I'm back online and oh so happy to be here.
Also making me happy this week:
- Laughing at Wheel of Fortune with Chip. I blame my mother for it. She watched it religiously when she was here and we just sort of ... got used to it. Now 7pm hits and we're laughing at Pat and Vanna and trying to guess the puzzles. There was a total Wheel savant on there tonight (College Week) and we couldn't get over his facial expressions. Do you remember when the winning contestant would go shopping after each round? Dude, what a RIP OFF. I remember wondering about the $750 lamps. Now they just give away cash and trips. I bet there are more than a few old contestants who have bored their family to death with the whole, "I was on Wheel in 1980 and won $10,000 and all I have to show for it is this dumb couch."
- Overheard from the living room: Fergus, don't eat the chair!!!
- Alice Alice Alice (we've got lots of chewing on fists this week)
- We're headed to Philadelphia (yes, all three of us) in 11 days. Chip has to go for a workplace seminar. Alice and I are tagging along. I'm a wee bit nervous to travel with a 2-month-old baby. That's all I have to say about that.
- Have I mentioned being back back BACK online???
Wednesday, April 30, 2008
Wednesday, April 23, 2008
bomb clock
I'd had a pretty good list of blog topics in my head. It was starting to rival the list of blog topics I had in my head pre-Bean's arrival, and that's saying something. (I used to compose these little in-head blog entries on the bus - sure, it looked like I was daydreaming but see I was composing which is so much better...)
Somehow there was a cosmic connection between our hard drive and my blog brain because they've sort of vanished from my head. Pfft - gone.
I absolutely hate reading blog entries where the blogger is all I have nothing to say! Read about how I have nothing to say!
And yet here I am. Doing just that.
I'll tell you this: the hard drive situation is beyond horrid. I HATE not having a computer except for the few minutes when I can hijack Chip's laptop. Actually, the feeling I have about the laptop is very similar to how I feel about doing so many things these days: like I'm on borrowed time. You know those count-down clocks they have on bombs in the movies? The clock is counting down 30-29-28-27 meanwhile our hero is sweating profusely, trying to evacuate the building and it's super super SUPER tense. I feel like that from the minute Chip gets home from work. I hand off the baby and then race around the house, trying to update the blog, write in Bean's journal, check email, do some dishes, do some laundry, pump. All the while I'm looking in on Chip with Bean, telling Chip that I'm almost done - I'll be right there - just one more minute.
What's stupid about this is that he has never given me reason to think that he's watching the clock in any way. He's happy to take her, happy to spend time with her, happy to change diapers. I have wondered lately if this rushrushrush feeling is part of the New Normal.
Speaking of count downs... I hear a baby that needs me.
Somehow there was a cosmic connection between our hard drive and my blog brain because they've sort of vanished from my head. Pfft - gone.
I absolutely hate reading blog entries where the blogger is all I have nothing to say! Read about how I have nothing to say!
And yet here I am. Doing just that.
I'll tell you this: the hard drive situation is beyond horrid. I HATE not having a computer except for the few minutes when I can hijack Chip's laptop. Actually, the feeling I have about the laptop is very similar to how I feel about doing so many things these days: like I'm on borrowed time. You know those count-down clocks they have on bombs in the movies? The clock is counting down 30-29-28-27 meanwhile our hero is sweating profusely, trying to evacuate the building and it's super super SUPER tense. I feel like that from the minute Chip gets home from work. I hand off the baby and then race around the house, trying to update the blog, write in Bean's journal, check email, do some dishes, do some laundry, pump. All the while I'm looking in on Chip with Bean, telling Chip that I'm almost done - I'll be right there - just one more minute.
What's stupid about this is that he has never given me reason to think that he's watching the clock in any way. He's happy to take her, happy to spend time with her, happy to change diapers. I have wondered lately if this rushrushrush feeling is part of the New Normal.
Speaking of count downs... I hear a baby that needs me.
Tuesday, April 22, 2008
hard drive addendum
I should have added the obvious consequence of the hard drive crash is that I'm totally without internet until Chip comes home with his laptop at night. Ugh.
Monday, April 21, 2008
the day the hard drive died
My parents and my younger brother and his wife were in town this weekend. There is a particular vortex of bad juju that follows my parents when they visit us here. I won't go into too many details - but in the past we've had things like head injuries (to my cousin who was watching their dog while they were out of town) and particularly heinous sleeping experiences. This trip didn't disappoint. Apparently Russia blessed us with some kind of cosmic death weather and we had SNOW, SLEET, HAIL, THUNDER AND LIGHTENING, and have I mentioned SNOW??? IN APRIL??? It was colder here than it was in Utah where they live. Luckily they were all good sports and they made the most of the trip.
One of my favorite random memories from this trip was from Friday evening when I was driving my parents and Bean to pick up dinner. It had been snowing for some time, and I kept trying to explain that Seattle snow is VERY DIFFERENT from Utah snow. It's so much heavier, for one thing. And secondly, it's extraordinarily wet. This makes for some pretty slippery conditions while driving. Not to mention that we Northwesterners just aren't that used to the snow anyway. So, um, we don't really drive in it all that well. Yours truly most definitely included. I can manage to run into a telephone pole on the flatest of streets (true story). I try to avoid driving in The White Stuff whenever I can. So - here I am, driving my mother and father around in April Snow Death Watch 2008 and I'm telling them about how we have to be so careful. And already we're slipping and sliding all over the place. Meanwhile I have my brother and his wife following us in a rental car. The bro is no slouch with the Extreme Driving (for the sake of our relationship I do not sit in the front seat when Little Bro drives - it's just better for EVERYONE). This is seriously the longest introduction EVER to tell you that Winston just kept telling me to drive ZIPPY. As in, Whimsy - just zip on in there! Take no prisoners! You can do it! Zip! Zip! ZIPPY!!!
Anyway, the weekend was awesome despite weather heinousness, the Little Bro getting a speeding ticket, and a particularly unfortunate experience at Red Robin.
The Little Bro also did some doctoring of our PC. HOURS of doctoring. And then this morning, our hard drive just up and DIED. DONE. OVER. ENDED. MAKING HORRID NOISES AND THEN PLLLLLLUUUUUUUUUUUTTTTTZZZZZZZZZZZZ.
How was your weekend?
One of my favorite random memories from this trip was from Friday evening when I was driving my parents and Bean to pick up dinner. It had been snowing for some time, and I kept trying to explain that Seattle snow is VERY DIFFERENT from Utah snow. It's so much heavier, for one thing. And secondly, it's extraordinarily wet. This makes for some pretty slippery conditions while driving. Not to mention that we Northwesterners just aren't that used to the snow anyway. So, um, we don't really drive in it all that well. Yours truly most definitely included. I can manage to run into a telephone pole on the flatest of streets (true story). I try to avoid driving in The White Stuff whenever I can. So - here I am, driving my mother and father around in April Snow Death Watch 2008 and I'm telling them about how we have to be so careful. And already we're slipping and sliding all over the place. Meanwhile I have my brother and his wife following us in a rental car. The bro is no slouch with the Extreme Driving (for the sake of our relationship I do not sit in the front seat when Little Bro drives - it's just better for EVERYONE). This is seriously the longest introduction EVER to tell you that Winston just kept telling me to drive ZIPPY. As in, Whimsy - just zip on in there! Take no prisoners! You can do it! Zip! Zip! ZIPPY!!!
Anyway, the weekend was awesome despite weather heinousness, the Little Bro getting a speeding ticket, and a particularly unfortunate experience at Red Robin.
The Little Bro also did some doctoring of our PC. HOURS of doctoring. And then this morning, our hard drive just up and DIED. DONE. OVER. ENDED. MAKING HORRID NOISES AND THEN PLLLLLLUUUUUUUUUUUTTTTTZZZZZZZZZZZZ.
How was your weekend?
Thursday, April 17, 2008
return of thankful thursday
There is no shortage of bad news in the world. Even when I'm not actively seeking it, it finds me: in the grocery store, overheard conversations, the newspaper headlines, news homepages on the web, in everyday conversation. I feel covered in it, and it seriously affects my mood. It's hard to feel good about life when the world itself seems poised for implosion.
These days I try to turn from it - to protect my ears, my heart from the soul-sucking damage of Too Much Bad News. I have a feeling that hiding out isn't the answer. It's probably more along the lines of finding balance. Being aware of the darkness that is lurking outside my door while also giving thanks for some of the most precious and beautiful things that I have in abundance.
A few for today:
- Emily's surprise visit last night. Chocolate shakes & help with the dishes notwithstanding.
- The smell of Bean's head. A strange and wonderful combination of flowers, baby lotion, and milk.
- The way Chip talks to Alice when he's changing her diaper. I've never heard him this way before, and it's wonderful.
- My two hands. I am grateful to have them and all that they help me to do.
These days I try to turn from it - to protect my ears, my heart from the soul-sucking damage of Too Much Bad News. I have a feeling that hiding out isn't the answer. It's probably more along the lines of finding balance. Being aware of the darkness that is lurking outside my door while also giving thanks for some of the most precious and beautiful things that I have in abundance.
A few for today:
- Emily's surprise visit last night. Chocolate shakes & help with the dishes notwithstanding.
- The smell of Bean's head. A strange and wonderful combination of flowers, baby lotion, and milk.
- The way Chip talks to Alice when he's changing her diaper. I've never heard him this way before, and it's wonderful.
- My two hands. I am grateful to have them and all that they help me to do.
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