Home, wonderful book for parents of boys

I read an entire book today and six chapters of a second. People, this has not happened for 6½ years, and Nora Ephron's Heartburn is absolutely fabulous. You should read it immediately. I could not and did not put it down, actually reading while walking through the airport at one point. And such laser-like reading was an excellent tool for avoiding eye contact with the extremely nice but out-of-control chatty guy in the middle seat next to me. Wow. His wife immediately went to sleep and he made cheese-tastic small talk at every opportunity except when he was eating Panda Express as if he were breaking a long-term fast. Oy!

I encountered such a wild array of folks today. First was the extremely small and seemingly quite irritated MIA mini-me: the hair, the glasses, the outfit, wow! Then there was the elderly business man with Louis Vuitton bags hanging from every appendage- in the outside pocket of his roller bag but in full view was a Glamour magazine. Interesting reading choice for this guy. And then there were the two passengers sitting in the row in front of me. Huge! Previously-unseen aggressive seat shifting and reclining. I swear to god I thought my face was going to get smashed in. Fortunately, they calmed down.

Who thinks Misty May's tramp stamp is super(!) big?! Wow! But she and Kerri are great!

T and I grilled paninis for dinner, and although I made the poor decision to schedule a fasting-required, new patient appointment with an internist tomorrow (recall my firing of the previous doc) for 8-flipping-am tomorrow, we are watching the Olympics and enjoying a nice bottle of red.

Oh, parents of boys, great book!

Phantom limb-like syndrome

It is unbelievable how light child-free travel is. About every five minutes, I feel certain I've dropped something critically important or left one of the boys on the plane. I have but one bag with me, and I've read six chapters in two different books. This is utterly surreal.I just ate lunch quietly at Cat Cora, enjoying a lovely edamame-avocado hummus with olives and pita. There were no spills, no small hands discovering old gum under the table and then putting those hands into their owner's mouth, no refrains of "please, please do not touch the potty seat" while also making sure I don't get sprayed by rogue pee (little Ol shoots at 2:00 which makes the stream's direction a bit random). But I also haven't had my legs attacked by a hug or my cheeks covered with kisses, and I feel the slightest bit teary in a vaguely schizo way: eager for this week alone, kinda lonesome for a little hand enveloped in mine. My heart aches some.

Saying goodbye to my boys

I know it's a sign of a wonderful week to come for my darlings, but I basically had to force them to give me real hugs and kisses goodbye this morning. We'd gone to Target to get some treats because they have done such an amazing job with their swimming lessons and they were totally wrapped up in Legos and a Captain Hook boat. So really, I suppose I should count my blessings for this peaceful, happy send-off, but I cried a bit as their sweet little legs raced them away and back to play. I'm of the dreaded prop plane now and will be glad to get to Houston soon, jump off and get an enormous coffee.As an aside, y'all should hear this flight attendant's voice. Soo sing-songy and fake. It's like a roller coaster bedecked with knives.