Posted in June 2008 …

Jun 27 2008
1 Comment
Deep Thoughts, For better or for worse

Today’s theme song

“There’s a little black spot on the sun today
Its the same old thing as yesterday
Theres a black hat caught in a high tree top
Theres a flag pole rag and the wind wont stop

I have stood here before inside the pouring rain
With the world turning circles running round my brain
I guess Im always hoping that youll end this reign
But its my destiny to be the king of pain”

Yes, indeed Sting, indeed.

BTW, this song came to mind after reading a couple of work emails.

Jun 26 2008
4 Comments
Fav Post, For better or for worse

We hold these truths to be self-evident …

I thought of this phrase the other day as I packed up all of our belongings from my MIL’s house on Saturday afternoon for our trip back home. You see, I packed clothes, hygiene items, feeding accessories, ecetera for both myself and lil’ Monkey for the trip. And I KNEW, I just KNEW that I’d end up packing up everything, including DH’s clothes for the trip back. Why, you say? Because I’m a pushover for one, plus I’m a pretty organized packer (from all of those years as a traveling school photographer in college) AND I absolutely HATE waiting until the last minute to pack. At least, DH packed his own clothes for the trip there (20 minutes before we walked out the door, BTW).

But this got me thinking. What other things are just “truths to be self-evident” in my life? Here’s a short list that came to mind as I packed:

  1. Laundry. There will always be laundry. Even if you’ve put that last bit of clothing in the washer, the clothes you are wearing will need washing as soon as you take them off (this made me think briefly about going on a laundry strike and not changing my clothes for a week — yeah, right, will never happen. Especially underwear! Ew! Gross!)
  2. Dishes. Ditto. You’ve emptied the sink and the dishwasher. Now do you go on a hunger strike? Or just eat with your hands off of the floor?
  3. As soon as I start to catch up on work and sleep, Monkey (or I) will get sick and I’ll be back at square one in both areas and possibly more like #1 and #2.
  4. If DH says he’ll be home at X time and I COUNT on it by making dinner, he’ll be late by 15-30 minutes. GRRRRR. This one needs to change and I’ve expressed it numerous times. Maybe I should keep some cake on hand …

I’m sure there are others in my life that I’ll think of tomorrow as I drag myself through the day, but these are the ones I can think of right now.

So what truths do you hold to be self-evident in your life?

Jun 25 2008
1 Comment
Deep Thoughts

Sad to see you go

If you’ve visited this blog, you’ve undoubtedly noticed the quote at the top of the page. George Carlin was truly a great comedian and commentator on life as we know it. So insightful. I remember studying his court case against the FCC in my Media Law class in college and really feeling a great amount of respect for him.

As a Journalism student (yes, you couldn’t tell by these posts), we were taught to revere Tim Russert as well. He truly was one of the best in his field. I’m sad that in the past few years I’ve been sleeping in on Sunday mornings and not watching Meet the Press as much as I did in college. I’d probably be a little less politically handicapped for it.

These two deaths were shocking to me for some reason. I suppose it’s just a realization that I’m getting old and those who I’ve grown up with and looked up to in some sense are leaving us. Scary really. Can’t imagine all of the people I will be able to name when I reach 40, 50, and so on.

Anyway, sad to see both of you go.

Jun 24 2008
2 Comments
For better or for worse, Parenthood, Sickness and Health

A long, long weekend

Updated below

First, let me apologize for the stream of consciousness and grammatical errors you’re about to endure, should you read on. I spent the earlier part of last week trying to put in as many hours as I could since I would have to take one of my three working days off for our trip to my MIL’s in NC. We left Thursday night with the hope that if we traveled at night, lil’ Monkey’s schedule wouldn’t be too messed up and he could sleep the whole way. That worked fairly well. He woke up a few times but didn’t have any trouble going back to sleep.

While in NC, things went well in the sleep department, even better than it did for our last trip there. Monkey went to sleep without much fuss for both of his naps and at night. In fact, he slept longer than he usually does at home.

We originally intended to stay until Sunday morning but decided that the travel at night plan worked so well, we would do it again. Therefore, we left Saturday night. This time it didn’t go so smoothly.

We had a late start since we wanted to have dinner with my in-laws prior to leaving. The Cracker Barrel we ate at was really slow. It was here Monkey started his fussing. Once dinner was over and we said our good-byes, we prayed that once he was in the car with a bottle full of milk, he’d be asleep in no time. Not so much. For about the first half-hour it was fussing, then crying, then screaming. We pulled over, changed his diaper and gave him another bottle with the understanding that if he got too bad, we’ll turn around and go back to my MIL’s house.

Luckily, that didn’t happen. At this point, I was really looking forward to being home and I always have a difficult resolving the conflict I feel when plans are changed so drastically. For the next 2 hours, he slept.

When DH became tired and we changed drivers, Monkey woke up a little but fell back asleep with less trouble than previously. However, the rest of the way home, just about every half hour, he’d wake up a little fussing and whimpering and then fall back asleep. I’m not sure how DH slept through it but it was getting to me a little and I was really thankful when we arrived home.

Once at home, he woke up for about an hour and then went back to sleep and slept through the night. DH said he could see the comfort in lil’ Monkey’s face when he placed him in his crib.

On Sunday, he awoke with a fever of 101.6 and it stayed that way until he got up from his afternoon nap with a fever of 103.3. It was at this point we decided to take him to the hospital. I was so glad to have DH with me this time because I’ve been to the hospital so much with Monkey sans hubby. Again, they didn’t keep us there long and informed us that he has the lovely coxsackie virus. Fantastic. What a way to end a tiring weekend and start my week.

I had a client meeting today that I needed to cancel. DH’s car went into the shop prior to our leaving because it was having issues so our plan to drop him off at the car rental on the way to the sitter’s needed to be rearranged. All of this was going through my head as the doctor told us of the diagnosis. I tried to rework the plan for the next day but was too tired and frustrated to think (as I mentioned earlier, it takes me a while to resolve that unsettling feeling when plans change).

So Monkey is allowed to go back to daycare once his fever is gone for 24 hours. I think he’ll be able to go back in time for my next working day, thank goodness. He’s fever has come down a lot but still around 100. I can tell he still feels a little under-the-weather because he’s been fussy and not eating as well.

Once I’m rested, I have a few post ideas rattling around in my head from this past weekend I’ll be writing soon.

UPDATE: Looks like Monkey will not be going to daycare anytime soon. His fever just won’t go below 100. Ugh. Woe to me.

Jun 16 2008
7 Comments
Deep Thoughts, For better or for worse

Moving to Denmark

No. Not really.

However, I just watched a report on 60 minutes about how people in Denmark are the happiest people in the world and why. For one, the education of all citizens is paid for straight through university. Also, they have paid health care and subsidies for child and elder care. That could be a good portion of the happiness they experience.

Also, they have an average 37 hour work week, little unemployment or poverty and 6 weeks of vacation. That’s right. SIX WEEKS. Does Rosetta Stone sell Danish?

The country also has a low crime rate — stabbings are considered front page big headlines in major newspapers. They also haven’t experienced war or any type of conflict in over half a century.

Apparently, another reason is because they do not have high expectations. The report speculated that our need to achieve the ever-changing “American Dream” and to “keep up with the Joneses” are what cause so much unhappiness in our country. One Dane they interviewed said his goal in life was to “have a lot of time to spend with my family” and another said her goal was “to have a job I enjoy doing”.

The one thing that we as Americans would not like about living in Denmark though are the taxes. Something has got to pay for all of that free stuff, right? It seems they pay around 50% of their income toward taxes (or so said the 60 minutes report).

As the report ended, I thought about how I could incorporate at least the value of not-so-great expectations into my life since I really couldn’t change any of the other things dictated by our government, our culture and our history. Maybe this would be a life changing thing.

Then I changed the channel to the Fine Living Network. Oops. Mistake. I immediately saw a renovated bathroom that, of course, I instantly wanted. This new mindset won’t come so easily after all.

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