it's the thursday before independence day - which translates to a pretty dull day in the office. friday is the 'holiday' freebie day, so that leaves us with an early release day today. at a glance, i'd say that 60-75% of the regular staff is out on pto today, so that leaves 4 of us from my team of 7 in the office, blankly staring at our respective smart phones or computer screens, counting the minutes until go time. it's 9:37 am and i'm already pretty jazzed up on the large dunkin donuts iced coffee i have to my immediate right, only 15% consumed. (i did chug an iced coffee this morning at home, though, so i'm already pretty jittery). had to take a sick day, yesterday, so i'm sure the naps i snuck in throughout the day helped contribute to a more overall rested state. wasn't playing hooky, this time. just trust me when i say to steer clear of trader joe's microwavable whole wheat/veggie lasagna. no bueno. but maybe it was my body's way of just shutting down and saying 'JODI TAKE A DAY OFF. CMON.' either way, i got some extra shut eye, which is more valuable than gold in the sassana household. AND i copped a trip to the lush store off armitage to finally cash in my mother's day loot gift card. on what else? under eye cream and concealer to mask my sleepless perma-eye bags. so it goes.
i glanced back at my last posting on here, a few months ago. let's just say as a progress report: holden 1, mom 0 on the boob front. looks like not only did i meet my goal of breastfeeding for that first year, but i'm exceeding the requirement! go me! (NOT by choice). i'm convinced my son will be attached to my breast until my 40th birthday, at this rate. at least he'll have a healthy immune system? (here's to lookin' at the bright side - optimism, my friends, or i'll never survive).
it's hard to believe we're already into the month of july. seemed like yesterday i was stressing/planning holden's first birthday party - which was awesome, btw. i'm super lucky to have such a close knit group of super girlfriends. holdie scored massive loot, and super pics, thanks to his photo expert aunt staci. we actually snuck in an impromptu trip back home to visit grandma joan, too, in may. we'll be heading back to argyle again, for an old classmate of mine's wedding next weekend. i'm super excited for a weekend back home. fresh country air. stars in the non-polluted sky. calm, peace. green fields, nostalgia lane. not to mention grandma at our disposal for a night out! (even if it is spent chugging cheap beers at a bar called 'good fellas'. i'm ready!) should be like a mini class reunion. while i've seen maybe 50-60% of my former classmates over the past 14 years since we bid adieu, i haven't seen a large group of the gang in one place/time, and even though vin will probably be grudging through it to appease me, i can say i'm sincerely excited to see a lot of faces, (even if they don't recognize me, which is generally the case). like extended family - that's not nearly as crazy.
hoping to also sneak in a trip to house on the rock, because why the hell not? holden is finally at the fun age where we're no longer (as) crippled to go do things. last night, for example, we took the luxury of checking out mash - (formerly bad dog), just another burger/craft beer overpriced patio joint in the neighborhood. had raw oysters. to you know, seem fancy and shit. (they were ok). holden loved sitting outside, shouting at the flowers, trees, dogs, etc. i never thought i'd see the day i could strap that kid to a high chair and he's stay seated!
this weekend looks like a picnic in the park with pals at winnemac park for the fireworks. should be interesting, given h's usual bedtime of 6pm, but i'm confident we can finaggle the little dude out of his routine for the loud, bright shinies.
this summer's been good to me. it's flying by a bit more quickly than i'd prefer, especially given we've got our long overdue move to a 2 bedroom place coming up on the 31st of this month. taking over my sister-in-law/bff's lease on a bigger pad, a little more north in the middle of nowhere, but we've got a car now and let's face it, vin and i aren't exactly social butterflies these days, so more real estate for h's TOY KINGDOM is unfortunately more of a priority than proximity to our favorite watering holes. we've discovered the public pool, and that the little man is one heck of a water bug. loves swimming. (as does his mom). so i'm hoping we get to sneak away into the river park a bit more into my extended weekend (fri-mon).
other than that, haven't gotten as much running in as i'd like, but i still get around. take extended walks on my lunch breaks at work and have been reading like crazy. of course, i'll go months waiting for my chicago library ebooks to become available to download on my kindle - and then when i receive one, it's bam, bam, bam, and suddenly i have a 3 week window to cram in something like 1500 pages/4 books. (so far, i've knocked out 2.25 in a week). i'll def need more reading suggestions following this binge, as my hold selections will all open up again.
so that's a perk to slow corporate hostage days in the office like today. more reading time. quiet, reading time. (without a baby glued to my breast).
in the world of music, i'm still not super jodi like i used to be. casually listen to my old staples, here and there, finally seemed to have gotten my fix of the latest sleater-kinney to the point where i no longer need to listen on repeat 7 times a day. instead, i guess i have moved onto focus onto two other artists in their place - st. vincent, whose former catalogue i previously possessed, but never got into her latest 2014 s/t album until a couple weeks ago, and bully, who's ep i picked up a month or so back, but just copped the debut full-length as well. both chick centric rock albums in the alternate realm, but different in their own ways.
i never bothered with st. v's latest, because i kinda figured (incorrectly), that once you heard one, you heard them all. her first two records were a showcase of talent, of course, but kinda got drippy and a little too quirky for my tastes. perfect dish washing/laundry folding music, but nothing that could wake my ass up on the el ride into the loop on a morning basis. queue her latest: even though the record's older than my son, it's my latest go to crutch. from the opening quivers of 'rattlesnake,' to the undeniably catchy 'psychopath,' or when she croons her undying love to you (said listener) over jeeee-suhusss, it's sinead o connoresque, but in the best guilty pleasure way possible. makes me wish i was that fancy model girlfriend of hers for a millisecond - not for any physical pleasures (st. v is too tiny for me, she'd snap in half with a hug), but just to hear someone belt their undying profession in such a melodramatic yet sugary sweet way. the record's non-stop awesome, without missing a single beat of filler track. i definitely dig.
BUT - as is the case with any album, anything can get old or worthy of taking a break after non-stop consumption for 3+ weeks. so when i heard bully finally dropped their debut full-length, i decided to pick up the cd. (because i have a car, you guys, with a CD PLAYER). i was reluctant at first to pick it up, because the full-length shares 3-4 tracks from the ep, and i think there's only like 10 songs total on the record, but what the hell. i had 7 bucks burning a hole in my pocket and needed something other than the collection of overplayed taylor swift, metric and pixies cds strewn all over my front passenger seat in the car. bully's pretty great. it's a chick, i forget her name. alicia something? if i was still a writer, i'd take the three seconds to google her, but instead i'll just keep this going before i lose my train of thought. she seems young. i think from nashville or somewhere similar. reminds me of the 90's. like, an upbeat, punk rock indie sugary sweet 90's star. think, juliana hatfield, or letters to cleo, but not annoying or too cavity inducing. a little grungier, but with clear, girly pop perfection vocals. guitar. up beat. punk rock. so good. tracks like 'milk man' and 'feels like' are what 18 year old jodi yearned for for decades before it came to existence. it's good stuff. def stoked to have more compact discs for the ole trek back to argyle come next weekend.
other than that, can't really complain about much. sure, the kiddo's still physically leashed onto me. sure, i'm still not sleeping through the night. but - the little dude's such a joy. sincerely. he's walking now! yesterday we went to the grandparent's house to pick him up, and out he tottered to greet us, smiling while crunching on croutons, reeking of gardettos. pointing to everything in the house to 'show me' the tour. we dance, on a daily basis, he and i. his favorite current jam is jenny lewis' 'just one of the guys,' (thank god t. swift's 'shake it off' is on the backburner, one can only handle so much). we play. he dances like an absolute spaz to cartoon theme songs (that then haunt mom and dad's head all day - google 'chuggington' and see if you can NOT get that ditty stuck in your head, i dare you). he understands things like - 'please get mama's cell phone and bring it to me,'. he no longer eats baby food. he makes me laugh. and laugh. (but still hates bedtime and refuses his crib, goddamn it).
motherhood/parenthood - it's finally fun. 85% of the time, anyway. we still have our desperate, trying, 'getmethefuckouttahere ineed18drinks' moments of exhaustion, and i still question my parenting skills on a daily basis, but the fact that i question them i think means that i'm doing something right. because if i didn't doubt/question/second guess, that would mean i took it all for granted, and didn't put the effort into improving myself for the greater good of my little heartthrob. he's seriously the best, you guys.
so i think it's safe to say that the summer of 2015, at least to this point is def much more enjoyable of an experience than my inaugural summer of motherhood, as documented on this blog, in 2014. holy shit that was tiring. and he was just a little blob! but now, he's my dude. with such a big personality.
sorry to bore anyone out there reading this with such trivial minute details of my bebe and motherhood - but let's face it, we all grow up sometime, whether we like it or not. at least i'm able to take pride in the fact that i'm rocking my new role as a mom, straight down to my momgear wardrobe and accessories, and haircut. i may no longer be interviewing rockstars and partying at shows multiple nights per week, but instead, i'm channeling my former expertise into sing alongs and impromptu kitchen dance parties.
tonight's agenda? chocolate chip cookies and (at least one) bottle of Cabernet.
because i can.
here's to the summer of 2015.
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