Since the fabulous Ms. J asked, just a quick update to say that the fusspot is much recovered. She did of course pick up a new cold at her first day back at daycare, but that's to be expected.
The reason I haven't been posting is that I have been in an exceedingly grumpy and whiny mood for days. I already had it out with my poor husband (I feel like he doesn't show enough concern about the little things in our life, he says knowing how tough it is only makes him feel more guilty ... the usual). In the spirit of lists, here's what's making me grumpy:
- My life is only fully functional if the fusspot goes to bed at 8 pm and sleeps for a good 4 hours. I need that time to clean up and detox and work. For a good week she's been waking every 1-2 hours until I go to bed and thus the dishes haven't been done, nor the vacuuming or cleaning up or e-mails or work. Argh!
- I really wish that just once someone else would wash the high chair and scrub the floor. Baby led weaning is such a mess.
- Just once it would be nice to have someone else wrangle the fusspot into her coat in the morning. And hat, for that matter.
- I wish the diapers would dry overnight. As is I only do 4 loads of laundry a week (1 lights, 1 darks, 2 diapers - sheets and towels go in with the darks) but I have to do laundry every other night because it takes so long for things to dry. Oh, and loads take 2 hours and I'm way too nervous to leave the machine running when we're out so laundry involves me putting in clothing and hanging them to dry every other night.
- I wish the kitchen drain would work again.
- I wish the not-t0-be-named blogger who lives in the city famous for Big Ben (where I will be this weekend) would e-mail me so that we could hang out. I think she probably doesn't want to see me because she's not up for hanging out with the fusspot, but if she never writes I can't tell her I am happy to find a babysitter in order to fulfill my fantasy of basking in her fabulous vocabulary. Or maybe she has better reasons for not liking me. Beats me.
- I wish that I'd finished the fusspot's fabulous birthday outfit a good deal earlier.
- I wish that people here in Lalaland would be slightly more aware that there are in fact real, live, grumpy non-Christians out there. Something came up in class this morning and my peers were generally shocked that I am not giving the fusspot Christmas presents. I have no objections to her doing Christmas at daycare (well, few, but they're moot because nobody cares here at all) or going to Santa's house or the Christmas parade, but we do not do Christmas in my house. Nothing that would surprise 95% of Americans but something they all find odd here. It's as if most people want to ignore the hegemony of Christianity entirely and pretend that it's a universal religion. Even odder since the conversation was only a few minutes after a reference to the Shoa.
- I wish that my dear friend here in Lalaland wasn't moving away forever this weekend. I also wish our good-bye present looked less dinky.
And now on to the question of the day (since you can tell from the list above that I am basically a spoiled brat with nothing to complain about). I just realized that the cheap plane tickets for our fabulous vacation are really inconvenient times. Due to cost and some work restrictions we will not be flying out of the city/country where we live. We instead will be heading out of an airport a good 3 hours away. Not a big deal except that the earliest train does not get us in in time for the direct flight of the day:
a. Take the direct flight, even if it means leaving my apartment a day early and staying in a sleazy airport hotel in a city I really don't know all that well. Oh, and just for kicks that would be a sleazy airport hotel in a new city on my b-day.
b. Take a layover so that we can head out at a reasonable time. Extends travel time by a good 5 hours and one new country but no hotels required.
c. Choose a slightly farther airport and at no extra cost get 12 hours in Bahrain or UAE (always a fantasy of mine).
And before you way in, do remember that the fusspot will be 17 months old and presumably fully mobile, and I will be giving a paper at a conference less than 24 hours after our return.
If I don't post again for a couple of days it's because I'm visiting a friend in Lo.nd.on. It is absurd how much I grump given my charmed life.
2 comments:
It's not absurd and we all understand because we've all been there! In any event, I think it's perfectly normal to desire some help every now and then. I wish, for your sake, that this season of you life were going to be over sooner.
I wasn't able to comment on the ER posts (our internet connection is weak on good days and I often cannot get past the word verification thing to post comments) but I was so happy for you that they were relatively quick and painless. In Germany, nearly all ER visits result in admittance for a 2-3 day stay for the most basic of illnesses. When I read the title of you post, I was nervous for you.
I hope you have a great time in London (it's tied with Jerusalem as my favorite city).
Oh, the joys of laundry in the Lala-ish region... That was one of my chief complaints while over there, that somehow, they had managed to make a washer-dryer set up that somehow only works for 50% of circumstances, and then could only dry certain things (because it would shrink and/or stretch them) AND would take 50 years to dry those select things that you *could* put in there. And trying to line dry items in a place where it's frankly either too cold or too humid 9 months out of the year is just an exercise in frustration. You have my condolences. I'm only so jazzed about cloth diapering because I know that for the first 3-4 months of my children's lives, the weather will be perfect for my outdoor clothesline, and that after that, I can use my basement clotheslines in combination with the dryer to get diapers dry enough to use.
And I've been wondering how to handle christmas, since I have decidedly moved beyond any religious reason for celebrating that holiday. It just happens to be my favorite holiday (love winter, love gifts, love extended time off from work and time for traveling to family, and love the sparkly lights everywhere- note that I don't say I love Jesus or birthdays...), and H and I decided to get married right before Christmas because it's a special time of the year that we both like. But I am not a Christian. I haven't been for a long time, but this is the first year where I am really, truly, dedicatedly, decidedly capital N-O-T Christian. Which makes the whole holiday seem kind of weird. I love the traditions, but I don't particularly care to honor the reason for the traditions. So does that make me a poseur? Or just a particularly heathenish person? I don't know. I love giving and getting gifts, and all the other trappings, I just don't like the why.
Basically, I get what you're saying. They all assume everyone honors christmas because of tradition, but if you really specifically don't believe in the cause for the holiday, where do you draw the line with celebrating it?
I wish I had advice for you on your travel plans, but as I am one of the world's worst travelers, I think you'd do best to do the exact opposite of whatever I advised...
Post a Comment