In all the work mayhem that is going on I promised myself I would write an entry for my two-year blogiversary - and here I am! Of course, this feels like a 10-year blogiversary really - or maybe it is only seven or eight? I can’t even remember how long I have been blogging or even the addresses of some of my old blogs.
Having a blogiversary on the first of the month is much like having your birthday on the first of the year. You see how I did that? I let my little quirk for starting things on the first control me so that I started my latest blog incarnation exactly six months from my birthday. I’m sure if I had a therapist they would having something to say about this little control issue of mine but I don’t so we won’t worry about it. Let’s just say that this anniversary of sorts (and another, much more important one that is coming up) has me reflecting on where life is going these days and what I need to do to make it go in the direction I want. Hmmm… this all sounds rather vague which is not my intention. Let’s just say that this time last year I wasn’t in a position to really think about anything beyond the day-to-day constant nursing needs of our little miss and how I was going to combat my night anxiety (still not there yet). Let’s also just say that I really miss writing - on this blog and elsewhere - and I’m going to make changes in that direction. Because really, other than that life is 100% awesome.
Someone just woke up from her nap.
For fun I will enumerate why life is so awesome compared to this time last year: (more…)
The Mister & I are late to the Modest Mouse party. He started downloading them over a year ago (or more? - my nephew mentioned them when he moved to town) and I was kinda ugh about them at first. Now that there is an actual income coming into this apartment the Mister has started buying their CDs because he likes them so much and guess who can’t stop listening to them? ME. Serioulsy, I’m a little addicted right now. Amazing stuff. Ocean Breathes Salty, Float On. Best played really loud while driving.
Keep Calm and say what now?
I’ve been writing this post for weeks. I started the day Moira got fired from her day home (but really, I had been writing it in my head for a week before that). Well, not fired per se but we got the “this isn’t working out” speech and she isn’t going back. It’s true, it wasn’t working out. She was happy at first but hasn’t been for the last couple of weeks and it is a combination of things that I don’t feel like getting into except to say that I think the environment was way too stressful for her. She also picked up some nasty attitude that I now have to re-adjust. (Good luck, eh?) I was planning on pulling her out after my current contract ended (the day home also moved last week to a place further away and we try and us the car as little as possible in the winter) but this does leave me in a bit of a bind which is temporarily being remedied by her wonderful grandmothers.
I’m starting to think I’m not great at this whole balance thing - it’s kind of all or nothing for me and I really need to work on that. The truth is, I like to work and I am enjoying my job right now but the stress of dropping Moira off and not knowing what kind of day she was going to have was getting to me. The past month has been very stressful because, as with every new job, I have to adjust to a new workload. I’ve been spending a lot of evenings working too which means spending very little time for the Mister. Before I started working and abandoning Moira with strangers I was working out almost every day too and now… nothing. Now I have to find somewhere new for Moira too and go through that adjustment process again. I don’t know how you moms who work full-time do it. The friend I work with asked me if I would like to come and work for them full-time in a position that I would have jumped at had it not been for Moira. Right now I won’t even consider it. I have no interest in dropping her off at daycare first thing in the morning, picking her up and then only getting to spend an hour with her before bedtime.
Anyway, work (will talk about my awesome job in another post someday) is really ramping up right now as the event is fast approaching. These days I spend almost no time doing personal things on the computer. I have an inbox full of personal e-mails I haven’t responded to so if you are one of those people (like, my best friend who got MARRIED (on paper) and I haven’t even e-mailed her back yet - yikes!) I apologize and I will either a) get to it someday or b) declare e-mail bankruptcy and just start again so it might be wise to send me another e-mail if you want to get a hold of me.
Passing out on the floor post-media launch earlier this week. At least my new job lets me wear some of my vintage western shirts.
I don’t remember much about elementary school thanks to a bad concussion. I know my music tastes then, like most kids, revolved around what was on the radio and I was really REALLY into Madonna but even that didn’t last for long (the last album of hers I owned was True Blue). My Junior High years were filled with tapes taken from my older brother who finally thought I was interesting enough to be deemed worthy of some of his time - probably due to the fact that I liked his music. The first four albums were his but I listened to them so much I started wearing out the tapes. The last album was one I asked for at Christmas one year much to my family’s shock and resulted in much teasing.
Hours were spent listening to these albums on my giant blue Sony Sports walkman (I’m still the only person I know to this day who had a blue one - those things were awesome and indestructible given the teenage girls penchant to obsessively rewind a tape to listen to the same song over and over again) either laying in bed at night, on the bus for my ridiculously long commute to school (a bus, then the train, then another bus) or while walking Belle, our Dalmatian in the field near our house. That Dalmatian got walked A LOT - when the weather was nice and one of us kids needed to get away. Otherwise she got ignored and pooped in the basement. (more…)
I didn’t get a chance to finish my planned Music Monday post today because it is a big one. But what I will do is tell you to go over to my friend Alex’s blog Strawberry Lemonade and watch the unique commercials she did recently for Frito Lay. The music in all of them is fantastic and now I have another whack of artists I need to check out.
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Totally unrelated rant: I’m rather disgusted by the amount of people Tweeting about the premiere of Jon & Kate Plus Eight tonight. I’ve never seen the show and I’m sure I’ve gone on about my hatred for (so-called) Reality TV before but I think there is something seriously wrong with people who think it is okay to exploit their children on TV and air their fights for the world to see. All the Tweets were about how crazy the episode was and how the marriage is falling apart etc. But what is really sad is that these people are given a license to act this way and put their children through that because people will watch.
You see I’m always saying “If I could draw I would draw *insert situation here*” but I can’t draw. Okay, anyone can draw, but I can’t draw well enough to take whatever fantastic image is in my head and translate legibly it onto a piece of paper. (I also wish I had camera eyes - you know, where you just click them shut and they save an image forever - so I tend to go around blinking hard saying “click click” when I am in a situation where I can’t pull out my actual camera. Everyone does that right?)
However, Lucy Knisley can draw - and not only can she draw well but she can totally make fun of Twilight while doing it. I think she is my cartoon soul mate.
And I have said it before but I will say it again: freezing marble-like angsty vampire? Or warm-bodied male who turns into a dog? Is there even a debate? Plus my pet-Nazi landlord would never even know I got a dog!
Have a great weekend!
Ps. I was at a music store the other day and saw a t-shirt that said I *heart* boys who sparkle and I threw up in the store and then I went home and designed a shirt that said I *heart* boys who shed.
Pps. Only part of that story is true.
My hair at 9 a.m. this morning:
Extra crazy since I washed it before going to bed - which is a big no-no in the curly haired world.
My hair at 11 a.m. this morning: (more…)
I have a total fun hangover today. I guess once I decided to stop drinking my body felt it still needed to punish me so whenever I stay up late having fun I pay for it the next day. I say this not just so you can laugh at me but also to inform you that I won’t be waxing poetical about last night, instead lets do a little point form recap: (more…)
When I was 19-years old I fell madly, head-over-heels in love. For the most part, at least in the beginning (isn’t that always the way it is?) things were great. We did the long distance thing for a year which was filled with romance, misunderstandings, heartbreak and countless love letters moving between provinces. The following year I uprooted my life, changed universities and moved to the same city as him. It was an interesting time, I often feel that I was trying to be someone I wasn’t and competing with something I couldn’t see or name. I often felt uncool, unworthy and I drank way too much and fell - although not realizing it until years later - into a anxiety-filled depression. We spent six years together and were considered the “It” couple amoung our friends (which really were just his friends) until I forced the point about where our future was going. Not for a moment do I regret the decision I made to tell him that by not wanting to make a decision his decision was clear and I walked out the door and out of his life (although it was quite the struggle getting to that point). In the end we wanted different things: he to move back to Montreal and continue being a rock/movie star and me someone who didn’t make me feel like spending Saturday night going to the movies was a waste of time or - and this was the big one - someone who didn’t make me feel like Jack Daniels or Jim Beam were higher on their list of priorities. (more…)
Making the decision to have a child is momentous. It is to decide forever to have your heart go walking around outside your body.
~Elizabeth Stone
My place to talk about life, literature, photography, daughters, dogs, and the healing properties of a good cup of tea and a ginger biscuit.
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