Lately my ex has been bringing out the extra-special crazy in me so I’ve been interacting with him less. He’s got someone new in his life, and I have someone new (and awesome!) in mine. But we can’t be BFF anymore and that bums us both out. At least he still wants to be part of the little man’s life, and plans to pick him up from school once a week for quality guy time. Which meant that last night I could allow myself to be kidnapped for spontaneous Pizza Farm adventures. It was ridiculously awesome, even if I felt guilty about going without the lad. But mommy needed a ladies’ night!

Five awesome things:

• Thanks to Sheela I kicked off a Veronica Mars marathon on Saturday night. Already wrapped up season one and started in on season two.
• Breaking Dawn, the final book in the Twilight Saga, comes out on Friday! I pre-ordered my copy of course. Not entirely sure when it will arrive, but I will blaze through all 768 pages in short order, social life be damned!
• I’m skipping tonight’s CSS and The Go! Team show (pout pout) at First Ave, but I’ll take the little man to see The Deaf tomorrow night, and I’m listening to Jay Reatard’s Radio K session right now.
• A tour of Moby’s vegan-friendly kitchen. I enjoyed his anecdotes. Especially the ex-girlfriend/pancake story.
• Robin — what have I done to you? Makes me snicker every time.

Bonus: Comic book illustrator Jim Lee will be at The Source this Saturday, but I doubt the lad will want to wait in line for a couple of hours to see him.
Plus: The trailer for Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince is now up. US release is set for November 21st.
And: Video of a cop assaulting a cyclist at Critical Mass in NYC. Don’t watch while eating. Made me sick to my stomach.

This week we’ll be moving on into August already, and then I’ll be in a proper panic over September. There’s the lad’s ninth birthday party to plan (he wants the moon) and my impending trip to New York to sort out. But we haven’t purchased our airfare yet, because the ATP dis-organizers never confirmed our lodging. I noticed yesterday that they’ve updated their site with info about other cheap hotels in the area. Allegedly we have a room at The Raleigh, but I won’t believe it until we have a confirmation number. I’ll need to get the details worked out soon. And go into research mode re: vegan-friendly food stuffs. If anyone has the down-low on the Monticello, New York area, do tell.

Another busy week. I found out too late about a Palestinian hip-hop performance at the Cedar Cultural Center (today at 11am). I may be able to make it to Patio Nights on Thursday, this week with The Deaf. But I think the boy will be even more excited about the Fringe Festival. In particular, The Legend of Little Bad, featuring one of his favorite former teachers/babysitters. Wouldn’t miss it for the world.

Bonus: Hasbro has finally filed suit against the makers of Scrabulous, and the Facebook app has been disabled. It was just a matter of time. Not sure if folks will now switch to EA’s “official” Facebook Scrabble app or not.
Plus: I got myself a Mr. Bento set, for lunch at work and picnics and whatnot, but the boy immediately stole my damned spork. He’s been spork-obsessed since seeing Wall-E. I may have to buy him his own. And begin contributing to the Mr. Bento Porn pool on flickr.
And: Considering my extreme susceptibility to motion sickness - I can’t even play Katamari Damacy without hurling - I doubt I’ll be tooling around the Earth’s thermosphere anytime soon. Oh, that, and I’m not among the wealthy. But the Virgin Galactic mothership looks pretty neat.

My busy brain needed a break. It was making me feel crazy and bringing my body down with it - with all the gnashing of teeth and lack of sleep and whatnot. So I took myself off the hamster wheel for a day to see if I could remedy some of my problems. And I made progress. After rushing the kid across town to childcare I made a bee-line for Juut Spa, where I treated myself to a one hour massage. Bliss.

Afterwards I stopped by 2nd Moon Coffee, where I met up with a friend. We went on to have lunch at one of my happy places, Seward Cafe. Thankfully it’s one of his happy places too. Post-lunch we popped into Seward Co-op to pick up some vegan chocolate. Yum. Sadly he had to go back to work while I went on to a showing of The Dark Knight. Believe the hype.

But then it was back to the world of parenting, complete with an open house at the boy’s school. We met his new third grade teachers and toured his classroom and Occupational Therapy, Speech Therapy and other rooms. I have a good feeling about the new site, but a not-so-good feeling about the commute. Especially in winter. Guess we’ll need to take it one school day at a time.

Tonight I’ve talked on the phone a bit - a rarity - first with Maria, who is taking the redeye in from the Bay Area tonight. And then with the little man’s grandma, who has decided to take him overnight on Saturday. Score! I’ll be able to attend my friends’ art opening like a real grown-up. I’m stoked, but sleepy. All these little positives add up to a much happier Sharyn. A happy Sharyn who will now will fall asleep listening to Fuck Buttons. Good night.

Bonus: Oh man, I wish I could’ve seen the surprise sneak peek of Tron 2, at SDCC. Sigh.
Plus: We still haven’t gotten to the Walker’s artist-designed mini golf, but maybe this weekend.
And: I’ve always been intrigued by this incident, and now there will be a documentary about it: The artistic crime of the century.

Our lives have been lacking some structure over the summer break. But third grade starts on Monday - already! - because the little man attends a year round program. So we’ll have more routine. Though not the same routine. The school has moved to its new location, and the school bus route is changing too. The stop will be in a different spot, pick up time much earlier, and drop off time considerably later. An all-around longer day for the poor kid. And for me. It’s still a Monday through Thursday schedule, thankfully, with childcare on Fridays. But our long-standing Friday night Pizza Luce tradition has fallen by the wayside. The ex put the kaibosh on it, trading us in for a new girlfriend. We can still go eat at one of the Pizza Luce locations but it’s not the same. The idea was to unwind at the end of the week by having the pizza delivered to us. Unfortunately our house is just outside of the St. Paul Luce’s delivery zone, and we’re not moving anytime soon. Still, I hope we adjust to our new routines as smoothly as possible. Transitions are particularly tough for the little man. I think I’ll have a lot more to talk to his psychologist about in the coming weeks (and perhaps my own therapist). But I already feel like the boy and I have been growing closer lately. Which is good, since we are all we’ve got.

Bonus: One of our newest employees looks like Sam Rockwell, like, for real, so while I was looking him up on imdb I stumbled upon this glorious bit of news. Mr. Rockwell will be in an upcoming movie - with the amazing Jemaine Clement - called Gentlemen Broncos.
Plus: Sheela’s lovely cupcakes are already available on Fridays at the Golden Fig in St. Paul, Saturdays at Letterbox Creative in Uptown Minneapolis and now on Sundays at Truly in White Bear Lake. She’s got the metro area covered!
And: The Heavy Metal Monk makes me happy. Also? The lolCats song is a must-listen.

It’s become increasingly difficult to remain on good terms with my ex/former best friend. That makes me sad. For the little man as much as for myself. This is only worsening my current low energy-high anxiety combo. Which in turn makes getting things done nearly impossible. Yet the To Do list is never ending. I need to suck it up and get on top of it.

Five good things during shitty times:

• Even if I can’t get to all the shows I’d like to, there will always be music. Lately in the form of muxtapes and other mixes, especially from friends.
• Came across a trailer for the new Miyazaki movie Ponyo on the Cliff aka Gake no Ue no Ponyo. No word yet on when it will be released in North America, but something to look forward to even so.
• Finally booked an hour long massage, utilizing a gift certificate I received over two years ago. From my former-in-laws. While I was pregnant with Felix. So that makes it more than a bit bittersweet, but a massage is still a massage.
• The Physics of Superheroes.
• The Dark Knight. Finally seeing it soon. And yay for something more bleak than my own life!

All week I’ve been drafting an angst-y post about parenting, peppered with complaints about Freddy’s path of destruction and the woes of homeownership. But it has bored me too much to complete it, so I’d rather not inflict such a post on others.

This morning the little man declared we should get a Mold-a-Rama machine, and put it in my bedroom. I think we might just plan a visit to the Brookfield Zoo in Chicago instead. We could go visit Emily and Steve that way, and Brookfield has eleven wax animals to choose from. Naturally he wants all of them.

My sad little cell phone has had a cracked display for months. That I could deal with. But the keys are getting harder to use, and the lock doesn’t stay locked. I’ve been butt-dialing random contacts for a while and the other day I started purse-texting people. So I’ve looked into replacement options. I’ve chosen a model but now which color, Nature Green or Spring Yellow? Please vote. And yes, I considered an iPhone but meh. The monthly service plans are too spendy. And I seem to have a thing for the Sony Ericsson phones.

Bonus: Friday night’s Threadbare reunion/benefit show was as surreal as I thought it would be…seeing familiar faces from the olden days. Some of whom I hadn’t seen in five or ten years. The turnout seemed decent so I hope they raised a fair amount for the scholarship fund.
Plus: Joss Whedon broke my heart again. In the best possible way. Whedonesque has quite a bit of Dr. Horrible coverage.
And: These Mac and Cheese Cupcakes reminded me of an old friend, who once whipped up a batch of homemade Twinkies filled with…Cheez Whiz. Ewww.

Maybe it’s some sort of post-Hellboy hypnotic suggestion, but today I am all about superheroes…and supervillains.

Five examples of such:

• Some lovely, lesser-known superheroes. Though certain folks (I’m looking at you Ellen) find Miss Squirrel to be more alarming than charming.
• Act One of Joss Whedon’s Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog is now up!
• A set visit preview of the upcoming Watchmen movie.
• Hong Kong’s Mad Detective will have a limited release in the states this summer. I really do prefer seeing movies on the big screen but don’t know if that’ll make it to Minneapolis.

Bonus: Acting with James Franco (via yewknee) is hilarious! The fact that he is so comfortable making fun of himself only makes me love him more. And his little brother was brilliant too.
Plus: A friend gave me the heads up about the Fallout Artfest on Saturday, because she will have a booth there selling her lovely wares.
And: I’ve joined the muxtape mix. My first production can be found here. There will be more to come.

Sometimes there is no going back. My nerves are a little extra nerve-y right now, but I’ll get over it.

Five good things for today, all beginning with the letter D. Just because.

• Duchenne smiles
• ‘Daruma-otoshi‘ skyscraper demolition
• DOMO-KUN! Inspired by the awesome gift I received, pictured below.
• The Dodos. I skipped their recent show but have been listening to Beware of the Maniacs. And I like it. Need to give Visiter another listen too.
• My Dad. Stoked to see Hellboy II with him tomorrow night.

Bonus: Thursday night there will be a Twin Cities flickr photowalk at the MIA, which is currently featuring three photography shows. It’s been way too long since my schedule has aligned with one of these outings. This might just work out.
Plus: I missed the Dragon Festival again! Every summer it’s in the back of my mind, but my subconscious seems to think it happens in August, when in reality it goes on in mid-July. Doh.
And: Bad news for the soyboy (the little man) and I - “tofu may raise risk of dementia”
- like we don’t have enough to worry about.

Lately I’ve felt like I’m biding my time, waiting for I don’t know what. For my motivation and/or mojo to come back? For the return of my darling ex? To win the Publisher’s Clearing House Sweepstakes? I’m not sure. But it kinda sucks.

Five things that don’t suck:

• My friend Maria will be here from Berkeley in a couple of weeks.
• The Threadbare reunion show is next week at the Triple Rock. It’s a benefit to raise money for a memorial scholarship in honor of Steph Perry.
• The little man and I have been enjoying the Flat Stanley books at bedtime.
• I was pleasantly surprised to find that a restaurant near my office, Brasa, has a number of very tasty vegan-friendly food items. The yucca was my fave.
• In news of the nerd, I’m look forward to seeing the new Hellboy movie with my Dad soon. And it won’t be long before my pre-ordered copy of Breaking Dawn arrives.

Bonus: This “lightning through my camera” freaks me the hell out.
Plus: It’s called epMotion - “sending your thumbs into overdrive” - and it’s kind of awesome.
And: Jasmine 26: A Second Look. I’ve been meaning to go back to try the salt and pepper tofu.

A lot of it has to do with the suffocatingly close weather - and our brutal lack of air conditioning - but I feel like I’m running out of breathing room. My bills are quickly catching up to me, now that I have the mortgage plus two home equity loans to pay back (and the utilities, car loan, insurance, childcare, food, etc). And I just received a notice from my mortgage company about a $400 escrow shortage. I may need to turn to craigslist to find a roommate, though I am less than thrilled by the prospect. I am tired of extreme highs and lows. I’d like to spend a little more time on middle ground. For now I need to spend less money. And am already regretting yesterday’s brief jaunt down to the Taste of Minnesota. Where we dropped too much on one lousy Ferris Wheel ride - eight “tickets” each which is $5 in real world money. And we didn’t even see/hear much of The Zombies, and skipped out entirely on Eddie Money’s set. Oh well. The rest of the summer is going to be all about free events that are actually free.

Bonus: The History of the Chaos Computer Club. Oh Bre Pettis. So dreamily nerdy. Or nerdily dreamy?
Plus: I hung an old portrait in my room, one my Dad had drawn years ago. I was unsure of the subject’s identity. Turns out it was good old Dick Drew, inventor of cellophane tape. He had been a co-worker of my grandpa’s years ago at 3M. Wacky.
And: The DIY Craft Fair at the 80/35 Fest was limited, to put it mildly (I think there were three or four lonely-looking booths) but I did find some awesome vegan lip balm. Hopefully I won’t lose all three tubes immediately.