Planning = GOOD

So, yesterday was one of those delightful government holidays that mean I get the day off of work even though there are none of the expectations that come with a real “holiday.”  I love those days.  I get a day to bum around and hang out with the Cutest Thing and it’s generally pretty fun.  Yesterday, however, was less fun than normal because of my lack of planning.  Sigh. 
I had envisioned a mommy –daughter day starting with a haircut for the C.T. at the local kiddie salon, followed by a field trip to the local toy emporium to wander about and start to make a wishlist for Christmas, then some time wandering through the mall to look at the (really much to early, but I’m starting to get used to it) holiday decorations and a nice lunch.  All of this was to be accomplished in time to go home for the normal nap time so as to cause the least interference possible with her normal schedule.

All would have been fine, except for the fact that I neglected to make an appointment at the kiddie salon near the mall.  I’ve never had a problem with just dropping into the one by our house, so I figured it shouldn’t be a problem, right?  WRONG!  First of all, after driving a half an hour to get to the mall, I spent another half an hour tooling around the surrounding area trying the find the [expletive deleted] salon because I had never been there before and the streets around the mall are so twisty and messed up that just having an address isn’t enough.  Plus which, it was about a mile down the road and on the other side of the freeway from where the mapping website said it was.  Further, even though I tried calling four times as I was driving around, nobody answered the phone and the voice mail message did not give directions.
 
Then, once we finally found the place, it turns out they were booked solid all day long.  They kindly asked if they could call some of the other locations to get me in, and without thinking, I said sure – I’d be able to go to the one right by my house.  Lo and behold, that one can get us in right away.  So, we jump back into the car and drive the half hour back to our neighborhood.  Needless to say, by this time the C.T. is getting a bit antsy and tired of being in the car.  I promise her candy after the haircut, which stems the tide of the impending toddler tantrum a little.  Of course, while we are driving there it occurs to me that it would have been smarter to ask for an after-nap appointment so we could do the rest of our mall-centered bonding that morning.  But it was too late for second thoughts, so I drove on.
 
Fortunately, after that, the day went smoothly.  The haircut turned out well.  The promised lollipop was a hit, and the rest of the (shortened) mall bonding morning went well.  Of course, we could have skipped the trip to the toy store because there were absolutely no surprises about which toys she gravitated toward.  Anything with princesses, ponies, or anything that was pink or purple.  Sigh.  The “p” years are upon us with a vengeance.

So, today I am back at work.  I’m sure there could be some great philosophical lesson beyond proper planning for yesterday, but my brain hurts from thinking about how much gas I must have burned driving back and forth, and so I can’t think of it now.  Maybe tomorrow.

Peer pressure - good, bad or indifferent

OK, I want to start by acknowledging that yesterday's phone call from Mr. Fabulous probably wasn't as funny as I thought it was when it happened. I thought about deleting the entry, but realized that if I second guess every entry after I post it, this blog will go nowhere. So, there you go. No do-overs.

On to today's thoughts. I've been thinking about peer pressure - usually thought to be bad, but is it always? I don't think so. My three year old daughter, the Cutest Thing in the whole world, in my (unbiased) opinion, LOVES dresses. To the point of throwing fits if she is forced by below-freezing temperatures to wear jeans. I believe this stems, at least in part from the fact that everyone says "Oh, what a cute dress" every time she wears one.

In the fit-throwing moments, I get frustrated and want to say “it doesn’t matter if your clothes are cute – they just need to be warm.”  This whole caring what other people think was so foreign to me when I was young.  In fact, I used to be proud of the fact that I didn’t care about what people thought.  However, to be honest, it is probably truer to say that I didn’t notice what people thought.  I lived in a little mental bubble of my own creation and took no notice of what was going on around me.  As you would expect, I was a very odd child.

However, at some point in my life, I realized that caring – that noticing – what people think about you is the basis for the social skills that you need to be a functioning part of society.  I still struggle with many of the social niceties that seem to come so naturally to others.  I guess I’m grateful that Miss C.T. will probably not have the same difficulties “fitting in” that I had growing up.  Of course, she will have different difficulties that I will have to try to help her to navigate.  I imagine the use of the phrase "if all of your friends jumped off of a cliff . . ." is to be expected on several occasions in the future.  But, in the meantime, I guess I’ll just keep a look-out for cute, warm, winter dresses.