Other Things

Things I would have written about last week if I hadn't been distracted by women being patronizing to another woman:

- I wore my hair in a French braid to work. I'm not sure if any professional woman has done that since 1988, but it was nice to do something with it besides throw it up in a messy bun (actually blow drying and styling it being out of the question of course).

- Vermin count in my house to date: 9 geckos (3 still at large), 1 snake, 139 spiders, 6,345,231 springtails, 1 horned frog, 3 moths, 12 beetles, 1 dinosaur cockroach, 2 regular cockroaches, and as of last Tuesday, 1 dead squirrel. Luckily, that last one was outside on our deck, but it was right next to the side of the house, so I think it counts. 90% of the rest of the count was from our bathroom. I'm thinking of letting the geckos stay, it's the natural introduction of a predator in our ecosystem.

- I am trying to learn accounting. It’s going as well as my attempt to learn organic chemistry in college. I really REALLY wish I’d taken business classes in undergrad. In fact, the business school is the only school I didn’t have a single class in on the entire campus (being a liberal arts honors/pre-med/biology/philosophy major who loves math), which is surprising since my new boyfriend took nearly all of his classes there and I really couldn't get enough of him.

- I just watched the footage JP shot of Landon's birthday party cake moment and found out that he zoomed in on my boobs while I was bent over (in my apparently rather low cut bathing suit cover-up dress) distributing cupcakes. I'm trying to decide if I need to edit it out. I'd say yes, but I would have to first learn how, so we're probably talking hours of time that could be doing something else like writing blog posts. And not that we're totally inappropriate around them (not totally), but I doubt it will come as a huge shock to my grown children that dad would zoom the camera in on that general area.  But still, I'm torn.

- I temporarily lifted our moratorium on unnecessary spending to buy a whole bunch of rugs and door mats at Target. We have 9 exterior doors and coming in from the pool onto tile was becoming a safety issue. The fact that they make my house look pretty was purely incidental.

- This article on Bikers Against Child Abuse made me cry. I can completely understand how, for a kid, something like this might make them feel safe when their parents or guardians can't.

- Claire is so fun and sweet and adorable right now that I have no words to explain it. I've tried- I have a draft "2nd birthday" post that I've been working on and off on for weeks, but I just can't capture her. She hops (hops! with great enthusiasm) to JP whenever he calls her to come over. She hugs fiercely and she says "wuv you. wuv you SO MUCH" while doing it. She talks so much and so fast it's hard to keep up, but she says things with such conviction that you have to pretend you understand, even if your brain is still trying to translate her language into yours. She is so brave- JP is doing her swim lessons and she sobs the whole time, but when he tells her they're going to do something one more time she nods her head and chokes out "otay" through the sobs. She only wants to eat fruit and cheese. She doesn't whine, only screams when Landon does something she doesn't like (never at JP or me, oddly enough), and only throws the occasional, blessedly short (less than 30 seconds) tantrum. She is fiercely independent and yet is so sweet she makes me melt. Also laugh. There are no words.

- My very favorite show is back on TV. Breaking Bad is the only show I don't watch with my laptop open on my lap. It's serious business.

- I'm still going to my barre class. I think my arms jiggle less and a complete stranger complimented me on my legs on Saturday. The woman at Gap (where I was just browsing... for the children...) will never know it, but she just guaranteed my next 10 classes.