How badly do I want this? Pretty bad but not enough to give up my ticket to this. Oh, you should all be able to hear my kids crying when they find out that their mom gets to see Green Day that night and they will have to, instead, go to bed.

I've started Christmas shopping. Go ahead and hate. I don't finish up early though it's just a long drawn out process perfect for my procrastinating self. I haven't bought one iota of back to school crap. I promised them both new sneakers - I still have 20 days to make good.

I have a tentatively scheduled 36 hours of solitude approaching. Please, all of you send your psychic wishes for my mom to travel to Maine this weekend so that she might watch my kids for a few hours while my husband runs some equipment up there for my parents. Thank you from the bottom of my heart.

My girlie has hit a rough patch behavior wise, leaving me mentally exhausted for the past few weeks. She screamed and cried for an hour on the ride home from Vermont because I wouldn't let her have a pen in the back seat. An hour. She's almost five and in her worst moments these past few weeks she's been acting as if she's two and a half. She doesn't have a ton of these worst moments, but enough to take a toll on me and make me reevaluate my battle plan er, parenting strategy. Again.