Which is not to say that there were not a few shining moments of recent loveliness, such as getting to picnic with Dark Orpheus and reading Excellent Women and leaving for vacation; but mostly the past few weeks have been unremittingly crappy.
I quit my NaNoWriMo novel, for instance, after Cleo put her hand on the stove and gave herself second-degree burns all across her palm and had to spend the morning in the emergency room. I guess I could have mustered myself and kept writing, but changing burn bandages and feeling guilty (it was totally my fault she got burned; I was standing right next to the stove but not paying enough attention to her) kept me so busy I couldn’t get in my typing time. Plus we changed the dates for our vacation, so I was packing and hunting for passports in between bouts of crispy-baby-soothing.
Then my storyboard for the next drawing project I’m doing, (an annotated Rapunzel) (thanks for all your suggestions, by the way) turned out to be all wrong, and I had to scrap a week’s worth of studies and sketches. Also, I had to cancel plans to visit my best friend. Then there was a sandstorm. My plants got droopy. I lost (as in ‘mislaid’, not ‘seized by the police’) my California drivers’ license. Et cetera.
But, anyway, we made our flight out of Dubai and are now vacationing in America, where the tapwater is drinkable, and I can make as many long-distance phone calls as I want, and there are waffles and public libraries, and everyone speaks English with the same accent as me. So I am expecting things to get better.
November 28, 2008 at 10:57 pm |
Enjoy your time in the States visiting your family and friends. I hope that Cleo is recuperating well. Don’t beat yourself up too much about it — accidents happen. A friend of mine told me that her mother used to say: I raised you live! I don’t know that I would have found this as humorous when my son was little but now that he is 20, I can not only see my mistakes clearly, but more importantly, accept them much more rationally and realize that I did what every loving mother does: the best she can, because we do raise our kids in real-time, not in some sort of scripted, do-over, fashion. Even when we try to do that, our best plans will be thwarted. Enjoy your trip. I hope December is a much better month for you.
November 29, 2008 at 7:22 am |
poor cleo! i hope she heals superhumanly fast. and i’m sorry you had a bad month. november has been my least favorite for a while now, followed closely by january. here’s to a fabulous vacation, and a fabulous december (raising imaginary glass full of imaginary high-end champagne).
November 29, 2008 at 12:08 pm |
I’m sorry about Cleo, but don’t overguilt — toddlers are impossible to watch every second.
I’m happy you met Dark Orpheus; maybe I should follow your suggestion and try for Dubai! The jobhunt here is going raggedly.
Happy you’re in the US! w00t! to all those things you listed!
November 29, 2008 at 5:57 pm |
Oh, that all sounds rough. I hope that the vacation is going well, at least, and that Cleo is recovering.
November 29, 2008 at 9:40 pm |
Don’t feel bad about Cleo, accidents happen. I was subject to a few when I was a baby and turned out ok. Mostly
Have a nice vacation in the US!
November 30, 2008 at 4:37 pm |
I think November is a pig of a month. Poor you and Cleo – I feel for both of you equally. Children at that age move so quick there is very little you can do. I remember my niece, aged 2, falling off the back step of my mother’s house onto the sharp edged boot scraping mat beneath while three capable adults stood around and watched her. And I’m also sorry about having to scrap the story board. That kind of thing keeps happening to me and it is most frustrating. Still, all of this means you need a vacation and so I AM glad you are having one!
December 11, 2008 at 8:35 pm |
Accidents do happen. My cousin was helping to change my diaper when I was a baby, and I fell off the bed because she wasn’t watching me. I survived and I don’t hate my cousin.
I’m glad you met Dark Orpheus too.