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Yesterday was TERRIBLE and a good book
Aug 13, 2008 work work work 5 Comments
I can’t even tell you; it was just that bad. Today is better. It started off by getting a new client, it continued with a great phone call from one of my mentors, it went on with a well-deserved apology from my stressed but that’s no excuse husband, and right now it’s glowing with the quiet contentment of my two kids. Even though my childcare canceled (Gram Pam has a rotten stomach bug — send well wishes her way!), my late checks still aren’t showing up and I have this Great Big Hairy assignment due soon, I’m feeling a little more stable than yesterday.
Life is not easy, darn it, even when I wish it were.
There are things that make it easier. Things like friends on twitter who catch a grouchy tweet and lob it back with an offer of help. And things like friends via email who just so happen to ask how you’re doing when you really want to let loose. And another is commenters such as Cinnamon who may not like Columbus but who make great bags and turned me onto a really terrific, much needed book (The Boss of You). I wish I had this book a year and a half ago when I was just getting started!
What I love about The Boss of You is that it doesn’t assume that you’re in it to get rich, to make infromercials or to one day speak in title case To Show the World That You Are Here to Seize Control. In other words, it’s a business book for punk rockers, former and current riot grrls, crunchy granola earthmamas, feminists in sensible shoes and other women like us.
One of the biggest challenges I’ve had (and am still having to be honest) is moving around in the work-a-day world trying to grok the people who wear business clothes and speak in a language that doesn’t always make sense to me. (Although I was recently in a research study for seventy-five bucks and I said to the researcher, “I think this campaign is likely to go viral” and then “this ad copy doesn’t seem as sticky to me” so I must be picking it up somewhere.) Like all the people in marketing? They’re totally really fit. Like serious runners — marathoners, triatheletes. They have shiny eyes and friendly intensity. In fact, they make me want to have a bowl of ice cream and take a nap. I’m undone by such unbridled enthusiasm and intimidated by neatly pressed wardrobes. I’m not saying that I’m a slob but I’ve been known (as blog readers are aware) to use a stapler to fix a drooping hem and I’m prone to put off getting haircuts — the expense! — because I’d rather save that money for a rainy day.
In other words, I haven’t felt this out of place since about middle school.
Happily the people I’m meeting are much nicer than my peers in middle school so it’s not about that — it’s about learning to operate in a world that doesn’t necessarily share my values. Not like my values are all fired-up awesome or anything but they’re mine and I’m fond of them. Figuring out how to be me yet still communicate with people who are not much like me has been hard. And I don’t always do it right. Sometimes I think that’ll be the ruin of me but then books like this crop up and make it easier.
Once I was crying to Chris about this and I wailed, “But I don’t want to be a business woman!” and she shot back, “That’s because you have some crazy idea about what that means!” pointing out that maybe my prejudices were at issue and holding me back. It’s true, too, because I keep thinking I have to be my dad to be successful and while my dad has many things to teach me, I have to keep reminding myself that I can do it my own way. (I think. Yikes.)
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Kids Know Stuff
Aug 12, 2008 Friends Leave a comment
And they know about kid stuff. My friend Abby has started a product review site powered by her kids and the stuff they know about stuff. Targeted to kids, the site has videos of product reviews and she’s going to be working out some promotional efforts in a few weeks here. Meanwhile, stop on by KidsKnowStuff.com and give ‘em a holler. Better yet, let your kids do the hollering — after all the site is for kids who know stuff!!
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First day down
Aug 11, 2008 The Story of My Life 3 Comments
And no one died, burst into tears (ok Madison did once but it’s because she saw a spider) or fell down the stairs. Yes, we survived the day without Brett. It wasn’t easy — I had to make my own coffee and the children had to suffer through my Mac & Cheese, which isn’t as good as Daddy’s — but we did it.
The kids and I cleaned 3/4 of the basement, which made a pretty big difference. I also moved the bright light downstairs, leaving the living room in near darkness. But it’s worth it to know my children aren’t squinting at their toys.
Madison is a lousy cleaner having no attention span and being easily distracted by every toy we unearthed. Noah spoiled me with his focused, attentive cleaning by age four, I guess. I finally quit nagging her and just set her up out of our way since she kept tipping over piles of stuff we’d just sorted. Now she’s very happily playing with, I think, her duplos. (”No,” she says. “PLAYMOBIL!” Sorry. Missed that.)
I’m grouching about a couple of late checks — both large-ish, one spectacularly late and one the same late it is every month. I dearly wish every client would pay in a timely manner instead of making me send repeated reminders. It’s part of freelancing that I really, really don’t like but there it is. I don’t know a freelancer in the world who doesn’t contend with it.
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Naming Meme
Aug 11, 2008 Parenting, The Story of My Life 7 Comments
(Seen over at Jenna’s livejournal)
Who named your child?: Brett and I named Noah. Pennie named Madison.
What did you name him/her?: Noah Ice. Madison Michael.
When did you come up with the name?: I can’t remember when we settled on Noah but it was probably somewhere around the end of the second or the start of the third trimester. We didn’t know if he was a boy or a girl so we had both a boy and a girl name ready. (Girl name was either going to be Sadie Friedman or maybe Ella Friedman. We were pretty cemented on Sadie but then while I was in labor listening to Ella Fitzgerald I changed my mind.)
Where were you when you came up with the name?: Probably at home in our apartment. We found out Madison’s name when we first met Pennie, which was at the German Village Max & Erma’s.
Why did you pick that name?: We picked Noah because we wanted him to have a gentle sounding name and I was rooting for a name from the Hebrew scriptures. (Brett voted down Eliezer so I named my hard drive Eliezer. Heh.) We rejected Simon and Linus and Milo (because we once owned a cat named Milo and my brother said, “If you name the baby that, I will tell him you named him after a cat that you gave away when you moved.”) I should have known that Noah would become mega-popular when every single person who heard the name loved it. If everyone loves your baby name then it will be used by everyone. Just be warned.
Back in my day, I’d never met a Noah who wasn’t Jewish so imagine my surprise when it became one of the most popular secular names ever. Plus since we homeschool, people sometimes assume we must be fundamentalist Christians what with the name and the homeschooling. I should have named him George.
Ice is my mom’s last name so he’s named for my mother.
Pennie picked Madison’s name after studying baby name lists; she just liked it. Michael is after her beloved brother who was named after her dad so Madison carries on her birth family tradition there.
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Added a slideshow
Aug 10, 2008 Pictures 6 Comments
It’s non-identifying pics of the kids over at the About Me page.
I was messing around for a client and this plugin worked so well and was so easy that I went ahead and added it to my own site.
It’s the NextGen Gallery plugin for wordpress and it was a cinch to install. I see it in Jenna’s future!