plea bargaining
By heather | April 22, 2010
Dear Earth -
Happy Earth Day! Although it seems somewhat silly that every channel on TV has changed their logos to green in honor of your day, I get it. We are all cogs in the marketing wheel. I do my best to help you every day of the year, so today I’d like to ask just one favor.
If you could cut it out with the grass pollen around here, I’d truly appreciate it. My eyes burn, my nose itches, and both my kids have green goop leaking out their eyes and noses. It truly is disgusting for us and kind of self-defeating on your part, because the amount of tissues a three-year-old goes through when faced with a continuously runny nose is truly appalling.
Thanks, and enjoy your day!
H
Topics: holidays | No Comments »
Tags:
girls just wanna eat and sleep
By heather | April 16, 2010
So it’s a girls’ weekend around here. This weekend is, apparently, the start of fishin’ season in Pennsylvania. I’ve run this factoid by a few of my Philly friends and gotten blank stares in response, but Brett is from them parts that actually know these dates and also get a day off of school at the start of huntin’ season. So fishin’ season is also cause celebre. (Note ironic use of term…)
Today I picked Em up from daycare at lunch, skivving off work for most of the afternoon for an early dive into fun. Which means she took a three hour nap, while I puttered around fretting about various work and life-related things, getting it out of my system like I do every Friday. When she woke up we went to early dinner, then to Rita’s for Italian Ice where we ran into some old friends, then came back home just in time for a bath and bed.
As I look ahead to the weekend, most of it is centered around eating and sleeping, which is totally how it should be. I’m debating taking a boot camp class on Sunday morning, debating partly because I’m a little scared of the guy that teaches it but also because I’m a lot scared of the diseased hellions running around the gym daycare. We’ll have to see about that one. Maybe we could go for pancakes instead.
In other great news, the child at daycare that was the cause of so many angst-y posts in the past year has been given the boot. Hooray! Next week is his last week. There are some mornings when I drop off the kids that this other child is yelling and behaving so badly that I can’t stand to be around him for 10 minutes, so I don’t know how this has lasted as long as it did. I’m just thankful that he’ll soon be somewhere else.
Time for me to go watch my new obsession…Cake Boss. Happy weekend!
Topics: EK, parenting | 3 Comments »
Tags:
KID EATS CHEESEBURGER
By heather | April 1, 2010
Holy shit. I can’t remember the last time I posted. What I can remember, without looking back to read it, is that it was vaguely attempting to be wise and philosophical and probably a sappy goodbye to my teacher training. Enough about that.
What I can remember is that for the second week this month, (I mean last month) I spent the better part of a week in bed, sicker than I’ve ever been. Well except for two weeks ago when I had the worst stomach flu I’ve ever had. This time I had the worst sinus infection I’ve ever had, with so much pressure in my face I’m surprised it didn’t puff up like a blowfish before exploding. I finally gave in to the headaches and succumbed to fever on Sunday, when I decided I was still going to be stubborn and refuse to go to the doctor until Monday since I knew I’d just get antibiotics except on Sunday they would cost me $60 more because I’d have to co-pay at a clinic instead of my doc.
Today was the first day I’ve felt less like death and well enough to discover I’ve apparently developed some sort of weird intolerance for amox!cillian since I had it the last time. I had to actually get dressed and go to the office to give a brief, and lo and behold on the way there discovered that not only am I dizzy and spacy but that I ITCH. EVERYWHERE. And am also having inappropriate emotional responses…like crying because Trader Joe’s carries all natural jelly beans. I’m sucking it up for now because I’m guessing another antibiotic won’t be any better and I’m almost half done anyway. And the brief? Let’s just say not the best one I’ve ever given. Mainly because I made the poor decision while I was still spaced out to not bring any water in with me and my mouth got so dry I might as well have stuffed a slice of bread in there.
Last night, Brett and I were snorting our way through Modern Family when Alex started crying a weird, sad little cry that warranted immediate response, as this was no Mommy-I-dropped-my-book kind of cry. I came upstairs after first responder Brett ominously yelled down the stairs, “Honey, you better come up here!” to find Alex sitting up in bed with a sleep sack hanging off his face and immediately fell down laughing. That was before I realized that he hadn’t gotten his lip stuck in the zipper, but that he’d actually gotten the zipper pull stuck between his teeth.
I sent Brett downstairs for bolt cutters and he, wisely, came back with a flashlight. Strapping on his engineering boots, he calculated the precise angle and insertion point and was able to maneuver it back out with a minimum of pain. As opposed to my method which was to give a little tug and be moderately surprised when it didn’t pop loose. After administering some cold water and a gentle admonishment not to chew on zippers anymore, we snuck back downstairs and proceeded to laugh ourselves silly for about ten more minutes.
In other Alex news, he ate a cheeseburger for dinner tonight. This HAS NEVER HAPPENED BEFORE, as indicated by the all-caps-headline-nature of the post title. He also cleaned his plate of sweet potato fries, oranges, asked for yogurt and a cheese stick; and also a cookie. Yay for all the comments telling me kids go through eating phases! And also, umm…yay growth spurt? Here I was thinking that last year’s shorts might actually work for another season instead of looking like Daisy Dukes.
Topics: Alex, parenting | 2 Comments »
Tags:
re-wired
By heather | March 18, 2010
For the first two weeks after finishing my yoga teacher training, I couldn’t understand why I was so touchy. Everything irritated me, I wasn’t sleeping well, I was run down – even my skin looked blah. Having the stomach flu was part of it, but more than that it was work – all of a sudden I resented every email, loathed every minute of analysis I was asked to do.
The MBA program that I had been excited to start was now an inconvenience – if fact if I could have remembered my login to the add/drop system before the drop deadline I probably would have quit it before I even started.
“What is wrong with me?” I wondered. “Shouldn’t I be happy and free and loving the whole world with my newfound yogic knowledge and one-ness?”
I knew part of what was annoying me was that my yoga studio dreams had been shelved after our Yoga as a Business module…it’s a great lifestyle in theory, but the financial and practical realities are not something that I’m prepared to take on right now – a 75% cut in my take-home pay, and that would be after a few years of successful operation, plus the stress and committment of running your own business – not so much.
Today I happened across a blog post that explained to me exactly what was wrong – my body and mind had been “re-wired” in the weeks of teacher training immersion. (This link is worth checking out by the way, just for the amazing pictures.)
I found myself stressed and anxious, longing for the comfort of knowing that I had time carved out to practice and learn yoga from great teachers. My brain and heart was rebelling against having to try to find meaning in DoD instructions on how to secure network systems, especially knowing that most of the time my analysis and advice would be ignored anyway.
I was re-wired in the same way both times on maternity leave, too…used to a certain lifestyle and with a specific ebb and flow to my days. Getting back to the work that pays the bills was exactly that – getting back to work, and it sucked.
Sometimes I think that I’m really connected to my emotions and very self-aware. This time though, I really had no idea until I stumbled on that post, or maybe I knew but couldn’t find the words to clarify the emotions.
I wonder what situations and circumstances cause other people to be re-wired. It seems to quite easily happen to me, anytime I step away from work into something I love. Is that all it takes? And what if you have a job that you love? Is it still so quick to happen, or are you basically content all the time?
It never occurred to me when I graduated from high school that I would do anything other than go to college, get a business-related degree, and get a decent, stable job. I wonder how life would have been different if I’d acknowledged more of the things I LIKED to do, like fitness and writing and design; rather than what I thought I SHOULD do.
Now I need to figure out how keep the new wiring so that it peacefully co-exists and supports, rather than rebel against, the existing way of life.
Topics: deep thoughts...or not, yoga | 1 Comment »
Tags: