So, after months of monotony and drudge, the past week brought some amusing anecdotes:
1: It was my birthday, and I celebrated in style -- margaritas and Mexican food (lovingly tolerated by Not Your Average Blogger and the Young Prince, neither of whom share my deep and abiding love of cumin), plus some really spectacular presents: the third season of Game of Thrones and a gorgeous aquamarine necklace from my parents, and a whole set of origami characters from Doctor Who (including all the doctors and a companion for each -- my favorite was K-9) from the YP. The best, though, was a new wedding-engagement ring set from NYAB, to accommodate the fact that this fat-fingered mama has gotten even more swollen as the years have passed and my old ones no longer fit. The new set is very shiny. I'm not including pictures because as pretty as the rings are, they are still around sausage-y fingers that look awful in close-up.
2: On top of all that excitement, I was told by my boss that I am being promoted. This is very happy news, and I wonder if it will help at all with the weird, near-constant fear I harbor that I'm going to be fired any minute for missing deadlines or being too sloppy or otherwise coming up short. I suppose that is what makes me promote-able? It's funny how fear of failure can be so motivating. I wonder what embracing failure feels like -- is it like Edna Ferber said about being an old maid and drowning; a really delightful sensation after you cease to struggle?
3: I am exercising. Sort of. I'm "running" a couple times a week with NeighborGirl. It's really more walking with a little jogging thrown in, and we really ought to do it more than we do. Today I struck out on my own and walked 2 miles with the dog -- NYAB dropped me off at the dog-wash place on the way to the YP's piano lesson, and when I was done I walked toward them til the kid was done and they drove to meet me. When we got home I promptly passed out for two hours. That fresh air will kill you.
4: I am writing. A little. Don't want to strain myself. But I'm making progress on the serious project, and now I've got a fun one on the radar that I'm having tons of fun pestering people about. I can only hope they are as amused as I am.
5: Opening Day! Well, the home opener, anyway. Yesterday was the annual Bicknell holiday, and although the Nats lost on a ridiculously bad call, it was still a wonderful day. And we finished it off by seeing Captain America, so that was nice, too.
6: My only concern these days is the YP. We measured him (we always do on Opening Day,) and he's grown scarcely an inch since last year. I don't know how to force-feed him and get him out and about more, but I guess that effort has to resume. His brain, on the other hand, appears to be doing all right. Moving right along on school work, and we are starting to jab at him a little harder to demonstrate some intellectual curiosity beyond the bare minimum. Perhaps I will threaten him with 37 pieces of flair.
7: Or we will torture him with a road-trip vacation. We leave Thursday night for a lonnnnng drive across this great nation and back. We'll be seeing the Grand Canyon, Vegas, Bryce, Zion, Death Valley, and the Petrified Forest, with a possible stop at the Dinosaur National Monument and another at the Stanley hotel (because the YP is disturbingly obsessed with The Shining and that would be our one sop to him. But if it's snowed in, no dice.)
So by the time I write here again, the YP will have seen all 50 states. At the tender age of 11. Someday that might matter to him, but he seems sort of blase about it now. Ah, the joys of bringing up an Entitled Only Child. Sigh. I will say, though, that he's gotten a lot more interested in what he sees out the car window than he used to be. That's kind of nice.
See y'all in a couple weeks or so.
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