Guess what?

I'm moving to a new, slightly more anonymous blog. Please email me at lifetwokeys at yahoo dot com if you'd like the URL. Thanks!

On hand-me-downs & tag sales

I just heard about a huge annual tag sale that takes place in a neighboring town; the sale is tomorrow morning. One of my work parents told me that it's an excellent sale, great for getting gently used kids' toys and clothes. I've always been big on the secondhand stuff, but I'm even bigger on it since becoming a mama.

Wanna know something weird? I think that being a thrift shopper/hand-me-down aficionado is hurting one of my friendships. I'm trying to suck it up, but when friends who are expecting their first child told me they don't want any of Hester's hand-me-downs, I was really offended. I tried to be gracious about it, but inside I was all, "What, you're too good for our hand-me-downs?" They said that since this is their first child, they want the baby to have all new stuff. They're not accepting any hand-me-downs or doing any thrift shopping, which boggles my mind.

All this thriftiness goes deep for me. Some of my favorite outfits in childhood came from other people's trash cans, and it never occurred to me to be ashamed of that. On the contrary, I was proud that my mom got for free something that other people paid good money to have. Garbage picking made sense to me, especially when I saw the rewards. It was only when I got older that I began to understand that many people value paying full price for new things over paying pennies for used things. All I can think now is that all of us learned these attitudes somewhere, probably from or in reaction to our early experiences with shopping. I know I did; I bet my friends did, too, though I'm too chicken to open up that can of worms with them.

Whatever. The bottom line for my family is that Hester needs a winter coat and some teeny tiny winter boots (because OMG she's a biped now!), so we'll be doing some thrift shopping. And regardless of other people's attitudes, I'm hoping we'll pass on the value of thriftiness to our daughter.

It should be South Side Story

Tonight I let inertia take over and skipped a trip to the grocery store. I might regret it tomorrow, but I doubt it: I just overheard Petunia sing to Hester a medley of songs from West Side Story, including "There's a Crib For You" to the tune of "There's a Place for Us," "Your Sleep Sack" to the tune of "Maria," and, "The Baby's Gonna Have Her Way Tonight" to the tune of "Tonight." Priceless, I tell you. Priceless.

Random thoughts

--I am so happy it's November: I have 4 days off this month! I'm feeling v. burned out on my job.

--I'm having a strange craving for canned chicken soup and goldfish crackers. Gross, right? But DELICIOUS as well.

--One of my work kids made a spontaneous turkey hand print this morning in celebration of November. I got all sentimental, like, "Oh, turkey hand prints! Hester will make her own turkey hand print in a couple of weeks! It'll be the first in a long line of turkey hand prints," etc. I'm such a dork.

--Has anyone ever tried the Peapod service from Stop & Shop? Is it worth the $7?

--I still haven't met any new moms in my area. I'll resort to Gymboree et al. if necessary, but I really don't want to go there. Any ideas?

--Every year I itch to go to New York in the fall (I usually go in the spring). I don't think I'll get there this fall, either. Blah.

--Wouldn't it be awesome to swim in a hot spring right now?

--I love Halloween in my neighborhood--it's such a fun holiday and there are SO many kids in the neighborhood! We had roughly 150 trick-or-treaters last night, many in big groups with parents/older kids supervising the little kids. My pet peeve: Kids not saying thank you. My favorite thing: Teens trick-or-treating alongside preschoolers.

--I'm knitting a sweater for Hester that's fluorescent yellow with fluorescent pink accents; it's v. 1985 and obnoxiously bright. I hope to post pictures soon, but in the meantime just try to imagine a sweater this hideous/beautiful! Hells yeah.