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For posterity, this is me on my "halfway to 70" birthday. Two different people gifted me with tiaras, and more people made me feel special than I would have believed possible. It was a wonderful day.

...and yes, that's me wearing a tiara at work, wearing another one in the car, and enjoying coloring and cocktails (ok, juice) with Cassidy (not pictured: Matthew, Scott, and my "work boyfriends" Dave and Rob) at the Ale House after work!

I *Told* You Not to Do That!

Ladies and gentlemen, I'd like to introduce you to Cassidy.  I met her today and got to hold her so long my shoulder and elbow still hurt.  (I call it "baby arm." It's like tennis elbow, but getting this is so much more fun)

Cassidy was born on Wednesday night, and she belongs to Matthew and Kristen. By now though, I think it's safe to say they belong to her.  They let me come and visit today, though at 6:00 this morning I was really not sure I'd ever meet her or speak to her daddy again.

Perhaps you remember this post from last month where I gave sage unsolicited advice about the perils over over-sharing to future parents everywhere?  On one side, my post focused on photos, but the gist was pretty much "everyone doesn't need to know everything."  Matthew actually read and reposted what I said on Twitter.  And that's why I was so shocked and disheartened last night when he started basically live-tweeting Cassidy's day.  Weight, temperature, consistency of poops... I was wondering if he was doing it just because he knew it would drive me bonkers or if he really thought his Twitter followers were that interested in meconium.

This morning, after waking up to another 8 updates, I tweeted to Matthew (with love) that for my own sanity I needed to unfollow him until if/when he stopped tweeting literal and figurative baby crap.  He texted me a few hours later, "OMG!!! I had no idea it was doing that!!!"  It turns out the iPhone app he bought to track baby crap (and did I mention breastfeeding?) asked for his Twitter ID and he thought he'd be able to pick which entries to tweet - smiling, rolling over, etc.  He was so mortified over what happened that he logged into Twitter and deleted all of those posts before I even had a chance to get a screenshot to mock him with later!

Needless to say, Matthew turned off the auto-tweet and I followed him again.  And I scored an invite to the hospital.  How could I say no?  So I brought lunch (I still suspect that's why I was invited. though the smooth "will you stop on your way?" was pretty classic) and held the baby, heard the story of how she was born and doled out some assvice (no, she doesn't need a Black Friday TV in her room to turn her brain to pudding; yes, she needs books that aren't on an iPad!) and talked to Cassidy about life.  I also decided to snap a classic self-portrait while I was holding her:

She and I decided that we'd do this every time we see each other. It'll be our thing. Of course, while I was getting this picture just right, Matthew got the best behind-the-scenes picture ever. It's now my Facebook profile picture, though I'm not sure how long I can leave a hospital picture of me with a baby before it just confuses the crap out of everyone I know!

Welcome to the world, little one.  I hope your life is filled with love and happiness.  And don't worry - I'm sure your daddy deleted all of those tweets about poop before the Library of Congress had the chance to archive them!

Actually Doing Things

Thursday night Scott and I went out to Fridays with Matt and Kristen for dinner, and then we all came back here to play Wii Sports Resort. It was nice to get out with people we haven't seen in a long time, and even nicer to kick their butts on games that they'd never played before! I had a really great time.

Next week, I've got Wednesday off from work. The Restaurant is actually closed for the night for our annual celebration dinner. When I last heard, we still didn't actually have final financial approval for said dinner, but reservations have been closed for two months and there's not going to be anyone there.

So, under the assumption that we're going to have the party, I set out yesterday to find myself a new "party shirt." I got lucky with clearance items at Lane Bryant, and actually ended up finding a dress super-cheap that I'm going to just give you this description: not like anything you'd expect me to wear. It's a really cute style, but the fabric pattern is LOUD, with white, two shades of pink, lime green, and a little bit of black. I'm taking the attitude on this one that it's good to step outside your comfort zone. And if Wednesday is the only time I ever wear the dress, it cost little enough that I won't feel guilty about that.

Your 15 Minutes Starts...NOW

It sucks to have your 15 minutes of fame entangled with a tragedy. Trust me - this is something I have a little experience with.

Yesterday, I have to admit I was rather amused to hear the voice of my darling "Matt of Honor" coming through my TV. He's a dispatcher for RCFD and was on all three 911 calls released to the media (warning: link to MP3 file) after Sunday's accident.

Knowing him as well as I do, the first thing I thought was, "wow, he's really annoyed!" The call I heard on the news last night was (I think) the third call he got. It sounds to me like he was getting to the point of "I KNOW there was an accident...please tell me something new!" Of course, I might be putting words in his mouth. But that's what it sounded like to me.

Anyway, way to go Matt. :-)

Happy Sunday

I was going to eek out a blog post about how much it hurts my feelings to get AARP-related spam in my e-mail, but then I thought that was stupid and maybe I should just get over it. As it turns out, there's a lot of panic among the people I follow on Twitter right now, and I should mention them...

Nicurnmama: omfg! we're going to hospital by ambulance. jodie cant see! pulse thready. pray, pass this on RT. i'll keep.y'all posted

She and her daughter were away from home for a dance competition, the daughter started puking non-stop, and now she's in the hospital with meningicoccal meningitis. The doctor put Laura on antibiotics "just in case," but not soon enough. She's got the same diagnosis and I'm guessing as a result she probably is no longer sitting at Jodie's bedside. If I'm reading correctly, Jodie is stable, but will be in the hospital for a while. Still, some scary stuff going on there.

A little closer to home, and less emergent, it seems Matthew and Kristen aren't having such a good time on their camping trip in Georgia:

Data_Byte: 255/70/r18 -- help -stuck at river rock

I (don't laugh) thought the wacky numbers were map coordinates or something. It turns out it's a tire size. Though I guess they're ok - Kristen just posted an update that the tire is being replaced and then they'll be on the way home. As much as they take that Jeep off-roading, I sort of wonder how many tires they've already gone through (since December).

As for me, I've got nothing tweet-worthy going on. I guess I should contemplate going to work some time soon...

Congrats!

A big shout-out to Matthew and Kristen who felt compelled to go down to Key West this week and come back engaged!

(I love that picture on Kristen's page - that look on Matthew's face is one of someone blissfully unaware of what he has just gotten himself into!)

How sweet, my little Matt of Honor is all grown-up.

Darwin Matthews

I just had a lovely conversation over AIM with my darling friend Darwin Matthews. He was the "Matt of Honor" in my wedding, back when we still worked in the same place. He has since moved on to dispatching for RCFD, and I of course have moved on too. I miss him like crazy. Last time we saw eachother was probably October of '04. I hate it when I lose touch with people like that. There's always just "something" that comes up and prevents us from making plans.

Anyway, he has inspired my 2006 New Year's Resolution:
Stay better in touch with friends and family.

Last night, I tried to ignore another sign that this should be my resolution - Disney released Spin & Marty on DVD. I know someone who definitely needs to own that.