Good one

Soren has a pretty good sense of humor; it's easy to make him laugh. But sometimes I suspect that he is just humoring us.

"Ah yes, once again we're doing that peek-a-boo thing that you guys seem to enjoy so much. Hahaha, very humorous indeed. Let me guess--you're going to pull that blanket back down off your face again, right? Yup, there you go. Haha, good one."

Snowpocalypse 2010

Sorry.

Okay, it's like two minutes later and I already feel terrible about that last post.  It's obnoxious to complain about a little schedule change when people around me are losing their jobs.

What's really leading to my work-related depression is that even though things have not been great at the workplace for a long time, I've been able to convince myself that Workplace cared about its employees, and wanted the best for them.  Now, I feel like . . . well, I have some really great coworkers.  Who want the best for each other.

I think it's time to come up with a new plan.  I don't know what, but I'm going to get serious about finding out.

Success

I think that regarding kids, there are basically three stands you can take.  Let me know if I'm leaving something out.  As I see it, you can believe:

1.  That nobody should have kids.
I actually find this to be a pretty reasonable point of view.  Objectively, it's hard to argue that having kids is a great idea.  The planet is crazy crowded, we here in the first world are using stuff about a zillion times as fast as other folks, global warming, etc. etc.  Obviously I had one anyway, but if you want to take the stand that giving birth was where I went wrong, I sort of feel you.

2. That only the very wealthy should have kids.
I'm sorry, but if you believe this, you are an asshat.  Please reassess your life and views.

3. That having kids is allowed, even for regular people.

If you believe #3, then I think you also have to agree that we regular people should be able to get our kids to and from daycare.  Right? 

The latest in a long string of insults from the workplace is that starting soon, everyone will have to work until 6 p.m., at the earliest.  Like most Seattle daycares that I know of, Soren's closes at 5:30.  Also, he is a baby, so he is sound asleep by 6:30 every night.  I am lucky lucky that I'm not a single parent, and right now Mr. A's schedule allows him to leave downtown really early so that he can pick our kid up before daycare starts charging $5 a minute.  But under this new plan I won't see Soren before he goes to sleep five nights a week.  It's kind of breaking my heart. 

Being a working parent has been hard.  I miss having days off with Mr. A, and it sucks that Soren has hardly any time awake when his parents are both around.  But up til now I have felt like my head was more or less above water.  I have told myself that Tim Gunn would be proud of me for Making It Work.  But only seeing my baby for a few minutes every morning, most days . . . that doesn't feel like success. 

On the 312, 7:59 a.m.

I get on my bus at the very last stop before it expresses its way downtown, so it's usually pretty crowded and I have to stand.  Today was no exception, but then a cute young African American guy behind me offered his seat.  Normally I decline seats, but today I thought, what the hell? I'm tired and I'm carrying a breast pump.  So I thanked him profusely and sat.

An older Asian lady noticed this exchange and said, "Oh, what a gentleman!  You're a gentleman, aren't you?  Such a gentleman. You want to get married?  Let's get married!"

A middle aged white guy broke in at this point.  "MARRIAGE IS A BROKEN INSTITUTION.  ALL WOMEN ARE GOLD DIGGERS."

The poor kid.  "I think I'm probably too young to get married--I'm just eighteen.  Maybe after I finish college."

"No problem!" said the lady.  "I have a PhD, I take care of everything!  You never worry.  We get married." 

And then the white guy took it straight to crazy:  "OH LADY, YOU THINK YOU'RE SO GREAT?  WHAT DO YOU THINK ARE THE CHANCES I'LL BE THE NEXT KING OF ENGLAND?"

Erm . . . yeah.

As we cruised into downtown, the white guy explained to the kid that he should make sure to get a prenup.  He himself was due to come into twelve hundred dollars of his parents' money, he said, so it was important for him to make sure that no gold-digging lady could get her hands on it.  The kid should do the same before his impending marriage to the older lady.  The kid promised to take that into consideration.

In the end, I kind of wanted to marry that sweet polite kid myself.  After he got off the bus, the older lady turned to the woman next to her and said, "Oh no, he's gone.  I guess we don't get married.  Well, that's okay.  He was a little too old for me."

"Too old?"

"Yes, I need to get one younger so I can train him.  You know what I train him to do first?  Suck toe.  Start with little one, go to big one.  Suck one by one."

Potted plant

Dang, Soren's cousin is a beauty.  I fell in love right away.  It seems impossible that Soren was ever that tiny--so much so that I had to go back and look at his newborn pictures to see if it was true.  But it is.  He started out small.

I'm really enjoying the current phase of Sorenness.  He can sit up and play with his toys and entertain himself, but he can't crawl.  It's so convenient--you just plop him down like a little potted plant, as a friend of mine said the other day, and do your dusting or whatever.

It's hard to really attend to the dusting, though, because hanging out with Soren is pretty good times right now.  I knew that the acid reflux was making our lives worse, but now that the reflux doesn't really bother him anymore I can see exactly how bad it sucked.  Sure, he still occasionally pukes on company, but he's not in pain all the time and as a result he's usually in a pretty fantastic mood.  Even though his parents dress him crazy.

Cousins!

Soren's Seattle cousin was born last night!  I get to go meet her after work today, and I'm so excited.  I don't get to hold her, though, because I have a stupid germy cold.  Dumb old library germs.  Grumble grumble.

I was emailing (well, Facebooking actually, but I'm going to say "emailing" because Facebooking seems like an embarrassing form of communication) with a college friend about the cousins and she said, "It's so great that they'll be so close in age.  They can have a creepy marriage just like in a Jane Austen book!"

So we have that to look forward to.  Which is nice.

Two things what are funny (at least to me)

on this bummer day:

1. The worst moment of W’s presidency (for W) was apparently that one time Kanye hurt his feelings.


2. Mr. A. is the secret Seattle correspondent of this piece.