Perfect Friday Night in 1994

 As soon as school got out on a Friday afternoon, it was a countdown until fast food and TGIF. Thank God/Goodness it's Friday on ABC. The best TGIF lineup had Full House, Family Matters, Boy Meets World, and Step by Step. They had that creepy dinosaur show for a while too, I skipped that one because it creeped me out. We used to get fast food on Friday nights, get out the red plaid blanket and eat it on the floor while we watched TGIF. I looked forward to it all week basically. 

I wish I could have more living room picnics now, but we have a dog who will eat all of our food and lick our heads. There's also no waiting for your favorite show to start or waiting all week for it on Friday. The kids just turn on their favorite shows whenever they want. It's convenient, but they'll never know that TGIF rush.   

Crowded Table

This is one of my favorite songs: Crowded Table by The Highwomen. Just listen to it and smile a little bit, if you want.

Here's the chorus:

I want a house with a crowded table

And a place by the fire for everyone

Let us take on the world while we're young and able

And bring us back together when the day is done

That IS what I want. I regularly fantasize about ways I can build community and various events I want to host. Today I was fantasizing for like 20 minutes about having some kind of community neighborhood thanksgiving meal. (Actually, I was watching the Thank You Day episode of Daniel Tiger and then wondering how I could have the same event. Daniel Tiger's neighborhood loves being neighborly and being in community.) 

In conclusion:

• Listen the The Highwomen, they're delightful
• It's okay to watch Daniel Tiger with or without children
• I need to build a very large table.
• Here's a motto I try to live by: every person is worth meeting and knowing.  

Let me do this better than you for one minute

Today I was losing patience with my kiddos. Trying to leave the house in any timely fashion with little people is perhaps the worst time of the day. I was trying to get out to the door and on our way to the science museum and someone (my beloved 6 year old child) was spinning and not looking where they were going so I got increasingly louder and grouchier and said, "hey can you just look at where you are, sweet child." There was little sweet about the way I said it. We were getting into the elevator with a big old hard to turn stroller and I was basically sweating just getting the kids from the car, with all their stuff, whilst children are yelling and spinning in a parking lot, etc. etc. when we met this lady. She was a very very nice lady who obviously caught my curt tone and decided to level up her sweetness to my children. I don't know if I can describe this better, but I could tell she was judging ME by being SO SO SO nice to my kids in that moment. My kids deserve every single kindness in the world, they truly do, but I got the sense she thought she was swooping in to save them from my grouchiness with her sweetness. Like I've never met any of you nor spent any length of time with you, but let me be the better parent here. I definitely wasn't less grouchy after that. 

Insomnia Impulse Buy Product Reviews

Sometimes I can't sleep. And when I don't sleep, I'm real vulnerable to buying weird things that the internet suggests I buy. Because I'm scrolling the internet and someone made a compelling video that worked on tired me. Here are some things I've bought and my reviews of those items:

Bleame hair removal thing: 

This just came in the mail. You like rub it on your legs in a circle and then it takes off your hair. It surprisingly works. Non 3 am Kelli opinion: safe to buy, I even recommend it I think. 

Hair on the carpet scraper thing that I can't remember the name of, but maybe you've seen the videos:

You just scape it on your carpet/rug, and it gets all the dog hair off of it. Non 3 am Kelli opinion: also safe to buy, it works!

This hair curler that is supposed to be super easy that I saw like 6 different companies advertising with the same videos:

You just take a little piece of hair and clamp it in the curler and pull, like you would with a hair straightener. Even at 3 am, the 6 different companies advertising the same product with different names should have been a big old red flag. Non 3 am Kelli opinion: do NOT buy this. It does not work at all. It'll sit in your cabinet, in hopes that it will magically work one day, but it will not. 

Yoga pants that are only at this very low price for the next 28 minutes and 59 seconds: 

They'll look good in the pictures, but you won't look like that. The tag will say your size, but you aren't squeezing into those things. Be ready to give them to a small child you know. Non 3 am Kelli opinion: don't get them! Old Navy probably has a similar deal and you'll be able to pull them up past your knees.

Prose:

It's customized shampoo and conditioner and product and some leave in conditioner that you'll never want to dedicate 15 minutes to wearing before you even shower. Non 3 am Kelli opinion: it's nice shampoo and conditioner, it smells good, but your hair will not curl like that one chic in the video, and it's wayyy too expensive for shampoo. Also, it's a subscription and if you forget to cancel your subscription (like people who are vulnerable enough to buy Prose at 3 am might be), you'll get to pay for several months of it.

New Wash:

It's non-shampoo shampoo that is supposed to help you stretch out the days between washing your hair. Non 3 am Kelli opinion: ehh. I actually used this for a couple of years, but it's expensive, it's hard to wash out (and if you don't get it all out, it looks greasier than before you washed it), and it's a subscription. If you do wash it all out right, I could go 2-3 days without washing it and my hair was real real shiny. 4/10?

Mushroom Coffee:

The advertisements I saw were for MUD Coffee or something like that. I searched Amazon for a cheaper version. It's coffee and Lion's Mane mushrooms that is supposed to make you focus. Non 5 am Kelli opinion: It tasted good, but it didn't help me focus, and I can just drink regular coffee for 1/8 of the price.