Whenever I return from my regularly scheduled three to sixth month blogging absence, I usually feel like I need to make excuses for my absence (because the three of you reading this missed my self-deprecating quarterly family updates so much? I don't know).
But I am not going to do that because the year two thousand and thirteen has left me in a space where I really don't need to make any excuses. I wasn't here blogging because I was out in the real world dealing with all sorts of (insert four letter word here. and here. and here. and I'm only describing the things that happened between February and May. Are there five letter words I could use for June and July? I'm the mother of a toddler. I'm rusty).
Just to sum up, things about this year that were awesome:
....
....
....
....I've thought of a few.
Joshua started a media production company. I could not be more proud of him, and also a little jealous because now I want to start something and be flooded with work from day one and suddenly have Fedex dropping off business cards and promotional sunglasses. Matilda continues to be the reason we all get up in the morning - first because she's screaming, "I NEED TO GET OUT NOWWWWWWW", and secondly because she is the walking, talking, breathing embodiment of all those well-worn parenting cliches. Light of our life. Center of our world. Hope for the future. The sun we revolve around. The lamest thing about those phrases is that they don't even come close to expressing the bittersweet joy of watching a child grow up, but since this has been a Four Letter Word Year, I'm going to allow it for now.
When Joshua started a company but still kept the day job that he very much enjoys and is also fairly important to our mortgage company, he started working on the weekends. And since I was already saving lives on the nights and weekends (I have to make it sound as dramatic as possible, now that he gets promotional sunglasses), that meant everyone suddenly became very, very, very tired all the time. I think we stopped making our bed in April, right around the time that someone was sleeping in it alone approximately twenty two hours a day. We have been extremely blessed by Matilda's amazing grandparents helping us through this - in fact, Joshua's dad retired just in time for us to start shipping her off to them for weekends at a time. In order of Amount of Fun Achieved, we use these breaks to 1) work, 2) sleep, and 3) drink to excess (please don't tell the grandparents, they're such wholesome people). Also, 4) watch the West Wing, which is our summer Netflix obsession.
Side note: unfortunately, we just got to season five. We recently discovered after googling "why are all the characters acting ridiculous in West Wing season five", that it is the first season where Aaron Sorkin stepped away from the show. Dear Aaron Sorkin circa 2003, 10 years from now an overtired and tipsy Chicago couple will be really bitter with your decision. THEY FIXED SOCIAL SECURITY IN 43 MINUTES AND DECIDED NOT TO TAKE ANY CREDIT FOR IT?? I know all the four letter words, and I'm saying them to your 10-year-younger-self.
Can you tell that the year two thousand and thirteen has derailed us a little? It's true. And if you know me in real life, I also know that you are all, "she needs to shut up about the West Wing," and believe me, I should listen to you. It's just that this year has created a deep need for escapism and we decided to wrap that up into staggeringly idealistic televised politics. But don't worry, this former political science major has also rediscovered the fervency of my interest in actual politics, and that has led to deep soul searching regarding my career choices. And the less lofty pursuit of draining away the time that I do have reading Politico, which is where idealism goes to die in the face of realities like the New York City mayoral race.
How did I end up here? I think the downward spiral occurred because the entire time I've been writing this, my sweet, spirited daughter has been screaming that she needs to GET OUT (see above). Unfortunately, it's nap time and I am the boss of her, but still...the high pitched demands wear on a person.
Lastly, I apologize for the vagueness with which I am approaching What Has Happened Since I Last Blogged. It is a combination of little annoyances and vast griefs that run the gamut from unspeakably boring to just unspeakable, and I'm sure everyone has suffered through months or years of trials that feel similar to ours. Maybe someday, this year will be something I put into written words, but for now you get diatribes on decades old TV and absolutely no pictures of us whatsoever. Matilda has ringlets and does somersaults and I'm depriving my vast readership of photographic evidence of this, but if we are all lucky, I will blog again before she goes off to preschool.
(Social security in 43 minutes, I mean really...)
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