Halfway Hip

Me! Dancing!

First of all, I'm now obsessed with Los Campesinos! At the moment, I can't stop hearing this song in my head. I know, it's long. Stick with it, though. Well worth it to feel so happy.

At long last, I have found the song that got EVERYONE all frothed up at Mondo in New York. I remember screaming to Kristen in the midst of our (slightly) drunken festivities, "What IS this? I LOVE this!"

Okay, so why am I all frothed up now, in midst of baskets of laundry, dirty floors, and a toddler who requires a 2 hour bedtime routine? I got a job today! Apparently, the "bad" interview I was beating myself up over wasn't so bad after all! I'll be teaching 8th grade Language Arts at a middle school that's about a 5 minute drive away. Now all I have to do is figure out childcare arrangements for both of the kids. Oh, and also I have to figure out a way to deal with the (slight) guilt about leaving SAHMhood sooner than I had originally planned. I'm sure there will be much more on that later. For now, I can relax and enjoy my spring. There are lots of fun things coming my way. Let's list them, shall we?
1. Seeing Amy Richards and Jennifer Baumgardner at OU on Wednesday while a very good friend's husband watches the kids.
2. Going out for brunch at La Baguette and a pedicure with my local friends on Saturday. A different very good friend's husband will watch the kids then.
3. Moms Night out at The Mont next week. Can expect chips and queso, Sangria swirl, a cute patio, and good conversation.
4. Book club next week, too. This time around, it's The Power of Place. MIL will be visiting, so yet another free babysitting hook-up.
5. Going to Miami in late May to join Matt for a different kind of hook-up. It will be our first trip alone since going to Kansas City for a wedding in Aug. 2005. I'm only there for three days, and Matt will probably have to work each of those days. The ILs seem to be really looking forward to having the boys come down. They're already making all kinds of plans for them.
6. Four concerts coming up: The Kills (possibly), Ladytron/Datarock, The Cure, and the True Colors show (I'm going for Girl in a Coma but the rest of the lineup should be fun, and it's a worthy cause to support.)

2 Weeks Down, 6 To Go

I'm multi-tasking at the moment. Writing this and watching "The Dying Gaul," which I've had for weeks now. If I had known Peter Sarsgaard was in it, I would have watched it much sooner.

We've been keeping busy. Way too busy, to be honest. We haven't really been home together for any length of time since Wednesday. Oh, and Wednesday! That was the day of the killer migraine. I woke up with the claw of death gripping my head. It didn't let go til I gave in around noon and took a codeine tablet. Headache and its accompanying nausea were soon gone. Much loopiness ensued (Evan was napping, luckily) for a while, soon replaced medicine-induced nausea, which was hard but still better than the headache. I was reminded of my early pregnancy with Evan, when Aidan was 3. We'd spend our afternoons on the couch with him plugged into PBS Kids and me just lying there willing the world to stop spinning.

Okay, so the movie is turning out to be sexy/good, so I need to stop multi-tasking. Oh, and the Rocky Road is calling me.

Later: That movie is effed up! Peter Sarsgaard needs to do more, more, more. I love him so.

some things

1. Matt has been gone for a week and a day. I think today was the first really hard, the-honeymoon's-over-where's-my-partner? day.
2. I had a job interview on Tuesday. I didn't do as well as I had hoped (read: I didn't ace it), and I've been beating myself up pretty good over it, and I've probably bored my friends with all of my obsessing over it. I was supposed to hear something by Friday but didn't.
3. I've had a headache since Monday. I've come to the conclusion that it's likely a sinus infection on the left side. I took a dose of Sudafed for the first time in FOREVER today, and the headache has finally subsided a bit. I forgot how loopy pseudoephedrine can make me feel, though. The slight chills/goosebumps are kinda nice, though. It's the feeling I get when I'm tired and having to listen to someone with a really soothing, calming voice.
4. Evan's half-birthday is coming up. And how.

loopy, loopy,loopy

Video from Skate Party

Courtesy of Victoria.

80s chicks from Victoria Akselsen on Vimeo.

80s Skate Night from Victoria Akselsen on Vimeo.

"She looks like the Sunday comics..."

"She looks like the Sunday comics...", originally uploaded by Halfway Hip.

I'm so happy to report that the Totally 80s Skate Party was, like, a totally tubular night! We had 45 women there from various moms organizations around town, plus a few younger gals. I was completely amazed at the effort put into the costumes. There were accessories and looks I had forgotten about, such as Caboodles, side ponytails, long necklaces tied in knots, big huge glasses, skate pom poms, etc. I went the boring route and resurrected my Material Girl "Lucky Star" Halloween costume. Hey, it was a busy week! As it was in the actual 80s, I found it near impossible to achieve the sky-high mall-bangs look. Maybe that's why I became a surly alternagirl circa 1988?

The soundtrack was mostly lifted from my Itunes. I tried not to include anything too deep-cut...I wanted everyone to hear their favorites, so it's a bit Mix 102.9. Also, I am really lacking in the hair metal and R&B departments. I did have to go to the Itunes store to purchase Loverboy's "Working for a Weekend," which is the quintessential 80s skate tune.

After playing my stuff for a while, the skate manager started playing requests. From what I remember, they included:

Safety Dance - Men Without Hats
Physical - Olivia Newton John
Stroke - Billy Squier
Love Bites - Def Leppard
Come on Eileen - Dexie's Midnight Runners

For those of you who were there, help me flesh out this list! :) One of the best parts of the night was when "Hysteria" was playing and one of my friends, C, shouted out, "Who had sex to this song?" I saw quite a few hands go up, including the h.s. girlfriend of C's husband!!

Honestly, at only 2 hours, the party was way too short. Mothers of small children are notoriously late, so things didn't even really get going til 30 minutes in. I really want to make this a year event, but I'd like to lengthen it to 3-4 hours.

We raised $90 for the Women's Resource Center, located here in Norman. Not too shabby!

Click on the above pic to see more.

Shuffleicious

I know it's overdone to add "icious" to the end of a word, but it's just fitting sometimes, ya know? My Ipod was just so good to me this morning. Here's what played on shuffle:

Jennifer's Body - Hole
City Baby Attacked by Rats (Live)- G.B.H.
Staring at the Sun - U2
He Could Be the One - Josie Cotton
Honeybear - Yeah Yeah Yeahs
Pictures of Pandas Painting - They Might Be Giants
Ballerina Out of Control - The Ocean Blue
Last Post on the Bugle - The Libertines
Lost in Space - Fountains of Wayne
Wishing (If I Had a Photograph of You) (Extended Version) - Flock of Seagulls
In the City - Xymox
Hold Me Now - Thompson Twins
For You - Electronic
Ataraxia - Everclear
When You Were Young - The Killers
Denial - New Order
The Perfect Kiss - New Order
Senseless Fan - Dramarama
Serenade for Strings in E: Moderato - Dvorak (this reminds me of my teenage years, when I was just as likely to listen to classical as I was to listen to The Cure, Depeche, New Order, etc. I've really gotten away from it since then.)