The Best Thing I Ever Did

Almost a year to the day and I finally have something to say.

I have the ultimate excuse though.

Clearly, I have been busy.

Last month, we were pleased to welcome the newest, and most welcome, edition to our messy, loving, and occasionally fraught household.

We have a daughter.  I have a daughter.  I'm not biased or anything but clearly she's perfect in every way and obviously superior to all other babies.  Apparently becoming a mother also means you become insufferable.  Just don't follow me on Instagram.

Jesus-I'm responsible now.

I took a year off from blogging and all sorts of other extraneous things because I wanted-actually needed-to focus all my attention on my other great undertaking.  I decided tackling my first year as a teacher while undergoing my first pregnancy was challenge enough.  This was probably not also the year to delve deeper into couture sewing techniques, or teaching myself embroidery, or learning a foreign language. or trying to alter patterns that will not cooperate.  I've learned restraint.

I successfully completed my first year with nothing but ideas, enthusiasm, nerves, and excitement for the year ahead.

I successfully grew and delivered a human being with the mental, emotional, and physical strength of my body.  She is my masterwork-the best thing I ever did.  Seriously.

Life is still hard.  Still challenging.  Still bleak and depressing at times.  Still messy.  Still unorganized . . . . but we made it.

We made it.

Unpacking

Posting will be a bit slow because . . . .

Source: tokyo-bleep.tumblr.com via Cameron on Pinterest

. . . we are settling into our brand new place!

Unpacking is a bitch and I only wished our junk looked as good as the stuff in this picture.  That looks intentional-I'd just leave it like that, lol.

Funemployment and Academic Homelessness

Source

Today in funemployment: I sat in the car in the library parking lot and ate junk food while watching The Office on my Kindle.  This endeavor was made somewhat awkward by the fact that I have an interview at this very library in a couple of weeks.  I could have parked somewhere else to creepily eat my not Smartfood white cheddar popcorn, half-melted Reeses Minis, and Dr. Pepper . . . but the library has free wifi.

It struck me, while I furtively snacked in my car and wondered whether or not there are tumblrs devoted to pictures of fat people eating, that this very special brand of bourgeois daytime homelessness is shared by my fellow academics in the struggle.  Grad students, unemployed or underemployed teachers, nerds driven out into the sun by their parents, other members of the boomerang generation with nowhere to go, limited cash, and a desperate need to get the fuck out of their parents' house for a few hours.

While my hippie ass is working on getting a job, I am also working on a research project and writing better posts.  You know-topical, based on research and facts, less use of the word fuck.  It's either that or succumb to some sort of craft.

Finding Time: An Update

I am remiss.  I am profligate.  I am busy!

How do you find time to write when writing is not your job?  Right now, I wake up at five and do my best to hustle out the door by 5:45 to make it to my student teaching placement by 6:30.  Then it’s school until three or four depending on whether or not I have classes of my own to attend.  Then it’s time for a nap, but I have so much to do!

I hustle these days.

The problem though, is finding time.  Where do I get more time for art, writing, sewing, and the things I like to do?  Where do I hustle more time for these things?

The soul has to be fed as well as the mind and body.

That last line sums up what I've been working at rather nicely.  Soul, mind, and body.  Right now I am focused on keeping the three together.

The good news is that I have some break time for spring intercession.  I intend to spend it wisely.

The Year to Come

I have a lot on deck this year.  I am at the point in my education program where I need to get my CV together and get real about starting my career.  I need to buy a suit . . . like a suit a grown up would wear.

I want to finish my degree program by the end of the summer.  I want to write more, personally and professionally.  I want to keep working on building traditions for my new little family.

Ultimately, I want to grow and keep growing.

So this year, a lot of my posts will be about those things.  It's a transitional year so that's exciting, plus it's a leap year and y'all know all kinds of crazy shit goes down in leap years.  I'm sure I'll have PLENTY to write about.


Aren't you excited?  No more kvetching about the wedding!
 

On Blogging

It occurs to me that I write a lot about my wedding and my sewing projects, but not much else.

I really need to address that and I will.  I don't want this to just be a wedding blog or a crafting blog.  I want this to be a broader expression of who I am and the things that interest me. 

I want to write about books I've read, movies I've seen, books and movies I refuse to read or see, and so on and so forth.  I want to write about things that are thought provoking and things that are frivolous.

I don't expect to get all serious by any means-that just isn't me, but I do expect to get a little more real.

So all you lurkers and readers don't give up on me yet!

Wedding Planning Thus Far

We are quickly approaching the end of the semester . . . like Thursday quickly.  Summer courses are insane!

Know what else we are quickly approaching?  THE WEDDING!

So far six people are coming . . . and I am starting to freak a little bit.  I was all calm, cool and collected when I thought no one would come but oh the times they do change.

There is so much to do--not least of which finishing my wedding dress and Wes' wedding vest-oh yeah, haven't written about that yet.  Hopefully going forward with only one class and no job will give me more time to get things done!

To that end, I will be taking a brief hiatus from blogging to resume next week on Monday

The FrankenBook . . . is soon to be no more

That's right.  The Feds repaid me my generous loan to our national government and I did the responsible thing and dropped off my beloved laptop at PeachMac to be repaired.  My Frankensteinian television hookup is no longer necessary.  

It will take a few days for the repair and Wes and I are already feeling the strain.  I think I'm addicted to my Mac.  It's just soooo much more awesome than Wes' Dell.  It streams Netflix better.   It hooks up to everything easier.  It's just generally awesome.

Henceforth, posting may be light until I get my baby back.  As all of my pictures and whatnot are on my laptop.  I can't wait. . .  we have been especially busy around here.

Post Scheduling

I try to schedule new posts to show up by 9:00 AM on a pretty consistent basis.  Apparently Blogger sometimes has other ideas. 

I will soldier on regardless.

Regularly (Yeah Right) Scheduled Posting

or OMG, I have a follower! Guess I better get serious with the posting!

I do plan to maintain this here blog regularly. I spent most of December at work and then most of Christmas on the interstate-but now that I have some time to call my own again where I am actually mostly conscious, I will be posting more regularly. I have been holding off on starting a lot of things until 2011. There's a wedding to plan, an apartment to come to terms with, and God knows what all to be done. Hang out, it'll be fun.

I Must Be Getting Old . . .

. . . because this new-fangled technology nearly drove me to distraction today. I am a former graduate student. I have, kinda, two degrees. I am smart dammit!

But, I have to keep it real. Blogger almost foiled me today. Thank heavens for Google and my newfound love, Picasa. Without them, my posts would be picture less, sans pics as the French in France might say. Maybe a for Dummies book is in order.

It only took me an hour and a half to make that last post look the way I wanted.