Happy 4th of July, everyone!

My friend Elizabeth went into labor this morning, so I'm playing mom for a day for her two year old, John-Joseph, while she is at the hospital enduring the traumatic pains of childbirth. Good times. For her sake, I hope it's no longer than the day. Ugh.

So far J2 and I have danced, built stuff with blocks, played in the backyard, visited the neighbor and her beautiful garden, kicked and tossed around a red ball at the park across the street, prepared and ate lunch together, and now he just went down for a nap. Whew. We're busy. He's really being the best boy ever, and I'm enjoying my time with him. One funny thing to me is how he giggles every time I blow my nose. I'm having a bit of an allergy attack, and, granted, I tend to really honk into a tissue, so I can't blame him. Unfortunately, no one else seems to find this unladylike habit of mine as entertaining. My sisters are always commenting on this in annoyance and disgust when they're around.

Tonight I'm supposed to be hosting a 4th of July bbq at my apartment, and I'm a little bit worried about how this will go down with the change in plan, even though I totally want everyone to still come over and party on. I think post-nap the kid and I are going to head over to my place to clean up and get things organized a bit. That's right. I take no issue with child labor. The problem is that your house isn't exactly party ready if it's been a couple of weeks since you scrubbed your toilet, there is a mountain of clean laundry piled up in your bedroom, and you have things like, oh, say, just for an example, a Hitachi Magic Wand* box tossed out in plain sight on your living room floor.

The good news is that, while I have pretty much no groceries at this point either, I did go shopping last night to get the ingredients for this very yummy sounding watermelon punch. Maybe I will become the Martha Stewart of Mixed Cocktails.

The Croc was pretty dead last night, but Marcel didn't seem too disappointed. It was mellow, and I think we both liked having a few drinks, listening to so-so bands, and filling the down times with really great conversations about life. Sadly, now that I'm in my 30s and old, I must come to terms with the fact that I'm a cheap drunk. Two vodka tonics and I'm super giggly and having the best time EVER. Today I feel slightly hung over. It's kinda pathetic, but what can you do? Oh, and while there were no shouts of "Free Bird!" in between songs, Marcel did make me laugh for ages (ok, this was partially alcohol-induced) by calling out, "More cow bell!" during the last act. My new band buddy rocks.

Have fun today!

*For the ladies only. Girls, the HMW is a must. Sure, it's kinda clunky and extremely noisy, which can be distracting, but the payoff is so worth the drawbacks. I'm reminded of the Diurex tag line, which I only know due to my sister's near death experience from it on my birthday. Prompt...Effective. Very.