Father, I have sinned...

I have a confession to make. I haven't checked my personal email account in nearly a month. I haven't been on Facebook in nearly 2 months. I refuse to Twitter, and you're lucky I'm even writing this. I am proud to note, however, I have checked my personal voicemail twice in the last week. TWICE. That has to be a record!

I know, shameful. But, seriously, am I the only one that gets completely, utterly, overwhelmingly overwhelmed by all this freaking technology?!?! Or just by life in general? There are some days, it's a comfort, a refuge, a place to turn to when I'm bored or curious or excited to share, and there are days it is absolutely a cement block around my feet, dragging me to the ocean floor.

The problem is with all this technology, being updated ALL. THE. TIME. is that it's like a high-speed train. It leaves the station with a quick jolt, a lurch, and then steadily picks up speed until you're flying off to who knows where so fast you can only make out a greenish blur of vegatation out the window. Once you start, there is no easy stopping point. There isn't a pause button, an emergency pull handle by your increasingly uncomfortable, slightly cramped seat on this bullet train. There's no way to call a time out without being dumped out of the cargo car uncerimoniously to be quickly forgotten by the rest of the passengers, who are all nose-down in their blackberries and ipones anyway, and barely missed you as you excused yourself to slide by them to the bar car.

I've probably carried this metaphor on for too long, but my point is, I get tired. I get overwhelmed, and I just want all that crap to go away from time to time. Why can't we get back to the days of the pony express? I could handle things much better if they came at me 1-2 letters at a time, instead of the 50-100 I get in my inbox everyday. That doesn't include the messages on my phoneSSSS, on my personal inbox, in my mailbox, and on my facebook page.
Those of you who know me, know I love to talk and communicate as much as the next person, but in the words of an old friend of mine, "class, can we all just put our heads down for a bit?"

A Difference of Opinion

Last night, late (after 10pm, what a fuddy-duddy am I?), I had gotten Hayden's diaper changed, got her pj's on her, and had her new BFF - her bunny bear - in hand. We settled into my bed and I began nursing her to sleep. As her little fingers caressed bunny bear's ears and her body relaxed, I watched her eyes droop lower and lower. Finally, she took a big sigh, and rolled away from me. The signal she was giving up the fight and watching the nightly sugarplum dance behind her heavy lids.



Last night however, instead of staying on her side, she flipped all the way over to her tummy and buried her face into the comforter, then flipped her head to the side with a contented sigh, and eyes closed, smacked her lips in contentment. I held still, waiting until a deep sleep took over before I moved her to her crib for the night. Before I could draw another breath, though, she suddenly popped straight up on her knees, eyes bright and alert, looked at me with a devilish grin and announced "BAWK!"



I tried to reason with her. "Hayden, it's bedtime now. Time to go to sleep. Mommy's very tired, and we all need to lay down and close our..."



"BAWK! BAWK! BAWK! Heeeeeeeeee!"



"Hayden, come on now. Why don't you lay down and let Mommy rub your back until you fall asleep?"



"Ha ah ah eeeee eeehhhaa. Pfffffffffffttttttttthhhhhhh", she answered, blowing happy raspberries at me as I tried to wrangle her back to the bed. She was intent on climbing the headboard, and in no mood to lay down.



She was too cute for me to be frustrated, despite how exceedingly tired I was, and I had to hide a smile as she fluttered her lips at me, spit bubbles flying.



Now that we have her sleeping most of the nights (Hallelujah for that!), I suppose our next challenge will be getting her to sleep!

The Sing Off!

I have mentioned my dad's barbershop quartet group, Martha's Finest, before, but they're worth mentioning again. This is one of the hottest groups around, folks, and if you don't believe this bragging daughter, just let me tell you this - NBC called them and wants them to come audition for their new show, The Sing Off! It's a new show where a cappela groups compete for a Sony record deal, and I think the fact they were called and asked to audition is note-worthy in and of itself, regardless of how far they get (although they should take it all they way to the top, if you ask me!)

The auditions are in Atlanta tomorrow, so wish them luck and say a little prayer that all goes well for this AMAZING quartet! I know they'll rock their socks off!