Wow, that was fun. Thanks for all your comments and I’ll be sure to check out your websites. You people are so witty. I was most amazed to see the number of old school Wishbone visitors—people that have been following my pathetic life since SLOlane’s previous incarnation, Wishbone. (That was a zine I did for many years right up until we moved). Haven’t you people learned your lesson yet?

You can still sign in if you haven’t yet.

So I am going to bed early tonight if it kills me, because the last week and half has been an endless string of sleepless nights, because a certain babysitter who shall remain nameless got all of us sick, and because literally the millisecond we sort of recovered from that, the evil molar teething demon returned. Saige has the worst of it, as usual. I can’t tell if Darcy is cranky because of the same thing or the sleep deprivation she suffered because of her sister. I spent most of the day handing out Tylenol doses, teething tablets, and sitting on the floor with them just to prevent constant screaming and crying. Yeah, a real productive day. I should have known it was coming: Saige’s nose has been running like mad for several days…making her ask for “nackin, nackin!” about every ten minutes (”nackin” = napkin = kleenex). Silly me, I thought it was the cold. It wasn’t.

Oh, it’s going to be a Motrin night tonight, baby.

Have I mentioned our pediatrician doesn’t believe in the teething demon? No, I’m still not over this. He says it’s a myth…yes, all that screaming, crying, not sleeping and telling me “cheek, owie, mama! Owie!!”…that’s purely mythical. I think of his bullshit words every time we go through this, and really wonder how any person on this earth could think this is mythical.

But hey, plenty of doctors think hypoglycemia is mythical, too.

Business has also picked up some, so that’s another reason posts have been a bit sparse, sorry. Part of my newfound wealth went to buying $200 garage racks, since our garage is so stuffed with shit it gives me hives just thinking about it.

Claire recently reposted a great opinion piece on the big elephant in the mommy room nobody talks about: the ennui and damned hard work involved in parenthood. It was written by a SAHD, and though I thought his conclusion was kind of crummy and mostly likely scratched out on a whole lot of sleep deprivation, I could basically relate to what he was saying.

Unfortunately, it’s not until you’ve had children that you discover how selfish you actually are. That’s one of the paradoxical aspects of becoming a parent: at the very same time you realise precisely how selfish you are, you are forced to become less selfish.

Yup. It’s not only forced me to become less selfish, but a lot more disciplined. I kick myself when I think about all the time I wasted on the computer pre-kids, always wondering why I never actually got any real “work” done after six or seven hours. It’s so easy to get sidetracked in a million different directions online. Like this: say you start out looking for a font for a project. You don’t find what you want and while you’re doing that you then stumble onto design sites somehow, then you remember you forgot to upload your latest photos, then you order something, then check your email, and then you go back to looking for the font and realize you need some better music to listen to while you’re doing it so you fire up your P2P program…blah blah blah. Now my whole life is compressed into a two-hour naptime window, and boy, it really forces you to FOCUS. My biggest problem these days is resisting the urge to click on my Flickr bookmark. Once I do that, whatever it is I was going to do is simply not going to happen.

These days when I hear parents, particularly fathers, gushing over how beautiful and wondrous being a parent is, I must admit I am slightly sickened. For one thing, most of these men find it so “wondrous” because all they really have to do is tousle their kids’ hair when they get home from work and read a story before bed.
I know this because I used to be one of these fathers. Ah, back then, parenthood was a magical time.

The truth is, parenthood is an incredibly mind-numbing, energy-sapping and, for the most part, banal experience.

I hate this kind of gushing too. It sounds kind of false when I hear moms say clichés like “It’s the best job in the world.” Not because I don’t think it’s true, but it’s the giddy way they say it, closing off conversation about anything but kids. (Indeed, the first thing that comes to mind when I hear stuff like this is “you’re obviously getting more sleep than I am”). I enjoy hearing tales of parenthood survival as much as the next person, but seriously, is there really nothing else going in your life? Dontcha think about anything else besides when the next Baby Einstein video is coming out?*

But I definitely get more than 5% joy out of the girls. Since he specifically mentioned TWO preschoolers, I have to wonder if he has twins. If that’s the case, no wonder he’s tired and cranky. Ha.

* * * * * * * *

La Conchita Landslide

The metrosexual husband took some pictures of the La Conchita mudslide last week, on his way down to work. I was impressed. I do feel sorry for those people, but I gotta say, has it not occurred to them that maybe they ought to move now? Or at least the neighborhood in the back?

One of his students called him the “m” word in a review form. It is this very flaming metrosexuality that has always made my sister question my sanity when I married him, but girly men don’t have a problem with taking out the trash, doing dishes, playing with little babies, and letting you have male friends. These are big pluses in a world where most guys think places like SLO Brew are good places to babysit and clitoris is the name of a new band.

Also eternally annoying her…behold my cluttered desktop:

Ommmmmm

Poor M-hubby is now coming down with the dreaded cold we just got over, and he’s sleeping on his office floor tonight. He forgot his keys to the RV this morning, oops. I mailed them overnight (don’t even ask how much that cost) but they won’t get there until tomorrow afternoon.

* Um, it’s March 8th

Links! Links!

A big thanks to slogrl and friends for sending the link to this hilarious little cartoon:
Everyone has had more sex than me

A couple of photosets I have admired recently –
http://www.flickr.com/photos/tonx/sets/48921/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/barry_b/sets/98686/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/ira/sets/62915/

How cool is this? Very.

New signature ipods. I can’t remember if I posted this link already or not. Oh well, it’s funny enough to post twice.

God’s Blog - Don’t fuck with the exalted one lest thy ass be smoked (Damn it! The minute I link to it, God takes it down! What’s up with that?)

Flickr synchronicity