Where to?

I had to post something new just so I wouldn't have to look at the picture of the three latest E! celebu-idiots.

Brian and I will be celebrating our 10th anniversary this November. It really doesn't seem like ten years, except when I think about some of the things I picked out for our wedding. One of the only things I still like is my dress. Amazing how one's tastes change from 25 to 35.

In celebration, and as an excuse to go on vacation, we are planning a trip of some sort. Nothing extensive, since we are now not only funding a retirement savings but also a college tuition savings, but a long weekend or four-day vacation would be great. We've considered Mexico, since it's a direct flight and relatively inexpensive, but we've been there already and, like our restaurant experiences, we hate to go to the same place twice. It's just such a big world, why repeat destinations? We've done the Caribbean, specifically the British Virgin Islands, but I suppose we could consider a different part of that region. We'd love to see more of Europe -- I am dying to get to Bruges, Belgium, but that is a long flight and we're leaving Eamon behind (sniff). And it takes just as long to get to Hawaii from here.

The possibilities are not exactly endless, but it is fun to think about going somewhere new to celebrate our 10 years together. Maybe we should get out the world map we had in our first apartment and throw a dart at it. The dart would probably land in, like, downstate Illinois.

Pretty Obnoxious, Pretty Unnecessary...

So I admit, I occasionally get sucked into an episode of Real Housewives of New York City and have seen more than once the Keeping Up With The Kardashians episode where the pregnant sister's baby daddy gets all wasted and makes an ass of himself in Vegas. My point is, I am not exactly above reality TV, as long as it involves people who have a lot more money than I do. (In other words, I never cared for John & Kate or that show with the family of 18 kids.) I have to draw the line, though, at E!'s new reality show, Pretty Wild.

Apparently it's about three teenage sisters -- E! is selling them as the "next generation" of Kardashian-type L.A. girls -- whose parents are semi-famous or somehow deemed important. One of the sisters is under investigation as part of that crew of well off teenagers who robbed the homes of young Hollywood "stars" like Rachel Bilson and Lindsay Lohan. I just can't decide which came first in this chicken-and-egg situation: did the girl get the show on E! and THEN proceed to break into someone's home, or did E! actually REWARD this girl and her spoiled sisters with a show because she is a quasi-celebrity? I recently read an article in which one of the producers was asked that very question and didn't actually answer one way or the other. Which leads me to believe it is the latter.

I'd already sworn off E! News and its sister show, The Daily 10, because I can't stand the way the women presumably have to maintain a BMI of 16 or less and then pose with a hand on their hip while they deliver the "news." (That, and I can't stand Ryan Seacrest.) Now I might have to boycott the whole damn network for being pretty stupid.

Cousins Jack (8 months), Erin (3 months) and Eamon (4 months) at Erin's baptism yesterday.

Who Watches Leno? More Importantly, Why?

I sometimes wonder if I'm the only one who doesn't understand Jay Leno's success. His move to that 9 p.m. slot made me dislike him and his team of writers -- who I swear are a bunch of 11 year old boys -- even more because I happened to come across the show more often in its earlier time slot.

Today I saw a headline that Leno is again back on top in the late night ratings battle. I just don't get it.

Has it Been That Long?

Today, in an attempt to maintain contact with my peers in PR, I attended a networking event downtown. About an hour before I had to leave, I quickly grabbed a pair of pants and jacket from the closet where we'd been keeping our suits and other clothes we don't wear as often. (They were previously housed in what is now Eamon's closet - ironically, the smallest person in our house gets the biggest closet.)

Anyway, I was glad to have found something so quickly that wasn't outdated and fit well. I mentally patted myself on the back for being so organized and able to get myself out the door in something other than jeans and a T-shirt.

It was only until I was in the car headed downtown that I noticed something. My clothes smelled...dusty. A testament to just how long I've been out of work.

At least I didn't try to burp anyone sitting at my table during lunch.

Random Thoughts on Having a Four-Month-Old

Sleep training is not nearly as relaxing as the name implies. In fact, it is f'ing exhausting. And our baby sleeps through the night, we just struggle with naps. I can't imagine having one that wakes up every two hours at night.

Sometimes, if I look at Eamon for too long, he starts to remind me of any one of the bald cebrities I can think of: that guy on "Lost," Telly Sevalis, Pat Morita, Howie Mandel, Mr. Clean, Sinead O'Connor, the dude from Midnight Oil...the list goes on.

I'm tempted to join a moms' group, or at least take a mom/baby class of some sort. I find that by the week's end, if I didn't get out of the house enough beyond the usual errands, I really need a break. I have friends who have babies and young kids, but most of them work at least part time so it's hard to get together. There's a class at our community center, but do I really want to pay $140 to have someone tell my baby about different types of flowers and -- yes, this is really advertised as a feature of the class -- sprinkle water on my baby's feet?

Eamon has a huge smile (see photo), and he loves to laugh. He cracks up when I change his onesie, for God's sake. So it's funny to me when he's straight faced but just looking around in his car seat at, say, the grocery store and the checkout clerk says, "What a happy baby!" Eamon and I exchange a look, like, "you don't know the half of it, lady."