How did my review go yesterday, you ask? No thanks to my skirt, it went just fine. I did make sure to put my glasses on before I went in. Mostly because I’ve heard there are actual studies proving that you seem smarter when wearing glasses. Dude, I’ll take any help I can get.

What did I learn in my review? I learned that raises were submitted prior to the actual review. My skirt was for naught.

When I asked The King what he would be writing today he said, “I am sick and won’t be writing anything today.”

That’s right. Babboo and The King are home for the second day in a row. Babboo is suffering from a horrible cough and The King is suffering from the required flu shot he received at work earlier in the week.

That means today is all me. Which isn’t much fun, since everyday is all me. I mean come on, it’s my blog.

I was upset when I heard that Paul McCartney and Heather Mills-McCartney were getting divorced. The thing that upset me the most was that I was still married and couldn’t be his rebound. (I kid!) You know I love me some Paul.

This week we heard a whole slew of upsetting news about their impending divorce. It’s upsetting. I don’t know what upsets me more, the fact that it’s being said that he beat her or the fact that this info was “leaked” which means it might not even be true, which means that someone is trying to make this divorce even harder for them. Which sucks.

Divorce sucks. Getting divorced in front of the entire world sucks even harder. Especially when there are sweet babies involved.

Instead let’s think about good things. Like this picture of my Mom reading a story to my Sweet Babboo this last weekend.

I am busily (is that a word?) working on my “Performance and Career Planning Form 2006″ for today’s review here at work. My review is in 2 hours. The form should have been completed weeks ago.

I put it off until this morning. Because really, how hard is it to score myself “10″ over and over again?

“10″ being absolutely fabulous in all things pertaining to Performance and Career Planning, no?

Instead of putting the utmost thought and preparation into filing out the form I decided to wear a skirt to work today. Here’s hoping the skirt will get me more money.

(There will be no talk of Project Runway today. I think you know why.)

My Mom only ever wore two things when I was a kid. Either a t-shirt with the logo of my high school on it (where my Dad taught), or a t-shirt with the logo of the local hospital on it (where she worked).

Free t-shirts.

This drove me batty. Not only was I embarrassed at my Mom’s lack of style, but it made me feel guilty that she went without, while we always had clothes. Maybe not the nicest clothes. But we were always presentable.

I tried to compensate by buying my Mom over the top, trendy clothes for her birthday and Christmas with my babysitting money. I still shudder when I think about the pink/orange stripe/polka dot ensemble I bought her one year for her birthday. She never wore it, and I was dismayed. What was it about the outfit she didn’t like? Was it the orange leggings with pink polka dots, or the pink shirt with orange stripes? Seriously, what could it have been?

There were a few occasions where she bought herself a new outfit. There was the new dress for my brothers Eagle Scout Court of Honor, or the dresses for each of the kid’s weddings. And let’s not forget the leather jacket my Dad bought her for Christmas a few years back.

In the last year my Mom has discovered the joy that is the Gap bootcut jean and polo top. It’s a look that I’ve never seen on my Mom. I like it. She’s getting older, but she somehow looks younger. It’s a good look for her. I had attributed this new look to her becoming a Grandma and trying to feel younger.

I had an epiphany while shopping with my Mom this last Monday. It came to me after walking out of every story empty handed. I didn’t buy the lovely red shoes that made my feet look oh, so pretty. I didn’t even pick up the maroon Coach bag that was calling out to me. I passed up the traditional carmeled apple.

Babboo on the other hand got new pants, new long sleeved undershirts, and pieces for his Halloween costume. He even got a little farm puzzle.

I told my Mom that I’d become the martyr. I was going without, while Babboo wasn’t. I was wearing the same, tired black sweater while he was sporting some new pants.

But it wasn’t that I was going without. It was more that I just don’t need like he does. While I would love some new red heels, I don’t need them. I have plenty of shoes that fit. I have pants that I can wear. I might be tired of wearing them. But I can wear them. Babboo needs long sleeved shirts for the cold mornings on his way to school. He needs a fun little Halloween costume. He definitely needs pants that fit.

So now, I’m going to be the one wearing shirts with my company’s logo on it and my Mom’s going to be wearing jeans from the Gap. She’s been waiting a long time to buy herself something nice. And she deserves it.

Me, on the other hand, will be wearing the same black sweater I’ve worn since I was pregnant.

Welcome to the Monday Tuesday edition of Love/Hate:

Love: That you can now get This American Life podcasts. FOR FREE. (I will no longer have to *download* them in questionable ways.)

Hate: That my parents are going home today.

Love: Having yesterday off to spend with my parents.

Love: Shopping at the outlets on my day off.

Hate: The rain.

Love: All of the green trees, that are green because of the rain. That I hate.

Love: The sun. That is totally peaking through.

Love: The dinner I have planned for tonight has the words puff and cheese in the title. Enough said.

Hate: That my company has blocked the use of Flickr.com, which means I can’t post pictures to my blog.

Love: That I figured out how to do it via a new blogger account. Screw you employer and you’re website blocking skillz.

Hate: Being poor.

Hate: Being too poor to buy me new fall clothes.

Hate: That I’m wearing my summer capri’s to work today. (See previous “hate”.) (Can I wear my fall boots with my capri’s? I see people do it. But I’m still not sure if I can do it.)

Hate: Having to do my yearly review at work this week.

Love: That I have the possibility of getting a raise.

Love: That Babboo can sit up. All by himself. Thus staying contained in one area.

Hate: That he can also roll over like a mad man. Thus making it hard for me to “set it and forget it”.

Hate: That I’m still pumping at work.

Hate: That I have to find time between meetings to pump.

Please feel free to leave your love/hate in the comments.

Welcome to the 5th edition of King Friday. If you missed it, here’s a link to last’s week episode where our hero was travling around Germany selling used Levi’s.

This week we find our hero recently returning from an overnight business trip in San Francisco. Let’s check in and see how his trip went.
—————–
for the passengers of alaska flight 316, please take note. the following are a few things that will make life easier on us all.

seat 31a: i know it takes several thousand calories per meal to keep your body weight above 300 pounds. however, you should never, ever bring mcdonalds onto a plane. the grease that wafts from a bag of mcdonalds food is enough to give everyone from 1st class back a huge zit. eat in the terminal.
seat 29f: very simply put: never sh*t on a plane. ever. i can taste your poop now. its less than 2 hours to oakland. hold it.

seat 28f: you have a great ass. i mean, fantastic. i know this because you haven’t had it in your seat more than 4 minutes at a time. its nice and small, like your attention span. as good as you smell, i am still glad you aren’t sitting right next to me. sit still.

seat 31a again: shoes on buddy.

seat 27c: we are basically all sitting on each other’s laps here. if you are talking to the person next to you, you don’t need to yell. if you are talking to the captain, 27 rows in front of you, then, he/she is probably hearing you loud and clear. let’s use our inside voices.

to everyone on the plane: one word. hygiene. this isn’t a city bus, its a plane. let’s try to bring it back to how things were in the 70’s when flying was a little more of a privilege and people that flew wore their nice clothes, didn’t clap when the plane landed, and showered before they boarded. bump it up a notch. take a lesson from 28f and clean yourself up a little more than normal. brush your teeth or something. seriously, we are rocketing through the air in a tin can with nothing but recycled air. if i could crack a window, i would. but since we cant, let’s remember the power of soap.

until next week…

Isabel: (to The King) What should I blog about today? I can’t think of anything.

The King doesn’t even look up from getting dressed.

Isabel: I was thinking about maybe talking about my work lunch yesterday.

Still, no response.

Isabel: Maybe about how I had a $16.00 salad. But that my salad wasn’t very good at all. And that you would think a $16.00 salad would be very good.

Nothing.

Isabel: I mean, don’t you think a $16.00 salad would be full of veggies? This salad only had lettuce. I mean, so what if it had seafood. I want veggies.

(Pause, awaiting a response.)

Isabel: Good thing my work paid for it. You can only imagine how upset I would have been if I would have been the one forking over the $16.00 for a bowl full of lettuce. I can no longer even call it a salad.

I think he may have looked at me at this point. But he didn’t respond.

Isabel: I could throw in a quick story about how the work lunch was at the same hotel where a co-worker saw them filming Gray’s Anatomy at last week. The internet loves Gray’s Anatomy. He actually saw Dr. McDreamy. I didn’t even know they filmed that show here. Did you know that? I would have thought they filmed it in Vancouver, Canada.
Puts on his socks.

Isabel: Well maybe people don’t think $16.00 is a lot to pay for a salad. Maybe people pay that much for salads all the time. I think it’s a lot of money. But what do I know? My bowl full of lettuce did have crab in it. I guess maybe that’s were the $16.00 comes from. But still, I would have rather had some veggies.

(Pause, awaiting a response.)

Isabel: Does seafood even go on salads? Can you mix salad dressing and shrimp? And what about the smoked salmon that was in it. That definitely didn’t belong.

Thinking to myself: I could always blog about this conversation.

The King: So are you taking Babboo to school this morning, or am I?