My Year in Status

I feel so sad at how little I've written in my own blog this year. If I had time to blog, it was often devoted to Jingle's Reflections, which although fun, doesn't allow me to express things from my point of view. My "blogging" was replaced by brief Facebook statuses when the desire was there to reach out to the virtual world. But I find it harder to post a status update because it almost feels like a competition... am I 'witty' enough? Will anyone care? How dumb/pathetic/stupid does this make me sound? Then again - when I decided to post things that in hindsight I may have thought second about - those were the status updates that got comments. Whoo hoo! People "like" me. I find Facebook in general to be a little awkward as a social network and I see the different ways that different generations use it. My younger cousin uses it to literally connect with everyone, and then tell everyone about everything that she does. That is a bit much for me. I wonder what she will think when she looks back at 30, 40...60... shoot - what will kids do in 60 years?? Will landlines and books become retro and cool again?

I do enjoy reconnecting with people, even though most of the time, once I do, I don't know what to say beyond 'hey'. However, when people do comment on status updates I find it fascinating that all kinds of people from my past say things. Most recently, I had my best friend from when I was 6, my BF from when I was 13, current friends, and old high school friends all giving me advice on how to cut Jingle's fingernails. How cool is that? (yeah yeah - it may sound weird, but it was cool to see a mosh of old friends responding and caring to respond)

So, now - in order to tie my Facebook Status into my Blog, here is "My Year in Status" which was so kindly provided by a handy dandy facebook app. Although, I find it odd how the app decided which status updates should be included or not. For example - where's the post about my banging my head on the Starbucks case when looking at the pastries? Or the one about my boss sending me an email that said "Last world Friday"...because really, Mrs. Mingle's Year in Status is really not accurate without updates such as those is it?

Have a Happy 2010. Here's to more blog entries, less facebook statuses, more conversations, less texting. oh, who am I kidding. TTYL. LOL.

Mrs. Mingle's Sandbox Bakery Review

Before you read the review below, I must provide a little background...

1. The Mingles LOVE Bakeries
2. This bakery opened 2 blocks from our house
3. This bakery has been the talk of the entire neighborhood for months. I recently found myself in a conversation with a woman on the bus talking about when the bakery would open, who owned it, how old the owners children are....
4. It opened on Monday, and by Monday afternoon, many parents had posted on our neighborhood Yahoo group what they ate at the bakery that day.
5. Katy and I were laughing about #3 and #4 above and she said that I had to provide her with a full review of our first trip to Sandbox Bakery.

So, after months of not posting anything, it is ultimately food that drives me to write. Very fitting for a Mingle don't you think?

As we headed out the door on our family field trip to the newly opened Sandbox Bakery, not even the rain droplets could dampen our spirits. We had eagerly been awaiting the opening for a year and finally the day had come. When we first walked up to the bakery we were greeted by a very friendly canine (surprisingly unleashed) who seemed about as happy to see us as we were to see the bakery. After petting the dog* we stepped in front of the bakery and, as if by magic, the glass door slid open to allow us into its inner sanctum. As we eagerly looked into the pastry cabinet, deciding our future (sweet or savory?) it was clear we had a difficult decision ahead of us. There were Jingle size muffins, almond croissants, scones, cheese Danishes, morning buns...

Although everything looked delightful, I think that as a newly opened bakery they may need to get used to the heat settings of their ovens because a couple of the items looked a little over done. After careful consideration we each chose to go the savory route and picked out a cheese scallion scone. After further consideration we also decided that we would not get our son his own bakery item, but instead would make him eggs when we got home. There was also a choice of two coffees (personally dripped as you order) – there is Ritual Coffee or La Paz Coffee. The latter name, I am not certain of, except for I know it reminds me of the breathing exercises pregnant women use during the birthing process. However, despite the fact that the coffee beckoned to us, we did not order any on this first trip based on the fact that we had already made ourselves a pot of coffee at home just to give us the energy we needed to get to the bakery before 7:00am.

Upon returning home we consumed our edibles to great satisfaction. The scones were light and soft with a nice balance of cheese and scallion flavoring. I am excited to make another (and another) visit to Sandbox Bakery, until I determine which pastry is my favorite.

*The friendly dog appeared to belong to the owners and had escaped from their house to follow the smells to the bakery. Who could blame him?

Question of the Day

You just finish having your weekly meeting with your boss* and after reviewing all of your projects with her it is clear that she is visibly annoyed and frustrated with your performance.
Do you:

a) Attend her team meeting a half hour later that is on the calendar or,
b) Do you forget about it because you are out to lunch?

*Please note that I am the visibly annoyed and frustrated boss in this situation!

Am I wrong to assume that if your boss is expecting more from you (and has blatantly said those words on more than one occasion), than maybe you should step up and try harder?

Oh, and to quote Major Dick who emailed me this yesterday: "I have created a monster [out of you]". Well, yes, yes he has.

To The Complaint Department, or "Complaints"

Dear Dictionary,

I would like to lodge a complaint about the pronunciation of Synecdoche. My husband and I were discussing this last night, and I have been thinking about it all morning because it really bothers me. I don’t understand why you insist on pronouncing it syn-ec-do-che (si-nek-duh-kee). I even looked it up today because I thought for sure that he must be wrong. After all, when we speak of anecdotes, we don’t pronounce those an-ik-duh-tee, so why add the "kee" onto the end of Synecdoche??

And honestly, why do we need this word to begin with? Here is the definition that you provided:
--> 'A figure of speech in which a part is used for the whole or the whole for a part, the special for the general or the general for the special, as in ten sail for ten ships or a Croesus for a rich man.'

There are already two other words that I can think of that work just as well: Nickname and Alias. Having a fancy smancy word (that is pronounced incorrectly) seems redundant to me and totally unnecessary. Synecdochically speaking of course.

To be taken very seriously – yours truly,
Mingle

A Mother's Perspective

It was obvious to me over this past weekend that I’m clearly over the awkwardness of breast-feeding in public. I realized this as I was sitting in the San Francisco airport breast-feeding Jingle while talking to a man who was sitting across from me. One might have thought this should be awkward but, when faced with a crying baby in an airport, or, breast-feeding while talking to a male stranger, I’ll take the latter. Also, I have discovered that little girls love to come over to see Jingle when he is crying. On this day, there were two little girls, ages 3 and 5, who were SO interested in Jingle… “why is he crying? Why is he eating? Why does he play with that? Why why why why whywhy….” So that, again, talking to this male stranger versus answering this never ending stream of questions while trying to make Jingle happy (and wanting to question back – WHERE IS YOUR MOTHER??) was still the better option. This man commented to me later that he thought all 3 children were mine at first. And who wouldn’t since they were spending more time with me than their own mom. The littlest one had a particular fascination with Jingle’s head and kept rubbing it like a bowling ball. At first it was cute (he didn’t mind) but then I watched her go back to her mom, drink some Sprite, get it on her hands, and then come back again to rub Jingle’s head. I watched her go away again, play with something dirty, then come back for a third time to rub his head (while I was breast-feeding). This was finally when I had had enough and called over to the mother who was busy talking on her cell phone..”um.. excuse me… can you please…?” while pointing down to her sticky-fingered child .

That was the beginning of my first trip alone with Jingle. And in all honesty – that was the most difficult time I had. He was so well-behaved most of the time, I realize more and more how lucky I have it. (Sadly, Mr. Mingle had to stay home for Evil Hamlet’s opening weekend. They can’t exactly put on Evil “Hamlet” without Hamlet.)

We went up to Oregon for a friend’s wedding and to see JD and JP in Salem. The first night we stayed in a house on the coast with a couple of Jackasses (you know who you are) and relaxed from our trip up. Jingle was asleep by 7:00 (which is usual) but he was extra tired the first night since his nap schedule was completely messed up earlier that day. The next day I drove him over to Salem (2 hours each way) because he was staying with JP and JD that night while my friends and I went to the wedding on the coast. It was the first night he spent without either of his parents there but I wasn’t worried for him because he was with two loving parents who have a 14 month child of their own. I was more worried about the parents who (did I mention?) have a 14 month child of their own… Although Jingle sleeps through the night now at home, I wasn’t sure if he would do so if he was in a strange place. Sure enough… he did not. I got up early on Sunday morning to drive back to Salem and when I walked into the house, Jingle was happily playing in the exersaucer, while JD, JP and little P all looked up at me with sleepy eyes, “you made it.” We all spent the rest of Sunday doing as little as possible, and I was so happy to take a 2-hour nap with Jingle that afternoon. (A BIG thank you to JD & JP for taking such good care of our little one!)

We flew home from Oregon yesterday and it became clear to me that Jingle is a little bit of a ham. Gee – where did he get that from?? He was smiling at everyone. He had one of the flight attendants completely wrapped around his little finger because every time she would pass by he would beam up at her. She even moved the man who was originally supposed to sit next to me so that we could have 2 seats to ourselves. I never get that kind of treatment when I’m traveling alone! While in the airport he had a table full of male airport workers completely in awe. I was feeding him a bottle while feeding myself a chicken sandwich and he chose that time to be… well... perfect. I felt like Super Mom being able to eat and feed simultaneously while not spilling anything (or dropping him). Then he’d look over at the men and smile. I had my back slightly to them, but I could hear the instant they caught site of Jingle because their conversation changed from talking about aerospace stuff to grandkids. Then they started talking about his smile. Finally when I got up to leave I turned towards them and waived Jingle’s little hand and said goodbye just to see how many grown men I could get to respond in the same cutesy way to say bye to the baby. Half the table.

The entire trip was a good experience for the both of us. I got to spend some time with friends and also be away from Jingle knowing he was in good hands. He and I got to bond some more which has been hard since I went back to work. And I learned he is a good traveler. Now. We’ll see what happens next week when we fly to Minneapolis for a two-night trip!

Mrs. Mingle and Jingle

My Smiley Little Ham