Just Heather

I got my Mixmania CD in the mail the other day and have been enjoying the eclectic mix all weekend. She’s a little bit country; I’m a little bit rock and roll. The CD is a unique and fun mix. I thank her from the bottom of my heart all the way to “mahbootay.” Anyone who manages to combine The Beach Boys, Prince, and Beer Run deserves a huge round of applause. Another big standing O goes to Jim for putting this all together.

I had to search quite a bit before I found the creator of my CD. Here’s to expanding my blogroll—one CD at a time.

I got my Summer Mixmania CD in the mail on time—I promise—I just forgot to post my song list. I’m not the most organized person in the world so getting my list of 512489 things to do before I leave town actually done before I leave town is not easily—or usually—accomplished. Mixmania was fun, though I’m not a huge music person. Spencer helped me actually mix and burn the CDs once I picked my songs. He had so much fun he actually mixed his own Summer theme CD. I spent 3 weeks on mine. He threw his together in 20 minutes before we left town. I included it in my mailing to Jim to send overseas for some of our soldiers.

And now for my long awaited song list. Some are just plain old summer songs I had to include. Others are more personally meaningful to the season. Those will be detailed for your amusement.

  • Ace of Base, The Sign I lifeguarded with a guy one summer who sang this particular song all. the. time. He was so hot, I would have listened to him sing country.
  • Sheryl Crow, Soak Up the Sun
  • LFO, Summer Girls
  • Maxamillion, Fat Boys The official summer road trip song of 1995.
  • Will Smith, Miami I did make an effort to avoid the obvious Summertime, but you can’t make a summer CD and not include Will Smith. Just look at him—the boy screams heat.
  • No Doubt, Spiderwebs What is it about summer that brings out the stalker-type guys?
  • Paul Simon, Me and Julio Down by the Schoolyard Spencer played with a band in college. I can picture many summer nights sitting around watching them play. This was a favorite cover.
  • Grease, Summer Nights Obvious, I know, but I just couldn’t resist.
  • Alanis Morrisette, Head Over Feet This was a big hit the year I fell in love with my sweetie. I can still remember every detail of that summer whenever I hear it.
  • Bob Carlisle, Butterfly Kisses Surprisingly, its inclusion has nothing to do with the fact that it was my Daddy Dance song at our summer wedding. It’s all about the “sticking little white flowers all up in her hair” line. I can’t be the only one who remembers making white clover crowns as a little girl!
  • TLC, Waterfalls The infamous drunken dance song for the summer of ’95. We had a whole routine and everything. Don’t ask.
  • Styx, Rockin’ The Paradise My name is Heather and I’m an official band geek. When you spend your high school years in marching band that’s all you know of summer. This was our big song during my final season.
  • Switchfoot, This Is Your Life I don’t know what it is about summer that makes me reflective, but there you go. It’s worse than New Year’s Eve.
  • Jewel, Morning Song I think this goes back to our first summer together, but this is pretty much how I feel every morning in the summer. Maybe it’s the fact that it’s light outside when the alarm goes off that makes me want to rebel against actually getting out of bed.
  • Smashing Pumpkins, Luna Our wedding dance song. I must have asked him to play this song for me a hundred times that summer. It was a nice break from the madness of putting together a wedding in 3 months. I think it always helped to remember the part after all the madness, when it would just be Spencer and I—married. Finally.

The other day we got Stacia’s 2nd grade teacher assignment in the mail, along with the huge list of supplies and a text book bill. Can this summer zip by any faster?

My posts are so few and far between. I don’t seem to have much time to think about it. I’m not even keeping up very well on my favorite blogs. My days consist of the same old stuff, with the addition of a second child to entertain and summer activities to attend. First we had a week of Girl Scout camp, then a week of soccer camp. Now it’s just day to day things.

I meet some friends at a park every other Thursday. Last week we went to a water playground. The girls had a great time, but I missed a few spots with Brenia’s sunscreen. She had a series of red dots across her cheeks. Oops.

We are also participating in our library’s summer book program. Most of the prizes are free meals at restaurants so I was all about it. Any summer night I don’t have to cook is good with me. It’s just too damn hot to turn on the oven. I’d grill every night except I feel bad asking Spencer to fire up the grill as soon as he gets home every evening. Sure, I could do it myself like a good little feminist, but the gas terrifies me.

We’re not quite halfway through with this summer, and I’m already wishing the extended calendar had passed. Eleven weeks is a long, long time. The holiday weekend should be a nice break. We are going up to my in-laws lake cabin. It’s one of my favorite things to do, and we just don’t go often enough. Mostly I feel bad inviting myself all the time, but it’s so nice to be away for a few days and not have all my day-to-day responsibilities staring me in the face.

I’ll have at least one update before we take off—gotta get my mixmania posted and mailed!

I met up with Rachael for dinner again last night. She picked a local place called Bub’s Home of the Ugly Burger. I’m not really very adventurous, but burgers are burgers so I decided to give it a shot. Besides, the house that it runs from used to be a restaurant called That One Place and I always wanted to go there just for the “Who’s on First” humor of discussing it.

Per our usual style, we had a fun marathon dinner. I had half a burger and 2 orders of fries. They were so close to the ones I used to love from Red Robin, which closed a few years ago. I was just recently talking about that with a friend and craving them so it worked out perfect. After dinner we headed to Ritter’s where I had a banana split for the first time in 8 years! We talked and ate ice cream until they turned out the lights to kick us out.

I don’t know what it is about us that make our dinners last so long. Maybe it’s because we’re still just getting to know one another and have lots of stories to tell. Perhaps it will taper off eventually, but somehow I doubt it. Though, sometimes I fell like I dominate the conversation too much. I’m a bit of a talker, in case you hadn’t noticed! I am learning a lot about her though, so maybe it’s not as bad as I think. We just seem to mesh, despite the age difference.

I don’t always feel like an old soccer mom when we get together. Of course it probably helps that she’s the one driving around in the soccer mom mobile! I do usually feel like a fashion retard though. She always looks great, and I just throw on whatever is clean. To top it off, I get home and find something stuck in one of my teeth. Who knows how long that had been there looking all hot. We did eat outdoors at both places so maybe it was dark enough that I didn’t look like a total heel.

If you are an old, bearded white guy you should never, ever say “my homeys.”

Stacia’s last day of school is Thursday. Part of me is excited about it. The early morning rush will be gone. The homework deadlines no longer my responsibility. PTO meetings on hold and after school activities on break for summer. The feeling of relaxation I will have next week has no comparison. I expect it to last about a day and half. That’s when the these-kids-are-here-all-day freak out will occur. I’m great at planning activities when necessary. I’m not so great at spur of the moment “I’m so bored” ideas. I think I shall spend some time next week before that hits planning a list to pull from.

Girl Scout Day Camp is in 3 weeks so that will be an easy week. Soccer Camp is the week after that. Then 2 straight months of all me! I wish I had a fence so I could just open the door and usher them out. As it stands, if I want to send the munchkin out Mommy has to go too. I’m not much of an outdoor person. Though if we can ever get the wireless network going, I might do alright. Now if only ESPN News were piped into the backyard.

I made the front page of the Chicago Tribune! I did an interview on Wednesday about my work with coupons. I took the reporter on a shopping trip and showed her how to save a bundle. I knew the article was coming out yesterday, but I had no idea it would be front page. If I had, I wouldn’t have frantically flipped through the entire paper and gotten newsprint all over my new shirt on the way to Mother’s Day dinner with my dad’s entire family! Good thing I got to impress them with my front page news so maybe no one noticed.

It seems a recent fan poll selected the Indiana Pacers as the best dressed in the NBA. A few years ago, I would have had to vehemently disagree. Those yellow uniforms—which occasionally still get pulled out on what can only be laundry night—were tacky as can be. The blue pinstriped jerseys rock, but it could be I’m partial. That’s the Miller jersey I have.

I need to get a new one before they retire his jersey. The one I have was my first ever—and, quite possibly, my most recent—Mother’s Day present 7 years ago. I’ve worn it to every game I’ve ever been to, and most of the ones I’ve watched from home. It’s starting to look a bit sad.

On another sad note, I’ve been trying to write a Reggie Miller retirement post for weeks, but I just can’t seem to get it right. It’s not that I don’t want him to go. I think he’s making the best decision for himself and the team. It’s just that Reggie created this team. Reggie invented the Pacer fan. Reggie made me an all out sports fan. I don’t know how to say goodbye. Not goodbye. See you soon. I have high hopes he’ll remain a part of the franchise in some way. He’s a Pacer through and through.