Teaching pledges...

While Malka is napping, Narda is teaching her little 4 year old nephew some songs, and other stuff while I surf the web for a few minutes... (hey, ya gotta blog while she naps, right?)

Anyway, she starts doing the pledge of allegeance, and forgot it, and asked for my help, so I chimed in with the following:


I pledge allegeance to the flag,
of the United States of America.
And to the Republicans for which it stands,
one nation, under Bush's G-d,
with liberty and justice for straight white people.


Just wanted to share that one with you all, as it made us giggle, and then get all sad, because of its truth...

Greetings from the road

I'm not sure who said it was easy, but travelling 3,000 miles in a small metal box with a 7 month old child is in NO WAY SHAPE OR FORM easy. OK internet, you got that, do not believe the lies they tell you! Malka was WIRED and fidgety for the ENTIRE plane ride out to Portland. She FINALLY fell asleep for the last 45 minutes of the flight. There's just WAY too many interesting things and people who will make goo goo faces at Miss Malka Palka Pooka Palka even though we were trying to get her to go to sleep. She was thrilled, however, as she had about 4 bottles in a 6 hour period. Heh. Little bugger.

This am, she has finally shifted to West Coast time, and just in time, as she JUST woke up from her nap, and we are about to go visit Mama Mo and her brood from Bike Ridin Mama. we hung out last winter when we were home, but that was before Malka.

Last day of work was fine. Nothing exciting happened. I'll blog more about that later, but right now, Miss thing needs some breakfast...

When you realize you're just not that important...

For fear of being Dooced, I had not written this post, even though I had wanted to for quite some time. I just didn't know who reads this from work.

But I have a new job. I'm REALLY excited about it. It will give me more time with my family, and that's what matters most.

My current job (well, current as in the rest of this week) is great. As long as it's just students and faculty. The staff on the floor are all theatre folk, like me, so I shant exclude myself from the list. But us theatre folk can be pretty self-absorbed.

I did write earlier about how I felt slighted about no baby shower, not even a card, nada. Well, nothing has happend yet. And Friday is my last day here. When ever other folks have had a last day, or even a promotion, guess who's job it was to get a card, prepare a party, get flowers, etc.? Yup, mine. So now, of course, there will be nothing for me. OK, sure, sure, I should totally find validation for myself, within myself, etc. If therapy and Narda have taught me one thing, it's that you have to be your own advocate and validator, because it should not come from an external source. And I KNOW this. Intellectually, of course. My inner child, however? The one who rules my emotions? Is pissed off and hurt! It's that whole damn "Why not me?" thing. And I don't think it's that no one cares; because if I were to ask them to do something for me, they would. So would anyone in my life. I am blessed that way. Truly. It's just that I don't want to have to ask. I want someone for once, to anticipate MY needs the way I've spent my working years doing so for others.

But it won't happen. I will probably get a hug and a "so long, thanks for 2 years and all that, and don't let the door hit you in the ass on your way out." Why? Because they are all theatre folks, and I keep forgetting that. It's an ACTING department afterall, and I spent SO many years working with actors as a stage manager, but I figured that a big university would be different. Sadly, that's not true.

There ARE areas in my professional working life that could stand for some improvement, sure, I am NOT denying that. Heck, we are ALL humans on a path to better ourselves. But I just always had this "they're trying to get rid of me" thing going on, and I just really didn't like how I let myself get about this job. If I didn't have to deal with the egos and politics, it would have been a much much better environment.

Perhpas one day I'll write about ALL of the BS that went on, but I'm just not up to it right now, and I want to share about my NEW job!

I start with Congregation Tehillah on August 1st. I'm terribly excited, and I'll be the Synagogue Administrator, and it will be wonderful to be involved with a spiritual community, with all of the Jewish Holidays off, where I won't have to use personal and vacation days for them. I will be able to pick Malka up from daycare on a regular basis, and I will be able to leave early enough on Fridays to get ready for Shabbat. The Rabbi left a wonderful, welcoming message on my voice mail, and it's more warm fuzzies than I got in my entire two years at my current job. So I'm really excited, and I look forward to the journey ahead, leaving behind the bitter-sweet memories of the past.

Before and After

Before and After, originally uploaded by shellipsm.

Two days of using nature's miracle and letting it dry, and spraying it again and letting it dry, and spraying it again, and letting it dry, we are now able to use our new bed.

And yes, it now has a water-proof mattress pad on it... Cougar just kind of got to it before we could get that on there.

I *HEART* Nature's Miracle!

Arghhhhhhhhhh!!!!!!!!!

So this day is FINALLY winding down - we are SOOOOOO pooped! We just got back from the rally to support marriage rights, after a proposal was defeated in the NY Judiciary today (GRRRRR)...



Here's the thing that was SO draining to deal with:

Not only did Malka Pooka Palka pop another tooth out, which woke her up at 4:30am; but we had to clear all the crap out from under our bed, strip the bed and get ready for the delivery of said new king sized bed between 7 and 11am. I left for work at 8:30am, and got a frantic call at 11ish, saying that Cougar had JUST.PEED.ON.THE.NEW BED.

FUCK!

Malka was sleeping, but Cougar (who is now snuggled on my lap, just in case anyone was worried) was THIS CLOSE to being thrown out of the window. By Narda. So I come home from work, to help deal with the cat, the bed and the baby. Because of Cougar's "issues," and "frequent flier miles" with the whole "pishy department," we have this stuff called Nature's Miracle. It's an enzyme thing. So we are using that, and letting it dry out, and re-spraying, and letting it dry out, and re-spraying, and, well, you get the picture. I called the Mattress store, and asked if "cat peeing on the bed 10 minutes after the delivery guys leave" was covered under warranty. Sadly, it's not. ARGH. So before we totally douse our new bed with vinegar, we're giving the enzyme thing a whirl, and since there's a fan on the bed, to help it dry, I've yanked the mattress off of the guest bed, and am sleeping on THAT in the living room, while Narda sleeps on the couch. I know that we had succcess with the vinegar dousing on the living room rug, and we just had to endure the house smelling like vinegar for a few days, so we'll do that if we have to, but UGH!

So much for our first night on our new king bed.

Sigh.

Of Vanicream and Kings....

The skin biopsy result for Malka turned out to be eczema. Baruch Ha'Shem. (thank G-d) I told the doctor that I had made a different diagnosis, and he laughed with me, and said thanks for letting us do the biopsy, and she's looking GREAT, and we can move beyond the fancy creams and aquaphor, and just use the Vanicream. I HIGHLY recommend vanicream, it's SUCH great lotion. It's basically hypoallergenic, and is really nice and viscous and it feels great on ME after I've slathered her with the stuff. It's a bit more expensive than Vaseline Intensive Care, but not by much, and it's way worth it, since you don't have to apply it as often. So we are all really thrilled for Malka here, and he also said that the hyper pigmentation of her face is looking better, and will fade in time as well.



When Narda and I first started dating, she had a twin bed. We believed then that our love would be sufficient for a twin bed. Within a few months, we realized that our tushies weren't compatable with a twin, and we bought a full sized mattress. After all, that first year is all about spooning on a daily basis - all we needed was a full sized mattress. And I had a full sized futon at my place, so we were used to that.

When we bought our apartment in 2002, we decided to be luxurious and "upgrade" to a Queen. We have loved our bed for the past 4 years, and things have been swell - Cougar feels a bit squished as he tries to snuggle, but hey, he's a cat and not at the top of the priority list in terms of comfort on the bed. Even Malka has done fine when in the bed with us.

We have, however, had the experience of sleeping on a King at hotels, and have often fantasized about it.

Our fantasy is becoming a reality. On Thursday morning, a firmer (we are older now, afterall) KING sized mattress will be delivered to our house. That's in TWO days! Now we can still have our spoon moments, but the cats, and Malka, and the need to get a bit more sleep (and thus be more alert for Malka) by having some personal space is soon to be a reality.

I'm totally psyched.