Undocumented

We are in the process of obtaining the proper paperwork for our trip to Spain for Shakira's wedding. This means we have currently signed over Petal's birth certificate, my current passport and our certified copy of our marriage license to the powers that be. This makes me very very nervous. I haven't been without a valid passport since 2004. I don't like the idea that I cannot currently leave the country - I couldn't get to Shakira if she really needed me.

Yes, I'm paranoid. But we almost lost Shakira in 2005, when she fell gravely ill while traveling in Costa Rica. We got a call that morning and my dad was able to get on a plane to go to her that night. Ironically, Shakira herself was passport-less at the time, as hers had been stolen. Unbelievably, the American authorities in San Jose allowed her friend and traveling companion to retrieve replacement passport so she was able to return to U.S. soil on the med flight necessary to bring her to Miami.

So today when I brought my documents to the post office to be mailed off to the processing center, I paid extra to have the package certified. This entitles me to check its progress on the usps website until it reaches Philadelphia. And track I shall.

Tick Tock Tick Tock

It feels like Jack will never be home from class!

Oh Monday...

- Husband's car with a dead battery? Check

- Health insurance plan refusing to pay for refill of prescription? Check

- Phone/power/internet going out during a work conference call? Check

- Slippery socks sending me skidding down the stairs and almost causing a heart attack? Check

- Toddler showing no signs of sleepiness at bedtime? Check

But luckily said toddler also took a 3+ hour nap this afternoon so Mama also got a nap, so I'm able to smile and shrug it off. And I had a blast in NYC with old friends last weekend so I have plenty to smile about.

Oops

My cousin TechnoBunny is here visiting for the weekend. I talked her into dyeing her hair blond and it came out, um, yellow. Like muppet yellow. I had vision of my beautiful cousin looking like a Nordic goddess and now I think she'll be so gun shy she'll never go near bleach again. She's in the shower scrubbing with Selsun Blue (the harshest shampoo we had in the house) trying to salvage what she can. I really really hope a professional can re-prettify her. Please keep your fingers crossed!

Justify

Something I just don't get about our society is how people wear their busyness like a badge of honor. The lowest blow in the working mom/stay at home mom debate is to imply that someone isn't busy enough. If you're not run ragged, you're not cutting it. No matter the effect all that busyness has on stress levels, sleep, eating habits, you name it. Busyness is next to godliness.

I don't try to compete with that. I am someone who is vastly affected by not getting enough sleep, not eating when I'm hungry, and not having time to myself. Maybe everyone is like me and most people just hide it better, I don't know.

My point is, I started a new job this week. It's interesting work in my field, with a mission I can support. It seemed like a doable commitment to sign on for while Petal is still little - 20-30 hours a week working from home.

I enjoyed the full day training sessions in the DC office this week. But after commuting back to the suburbs, I was zonked. There's no way I'd want to do that every day.

My mind started getting way ahead of itself, as usual. I jumped ahead five years to the time when Petal begins elementary school. And I thought, what if this is just what I did? I would be working doing something I enjoy, and I would have plenty of time during the workday to exercise, clean, and maybe even cook!

I don't know if I'm brave (good for me for following my own path!) or lazy (I can't hack it in the real world!) for plotting to get out of the rat race all together. Maybe a little bit of both.

Amazed

Watching Petal demonstrate new skills and make connections between things is an absolutely enthralling experience. In my still-novice opinion, the most awe-inspiring part of parenting is watching a tiny creature who has little beyond instinct to guide her in the world slowly (and sometimes quickly) make incredible cognitive leaps and bounds and become a reasoning, rational mini-person. Petal is a fairly verbal child, but there is still so much she can't tell us with her toddler vocabulary. So watching her demonstrate how well she understands us, concepts we had no idea she was grasping, it just takes my breath away.

Holy typos!

Guess I still have a few kinks to work out (see previous entry.)