Year: 2008

I am lucky that my job is flexible enough to allow me to basically determine my own hours and it’s coming in awfully handy right now. I know that lots of people work different shifts so that they don’t have to pay for childcare – but I have to say, after 2 weeks of this and looking at 2 more weeks, I’m running on fumes.

This no childcare thing, plus the fact that I moved offices and switched computers which has led to one software nightmare after another (hours and hours of walking back and forth between two computers – outside in the snow, uphill both ways, calling the help desk and waiting and waiting and losing hours of work into the ether of cyberspace), plus the fact that I had my first attorney interview this week to discuss the “merits of my arguments”, plus the fact that I’m getting up at 4 am, plus various other crazy things in the background behind the blog, has led to some emotional moments where I just want to sit in my chair and cry.

Nothing terrible has happened, it’s just that everything just seems little overwhelming to me (including the huge pile of laundry that needs to be done).

I think I’m about to join a church. Do I believe in an all powerful being (a.k.a. God)? Not really – but I believe in community, hard work and the miracle of human interaction. I’m looking for a group of people who get together, have potlucks and help each other through good times and bad times. I figured out that that is pretty much what church is, so I went off looking for one that I would like.

I started looking for a church about 6 years ago, right after Vince was born. I went to the Unitarian Universalist church and the Quaker church, both in Austin, TX for a few weekends – it kind of wasn’t the right fit or the right time.

The UU Austin church talked too much, the Quaker church didn’t talk enough. So I stopped going. I didn’t do any more searching for 5 years.

Now that we are back in the States, I found the local Unitarians. I went to a a month of Sundays by myself; they were a fun mix of family, singing, meeting and greeting – lots of kids, lots of families, lots of older folks.

Last week I brought Vince to Sunday School (!) and sat in on his class, where they talked about ecology, recycling paper, saving the Earth and did a Maypole dance.

He wants to go back.

I have to say, the other reason I’m looking for a church is so I can find some folks who will be part of Edda’s community of friends which is separate from her school friends.

Everyone has been enthusiastic about Edda joining Sunday School, I just have to work on my own nervousness.

With our new work schedule (otherwise known as, trying to keep it together with no childcare), we are not getting much sleep or work done, but at least the kids are enjoying more time with us (the swing is finally up, thank you kiki and kappa and gong gong and pua pua for your support in this endeavor.)

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I called our babysitter on Tuesday night, hopeful that her two day orientation was done and that she had determined her night shift schedule. I hung on to a little bit of hope that maybe she could still help us out 2 or 3 afternoons a week, but alas, she needed another full day of orientation and instead of doing night shift work (11pm – 7am), they needed her on swing shift (3pm – 11pm), so basically any hope of afternoon help during the month of May has evaporated. I’m happy for our babysitter, nothing like getting a good job that pays a bunch more, but we are in the lurch for childcare during May.

Jeremy’s going to go into work after the kids are off on the bus and I’m going to catch the 5am train and be at work at 6. Then at noon, I’m headed home for the afternoon dropoffs from school. Then I have to work a full day on Saturday to make up my hours.

I’m crossing my fingers that no one gets really sick and that the Metro remains my trustworthy mode of transportation!

This year, Mom is confronting a present mysterious reality. Her allergy is gone almost completely. I am sure that her immune system is working fine because she has mild arthritis.

Mom thinks it is because:

1) staying in China for six months which was equivalent of having allergy shot everyday
2) or, eating a lot of different kinds of mushrooms recently
3) or, having a lot of sour creams.
4) or, any combination of the above three.

I think, however, there is one more – an old but new-and-improved partner 🙂

Jeremy has been wanting to turn the compost pile ever since the weather warmed up. Saturday night, I was dumping yet another pile of kitchen scrap into the compost when I tapped the side of the plastic contraption too hard and it sprung open. I guess it was a sign that I needed to turn the compost right at that moment. We are not very diligent composters, we don’t turn it often enough and because of that, it is a little smelly. Therefore, I smelled.

My compost = vegetable scraps and shredded junk mail.