Shoulda, Coulda, Woulda

It was 11:30 PM on Thursday night.  I should have been slipping into my pajamas but instead I was slipping into my most “non-Mom” jeans and a sequined T-shirt that made me look 5 years younger (I hoped).  I should have been slipping into bed but I was slipping out of the house.  I should have been slipping into a splendid slumber but instead I was slipping into a movie theater packed with thousands of teenagers (and shockingly just as many twenty and thirty-somethings) to watch the Breaking Dawn premiere at 12:01 AM.  To understand how I got to this point we have to back up 4 years.  OK maybe 24 years. 

I love to read.  I am a bookworm.  When I was younger I read EVERY Babysitter’s Club book in the series.  I read Nancy Drew.  I read fiction and non-fiction, biographies and autobiographies.  I LOVE to read.  Fast forward 20 years and 20 weeks into my first pregnancy.  I read What To Expect When You’re Expecting, and The Happiest Baby on the Block, and Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child.  And then I had a baby and I read Goodnight Moon and Spot my Toys and Where is Baby’s Belly Button.  My second child was about 6 months old when the kids’ 13 year old babysitter begged me to read Twilight, the first book in a series of four.  A fiction book about a teenager falling in love with a……vampire?  No thanks.  A book that would not teach me what my pregnant/postpartum body was going through or how to make my baby happier?  Again, a book about…..vampires?!  I didn’t have time for that nonsense.  But she left it at my house anyway.  Several weeks later I had just finished reading Baby Signs and was desperately in need of some reading material for a little bathroom time (TMI?) and so I reluctantly picked up Twilight.  The first chapter was so-so.  The second chapter was decent.  And before I knew it I was 5 chapters in, I was hooked, and my legs were numb (TMI, again?).  I finished the book a few days later and called my babysitter at 10:00 PM on a Tuesday night.  “I’m coming over to get the second book!”  And over the course of the next few months I read them all.  And I fell in love with reading again.  The excitement of being transported to a world that didn’t include poopy diapers or sippy cups of milk was intoxicating.  The books were a total escape from reality and I learned nothing.  I tried to spread the love, just like my babysitter had done for me.  I had a Twilight sleep-over party with my sister and sister-in-law.  After I put the kids to bed, I lit candles and decorated the mantel with framed quotes from the movie.  I served Pomegranate martinis and Vampire red wine in glasses that I had adorned with AB+ and O- designs.  I melted butter in a saucepan and added red food coloring to drizzle over our popcorn.  I arranged Red Licorice ropes in glasses to form centerpieces.  And of course we watched the movie Twilight.

I should have stopped drinking when I ran out of the martinis but instead I just switched to wine.  I could have gone to bed when I got up to stop the DVD and tumbled to the ground but instead I giggled and hiccupped and giggled some more.  When my daughter awoke at 6 AM I would have rather poked my eye out with a sharp pencil but instead I made the journey to her room, my upper body at a right angle to my lower body, and traveled downstairs to set her down on the kitchen floor at my sister’s feet, uttered something incoherent and slowly found my way back to my tile floor bed.

This story has a happy ending because I felt somewhat human by mid-afternoon and to this day have NEVER had that much to drink again.  But the point is this……..what should you re-discover in your life?  Is there a hobby or passion of yours that is collecting dust while you tend to everyone’s needs but your own?  Could you carve out a few minutes each day or even each week to get lost in a book or a project or whatever.  Would you be willing to put yourself first just for a little while?  I think you would be surprised at just how exciting feeding your inner child can be.

“I knew exactly what I wanted, but I was suddenly terrified of getting it.”  -Bella Swan, Eclipse

P.S. Speaking of knowing exactly what you want, are any of you grasping at straws as you try to come up with your Christmas wish list?  For those of you who are pregnant or have had a child recently, don’t forget there are gift certificates available for 6 week sessions to Prenatal or Postnatal Pilates classes.  These also make a great (and unique!) gift for someone on your list who may be pregnant or recently postpartum.  Call 630-527-0485 if you are  interested in purchasing a gift certificate and visit my website at www.pilatesbycarrie.com for more information on these popular classes!

P.P.S.  I am now filling spots for Prenatal and Postnatal Pilates classes beginning in January.  Fill out the Contact link on the website www.pilatesbycarrie.com to reserve your space.

P.P.S.  In the next few weeks I will be giving away one free 6 week session as well as an item from my current Postnatal Pilates moms’ List of Favorite Things.  Be sure to become a blog subscriber to be randomly entered for your chance to win!

Daylight Savings Time

I  HATE the change in time for several reasons.  First of all, my life DEPENDS on the time all day long.  But because I am always running late, I believe in the practice of setting each clock to a slightly different time to “scare” me into thinking I’m late thus allowing me to arrive barely on time.  My watch is set approximately 7 minutes ahead, the kitchen stove clock is somewhere around 10 minutes ahead, and my car clock is about 6 minutes ahead.  I say approximately and somewhere around and about because knowing exactly how far ahead each timing device is set would defeat the purpose.  I would simply calculate in my head that according to the kitchen stove it is 8:40 AM minus 10 minutes which is 8:30 meaning we are doing “good” on time and then we would be late to preschool.  I lost my watch last week and it nearly ruined me.  I had to depend on my cell phone which of course gave the exact time which got me so discombobulated I was almost late to work.   On the day after the time change I then have to wander around changing all the clocks to their new wrong times. 

It made me wonder why we even change the clocks at all.  Apparently, the idea of daylight savings was first conceived by Benjamin Franklin in 1784.  Need I remind you that this is the same man who attached a metal key to a kite and then floated it up towards a storm cloud to tease a lightning bolt?  Just sayin’. The theory is that in the summer months we move an hour of daylight to the evening so the amount of electricity used for lighting and small appliances is less (or something like that).  On the flip side, a study by Carnegie Melon University discovered that the number of pedestrians hit by cars soared at 6 PM during the weeks after the clocks were set back in the fall.  In fact, walkers are 3x more likely to be hit and killed by cars right after the time change than in the month before.  That is a 186% jump in the risk of being killed by a car for every mile walked because, the researchers speculate, the drivers go through an adjustment period when dusk arrives earlier.  Is this really worth it?!!!!

As I read on I am encouraged to learn that I am not the only one disgruntled about the time change.  A Canadian poultry producer named Marty Notenbomer complains, "The chickens do not adapt to the changed clock until several weeks have gone by, so the first week of April and the last week of October are very frustrating for us."  I am right there with ya, Marty.  No one told my “chickens” about the time change either.  When Tyler and Maddy woke up at 6 AM on Sunday they did not check their wristwatches and say, “By Jove, we still have another hour to sleep!  Let us close our eyes for a wee bit longer!”  And when the baby awoke one hour earlier than that he did not sit up in his crib and think, “Based on the sun’s position in the sky outside my bedroom window, I calculate that I have at least another hour before I will cry to get out of this soiled diaper and to have my bottle-full of breakfast escorted in for me!”

I don’t know about you guys but you are welcome to Spring Forward without me because I plan to Fall Back into my bed in exhaustion.  What I DO know is this—I am NOT going for a walk at dusk for at least another 3 weeks!