Computers – making our lives easier. July 19, 2011

Dear Julie,

I know I owe you comments and reflections and I do want to talk about our dear friend Inja, I just know I won’t give it the attention it needs right now.  Hopefully while we’re on vacation.  Dan did scan the pictures, so I need to sort out the best way to let you see them.

So, we leave for a month away on Wednesday.  I’ve been making lists, new lists, revised lists, adjusted lists, lists for me, lists for the boys…  I was feeling pretty organized.  I had plotted out the several days before we leave with what needed to get done so that Tuesday wouldn’t be a crazy frantic mess.

What’s that about best laid plans of mice and men?

This morning I decided in a moment of sheer insanity to agree to update the software on my ipod touch, as itunes has told me the past several times (“Hey you – there’s an update.  don’t you want it?”).  I updated and then, apparently itunes and the ipod were no longer speaking to each other.  The ipod had only a usb plug and an itunes logo on the screen.  We are PC people.  If it weren’t for the amazing portable googleness of the ipod, I wouldn’t own one.  It makes me nutty several times a year in a way my old Sansa mp3 player never did (I couldn’t play We Rule on my Sansa, though…).  So, I restored the blasted thing, then had to move all of my apps back on it and then tackle the rough work.

I spent much of last week finding and downloading audiobooks for the trip.  Books for me, books for the kids in the car, more books than we’ll probably listen to, but now I’ll have CHOICE.  I got books 6 and 7 in the Jack Daniels series by JA Konrath, books 2 and 3 in the George RR Martin “Song of Fire and Ice” series (39 hours EACH), all of the Vampire Betsy books by MaryJanice Davidson that the library had (9 books, at least 5 hours each).  The kids got Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle, Dr. Dolittle, Eragon, The Moffats and we already have Harry Potter.  I’d moved many of these to my ipod already.   That factory restore, though – POOF!  All gone.  And since most of those were never actually stored in itunes (Overdrive from the library just uses itunes as a translator), I’ve had to translate and transfer them all again.  ARGH.

Tomorrow was supposed to be a “stay home and get crap done day” and yet I still need to leave the house.  I need to:

• Pick up Dan after he drops off his motorcycle for a recall repair
• Return all the library books (after we find them all)
• Finish the laundry: my pants, the (2?) loads of pretreated stained laundry, kitchen laundry and maybe towels (I can only do laundry until noon, and then after 7pm because of the electricity costs)
• Pack for me
• Supervise packing for the children
• Decide what knitting is going with me/ignore dan when he complains about knitting in the luggage.
• Figure out where we’re going to dinner so that the kitchen can be shut down
• Clean out the fridge
• Cut up and freeze the cantaloupe I insanely thought we’d eat this week
• Decide if I’m going to take my tea filter and loose leaf tea or tea bags with me
• Decide if I’m going to have Dan transfer itunes to a memory card (it’s currently on an external drive) or if I’ll be able to manage without it for 4 weeks
• Make car rental arrangements for Albany
• See about taking Daniel’s pants back to Costco so he can get the right size

What I want to do?  Seam my sweater.  I’m going to have to bring all the parts and seam it in North Carolina and hopefully finish it.

Holy Cats, it’s midnight.  Did I mention that our flight leaves at 630am?  That we’ll all need to be up and in the car by 430 to be at the airport by 5?  I’m going to go have a lie down.

Frantically,
Amey

 

 

 

 

Happy 4th of July! July 5, 2011

Ah, Independence Day. Time to celebrate. It’s been a long time since I’ve felt free and independent. You know when I feel most independent? When I’m in my car, turning on the lights because I’ve actually stayed out until it’s dark outside. (it doesn’t happen very often). It’s like I suddenly realize that I’m by myself. At night. Like…alone…of course, I have this pull to be home and with the girls for bed time, and I get very impatient to just be home. Some day, I won’t need to nurse before bed, read stories, brush teeth or give hugs. For now, I’m okay with this kind of dependence. I cherish it, actually, even when I sometimes feel like I’ve sat in this chair for way too many hours.

Mommy Independence is not just about freedom of time or from demands, but also from worry. I worry a lot. I guess it’s what moms do when they are trying to protect what they love.  Still, I wish I worried less. Stupid creative mind.

Your last letter sounded really exhausting. I’m pretty tired right now, so I recognize exhaustion. 🙂 Really though, neither of my children slept as babies. Ainsley started to sleep around two years–namely because I was pregnant and couldn’t take it much more. I think she knew. I’m coming to that point with Brenna. I just can’t take how tired and cranky I feel every day. Sometimes I worry that I will never feel less tired. That it will always be this way.

I also sometimes worry that I’ll never slow down. I know everyone, every parent is busy. That it goes fast. But I just want to not feel like every moment of my day is rush, rush, rush, do, do, do..do you ever slow down?

I think I’m a little sad today because it was last year today that I last saw Inja before her aneurysm. Our daughters were in a parade on bikes and then cooked out and swam. I’ve thought of her a lot today.

I’m not being funny, am I? It’s almost midnight, so I gotta go to sleep. Sometimes I’m funny before sleep. Evidently not now. But I had to write and you know, depress you.

I hope you had a great day. The 4th is so lovely because everyone just takes time to be together and enjoy. It’s like the whole country is that way. I love that. Night!