Quiet Geeky Parties

Our annual NYD potluck and game day was scaled way down this year; we invited a lot fewer people than usual (through lack of space and funds). So we had a couple of neighbor kids early in the day and one couple and their kids later on. We don't see these people nearly often enough (they used to live downstairs but have moved a couple towns away) and so we had a blast, playing board games and eating spaghetti, mostly. The kids played a simple game called "Spin Until You Drop" which is Exactly What It Says on the Tin. Last person standing wins.

So here it is, 8:30 not that long after Lizzy's usual bedtime, no work tomorrow; although I do have school, and to help my mom with storing her Christmas decorations and possibly bringing leftover spaghetti sauce to a friend whose husband is in the hospital (because as always we cooked for an army but a small platoon showed up). Tasty sauces, too... one meatballs in red sauce, one veggie (mushrooms, onions, and artichoke) marinara, and one chicken-and-celery-in-cream-sauce.

Right now the dishwasher is running, we're watching a "baby show" and then I'll put the kids to bed about an hour late, each. A nice quiet evening.

And the house is still mostly clean.

Out of the Mouths... NYE Edition

We're quiet New Years' Eve around here. We do our partying New Years' Day instead, and that's a geek party - board games and potluck. And our older two are at their respective other parents' houses this weekend.

So we're sitting here quietly. The Hubs has just finished a game on his computer, I'm typing away on Google Plus, and Lizzy is eating an apple caramel sundae from McDonald's (so her mouth is full and she's been quiet - which is rare - for a full five minutes).

"Nobody laughs at my jokes," says she.

Out of the blue. No warning, not even a whiny "Mo-om" or "Da-deee". Just "Nobody laughs at my jokes".

Of course, the Hubs and I immediately crack up.

And she is not amused. Because this is not a joke. Now we're mocking her.

Which just makes it funnier.

The Fortune Cookie Lies

I didn't get the job; they "went with another candidate". By now I hate that phrase, but at least it's polite, rather than the extremely rude practice of completely ignoring the candidate. So when my fortune cookie said, "You are acceptable to everyone" I thought that no, apparently I'm not. Although I am fully aware that it's not that they don't like me, they just like someone else more, it's hard - after all these months - not to feel every "we decided to go with another candidate" as a personal rejection. And so I was all prepared to be depressed and morose and so forth (and drunkblogging has a certain appeal), but a good thing happened today too, which somewhat countered my blues; I received my unChristmas present.

First pic with new Windows Phone!

It's lovely. I'm enjoying playing with it. This one has a flash in its camera; that alone is huge in our rather dimly-lit apartment. I've got Google Plus through the browser, and Facebook through the phone's own software, and I'm working on downloading other things, like ringtones and so forth (or transferring them from my previous account/phone if that's doable). I am having a blast.

And tomorrow I'm meeting my mom to take the Christmas things back to storage (and probably play with my new toy; she has one and knows how to use it), and then the Hubs and I will be cleaning house for our annual New Years' Day potluck gaming party. We've scaled it back quite a lot this year because we have neither the cash nor the space to go all out, but we will still do it. And that will mitigate the jobless blues some too.

Post-Holiday Blues, Redux

Link-heavy post!

It's not just the kids. The Hubs is an emotional yo-yo; he's up because his story was published (we got the books today!) and he's a generally content and happy person, and down because our eldest went back to her mom's today, he has an earache, and the house is still a wreck from the holidays. I'm grouching because I'm still   jobless and this very cute toy of Lizzy's is driving me up the wall, but happy because, well, good Christmas and all that.

I think this is fairly par for the course - the holidays are stressful and tiring every year regardless, it's winter in Seattle, etc. And of course, taken logically, none of this is cause for snappishness or angst. I mean, did I really expect to get a job this week? When I know everyone and their brother is on vacation? No, of course not. But holiday blues have little to do with reason, and a lot to do with just sheer fatigue. Not sleepiness, but tiredness; there's a difference (as I have often tried to explain to my 9yo, alas, in vain).

However, the cure for tiredness is the same as the cure for sleepiness - it's sleep. When Leanna is here - especially during school holiday - I'm inclined to let them stay up pretty late. And of course there's the getting them to go to sleep after lights out, which is a separate issue entirely. And they are apparently constitutionally unable to sleep in as of yet in their lives; I understand that happens in about three years (when Leanna is 14 and Abby 12). Tonight we're going to treat it like a school night; Lizzy at 7:30, Abby at 9, me at 11 (maybe) and maybe that'll do the trick.

Post-Holiday Blues

They are so tired. Leanna is grousing that she has to take a shower and wash her hair. Abby is bursting into tears at the slightest provocation. And Lizzy... Lizzy had a meltdown of epic proportions today.

It started innocently enough. We brought in the new TV Hubs' parents sent money for, and the kids were all very excited. A new TV - and combo DVD/VCR, courtesy of Abby's dad - just for them (don't worry, Anti-TV Folks - we keep a lid on content and frequency, though it's loose during school holidays). With working remotes and everything. They settled down to watch a movie... and Lizzy lost it entirely. Leanna was in her seat, Abby wasn't helping, she wants to sit on Leanna's bed rather than her own, she hates the new TV and whhhhhhyyyyyyyyyy can't we keep the old one (it's broken) or fix it (we don't know how) or get a fix-it man (uh... because it's too old. Yeah, that's it). And during all this she's having a full-on tantrum, shrieking and kicking and arching her back, the works, and you can hardly understand her for all the sobbing and wailing.

My first thought it to put her in the time-out corner. There are two problems with this: 1) the time-out corner is full of Exciting Christmas Tree and 2) this quickly escalated from fussiness to total hysteria; she was not just being disobedient and by this point she was physically unable to stop. So we went for the other option we use when she's lost it; we "hold her tight like a baby". This is a cradle hold, with arms and legs tucked in so she's not flailing and injuring people (including herself), and while she hates it, it does calm her down (and my biceps are steel now. Ow). Today it took about half an hour, which almost never happens. I mean, we have to do this, oh, about quarterly, and usually it only takes a few minutes for her to chill to the point where we can talk about it. Not today; she was too wound up.

But she finally calmed down, and it transpired that she already misses the old TV, although she can't express why. Hubs pointed out that really, the kids have had that TV pretty much since she was born, so to her it's sort of part of the general background, and is something stable. Good point, given that we've also been using its screen saver function as a nightlight for months now. Poor baby.

But now she's happily curled up next to me on the couch, all three girls are showered and brushed, and all is right with their world. Now, if they'll just sleep at a decent hour - I could turn out the light now, at 6:30 and they still wouldn't sleep until after midnight - maybe we can avoid this sort of thing tomorrow.

Another Favorite Word

Having used this as a blog post topic before, I've found another word to play with.

So I've been hanging around with my online friends today, and some of them are having really hard times. One has a husband in the hospital for the next few weeks, one is undergoing a messy divorce, one has a son who won't talk to her because her politics differ from his. It kind of makes me feel like a petty jerk to fuss about my lack of job and funds, when I have a loving husband, basically healthy and happy kids, an a roof over my head.

But fuss I did, on a private board I share with some of these people - we've been online friends for over a decade, and since there are very few of us there, we've had a chance to get close in spite of physical distance, in a way one usually doesn't with the bulk of people one meets online (example: I have a lot (2000+) of online friends, but only a very few of these (~40) are in my Google Plus Friends Circle). So I was fussing - even saying I felt like a petty jerk because everything they deal with is so much more than my mere joblessness - in this private space, and one of my dearest friends on there pointed out that it's not all that petty, really, because it's "the kind of stuff that over the long run titurates you: tituration (n): reduction to powder by friction or grinding".

This is pretty much how it feels over the past nearly-nine months - as though our money situation brought on primarily by my jobless situation is grinding.

Tituration.

It's a pretty good word.