Slow Motion Banana

Here's a video of Sam eating his first food in 36 hours after being taken down by a stomach virus (again). It's kind of sad. And so adorable.

The Obvious

Last night I dreamed that I was at a workshop (maybe teaching it?) and all of a sudden blood started gushing from a couple of large gashes on my head. I tried to soak up the blood with some napkins, but it just kept coming. When I wondered out loud why my head was bleeding so profusely, someone at the workshop said, "I think you're probably just stressed out."

There's maybe some nuanced interpretation to be done on the dream (why the blood? why on the head?), but it's also pretty safe to assume my dream interpreted itself.

Dinner and Nostalgia

One of the reasons I love going out for an evening--aside from the adult conversation--is having our favorite sitter over to hang out with Sam. He adores her and so do we. She's a super smart Macalester student who speaks a handful of languages, majors in science of some kind, has travelled the world, and dances. She's also witty, kind, and knows how to speak to a toddler. After we see her, I talk for days about my own college days and the many exciting adventures and opportunities from that time. It's hard for me to believe that was almost twenty years ago. In many ways I still feel like my former, optimistic, naive self. And that's not all bad.

Addiction

We stumbled upon a little show called Homeland a few weeks ago. You might have heard of it. We are hooked, and in order to maintain our nightly fix, Dave went ahead and ordered Showtime for us. Actually, he didn't order Showtime. He called up our cable company to downsize our current package and got so annoyed by the process and the fella he was dealing with that some manager person compensated his frustration with Showtime. Here's the thing. This happens to Dave all the time. It's a super power. He knows just the right amount of anger or disinterest to leverage in order to get free stuff. You should see it in action. It's quite amazing and graceful. You should also see Homeland in action, which is where I was going with this post in the first place.

Space and Time

This is day two of my river writing retreat. It's going pretty well. I did break one set of blinds on the window and can't figure out how to fix it. I'm hoping that project won't take too much time when I tackle it later. I am letting go of the chapter I finished last night. It needs some revision. But I am forging ahead today. Until early afternoon when I head home to find out what my boys have been up to. They probably miss me.

Do It for the Herd

This flu epidemic is freaking me out. It's the only thing Sam has not contracted so far this fall and winter, and I'm really hoping it will miss him somehow. It doesn't help that Dave interacts with people all day long who have the flu or have come in contact with it. He had a shift until midnight last night and finally finished rounding at 5:45 this morning. People are sick. We are washing our hands into oblivion over here, but it doesn't feel like enough.

Plus, I'm finding there are people all around us who haven't gotten a flu shot. Sam had a playdate earlier this week with a toddler and her grandmother who informed Nana as they left that they hadn't gotten a shot yet. Nana, a public health nurse, did not take this news well. I'm pretty sure all future playdates organized through Nana will require a health survey of some kind. And I'm glad for that.

Basically, I probably need to calm down about the flu. We're doing all we can on our end (just short of that seasonal quarantine I've been contemplating for a while).

Parting

I just love working from home because it gives me space to experiment with important things like parting my hair a new way. That was mostly a failed experiment, but how could I have known otherwise? Next week I think I'll try eyeshadow.

It Starts

It is time to start blogging 2013. I'm only three days in, but it's been kind of a tough year so far. I'm grateful that I have 362 more days to get things on the right track philosophically even if I can't control the finer details of life. As always, blogging adds a little balance and perspective, and I'm grateful for that too. I haven't figured out my resolutions yet beyond finishing the diss. That's enough for the whole year even if it happens (and will) on the front end. I can't see beyond or through the diss yet, so it will have to be enough for now. Even though I am so much more.