We always have a few stragglers with us. #27 is not ours.

[su_heading size=”18″]Attending Cast Calls in Aspen[/su_heading]

I walked into Aspen Valley Hospital to get my blood drawn…again. After that last scary incident on my bike, I was determined to find out what that pain was that I have been having in my side for over twenty years.

I have those veins that are difficult to find for drawing blood and when I saw that it wasn’t John, who not only was successful last time but was also a bit of a ham spewing out jokes as he poked me, I slumped down in the seat not wanting to talk.

The nurse had a friendly demeanor and as she prepared the needle, I burst into tears.  “My dog ate my salad,” I sputtered knowing that she probably was used to this looney behavior from Stay at Home Working Moms who have just had enough. Compassionately she listened  to my story of how I had treated myself to a salad at Cafe Ink  but, because I was rushing around unloading scooters that never cease to knock me in the shins right where it hurts, I absentmindedly left the salad in the car where poor Muki was residing and of course, she got into it and ate all of the chicken and the goat cheese out of it. The rest of it, which included soggy, wilted lettuce and cranberries, was embedded into her fur and into every crack of my car for me to clean up another day….another week.

After the story, the nurse told me about her children’s book that she had written about a mouse without a tail who endures hardships and comes out stronger and the two of us became steadfast friends.

Granted, these past few months have been a bit crazy from the move. In addition, I have been planning Brevitt’s Bar Mitzvah and because he refuses to let me hold it in a barn or a school house, we have been visiting all the venues available to us and boy has it been a journey which has included firing the DJ due to smarminess (never fear we are back on track with the locally famous DJ Naka G and Brev is triple psyched). On top of that, our tenants of four years moved out of our POS condo and we had to bail out of a possible new tenant due to his apparent psycho-emotional troubles that also had a hint of smarminess. All this just when we are getting slammed for putting down the $$’s for ski passes, ski programs for the kids and our school bus that is more expensive than a trip to Africa.

Aspen Cast Calls:

My last bubble was about to escape when I received an email. Axel had been selected for a cast call from some website that I must have submitted a photo to years ago for a contest (remember the last one I entered Wade in?). Turns out that it was Aspen Production Services, the Production Company that I used to work for, who was putting on the cast call, along with my friends at Model Team, and they encouraged me to bring the whole family for this hot tub print shoot. What the hell, I thought to myself, we’ve nothing to lose, other than my dignity for posing in a bikini, a bold move that had I not felt safe with the production company owner and had I not had dollar signs flashing before my eyes, I never would have braved. And so I dragged my whole family into the cast call.

We arrived in Jilly3 time, a half hour late (I’m not proud of this trait, I swear). Our gorgeous Baddy, who hates these things, came in with his hair spilling all over his visor as he held onto his elbow that was leaking out fluid from a wound he inflicted upon himself after flipping over while popping a wheelie with his kids on Midland Ave in Basalt, in front of all the ladies dining at Tempranillo.

As dysfunctional as I felt, the boys had it going on. Especially Thumper who, not wanting to mess around with the opportunity to make money for new ski gear, looked very dapper in his new school clothes.

I’m guessing that it’s a good thing, living on the fly, but it is also important to take the time to be present. Breathe, I kept telling myself. Write…Meditate…do what you can to stay sane and as I stood there at the cast call giggling with my family at the potential of making money off of…our disheveled family…I then and there changed my mindset.

I guess there comes a time when we have all had enough, whether we stay at home or go to the office. I don’t know about you but I am tired of feeling, and hearing, “I’m sooooo busy.” Are we really all so busy or are we just not taking the time to breathe and enjoy the life that we have created for ourselves?

I’m thinking that if you are anything like me, too busy to take care of yourself, especially the emotional side, which results in embarrassing breakdowns with strangers, than it is time to take control over our lives and stop being such ninnies. And so, let’s do it together shall we? Let’s trust our intuition and enjoy life while we are in it and not sweat the small things…. no matter how large they feel at the time.