mizarchivist

Whenever it's primal_pastry's birthday, it reminds me that my labor started on her birthday. We are days away from my child's birthday. I have complex emotional reactions. Excitement at the celebration, remembered anxiety of the act of labor, startlement that my child is this small human that's not so small.  This year we're combinging forces with woodwardiocom and buxom_bey since Roo's birthday is only 3 days behind Crime Fighter's. According to my conservative estimates, we're going to have about 60 people there. I'm excited and terrified by that, but mostly OK. It's easier now that The Kid is easier to contain, will likely stay where he's supposed to and not just TAKE OFF like when he was 2.

So, yeah. Maybe more introspection, but for now, have a photo montage....( Cut for bandwidth. Have some pictures! )

Gulp. The progression. It makes sense. Just 2 sequential years next to each other makes sense, but in total is staggering for me.

I purposefully used my super-old picture of Crime Fighter from when he was 3 months old to announce I signed him up for Kindergarten in the fall this evening.
Because this is my kid.

(No, the other 2 teas are NOT his)

Because we can pull it off, we are pretending The Kid's birthday is tomorrow since I have to work all day today and he technically won't know the difference. But as of now, my child is 4.

I left work early because I just couldn't focus with this cold. There was a train arriving as I got to the platform, but it took most of 45 minutes or more to get to Alewife, but I can't be sure exactly because I kept falling asleep.
Then no sleep when I got home.

Dinner tonight: meat loaf and baked taters. Mac & cheese, too. Because Kid.
CrimeFighter ate everything on his plate and asked for meatloaf.
He wiped his hands when he was done.
He decided to use the potty and cleaned up after
He agreed to put things away after we said clean up
And brushed his own teeth without argument. And let there be Vicks applied to his chest... AND he said thank you.

This earned double stories and lots of praise.

Additionally, asciikitty (and I) got the food cooked, the dishes washed, the food put away, and the dishwasher running.

Despite being sick, I am feeling energized from all the collaborative good stuff.

I was talking to Laura's mom Amy (my most long-standing friend: 38 years and counting, for those who forgot or didn't realize). We turn 40 next year. I'm April, she's July.

She has never visited me since I moved to Boston. I want to fix this. I want this to be on my birthday week(end). And given how little I need in the way of STUFF, if those of my friends feel like giving me a present next year, consider chipping in to the get-Amy-to-Boston fund. ... which has not been set up yet. Anyway- I am making note here and now for posterity, to hold myself accountable and therefore make sure this doesn't just stay a nice idea but a plan.

If this works out and we have a surplus, any extra money will go towards showing off some of Boston's finer cuisine. We can't stay in and watch old episodes of So You Think You Can Dance the whole time, right?

If all goes well, she'll fall in love with the city and really make the plan to move here with Laura and Syd ... sooner than later.

Back in May 2012, Radioactive Rich (rest in peace) and Alex were clearing old kid stuff. We took their bike trailer off their hands.

And we've been using it at first occasionally, as I briefly got a behind my seat chair for the kid, then when that fell off in the great Halloween bike smooshing of '13, went with me using this trailer exclusively.



I don't wish to alarm you, but... I think I have a pre-schooler.

Today was day 2 of a 3 day class for work. The class is geared for people using a markup language built for books/lit. I have gotten an intro into a markup language for archival description.Both are XML languages, and the whole point is how does one take content, run it through a stylesheet in XSLT and come out with a product (usually HTML). The similarities between the two types of XML is on par with Italian vs. Spanish. But they're talking technicalities within the language that they all can take for granted that is beyond-over my head. So, the fact that I'm getting even 50% of what's going on is sort of like some amazing bonus. I feel like I'm actually maybe getting closer to 70%, even. It's just the last segment of today was complex enough that by the time I was irretrievably lost, they had been talking about it for easily an hour, and no way I was coming back from that. Even so, I had the general idea of what the topic was trying to convey, it's just how it's executed was blargle-blargle-word-word-wah-wah-wahhhhh. Fun aside: while describing the first day to fubar, apparently this is a bit of tech he's not had to deal with, so maybe for the second or third time in my life, I got to explain a techie thing to him. That was an amusing and unexpected turn.

My goal for taking this class is to understand the structure and options within using style sheets so that when we start making our own from our data management software or customizing templates from other institutions, I will have the mechanics, even if I'm not going to understand all the details within elements, blah blah blah.  I will not have to turn around and immediately use this information tomorrow or even next month. We have a team with members in who're much more likely to be taking lead on whatever style sheets we go with.

With that in mind, I've been more at peace with not really getting it. Still, it's hard, and I'm grateful for the instructor who sat with me through lunch yesterday to untangle things for me, and she did a reprise this afternoon helping me at least get a few more concepts on the section that was jibberish. It's been hard not to feel like I don't deserve the extra help, because the impostor syndrome doesn't feel so much like syndrome as fact. I've been actively stopping myself from apologizing for monopolizing an instructor's time, rather I say thank you and try to believe that it's OK that I'm there. And sometimes I actually believe it. Once again, it's the internal dialog that is possibly way more valuable than the course curriculum. Those of you who have known me... ever, know or can guess that this kind of situation would not yield the relatively graceful/zen state. More like freakout.

Anyway, I hope any of that translates.  It'll have to do, I have a book to finish before bed. 

And it's amazing! ... And a war zone right now.
I don't know why the very nice men who did all the moving for us brought us those extra boxes, though. I know we didn't have this much stuff before. Quite certain.

I will take pictures soon. asciikitty found my office box that has my camera in, so I will do that soon. Well, maybe not immediately. Maybe I'll wait til a few more things are put away. I'm glad to be at work so I can sit and rest and not unpack a box. But, half the kitchen's already done. Partially to get it out of the way, partially because it's the easiest (IMO) and will provide a sense of satisfaction when complete.  Baby gates and locks for the cabinets MUST happen today, though. OMG. The child knows how to open doors now. That happened in the week+ since we moved out of the old house. 

I went to witness the bar mitzvah for K. today! I put on my social anthropologist hat and head scarf and trucked north for the service. My last such said was my cousin's bat mitzvah in the early '90s. All I remember was the walking around with the Torah and my cousin reading, so this was essentially a new experience for me. I didn't understand 95% of what was said all morning. However, that's OK. The aspects I am carrying with me now- the magnitude, pride, happiness, and hard work. I very much like the concept of a more gradual slide into official adulthood, and having a concrete activity that requires serious study and preparation to help the adolescent Level Up (as was so aptly said today).
I'm blessed to live in a tribe that has so many threads of different traditions to add to our collective. This was probably the best, most life-affirming activity I could have had the honor of attending at this time: very healing after a solid week of chaos, fear and violence.

I was right in leaving Crime Fighter at home for the service. I got him gussied in his Flash onesie for the party, though, where he lived up to his reputation of "Fountain of Cute," to quote drwex. Lots of dancing, running around, and spinning.

Life Goes On. 

It's been 14 years since quiet_elegance and I decided to make an official go of it.  This year he's gotten me a renewed, slightly used, but nicely broken in Commander in Chief. This is really preferable over a new one, because I don't like the OS that goes with Mittens.

Some snapshots from anniversaries past, courtesy of Live Journal:

( 2003-2011... )

2012- It's been an intense year of growth and challenge. Again, there's this kid. He's great and amazing and a lot of work.
My work has shifted remarkably over the past 12 months. I have a great part time office mate/colleague whom I adore. We have a development director, a new admin, and a new cataloger. The new outnumber the established and our activity is just spinning up and up and up. We have a lot to fix, though. So much growth so quickly, and we just don't have the infrastructure to deal a lot of the time. But I hope we'll get caught up and be even better for it.
And omg, Election Fatigue. I know all elections can be pretty exhausting, but this one felt extra vitriolic. I don't want to say the worst ever, because that seems unlikely. I'm hugely relieved that the president has been re-elected. I realize he's not perfect, but he will at least support (most) of the social issues that Mittens almost certainly would actively trash or allow his cronies to trash. 
quiet_elegance has had a rough year. We realized in April that it was most realistic for him to stay home and be the full time kid-care. He's also found that too many years of working in the field and deferring health maintenance has lead to a lot of catch up.  BTW: cortizone shots happen on 11/20. Hopefully this will be the tipping point for him. 

There's, of course, SO much more than just what I've said, but it's a snapshot. 
LOVE to my dear life partner (in crime). LOVE to everyone who voted yesterday and to our POTUS who'll be around for a few more years. LOVE to my friends and family who remind me that the world is full of wonderful people. People who like me!