Tuesday, March 22, 2011

The Art of Doing Nothing (And Everything)

Another day, another ridiculous Whole Foods experience. This one involved lentil soup and, once again, my poor driving skills. I was wheeling my giant stroller and didn’t see the flaw in using the side cupholder for my soup until I leaned in to get a closer look at the organic bananas (sidenote: why are they always bright green?). There went the spinach lentil all over the bananas. Pretty soon I’m going to see my picture up in the window with a big warning: DO NOT LET THIS WOMAN INTO THE STORE.

WF inanities aside, I’m beginning to feel settled in my stay-at-home-mommying. We’ve got playgroup, music class, gym dates and lunches set up throughout the week. I could have plans multiple times per day if I wanted. Yet I am still bored. I’m not sure what it is I am looking for, as I have recently realized that going back to work wouldn’t be nearly as romantic as I imagine it to be. A quick visit to my office and a scan of nanny/daycare costs confirmed that. So, if I don’t go back to work right now, what else is there? After college, law school and seven years working as an attorney, it’s bizarre to imagine that I am no longer part of the workforce. Am I still an attorney if I don’t practice? Who am I if I don’t have that work self to turn on and off? As much as I love my baby and watching him grow, I know that I can’t spend every minute with him. It will be best for both of us if I have some hobbies, tasks, chores to occupy my mind. Trying to find that balance begins in earnest now.

Thursday, March 17, 2011

Just Another Sunday Funday

Wow, I really took a bit of a pause there, eh? Well, I’m back now and am going to try to be consistent with this. For me, that means about two-three posts over the next year. I do feel as though I have something to say and I need a kick in the ass. Hopefully, that kick is coming and it’s not too painful.

So, the other day I hit a car in the Whole Foods parking lot. I was reversing, trying to fix my initial perfectly acceptable parking job (why, why must I be such a perfectionist?) and managed to somehow veer over the line and ever so slightly bump the car next to me. Unfortunately, the love tap from my brand-new suv (compact though it is) was somehow misinterpreted as a knockout punch by the 15-year-old Honda sedan parked innocently next to me. Although I couldn’t have been going more than the bare minimum of speed needed to keep the car in motion, I somehow managed to wreak havoc on both driver’s side doors of this other car. My car, bigger and badder, sustained nothing more than a measly missing paint chip. Of course, I was irrationally mad at the car next to me-how dare it be parked right there just waiting for me to hit it?! I seriously considered just driving away or walking into the store as if nothing had happened (looking at my car, no one ever would have known that I was the one who caused the damage). But, I couldn’t do it. I’m not that asshole.

I went inside, looking forlorn and beaten and asked the customer service agent to request that car’s owner to come forward. When I told the Whole Foods rep what happened, he congratulated me for owning up to my actions. Is that what the world has come to now? We are being congratulated for simply doing the decent thing. Thankfully, the guy who owned the Honda was pretty chill about the whole thing. He acknowledged that his car was a total beater and said he would be cool with avoiding insurance altogether, caring less about it looking perfect than about it being drivable. How’s that for a nice response? I think he felt sorry for me, actually. Or, maybe he felt sorry for my baby who was looking pretty annoyed at the indignity of it all. Ay, I’m afraid to hear what he’ll have to say about my driving once he can speak.

Unfortunately, making this guy’s car drivable is apparently going to cost over $1,500! Something about the rear driver’s side door frame being bent and needing to replace the door? Hello Mr. Honda owner, do you really need someone to sit in that seat when there is a perfectly good spot on the passenger’s side? You even said you don’t use the car much. I don’t think I’m being unreasonable here. Except, of course, I am.

In the end, we have to go through insurance and I’ll end up paying quite a bit of that amount through raised premiums. Insurance is such a racket! You think you’re covered when you have a teeny, tiny accident but, really, you’re not. Oh well. At least it was a relatively easy way to learn an important lesson– Whole Foods is the devil! I was already spending hundreds there a month. Now I’m in it for over a grand. No one needs organic foods that badly. Finis (until the next absurd occurrence that is my new life with baby and sans brain).