saturday night fever

I’ve been slowly cleaning my house out this winter, getting rid of all the excess clutter. Normally when I do this, I hang on to stuff that I don’t want anymore because it’s too good to throw away. This is why I have two extra computer monitors, a spare television, and so much random baby shit like a beautiful vibrating papasan chair and a brand new crib tent that doesn’t fit the crib all collecting dust in the basement. But back in November I decided that I would have a yard sale in the spring and the promise of the sale is making me much choosier about what gets to stay in my home.

The sale needs to happen soon because we’re running out of basement. This morning I thought about opening an ebay store to get rid of everything, but that would be a lot of work, and might cut into my naps. Anyway, I’ve never had a huge yard sale before, so if you have and you’ve got some tips or tricks to share that may help me succeed at selling every damn thing in my basement, send them my way.

Moving on.

I don’t really have anything pressing to talk about. Eli and I have been going out more lately, and I can’t stress the importance of a reliable babysitter when you have young children. Joey goes to bed every night by 7pm, so Eli and I aren’t out together often in the evening. But lately we’ve been having our sitter come over on Saturday nights so we can go out and drink beer and socialize and live for a while like normal adults. And something happens to me when we drive away from the house in the dark, headed for a pub or a restaurant or even just over to a friend’s house for a party that I think is probably natural euphoria but feels like a damn good drug high.

Last Saturday night we hadn’t even traveled a mile from our house when we saw a fantastic wreck happen at an intersection involving many teenagers and their parents’ cars. It was mayhem, complete with screaming and crying and the road covered in broken glass. Once we got past that, we drove by a small car of more teenagers that had pulled over so one of them could puke on the side of the road. I almost forgot that the world is different on Saturday night. There’s so much happening out there while I’m sitting in my living room watching movies or playing strip uno with Eli at the kitchen table before calling it a night at 9.

When I know I’m going out on Saturday night, I make a pot of coffee in the afternoon so that I don’t get sleepy too early in the evening. My body is used to going to bed very early these days, but when we go out I like to stay out at least until midnight so it’s worth it and will sustain me for a couple of weeks before I get the itch again. I’m probably sounding a little negative about the necessary slow down that happens to a person’s social life when they have a baby. And I’m not. I wouldn’t trade the experience of being a mom and raising a child for anything in the world, but there has to be balance. It can’t be all Sesame Street and trips to the park. Sometimes mama needs to get her groove on.