I left my heart on Capitol Hill

September 29, 2012

I am not a city girl.

I love to visit cities—the energy, the great places to eat, the people-watching. . .I love most of it. But, I rarely enter any city neighborhood and think, I’d love to live here.

Capitol Hill in DC? You may have won me over.

I love the little two-level house we rented, right across the street from a public school. I love walking around the corner for milk, or to grab a bite to eat from a “dive” that was featured on Diners, Drive-ins, and Dives. I love strolling down to Eastern Market to pick up a quick something to cook for dinner.

And my girls went bananas over the Cupcake Wars winners’ shop they got to visit. Yeah, we watch a lot of Food Network.

I love being able to walk to the Capitol Building, the Library of Congress, the Botanic Gardens in the Smithsonian. I love how close we are to the Metro which can zip us just about anywhere. But, I also love our quiet little backyard—just a postcard stamp really—though so, so quiet.

Oh, and it helps that we see dogs everywhere. It makes us miss our Star so much, but it’s pretty clear she’d fit right in.

I’m not ready to give up our free-standing house, our quiet cul-de-sac neighborhood, or our happy little suburb.

But, DC? You’ve got my vote too.

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Filed Under: Fairly Odd Me, Travel, Uncategorized Leave a Comment

Getting a Colonoscopy, again

September 18, 2012

You never forget your first time.

Five years ago, I had my very first colonoscopy.

And it was so much fun, I had another one last week. Well. . .actually, I was just due. And since last time they found an “irregular” polyp, I wasn’t about to ignore this date.

This time around though, my prep was different. Instead of guzzling a gallon of the disgusting, salty-sweet HalfLytely, I “only” had to take a couple of pills, along with two Gatorades mixed with an entire bottle of MiraLax powder. Yes, an entire bottle—that would normally last me years—guzzled down in an hour.

You can imagine what happened next. I’ll just go on the record to say that you should not drink blue Gatorade unless you want to think “swamp” every time you go to the bathroom.

And while the Gatorade was MUCH more pleasant a drink, this prep actually took a lot longer to work its way through me. Five years ago, I was “empty” and sleeping by 10:30. This time, I was asleep by 10:30, but up again at 1am for an hour as I was apparently not “finished”.

So, yeah. . .much, much more tired in the morning.

The good news is that the procedure itself was as painless and non-eventful as possible. The only thing notable was my doctor who started ranted about women’s rights over their own bodies, and the men who try to force their will on women. I’m pretty sure I wasn’t hallucinating any of this, though I do think it a bit ironic that he was saying this right before he shoved a camera up my backside.

The good news? As Katie Couric says, I was “clean as a whistle”–no polyps or anything of concern. Just come back in five years! And this time, no blue Gatorade.

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For those new to this blog, you may wonder why I am telling you about such a personal medical procedure. My father died of colorectal cancer at the age of 63 after a long, painful battle. Since he isn’t here to tell you this, I will: Please, if you have any reason to suspect an issue, get a colonoscopy. If you are 50 years or older (or younger, if you have a family history), get a colonoscopy. If your parents have never had one, please urge them to get a colonoscopy (or get another one if it’s been five years since their last one).  If you aren’t sure, go and read this post which should give you a general idea of what to expect.

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Filed Under: Fairly Odd Me, Health n Food Talk, Uncategorized 6 Comments

Ten Nice Things

September 12, 2012

PhotobucketLast night, as I was about to take our dog Star out for her evening walk, I heard screams from the second floor. The kind of screams that can mean only one thing: The girls had hit each other.

I hate when the kids hit each other. Scream your heads off. Call each other names. Stomp down the stairs to tell me the litany of sins the other has done. Just do not kick, punch, squeeze, pinch, or slap the other person.

I ended up yelling quite a bit in frustration over this and then sent each girl to different rooms while I took the dog out on her walk (with the warning that if they fought while I was out, they’d have to get dressed and walk the dog with me, in the cold dark, every winter night.)

Then I had an idea that I’m sure was planted by someone else (was it you?). Instead of yelling more, or taking away privileges, or just sweeping the whole thing under the rug, the girls would have to do something nice for each other.

Ten nice things, in fact.

So this morning when they staggered down the stairs, I told them the plan: No electronics. No early morning TV, no checking email, using your iPod, reading your Kindle. . .nothing. . .until you’ve each done 10 nice things for the other person. Write down each item and I will okay them one by one.

Belly was first. She made Jilly’s bed, picked up the beads she spilled the night before, straightened out her dolls, hung up her coat. Her list of ten was done in under a half hour.

Jilly is working on her list right now. So far, she’s made her sister’s bed, plug her sister’s iPod into its charger for her, and straightened all the books out that are next to her bed.

I’m not sure what this will accomplish except that it feels kind of nice to have them thinking about what they can do for each other, instead of how pissed off they are after last night.

And I’m glad that someone else is making the beds.

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Filed Under: Fairly Odd Kids, Fairly Odd Me 8 Comments
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