Dearest Noxema

Oh Noxema, how you hurt me so...

I remember the days when I was 10 and I thought you were the most interesting smelling jar of goop I have ever smelled. I would sniff you over and over again and never thought twice about what gave you that mysterious odor.

I moved away from home and never saw you again. I had forgotten about you for so many years. You had captivated me for so long, but alas, time moved on and you were forgotten.

I was shopping the other day and there you were, tucked away on the bottom shelf... happily on sale. I became so excited when I saw you and immediately held you up for all the world, or aisle, to see. My memories of us came flooding back and I couldn't resist the urge to smell you, just for old times sake. And before I knew it, we were together again.

I applied a dime sized scoop into my hand and began to use as directed. At first, you felt wonderfully cool on my skin. But then, well, I'm not sure what happened.

My face went from cool, to warm, and from warm to fiery hot. I immediately removed you, even though that's not what the directions indicated that I do. Even after I soaked my face for a full five minutes under the cold water, my face still burned like a habanero pepper. The rest of me, however, was freezing.

Did I wrong you, Noxema? I swear my mother is the person who single-handedly kept you alive and well, because I'm pretty sure she still has a jar of you in her bathroom. I think I will have to cut off our consumer/product relationship once again, because you turned out to be a really shitty friend who doesn't smell all that good anyways.

-Colleen

It's coming around again

Am I the only parent out there that hates kid's birthday parties? They're so awkward. Parents come over and either drop their kids off (in which case they're always awful, bratty kids and you're praying their parents will be there any minute) or they hang out for the entire party, trying to make conversation while all I can think about is what's in the liqueur cabinet ("I still have stuff to make a cosmotini, right? I swear I at least have the ingredients for a double Mai Tai. No...that mom over there looks like she'd be totally offended if I broke out a bottle right now").

Adam's birthday is almost here and this year it's a Wall-E party complete with games, decorations and all the party fixings. I love being able to give my kids the birthday parties I always wished I'd had as a kid. There's something so special about watching their faces while they laugh with their friends and get to be the most important person of the day. It makes me truly happy in a way that not a lot of other things in life can. I capture those moments and save them, tuck them away in a place available when I JUST GOT HOME AND YES I'M STARTING DINNER.
I can still remember the look on Karina's face when she broke through her first pinata at her 3rd birthday party, candy showering her, in this adorable little blue and white dress, her hair pulled up in a ponytail with her wispy golden curls framing her cheeks. The smile she had when she saw not most, but ALL of her friends arriving at the park for her 7th birthday party. Adam's first birthday, frosting covering his entire face - and how he wouldn't put down the ducky that he still has on his bed.
This year will be the same, watching Adam star in his own show. Playing Pin the Bolt on Wall-E, wearing his Birthday Boy medal, pulling the ribbons from the Wall-E pinata (even pinatas have gotten less violent, notice that?), eating cake with his favorite friends.
And I will tuck away those special moments - those moments when he doesn't know I'm watching him smile at his friend Grace (who is only invited because she's a tomboy but don't think I don't notice that he blushes every time he says her name...), when he cuts his cake and sticks his hand in the frosting "accidentally", when he blows out the candles and his expressive eyebrows do that thing where they furrow in the middle because he wants to get all 8 blown out.

I'm just stopping at the liqueur store first.

In the beginning... there was "The Cuff"

Rachel and I met one fine April night at a club in Seattle. It appears after reading our first emails to each other that neither one of us were really looking for anything in particular... but what we soon realized was we couldn't stay apart. In the beginning, Rachel would come up to Seattle for the weekends or I would go down there, but the weeks in between became really difficult. We realized that what we wanted was to be together, so six months later, I moved in. Our life was anything but normal, but we made the best of what we had and fell more in love, and 10 months after that, we had a commitment ceremony on a bluff on Point Defiance. It was a small ceremony, but none the less, it was one of the most amazing days of my life. Not to get all sappy, but when you look into the eyes of the person you love the most and promise to be the best person you can possibly be, there is nothing more romantic or peaceful than that moment. And here we are, nearly 3 years later... having had our ups and downs, but getting stronger through it all. We have learned a lot... and no parenting book can tell you how to raise a teenager, a boy under 8, and keep a relationship alive and exciting. We know, we looked! But we learned many simple things, like conversations with the kids could be quite fascinating. There were many dinner conversations when talking to Karina where I realized I had no clue what she was talking about... not because I wasn't listening, but because I was out of the loop with today's slang... it was one of the first times I felt "old". I was 28. Together we are a family... with a crazy ass dog (and a mouse); we are moving forward with our plans, goals, dreams, and... life.

Getting started

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