A Very Shuggilippo Halloween

A Very Shuggilippo Halloween

Today, in lieu of this fine, devilish holiday, I’d like to take a trip down memory lane to follow the progression of costuming that has gone down in the life of yours truly. Finding these pictures was a hoot. Reflecting on each year’s memories was even more so.

It all starts out innocently enough in the early nineties with witchery, a pissed off wild feline, and a little bit of rawhide, boot-scootin’.

What better place to take the obligatory sibling All Hallow’s Eve photo than in front of the frame of scholarly achievements?

Next we skip forward a few years to 2005 where we have officially left the nest and are now flexing our Mormon-scandalous chops with The Dukes of Hazzard (OG and new school) and a sexy Mad Hatter.

Our first adventure with hair extensions. We? Were wild. Also? ARE THOSE THIGHS I SPY?!

(The pioneers are not pleased.)

After recent heartbreak and a fast approaching birthday, Halloween in July was the best cure for the illness. In other words, we got Animal House on our joint birthday party.

Orbs! More Hair Extensions! Toga! Toga!

Now we come to the time in our journey where I really fell off the wagon and fully embraced the International Slut Day stereotype. My friends…I am not proud. Those children’s costumes didn’t even see it coming.

But Steve Zissou, he was proud. And so was the “1970s porn star” behind the camera. For shame.

**Note: Yes, that is a syringe sticking out of my “skirt”. Do not get pulled over for a busted tail light two days after Halloween with the remnants of your costume strewn about your vehicle. It will cause the officer who pulled you over to call for back up. IT WAS ONLY SALINE! I had to be picked up by my fellow medical professional. Ehem.

I’d like to say that The Now and Moving Forward is my favorite Halloween costume era: Mother of Child in Halloween Costume.

Eight-month-old monkey Nugget. Mmmm, sounds delightfully fecal.

I’d like to close with the fact that this year I will most likely be going as Mother of Child Refusing to Wear Costume. Nugget just wants to be Nugget for Halloween. I’m tempted to make him one of those “Hello, My Name Is” shirts so it’s not so awkward a family of three showing up at someone’s front door, costume-less and greedy for some sugary candy. Probably not though.

A candy-hungry family is an acceptable group costume, right?

Go on...

Cupcake Love-In 2011

Cupcake Love-In 2011

Today I had the opportunity to do some charity work. And by charity work I mean more of gorging myself on delicious varieties of miniature cupcakes from talented Valley bakeries and watching small humans, some in costume, some not so much, decorate cupcakes to their heart's content.

What in the blazes am I talking about? Well the second annual Cupcake Love-In at the Hotel Valley Ho in Scottsdale, AZ...that's what.

This year's event efforts went to support Central Arizona Shelter Services (CASS) an organization dedicated to assisting homeless families in achieving self-sufficiency and empowering them to end their homelessness.

Our personal efforts at the Create-A-Cupcake station gave those of us in the Arizona chapter of Mom It Forward the opportunity to meet and recruit more area moms in our own charitable efforts and fun, let-loose night out events. We managed to add a good deal of mamas to our contact list and look forward to getting to know them all better in the coming months!

I am so pleased to have been a part of this successful event, meet some great new people, and get my cupcake on all morning. Be sure to keep an eye on the Cupcake Love-In site for information on next year's event. You definitely won't want to miss it!

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Like, whoa.

Like, whoa.

Can someone please remind me when I managed to squeeze in the time to procreate with Justin Timberlake.

Go on...

People watching and pondering

People watching and pondering

The other night, after a full day in the confines of these four walls, with a toddler that is three going on thirteen, I decided I needed an hour, just one, of alone time.

My escape of choice: Starbucks.

There was some pretty remarkable people watching like that guy who is at an 8 and we need him at about a 2, discussing Tiger Woods’ infidelity and some 42-year-old man dying from…who knows what. I gradually tuned him out and transitioned my eave’s dropping attention to the two teens who were meeting there on a date, no less. They ordered their beverages and proceeded to chat about roommates and what classes they’ll be taking this semester. Boring, let’s move on. There were the two skater boys who stopped in to get some vanilla bean fraps because as long as you have a Starbuck’s cup…

The kicker was the older couple who sat down at the table beside me. Waiting on their adult daughter to meet them after “working out”. I’m not so sure someone should smell so strongly of perfume or have so much make up NOT melting off of their face after lifting some weights. She makes a call and proceeds to ask the person on the other end of the line if they are coming and, in the same breath, whether or not they are drunk. Yup, turns out mommy dearest doesn’t trust her daughter that much. It was this whole scenario that got me to pondering.

There I was, sitting in a coffee shop on a Tuesday night, not minding my own business while simultaneously getting client work done. All of these different lives, worlds even, are happening all around me. It got me to thinking how remarkable it is that we can all exist in this one space yet walk on completely different paths. Sure we most likely have some similarities, good or bad, to that person sitting next to us in Starbuck’s, but for the most part, we mind our business and tend to our lives as we see fit. Sometimes it takes a lot out of me to not covet the lives I see around me, that do exist in my world. To want to walk on their path instead of mine because “the grass is greener.” They don’t have this problem, or that problem, or whatever the case may be. It’s something different. It seems that there’s always a want for something different even, and especially, if different is the complete opposite of what it is that you possess. I wish there were an a la carte line in life where we were free to choose the platter we’d like to hold on outstretched hands. I know that just isn’t the way things roll, but damn, wouldn’t that be dandy?

There really isn’t a point to this post, I suppose, beyond the fact that just a change of scenery after a long day can make a world (no pun intended) of difference in the way you see things.

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