Areas of Neglect

For kicks I thought I'd speed post a list of things that I've either neglected to do completely or have failed to do on a routine basis since Bug was born nine months ago.

• Dusting
  
• Washing the kitchen floor
  
• Vacuuming
  
• Cleaning the tub (just threw out yet another mildewy shower curtain this morning. I've started buying several cheap ones at a time and treating them like disposables. Shameful, I know.)
  
• Getting my hair cut on a semi-regular basis
  
• Shaving legs/underarms (just so you don't get a totally unflattering image in your mind, I have managed to do this two or three times a week - but definitely not every day)
  
• Calling friends
  
• Calling family
  
• Blogging
  
• Reading books (i.e. the grown up kind - I've read lots and lots of baby-sized board books) Although I did read The Year of Magical Thinking by Joan Didion (Word of caution: sleep-deprived new mothers should NOT read this book. Waaaaay too painful and hard to read without sobbing). Then I finally finished Pilgrim at Tinker Creek, which I picked up sometime last year. Then after those two, I made the mistake of I trying to pick up Blue Like Jazz and found myself immediately annoyed by the author's "single person with no kids" point of view/Starbucks induced writing style and wanted to throw the book across the room. Sorry Don Miller! Maybe I'll lighten up in a few months and try to give it another fair shake later, after I've read a few light things in succession.
  
• Following the Red Sox. Sad but true. I've missed so many games this year, even when they are on the TV or radio. I know who's in the lineup and have a general sense of how things are going for each player, but I haven't followed them w/my usual devoted fervor. But I did manage to score some Jonathan Papelbon and Craig Hansen rookie cards on eBay (for Bug, of course!) and I am acutely aware that the Sox are still 2 games up in the loss column over the Yankees coming out of the All-Star break. Ha!
  
• Movies. Haven't seen a movie in the theatre since I was pregnant. Last one was Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, and what a waste of ten dollars that was, regrettably.
  
• Music. I think I have thirty or forty dollars sitting unused in my iTunes allowance account. The last purchase I made was children's music for Bug. But it was cool children's music, really. (You're shaking your head and saying "uh-huh", aren't you?)
  
• My feet. These dogs are uuuu-gly baby: callouses, chipped toenails and heels like sandpaper. It took me almost six months to finally remove the last vestiges of the bright purple pedicure that I'd had professionally done two days before Bug was born. Picture stripes of purple polish along the top of the nail and you've got the idea. It was not a good look. It took my Rheumatologist to point out "gee, it's been a while since you've had those done, eh" before I was shamed into doing something about it.
  
• My diet. I'm not exactly living on Twinkies, but I'm not being as careful as I should be, given my bout with gestational diabetes and increased risk for Type II. Trying to change that now, but boy it's not as easy as it used to be to plan healthful meals. Especially ones that actually require more than 2 preparation/cooking steps.
  
• Exercise. Unless it involves pushing a stroller or lifting a twenty-pound baby, it doesn't happen.
  
• Gardening. All the plants are pretty much on their own this year. Didn't do any vegetables, not even containers of tomatoes. Managed to plant some stuff at the beginning of the season, including a tree for Bug, but that's about it. Luckily for me it's rained a lot so I haven't had to get out there with the hose.
  
• Writing. A few months ago I promised myself I'd try to write something, anything, every day. Ha!
  

Just thought y'all should know. :)