Last week I heard an interview with Mary Schmich, the Chicago Tribune columnist who wrote the famous “Wear Sunscreen” graduation speech, on The Takeaway. John Hockenberry asked her if she had any advice for today’s graduates and she said, “No becasue I think advice is a form of nostalgia.”

She is so right. I think of all the times I’ve given advice, particularly about weddings more than babies even. It’s just as much about remembering what it was like to try on all those dresses as much as to tell a my friend that by beyond having fun, trying on lots of dresses you get to really figure out what you want your wedding to be—which is what I did.

And whenever I hear a friend is pregnant it’s so easy to slip right back to those first months when I’d prepare for a stroll by wrapping the baby in a polka dot blanket from pine cone hill and stashing gripe water in my baby bag for my occasionally colicky Conrad to prevent any new mom, new baby, new to the park freakouts. I also always give them as gifts too, which makes me think presents can be a form of advice. (See my my mother’s day post).

It’s funny Schmich didn’t want to give advice but she still did because now I’ll always think, why am I telling this person what I’m telling them, is it for me to remember or for them to learn? I guess it will be both.

It’s the last few days of the Kips Bay Decorator’s Showcase and I’m surprised that this amazing, original and completely fuss-free arrangement designed by Plant Specialists in Long Island City never made it into the home section of the Times. This is a grapevine with succulents wired onto it. You simply get yourself a grapevine (available at more exotic nurseries and in the flower market in NYC) and take your favorite succulents, like those super-cute Hens and Chickens, and simply wire each head of the succulent on to different parts of the grapevine. You can also use a glue gun! And the best part: It will last a month, water-free!

David, my darling husband is a long-standing member of the Husband Hall of Fame but yesterday he went all out for Mother’s Day and deserves a special honorable mention. Honey, you are the real thing!

The morning started with adorable gifts from the boys: a floral collage from Dash and a Jonathan Adler inspired pinch pot from Conrad.

Then David gave me an Internet radio because I’m home alone during the day and I rely on music and talk radio for company. For some reason we don’t get good reception at the house, but now my new Logitech SqueezeBox is like having a bunch of musical and intellectual co-workers with me all day. I love it. I really do. David kept saying an appliance isn’t romantic, but a big black music-making appliance that makes me feel wistful listening to Taylor Swift is swoon-worthy.

Yet I think he might be feeling the need to make up for something or maybe I’m just acting so miserable he’s at a loss as to how to make me happy, because he gave me a series of gifts to make me realize that everything is going to be alright.

He gave me a gift card to go shopping for new spring clothes so I can feel like I’m pretty and pulled together even though I’m just working up in my attic and not an office. And maybe also so I’ll stop asking him to tell me if my butt looks okay in everything I wear. Tickets to the Shins next Sunday so we can feel a little less old. And hold on…a cleaning woman to come every week for a year! We actually had a fairly intense discussion Saturday morning about whether one should really be grossed out if cereal bowls with milk are still on the kitchen table when we practically stumble into the house at 10:30 at night. That Friday, I rushed out for the day to take Conrad to the doctor, got the okay that he could go to school, met with the nurse about how to administer his nebulizer, then caught up with friends to go to the Glenfield House Tour Fundraiser (where you check out some of the larger, extravagantly decorated homes in town, snickering is optional), picked up the kids, went to playdate, then bought beer and drove around trying to find a bakery open at 5pm for a dinner party at a friend’s house. Gave up and then went over to my friend’s with the kids had a lovely night and headed home way past everyone’s bedtime to stare down the cereal bowls, unmade beds and general house mess.

I think the cleaning woman jackpot is way of saying he’s sorry that he after a long day he made me feel like keeping the house tidy is something that’s more in my domain than his. David doesn’t think that. I think he rolled his eyes simply because he was surprised to see that I actually felt comfortable leaving a mess; but he benefits too, by giving me the housekeeper he’s also very generously putting the kibosh on my feeling entitled to complain about housework. I appreciate his strategic mind.

I met my parents and our amazing cousin, Ronny for brunch. Ronny is so inspiring, she wrote her doctorate in resilience in older women and is so great to be around. Then when I came home, we flew kites in Edgemont park that David made with leftover cellophane from Easter egg baskets and went out to Egans with friends. It was really just perfect. Then in the middle of dinner Dashiell started acting really bratty. He came and sat on my lap to calm down. It worked for a while until he projectile vomited all over the dinner table. I hustled him out of the restaurant back door and just as I was leaving and well-dressed child-free couple were walking in, they kindly held the door for me and right then Dash vomited all over my face, neck, hair and chest. Vomit was dripping from eyebrows. But it was fine, really. He got home without getting sick again and we both felt better after we bathed and I thought maybe I will take David up on the cleaning woman.

I read in the Time’s Home section yesterday that former Domino editors are having a tag sale of their leftover props and accessories from past shoots. It’s 10am on Saturday. I’m desperate to go but there just aren’t enough sexual favors I can do to make up for the time I’d spend away from home or the money I’d spend. Chalk it up to the fresh spring air, the fact that I ignored my home decor hobby all winter, or that that I recently discovered Home Goods—or all three, but I’ve gone from decorating obsessed to decorating possessed. I have this blind urgency to tweak my house, as if my home is ovulating and I have to find an suede tufted X-stool in puce right now, right this very minute and I’ll pay whatever is necessary.

So I have to check my intensity and refrain from the Domino sale, no matter how much I’ll be thinking about it Saturday morning. When I mentioned the sale to my mom even she said, “Stay away! You’ll only find little things you don’t need and blow your budget on whimsy instead of the important stuff like curtains and slipcovers and rugs.” She’s right, of course. But I’m left with trying to find satisfaction in being frugal and cautious and it’s not nearly as fun as it sounds.

Luckily, next week I get to peek in on the Anthropologie Fall preview and John Robshaw is having is sample sale next week so I can get my fix. And darling husband, if you are reading this, please don’t worry, I was only planning on refreshing the guest room and maybe our duvet. I promise to control myself.

John Robshaw Sale: May 14-16

245 West 29th, 6th Floor

212-594-6006

Hours: Thursday and Friday: 10am to 8:30pm

Saturday, 10am to 3pm

Ok my blog is not political, it’s really a place for me to gossip about my own life. But I need to share something, People magazine has reported that Oprah is joining forces with Jenny McCarthy to give her own talk show. The media buzz is that if McCarthy is given O’s support she  has a chance of being the next Dr. Phil or Rachel Ray. McCarthy who is a regular guest on Oprah is often there to discuss how she took on the medical establishment to deal with her son’s autism.

Here’s my problem: Jenny McCarthy is already doing a very good job of spreading misinformation about immunizations through her blog and being a guest on other people’s talk shows. I wonder who is served, or should I say hurt, by giving her a larger platform?

Here are three links worth reading that were tweeted yesterday.
http://www.jennymccarthybodycount.com/Jenny_McCarthy_Body_Count/Home.html

http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/badastronomy/2009/05/04/antivax-kills/

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2009/may/01/measles-mmr-vaccination

I’m disappointed in Oprah, but I guess I shouldn’t be. I’m sure there are a number of all-natural, holistic advertisers who want to appeal to a more mass audience and the McCarthy talk show would be a nice vehicle for them. But, Oprah, who I always loved is no longer one of my “favorite things.”