oh, excuse me, Highness

Why do some people think their time is so much more valuable than everyone else's?

I earn an hourly rate with no paid time off; my time is, literally, valuable (at least during working hours - after that, the value is more intrinsic).

Today I went to an appointment a few minutes early to be safe. This came out of my chargeable hours. I sat and waited, waited, and waited some more. When it was a half hour past my appointment time, I asked whether I should reschedule, because it was a half hour past my appointment time. I was informed that they told me my time was 15 minutes earlier than it actually was. Really? Am I a child to be managed? Is the rest of the world so inferior that only those people are allowed to worry about being inconvenienced? All of this oblivious to the fact that still, it was 15 minutes past my appointment time. They assure me that I'll not be waiting longer - no need to reschedule.

Fifteen minutes later, I rescheduled. They couldn't believe it. I couldn't help it - I had a client meeting that I had to attend. In total I was away from my client for an hour and a half. The amount I lost isn't staggering, but the principle of the thing is.

I won't get on my soapbox about the state of service industries today, other than to say this: I contend that any industry is at heart a service industry, and I'm stymied by people who don't seem to understand that they're at our service; we're not at theirs. Oh, excuse me - am I bothering you as I sit here waiting to give you my money? Would your day be easier if I showed up first thing in the morning and just waited quietly until the mood struck you to give me the time of day? No problem.

Berries!

My boy loves fruit like no child I know. If I fed him nothing but fruit, I'm sure he would love me even more than he does, or at least be happier with me.

He's learning a few words - we've added "hot," "doggie," and a version of "tree" to our repertoire. This morning after he finished his waffle, I asked him if he'd like some berries. "Berries!" he yelled. Fast forward to tonight and dinner of dino-nuggets. Every minute or two, he'd look at his nuggets, which he likes, and yell, "Berries!" Hey - at least he has an opinion and know what he wants.

On the other front, more hitting and biting. I don't know why; he can be as happy as a clam, and then you can see him get an idea and hit me. He has a consistent sound he makes when he hits, so at least I have warning about that. There is no warning when he goes in for a kiss and bites a chunk out of my face. Okay, he hasn't actually bitten a chunk out of my face, but it sure feels like it. His teacher says that he was very loving and gentle with a baby doll at school today, so it seems as though for now the hitting and biting is directed principally toward me. Why am I the lucky one?

testing, testing

And so it begins. My beautiful, soft, sweet boy is really testing me. It's hitting and biting, and my mother-in-law tells me he gets at least the biting from his dad.

He looks at me with a big smile, then hits or bites me (it's normally me, though I've had to sign some incident reports when it's been someone at school), then says "stop" and makes the sign for stop. To be fair, if you didn't know that he does the sign and says it, you might not know what he's doing, but I do so I do. I tell him "no-no hitting" and sign "stop," and he says and signs stop and then does it again. Must put the boy down, otherwise this could be an endless game.

At school, he does it when he's frustrated by someone - Nora has a toy he wants or some such. At home, not so. He's really just testing me.

Anyone?

Does anyone else do this?

Every time I start a new endeavor, especially at work, I'm nervously optimistic at first. Then, as I get underway, I get a little overwhelmed at accomplishing my mission and fear that at any moment everyone will discover that I'm a complete phony. This inevitably disintegrates into some level of meltdown in which I confess to a confidant, normally my husband, that I'm way too stupid for my job, whatever that may be. He then reassures me that I always think this and that I always do well. I thank him but secretly know that he's biased because he loves me and that this time I'm really in over my head. It's different this time. He gives me steps to think about, "tomorrow, you're going to go in with a great attitude, take little steps and set realistic expectations."

So, at New Client, NC, I've already been through the cycle, and I'm now feeling much better about things. I saw it coming this time, and I warned my lovely and patient hubby about it. Unfortunately, he took an illtimed business trip and was gone during the melancholy semi-meltdown. Unfortunate. We're on a good road now, full speed ahead.

Honestly, I even see it coming and I still fall for it. I'm 40 in a few weeks - when will I get it? I mean, really get it and avoid it, as opposed to falling for it again?

City Girl at heart

I'm a city girl. I'm from Chicago originally, and I feel at home in most cities' downtowns.

NC (new client) is right downtown in the city where I live, and that makes for a very happy me! I've run into several people I know this week, I've eaten lunch at fun places, and I've enjoyed the atmosphere. Another thing that's fun for me is that I'm working closely with lots of people who have expertise in my area. I'm used to being the only expertise in my area for my clients, and I'm feeling a little bit back in my element. This is a very different consulting gig for me (and my little company), and the change is refreshing. I'm sure I'll go back more to what I had intended, but I'm enjoying the variety. Promising start at NC. YAY!

is it next month already?

This has been a pretty big month.

Let's see - since our last postings, we've been to Savannah and Hilton Head for a very strange wedding (VSW) and revamped our entire morning routine. Now that I'm a mom, I think the latter is more notable.

The VSW was VS (but lovely) for several reasons. First, the wedding and the reception were in precisely the same location, but not on the same day; one Saturday, and one Sunday. Frankly, my reception was on a different day, but that was because I was married in Hawaii but had a reception here in the midwest; the commute would've been prohibitive. This was at the very same place, a house on the beach. This leads to the second oddity - the bride and groom stayed in the house on the beach, which was gorgeous - makes total sense. However, they invited several other couples to stay there in the house with them, for their honeymoon. I wouldn't have reacted well had friends and/or family shown up on my honeymoon. We wanted to do things on our own time, sightsee what we wanted to see and generally spend two weeks playing together. Third, the speeches were interesting, in that the best man's speech centered around the small size of the groom's privates, and the groom's didn't mention the bride (though it did mention several tourist attractions in the area and the general advantages of Hilton Head). Hmmm.

Savannah's lovely, though - we took the trolley tour on a day that was so hot we melted, ate on the riverfront and enjoyed the plantation-style architecture. We'll definitely be going back there. Hilton Head was wonderful as always, and we have about a zillion pictures of Aidan being adorable on the beach. He loved being curious and digging in the world's biggest sandbox much more than he loved being in a hotel pool. Not excited about the pool. He also had a great time at putt-putt, carrying his red plastic club around the course and giving emphatic commentary.

Also last month my company won a contract for a large project that I'll be working on for a new client (NC). NC will be taking most of my time, though I'm still keeping Fridays free as much as possible. Because of wanting Fridays for Aidan Play Time, I need to be more prompt during the week to fit in as many hours as possible. This has led to the Great Morning Reshuffling. Now Daddy takes Aidan to school two days and I take him two days, which feels extremely luxurious so far. Aidan's trying to adjust to his new schedule that gets him up 1-2 hours earlier every day. Between that and cutting a bunch of molars (early), he's having a bit of a rough week. On the bright side, my little company is expanding faster than we'd thought.

One new development with Aidan is "uh-oh," a very useful word if you're 15 months old. He doesn't quite understand that "uh-oh" is for an accident; he uses it that way, but also in a way analogous to "fore!" If he's about to throw something, he'll say "uh-oh" and then throw it. He also uses it as, "Hey - I'm trying to tell you something here!" For example, earlier in the week Daddy forgot to put the car seat in the car ahead of time, so had to do it in the morning. Apparently he wasn't as alert as one might hope, because driving down the road, he heard the "uh-oh" and then the same but more urgently. He turned around to see what was going on, and Aidan's seat was slanted to 45 degrees or more, and Aidan was hanging precariously across the seat. He says that was a sight to see (and hilarious to hear), and we're still laughing about it.

Now our travels for the year are over, which is bittersweet. This girl loves to travel! However, I am happy to have a little more time, conceivably, to work on the house. I have to say that my house is not immaculate, as surprising as that may be, and that I can use the time to do some cleaning up of clutter or find the actual ground beneath the weeds in the back yard. Wish me luck on all counts.

ps - a word from recent experience: bang! If your sump pump has stopped working and it appears that your basement is going to flood, don't panic. When you call your dad at 4 am, he'll suggest that you bang on it, and it will go right back on, averting however narrowly all disaster. Seems that banging on sump pumps is well-known in some circles, but for those who aren't in the know like I wasn't, there's a helpful hint.