GOOD TIMES....

Last night I went out to do a somewhat dreary reading of a chapter from my book in a bar. I ended up being pelted in the face by a belt during the hosts strip-tease dance he did to open the evening but the good news is that Zach babysat.

I tried to cancel the reading out of worry about finding a babysitter who could put him to sleep since he's a co-sleeping/nursed to sleep dirty hippy baby. Zach heard me bemoaning the fact that I was trying to cancel the reading and he said "I'll do it". Zach will lick dried ketchup off a plate for five bucks so I just assumed he wanted the money. Which he does....but the more I thought about it (and called 3 friends to get advice) I thought it would be perfect. Leo really loves Zach. It's completely adorable--and Zach loves Leo. I went over the details a million times and the plan was that Leo would be deep asleep by the time I left because I didn't have to be at the bar until around 9pm. But of course Leo was wide awake right before I left--more awake than I'D EVER SEEN HIM. Talking and screaming...anyway--Zach put him in bed and sat in the room with him and Leo was asleep in 12 minutes. And when he woke up a half hour later Zach went in and fed him a part of his bottle but stopped short of the full bottle because he wanted to save some for later just in case. And then he just lay on the bed and Leo drifted off to sleep without crying. Something that he's never done with me. Basically--without knowing it--Zach did a better job than I've been able to do getting him to sleep.

He called me once asking me if it was okay that Leo was asleep on his side. I was tempted to be like 'OH MY GOD! ON HIS SIDE?!" but I didn't. Zach also admitted that it was way harder to hear Leo cry it out than he'd thought it would be. Zach is always saying to me "geez, babies cry..didn't you realize that?" whenever I express how hard the Cry It Out Thing is for me.

And then after I came home and paid Zach--Jeff called and was HIGH from his first day out fishing. They did a trial run and it was THE HARDEST THING HE'S EVER DONE IN HIS LIFE'. Jeff says that a lot. He said that after he put the carseat in for the baby. But this time I believed him. They did three throwing out of the nets and bringing them back in and then Jeff had to go down into the hull to start cooking dinner for the 7 men--and he started feeling sea sick. And the glass dish he was using to cook his chicken in slid off the counter and shattered. So,it's beginning and he's incredibly excited. Even after he asked the captain the three nets per day is usual and he said 'no..we'll be doing 15-20'. And even after the night the kid who sleeps in the bunk above him got drunk and threw up in his sleep--down onto Jeff. He even sounded excited about that. It's Man Stuff. Maybe he'll get lucky and get into a fist fight too. There's a real 'hunter/gatherer' thing going on. Which is great. I'll just take care of the baby and try and stay pretty for my man when he comes back.

Leo has been incredibly social--a lot of my friends have been coming over to help which is great.

I'll be flying to Indy on July 20th with my friend Kevin Wanzer. YAY.