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prev home archive next Momentary Thought If I can get beyond the anxious feeling they generate, I could learn to like these metabolism boosters. I haven't thought about food once this morning, and I'm usually a big breakfast person. So, jittery, but not hungry. High/Low High: Slam-dunked something at work which has been causing me some anxiety. Low: The next semester of school starts tonight, when all I want to do after work is be with Calvin, snuggled up on the couch as the rain comes down. Current Obsession Counting calories and eating healthy. On today's menu: yogurt, a pita sandwich with hummus, feta, and cucumbers, and an apple. Grin Source A lady at work today is wearing suspenders. It makes me grin. I saw her and thought "comedian", for some reason. Storyteller Bio Dramatis Personnae Who I Read Recipes |
So. 24 hours later and nobody freaked out, and nobody unsubscribed, and nobody yelled at me. I guess it *is* safe to have an opinion. Who woulda thunk it? One lady, whose journal I read, actually sent me a note complimenting me on my bravery. Considering the controversial topic she writes about, often, on her website, that's a high compliment indeed! I didn't hear from several sources whose opinion I respect, and I'm not sure if that's a good thing or a bad thing. I even ran the entry past Calvin before I posted it, just to make sure I was being clear. So. Perhaps I'm making a mountain out of a molehill. I truly appreciated this entry from Iteration (scroll down past the Minutiae). Go check it out, it's a very interesting perspective and it made me think. ******************** Got my first submission for March's Storyteller. It was a great, creative idea. Go check it out! ******************** Michael is still at his mom's, with no input from him on if or when he'll be back. He's talked to Calvin a couple of times, and seems pretty chipper. Marie has been a little sick, and, I think, missing her brother. So the mood around Animal Planet has been a little subdued, and a little surreal. ******************** I got a letter from my sister a few days ago, in response to the one I sent her last week. Any letter from home skyrockets my mood. I barely want to wait until I actually get into the house to read it, and then I always read it out loud to Calvin (and the kids, if they happen to be in the vicinity). They're just such rarities, and now that my grandmother's health and faculties have so declined, my sister is the only one who writes me. I haven't talked about my sister much here, simply because we don't have a lot of interaction. She lives back in Maine with her four kids (three boys and a girl - the oldest) and her husband. They live on a parcel of land waaay back in the sticks, onto which they moved their trailer. There are no power lines, no phone lines, and no improved roads. Her husband works in excavation, and she herself tends to the household. Which is no easy task, since the kids range from age nine (ten?) down to three, with various schools and varying school activities. My sister is a great mom. On my visits back home, the kids are always running around, grubby, hyper, and grinning from ear to ear. They are extremely bright, with active imaginations. And my sister and her husband parent them with casual ease. Circumstances which would completely stress other people out, my sister handles very well. Their living situation is such that heat is sometimes iffy (in Maine! in winter!), whether or not the car will be able to make it up/down the driveway is debatable, running water is sometimes problematic, and electricity is dependant on a grumpy generator. Yet the kids are always fed and delivered to where they need to be, their clothes are always clean, the kids are bathed every day, and they're not all (parents included) throttling each other. Which isn't to say that my sister doesn't get stressed at their circumstances. She has very little adult interaction, is often stuck at home with no transportation and four bored kids, has frequent issues with the aforementioned heat/water/electricity, doesn't have a reliable phone, has very little money and often has to scrape by, and is often bored herself. And so I get the "my life is driving me crazy" spiel in her letters. The stuff that she writes about often have Calvin and I laughing our heads off, but with the edge of "Oh my God, how does she deal with all that crap from day to day?" But she always makes it, she always deals well, and above all, her family is stupidly happy. Man, I wish I could just get her *out* here! I've been trying for years to get her to visit me in AZ, but she's either pregnant (heh), just had a baby (heh), or is in the middle of the busy season for excavation, and so can't schlepp the kids off onto her husband long enough for a visit. I know she'd love it out here, and I'd love to have her. A lot of times I feel very disconnected from my family. As homesick as I get for Maine, it's sometimes hard to feel like I've got any relatives at all. Ah, well. When I finally achieve seven years at AcronymCo and qualify for my sabbatical, I plan on spending an entire month in Maine with Calvin and Marie, and renting a cabin on Sebego Lake (Big Sebego, or Little Sebego, whichever has something available). I shall entreat my sister to stay with us the whole time (arm twisting will not be necessary, I'm sure), and we'll have cookouts and swim in the lake, go fishing and feed the ducks. And my sister and I will corral the kids, have a fire on the shore, toss back some drinks, and gab gab gab. Because that's what we do. I do miss her. |
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Your Mission, should you choose to accept it...
Took a little hiatus from the missions... When you guys were kids, what was your favorite thing to go out and do with your parents? What do you like to do together with your kids now? Calvin and I have been discussing lately the importance of spending more involved time with the kids. Marie seems to like even simple things like walking the dogs or going on a bike ride, and she and I go to the library quite often. Michael is a little bit harder to entertain. At any rate, just spending time together is important, and it's easy to forget that just because we *live* together, doesn't mean we're *interacting* with one another.
Results From Yesterday's Mission Yesterday's Mission... Hah. Plenty of rain in these here parts to play in. Except it's cold. And I'm a big damned wussy. |