In reading over my post from last night I realized how carefully I was wording it in order to not sound like a drunken idiot.\
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Where is everyone?\
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I think I'm housebound tonight. Expect lots of annoying crap from yours truly.
Tonight I was able to attend two very cool events. The first was the holiday party for Pulp's free-lance writers. It was at the Iguana Grill on the South Side, which was a decent enough place. I got to talk to Shanley for the first time in weeks, talked to Cindy for a bit, got free drinks, and my paycheck! Can't beat that. I didn't really know any of the other free-lancers by looking at them, but recognized a few names. The boyfriend was being a good little wife and stood off to the side while I talked business with the “office folk.” ;-p\
After that most of us headed to the Lava Lounge for the LUPEC event, which was so, so fun. We were only there for about an hour and some change, but as soon as we walked in we were greeted by Shanley's wife, Jennie, who handed us our own tiaras and information about the different cocktails being feature that evening. The theme of the night was royalty and focused around a woman named Doris Mercer who was from E. Liberty but became the Princess of Persia through marriage. They created a special drink for her tonight that was called…uh…I can't remember but it had some Chambord, some Crown Royal and something else and a cherry. It wasn't the tastiest thing ever but it did a number on my speech abilities. I spent a good bit of time talking to Robert Isenberg who writes for Pulp and a couple of other publications in the city. He told me that I looked like Cate Blanchett, so I said, “Thanks.” Then we talked about our favorite writers and whatnot. The boyfriend had a good bit of fun, too, which pleased me. He wore his tiara like a true lady and sipped on his fancy cocktail. Yinz guys shoulda come aht. Apparently
In addition to the tiaras and whatnot, we got some gaudy rings and beads and cookies. We got home at 9 and my mom and son, knowing that we'd only been out for about 2 and 1/2 hours wondered what the hell we had gotten into.\
Anyway, the baby and my mom are in bed, the boyfriend is at Havana and I'm all curled up in bed and watching Roseanne. Life is good. I definitely needed a decent night out since my son has been being very…two and fighting a head cold. I really needed to be around adults who didn't need me to change their diapers or suck the boogers out of their noses.\
Ahhh….
groan
The baby is upstairs in his crib and I'm down here. I'm hoping that he'll take a nap. Mostly I just needed a moment to collect myself and eat something because I was beyond starved.
After Jay Design we went to Emma's and had some hot drinks, but then had to rush up to the house so that the boyfriend could go to work and we could take the baby to the doctor's. He's had this bad runny nose since the beginning of the week and I was worried that he had a sinus infection (he doesn't). Now we're home and my belly's full, so that's good. But I think when I have those huge fluctuations in blood sugar levels it messes with my mood. (I'm not diabetic or anything but you know how when you don't eat for awhile your blood sugar just gets low…) See, cause, now I'm all depressed and I don't know why. Many of my friends are depressed or otherwise mopey right now, so maybe I'm just trying to follow a trend or something. So, yeah, quit being depressed, guys, you're dragging me down! ;-)\
I'm going to go check on the bairn and then I might possibly be back.
http://www.livejournal.com/community/lj_biz/205605.html
Tonight at dinner, the baby and I were splitting some macaroni and cheese while the boyfriend was feasting on some pasta that his mom sent over for him. The baby wasn't totally feeling the mac and cheese so I went down to the basement to grab him a can of soup. Suddenly, I heard this rather inhuman noise coming from the kitchen, the boyfriend saying, “Are you okay?” and then the baby started screaming. I got all primal, mama bear and bolted up the stairs to find the baby hurling up soy milk and crackers in between screams. I guess the boyfriend gave him a Wheat Thin to tide him over while I was getting the soup and he ate it too fast and choked. Luckily, his gag reflex kicked in super-quick and got all of that out of there before any serious damage could occur. It was still scary, though.\
Need sleep.
I had a job interview today. I didn't mention it on here because I didn't want to jinx it. It's a basic office position at CMU.\
Pros:\
-It's part-time, so I'll still be able to spend plenty of time with the baby (because, honestly the thought of only seeing him a few hours a day, five days a week was really tearing me up inside).\
-I'll be able to more or less set my own hours, so I'll be able to work out child care with the boyfriend and his schedule. No day care to fuck with! Woo!\
-The pay is pretty decent.\
-I still get full health benefits, as does the baby.\
-It's easy work.\
-It's in the English Department, so I can make plenty of grammar jokes without getting “I hate you” looks.\
-There's a great little reading room next to the main office. I'll be able to hang out in there and read during my breaks and stuff.\
-Dress is casual.\
-The people are nice.\
-I still get free classes.\
-It'll be a big boost to my resume.\
-I'll still be able to free-lance. (I fully realize the need for the boyfriend and I to become financially stable for the sake of our child, but I could feel my heart yelling “sell-out!” whenever I would look at a job listing that I knew would leave me no time for writing. I'm not saying that financially stability is no longer one of our goals due to my desire to write, it's just not going to come as easily for us.)\
-I don't have to wear an apron or a bowtie or memorize a list of daily specials.\
-There is no laundry involved.\
-I will be in Oakland, which I've missed terribly since graduating college.\
-It's a short bus ride to and from my house.\
-They have some hot computers.\
-The whole campus is wireless. Yes!\
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Cons:\
-I'll still be pretty poor, since it's only part-time.\
-It's not the most exciting job ever.\
-I won't have my own desk/office. I want my own desk and office so bad I can feel it, but I can wait.\
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As you can see, the pros far outweigh the cons. This isn't something that I plan on doing forever, but I think it will be a really great step forward.\
Anyway, the interview went well and I got the impression that they liked me. The receptionist seemed to really be pulling for me. They sprung a computer literacy pop quiz on me which I handled no sweat. They said it was to see how I would react to some unexpected assignment. I'm not sure what they expected me to do…run crying from the room? They were pretty straightforward during the interview but did ask a few of those annoying, subliminal, mindfuck, potentially tricky interview questions, such as, “How do you feel about communication?” “What are your privacy needs?” and “What do you expect in a workplace?”\
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I was blushing furiously the entire time.\
So, yeah, this would definitely be a good thing. I should find out next week whether or not I got the job so I need all of you to keep your fingers crossed.
I had a nightmare last night about suburban sprawl. I was at some event and the prize was a monster truck. I was waiting outside after the event was over and watched as the pulled the monster truck into the parking lot for the winner, who was this guy that looked a lot like this kid that I went to high school with but never really knew. However, instead of a monster truck they hauled in some huge luxury SUV. At some point, I received a phone call telling me that I had won $2 billion, but I didn't seem to phased by that. Suddenly, as the SUV was being driven out of the parking lot, I found myself within a sort of Discovery Channel-type documentary. I was being transported through the surrounding areas, which, when I had entered the building where the event was being held was half bustling cultural urban space and half unspoiled nature. At some point in the past hour or so, all of that had been levelled and replaced with huge McMansions, completely devoid of character. They all looked exactly the same and became closer and closer together. They hadn't bothered to plant any grass or trees, so it was just dirt and rocks all over the place. A voiceover was telling me about the swelling population and how people have no regard for each other anymore or what effects their actions have on the rest of the world. It talked about the rate of consumption and how we throw everything away without a thought of where it goes. It told me about racism and how it's getting worse with every generation, but with smoke and mirrors we assume that everything's getting better. It told me about how there are people around me who will always hate me because I am a woman and a mother. The sky was broken and dark and I could tell that the sun was never going to shine again. All around me, people marched around thoughtless saying, “Yes, but my house is very nice. Just look at the closet space! It has a two-car garage!”\
Basically, all of the stuff that I bitch about offline. It was a pretty disturbing dream. Why can't I just dream about flying or being naked in a public place, for fuck's sake?
I'm in this mood today where I'm trying to, as my mom would say, “work wonders and shit blunders.” I'm not sure exactly what that means but it has something with putting unrealistic expectations on your day. I keep thinking of chores that I want to do, for instance\
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-do all of the laundry (as always, there's a ton of it)\
-rearrange the nightmare that is the Tupperware cabinet (this I actually did but I'm thinking I need to work out a better system)\
-write out Christmas cards (the main thing stalling this process is that I need to get the baby's pictures to send with them. I was originally going to take the photos I had taken out to the boyfriend's house to use his sister's scanner and send them off to Shutterfly. However, we haven't had a chance to go out there. I'm probably going to have to find a way to get to Target or someplace and use one of those Kodak Picture Makers. ergh)\
-Christmasize my bedroom\
-go to the bathroom\
-pester Shanley with emails\
-finish Christmas shopping\
-take my bedspread to the laundromat (one of the baby's sippy cups was leaking so now I have two crusted-up puddles of soy milk to sleep with every night. blech)\
-bake cookies and the like (this will have to wait a few days…unless people want some stale cookies)\
-clean the kitchen cabinets\
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One big thing that I did accomplish the other night is going through the baby's toys and sorting out the stuff that he is now too old for. There's a box of stuff in the basement now and I'm trying to figure out what to do with it (Goodwill? toy library?). There's also two bigger things that have to go down there like this and this. They're cool toys and he still plays with them every now and then, but we just don't have room for them anymore. Ideally, I'd like to figure out a way to keep all of the toys out of sight when he's in bed or something.\
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The baby is currently in his crib but not napping. Ergh.\
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I keep forgetting to post these pictures. I really wanted to make these our Christmas cards for this year, but I didn't think the upper echelon of my family would get it.\
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These were taken a few weekends ago at the boyfriend's mother's house.
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Quick, what am I thinking?\
a) Man, he's right…nothing feels good.\
b) I feel so empty\
c) I fucking hate emo\
d) If I ever run into Andy Greenwald I'm going to poop on him.\
e) I wish the boyfriend and
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Be back later. Laundry.
C'mon gals!\
Edit: Just wanted to add, Pittsburgh gentlemen are welcome, too!
