More Grousing.
But not about the Internet this time. Because I do feel the love. (Nine comments! And only a couple of them were from me. You read me, you really read me! ;-)
Maybe it's the weather, or the sticky work situation that I stepped into last week and sort of got in trouble for (and about which I'm not going to be specific, because I know the meaning of this word), or the looming Holidays, which come to think of it always make me crabby. But things have not been so good lately.
The other day, in despair at my ever-growing To-Do lists, one at work, one at home, and the corresponding twin piles of papers on either side of my commute, I wailed to RW, "Don't you get tired of all those things you have to do? Just one after another??"
And she looked at me quizzically and said, "But that's just what life is. Doing things."
Me: *incoherent whining sound*
RW: "Think of it this way: isn't it better than having nothing to do?"
Me: "No! Because then I could read, and e-mail people, and just do what I want!"
RW: "You'd get bored."
Now, those responses from my partner in life seem to me to miss the point so fundamentally that I'm not even sure that we were having the same conversation.
But then, she is a truly productive person, someone who is happiest when she has five or six projects going and is checking off her progress on all of them, and I am a person who, when you get right down to it, would rather be lying on a couch reading, and ideally eating Godiva chocolates, than just about anything else. I would have to do that for a long, long time before I got bored. And then I think I could be revived by an hour or so sitting on the porch swing and talking on the phone with an old friend. That's about as productive as I like to get, given the option.
Meanwhile, Mermaid Girl's old clothes are not being mailed out to our friends with younger kids, and neither are the photos from this summer, and my room is a mess, and I'm running out of clothes, and the sink is full of dishes, and I have about four work projects I'm behind on.
And Bush is still President, and Christmas is coming with attendant interfaith-family angst, and the rain it raineth every day.
On the bright side, there was a rainbow, a big one, right over the parking lot when I left work today.
And I have started reading kids' and YA books again, after a long dry spell. Four or five just in the past week. It feels good. Invigorating. Like jogging around the lake would probably feel, if I liked that kind of thing.
Maybe it's the weather, or the sticky work situation that I stepped into last week and sort of got in trouble for (and about which I'm not going to be specific, because I know the meaning of this word), or the looming Holidays, which come to think of it always make me crabby. But things have not been so good lately.
The other day, in despair at my ever-growing To-Do lists, one at work, one at home, and the corresponding twin piles of papers on either side of my commute, I wailed to RW, "Don't you get tired of all those things you have to do? Just one after another??"
And she looked at me quizzically and said, "But that's just what life is. Doing things."
Me: *incoherent whining sound*
RW: "Think of it this way: isn't it better than having nothing to do?"
Me: "No! Because then I could read, and e-mail people, and just do what I want!"
RW: "You'd get bored."
Now, those responses from my partner in life seem to me to miss the point so fundamentally that I'm not even sure that we were having the same conversation.
But then, she is a truly productive person, someone who is happiest when she has five or six projects going and is checking off her progress on all of them, and I am a person who, when you get right down to it, would rather be lying on a couch reading, and ideally eating Godiva chocolates, than just about anything else. I would have to do that for a long, long time before I got bored. And then I think I could be revived by an hour or so sitting on the porch swing and talking on the phone with an old friend. That's about as productive as I like to get, given the option.
Meanwhile, Mermaid Girl's old clothes are not being mailed out to our friends with younger kids, and neither are the photos from this summer, and my room is a mess, and I'm running out of clothes, and the sink is full of dishes, and I have about four work projects I'm behind on.
And Bush is still President, and Christmas is coming with attendant interfaith-family angst, and the rain it raineth every day.
On the bright side, there was a rainbow, a big one, right over the parking lot when I left work today.
And I have started reading kids' and YA books again, after a long dry spell. Four or five just in the past week. It feels good. Invigorating. Like jogging around the lake would probably feel, if I liked that kind of thing.
posted by elswhere | 11:02 PM
5 Comments:
so...how DO you handle the interfaith holiday stuff?
since Harris is only 2...the past 2 years, we've not done much in the way of Chanukah. we did light candles last year...and he got 8 small gifts.
but this year...i'm afraid he's going to want to blow them out...cuz he's STILL talking about blowing out mommy's birthday candles (her birthday was 3 weeks ago!). last night i told him she'd mad "tuna surprise" for dinner..and he said..."surprise? blow out mommy's birthday candles?"
but i digress....
my partner's family is as catholic as they come. but she's so not into christmas (thank god!)..and so, it's not a problem at our house. but i do wonder about school..and the whole santa thing. HOW do you make your kid understand..and not feel left out?
And next week! I come to visit you!
Dare I ask how your NaNo word count is coming along? :)
( And there was something else I wanted to say to you that I really don't want to post and I've poked all over your blog and cannot find your email address anywhere. Perhaps there's a reason for that. To keep oddballs like me from sending you email? *sigh* )
dooce. I've never heard it and I love it. Doooooce. Good one.
Here's how we got a handle on the holidays: outlived the members of the last generation who gave a hoot. Granted, my parents had me late in life and his parents didn't much care. But I swear. . .It's the only way.
Hey, hi Phoebe, welcome!
I feel a handling-the-holidays post coming on. Soon. But not yet.
Jo, you're really coming? Really?? This is so cool.
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