Haiku Friday #17: Generosity

My husband is in
The middle of his student
Teaching semester.

The head of his school's
English department bought four
Dress shirts in his size

So that he may have
Something nice to wear for job
Interviews this spring.

He said, "I've been broke
Before. I know what you are
Going through right now."

All he wants? That he
Pays it forward to someone
In need, when he can.

Wow. Talk about generous. This man has only met my husband fairly recently (within the last month or so), and he doesn't spend much time with him. But he saw fit to reach out and help us with something that could mean the difference between twice and more than three times our income next year. Those dress shirts are nice.

My father-in-law bought my husband a suit a few months ago to wear to interviews, too, so provided a job exists and Brandon is qualified for it, he may just get it. His dad also agreed to lend us the money for the PRAXIS test as well.

All this is really a lot off our minds. We were supposed to get our tax refund last Friday, but the date was changed to next Tuesday for some reason. That was a huge blow, considering that several bills are coming due in that time -- or have already. We're also looking at trying to pay off some that have gone past due with this rather large chunk of change we're expecting in the mail.

Yeah, preschool teachers? We don't make enough to support two adults and a toddler -- even with government help. And regardless of whether my husband is able to find a job with benefits after he graduates in May, we will lose our government health insurance in October. Why? Because apparently, eight dollars an hour is too much money, and in October our twelve months of "transitional assistance" with medical costs will end. But at least our son will get to keep his until we make about twice that.

But with help from our friends and family -- and the recent warm front -- it feels like we can conquer almost anything.


To read more haiku or to play along, check out A Mommy Story.

Date Night

On Saturday, my husband and I went out on a date. Because of how tight money has been for the past year, the last real, dinner-and-a-movie-date we went on was for my birthday -- back in August.

My parents had given us some cash and an offer of free babysitting (woot!) for a date night as our Valentine's day gift. We also had a gift card to P. F. Chang's, one of the few Asian restaurants my husband actually likes (he's very particular about Eastern-style foods).

We ordered a "dinner for two" and the lights dimmed just as we got our appetizer. For once, we had an evening that was actually... romantic. (No... wait, yes, we are parents, and we had a romantic evening to ourselves... huh? Does. Not. Compute.) We enjoyed a four-course meal and headed over to the movie theatre to see Coraline in 3-D.

Usually we don't see too many movies in the theatres because of the exorbitant ticket prices, narrow seats with stationary arms (as opposed to the kind that flip up so you can cuddle), cheap-ass food for an arm and a leg and your first born... oh yeah, and did I mention that we saw a movie in 3-D? Which requires those plastic goggles for which they want TWO. EXTRA. DOLLARS. PER. TICKET. My good Lord.

But we had heard from some friends that if we wanted to see Coraline, we should splurge for the 3-D showing. Of course, last weekend was the last opportunity to do so, as the Jonas Brothers are kicking poor Coraline out this coming weekend. Hint: if you are considering shelling out the extra cash to see a flick in 3-D, do yourself a favor and sit in the middle. A seat on either side will do you no good, and, in fact, make you a little dizzy and disoriented.

Movie theatre problems aside, it was even better than I'd hoped. There were plenty of modern Alice in Wonderland parallels, but it also had a bit of a Wizard of Oz, "no place like home" vibe (then again, those two stories are pretty similar themselves) -- but the audience is left a bit unsure of whether Coraline was dreaming or actually awake.

I'd like to keep this fairly spoiler-free, so I'll just say that like both Alice and Dorothy, Coraline gets what she wishes for, realizes it's not really what she wants, and has to use her brain to get back home.

And if you're planning to see it and haven't yet, stay through the credits. The bit at the end is very cool.

It's so nice to get out of the house for once. Spending time alone together isn't too hard when Adam goes to bed before 8 PM, but actually getting out and having a good time is something everybody needs. It really has a way of rejuvenating you.

New York, New York

Last weekend (February 6-8, not Valentine's Day) we had our seconnd-ever family vacation. Well, sort of.

Our first-ever family vacation was more of a long weekend. We were still living in Boston, my son was about 6 weeks old, and my aunt-in-law Krystie, who lives in New York, wanted to see the baby us before we moved back to Ohio. She bought us Amtrak tickets there and back, and we took the very pleasant 4-hour train ride to Manhattan.

Adam slept much of the time while on the train and while in the city. We went to an art gallery and saw a glass blower, had dinner in a few very nice restaurants (between my husband's 22-dollar lobster platter -- which included an entire lobster, several mussels, shrimp, scallops, and clams over pasta -- and his uncle's cooking, we ate very well). Krystie took me shopping, and Brandon and I had our first post-baby date at a Mexican restaurant where they made the guacamole right there in front of you.

This time was another long weekend, and it wasn't exactly a vacation for my husband. Our friend writes for MovieWeb, and they wanted him to attend the New York Comic Convention. He needed someone to film the interviews, so my husband obliged. It worked out for all of us: Brandon got to go to the convention, Aaron got free lodging with us at Krystie's (and half the price of gas), and Adam and I got a vacation.

We drove up on Thursday with the help of the TomTom. Apparently there's a difference between 17th Street and East 17th Street, and we ended up lost in Brooklyn at 1:30 AM. Overall, though, we made pretty good time and the baby slept most of the way there.

Friday the guys went to the convention. Krystie was working, and Dan (her fiance -- the "uncle" I mentioned before) was running errands, so it was just Adam and me all day Friday. And he decided to take a four-hour nap -- he was exhausted from the trip. So I got Friday afternoon all to myself, to watch a movie, take a nap . . . and paint. My. NAILS!!! I haven't done that in about 2 years. Every time I find myself with free time at home, I use it to clean or read other blogs. With no such distractions in NY, I spent four hours pampering myself.

Saturday we took the baby to the library, where they had a children's play area. A five-year-old boy played hide-and-seek with him, and brought him blocks to stack. Then we went for a walk, saw a film crew, and Krystie and I had lunch while Adam fell asleep in his stroller.

That night my husband came back from the convention around 9 o'clock, so Krystie took me out to meet her coworkers at a birthday party. We went to a really nice bar, where I had the best chocolate martini of my life and a great time chatting, dancing, and playing terrible pool.

Sunday we drove home, and Aaron gave Adam a stuffed Venom doll he had bought at the convention. He giggled and immediately started chewing on it. It's the cutest little scary thing you've ever seen.

Really, though -- one of these times, we're going to have to go to New York when it's not winter (although it was actually quite pleasant last weekend) and actually stay for a week or so, and, oh, I don't know, maybe even do a little sightseeing.

Where did you go on your last family vacation? Ever been to New York? Feel free to comment.

Sweetheart Tag

From my high school friend's blog.

She posted a picture of hers, so here's mine

Here's how it works: Each person answers questions about their sweethearts. At the end of the post, the person then tags 6 people and posts their names, then goes to their blogs and leaves them comments, letting them know they have been tagged.


1. What is your husband's name? Brandon John Keller
2. How long have you guys been married? 18 months (548 days)
3. How long did you date? We dated for 2 years and 10 months (or 8... see below) before we got engaged, and got married 2 1/2 months later
4. How old is he? 26
5. Who is taller? Brandon
6. Who can sing best? I could answer that if he ever sang for me... I'll have to say me since I don't know.
7. Who is smarter? I say him. He says me. We're probably evenly matched.
8. Who does laundry? Me
9. Who pays the bills? Me
10. Who sleeps on the right side of the bed? Me. I've always slept on the right side of the bed, even when I lived with my parents.
11. Who mows the lawn? When we have a house, we'll probably split it. Except the push mower. He can do that. I'll ride, thanks.
12. Who cooks dinner? Him. He always knows how to spice a dish to make it better. I cook a kick-ass breakfast, though.
13. Who is the first to admit when they are wrong? Usually him.
14. Who kissed who first? He kissed me first. I didn't kiss him back until 2 months later, after we had broken up and gotten back together.
15. Who wears the pants? Me! No, not always. I sometimes give him a turn.

If you read my blog, consider yourself tagged. :) It's not required, but it could be fun. Oh, and if you're not married, feel free to delete questions about marriage and change the words so it applies to you and your significant other. You don't have to be a Mrs. to have a sweetheart!

Busy Weekend

...but still good.

Thursday night (yeah, I know; not exactly the weekend, but I promise it's related): After work I went straight to my (mostly) weekly therapy session. I think the therapy is helping, but I really need to get in with a family doctor to get back on antidepressants. I say "a" doctor because I still technically don't have one, exactly. Since we moved back to Ohio, we've searched for a doctor closer than 30 minutes away that takes our insurance. Until a few weeks ago, we had been unable to find one -- in 7 months, people! Now I'm just waiting for the insurance company to send me a new card: the doctor we found won't schedule an appointment with anyone until her name is on the insurance card, which of course takes 7 to 10 business days to get changed... blah blah blah. Crossing my fingers that the card comes soon.

After therapy I picked up my son and we went to JoAnn Fabrics. Brandon and I had been talking about what he would be for Halloween since last Halloween: Superman. We considered all the superheroes (we're geeks, remember?), and we settled on Superman (or -baby, as the case may be) because he doesn't wear any kind of mask or hat-type thing. Babies hate things on their head, so it's perfect, right? I wasn't sure whether to sew or buy, since I found a really cheap one online, but he was kinda in between the infant and toddler sizes. So I will sew. And I have since decided that I must be a crazy person little ambitious -- Halloween seems a lot closer from this side of the weekend. It's happened before. It'll probably happen again.

Friday afternoon Brandon got a call from Aaron and Christina, who wanted to know if we would like to go see Celtic Thunder Sunday night. An hour later, my sister-in-law Abby called about possibly visiting this weekend and offering to babysit so we could have a date. Amazing how things come together like that.

Saturday Brandon went to pick up Abby from OU (she's in her first freshman quarter there) while Adam and I picked up the house. Or rather, I tried to clean and simultaneously tried to keep Adam out of the cat food. Since he's discovered his mobility, he likes to dump their food bowl onto the floor. Sigh. At least he doesn't eat it.

We went to my mom's house for the OSU game as usual. Abby, Adam, and I fell asleep. After the game we went to Target so Abby could get some new clothes for school. It was really nice to get out of the house and not go to the grocery store, work, or a movie. Plus, Brandon and I got to play "personal stylist," which we love. We love to watch Project Runway, I like What Not to Wear on occasion, and we enjoyed both Queer Eye for a Straight Guy and How to Look Good Naked while they were on. But we don't have much money, so we like to shop for other people, like our sisters.

I worked on Adam's costume a little over both Saturday and Sunday. So far, I've cut out the pieces for the "S," the onesie, the cape, and half the pants. Still have the other leg of the pants, the red underwear thing, and the belt to cut out. Then sew it all. I may or may not do the additional yellow "S" on the cape. We'll see how much time I have. I'm definitely not sewing boots -- Abby bought him a pair of red socks.

Sunday we watched the Bengals game, I did a ton of laundry, and Abby looked for some poster- board and her own Halloween costume. Then Brandon and I went to Aaron and Christina's house before the show.

We took one car to save on gas and parking, had a nice, brief dinner, and went to the Schottenstein Center for the show. Parking turned out to be free (the tickets were, too, but we knew about that -- Christina knows someone who got us the tickets), but the seats were kinda tiny and the auditorium was really warm and stuffy. Other than that, it was fantastic!

For those of you who are unfamiliar with Celtic Thunder, they are an all-male, 5-piece Irish band with a wide range of ages (16 to 41), tones of voice, and singing styles. They are accompanied by a slew of very talented instrumentalists, as well. You may have seen their show on PBS. They are all excellent performers -- they sing with choreography, although the singing is much better by far. My husband's only complaint about the show is that most of the music isn't Irish. I didn't mind so much -- men that sing well are HOT. (My husband knows I think this, and he knows I like his singing. So why doesn't he sing very much?)

Today it was back to work for me, and as well as I've handled being away from the baby so far, the first thing I thought this morning when I got there was how much I missed him.

Geek Week in Review

Good week in the geek world, or at least on TV: two season premieres and two continuing episodes since Tuesday.

The summer series Eureka continues in its third season, unfortunately with the unwelcome addition of the Degree "product integration." More persistent and more obnoxious than its predecessor, the product placement, NPR's Morning Edition told me this morning that product integration is the new big thing for advertisers. They focus on more subtle advertising within a program -- although I would beg to differ in the case of Eureka. Not only is the commercial in the script, but there are now "podbusters" (commercials in which the spokesperson is an actual character from the show). These are designed to mimic what you're actually watching and keep you from turning down the volume, changing the channel, or, in the case of TiVo, fast-forwarding -- the last of which is supposedly to blame for this new method of perpetuating capitalism.

But I digress. This week's episode, although driving home the Degree commercial more than ever, was also one of the better episodes this season due to the character development of (and therefore, plot development around) the mysterious Eva. That, and not only is Henry Deacon back, he has been newly written in as the mayor elect of Eureka.

Fast-forward to Thursday: the season premiere of Smallville! Not only did I get my Justin Hartley fix, but they brought back Arthur Curry/Aquaman and Dinah Lance/Black Canary (with her canary cry!) with Oliver Queen/Green Arrow as part of the primitive Justice League. Wooo! Hot celebrity crushes and personal geekdom aside, it was apparent (but not painfully so) that the new writers are rebuilding a little from the suckfest that was Season 7, sadly without Lex Luthor, but thankfully without Lana Lang. That said, it was quite an enjoyable episode, and one of my favorite in awhile, despite the recurring tendency to tie up all the ends at the close of each episode in a manner reminiscent of a Shakespearean comedy. I like that to some extent, but they tend to hit their viewers over the head with it a bit on Smallville. One of these ends, though, led to a great sexual tension between Clark Kent and Lois Lane and set Clark up in his future role as Daily Planet reporter.

This evening the CBS sit com Big Bang Theory continued in its second season. Although in many ways it is a typical sit com, I do want to mention it because it's very light, a nice, nerdy appetizer to Heroes later in the evening. And it is funny for your average sit com viewer; it's only enhanced by knowledge of intellectual subjects, especially higher math and science, that some of those viewers possess. Leonard finally scores an awkward relationship with his cute, perky neighbor Penny only to find out that she lied about not even finishing community college (whereas he has a PhD in physics). She feared his condescension, and rightfully so, it turns out.

I am really new to the Heroes bandwagon -- I started watching it because my husband got into it, but I didn't start watching until last season, and then, not all of it. I still have a lot of questions, but I'm slowly catching up. I'm enjoying it, not as much as Smallville as far as superheroes and supervillains go, but that may be because the Heroes characters are new to me, as opposed to Superman and the comfortable DC universe. I'll most likely be posting more about it as the third season unfolds, but I'm just about hooked already -- further augmented by the two-hour premiere tonight. It was two separate hour-long episodes, but they were both shown tonight, so I'll go ahead and classify that as a double-header.



On a completely unrelated (but still geektastic in its own way) note, happy first day of fall! Today, September 22, was the Autumnal Eqinox. Bring on the sweater weather, changing leaves, and numerous holidays!

It really is Einstein's work...

If I weren't already married, I would pledge my undying allegiance to the Baby Einstein exersaucer. That, and six months ago, our bouncer/swing combination. They have been the only way for me to get any dishes, laundry, or housecleaning done as the stay-at-home parent for almost nine months. My husband is also a fan, now that I'm back to work, and he has to play the role of both father and student.

The swing and bouncer mostly kept Adam quiet, or put him to sleep -- often faster than I could by sitting down with him and nursing. But I have picture after picture on our digital camera of him just staring up at the hanging animals on the swing's overhead bar, or looking around as if to say, "Where is that music coming from?"

And the Baby Einstein contraption keeps him occupied for (almost) hours now that he's older and needs a little something more to capture those ever-turning wheels in his head. Rattles, things to push and spin, animal pictures and noises, and even a puppet keep him entertained so that we can do homework, housework, and (gasp!) even something fun once in awhile.

So here's my question for you: What modern convenience(s) are you completely in love with? What could you do without? Feel free to comment below.

This is my (first!) post for Parent Bloggers' Network (PBN). This weekend's blog blast is sponsored by Yoplait Kids. Check out the links above for more information.

Haiku Friday #5: Newbies, Nursing, and No Power (Still)

Fell asleep again
Putting the baby to bed;
Nursing makes me tired.

Want to start weaning --
I just can't find the right time
To cut sessions out.

This week at the school
One teacher on vacation,
Two out this morning;

I was the only
Person familiar with the
Classroom I was in.

One fellow teacher
Says she's still without power --
Goes home in the dark.

Estimates say that
Electricity will be
Back on by Sunday.

Man oh man. I was surprised there were so many still without power yesterday, only to hear on the news today that more than 100,000 are still going home to empty refrigerators and candles and flashlights scattered around their living rooms. A few of my coworkers are included in that list, and some of the power companies are saying when it does come on Sunday, it may be late, even very early Monday morning. Please keep all those wonderful thoughts coming for them!

This morning was a crazy one at work. On Thursdays I get there an hour early to sub for one of the teachers that works four 10-hour days, Thursday being her day off. This week, another teacher in that room was on vacation as well. So I knew there would be another sub. But then the third teacher had a doctor's appointment and didn't get back until noon. I, having worked mostly in the infant/toddler rooms for two weeks, was therefore the resident expert in the classroom. Lucky they also had one of the teachers from the other infant/toddler room in there for a few hours, so I wasn't at a total loss. I will say this: the next time yogurt is on the menu for morning snack, I'm serving something else. (Just try and picture your 11- to 18-month old eating yogurt by him/herself. Now multiply that by about 10.)

Nursing's still going. :-P I was hoping to have at least started the weaning process by now, but I'm still getting adjusted to being away from the baby for most of his waking hours during the week and sore boobs because of that. I only pump once while I'm at work, and feed him right before I leave and as soon as I come home. I feed him overnight, too, when he wakes up. That has been happening more often since I went back to work. He's trying to make up for the lack of breastmilk during the day by waking up to eat at night. Blargh. Makes trying to cut back on the number of feedings difficult. And I'm not sure which to cut out first: if I don't pump at work, I think I might die, and same goes for my arrival at home. Nursing at night helps him sleep a little longer, and first thing in the morning usually means he'll sleep after I leave, making it easy on Brandon or my mom.

So, a few questions for anyone who has successfully weaned: How did you do it? Was there anything that made the transition easier on you and/or your baby? Which feeding did you cut out first and which was the last to go? Leave me a comment below, or send me an email at momsensical [at] gmail [dot] com. Inquiring minds (or maybe just mine at the moment) want to know.

Haiku Friday #4: Long week

It's been a long week
Sorry this is a day late
Been no time to write

Weekend: I got sick
Monday night so did the boys
Tuesday: went to work

We're over the flu
(For Brandon and me, the worst)
Now Adam won't eat

Hey, folks. Sorry for the involuntary week-plus-long hiatus. I kept trying to sit down to at least write a quick note about why I wasn't posting, but things kept getting in the way -- you know, getting sick, caring for my sick husband and son, washing all our clothes and dishes to make sure all the germs left... just mundane things. But we're basically all better now. Brandon and I are back to 100% after a good night's sleep last night, and Adam's almost there. He just won't eat anything. He's been nursing like crazy (of course he is! I have been slowly coming to the decision that I want to start weaning), but if I attempt to give him any solid food, he gags and spits it out. My mom says he's probably just not back up to 100% yet, but I'm not sure.... Should I be worried? My symptoms started on Saturday and my appetite came back on Wednesday. He and Brandon both got sick Monday, and Brandon has already bounced back, and I thought Adam would maybe even recover faster than we did.

We'll be heading to my mom's house tonight for the OSU game. Go Bucks!

Haiku Friday: New Job

I got a new job
Today will be my first day
I'm kind of nervous

I'll leave the baby
At home with his dad; no more
A stay at home mom.

Short one this week, all. Gotta get up early in the AM, or at least earlier than I'm used to. I know I already posted a long entry about the recent change in employment earlier this week, but Haiku just makes it so much more fun!

Visit A Mommy Story to play this week. You can write your haiku about anything you want, just click the link or the button above (email me at momsensical [at] gmail [dot] com if you need help with the poem or button). Sign the Mr. Linky on her site just like it says, and enjoy some of the other "Friku." I promise you'll have fun!

I'm in the money!

...or at least I will be in about two weeks.

Since we moved back to Ohio from Boston back in February, my husband has been substitute teaching and looking for work that will actually support our family of three (subs are paid per day of work, whereas full-time teachers have a yearly salary divided up over the twelve months; subs do not get paid over the summer, and during the year, they only receive a total of about half of a regular teacher's salary anyway). The original plan was that he would find a job as a full-time teacher, and I would be a stay-at-home-mom until the summer, when Adam would be 6 months old, and then I would go back to work while he stayed home with the baby.

We have both been searching for the last seven months and thus far, have been unable to find work. About a month ago or so, my husband decided that since he wasn't getting anywhere (and I do mean anywhere -- he looked for jobs in high schools, colleges, libraries, the Department of Defense, and put his resume up on Monster) in the job search, that he would go back to school. In the meantime, I kept looking for work as a secretary, and then as a daycare worker/preschool teacher (in the hopes that Adam could be cared for in my place of employment, at a discounted price).

Two weeks ago we got a break. My sister Sara works at the Jewish Community Center, and has for the past three years. She was assigned there for her freshman observation (she's in school for early childhood education), and they liked her so much, they hired her Monday through Friday after classes and also for their summer camp. Then we found out that Aaron's aunt is the director of the center. I was a little nervous about putting myself out there for the open position, because I have "some college coursework completed," none of which is in education. The one thing I have going for me is 10+ years of babysitting experience, and informal child care/supervision of youth activities at both my church and in the SCA (Society for Creative Anachronism, more about that later).

I've been trying to get paperwork done for this job, and silently freaking out about getting a physical and a TB test done (we can't find a general family doctor, either -- but at least Adam has a wonderful pediatrician). I wanted so badly to post the good news about the possibility of a job, but I didn't want to jinx it. And then today I got a call from the director. The original position I applied for was one that someone else had left, and this person apparently came back to it in the past few weeks. But I can still work two eight-hour days and be a floating sub for the rest of the week! I hung up with the director, and danced around my kitchen/living room until my quads hurt.

Deep sigh of relief. Damn, did we need this. I won't be getting a huge salary or anything, and they don't have a place for Adam now, but as the child of an employee, he is at the top of the waiting list. And it's something. Especially when we're fighting with the loan company to disburse the money for Brandon's first semester so he can actually, you know, pay for books (he's been in class for nearly two weeks already). Happy little dance!

Edited to add: Sorry, folks. I know I promised this would be shorter, but I just couldn't contain my excitement!

Further edited to add: Upon reflection, I think the reason my posts are so long is because I feel the need to explain EVERYTHING, since you all know practically nothing about me (personal friends excluded). Hopefully this will get better with time.

Geeky weekend

I know what you're thinking. Oh, so she's actually going to live up to her blog title now, is she? Yeah right. Well, I am, dammit! I am a geek, just like I said. And now I'm going to prove it to you.

On Saturday (yes, I know it was days ago, I've been trying to sit down and write this for like two days), my husband and I played in a Star Wars RPG. For those who don't know, a role-playing game, or RPG, is a game in which players create characters, roll dice (to make it more realistic by adding the element of chance), and are led on a series of adventures by someone who writes a story for them, or GM (for game master). Yes, like Dungeons and Dragons, only that's not the only RPG. Far from it. They can be about pretty much anything you want them to be about, but really a good one will include some elements of a mystery, some combat, and some good acting (which happens to be my favorite part, an amateur aspiring unpolished dabbling actress myself). My husband and I have participated in everything from Dungeons and Dragons to Call of Cthulu to superheroes (his personal favorite) to Shadowpact (a fantasy-type world that is more like Buffy the Vampire Slayer, and my personal favorite -- I mean, I get to play a slayer [who is not unlike Faith, for those familiar with the show], and how cool is that?).

Lately the only games I've played have been run by my friend Aaron. He is an excellent storyteller, and he does not put too much emphasis on rules, both of which make for a good GM. He runs the Shadowpact games (and soon, superheroes), but his current campaign (like a novel or movie in which individual games are like chapters) is a Star Wars game. It takes place roughly 100 years after the original trilogy, so the only familiar character in the story is R2D2.

Anyway, the game was the shortest I've ever participated in, lasting around 3 hours. I didn't even have time for my ADD to kick in! It was a lot of fun, as Aaron's games always are, and I even got an extra character point (these are a reward from GM to players for awesomeness, and are used to "buy" new skills or improve existing ones; an example would be if someone was a martial artist skilled in karate, s/he could use those points to get better at karate or maybe pick up judo. Like in the real world, when you have a teacher, you can get better at something you're good at over time, or learn new skills from him/her). I was very excited about my extra character point, because he gave it for a "really cool bit of roleplaying" in which my character and my husband's character had a really intense argument. I must mention that my husband and I were not arguing, but our characters were, much like in a play. This is why it's my favorite part. Stage fright is not an issue when you're acting in front of less than 10 of your friends. Well, and buying pretty dice is fun. Yes, I'm a geek. But I'm a girl geek.

After the game, we stayed for dinner and then watched some Firefly after the kids went to bed. Sunday Brandon went to play a Dungeons and Dragons game by himself. He invited me to join in, but I just wasn't in the mood to play D&D with a bunch of guys I don't know very well (most of them not at all, actually). I didn't know that they would be playing two games. Note: Most games last a really long time. See the bit above where I say that the three-hour game was the shortest I've ever played in. I've played in several that last upwards of eight hours. Also see the bit above where I mention my ADD*. Fortunately, these games were designed to each run a total of 4 hours. Still kind of annoyed me that I didn't know about it. But what really pissed me off is that after his first nap, Adam decided that he was going to be the crankiest fussbudget ever. He wouldn't sit, he wouldn't play, he wouldn't nap, he just whined. I could have really used another pair of hands, and my whole family was at my cousin's wedding in Massachusetts. We couldn't afford to go, so I was stuck in my apartment for 12 hours with a whining infant. Brandon called twice to tell me he would be later than he thought. The thought going through my head was, I am so blogging about this.

But like I said, I've been trying to write this post for about two days, and I didn't get the chance to whine at all of you. :) After he finished playing the D&D games, he went out (at nearly midnight) to go grocery shopping for a bunch of foody-type items we needed, and when he came back, he also had ice cream, chocolate milk, and flowers. The flowers were alstroemerias, which mean "I'm sorry". Awesome. Ice cream = even better. Chocolate milk = OMG. No no no. You don't understand. I am a chocolate milk FIEND. Nine times out of ten, I will choose chocolate milk over alcohol -- even if I wasn't still nursing. It's truly like crack to me. And then all day Monday he was doing nice things for me, favors and such. Almost like having a personal slave. Almost. He did have schoolwork he had to get done for class today.

Good weekend.

P.S.: Tonight, because apparently we did not get enough Star Wars in our geeky diet, we watched A New Hope. Sigh. There is no chance that my son will not be a geek.

P.P.S.: I want to apologize for this incredibly verbose post. I will endeavor to write future posts earlier in the day, in an effort to rein in my rambling nature.

*I do tend to talk about ADD casually sometimes, but in this case, I am actually one of the roughly 4% of Americans who suffers from Adult Attention Deficit Disorder. Not ADHD, Attention Deficit and Hyperactivity Disorder -- I'm not bouncing off the walls, I just have a hard time concentrating, paying attention, remembering things, and procrastinating. A hard enough time that when I was in high school, I did see a behavioral specialist (against my will, at first) and take medication to treat it. Not Ritalin, but Adderall, which is milder (Ritalin is usually for ADHD).

I mention this because I don't mind sharing bits of my personal life with you, but I want to spell out the facts, rather than throw around terms carelessly. Occasional casual references are fine, but continual misuse of the terms really bothers me. I assume that people are, at least at their core, decent human beings, and if someone misuses these terms, I assume it is because they misunderstand. Thus, if one of these terms comes up, I try to educate the user. If the terms are abused, I get pissy. Just sayin'.

Labor Day

Here's a fun little holiday-themed meme I found over at The Musings of a Mom. For the instructions and full list of participants (I'm #224!), head on over to Rocks in My Dryer -- she's the one who started it!

How long were your labors?
Just one so far for me (well, apart from the labor at 30 weeks that was successfully delayed), I was kind of in and out of labor for about 6 or 7 hours, then actually in for about 6 or 7 hours until I was put on terbutaline to delay the labor until they could attempt the external cephalic version (my son was breech).

How did you know you were in labor?
I was scheduled to get the version and told not to eat or drink anything after midnight, and then late the night before (or rather, early morning, as in 1 AM), I started having contractions. I went in (they had told me to come in for contractions occuring every 10, rather than 5, minutes because of the breech thing). I went in around 2, they monitored me, told me I was not in labor, my husband went home to get our place ready for the baby (he was not expected for another two and a half weeks). Several hours later, they started up again, but I was like the pregnant woman who cried wolf and was not listened to. My husband came back and I filled him in. He insisted that they at least check again, and in fact, I was in labor.

Where did you deliver?
St. Elizabeth's hospital in Boston.

Drugs?
Terbutaline to delay the labor so they could try to do the version. During which the only thing that kept my mind off of the excruciating pain (of the version, not the contractions) was the cute anesthesiologist asking me questions. All the while, the crazy nurse was touching my feet (this is a mortal sin in my family) to try to comfort me. And then anesthesia: see below.

C-section?
Yep. Endured the pain of the contractions, the jitters of the terbutaline, and then the agony of the version for nothing (Note: For those who don't know what a version is, it is when your OB and a really old guy that must be the premier obstetrical expert in the hospital, push down on your uterus with all of their combined weight to try to get the stubborn little bugger to come out your vagina instead of swimming toward your throat). Version failed, got my anesthesia, baby came out all pissed and breathed/swallowed a WHOLE bunch of mucus on the way out. Apparently being born that day was not his idea, but rather that of my womb.

Who delivered?
Dr. Katherine Marshall, my Boston OB. She was really good, although a little forgetful (like she would forget how much weight I gained, what prescriptions she had written, etc.).

So yeah, that's my birthing story. Not what I expected or planned, but how many births really are? I'm just glad my uterus evicted him at nearly 38 weeks instead of 30.

Together at last: our first meeting outside the OR.

Haiku Friday #2: Crappy week

Husband is busy
Baby refuses to sleep
These make me grouchy

Bureaucrat bullshit
Three days ago, then next day
A speeding ticket

How can my sister
Cry her way out of one?
It's happened twice now.

Yet another job
That might as well be performed
By ruthless robots

For all the pity
And compassion I receive
From each cop I've met.

Today was better
Until my husband came home
(Just kidding, sweetheart).

Oh, well, at least I got a break while my mom watched the baby today. He took three naps today! But they each lasted 25, 35, then 15 minutes. Look at the time of this post. He literally went down 10 minutes ago. And that after staying up late last night. Grrrr. Argh. (Points if you know what that's from.)

But blogging always makes me feel better after he's gone to sleep (actually, they both are -- Brandon has another sub job in the morning), especially because the kitties take advantage of my empty lap.

Haiku Friday is fun, people! Look how much I saved on therapy this week. :) But really, come and play. Check out more haiku at Christina's blog, leave comments, click around archives, spread the bloggy love!



Oh, and on a completely unrelated note, I am looking for a new blog design (not that I don't like this one, but it's a little dull for me). I may be experimenting with these in the next week or so. Be sure to stop by early and often and let me know what you think!

Surely, you must be joking...

*****RANT WARNING*****

We recently bought our friend's car. Today we went down to the BMV to get the title taken care of, since his birthday was on Monday and the plates are now expired. I should probably mention that this was the second (and not final) visit on behalf of this particular car. Let's not forget the three times I went earlier this summer because of my old car.

Oh yes, my friends, this is a story about bureaucratic bullshit.

Let me back up a bit. I have owned my 1993 Nissan Altima for 5 years. Back when my husband and I were first dating, it was the nice car -- his had a broken speedometer, among other things. And really, for a 10-year-old car (even a 10-year-old Japanese sedan), it was in great shape. A few years later, my husband bought a 2002 Mazda Protege. So then that was the nice car. Fast forward a few more years, and we were planning to move to Boston with my newly discovered fetus. On a trip from Columbus to Cincinnati (where his dad lives), the Nissan started making funny noises. We were planning on leaving our cars here while he did a year's worth of grad work (would you want to pay for Boston insurance and a parking spot a quarter-mile from your tiny apartment, and oh yeah, have I mentioned Boston drivers are INSANE?). So we just figured we'd leave my car at his dad's house instead of his car, and in the meantime, my mechanic brother-in-law could look at it.

Long story short (yeah, I know, not that short), we decided my car was no longer fit for transporting an infant. We moved back in February and bought our friend's car with the intention of selling mine soon. It's taken us this long to sell my car, for about 30% less than what we wanted for it. The economists who say we're not in a recession can bite me. In the meantime, the tags expired in June because they were still in my mom's name -- she had turned the title over to me, oh, the weekend before we moved. No time to get new plates then. And because we live in an apartment, any car with expired tags gets a notice. Apparently people abandon cars in these parking lots? If you say so.... So I had to pay for new tags, despite the fact that we had already spent 4 months trying to sell it, all the while not driving it. And then I had my birthday three weeks ago. Another year's worth of tags. And then we sold the car, and they wanted more money from me to turn the title over to the person who bought it! WTF? They already get fees from the buyer, what the hell do they think I am, made of money?

Things must be simpler now that we've sold that car, right? Ha. So my husband goes to the BMV a few weeks back to get the title for the Hyundai (our friend's former car) turned over. Chad had signed the title and mailed it to us, since he lives in Cincinnati. My husband said he'd need to get it notarized, too, because it says right there on the title that that's what you have to do. They argued about it, and Chad insisted he was right. So Brandon took the title in, and guess what? They told him it needed to be notarized. We mailed it back to Chad, who took his sweet time getting it notarized and sent back to us.

So now we're caught up to today, thinking that nothing else could possibly go wrong. Why do we even bother? The lovely ladies at the title agency tell us that we still cannot finalize the sale of this car. (See the title of this post). "The car belongs to your friend and his wife. We can't turn the title over without both of their signatures. You can try going next door to License Services for a 30-day temporary tag so you don't get pulled over." Where they tell us that no, they cannot do that, because it would be illegal. Furthermore, we cannot put my brand-new license plates on this car, because those plates are only in my name, and not in both our names. Bite me. They might as well create a robot to do these people's jobs for them, because we would get just as much compassion from it.

We are now blessed with the privelege of sending back the title, having Chad's wife sign it, get it notarized, send it back, go back into the title agency, and try not to develop depression and ulcers in the process.

And all I could say to Brandon was, "When can we move to Canada?"

Haiku Friday

Time for something new:
A fresh, fun game on my blog
Called Haiku Friday

From Christina's blog,
An alternative to posts
Long and hard to write.

Some weeks have a theme
Others are purely random
This week is "School Time."

My husband teaches,
Substituting for many
Local school districts.

He also went back
To get his certificate
For high school English

This week was the start
Of both learning and teaching
I think I'll miss him.

Christina over at A Mommy Story started doing Haiku Friday with Jennifer over a year ago as an alternative to spending the first part of the weekend writing a long, detailed blog post. Still going strong, this week's batch had over 40 participants! Although I'm late as usual, I'm participating this week. Of course, I'm sending my husband off to school this week, not my son -- that day will come (not soon enough).

Anyone else who feels so inclined should join in as well. If you have never written haiku before, it's not hard. The only requirements: three lines long, first line is five syllables long, second is seven, third is five. It just takes a few extra minutes (or a good thesaurus -- I recommend Thesaurus.com). Christina explains how you can participate and put one of those cute little buttons on the post or on your sidebar, and you can get added to the list. Come on, it'll be fun, and you might even find some new cool blogs to frequent or get some new traffic to your own (woot!).

Peace out!

Nap time

Monday was great! Or so I thought....

It was a normal day, at first. I woke up, got ready for the day, Adam woke up, and a few hours later was about ready for a nap. Now, he is a short napper. I count myself lucky if he sleeps for an hour or more. Typically, he naps for 30 to 45 minutes, but sometimes he wakes up after 20 minutes with that "Hi, Mom! I'm awake now" smile and I know I'm screwed.

But lately I've been trying to encourage longer naptimes. I usually wait until I hear him crying (or talking to himself) to go in, to make sure he's not just "sleep whimpering," and instead of picking him up and assuming he's done sleeping, I offer to nurse him a little. If he still needs to finish his nap, he'll go back to sleep within five or ten minutes. That usually ensures a total nap time of an hour or two.

So I put him down as usual, and half an hour later, he started to fuss. I put him back to sleep, and he continued to nap for another two and a half hours! I was ecstatic! Too bad I didn't take advantage of it and get some laundry done. Instead, I sat on my tush and read blogs. Bad mommy. I did go in to check on him, just to make sure he was still breathing -- just look what I found!

I figured he wouldn't need another nap that day and maybe even go to bed early. He didn't need a second nap, but he went to bed around an hour later than usual. But that wasn't the worst part. He woke up five hours after he went to bed, and didn't go back to sleep at all until a nap late Tuesday afternoon. We went to the pool with some friends, and he usually gets tired with the sun and the heat, and he didn't even fall asleep in his stroller this week.

I felt better after talking to Kendra, my aunt-in-law. Apparently her daughter Zoe (almost 18 months) was a terror the other day after not getting the nap she needed until 3 or 4 hours later. They had to get pictures taken for passports because they're taking a trip to Canada (am I the only person who thinks the need for a passport to get into Canada is ridiculous?).

He had a two and a half hour nap today. Hopefully he won't wake up super-de-duper early again tomorrow. I have a job interview in the morning and need those precious last two hours or so of sleep. Of course, if I'm tired in the morning, it will be my fault, because I'm sitting here typing instead of having gone to bed an hour ago (or more).

Eh. I think I'll remedy that.

Mission Statement: Part II

I do actually want to write something here about who I am, what I do, and what I want to accomplish here. Last night's post was really just about getting my blog up and running. I was tired, but I wanted to put up anything, even as short and sweet as that was. Figuring out where to start is always the hardest part for me. In fact, when I was in school and writing papers, I would frequently write the middle first and then go back later to put in the introduction.

But I digress.

First up: Who the hell are you?
Hi! I don't think we've been formally introduced. I'm Melissa (Mel for short), a twenty-something SAHM, SCA participant, gamer, comic book reader, musician of sorts, knitter, sewer, and other crafter, and general all-around nerd. But in a good way, I think. I am also wife to Brandon, a teacher and perpetual student (also a geek), and mother to Adam, an 8-month-old who will most likely end up a geek himself. Poor kid. Hopefully we won't screw him up more than that.

And why should I care?
Well, like many of you (maybe all of you), I'm a mom. It's up to each of us to support one another, and to look to each other for support when we need it. I hope this becomes a source for support, for the give and take of advice, a place to read and anticipate or reminisce. In the short term, maybe just a fun place to visit for a laugh. Kids are usually pretty good at providing comedic material.

So that's a starting place. More to come soon!