this woman’s work

I’m gloomy because of McCain not caring if women die and rolling his eyes at Obama for apparently not knowing his place. I’m going to list Happy Thoughts, dammit, especially because my across the street neighbor didn’t wave when I drove by (she glanced at my van then looked away — usually she smiles and waves) and I noticed she was wearing a 2nd Amendment t-shirt so maybe she hates my Obama sign. (sigh) Plus a kid in Noah’s Hebrew class told him that Obama was anti-semitic. How depressing is THAT???

Enough!! On to the list!!!!

1. Noah and his friends were breakdancing in front of the rec center after homeschool gym class. Then Noah tried to do a freeze and couldn’t do it so he said, “Oh snap!” Also he kept saying, “Oh no he didn’t!” every time McCain would roll his eyes during the debate last night. That made me laugh.
2. Madison is cleaning her room. I tricked her into it by casually saying, “Hey, I totally don’t want you to clean your room AT ALL but could you pick up all the clothes on the floor and just put them on the bed so I can put them away later?” Then I said, “That’s great! I wonder if you could happen to perhaps fit those books on the floor back into the bookshelf?” Now she’s cleaning off her desk. Heh. Kids are gullible!
3. Today is Thursday. That means potluck. That means restful conversation and friends. All hail Thursdays!
4. It’s cool and gray out and looks like fall. It’s lovely. Plus I got to officially break out all of my sweaters and since I’m sick of my summer clothes, this is happy, too.
5. We have mini-chocolate chips in the house. That means COOKIES! As soon as Madison is done in her room we’re going to whip up a batch for potluck.
6. My kids are gorgeous. I don’t mean to brag but they are. And funny and smart and generally nice people.
7. My husband is nice to me even when I’m nasty to him. I’ve been a terrible grouch this week and visiting way too much of it on him. Thank god he’s patient. I would have kicked me to the curb by now. (I’d send myself to my room if the kids wouldn’t follow me.)
8. The house is trashed but … but … (I’m trying to wring some happiness out of this but am coming up blank. Wait! I have it!) The house is trashed because I’ve had a lot of work. I won’t mind the mess when the checks start showing up and meanwhile I have some time this afternoon to make a dent in it.

OK, I feel better now. Mostly.

Watching Abby’s kids is easier than watching just my two because they’re keeping each other entertained. Thanks Abby! Thanks for loaning your kids and thanks for volunteering to make Obama our next president by helping out at the rally!!!

I used to think I couldn’t even bother to try to make friends with Abby because our kids didn’t match up right. See, when it comes to parent-friends, if your kids don’t match up right it’s not worth hanging out because the kids will just clash and make the grown-ups miserable. Abby’s daughters are two years younger than Noah and her youngest daughter is a year older than Madison. Age and gender, I assumed, would keep us apart.

But! Fortunately boys mature later than girls and Noah has never been hung up on gender as a prerequisite to friendship so eventually the big kids discovered each other and lo! A friendship was born. I believe video games is what brought them together but maybe it was Neopets. I can’t really remember.

Anyway, they are bestest friends now and Noah’s day isn’t complete without at least one speaker phone call with them.

Then Maya, her youngest, is willing to play with Madison (even though Maya is more mature — she is, I’m not being facetious) so that means both our big kids and our little kids happily playdate, which means the moms can playdate, too! Oh joy!

Now Kristen, I’ve know her for 11 years now — she was my La Leche League leader. I was at the first meeting she led solo (I remember they gave her a mug filled with chocolate to honor her new leaderhood the day I came). Her oldest, Jake, was then her only and he was two. I remember this because she said, “This is my son, Jake. He’s two and he is all of that!” meaning that he was the two-est two he could be. (This was true! Jake has always been the most Jake-est that he could be!) Noah was about eight months old. So there, too, I thought, well, I love Kristen and we’ll be friends but I won’t see much of her because our kids don’t match up right.

When Molly was born two years later, they still didn’t match but then Ginger came along about six weeks after Madison’s arrival and our daily friendship was cemented! And as it happens, the boys mature late thing works for us there, too, because Noah likes hanging with Molly now, which is something that didn’t happen until they both his these tween years. (I mean, they’ve known each other all of their lives but it’s only been this summer that Molly and Noah have had anything to say to each other and now they’ll happily spend the afternoon just hanging out.)

Becca asked where this spate of socializing came from and I wrote her back and explained it so I thought I’d explain it here. Although Thursday has always been Thursday because that’s when homeschool gym is and so there’s a lot of meeting up at parks after or trading kids or carpooling. And before THAT we used to have a rotating playdate at people’s houses and that happened to be on Thursdays, too.

I guess Thursdays are just my days. (And I like Thursday, too, because of the T and the R, which make it a nice purpley-green color in some stable but friendly serif font.)

Came home to 109 blog posts in my reader. Yikes. Luckily my inbox wasn’t as bad because I checked in all day in my iPod. God bless the iPod Touch.

Got to talk to Julia tonight after a long, long time. Way too long. Life is better with Julia in it!!!

Tomorrow isn’t as busy. I’m getting started on a client project that’s been waiting on some info and I need to prepare for a workshop I’m giving Thursday morning and a training I’m leading Thursday afternoon. Also I have an interview thingie in the morning. Then Thursday potluck!!! Then Friday will be quieter ’til late afternoon when I’ve got a phone conference then Madison has her first soccer practice and I think there’s dinner with friends (not sure about that part). But! Still quieter because at least tomorrow I don’t have to leave the house at all on Wednesday and not until late on Friday.

I got a great pep talk from my dad this afternoon after my meeting. He helped me focus on how to do some things I wanted to do but wasn’t sure how.

Sometimes there are lights at the end of tunnels!

I finished most (not all) of my work to-do list but tomorrow is pretty open to get more done. I have a phone interview with a potential client in the afternoon but otherwise nothing scheduled so I want to crank out at least most of a big project (we want it to launch by the end of next week) so I can clear my desk to start research on another big project (also due at the end of next week).

Today is Thursday, which means Abby and Kristen are already off having a gay old time with Lynne and the kids but I’m not with ‘em ‘cuz I had work. Fortunately they took Noah (Madison didn’t mind staying behind since Brett was staying, too) since it’s the big kid who really suffers when we miss out on stuff. Brett and I are waiting for the husbands to get off work and then we’re all car pooling over there for pizza. I hope that I’ve figured out how to relax by then — I think I may just have to have a drink tonight. So there. And I think I’ll leave my cell and iPod at home. (Dare I? Oh rats. Yes. Darnit, I’m taking the night off!)

Brett asked me today what my dream job was and I said writing stuff I want to write (in a cabin in the woods and one of those fancy but not too fancy cabins, too, more like a Usonian house than Laura Ingalls) but if he means my dream job in light of a need to make money, I’d still say this is pretty close. It’s not like I spend all — or some weeks even most — of my time writing stuff that gets me all hot and bothered but it’s still writing or strategizing and talking to people who are passionate about what they want to do, all of which I like. Someday I hope to spend lots of time alone (with my family — they can come, too) in the green quiet writing essays but meanwhile this will do. Especially if there are friends with pizza and hard cider at the end of it.

But around here Thursday means go-go-go. Thursday is the day that makes me love my freelance lifestye. Thursday is the day where Brett is thrilled not to have a “real” job. Thursday is park day and evening with friends day and the day my kids hang with the community that’s known them almost as long as we have.

Ahh, Thursdays!!!

But Thursdays are also stressful because there’s work to do first and snacks to pack and a dinner to plan on the run. And it makes for a late night, which can make Fridays a bit of a bear but is it worth it? Yes, indeed it is.

I had a rant to write but a good night’s sleep and Thursday put me in too good a mood to really get down and crank on the world. Maybe tomorrow I’ll wake up less happy but for today? THURSDAY! And off we go!

1. Madison started guppy swim class this morning. She did great although there were some tears. What kills me about this kid is that she tries even when she’s crying. She’s so brave. She ended up having a great time — laughing, splashing and handing out high fives — but now she says she will never go again. I’m chalking it up to exhaustion because she’s also having a fit anytime goes every so slightly out of whack. Poor baby.
2. I’ve got a lot of catch up from being off-site for three days last week and having the panel on Monday. I like being busy and I like having a long to-do list where I get to cross stuff off. It’s very satisfying.
3. We’re watching a friend of Noah’s for most of this week. The kid is a delight and no problem whatsoever. However there’s a lot of tween energy ricocheting off the walls here and when it comes to tween energy, less is more.
4. OpenAdoptionSupport.com has been busy this weekend. And someone posted a new FAQ today. A lot of discussion, most of which I don’t have time to address right now. Rats. Happily the community seems to be humming along just fine without me (as long as I’m around to make sure the tech stuff is functioning).
5. I’ve drunk more in the past three weeks than I have in the past three years. What this actually amounts to is three hard cider drinks in the past three weeks — one each on Thursday. It’s Abby’s fault. I don’t think I’m at risk to actually become a lush though. At least, not yet.
6. I may miss this Thursday for a work/fun event though. Depends on a whole host of things. Waiting to see about that.