So, it's a weird night. The kid only got a 5 minute nap today, so he sacked out on the couch at 8 pm. Charles is still at work, but he's supposed to be home at a "decent" hour. Whatever that means. I made myself a sandwich for dinner, tried to turn on the tv and found that it's not working, played a game on my iPhone for a little bit... and then found myself sitting on the couch, experiencing a very strange feeling. It actually took me awhile to figure out what it was, because it was so unfamiliar.

I was bored.

I haven't even had the luxury of boredom in so long, I had no idea what it was like anymore. :) That is SUCH a bad sign.

So, I put on a movie that I can't watch while the kid is awake (using the PS3, since the computer that runs our tv is still being cranky), and figured this must be the perfect time to do some blogging.

Of course, I have nothing all that exciting to say. But I'll try.

School
- The year is definitely speeding up before it ends. There are so many activities, fundraisers, events, etc going on, I have to check my calendar every single day just to make sure I haven't forgotten anything. It's nuts.
- And because I clearly needed more to do, I joined the Board of Directors for the next school year. I'm going to be the Registrar. We all know I'm going to love it.
- We have a parent-teacher conference next week. Our first one! Kind of makes me laugh. He's only three, and it's a parent participation school. I'm there half the time he is anyway!
- I already wonder how he's going to handle it at the beginning of next year, when 2/3rds of his class is different. What they can and can't handle with grace is so hard to figure out at this age.

Home
- Charles has been working seriously ridiculous hours lately. Like, 10 am to 1 am. All week. And apparently, he's leaving next Wednesday on a business trip that will last at least a week, but may bleed right into another trip. And then another. And then my sister's graduation in DC, and then he won't be home until May 22nd or so. So essentially, he'll be gone for almost a month. That'll be neat.
- I joined a gym. It's still weird to even say that, I've never been a "gym person." I signed up for some personal training sessions, mostly so I could learn how you're actually supposed to use a gym. I really like it, but I might have to tell him to be more careful with me. I can do the workouts just fine, but then the next day I hurt so much I'm actually impaired. I have trouble going up stairs, and sometimes my legs actually try to give out on me when I'm carrying C4. It's two or three days before I could even consider going back, and that means I'm only going twice a week, max. I don't think that's how it's supposed to work!

Work
- I've finally admitted defeat. I think. All this time, I've been trying to keep myself as busy as possible, cramming in sewing jobs where I could, because I felt like I really had to in order to justify my existence. And more and more lately, I found that the stress of figuring out how and when to get the job done was just not working out with what I was able to make off the commissions. And worse, the more stressed I got, the crankier and more short tempered I was with C4. Poor little sucker, he's only three, and he's already so good at playing by himself and letting me work, it wasn't fair for me to get so frustrated when he had days where he just needed my attention more than that. So for now, I've decided to stop taking paid jobs. That doesn't mean I won't sew, by any stretch, and it doesn't even mean I won't sew for others. But the Official-ness of being paid for a job is just a little too much for me right now. If I'm doing someone a favor, it's okay to say "Hey, my kid got sick, and I just couldn't work on it this week." It's different.
- Also, Costume College is in four short months, and dang it, this time I want to be really prepared! :)

I suppose that's enough of the random babble from me. Maybe I'll sort digital pictures for awhile or something. I have this wild idea that I might start scrapbooking again on a regular basis... Ever the optimist!

I had another movie dream last night. You know, if my brain is going to pretend to be a cinema, the least it could do is show the whole movie!

( Behind a cut in case movies without endings make you crazy like they do me. )

If you know how my movie ends, please tell me in the comments. It's been bugging me all day.

So, my semi-informal New Year's Resolution is to post in this journal more. I really like that I can go back and see what I was doing years ago, and this journal will celebrate a decade of existence in 2012, so it seems like a good time to come back to it. There are people making money off their blogs that haven't been around that long. Think of where I could be if I had just applied myself! Or something.

I know that a lot of people were not overly fond of 2011. Myself, I took it as a year to stop ignoring some things that I needed to stop ignoring. Funny how much anxiety can be caused despite a strong will to stick your head in the sand, huh? So instead of letting that anxiety build, I faced some stuff. Like, the dental issues that have been building for years. The last time I went to a dentist before 2011 was February of 2002. I knew that I was going to need a couple of teeth removed (baby molars), and replacements of some kind, and of course we can't all remain cavity-free forever, and I really didn't like thinking about how much it was all going to cost. So I worried about it for a few years. And now I can say that not only do I know exactly what I'm facing, but I'm already half finished with fixing it. Sure, it's only half because we couldn't afford to do more than that in one year, so I wasn't entirely wrong to be scared of that number. But knowing does turn out to be better than worrying. And I've already visited my dentist for the 2012 consult, and we've set up the first step of getting the other half taken care of.

Little Charles' preschool was another example. People started asking when he was still an infant what our plan was, and I always put off the question with things like "we'll see when he's potty trained, I don't think they even take kids who aren't potty trained." Too bad I went to a seminar when he had just turned two that informed me that I was already behind on that whole potty training thing! So by 28 months, he was fully trained (day and night), and there went that excuse. So I poked around a little, discovered that a little information was way worse than none at all (OMG EXPENSIVE WE'RE MOVING), and really dug in. And now he's been in a parent participation preschool since September, he loves it, and we're currently filling out the paperwork for him to move to the next class in the fall.

This year is going to be harder. Because it involves the IRS, and that makes everything harder. But ever since we got married, our tax filing has been weird. Like, sometimes they just go missing and we get a letter three years later saying hey, where are your taxes? weird. Which is obviously really bad. Even worse, though, is that my darling husband's reaction to said weirdness was to stop filing our current taxes, because if they were just going to get lost anyway, what was the point? This is obviously a very big problem, and while I've poked and poked him to help me fix it, I think this year it's time to start stabbing. I want to move on, literally, from this apartment we've been in since 1999. And we absolutely cannot do that if there is a risk the IRS is going to notice we've bought something shiny and then take it from us. UNCOOL, MAN.

So, yeah. Hopefully I can keep to updating more, so that I don't feel like I have to fill in all the details all the time. Maybe if I can be good about this, I can be good about my photo albums again someday, too. Aim high, right?

I decided that I'd put everything I thought about twitting/booking/plussing this morning in a post and pretend it might be cohesive. Part of my "post to LJ" more campaign.

• Having an auto body shop in the family is so awesome. Took my car in this morning and left it there. I've had it for two years, I've accumulated a few dings here and there, and in a week it'll be all shiny and pretty again. Love it.

• For about an hour today, I was in San Francisco. At the same time my husband was in New York, and my sister was in Washington D.C. That should be some kind of achievement, if life had those (like the Playstation or something).

• About San Francisco: I hate that city. Specifically, traveling in it. When we get teleporters figured out I might change my mind. But seriously, it took me three different routes and 40 minutes to get the hell out of there, because of construction/closed streets/lack of ability to turn left ANYWHERE THAT MIGHT BE USEFUL.

• Also: finally made it to Britex (huge fabric store on Geary), and was pretty disappointed, overall. Still stupid expensive ($145 for a yard of wool suiting, anyone?), but didn't have the fabrics I wanted. Four stories of the most expensive fabric ever, I want to find everything, ever! And as I shall not say anything rude about actual people working there, I have nothing to say about them at all.

• I saw a hot pink Mustang on the freeway and thought to myself, "If that's what you get for being a Mary Kay consultant these days, sign me up!"

• I love rain. And Autumn. And rainy Autumn days. But I miss my kitty.

• Hungry. Should probably do something about that. :)

• How on earth do I have a child old enough for preschool? WHERE IS MY BABY?!?

• When they say "parent participation," they mean it. When I first saw the schedules, I thought six parents staying per class was kind of a lot. After today, I'm grateful there were extra parents who stuck around.

• Clearly, sticking the new person on tricycle duty is some kind of ritual hazing. Five kids under three years old on one track? Who thought that was a good idea?

• I do not have the worst behaved child in class. Petty, but there it is. It makes me happy. :)

• When another parent asked if I was an alumni, as I seemed to really "get it," I took that as a good sign. I'm not, by the way, but my sister is. I remember her going as a little kid, so we'll pretend that counts.

• Tomorrow is the teacher home visit. I was kind of surprised that the teacher actually drives around to every single kids house, but she makes it sound like no big deal. it'll be interesting to see how Charles reacts to having his teacher show up in his living room.

• Thursday is technically a day off for me; each parent is only supposed to work one day per week. We'll see how it goes - I'm thinking I'll just hang out in my car, in case he wigs and needs me. There's a handy little clipboard at sign in for putting down stuff like that so they'll know how to find me.

• I miss my morning walk. I'm looking forward to the schedule settling down again so I can figure out where to put it, now that my mornings are mostly busy.

• School-induced nap time is awesome. He fell asleep in the car, stayed that way while I carried him in, and is now in bed. Snoring. Ahhhhhhh.

Last night, I dreamed a Tina Fey movie. There was a love triangle and witty one liners and wacky hijinks in a hot tub and everything. I didn't get the end, though. That always happens. So annoying.

In the last week and a half I've sewn three dresses, one skirt, one tunic, one velvet/silk half cape, and done alterations on a blazer. It didn't seem like that much when I was working on it, but it sounds impressive now. Which is kind of a plus. :) cwsmithiv was super good about letting me sew, and Daddy Charles gave me about six hours solid last Saturday to work which was great. I have purposefully not planned on getting anything useful done this next week though; I have a root canal scheduled for Wednesday. I'm a dental wuss so I figure that means I get to be lazy for at least two days before and two days after. :)

Though I suppose lazy is a relative term. I've been trying to walk on as many errands as I possibly can, which is tending to mean about a four mile walk each day. I'm now around 15 pounds past my pregnancy weight loss, and I've actually got a bit of a tan for the first time in years. I've never successfully made the whole diet/exercise thing work as well as this before, and I'm enjoying it a lot. No solid goals or routines, just trying to keep up eating sensibly (cake at 10 pm is probably not my friend) and getting at least some exercise each day. Having an active two year old really helps with that second one.

As for the kid, he's wonderful. He knows all his letters (though saying the alphabet in order is still a challenge) and he can count to 10 (sometimes we skip 2). He's getting friendlier with people who aren't Mommy and Daddy, and absolutely adores the 7 month old boy upstairs. He gives him hugs and kisses, and sometimes they just sit and giggle at each other. It's fantastic.

My knitting is totally lagging, but I can pretty squarely blame that on the fact that I've picked up playing World of Warcraft again. I know, it's a time sink, but it's fun in small doses. The game changed quite a bit in the two years I was absent and I'm enjoying checking out the differences. Little Charles likes watching me play, which is funny. He waves hello to my character on the screen.

My craft for today is to try to make a hair flower to wear to the Sharks game tonight. I didn't manage to find a teal one, but I know I can get a black one and then add teal to it. I'm thinking glitter. And maybe rhinestones. Hockey is always better with bling.

This is a child related post. I'm not filtering it, because I think it's ADORABLE and I want the whole world to read it, but I'll put it under a cut just to be nice. :)

( Seriously. Unless you hate children, click. )

I have no idea how it can possibly be December 15th already. I know I sound like a broken record, but seriously. I have a kid who is going to turn TWO in three months. That's just impossible.

And boy, do I get the "When are you having another one?" questions now. Fairly constantly. I'm still feeling traumatized by the first two months of his life. I'm not over it yet. And I'm definitely not ready to repeat it. Add in all those practical considerations like "no where to put the extra kid" and "no money to move somewhere bigger" and I feel pretty comfortable with my one-kid status. I'm not ruling anything out, but for now, we're happy just like this.

I haven't decorated for Christmas this year, and that's mostly for my own sanity. The child would just destroy everything. Not that he is destructive for no reason, he'd just want to figure out what everything was and how it worked, and he's not exactly gentle. But I'm doing well on the shopping part, and I'm enjoying it. I'm very excited to be giving some of these gifts, which is super fun.

For the last two weeks of December, I'm trying very hard to not take on anything new. I'd really like to finish some old projects before 2011 enters my life. Of course, we'll see how well that holds up in reality.

And now, I will give up on trying to type. My child is busy trying to stuff all of his toys down the front of my shirt.

I have no clue why.

I actually managed to go to Costume College for the first time this year, after either thinking about it or failing to make the registration deadline for two or three years first. (And, miracle of miracles, it was only a month ago and I'm already posting about it! Amazing!) It was a) not what I expected, but b) still enjoyable. I'm glad I went, and I have ideas on how to make it better next year.

One thing that was perfect right out of the gate was the idea to drag Michelle (NERO Las Vegas, Mitch's wife, for reference) along with me. I think I would have been very prone to staying on the edges of things and reading a book in a corner without her there to keep me excited about being there. So she stays! She's going with me next year whether she likes it or not!

But, I will admit, though I enjoyed the marketplace and classes and all, the best part was absolutely the fabric shopping tour on Monday. A bus picked us up at the hotel, drove us to the fabric district, and then stayed there all day so we could drag our purchases back and load them into the cargo area. You never had any idea at all how much damage you'd done until they unloaded the bus at the end of the day. :)

See?



( More pictures and details back here. )

So, there it is. More pictures, more posting... and this time none of it was about the kid! I might actually still have a life! ;)