Sometimes Summer bugs me. There are a lot of great things about her: she never had separation anxiety, she eats veggies, she says the most hilarious things, etc. Of course I adore her and I'm so grateful to be her mom, but every once in a while, she bugs.
Like when she made me pick up a ton of little ice pieces up off the floor of Costa Vida. Or when she tells me to put away the toaster or close a cupboard. I can't tell her to mind her own business because these are things I should do, so I have to just do them. And it's annoying because I was planning on closing the stupid cupboards and putting the toaster away, but I don't like doing it at the command of a 20-month old.
Another thing that bugs me: she drinks my Slim-Fast. I can't drink it in front of her without her having at least a sip, which makes it hard to know how much I drank. (By the way, I'm not trying to lose weight, I just like Slim-Fast [okay, that's a lie.])
Tonight, when I got home from the gym, I made Summer some cinnamon toast and myself a slim-fast. She was really into her cinnamon toast until she accidentally tore it apart, which always makes her super mad (yes, another thing that bugs). I try to ignore her fits, but I don't always succeed. I offered her some Slim-Fast, which stopped the tears immediately. As she drank it, I had some of her cinnamon toast. Pretty soon, I had eaten all the cinnamon toast and she drank my entire shake. It's like it was her plan all along. Or was it my plan all along?
Anyway, yes, for dinner I gave my daughter cinnamon toast and a Creamy Chocolate high protein Slim Fast shake - complete with whey protein isolate, gum arabic, and acesulfame potassium. Am I awesome or what?
Proof:
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Summer is a very maternal person. Or maybe she is simply responding to the nurturing part of her feminine nature. Or maybe we have unconsciously indoctrinated her with traditional gender roles and she knows that she's socially expected to change diapers. Either way, we are all very relieved that this bee's diaper has been taken care of:
Tonight, as I was driving home from the gym, I was listening to our local top 40 station. Yep, I like the Top 40 stuff. Actually, since Summer started repeated the words she hears in radio music and the radio is now set to Classical 98.1 whenever she's in the car, I would say I love Top 40. It's my little adult indulgence and, now that I think about it, it should really motivate me to go the gym more often. Sure, by the time Nathaniel gets home and I can actually go to the gym, it's dark and icy and only seven degrees, but I can listen to all the Lady Gaga I want.
Anyway, as I was listening to the radio, I started to think of European music. I have always really liked it (I wrote "loved," but then deleted it because someone who loves something actually makes an effort to experience it, which is not the case when it comes to me and music one would hear in a club in Munich [ps why do we spell München Munich?]). I know this is very poser-y of me to say, but Euro music sounds so sophisticated and exotic and cool to me. I will never actually go to a club and be hip like that, so I experience it vicariously through the music. I loved European techno-type stuff when I visited my English nanny when I was in high school, I loved it when I lived in Spain as an undergraduate, and I really loved it when I was a missionary in Romania and I heard it everywhere - in the internet cafes, the buses, the grocery store, the cabs, people's houses, etc.
As I listened to the radio, I thought about manele (Roma, [or, if you're politically incorrect, gypsy]music) and how much I like it even though it's considered filthy by a lot of Romanians. I decided that I really need to brush up on my Romanian for our trip out there this Summer. I thought of an Elder on my mission who just today made me sick with jealousy when he posted a bunch of pictures on Facebook of his recent trip to Romania, and how I can't wait to go back.
I started listening to the song that was playing, and realized that I was driving slower so I could listen to the whole thing. When there was a yellow light, I slowed down and made no effort to make it before it turned red. It was in that delightful Euro style, something unusual for this station. I started memorizing some words so I could figure out what it was when I got home.
Guess what? It's Romanian. I feel like an idiot for not having heard it before. The music video of the song has 90 million views on YouTube. If you don't mind watching some hot chick prancing around in wellies and her underpants on the beach, check out the music video. I actually really like it. Except, you know, the big ad during the final moments when the hero and heroine unite.
(Did you watch it? Did you notice how the woman in this video is gorgeous and the guy inspires a rousing "meh?" And he's wearing red pants and a vest with some shirt he got for free at his work holiday raffle underneath it? Welcome to Romania.)
When I was in Romania, the big hit song was Dragoste din Tei, which, if you watch the hilarious music video I've embedded below, might sound familiar because T.I. and Rhianna borrowed from good ol' Romanian OZone. It's weird to me and kind of sad that Romania has moved on, if that makes sense. Not that I consciously expected the country to avoid progression after I left, but I thought I understood a lot of its culture. And perhaps I did, but the fact that a huge international hit originated in Romania a year and a half ago and I just heard it tonight tells me that I definitely don't know the country anymore. But it's all good. I can only keep up with so much pop culture in a lifetime. Plus, we're going back this summer.
