so i have a few little obsessions

Bugs in my apartment freak me out. My long-time readers may recall many, many nightmares about the cockroach infestation in our mini-apartment. And in the apartment before that it was mice and fleas and bed bugs ... NYC is so much fun.

I'll admit, our apartment is not exactly a model of cleanliness. I am pretty busy and happy to let a few dust bunnies here and there slid. I'll freely admit that we leave the dishes in the sink overnight at least once a week. We do do all our own laundry, including cloth diapers and JD washes and irons all his work shirts (apparently this is unheard of in his workplace in fancy-pants NYC, but I find it totally normal and now that we can coordinate a long nursing session with his hour-long ironing session it gives us a very nice family time on Sunday evenings), but other than that we don't do so much cleaning on a weekly basis. Several weeks ago I wrote "I love JD" in the dust on a bookshelf in the hall and both JD and I would crack up as we walked past it for days on end. In short, cleaning is just not a huge priority around here.

Until I am threatened with a bug infestation. And then the cleaning demon comes out and I become completely and totally obsessed, and also infuriated that -everyone- around does not share my passion for scrubbing out-of-the-way corners or bleaching the bathtub.

In this case, the culprit happens to be a hole in JD's sweater. A hole most likely left by a moth. And apparently JD had two other sweaters with holes in them, which he just now told me. I know it doesn't make sense - we have no basement or attic storage, no 'out of the way closets,' no carpets, and not a single actual bug sighting in our new apartment ... but the whole thing has thrown me into an utter PANIC.

The idea of my laziness/laxness/lack of interest in clothing resulting in the destruction of three expensive wool sweaters makes me feel incredibly guilty (who knew moths breed in dust? or that JD only owns six sweaters?) and the idea that teeny, tiny miniscule moth larvae could at this moment be eating their way through my beloved clothes gives me the creeps.

So why did JD choose tonight to do our taxes??? Can't he see that I desperately need him to help disassemble the shelving in our closet and scrub the corners (also recommended by Drs. Google - I personally have never dealt with this issue before)? And why doesn't this stuff bother him? They were after all his sweaters.

Oh yes, and we have a visitor arriving tomorrow. Not that I'm expecting her to understand the current mania chez moi.

Atrocious airlines

My daughter weighs somewhere between 10 and 12 pounds. Definitely less than my laptop bag with a laptop, a few work books, my nalgene ... the usual stuff.

So someone please explain why Ic.el.and.air* wants to charge me 10% of the price of my plane ticket to carry a lap-child on board? Bueller?

Oh, and if I wanted a seat for her that would be 75% of the cost of an adult ticket ...

And yes, a real post about commuting with our little alien in tow soon.

* They are one of the cheapest airlines into Europe, and even cheaper now that their entire economy has tanked. And pretty nice too. Plus, I love landing in Reykjavik - it's gorgeous and about the closest I will ever get to the experience of landing on an alien planet.

My life is absurd

I just looked at my calendar and a little reminder popped up to e-mail my relatives 217 miles away and remind them to take 3 ounces of EBM out of their freezer tomorrow morning so that it's ready for our little alien at 8 pm tomorrow evening ...

Baby steps (towards a social life)

I'm a bit proud of myself. I managed to pull off hosting dinner for 8 at my apartment tonight. Dinner for 8 at 7 pm and I did not arrive home until 6:10 pm. In less than an hour I cooked dinner (ok, mac and cheese, not exactly the most sophisticated fare), set the table, hid the dirty laundry, and fed the baby.

And the dinner went off rather well in my opinion. If only I could finish my work as speedily tonight.

It's 3 am and I'm angry ...

[which is to say anything I say at 3 am should be taken in moderation].

I am pissed at my MIL. And then, I'm mad at myself for being so petty. After all, she came yesterday to watch the baby so I could work. And then she and JD conspired to convince me to leave the baby and go out to dinner with JD and friends, when it would have been just fine to bring the baby along ... oh wait, didn't we have the same post two weeks ago? And it was nice to go out to dinner. Of course, when the wait was 2 hours by 8 pm on a Saturday night, I ran home and breastfeed the baby (again) and then came back to the restaurant ...

But what I'm pissed about is that I explicitly told my MIL no diaper rash cream. I really do try not to micromanage, but there are people who love to smear cream on their baby's bottoms every time they change them no matter whether it's necessary. And that's totally fine. Except, when you are using the most exorbitantly expensive (and much beloved bu.mge.nius) cloth diapers. Because, see, diaper rash cream ruins these cloth diapers. Which isn't such a big problem because if the baby has bad diaper rash it's a good idea to switch to disposables for a day or two to let it clear up. But what's annoying is:

a. My baby doesn't have diaper rash
b. I specifically remembered to HIDE the diaper rash cream so it wouldn't tempting. Which means that not only did my MIL forget my instructions but she then went through TS's entire room to find the cream.

So now we're out at least $50 to replace the diapers. And JD is mad at me for criticizing his parents. And I'm annoyed at the whole situation.

Happy thoughts and photos coming tomorrow.

It's good to know we've been missed

JD had a nightmare yesterday that he couldn't recognize TS when she came home tomorrow. Of course, in the nightmare the baby I brought home was much bigger than our little alien and, according to JD, much smarter. And he panicked.

But, then I saved the day by pulling the real TS out from behind my back. Apparently in his dream I had stolen the other baby to scare him. I wonder whose dreams he was mixing up ...

And for the record, he last saw TS on Sunday evening when he boarded a bus back to NYC (Yes, we're that cheap. The alien and I take the train because it's easier with a baby, but he gets stuck on greyhound when he comes here to visit) and we'll be home by 9 pm tomorrow night.

Oh, and I survived my first week teaching.

Good news on a snowy day

More posts coming soon on traveling with a fusspot in tow (not bad at all, but why are there so many stairs???) and living apart from my husband (blah) but in the meantime: Good News.

As I was breastfeeding and typing with one hand online with my husband this morning, he casually mentioned: "... because of the economy, the loss of business, blah, blah, blah ... [Me: Uh oh. Is he really going to tell me he got fired over gmail chat?] ... because he just started he has to accomadate everyone else's schedule, blah, blah, blah ... has to be scheduled before the end of March, blah, blah, blah ... [Wait! Did he just say they're giving him a full week's vacation? My husband, who only started work in November and is so worried about being laid off? And he works in an industry where people often don't take real vacations for their first year or two of work - gots to love NYC]

We are going on a V-Kay!!! And I have a full week's break from teaching, so ... where should we go in mid-March? We will obviously have our little alien with us (she'll be about 14 weeks) but we don't mind a long flight as long as it's cheap (and she DOES have a passport already) and will probably have already done 2 flights and about 12 train trips. My only requirement is that it has to be relaxing. Suggestions?