Blogging it Old School: Random Responses and Other Musings

Hello! It's a mid-week blog post that isn't try to catch up on 10+ days of non-stop activities! It's like old-school blogging with random thoughts and pontifications, all brought to you by Spring registrations at James's swim school that have him tied to his computer all night every night this week. We can't watch Narcos Mexico Season 2 if he has to stare at his screen, so I've been flying through Schitt's Creek and weeding through all the pictures I took last year. It should surprise no one to learn that Maggie represents at least 65% of my photos and I'm having a VERY hard time narrowing them down.

I mean, my god, such a model

Two little midweek highlights: (1) I voted, though it wasn't as joy-inducing as normal due to major polling issues in Texas and Warren's eventually withdrawal from the race; and (2) I was wearing a new sweater I got on sale at LOFT for $3 after using their birthday reward which (2)(b) perfectly matched this beautiful necklace James gave me for Christmas that I hadn't been able to wear yet because I didn't have anything to wear with it. Sparkly things + all the shades of blue are two of my favorite things and I adore this necklace.

Other happies: our nanny had her fancy camera in her car the other day and took these pictures of the girls to send to me. I love them. That pogo swing remains one of the great Christmas gifts of all time.

(Also Cora looks so grown up! It's crazy to think that she's almost as old as Landon was when she was born; we still call Landon and Claire the "big kids," and Cora will always be our ThirdBaby, but it appears she might be a big kid too.)

It rained on Wednesday and here is Maggie in her raincoat, with her boy following behind her holding an umbrella over her head just in case a stray drop of rain should touch her precious fur. I love it.

And here is a picture of Maggie's tongue at it's most absurd. It's like it fell out and she can't get it back in again. Which might be a real risk one day.

James Resolve-sprayed that spot on the couch as soon as she moved.

Also on my mind, two recent posts I enjoyed from two of my favorite blogs, and thought I'd comment on. Not that I commented on the actual posts because I read blogs on my phone and commenting through my phone is impossible and terrible, just like typing basically anything on my phone. Apologies to all the emails I haven't responded to- I can't access gmail at work and when I get home at night it feels absolutely impossible to read or return any emails. This is so bad and I'm working on it, but I also have a 3-year backlog and it feels unfair to respond out of order, so it's slow going.

But back to the posts! Sarah over at the SHU box writes her quick thought on COVID-19 as a physician, mother, traveler, and human who can read and think things. I agree with them. I also read and think things and I was a pre-med student in undergrad which basically makes me a doctor (JOKING, says the woman who made her then-boyfriend sleep all night with a COLLAPSED LUNG because she was so sure nothing was really wrong; have I ever told that story? it's both a good and completely terrible one from our dating years) and I am capital-letter-c Concerned. Which I think is the right level to be. It's not "nothing" or "the same as flu" and I get super annoyed every time I hear someone say that. But it's also not panic-inducing and no one needs to be buying out all the paper goods in Costco.

As I noted in my last post, I have some good epidemiologists and scientific reporters I follow on twitter that keep me informed and grounded (I'm someone who feels better the more information I have; follow at your own risk). A good and extremely non-alarmist friend who works in global public health told me three weeks ago to have 2 weeks of any necessary supplies (food, pet food, medicines, paper goods) in my house and, after I realized we run such a lean ship that we could only survive about 3 days on whatever is in our house at any given time, now we do. I shopped early for my soaps and sanitizers to bring with us on our trip and thank goodness for that because I ran to Target at lunch today for other items and happened to notice that all those shelves are now empty. But I'm not canceling our trip. The Caribbean remains unaffected at this time and while I'm not thrilled to be on planes or spending a few hours on a layover in a US airport, I don't think we (meaning my family specifically) are at the "cancel regular activities" stage. (And we will definitely not be wearing masks, nor did we purchase any in our early preparation, because unless you are already sick or caring for someone sick, they aren't effective and should be reserved for those who need them.!) But I'm glad our Spring Break is one of the early ones (tomorrow is our last day of school/work) and that we have our extra items and supplies to help cover any hiccups in the supply chain (or if cases pop up locally and we need to stay home, avoid crowds, etc.) after we return.

Probably not even 2 weeks; we eat like a Varsity sports team. The whole team.

Next up, Becca's post at Academomia! She writes about her Enneagram score, which like her, is something I've heard a lot about but never done. So after reading hers, which included a lovely and detailed analysis, and nodding along because yes there IS a right way to load the dishwasher, though I stopped debating it long ago when James started doing the dishes and I decided to stay completely out of home processes I don't want to own, I did a quick free quiz on the internet with results nowhere near as lovely or detailed as hers. But here they are, with my commentary:

Type One: The Perfectionist
98% MATCH
Ones place a lot of emphasis on following the rules and doing things correctly.

This is not at all surprising. Rules are important and we should all follow them. Except when rules are dumb; then we should break them, because that would be the correct thing to do, but we should do it in a fair and orderly fashion.

Type Nine: The Peacemaker
97% MATCH
Nines like to keep a low profile and let the people around them set the agenda.

This was interesting to me because I'm not particularly peacemaking, I'm just extremely non-confrontational (Scandinavian passive aggression FTW!) and I'm always the first to think that whatever I was thinking or wanting is wrong and no one else will agree with me or want to do what I was going to say and/or that what I want might make someone mildly uncomfortable (the horror) and so I hang back and let other people decide things. And then if they want to do something I don't want to, I force myself to love it anyway and tell them how much fun I'm having because I would HATE to make anyone feel bad about anything, except, apparently me. I've gotten much better about this.

Type Three: The Achiever
91% MATCH
Threes want to be successful and admired by other people, and are very conscious of their public image.

I think less "successful and admired" and more "helpful and the person you want to go to for things because then I'll be needed which lasts longer than being liked." I feel this relates to being my version of Types 9 and 2.

Type Seven: The Enthusiast
90% MATCH
Sevens want to have as much fun and adventure as possible and are easily bored.

Yes to enthusiasm! I do like to have fun and ALL the adventures. But I am not at all easily bored. That's just when I plan the next adventure.

Type Two: The Giver
88% MATCH
Twos want to be liked and find ways that they can be helpful to others so that they can be loved and belong.

Lol, see above. This is literally the role I've given myself in my family and all other social groups. "Love me please, I've organized your closet and alphabetized your contacts, do you need me to find something arcane on the internet?"

Conclusions. Taking the whole "free version of the quiz" and the "short summary of your results" I got for free because I didn't want to "create an account to unlock all the details!" with a GIGANTIC grain of salt, I'd say this was fairly true to form, but thanks to therapy, age, and increasing self-awareness and social confidence, I already knew all of it and have been working on the parts I want to work on. I am, most of the time, pretty happy with who I am right now. Or at least comfortable. I'm socially insecure, lack confidence in my physical appearance, and am needy as all hell in my romantic relationship, but I'm also fun and adventurous, witty and loyal, enthusiastic about whatever you're doing and also 100% sure everything is going to be okay. Plus, I can talk to you about the conflicting rules in vampire romance lore for hours.

The last line I could see in my "free results" said "Optimism is your super power." and I thought- how fantastic is that? I really think it is.