Even though being 35 sort of sucks, what did NOT suck was my actual birthday. Small gathering at the Bickler Road Water Park with some great folks. Presents. Cake. Pie. Sparklers. Lucky me.
Thanks again to Frank for the gorgeous photos.
Fairy Fury
Lu: "DAD, I need to cut that fairy out RIGHT NOW."
Jason: "No, babe, you need to eat your toast."
Lu: "Okay, well, Dad, you need to cut that fairy out. And you better be done cutting that fairy out before I finish eating my toast. Or else."
Jason: "Or else what?"
Lucy: "Or else I am going to be angry with you."
The man was done cutting the fairy out before she finished eating her toast.
Shameless JCPenney Plug
So I rarely talk about job specifics, but this is a project I've been working on that needs (and I think deserves) some exposure, so I am exploiting my readership of three. It's a weekly shopping show for JCPenney (the account I work on) designed to take the contents of their weekly newspaper circular and package it in a hipper, more online-friendly way. We've been shooting every week and having an edit of the show ready THE NEXT DAY, which is insane, but feels very TV news and exciting. Our director-editor is a bad-ass (as is the entire team, really).
This is the reason the blogs have been sparse lately. Also the reason I did not accomplish much on my Lu-free to-do list. It was worth it, I think. Watch it several times and go immediately to JCPenney and buy stuff. And tell all your friends.
Grown Up
I can't believe how different Lu seems, even after one week. This photo of her, taken while she was in El Paso, tells me what she will look like when she is a young woman. What is that Mona Lisa look on her face?
Free Time
Things I plan to do while Lu is out of town:
Clean out her closet
Clean out my closet
Drive five carloads of stuff to Goodwill
Finish my novel
Oh wait, start my novel
Learn Portuguese
Choose all finishes, paint colors, hardware and other material for house project
Catch up on "Weeds"
Catch up on sleep
Vacation?
Lucy is in El Paso for the week "on vacation." Vacation, indeed: when we called her at 9 this morning, she was already in the pool. She got on the plane with Nini yesterday, pulling her own pink suitcase. And I am pretty sure she will get off the plane from El Paso trailing a diamond-saddled pony behind her.
We miss her.
Nebulous
Something Lucy was watching this morning made her ask, "What's a nebula?" (And no, I don't think she was watching Nova.)
Jason: "Uh, it's gas."
Lucy: "Where?"
Jason: "Space."
Lucy: "But what is it?"
Jason: "It's a cloud of gas in space."
Lucy: "Oh."
Two Best Things
Lu's for today:
1. Getting to water the tomato plants
2. Playing with Alicia,"The Copy Girl," who "says what everyone else says, but me and Alex are friends with her anyway."
Mine:
1. A brutal lunch-time workout that I very much needed.
2. After-school swimming with my girl.
Everybody Loves Jason
Would you look at this guy? He looks like someone you would cast in his own sitcom about being a dad. The show's all about how wacky it is to be a graphic designer dad of a precocious 4-year-old, married to her crazy mother. He is perfect for the role. The show would be nothing without him.
(Thanks to Jason for...everything. Thanks to Frank for the photos.)
They're Great!
This morning, we had a big fit over Frosted Flakes. My dad is visiting, and when he comes up, he brings his own food because he exists only on processed flour, sugar, caffeine and nicotine. And no, he hasn't had a heart attack yet.
So this morning Lucy goes ape over "Granddad's tiger cereal," which Jason let her have one time when I wasn't looking. Well, this morning, I am looking. And she is not having any.
There is definitely a moment, during the crying and carrying on, where I am tempted to say, "Fine, have your bleeping tiger cereal! And here's some coffee and a cig, while you're at it!" Instead, I send her to her room for a timeout. When she emerges, sniffling, she has come up with a great compromise: tiger cereal is only for special occasions, like her birthday. I am not sure how we're gonna get five candles in a bowl of cereal, but okay.