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Friday, April 28, 2006

This Is Not a Post



Okay, so this morning, realizing that I hadn't posted in a week, and fearing that any cool kids here in blogland who've been checking me out lately to see if I might be hip enough to blogroll were probably all about to drop me like a bad habit if I didn't post something interesting TODAY, I started racking my brain for something to post about.

Should I steal Dawn's idea from many weeks back, as I've been meaning to ever since I saw it, and post photos of my bathroom, or, say, my ridiculously overstocked linen/utility closet, alongside some witty, self-deprecating commentary? Oh crap, that's right. The boy has been throwing screaming fits every time I bring out the camera lately, because he wants to play with it (and yes, he has a toy camera. In fact it's not even a toy camera-- it's a REAL, cheap film camera my husband doesn't use anymore. But he doesn't WANT that dumb old camera, because it doesn't have a nifty digital display). I don't know if I'm up for that sort of craziness before noon, thanks. We're out of milk, too, so I haven't had my coffee. Because my stomach wasn't up for black coffee today.

Should I post a long explanatory Public Service post, all about the symptoms of Sensory Integration Disorder, for those who come here and aren't quite sure what I'm talking about when I mention it? Peter Nacken asked me about this earlier today, and I've been meaning to do something like this for a while. But I want to link to all these other sites for that one, and I'm not in the mood do do research.

That post exploring the intricacies regarding teaching your American meltingpot children about their diverse racial, cultural and religious heritage I've been knocking around in my head? Aww, too heavy. How about next week?

Something on being a feminist SAHM? Am I too late to jump on this feminism meme? Is that so last week?

Argh!

Can you tell? I've been feeling so uninspired lately!

So why don't I just whine about my week, as usual?

Isaac's getting his last set of molars in, and therefore has been rockin' the premature terrible twos, and pretty much refusing to sleep when it's dark outside.

My husband has been sucked into a computer game all week, and I can't complain, because he really deserves some time to himself, and I'm actually quite glad he's been getting it, but it's sort of been cramping my internet addict style.

And yes, we have three computers in this house. But one of them is my husband's laptop, about which he is somewhat territorial, and anyway it's slow as molasses and only runs Linux. I have nothing against Linux, mind you, but it doesn't run Dreamweaver, or Photoshop, which I've been pretending to work in lately while I actually read blogs.

And the other computer only recently got reassembled after I finished refinishing the desk it lives on, and one of its speakers is broken because my husband knocked it off the monitor the other day, and I think I need to run an antivirus on it or something because Firefox keeps acting up.

I've been trying to finish a seemingly endless list of random chores that have been put off too long around the house, like spackling some nail holes, framing and hanging some photographs, fixing a door that hangs funny, reorganizing my pantry, reorganizing my study-in-the-bedroom to accommodate space for my husband's new electronic-device-building hobby, etcetera.

When my husband's not been on the good computer and I haven't been otherwise occupied, I've been messing with my new site graphics, which, after talking to this exceedingly picky and critical friend of mine who I used to do magazine layout with, I now think are HOPELESSLY AWFUL, and I feel like I might just have to scrap the whole theme.

And when not fixing up my house or sneaking onto the good computer I've been calling family member after family member trying to figure out what one day in the enitre 31 day month of May will somehow magically work out for all of them for Isaac's birthday, because apparently, not only do 50 family members expect to be invited, but they also expect us to schedule our son's birthday around ALL of their work and social schedules for the month.

My mother-in-law at one point even seriously suggested to me that we should just have the party more than three weeks after his birthday. More than. THREE WEEKS. AFTER. "He's too young to even know when his birthday is," she insisted. "You could even do it a whole month later and he wouldn't notice."

She may have been right, but this reminded me far too much of my own mother's sudden "epiphany" right around my much-younger brother's second birthday that she could really just skip all holidays outside of Christmas until my brother was in elementary school, because he "wouldn't even know the difference anyway." Not because of any religious issues, mind you, but just because she thought hiding Easter eggs and such for such a small person was "too much hassle."

(Please note that this wasn't because my mother was a bad parent. She was just burned out on kid wrangling after single-parenting two girls while working her way through school, and after her third kid turned out to have serious behavioral and health problems, well, let's just say the poor woman was sort of kicking off a decade-long nervous breakdown at the time).

But guess what? I was talking to little bro on the phone recently. He is now almost thirteen years old, and turns out he DOES remember those years.

In that, he remembers that his oldest sister painted and hid Easter eggs, made Valentine's decorations and cards for him, and made sure he went trick-or-treating every year ;) He recently made a point to thank me for this.

(What, did you honestly think I'd let the kid go without holidays? What kind of a big sister do you think I am? Pul-lease).

So, regarding Isaac's birthday, finally, I put my foot down, and . . .

Told a co-worker of John's we can't go to his wedding but might be able to make it to the reception, so I can have Isaac's birthday party on a Saturday, even though I wanted to have it on a Sunday, during the middle of the day, even though I wanted to have it in the late afternoon or early evening, so that all of Isaac's grandparents and aunts and uncles (excepting the ones on my side) can come without having to rearrange a single thing on any of their schedules.

I am such a wimp.

But at least my son's party will be in the same week as his actual birthday.

So, anyway, that's been my week. How was yours?

6 comments:

MrsFortune said...

I'm so glad you posted! I was starting to feel like a loser stopping by here every day, althouh that whole pie thing WAS amusing. Oh, and the whole "running out of milk thing" - that's why I used to keep a huge thing of that non-dairy creamer powder stuff in the cupboard. The french vanilla flavor isn't that bad!

And good luck with the b-day party, big sis.

The Adventures Of Dr. Gene and His Mate WonderMum said...

You are a kinder person than I am....as far as MY family was (and is) concerned...when it's a child's birthday....the world revolves around said child. The adults and other family members are expected to ammend their schedules (except for work of course) to accomodate the plans made for that child on his or her special day (which actualy usualy turns into a birthday weekend as well) but that's just us ;)

Andrea said...

First of all, you're a great big sister. Second of all, you're a wonderful mother, refusing to let your child's birthday go unnoticed for three weeks just so family members could attend his party. And while you made a little concession with the wedding, you still stuck to Isaac's special day garnering the attention it deserves. One thing I will say though is that as important as family is, yours is large and it will not be possible to fit their schedules all the time regardless of the occasion. I can only say what I would do in your shoes, which would be to schedule it when it was right for me since I'd be the one throwing the party, and if a few people couldn't come, that's too bad and they'd be missed. Maybe I'd email them some pictures so they could see some of what happened.

Good luck with the party. By the way, I meant to tell you www.birthdayexpress.com has all kinds of decorations (many hard to find ones too) at more reasonable prices than a certain local St. Louis card and party decoration chain store. It might be a little late for online ordering unless you want to pay more for express shipping, but it's a thought.

Perstephone said...

You are an AWESOME big sister! I think it is so sweet that you did all of that for your brother.

Debbie said...
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
Debbie said...

Wow. Seriously, it's so. freaking. awesome. to get to view someone else's life through the bitch-o-scope. I'm not kidding. I feel like I do nothing anymore but complain, that is, when I'm not keeping it bottled up and rushing around trying to accomplish 8,943 things at once. Thank you so much for opening up. I, for one, am grateful. Oh, and props to you for some delish writing.