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Melting

By Goddess in Progress · Comments (7)· June 11th, 2008

In case you’ve been living under a very cool rock and haven’t noticed, it’s been wicked hot here in Massachusetts. Yes, wicked. I’ve integrated that word into my vocabulary. But even after eight years in Massachusetts, I have retained full use of the letter R.

Anyways, ri-god-damn-diculously hot. 90+ degrees and super humid for about four days in a row. There’s nothing quite so pleasant as sweating before 7:00 in the morning. Did I mention my house does not have air conditioning? Yeah, not so much. Two window units, one for our bedroom and one for the nursery, but that’s it. Let’s just say that, when the kids are napping, I’ve been hiding in my bedroom. And when they’re not napping, we’ve been escaping to places that have air conditioning. Like Target, the grocery store, and our friend’s house (the only one I know who has central air around here). I’ve been crabby, the kids have been crabby, and it seems we’re all working on one of those nasty summer colds. Coughing, congested, and generally unhappy. Boy, have we been a pleasure! All I can do is try to get us to all drink water, and share my popsicles. They both love them, even though they’re pretty tart, and Daniel makes the funniest tongue-face whenever he sees it now. He wants a lick, then makes a face, then wants more. Too cute.

Finally, this morning, it’s a lot more reasonable. Not cool, but it’s only supposed to be in the 80s today, and not nearly so humid. So, what are we going to do with this good fortune? Get on a plane Thursday morning and go to Florida. I hear it’s lovely this time of year…. ugh. Forecast is mid- to upper-80s, scattered thunderstorms, and dewpoints in the 70s. Do you know what it means to have dewpoints in the 70s? It means you’re going to be dripping the moment you walk out the door. Good lord. At least they all have a/c down there. Now we’ll just have to convince my mother-in-law to actually turn it on, as she still sleeps in flannel pajamas down there. Not kidding.

Anyways, should be an interesting new twist on our travel adventures, as they’re no longer in the infant carseats. We got the GoGoKidz Travelmate, which came highly recommended by fellow HDYDI mom, LauraC, so we’ll see how it works in practice. Speaking of practice, must take carseat out of car tonight to try it out… no sense trying to do it for the first time at 6:00 tomorrow morning.

We actually haven’t gone anywhere since our last trip to Florida, way back in April. A whopping 8+ weeks without flying anywhere! It was delightful while it lasted. This Florida trip is one of three air travel adventures we have planned for this summer. We’re also going to Chicago to visit my family in late July. The kids and I will go for about 10 days, M will join us at the end. Thankfully, my dad is going to come and help me on the first leg of that trip so I don’t have to do it alone. The Chicago trip is going to be a whole big thing, which I’m sure I’ll write about later.

But what I’m also really excited about is that, at the end of August, we’re going on an actual vacation (or “trip,” if you prefer) with friends! Sure, we’ll all have our kids with us, but there will be at minimum an even adult-to-child ratio, so that sounds good to me. Anyways, we’re renting a house on the beach in Virginia. Our friends have two boys, one of whom will be nearly three, and the other is a couple of months younger than my kids. Two other couples may drive in and spend a few days with us as well, but mainly it’ll be four adults and four kids. Hooray!

At any rate, I’m in denial about the fact that we’re leaving in the morning. Better get packing. Oh, and, um… figure out who’s going to watch the dog. Shoot, that one kind of got away from me…

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Categories : Infants, Travel, Uncomfortable

Uncle

By Goddess in Progress · Comments (2)· July 17th, 2007

I surrender. And I’m OK with it.

Not even two weeks ago, I was certain I’d make it to my original goal of working to 35 weeks. Sure, 35 was a somewhat arbitrary deadline, but it was the one I’d made. And it was so very close. It really felt like a done deal.

But after this weekend’s minor scare, and my seemingly exponential daily increase in discomfort, I’ve decided to bump it up. For one thing, I’m sleeping so poorly at night that I’m downright exhausted when it comes to getting up in the morning. I noticed quite an improvement without having to wake up to the alarm this weekend, so it was a bit jarring to have to wake up at 7am yesterday. Between the weekend and Monday morning, I was starting to really wonder if I’d make it to the 27th. My boss walked in and looked into my office and said “every Monday, I see you and I can’t believe you’re still here!” Suddenly, I sort of felt the same way. And then I looked at our office calendar for the month, and realized that both my boss and another of my favorite coworkers will be on vacation next week. I added it all up, and decided staying an extra week would buy me nothing, and would be a pretty anticlimactic way to end. And so, instead of 35 weeks, I’m going to stop working this Friday, at 34 weeks. I feel good about it, too. I don’t feel like I “fell short.” I know that I should be proud of making it this far in the first place, and I am.

I’m relieved, excited, sad, and nervous, all at once. I’m quite looking forward to not having to wake up at a particular time, and being able to have my poor, fat feet elevated for much of the day. And I’m excited yet in disbelief that I’m in such a final phase of the countdown. I’m also nervous, both for the next couple of weeks as well as what comes afterwards. I’m worried about the potential boredom of being at home by myself, with very limited ability to go out and do things on my own. That doesn’t tend to go well with me. And certainly I’m concerned about the delivery, wanting the babies to be alright, and then everything that comes after.

It’s also very bittersweet to be leaving my job. When I saw the description posted on the college website more than two and a half years ago, I nearly fell out of my chair. It was as though someone had taken my resume and used it to write the position description. Combination academic advising and admissions (without the travel), master’s degree in counseling desired, string players preferred. I was working at another college literally two doors down at the time. I walked my resume over to HR the next afternoon, had an interview a few days later, and within a week of seeing it posted, I was hired. Like any job, it has had its quirks and pitfalls, but I have really loved it. I love the people I work with, I love the environment, I love my mish-mosh of the two jobs I really wanted, all wrapped up in one.

And on Friday, I’ll walk out the door. My sixteen weeks of maternity leave (thank you, Massachusetts) take me almost to Thanksgiving, but I doubt I’ll be returning at that point. Financially, it just doesn’t make any sense. I’d pay more for childcare than I’d actually take home from working. And much as I love my job, I’m not sure I love it enough to not be there with my kids, at least for the first year or so. I’m nervous about being a stay-at-home mom, but I’ve got a few things in place to try to make it manageable. I’ll really miss my coworkers, and I’ll even miss just coming to work sometimes. But off I go, on my new adventure.

I just hope I don’t go into labor before Friday. I think I can make it another three days…

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