“The Dog” Journal
Welcome to the Dog Journal, a blog where I periodically share my best finds for taming those puppies that gnaw at your planner.
Could be a quick time management tip, a smell-the-flowers moment, a comment overheard on the elevator. Whatever the inspiration, I hope you’ll blog right along with me by commenting and sharing your tips and stories for taming an overbooked life.
Gettin’ Our Ya-Ya’s Out
Most Friday afternoons, I set aside time to hang out with one of my grandchildren, who are 6 and 2. Taylor, the six year old likes choices, so the other day I suggested either the new Disney movie Zootopia or the butterflies at our local conservatory.
To my surprise, she turned them both down in favor of the zoo. Why?
“I need to get my ya-ya’s out,” she said.
Ya-ya’s?
Apparently I wasn’t paying attention – and she certainly wasn’t around – when the Rolling Stones made the album “Gettin’ Yer Ya-Ya’s Out.” But the Urban Dictionary translated.
It means: To escape the life dramas that wear on your soul. To be fearless and get through the BS life gives you. Experience moments of clarity, beauty, inspiration and hope that everything will be alright.
So off to the zoo we went, first climbing all over the slides and igloos near the polar bears, then climbing up a lookout to find the prairie dogs, visiting a moose and finally whooping and hollering all the way to the zoo train ride, till there were no more ya-ya’s left.
I highly recommend it.
Efficient, But….
Making carrot cake this morning, I decided it might not be too smart to let the cream cheese frosting sit out all day, waiting for this evening’s potluck.
But wouldn’t it get awfully cold and hard sitting in the refrigerator?
On the other hand, Sara Lee seems to get away with that.
So immediately I ran off to Google the problem. Cream cheese frosting refrigerate?
And immediately, I had the answer. Yes. But take it out an hour or two before serving.
It occurs to me that Google has replaced not only common sense but also those spur-of-the-moment calls to cousins and those home ec queens among friends, who a decade or so I ago I’d have relied on.
The answer might not have come as efficiently. My info source might have had to consult a cookbook or another friend. But in the process, I’d have found out that they had just had a fender bender or the flu or picked up a juicy piece of news.
I like these instant answers, but there’s something lost in all this efficiency – unless, of course, the info source is also on Facebook. In which case, I suppose I would not have missed a beat.
The New Power Dressing
I have never been a fashionista. So when my granddaughter Taylor, 5, told me that Fancy Nancy was her favorite book series, I had to know more.
“I like her because, you know, she’s Fancy,” said Taylor. She wears lots of things.” And indeed she does. In her books she flaunts baubles and boas and bows – all things Taylor loves to dress up in herself.
We had the full Fancy Nancy immersion experience Sunday when Taylor and I attended “Fancy Nancy The Musical,” which played to a packed audience of fancy little girls and their moms or grandmas at our local children’s theater.
So why is all this fanciness so popular? According to Jane O’Connor, who has now authored 56 Fancy Nancy books, dressing up does for girls what a Superman cape does for boys: makes them feel powerful.
Maybe I should try it.
Rainy Day Pick-Up Procedures
After venting about the fact that we have passed the vernal equinox and are just days away from April, I started mindlessly Googling “rainy days.”
Up popped the “Rainy Day Pick-Up Procedures,” issued by the Mirman School in Los Angeles.
Mirman’s rules are for parents picking up kids in a downpour, but we all need Rainy Day Pick-Up Procedures. Here are mine, inspired by theirs.
Check the Rainy Day Hotline to make sure this has been declared a Rainy Day. If the weather is still threatening by late morning, call a friend. Start a game of “Ain’t It Awful.” If she thinks things will look up, calm down and carry on.
Rainy Day Pick-up Is Called By 2 p.m. If it’s still not better by 2 p.m., invoke Rainy Day Procedures. Eat at least one ounce of dark chocolate. This can be followed on weekends by a nap or mindless TV watching. During workdays, take a couple extra walks around the office and stretch.
In case of sudden downpours just before 3 p.m., we will call Rainy Day Pickup despite its absence from the Rainy Day Pickup Hotline. Sudden spring showers qualify for chocolate and more. Have another ounce and supplement on weekends with a pint of Haagen Dazs. At work, check your PTO to see if you can rush home and follow weekend procedures.
Stay in your car and have your child brought to you, or park and get your child. If you don’t have any Haagen Dazs in your freezer, you can get some at a drive-thru or park your car in the Kroger lot and run in. Either way, stock up. You will be doing this again.
