Road Trip: INDY and INDIGO GIRLS

So last Friday (April 24th), I took a road trip sans husband and children. I bolted with some friends to Indianapolis for the Indigo Girls Concert. We left town right after work, headed down I-70 and made it to the city in 1 1/2 hours with NO rush hour traffic. We got off on Michigan Ave which took us RIGHT to the Murat Theater where the concert was. We parked in the Murat's lot and went to imbibe in beer and food at The Rathskeller where I had the most AMAZING rueben and Warsteiner Isenbeck (From Germany's premiere brewery, a dark beer with a light character and a smooth, crisp finish.). It was a little slice of heaven I tell you! The only low light of the meal was a phone call from my mother who proceeded to tell me that she and the kids were locked out of the house and they all had to pee (they finally went to a neighbors) & my aunt had unexpectedly passed away (but that is for another blog). The girls and I then went shopping in this cute little street right by.

We headed over to the venue, which was beautiful. We were in the Egyptian Room, a smaller and more intimate SRO venue. It was lovey decorated in heiroglypics and mummy caskets and large, looming pillars. The opening act was OK, but she had NO stage presence and she had a hard time singing and playing at the same time. I always enjoying hearing opening bands b/c I get to learn about new musicians and get on the cutting edge. But I was not impressed..in fact can't even remember her name (jennifer mcconner, mcconnell). I think she has talent, but she'll be an opener for a long time to come.

The Indigo Girls proved to be worth the $30. They were amazing. It was just them and Julie Wolf on keyboard/electro drums/acordian. It was really wonderful. The crowd was chill and totally into every song. There were tons of sing alongs and when "Shame on You" came on the crowd WENT WILD. I even left loving a song I have always not enoyed ("Chickenman"). I realized that Emily Saliers can rock a guitar and Amy Ray has gotten a lot better at songwriting over the years. I can't say there was a favorite song, as every single song was lovely and sounded as good or better than the albums.

After it was all done, we piled back in the car and headed back to DAY. I landed with my head on the pillow about 2:30. It was an amazing night that I need to have lots more of!

The Curse of the Mommy

Let me preface this this saying: I love my kids and I love being a mom. But in our house there is something I have dubbed the "curse of the mommy". Brian was the stay at home dad for the last 10 years. After Nathan was born early, I had the insurance and he was just getting out of grad school. It was just logical that he be the primary caregiver. Because of that, each of our children had a pretty serious "daddy attachment". When they would get hurt, they would go to dad first and me if he wasn't there. It was a bit of a blow to the ego at first, but I got used to it and carved out my mommy niche in different ways.
So, the curse of the mommy is this: Even though 90% of the time they are hurt or want love they go to Brian, it seems whenever they are sick or have a bad dream in the middle of the night, they come to me. Now the way our room is set up, it is much harder and longer to get to my side of the bed, so it is obvious it isn't a path of least resistance kind of decision. I think it is also a mommy curse that we have radar hearing. As soon as one of them is wining, crying, or moaning our mommy-radar wakes us up. There are times that I will be up 3-4 times a night and when I get up in the morning Brian never was even aware there was a issue.
Most mommy time I love, but I have to admit, I don't think I was made for the middle of night care. The nice thing is that with the youngest at 5, I do see those years coming to an end. But that means other things I love will be gone too. *sniff* *sniff*

Who are the people in your neighborhood? In your neighborhood...

Remember that Sesame Street song? Last night at dinner Miss Audrey asked what a neighborhood was. We tried to explain that it is a group of houses that are on the same street/area. We told her where our neighborhood was, where g-ma and g-pa M's neighborhood was, and where g-ma and g-pa W's neighborhood was. Just to trick her, I asked her who do we know who DOESN'T live in a neighborhood (I was thinking Adam and Karen who live in the country). She thinks about it for a minute, looks up to the sky, and says, "God. He lives above us." We just about lost it in O'Charley's. After composing ourselves, we asked her if there is anyone on Earth she could think of that doesn't live near other houses. She got it right, "cause Karen and Adam live by no one."
I am just glad she is asking questions like "what is a neighborhood"? I have also noticed her using much larger vocabulary and sentence construction (can we get some refreshments? or my mom's viscous!). We're still trying to decide if we repeat kindgergarten, but I am not stressing about it.

Stove 2.0

So I got my new stove today. It came and as soon as the delivery men left, I started cooking. The good news was I noticed a slight dent on the back corner and got $150 MORE off. So a $1500 stove ended up costing me about $1000 after all my discounts and rebates!!
It is a Kenmore Elite, double oven with turbo boil and 5 burners. I really liked it cooking on it. I made sweet and sour chicken and rice and then muffins in the upper oven. It will take some getting used to all the cool functions.

Juice Box

So nice weather brings out the kids. The neighborhood becomes abuzz with bike riders, skateboarders, and walkers. Since we're so close to the park, pool, and levy we get a lot of kids up and down our road. The other day, the kids were all outside and some older kids (7th or 8th grade punks) were biking and skating down the road. They see the Nathan and his 2 next door buddies and they menacingly scream...DOUCHE BAGS.
Well, Audrey...who isn't afraid of anything...pipes right up and screams: "You're the JUICE BOX!!"
Needless to say, everyone was rolling on the floor laughing.

Addiction and Freak TV

Lately I have become found myself drawn to the VH-1 reality show Sober House and/or Celebrity Rehad. I find addiction fascinating, and something about washed up celebrities willing to air struggles on TV for a quick buck piqued my interest. I think it will be interesting to see if there is any success in this show like The Biggest Loser, or will it become a mockery like The Bachelor? I find myself rooting for these "characters" and scared when they fall off the wagon. I actually cared if Seth "Shift" Binzer was going to be found by his friends when he went on an acid-herion-ectasy-valium binge. I like Mary Cary, hard core porn star with the heart of balerina wanting desparately to be loved but only surrounding herself with people who see her has a piece of a**. I want Steven Adler to get it right. I find myself hoping Nikki McKibben will come to grips with her mother's addiction and use her music for cartharsis. I'm so glad Andy Dick finally seems serious about sobriety.
I think I really like this show because I have watched, first hand, addiction destroy a family. I watched as someone drank their way to the end of a bottle night after night looking for peace, but never realizing the peace was within them. Addiction is terrible, but was is most intriguing is the co-dependency. Most addicts can't be addicts without the people around them making it easy for them to stay addicts (whether it is through purchasing it for the addict, making excuses, providing the monetary means, or belittling the addict so they never feel good about themselves). Part of me sees addiction as a ravaging disease, but it is a disease of choices.
Wrapping my mind around addiction and understanding it the tough part. In the midst of physical addition I understand not being able to break the cyle, but once the physiological aspect is broken I don't understand why addicts don't fight like hell to stay sober.
On a light note...
Also, has anyone else noticed that TLC (The Learning Channel) has really become a televised freak show? It isn't just the subject matter, but it is the titles too: "The Two Ton Teen" or "Tree Man". There was a time in our country when people who were different or disabled could make a living by being exploited by the freak show. They would have to leave their home and family to make a living. Today, these modern "freaks" don't even have to leave the comfort of their home. The cameras come to them. So if it isn't a family with 8 or 17 kids or a man with tree-like limbs, it will be a the world's smallest people or a two ton family. I wonder what is says about us as a culture if we are still willing exploit these people to satiate our curiosity? Have we really evolved into a more accepting culture or can we just hide it behind closed doors now?

A Plague Upon Both Your Houses...ok, well just mine...

My sister started a blog (stieneckerfamily.blogspot.com) about their journey with adoption and their family. Well it inspired me to restart the one I made this summer. I don't even know if anyone will read it, but as a teacher of writing, I should write. Writing is like a muscle--if you don't exercise it, it becomes weak. So I am going to try to write and update as often as I can.
As far as the plague goes...it has hit the Mahaney house. Nathan started last Wednesday and is still hacking something awful. Audrey woke up Saturday with it, and she can't seem to shake it; however, he symptoms are running nose and extreme fatigue. Brian then woke up with it on Sunday and he still had an intermittent fever last night and said his tonsils were the size of golfballs (please God, if you're listening, don't let it be strep?? pretty please). Strep is my nemisis. It likes me..I hate it. I can catch it someone with it looks at me. However, throughout all of this, I have remained healthy. I think the whole incubation period is nature's way of making sure this is always someone to take care of the sick ones. I am eating lots of oranges and liberally applying hand sanitizer.
That's just the way life is right now.