Freedom!

Most parents, when posting about freedom in June (at least in the Northern Hemisphere) are referring to the kids being out of school. I am not.

That was a week and a half ago.

No, freedom in this case is that the younger two are with Gramma at her timeshare condo this week, starting right now (they just left) Sunday noonish and not coming back until at least Wednesday, maybe later. The eldest lives with her mom, so she will be here during her usual (summertime) mid-week every-other-weekend whether her sisters are here or not. That'll be nice for her, as she doesn't get a lot of one-on-one time with her dad, and this way she will get some.

In the meantime, even with work and all, Mr. K and I are on our own for a couple of days, without having to worry about children going to bed at a decent hour or whether they'll eat the concoction one of us made from leftovers.

And it feels like freedom.

This is not to say we won't think about them - probably 24/7 - while they're gone. We will. We always do. But we can watch grown-up shows without worrying if someone is sneaking out of bed to hear bad words on the TV, and basically just be Jenn and Laston for a couple days, not Mom and Dad. It's like our annual sojourn to Norwescon, but with work schedules.

I can live with that.

I have a paper to finish, financial woes to chase down (my wallet went missing, and I had to cancel all my stuff and get new ones, but at least I got the most important stuff dealt with already), new job training to attend (I'm really enjoying it!), a house to tidy, books to put away, and laundry to do. But I don't have to corral other people into helping me.

That makes it a lot easier.

It sounds like I am complaining about the kids. I'm not. They are kids, though, and that means that things are simply less complicated when they are around.

Side Effects

A side effect of my switching to a non-blogging job is that I am happy to blog more on a personal level.

A side effect of Benadryl (in Abby) is dizziness. Now drowsiness I've had with Benadryl; its other function is as an OTC sleep aid, after all. But dizziness I have never had from it. However, when Abby was (apparently) bitten by a spider (it looks like my allergic spider bite reaction, but less severe), I gave her a Benadryl and an ice pack. Now she wants to watch TV and doze on the couch instead of playing in the water on a hot day. This is unlike her. I prefer it though; she's an allergenic little person and I want to keep an eye on her.

A side effect of Abby being indoors with me / living in a nice safe neighborhood is that Lizzy can go out to play without her older sisters. She is happily across the street with the little boy who lives there and his younger sister. The younger sister (about four) is not very happy, however, because a side effect of Lizzy being the oldest in any given group is bossiness. This is in turn a side effect of having two older sisters.

I start my new job tomorrow.

Abby and Lizzy (and their little cousin) go to day camp tomorrow (thanks, Grandpa, for camp and transport and logistics!).

Laston and I go to our respective workplaces.

Grandma gets some time off, at least until the kids get home from camp.

A side effect of new jobs and school and Abby allergies and so on is Momma-stress. And I didn't have the money for that pedicure I wanted (my heels need a cheese grater, seriously).

Anyone feel like grating my heels and giving me a massage before tomorrow? I swear nobody is contagious with anything (as far as we know). Unless we have masked the side effects with Benadryl.

Ah, Young Love...

Greg's Ninth Birthday

...sort of.

You may know that Abby and her friend Greg are very close. They decided years ago that they would get married when they grow up, although their respective ages (he's six months older than she) when said happy event is to occur varies from eighteen and fresh out of high school all the way to their mid-twenties (which would make parents much happier). Greg's parents are among my favorite people in the world, and while Greg makes Lizzy look calm and reserved by comparison, he's a sweet boy with a good heart.

A&G @Leanna's Birthday 2011

They met when Greg was just eight, and Abby was seven-and-a-half, and according to Abby they loathed each other on sight for a whole afternoon. By the next day they were fast friends, holding hands and swapping Silly Bands and generally acting like pre-pubescent soul mates. Greg has been featured in this blog more often than any of Abby's other friends, and as we tend to refer to her friends as "Abby's Fan Club," that's saying something. They are legion because she too is a good-hearted soul, and people just like her as a rule. It's a useful quality.

A&G at a Game Night in 2012

Tonight I asked Greg's dad if he had a cell phone or other texting mechanism. He does; it's not a phone but it does about everything else. So he and Abby were happily texting away - thank goodness for unlimited texts - when Abby said she was going to go to bed (the 9:30 cutoff has been relaxed now that school is out). About ten minutes later she texted me from her room (natch) to say that she was going to go to sleep now. About ten minutes after that she got a text from an email address that included a picture. It was a single fuzzy orange square in a black field, and I discovered that I can only block her texts in and out if they're from a number, not an IM acting as an SMS. Okay.

Twenty minutes later she gets another one, and I reply to it, saying that the sender must cease sending texts to this number. Then Abby gets a text from Greg, saying that he got this creepy message asking him to cease sending things to her. Oh. Ohhhh... so Greg got a lesson in Web etiquette (always identify yourself when sending from a given account the first time), Abby got the same lesson, and Mom got the chance to realize that unfamiliar accounts are not always evil.

Good lesson, and it also taught me some stuff that I will be needing next week when I start a new job at my cell phone carrier.

A New Chapter

:takes a deep breath:

I did it; I gave notice at my current job. I start at a major cell phone carrier on the 23rd.

My feelings are mixed, because I have enjoyed my time working as a professional marketing blogger. But I was offered more money, some benefits I could really use (although likely a worse schedule) for a place about three blocks further from home than my current place of employment. I have a family to help support.

In any case, my training will be for six weeks starting the 23rd, and is from 10AM to 7PM Monday through Friday. It's extremely handy that the kids are going to be at camp that week, because all I have to do it get them ready each morning, and then my dad will come get them and take them to camp, well before I have to go to work. That will give me an hour and a half to get myself ready, do my homework (the new class starts tomorrow, June 10), and so forth, without any "help" from children.

I have to say that although I felt some trepidation about giving notice today, my boss was remarkably calm about the whole thing. Calm to the point, honestly, of me wondering whether they care that I'm leaving at all. I mean, I'm sure they do; it's just that I've never left a position without a certain amount of negotiation, everything from, "Can you please stay until the 21st?" to, "Okay, pack up your things; we'll pay you through the end of the day."

I wasn't really expecting, "Thanks for doing us the courtesy of giving adequate notice. Good luck in your new position."

So good news: I have a new job with better pay and real benefits!
Bad news: none, really; just a weird feeling of disconnection.
Silver lining: when not blogging for a living, you'll probably get a lot more of my time here on my personal blog, because I won't be all written out by the end of the day.

I Miss This

I haven't been blogging lately; you may have noticed. I think it's that because my job is blogging, and has been since October, and I can only write so many two-paragraph posts (usually 38 - 40 a day) at work, do my homework (also a lot of writing) and still feel any inspiration whatsoever. Even my fanfic has fallen far by the wayside.

That is partly for the same reason, and partly because my usual fandom is on hiatus until August. Only so much rehashing I can do (although I am slowly doing some, in a same-story-different-POV sort of way).

And yes, I did just link you to the TVTropes Main Doctor Who page. Because I hate you. ("no, you don't," with an affectionate little nose-tap)

Oh boy, and speaking of the I-hate-yous, is anyone else's kindergartner using that as a way to express frustration, anger, fatigue, <insert negative emotion here>? Lizzy's about to drive me around the bend. It's not the *IhateyouIhateyouIhateyou stomp-stomp-door-slam* of my adolescence, either. It's just very casual, and she doesn't seem to notice how often we tell her it's inappropriate. It seems to be her little thing right now, like sucking her fingers or pinching my elbow or whatever have been in days gone by.

Abby's going to drama camp this summer, along with other activities. Like she needs help with drama <rolls eyes>. I suspect it will be good for actual acting skill though. The craft as opposed to the natural talent, you know?

I dunno, guys, that's all I've got right now. Pretty sad for the first post in a month, what?

Food

‘Ella,’ me dice, ‘Abiguita no puede comer los nueces. Ella no puedo respirar con los nueces.’

I was so proud of myself.

I speak Spanish, but only in a very present-tense sort of way, with very good pronunciation (in a Central American sort of way, porque mi padre vivio en Costa Rica cuando fue un niño). But I feel it's very important to be able to say, "She - Abby - cannot eat nuts. She cannot breathe with nuts," in as many languages as she is likely to be offered nuts.

So when our neighbor across the street, who speaks very little English, offered both girls some ice cream, I decided to check for myself, because Abby does not know the phrase in question yet. 

We have run into the problem before. Indian restaurants are a minefield; although most people there speak English very well, there are her two deadliest allergens - cashews and pistachios - in abundance. We avoid Indian restaurants when she is with us. Chinese restaurants can be a problem (unless we already know them well or they speak English well) because who knows whether the cook has prepared Abby's orange chicken in a pan used for cashew pork? Name any restaurant where there may be a language barrier and it's a problem, except in Mexican restaurants, because I speak enough Spanish to clarify.

As for other food news - in English this time - I lost eleven pounds in my first six week on Weight Watchers (and I've probably lost more here this week, but stomach bugs or food poisoning or whatever it was don't count). I'm feeling pretty good about it, because hey, eleven pounds is eleven pounds. I was a little down about the whole thing after Norwescon, because although I understand the concept of loving one's body the way it is, and even agree with that view of health at any size, I felt judged because I don't like my body the way it is. 

I know there's a happy medium; I have at least one friend who subscribes to the health at any size worldview but still manages not to judge me; this was clear when she just asked if I was losing weight for me or for society and once I assured her it was the former, she was happy for me and supportive.

Size aside, and even weight aside, I knew I was on my way when I needed a belt to keep up the pants I bought just a month or two ago.