Dudes, I Wasn't Gonna Do It . . .

But the Five Must-Have Meme was calling and I answered.

Top 5 Must-Haves (for now):
In my fridge:
1. A shit load of veggies.
2. Soy creamer. (If you search my blog for the words soy creamer, it probably would come up 1,158 times.)
3. Pre-cut mango and pineapple.
4. Earth Balance spread - good spread on anything . . .I'd eat it on cardboard if pressed.
5. Sprouted grain english muffins - my newest obsession.

In my closet:
1. J-j-j-jeans.
2. Many made up tshirts from this place. Think beyond the Mrs. Brad Pitt jackassery because here you can have personalized fun in all kinds o' colors. For the kids too. I made a tee for Mina that reads "Deep" and "Lupe" pug tees for Maya. It's my favorite clothing store.
3. Colorful sneakers.
4. A beautiful array of hand bags that don't really see the light of day. They are probably not must-haves, but seeing them lined up in my closet makes me happy.
5. As do these two Betsy Johnson pairs of perfection pictured here. Again, they never really go out much, but they were happy to be photographed.

In my purse:
1. A baggie of soy creamer (1,159th time) with agave. One never knows when a perfect cup of coffee will land in your lap.
2. Raw snack bars.
3. Lip gloss.
4. At least 5 pens for recording random genius that springs to mind.
5. Day calendar/planner. I follow my schedule like a trained monkey. Without it as a reference, children would be stranded at Tae Kwon Do and basketball practice, things would never get mailed; I wouldn't know what time to lunch or where to go after work.

In my car:
1. Many empty water bottles. It's like a battlefield of spring waters; and they all lost. Is that a must-have?
2. More pens.
3. Crayons, coloring books, empty notepads, word searches . . .because the girls, apparently, need to be doing something during every waking second.
4. A book on CD.
5. A few biodegradable doggie poop bags.

On my TiVo:
1. Wild N Out
2. The Shop
3. Sopranos
4. The Dog Whisperer
5. Scrubs

I kinda just bored myself to death with my own list so I'm adding another section here that has nothing to do with Must Haves. Good for me.

Follow Ups To Five Blog Posts: (I realize I often post epiphanic entries and then don't talk about them again. I live in the now, people. But here are some follow ups to a few recent posts.)
1. The Hair. I honestly did get a hair cut. A good amount cut off in fact. For those of you that don't know me in person, it may look like nothing was cut, but my hair was nearly to my waist, one length. Anyway, I go from day to day loving the cut and then not loving it. It's almost perfect I've decided. First off, I've discovered that long bangs --ones that scrape the eyelashes -- are not my bag. There is something about my lumpy forehead that makes me look better, oddly. When I have long bangs I look more plain and soccer-momish. Like, I asked for the Orange County Hair Cut #4, not the Hip Blogger Cut as I first imagined. So, I either need to grow the bangs longer or cut them Bettie-Page shorter. I am a big fan of the short-short bangs, but I'm not sure if I want to go that route. The rest of the cut is good; kinda too long in some spots, too short in others. I will say -- and I would not admit this idly because I was very possessive of my very long hair -- it is an improvement from what I had before. I'm learning to work with it and though the stylist really wanted me to commit more to blowdrying and products and all that shit, I'm just not that girl. The cut is really fun in up do's and it hats, but when it's down, I clip the bangs back and rock what I got which is not bad.

2. Yoga. Remember when I went to yoga and saw god or at least realized how great it was? Yeah well, I haven't been back since. It was too good, that yoga, and maybe I'm not ready for all that clear mental goodness. I feel lame admitting this because I really don't have a good reason other than my typical time constraints. If I really wanted, I could make time. But I don't. And I don't know why. I'm a slave to Turbo Kickboxing where there's no sleeping at the end of class.

3. Going Raw. December 19th, 2005 (my rawnniversary), I went "Raw Until Dinner" where I drink a juice concoction and eat fruit in the morning then salad, nuts, avocados, raw crackers for lunch and then a cooked meal for dinner. Unlike my one night stand with yoga, going raw may be a lifelong marriage for me. I love it. I have cooked lunches and breakfasts every now and again, but I do not crave them. I do crave the juice and salad. I eat the same thing almost every day, and I can't wait until the next day to have it again. Unintentionally, I've converted at least four people to the Raw 'Til Dinner regime. Husband is bummed I didn't make raw and vegan conversion into some kind of pyramid scheme.

4. Coffee. A little while back I grappled with my coffee intake which, with as much as I talk up my love of coffee, is not that much. But when I was converting to a more raw lifestyle I considered cutting the coffee out altogether because it is arguably toxic. I decided instead to have my one cup in the morning and cut out the second I enjoyed in the afternoon. Which eventually made me very angry, hateful even. I have since resumed the second cup without a speck of regret, and all is right with the world.

5. Gymnastics. Back in November, Mina was gung ho about doing gymnastics. I have a strange fear of gymnastics and was not excited about her persistent desire, but I am all for letting her discover her own passions. The gym was creepy with intense parents and militaristic coaches. There was a huge sign that read: Gymnastics, The Art of Perfection and that about summed up the atmosphere. Mina quickly advanced to an excelled class and showed a sort of promise that brought a glimmer, with an agenda, to her coach's eye. We saw the gym licking their money-grubbin', champion-wantin' chops. But during classes, as the other 6 year olds patiently waited like little soldiers to pull themselves up on the parallel bars with bionic strength, Mina would do handstands and sneak jumps on the irresistibly spongy floor. This did not please her uptight coach though it did not bother us. I'm 38 years old and I want to jump on that floor every time I'm near it so I can only imagine the temptation for a 6 year old. Even though Mina showed tremendous strength and potential, the more she rejected the marching and the stiff discipline of gymnastics, the more the glimmer dimmed in her coach's eye. The coach gradually paid less and less attention to Mina, concentrating more on the more dedicated, robotic children. This pissed Husband off while I muttered under my breath, "Oh, like we didn't see this coming." Then one day Mina said without sadness or irony, "I don't want to do gymnastics anymore." We said, "What? Why?" And Mina said happily, "I want to play basketball." And inside my soul I shrieked with joy. "Whatever you want, sweetheart," I said. And now my baby girl is a baller too, a good one at that. She shows a lot of strength and potential and since Husband is the coach of her team, he knows how to keep it fun and not all gymnastic-torture like. She doesn't seem to regret the decision.