I made a conscious effort today to enjoy my Sunday. And to avoid thinking about the Monday that was 24 hours away. I have a bad habit of anticipating the future too much. Which, of course, is a huge waste of time and a day.
Category Archives: Treasures from the Archives
Spring!
Finally, some vitamin D that doesn’t come from a bottle. Spent lots of time outside. As promised, I spent the morning and early afternoon with little Sophie. We took a walk and she played with a friend. I watched her have fun in gymnastics and took her for a slice of pizza. She was happy to get her one-on-one mommy time. I was happy to give her lots of hugs.
Later this afternoon, I went for a walk today on a local hiking trail with my mom and Chloe. Chloe had fun and the good news is that she didn’t trip, fall or otherwise hurt herself, which usually happens at least once during these outings. There were a few brief moments of suspense when she decided it would be fun to use a log, which had fallen over a threateningly large pool of swampy water, as a balance beam. Much to my surprise, she made it across and back without losing her footing. Amazing.
After we returned from our expedition, we bought Chloe a new bicycle. She needed a 24″ bike. She’d been riding a 16″ inch bike for the past four years. She never once complained. But we were neglectful parents, until today. The timing is perfect, because her 4-year old sister is about one inch away from being able to ride the 16″ bike (with training wheels, of course).
Hello, spring!
Spending Time
Apparently, Sophie is under the impression that I don’t spend enough time with her. In order to disabuse her of that notion, I am going to have some special Sophie/Mommy time with her tomorrow morning.
Instead of schlepping Chloe to piano and creative writing class, I am going to devote the morning hours to my little baby. Beautiful weather is in the cards, and I hope to spend at least part of the time outside with Sophie, galavanting around the neighborhood.
It’s nice to inhale some warm air. It’s not going to last, of course – this is one of those March teases. But I’m going to enjoy it while I can, which apparently means until Sunday evening. But I’ll take it where I can get it. By 5:45 pm today work was like an abandoned city. The parking lot was just about empty at that hour – a little early, even for a Friday. Everyone was eager to get the hell out of Dodge.
For the first time in several months, I arrived home and sat on the front stoop with Sophie reading a couple of new books she and her Papa bought at the bookstore. Boy, was that nice. So nice that I almost forgot my stresses and troubles. Not quite. But almost. That’s progress for me.
Sunshine, see you again tomorrow.
More of Chloe’s Journal
LUNCH
Lunch, lunch it’s a time to MUNCH!
And when I eat my hunger drops.
Eventually my stomach pops!
I eat a sandwich. I eat fruit.
Then I find some more food to recruit.
Now my stomach bulges and I am done.
Now I can’t wait ’til the next one!
Goofy Chloe
This is Chloe’s favorite chair. She likes sitting on it in the morning, in front of the radiator, where she keeps her butt warm and enjoys her breakfast.
She’s usually reading a book while sitting on this chair. The problem is that she’s nine years old and has no ability to multitask. So she eats a bite of her waffle. Reads a page. Warms her butt. Eats another bite of waffle. Reads another page and warms her butt some more. And before she knows it, she has 15 minutes to get ready before it’s time to go to school. When we remind her of the passing time, she’s no longer goofy Chloe. She’s pissed off Chloe. And she moans and groans. Wastes another five minutes moaning and groaning. She stomps up the stairs to get dressed and brush her teeth. She calms down. Goes to school and generally comes home happy.
And the next day, she sits in her favorite chair. Eats her breakfast. Reads a page. Warms her butt. And moans and groans when it’s time to get dressed. Goofy, goofy Chloe. How I love you.
When Mommy is Away…
This is what happens when Mommy’s away on a business trip. All hell breaks loose. The stereotypical American kids, playing Nintendo Wii while eating dinner. The scary thing is that Papa is French. And he’s allowing this to happen in the void created by my absence.
Yet another sign that we should be seriously thinking about packing up our belongings and returning to the old country before it’s too late.
Homeward Bound
I enjoyed my solitude – obvious from my last couple of blog posts. But now I’m ready to go home. Ready to hug my kids and my husband, to be assaulted in the early morning hours by a bright-eyed and bushy-tailed 4-year old and ignored by my 9-year old as she’s engrossed in a book. I’m mentally prepared for the race that now defines our Saturday mornings. Wearing the chauffeur cap to schlep Chloe to piano and creative writing, and Sophie to gymnastics.
It sounds like I didn’t miss much – other than some insulation work being done in our attic. Oh, and lest I forget, a call from my husband a few minutes ago to inform me that the car battery died when he went to pick up Sophie from pre-K. He’s not amused. I think it’s odd, actually, since the same thing happened to my mom a few weeks ago when she went to retrieve Sophie from pre-K. I wonder if there’s some kind of electromagnetic field hovering over the school. Glad I’m missing that excitement.
I understand I’m returning to some crappy weather. Not surprising at all considering the winter we’ve had. The upside is that we gain an hour of daylight this weekend. That will put us all in a better mood, I’m sure. Moving up the dates for daylight savings time was the only good thing President Bush did for this country.
Solitude!
My last night in Denver. Still haven’t seen the city, and I honestly don’t really care. In a prior life, I would have forced myself to do a little sightseeing, if only to reassure myself that I wasn’t missing out on anything. Well, times have changed. And I’m older and wiser.
Forget the sightseeing. The solitude is priceless. I have a king size bed to myself, a bathroom to myself, a TV to myself. It’s fantastic.
Right now, I’m sitting in the bar in the hotel lobby and plan to enjoy a little dinner and a glass of wine before retreating to my king size bed, a warm bath and junk TV. I have no idea when this opportunity will present itself again…
I’m all alone. Not literally – the bar is quite crowded. But I’m alone at my own table. I should probably be networking. But I really don’t feel like networking. I did enough of that earlier today and I’ll do more of it before heading to the airport tomorrow.
As for the conference, it’s mostly what I expected it to be. Learned a couple of things – choice morsels that might actually be useful to me in my work. Some ideas are brewing in my head. Which I’ll eventually write down on paper. But not today. I’m too busy enjoying my solitude.
Denver, Day 1
I have a cold. A bad, bad cold. After arriving in Denver, I had hoped to spend some time exploring the city. Didn’t happen. Spent the entire time in the hotel room, feeling sick. I looked out the window a few times. Nice view of the skyline and mountains.
So don’t get me wrong. It wasn’t an entirely unpleasant experience. I did some work, had some lunch and tried to get some rest. It was quiet. So very, very quiet. It’s been a long time since I’ve enjoyed such serenity. It would have been more enjoyable without the cold. I’m going to load up on some Nyquil tonight in the hope that I feel better tomorrow morning and can get something out of the conference.
Spoke to the girls earlier – Sophie doesn’t really understand why I’m not at home. It’s my first business trip since she was an infant. Chloe doesn’t particularly care that I’m gone – she’s extremely nonchalant in that pre-adolescent way to which I’m starting to grow accustomed. I miss them – sort of – but boy, I am really enjoying the solitude. Despite my stuffed head.
Denver, Here I Come
I leave for my first business trip since 2006 tomorrow morning. Going to Denver for a legal marketing conference. Never been to Denver, but I know the song “Rocky Mountain High” by John Denver. Does that count? Isn’t Denver where “Mork & Mindy” took place?
I’m a little ambivalent about the trip. I chose to go, so it’s all on me. But as the date has approached, I’ve been less enthusiastic about it. Work is really busy (I still don’t have a boss), I’m going to miss my girls and the hubby, and I’m afraid that when I come back, I’ll have twice as much to do than if I had just stayed home.
On the other hand, I am going to be in my very own hotel room for three days. Three days of quiet evenings, with no responsibilities other than calling my little ones to tell them I love them and to wish them happy dreams, and review all the e-mails that come in during the course of the day. OK – reviewing the e-mails is not something I’m looking forward to. Actually, it gives me an anticipated case of agita.
The weather forecast is crappy. Cool and rainy. But I heard Denver is a nice city and the conference is at a nice hotel. And if I learn some things there, that’ll be nice too.