. No we don't. But frankly I wouldn't be surprised."

It's at this point he proceeds to tell a story about how once he got to his destination with out the car he was towing.

This is not a drill. I am not making this up.

We arrived to the car's final destination (not mine) and while I couldn't figure it what in the hell the guy was telling me - what I could figure out is my mom would pick me up at the wine store a few doors down. He said he would call me. I started walking to go get some vino, up a hill - and slipped down it of course because that's how I roll and who would really be surprised?

12:01 pm: Arrive at Nana Lu's. It's at this point I am in the eye of the storm. Through the madness and at a calming - the thing with the eye of the storm? It's just the beginning of the end and there is more to come.