Who are you calling a cat?

Cousin Roxy
Originally uploaded by riblet.

Eventhough it happened a couple of weeks ago, I'm still cracking up about this cat-caller I had: a guy in a motorized wheelchair, carrying a chihuahua in his fanny pack. Maybe the catcall came from the chihuahua? I couldn't really be sure. Woo-woo! Maybe it wasn't intended for me anyway. And while I won't say this is typical of the attention I get from guys on the street (remember the dudes who told me to get a smaller purse?), it's just as boring. Leon was the coolest guy to tell me I was pretty so I married him.

Futher, is this a trend with the dog as the motorized wheelchair accessory? Because I've been seeing it a lot.

Cry like a baby

Neon family portraits 2009
Originally uploaded by riblet.

Sometimes riding the lightrail is the physical equvalent to a random Internet comment thread. People can be combative, rude, pushy or just plain troll-like.

The worst was the other day, when I boarded the train. I spotted an empty seat, but some dude had his foot propped up on it while he was speaking loudly on his cell phone. He made no attempt to move it until I asked if I could please sit there. He moved his foot and i sat. He finished his conversation and then proclaimed sarcastically, "I just love being crammed like sardines in a metal can." Oh, dear. Then don't ride the lightrail at rush hour! You wont be crammed anywhere and you can put your feet wherever you want.

So when someone actually stood up to give an old man a seat the other day and then they both carried on one of those civil, almost jovial, "life is not so bad" conversations people do to grease the social wheels, it totally brought me to tears. Right there on the train! Prepared mother that I am, I pulled a Kleenex from my bra and dabbed at my eyes.

Wayback Machine

Lately I've been obsessed with making a sweet playlist for a yuppie-types party in 1984:

1. "Easy Lover" Phil Collins
2. "You Make My Dreams Come True" Hall & Oates
3. "Uptown Girl" Billy Joel
4. "My Best Friend's Girl" The Cars
5. "I Want to Break Free" Queen
6. "Jump" Van Halen
7. "Sunglasses at Night" Corey Hart
8. "If This Is It" Huey Lewis & The News
9. "Owner of a Lonely Heart" Yes
10. "Africa" Toto
11. "Some Guys Have All the Luck" Rod Stewart
12. "Abracadabra" Steve Miller Band
13. "Rosana" Toto
14. "Hurts so Good" John Cougar

You know. Just in case I get a chance to do any time traveling in my lifetime. Not that this is the specific year that I'd want to visit (though I can realize why it's signifgant to me), but time travel is an untested realm (look what's happning on LOST!). I can't trust that I wouldn't get stuck somewhere sucky like 1984.

Explody

I finally watched Batman last night, the one with Heath Ledger. I know I totally missed the boat back in whatever year I didn't see any movies because when faced with the option to go out for the evening, I was much more drawn to hanging out with friends than seeing dude movies on the big screen. So, the movie? I'm a word: explody. But I liked it. Serious! I kind of was tripping on Maggie Gyllenhaal though. I had to ask Leon why she was the female lead for a movie like that. Do guys dig her? We were both kind of baffled. Don't get me wrong, I'm aall about Maggie, but she goes better in something a little less explody. And because I'm a little obsessed with my age and how un-33 I feel, I was swearing up and down that she was looking a little older than me. I was convinced that I had at least a few years on her. However, after a quick check on Wikipedia, I really only have a few months on her. I'm remembering all those cars I washed in high school so I could buy $7 face moisturizer at Payless and you know what? I'm glad I did it because when I'm 40, someone might mistake me for 35. I'm nearly there anyway. Do you know I found my first two gray hairs this week? Oh, kid. What you do to me...

While we're on my kid, can I impress on you what a BOY he is turning out to be? Some folks say we teach our kids gender but those folks never had a kid like mine. He practically exploded from the womb driving a Mack truck and slinging a gun in each hand. I'm not kidding, check this picture out. Anyway, as soon as Ira could put together sentences, he was talking about shooting lightning, crashing cars, robots with laser beams, dragons breathing fire and big giant guns, guns, guns. I don't know where he got it. They certainly never showed stuff like that on yo Gabba Gabba. Leon says, "that's my kind of kid." However, I find the whole thing a little aggro. As the only female human in the house with Leon and mini-Leon, I'm starting to get a real sense for what the next 15 years holds for me: lots of feigned excitement and interest in some very explody things. I'm not saying that we need to add a girl to our family (please, please no more kids), but um, I'm going to need to balance this out somehow. Heylove, do you need a pedicure?! All that said, you have to believe me when I say that I love my boys and I wouldn't change a thing.