Tickled Pink Saturday

I have three reasons to be tickled pink this particular Pink Saturday (thank you to Beverly at How Sweet the Sound for hostessing this weekly event!) that I just have to share!

FIRST!
I want to say thank you to Evil Pixie, blogger buddy extraordinaire for nominating me for blogger of the year. I am officially one of the top 25 best blogs, so far, as chosen on The Blog Guidebook. My status can go up, with a little help from my readers. Voting commences today. It says "Voting starts Saturday at 6 a.m., and ends at 6 p.m. on Friday. The five blogs with the lowest votes will be eliminated." This is for Round 1. So, if you click HERE (or on the button) and vote for me as "best blog" I'd be much obliged! I'm just tickled Pink that Evil Pixie would nominate me for such a wonderful honor! Thank you dear Pixie!

Here's what Evil Pixie wrote about me: The blog is written by Maggie O’Sullivan, and it is warm, funny, and frequently brilliant. Maggie writes about her life as a single mother, struggling to provide for her little family but always keeping her sense of humor. It is honest, insightful, and fun. Most importantly, it is real. She discusses everything from her relationships to her struggle in making ends meet. This is a blog that completely deserves your award. Thank you so much. I can't say thank you enough! (And though the award itself isn't Pink, the lettering is!) So please please please vote for me!

SECOND!
Princess went to her Prom tonight and she looked amazing. Alcatraz has a prom for their juniors and seniors and call is the President's Winter Ball. The dresses the girls wear are all donated and this is a huge, big deal. Princess had a donated dress that was not very becoming. So...

I borrowed the dress from a high schooler I know. Daddy-O got in the act and bought the shoes. Curly took care of all the jewelry and XRayGirl donated Bath and Body Works products for pre-prom preparation. I took her for a hair cut and color earlier this week- and to get a tiara. As I said, she looked amazing. Better than amazing. Beautiful. Stunning. She was a princess. Absolutely gorgeous. She had a wonderful time. It was a fancy dinner and dancing. She was the belle of the Winter Ball. It was my pleasure to be there. I was so proud of her and so happy this could happen for her. Here are two pictures of her (due to privacy issues, I can't show her face. You just have to take my word for it that she looked stunningly beautiful, like a true princess...) dress. Did I mention she likes pink?

I was tickled pink she was Cinderella for a night, and that we could all be her "mice'!


THIRD!
I'm tickled pink over my new job. I know I've mentioned it before, but I just can't wait to start work at Alcatraz in their school library. I start work on Wednesday. I am beyond happy and thrilled to be back there. And as the librarian!

Maybe I should wear pink shoes on my first day?

Happy Pink Saturday!
In Shoes We Trust,
Maggie Mae

Big Weekend...

Big Mac:
Friday night was senior athlete night at Mac's school. All of the seniors, male or female, who participated in any sort of sporting event, were recognized. All parents of these kids were escorted onto the field with them, in front of the crowd. It was pretty cool and I was really proud of Mac. One more step of reality that he's a senior and will be graduating. *gulp*

Big Crafts:
Annually, a craft show is held here in town and XRay Girl, Curley, Curley's Sister, Daddy-O, Princess and I all went. It was lots of fun but there were HUGE amounts of people every where and tons and tons of things for your home, jewelry, clothes, candles... everything people make themselves. There were over 100 booths. If you like to decorate in "Country" or "Rustic American" is certainly a place for you. But there's other stuff, like soap even and art work and just something to appeal to everyone. It was a good time had by all. I think I bought a candle for me because the smell reminds me of the non evil Grandmother's bathroom- like a flower garden.

Big Chili:
Daddy-O and XRay Girl bailed on the chili- XRay Girl because she had to work- but the rest of us forged ahead and with about 10,000 other people, we tasted chili for charity. After about 5 types I was done. I don't like chili all that well to begin with but since it's for charity I didn't mind at all. The booths are decorated and people dress up so the name of the chili and the booths all have themes. One school had "No chili left behind" which had a yummy, non spicy, thick, white chili that was almost like a stew. It was my favorite. Part of the process is paying a fee to get into the event. After paying, you get 10 tickets and you can vote on your favorite chili, booth, theme, whatever. You walk around with a spoon and sample over 75 kinds, choosing what you want to eat or not.

As I said, I gave up after 5 kinds, but Princess was a champ and tasted about 3/4's of the kinds there. It was so crowded that the four of us split up and we met back at the end; great that is was crowded so there was more money raised for the 7 charities. People also have toppings for the chili and lots of places were giving candy, ice cream, Popsicles, etc. to help cool and cleanse the palette. There were also a couple of drink concessions stands, a place selling kettle korn and elephant ears, and a beer tent, of which I didn't partake.

Princess had never done this before and she thought it was awesome. She also discovered she hated white chili. We laughed and ate our way around. It was cool.

The weather was great, too. Cool with a little breeze. Just a perfect fall day, with the leaves changing. We were all in long sleeve t-shirts and jeans, which was comfortable. It was a very good day.

Big Dress:
So Alcatraz has a winter ball in November and Princess gets to go. Over the years, apparently, people in the community have donated dresses for the girls to wear. The dresses be ball gown length- yes, to the floor, which I think is a good idea so the girls can't have mini dress/ cocktail dresses. the problem: these donated dresses get stored in a big closet and used over and over each year. The dresses look like something I wore to prom. Or dresses from the 70s. Not good. Princess found one that wasn't too "hideous" and didn't look like as much like "curtains with glitter" as some of the others. BUT, I know someone who wore a pink princess, Cinderella style dress to her prom and they are the same height and almost the same size. And this girl is going to loan Princess her dress, which is her dream dress. I had one VERY happy kid on my hands, jumping around, going happy crazy!

Big Lazy:
After yesterday, I plan on being a big lazy slug today. I'm going to do laundry and laze around the house. I have a novel to finish reading. I'm just going to chill.

Mags

A bit melancholy this morning

Mac seemed to have a great time at the Prom. He looked so grown up and dashing in his tux. I mean, he looked really REALLY grown up. I can see why the girls think he's a cutie. Okay, so I'm his mother and I'm biased but really, he was looking really cute. And grown up.

And since I have this ADD brain* the path I took was...

He's growing up and next year he's going to university and then law school. He's not going to hang out this me or stay at home with his 'old' mom all the time. Because he'll be at school doing grown up things that boys do in school; hopefully that will also involve lots of studying....

And he'll meet some woman and get married and have his own family.

Or he'll be as screwed up as I am about love and relationships and he'll just shag everything in a skirt and marry his job and have lots of money and jet around the world spending it frivolously.

Either way, he won't be hanging out with his mother, who will be old and alone. Well, not so old; I won't be 40 before he goes to college. My point is, he won't be at home with me.

Frankly, then, that means a huge part of my life is coming to a close and what the hell am I going to do now?

Daddy-O, I'm not killing you off, no matter what the employees at Hobby Lobby think (we were looking at vases and saying how nicely they could be turned into urns for him when he died, and we got some strange looks...anyway) and as we were talking the other day, we are both closer to death than, well, not death. I mean, you're almost 65 so you're not going to be here forever. And I'm staring at 40-- someday-- shit, someday soon!

And I'm going to be alone. I've said for a good many long years now I was a person who was meant to be alone. I never figured I would have a relationship that would amount to much, or that I've played all the loved cards I was dealt, or that I'm not the marrying kind. Hell, even if I could find a man, I think I'm too old for him to want to marry me, even if said hypothetical relationship should ever happen... (We all know I'm a bum magnet. Nothing good comes of me dating other than disasters that make for excellent blog fodder.) Really, who would WANT to marry me?

But I never really thought of what alone meant, and how alone that really really is. Mac is going to do something astounding with himself. I can feel it in my bones. He has enough of my wanderlust in him so he'll make home wherever he is. But he will be an adult. Daddy-O will die and I'll be really alone.

When I think of alone like that, it's really REALLY alone.

Even if I'm an atheist, can I still be a nun and join some sort of sister cloister thingy? I could fake it........ right?

All Hail the Big Three (of course I mean Prada, Dolice, and Gabana),
Sister Mary Maggie Mae, patron saint of shoes..... and lost cause romances

*I would like to point out that at the beginning of this post I warned you I was going to take you on a trip through my ADD brain.... you WERE warned. Geez!

Freakin' Prom

"Holy Shit" is all I could think when Mac outlined the cost of Prom expenses. He asked for "prom" for his birthday since he knew it would be costly.

• tux rental
• flowers
• pictures
• prom tickets at $40 per couple
• dinner

And he doesn't even have a girlfriend. He has a huge crush on a girl called Emily but Emily has a boyfriend but she and Mac are super friends and he wants more. So Mac is going to take Emily's younger sister to Prom. He likes her well enough and will have fun with her but shelling out that sort of money for a platonic evening is outrageous. Of course I keep this to myself and hold my breath and write checks.

We may not have to rent his tux because Daddy-O has one and Mac might fit into it. If that's the case, then we only need to rent the matching colored tie and vest and such. And the tickets include the after prom party as well as the prom itself, which is a good thing. And the After Prom is pretty big, I guess- dinner, snacks, elaborate games, a DJ, karaoke, and a BIG entertainer- they're getting a stand up comic. So I guess a might of safety (it's lock-in style and ATOD free, of course!), entertainment, food and fun for 2 kids is a good deal for $40.

If I start tucking money back now I can afford Prom and his SAT fees. Over my damn dead body will I have his ask his loser Sperm Donor jerk-off asshat father.

Oh yeah, Mac could get a job but I would rather him enjoy high school and have time to do the fun stuff and to study, if I can help it. And since he wants to go to law school, he's gonna have to work his way through college... so, gee, it's great to be a mom. I shouldn't complain, but... wow!

And when all these parents start complaining about how expensive Prom is for a girl, I bet the boys are about evenly matched!

Mac's mom,
Maggie