The trendy meme

I waited for days to see a version of this thing about being a freelance writer. I didn't see one. So I made one. It's really kind of about being a freelance writer who is also an at-home parent. Wahoo, fun!

In general

The longer I don't write, the harder it becomes to write. I build up such a backlog of material that I don't know where to start. Or else I get so out of practice that I don't know how.

My sister M2 did a general-purpose update on her blog, which I liked. I didn't know that she was going to Hawaii for Christmas, for example, so I'm glad she blogged it. I had a great trip to Hawaii with my husband when I was exactly her age. It seems like a long time ago, and I guess it pretty much was. We're fifteen years apart but seem to be getting closer as sisters recently. I love it.

Anyway, back on topic. General purpose update. I thought maybe I could go down the line, person by person, Christmas letter style. I'm not sure I'll be writing a Christmas letter this year, anyway. Sometimes it gets hard for me to walk the line between keeping it real and oversharing, and the Christmas letter seems kinda high pressure in a year when things have been a little more real than I'd like at times.

I'll start with myself. I'm riding the frost heaves all right. Lots of up and down. I find I am easily dragged down when my plans are frustrated or when other people are not feeling good. Trying to keep taking care of myself. I think I mostly have the exercise thing down; I know too well how it affects my mood and emotions if I skip. You would never know it to look at me, which is kind of depressing, but I am trying not to be all about how I look, The day the lights go on in my head about controlling what I eat (I seem to have a faulty switch) I will really have it all together. Considering everything going on, some of which I will refrain from writing about (that oversharing thing) I think I am actually doing pretty well.

I am doing a lot of driving these days. Driving to the gym, driving to preschool, driving to drop of somebody's lunch money, driving to guitar lessons. And trying to keep up with people's homework and keep on top of the housework. It is never all done.

I'm editing a big mining textbook that was translated from Spanish. I do not speak Spanish. I speak French, because when I was 13 my mother thought I should take Spanish. So I took French. See how I am? The edit has been hard, and I've made liberal use of Google Translate and moved embarrassingly slowly, but it's also been pretty educational. By the end of the project I predict I will be able to read Spanish pretty passably and also be able to pass about two years of mining engineering courses without too much trouble, should I have the desire. I've finally given myself a deadline and I can see the light at the end of the tunnel. Fortunately the client is my dad and he's almost superhumanly patient. I'm also still writing the occasional story for my former employer, work that is easy and fun. I love it. And I learned from my bishop that the Friend magazine will probably be publishing another one of my stories next June. I don't know which one. I guess they check with the bish before they go too far in the editorial process to make sure their authors haven't gone off the deep end. Probably smart.

I'm stuck on Pinterest and want to do all the cool projects I see there. So many excellent ideas. I try to pick up one every now and then. Often crochet, or upcycling, or something to cook or bake, or an organizing type thing. It always feels good to do work that stays done (as opposed to laundry or dishes).

Dr. G continues to be even more awesome than he thinks he is (haha). He is working so hard at everything and has gigantic expectations for himself. He has gotten a pretty extraordinary amount of research money for a young professor at a small teaching-oriented university and is pursuing a big NASA grant. He just got back from a trip to visit a mining company that is funding one of his projects. They love him, of course. He is in charge of the boys ages 12-18 at church and puts in a tremendous amount of time with them. And he is still committed to quality and quantity time with our kids. They have been fishing and having a great time together. I am sure I don't say it enough but I am pretty much crazy about my husband. He's had a bumpy road himself the last couple of months, managing all this stuff and the stress that comes with it. My wish for him - just that he could understand that nobody's perfect but he is pretty dang close.

S has made great progress since the last time I wrote about him in my "Dumps" post. It really was a rough start to junior high. Since then we have had two meetings with G and me and all S's teachers and counselors together, plus I've gone to parent-teacher conferences. It has been a relief to see the teachers start to understand him, and him start to understand how to work within the system at school. All the teachers say he has done the proverbial 180. He has become significantly less stressed and better behaved. His grades are coming up, and he is in the Rocket Club. He launched his rocket yesterday. It was a huge success, shooting way up into the clouds before landing in the field next to the school. I went to watch it with my littles, and we were all impressed. S has wonderful friends in church and Scouts, something I'm really grateful for. He is happy in that environment and doing well.

A is my rock, which I worry is unfair to say about a child but he really is just the kid I can count on to help out and be good and sweet almost all the time. Everyone loves him, especially little girls, and we seem to see girls he knows everywhere we go. His only struggle is finishing his work in class, because he's just too interested in the people around him. I know I should hate that but I kind of love it. His heart is so good and I know it will serve him well in life. If we can just keep up with the math, too, we'll be golden. He read the book "Holes" for school and really enjoyed that. But he's always reading something; it's getting hard for me to even keep track. Luckily I am a book hound so it would be pretty hard for him to run out of material. Last month he sang a duet with a friend in the Primary program at church. It was absolutely beautiful. I know it is hard for him to live with some non-typical siblings. It stresses him out sometimes. We understand each other in that way! It's easy to forget he's just a kid, but I try to let him know how much I appreciate him.

K is still so stinking cute at age 7. I remember thinking that my older boys were getting kind of big and gangly and less cute (more handsome and of course still lovable) at this age, so how is it that K is still my adorable little guy? I guess that's the advantage of being a younger child and small for his age (his brothers are both on the big side). He is hilarious and delights in that - pretty much a ham. His little rubberface expressions just kill me. He is struggling with his ADHD a little bit right now; it's not affecting his behavior so much as his concentration and attention, especially in the classroom, and so we are looking at adjusting his meds. Very often I finish my dinner, for example, and look over to find he hasn't even taken a bite yet. He's just way too distracted by everything else going on. Good thing he's adorable because this inattentive business is pretty crazy-making. He has a couple of good friends at school and church but really prefers his brothers over all other company. Pretty cute.

Z is really blossoming in preschool. It's amazing to see her so engaged with learning letters and numbers, days and months, and skills like buttoning her own buttons, which she now insists on doing. She loves her teacher and her little friends. Back in September G took a morning off work to teach her how to ride her little bike without training wheels, and she's so proud of that. She's also great about wearing her helmet (yeah!) maybe because we got a cute one with flowers. It's so interesting to me how different she is from me in her tastes and proclivities. For instance, she would choose hot pink and zebra stripes over my preferred earth tones and natural materials any day of the week. So I think we are going to be having a zebra-stripe Minnie Mouse birthday party at the end of this month. I'm amazed that my baby is about to turn five. On the other hand, little girl can sing. I love to hear her singing to herself or her dolls throughout the day. Girl after my own heart.

Heidi the dog still mostly just wants a few things in life: love, cheese, and long walks. Sounds pretty good, right? We've had her a whole year now and although we go through more vacuum bags than before (German Shepherds shed) she is a wonderful addition to our household. Most mellow dog I have ever met. It might be because she's mentally challenged but that's fine by me. A smart dog would probably be more than I could handle.

Montana is getting cold. I am buckling down for the long winter. Maybe with the weather getting crappy and the general-purpose update behind me, I'll write some more for you. We'll see.

The latest

A short time ago I heard from a dear friend, our next door neighbor in our married-student-housing days at BYU. She expressed happiness to have found my blog, and I thought, oh, dear. I am not a very good blogger these days. Most of my thoughts go directly to facebook, posted in drive-by style, without too much thought. Also, that leaves out any broad view of what's happening in our family. So for my dear friend Patricia, and anybody else reading, here is the skinny.

Dr. G is in his second semester as a professor. He is working hard but not as busy as the first semester. His department intentionally gave him a lighter load to allow him to work on course development and research. This was very kind. It also allows him a little more family time, and we're all grateful for that. The first semester was really hard on everyone. He has won four small grants so far this year, as I posted earlier, and is working on a new research project on Georgetown Lake, Montana. That's where he is all week this week. At least it's in the 40s outside, not any colder. Maybe we're starting to feel just the edge of the aura of spring.

I am always finding myself with more brilliant ideas than I have capacity to follow through on. I'm trying hard to focus on what's really essential: caring for myself in mind, body and spirit; supporting the kids' education; helping others when I can. Then comes freelance work. Not saying I always succeed at making these my priorities - facebook wins way too often, and some days I feel like I'm failing at everything. But, I get back up again and usually things click along ok. I am enjoying a new church job, organizing activities for the Relief Society every other month and serving in the presidency of that organization. I miss the Primary kids but also love getting to know the adult women a lot better.

S is homeschooling still - it's hard to stay motivated at this time of year, but we keep going on the essentials and try to grab the occasional extracurricular educational experience when we can. Recently we loved an anti-tobacco presentation by Victor DeNoble. Great speaker with a very important message! He even showed monkey brains, real ones, which S termed "disgusting, but interesting." Yes, that about sums up monkey brains. S has been working with a new doctor and undergoing neurofeedback training to strengthen some of his challenging areas and prepare for seventh grade in public school this fall. It's a big commitment for us financially and time-wise, but G and I have felt really good about it as well as very grateful that we actually have the resources to do this for S. We think of it like braces for the brain! Of course he will probably need braces for his teeth sometime in the next few years, as well ... but we'll cross that bridge when we come to it! He is huge (5'4", 120 pounds) and still loves Legos, video games, and Scouts.

A is so close to finishing fourth grade, he can almost taste it! He has had a wonderful and supportive teacher this year (I love it when my kids get the more experienced teachers - they may not love them the most but I can tell there's a benefit to having done your job for a while!) and really enjoys being with his classmates and friends. All the little girls love him; he's so handsome and charming. He has an eye for one in particular, and fortunately is open with me about it; I constantly remind him that they should just be friends and not worry about "love stuff" right now! I am getting my big stick ready for the teen years. He is learning (from his mistakes) about homework habits and organization. Thank goodness we still have a couple months before the end of the year for him to prove himself and get ready for the next grade. Fourth is really a change and a challenge - that has been true for both my kids who have been there so far. A is taking guitar lessons, which he really enjoys, and loves to play sports and read novels. He's also active in Cub Scouts.

K has made a great breakthrough this year on reading. It's one of my favorite stages - when the kid is so excited to read that they read everything. Super cute. And then they realize that once they know how to put the pieces together, they can read anything - even big chapter books! So he's working on that, now. I have to give a little credit to Concerta. It has made a great difference for my bouncy little boy and let us see his true potential. He has a good little group of school friends with whom he plays after school. Darling little boys. K remains my skinny, scrawny one - still in a size 6. He's the only one of my kids to wear his age (as a clothing size) consistently. Will we get to size 7 by this summer? Seems unlikely at the moment. His favorite things are playing with his friends (Legos, action figures, you name it) video games, and dawdling in the mornings. Sorry, I just could not resist that. It's a bit of a crazy-maker for me. Love my little K. One of my favorite things is his habit of sitting on my lap at church. He used to have to do that or he could not sit. Now he is just used to it and I like it. It keeps me warm when the heat in the chapel is wonky (which is a lot).

Z is my joy and my challenge - such a wonderful snuggler, clever comedienne, cute little mommy to her dolls and the dog, and basically bored out of her mind with only two days of preschool a week. It is hard to keep up with how much input she needs, and she is pretty nasty about it when she's not getting what she needs! We try to have friends over frequently to help take the pressure off me, and get to the YMCA as much as possible so she can play with her friends  in the daycare there. Her hair is finally growing out from her self-inflicted pixie cut last summer. She is so cute. Really. This fall she will go to 4-day-a-week preschool. Is it evil to say I can't wait?

That leaves the dog. Well, she is a love mooch, and that is alternately cute and annoying. She is also a cheese mooch, literally obsessed with cheese, and that's only annoying. I still love taking her for walks, and I'm glad I can do it again after that kidney stone debacle. She stinks like dog, sheds like a maniac and needs her claws clipped. I feel like I don't know how to do the bathing or clipping, and G doesn't have time. I am thinking maybe next month I will take her to a groomer and watch how they do things. (I always think I am going to have spare money next month. Hahahaha.) She is a good doggie. We love her.

There you have it, a snapshot of our family as of today. Now I feel a little less guilty.

A happy heart

In place of resolutions, a few grateful thoughts for a happy heart in 2010:

• When we went sledding at Sheepshead last week, the sun came out just for me, and the colors I saw were Christmas colors - the bare, red branches of the willows in the creek bed; the rusty green of the pines and the muted green of sagebrush; the golden tall grasses; the luminous snow! What a world!
• My husband is watching The Sound of Music with my three-year-old daughter. During "Sixteen Going on Seventeen," she proclaims, "I'm that girl!"
• I live in an immeasurably better time than any other time. (Thinking about this because I finished reading The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing, Traitor to the Nation, by M.T. Anderson, in 2 volumes.) The fact that my family can exist as it does is miraculous when you consider the overwhelming weight of history.
• Our collection of Christmas books has received considerable use this year. Z loves to snuggle up for Christmas stories. Try out my two current favorites, Welcome Comfort by Patricia Polacco, and Christmas Day in the Morning by Pearl S. Buck with illustrations by Mark Buehner.
• In my new location I can get Great Harvest bread and Stephen's hot cocoa.
• People are kind and good. We have been here four weeks. We've been to four different families' houses for dinner - two of them twice each. Time for us to start reciprocating some invitations! Dr. G's extended family members here, whom we've never really known well, have put their arms right around us, and we feel so loved. Our ward (church congregation) is, as I've mentioned before, fabulous. Even now that I've washed my car and they've seen my Obama sticker.
• I am learning, in my heart, how God wants me to do some reaching out and healing. I am going to be humble enough and brave enough to do it. Knowing that I am going to do this brings me a lot of peace that has been missing for a couple of years. I don't know what the outcome will be. But I know what I need to do.

Happy New Year to you!

Loose, footloose

I am officially self-employed. At the university today, I had a nice pot-luck farewell luncheon complete with a humorous "Top 10 Reasons Ana is Leaving" and a beautiful framed photo of the campus. Hugs and teary goodbyes, and a big box of crap I have taken into the office over the last four and a half years now sitting on my dining room table.

My replacement starts Monday. I am training her, and billing it. Here's to freelancing ... and yes, that kind of means all the goodbyes were for nothing. Maybe I can get another party with presents and stuff when G gets a grownup job and we actually move away. Although, who knows when that will be.

The best surprise today was learning that my benefits continue through Dec. 31. With a little luck, we will have no gap in health insurance coverage! This is a big blessing! I'm so grateful.

Already, though, my login for the campus network is nullified. That was quick!

Now that I'm in business for myself and had to turn in all my work equipment, I did a crazy thing (for a Luddite) and bought a cell phone. If you would like the number, let me know.

In reality, things are not going to change that much. I will just be working (and blogging) from my home PC and not my work laptop. And running my own life, theoretically.

On my own

My employer has finally found and hired a replacement for me. She starts Nov. 17. That means my last day is Nov. 14 and as of the following day I will be officially self-employed. So I did what any good 21st-century girl would do. I made a Web site.

http://sites.google.com/site/ananelsonshaw/Home

Your constructive criticisms are welcomed.

Also your hints about navigating our wreck of a healthcare system without the safety of an employer-provided insurance plan.

Half of me

Why not take half of me ... that sounds a lot more painful than "all of me," doesn't it? I hope that doesn't turn out to be true.

To ease the transition on both ends (for me and my employer) I am now planning to spend a couple of months working 51 percent time from home. That's 51 instead of 50 so I can keep my benefits. Nice, yes? Seriously, that's a huge blessing. It's supposed to be just until a new person is hired - 6 weeks to 3 months. If it were longer, I'd be thrilled.

The freelancing idea is turning out to be a lot more complicated than I expected. We operate in startup mode so much here that it's almost easy to forget that we work for a gigantic, frustrating (or "festerating" as K would say) unwieldy bureaucracy. Some of these policies ... I'm sure the intentions were good when they were written. But they just make things really, really difficult.

We do have a new president of the system who says he's going to fix some of this stuff. Maybe I ought to write him a letter. Hmmmm. I am the queen of the impulsive, fired-off complaint letter. Just because I'm quitting my job certainly doesn't mean I have to quit that.

Bloggy type news

Good news: I am now getting paid to blog.
Bad news: It is the same pay I have always been getting paid. There's just a bloggy project involved.

I just started a little Blogger blog about the Yosemite programs I am working to document and publicize this summer. Feel free to drop by! I am hoping to get some of the students and maybe even faculty and staff on board as contributors so it may even become more than just me.

Eventually we will migrate the content over to our campus Web site. We were supposed to have a blog engine some time ago and I was hoping it would be ready for this project. It's not, though, so I'm doing this instead.

Learn to face the strange

I always like to use a song lyric when I can't really think of a good title. Name that tune!

I am working on some more big changes that I hope will benefit our little family.

Unfortunately, I can't talk about them yet.

I just want to ask those of you who are praying people to pray that they work out. And those of you who are not praying people, to channel us some good energy and thoughts and stuff. Because quite frankly I believe it all makes a difference.

I got what everybody wants

You know me. I'm a mother of four with a husband in the final throes of a Ph.D. I work at the nonprofit equivalent of a startup company. It makes life stressful sometimes. Pressure from all sides, for sure.

I am excited to say, though, that instead of waiting for life to get easier I have actually done something.

I requested a pay cut in return for some free time.

I'm cutting my work hours to 9 a.m. - 3 p.m. and taking a corresponding cut in pay. This will work ok because Dr. G.-to-be gets paid full time in the summer. I keep my benefits at the current level, and I continue to accrue vacation and sick leave at my current rate. My boss gets to trim her budget a bit (important for her right now) and I get basically a totally sweet deal.

I'm doing this at a time when I generally get to determine my own workload anyway. I have one big, exciting multimedia-type project to work on this summer, and that will be the main thrust of my 30 hours. The rest of the time, I fill in with little stuff like I normally do. And whatever I get done will be cool, and whatever I don't will go to the bargain-basement but quite-good freelancers my colleague and office mate was smart enough to find.

See how great this is?

I've read pundits who believe that this is the kind of flexibility that allows moms to continue in satisfying careers while their children are young. I am so happy and grateful that my employer is allowing it. I totally believe it should be more widely available. It is going to make a huge difference for us while the kids are out of school for the summer and G finishes up his dissertation.

This arrangement starts Monday. I am so excited. The prospect of two hours each day where I can either pick up my kids and hang with them - because I WANT to - or leave them where they are and get a haircut or go work out or do the grocery shopping ... well, it's what every real woman wants - to have it all, in manageable doses. Forget glamorous shoes and bags a la Sex and the City. We want time. We want fulfillment. We want freedom. We want life. That's what I say.

Inspired

Commencement was today. It's always a lift - a reminder of one very big reason I do what I do, working as a higher ed staffer.

It was also inspiring for Z. There were cookies. And balloons. Bliss.



And for G. One of his friends got a Ph.D. We're going there!

Phobia

If there is one little everyday thing I hate and fear, it is this.

Calling someone on the telephone and asking them to do something.

Reminder calls to the Young Women got easier with time. But soliciting somebody to bring a plate of brownies to some function or other will still virtually send me into a cold sweat.

Calling around for a backup babysitter for Z when our regular sitter is sick or has something to do with her kids (she is also a foster mom so life is about as busy for her as it is for me) is paralyzing. I am well aware that stay-at-home moms have a lot to do. And although I consider the women around here to be my friends, let's face facts: we do not get together for pedicures or bunco. I do not have time. So when I call them, they know I am looking for a favor. Even if it is a favor for which I will pay, it makes me feel like a heel. There are several people I am not even comfortable calling anymore. They have said no frequently enough that I just am not going to ask anymore. I can take a hint, see?

So, I have been working from home with Z for the last two days, thanks to the stomach flu in the sitter's house. Looks like I am doing it again tomorrow, unless I can convince G that one day is not going to throw off his dissertation. It's fun, I love it, don't get me wrong. But I can't get squat done, and I have a Friday deadline. Sigh.

It's good, I suppose, to be clear about my reasons for not trying to move into the better-paying, better-dressed fundraising wing of my office. Can you imagine me doing "the ask" for a cool million? I'd be puking on the cool millionaire's shoes.

Assemble, please

Random crap from my brain, it is now time to assemble yourself in an orderly list.

• It is time to find a new babysitter. The current sitter - I love her, and I hope we will stay friends. But she is sick about once a week. And she asks for days off so she can photograph someone's wedding. I hate to pull Z out of her home because I know for a fact there is love there. But I seriously need more dependability. Seriously.
  
• I think I ran over a bunny this morning. I could cry. There was really nothing I could have done differently, but dang it, I love the bunnies on campus. They make me think about Watership Down all the time. I wonder if someday they, and the red winged blackbirds, and the egrets and hawks and herons, will be only memories. I look at our development plans and I think they will. It makes me really sad. But the alternative is unacceptable. When it comes right down to it I still really believe in what we are doing.
  
• I would take a fast forward button for my life right now if I could find out where G is going to get a job. But then I would want a rewind button because other than the crazy-making of not knowing the future, we are doing great.
• I am not writing about my husband's career. But he has applied to a few more faculty jobs. I am trying not to spend too much time browsing real estate in the selected locations and dreaming about the beginning of my real life. That is all.
• Our new adoptions worker, assigned to both cases, is a Mormon guy who grew up attending our current ward. It almost goes without saying that this is a big improvement over the Wicked Witch of the West who was previously un-helping our kids. I really hope we helped get her fired. But I guess we will never know.
  
• I said no to an 18mo foster child who needed a home yesterday. The agency apparently thinks I am crazy. Crazy enough to have two 18mos, three other kids, and a full time job. Maybe they subscribe to the "what's one more" theory. To which I do not subscribe. Every time I have added just one more, it has jacked me up. No regrets on that; there are definitely rewards that make it worthwhile, but I cannot jack up my life right now. I am barely hanging on for the most part. It seems strange to me that I didn't feel at all bad about turning down this placement. But I really didn't.
• My dad said he thinks I am ready to write my own stuff full time. This had such a big effect on me. This and other things in the last week have made me realize that although I have worked hard to care less about what other people think, there are some people whose opinions will always matter a lot. That leaves me vulnerable in a lot of ways but it's also what gives our relationships weight and meaning.
  
• About the writing - I want to do it so much. See list item above about G getting a job. Health insurance is such a ball and chain!
• We took a big step over the weekend. We got a real couch. It was - well, I won't be crass and post the price, but it was about 20% of its original price on eBay and in very near new condition. Tan leather, quite large. We did fit it in the minivan, though, to bring it home from Modesto. Barely. Cross one thing off my weirdo list. I now own a couch. I can now veg in front of the TV like a real American. Next I have to get an antenna that works so I can watch TV again. Actually I probably will not do that. I am back to relishing the control over our viewing that occurs when there is nothing being broadcast to our set.
• I also spent my birthday money on a new stereo for my van. Recommence crying over NPR stories on the way to work. The earthquake. God help us. I know it's probably not true but it sure feels like there is more terrible stuff in the world than there ever has been before.
  
• The veggie garden is doing quite well. We have some first blossoms already on the Early Girl tomato plant. The sunflowers have all sprouted and I saw the shoots of one onion last night. Nothing lost to snails or ants yet. This is because I chickened out and did not go completely organic. I have ant stakes and snail pellets. The ants and snails in our yard are extremely aggressive! I think it's because all our neighbors spray and so we are the most chemical-free zone. At least there is nothing being sprayed on our plants.

Back to work. Y'all are so patient with my occasional brain puke. I do appreciate it.

Don't let me be like that

I am spending my morning listening to a webcast of important people who know how important they are getting ready to make an important decision. It's for work. They know what they're doing to do, but they are spending the morning talking about it, anyway. They like the sound of their own voices.

I can see aspects of that in my personality. When it gets to this level, I don't like it one little bit.

Just don't appoint me to any important positions.

I never breathe

One thing I do for my job is creating little announcements podcasts every week. Well, mostly every week. Today I got to make a PSA announcing an event to distribute to local radio. It was like a trip back in time, back to when I used to do the weather for K101 FM in Fairbanks.

The difference, of course, is that now it's digital. It is super easy to edit my voice. I use Audacity, which is a nice little open-source application that my brilliant intern from last year found.

So in order to get my PSAs down to 30 and 60 seconds, one of the things I did was to just delete all my breaths. Now I sound oh-so smooth, and everything is done in the properly required amount of time.

It occurs to me that it would be useful to have a similar application to use in my life.

Doesn't seem likely, though.

Turnaround

Today I have panicked, cried, yelled, run, driven like a bat out of hell, schmoozed, scurried, spammed (almost), stuffed, and finally ... downed a double chocolate blended creme, grande, with whipped cream.

After that last one I feel a lot better.

It's only 2 p.m. And it's Z's first birthday. Here's hoping I can get my act together and have a lot smoother rest of the day. It's just gonna be cake (grocery store cake - that's how busy I am feeling) at home with the fam, and Princess Pudge pulling her first babydoll out of a gift bag. No biggie. I can't believe it's been a whole year!

Jiggity jig

As in, home again, home again ...

So, I almost forgot about this, but traveling for business is not really fun. Boring and lonely is more like what it is.

I had a nice dinner at the West Restaurant at the Hotel Angeleno. It used to be a Holiday Inn. When the crazy Ethiopian cab driver told me that, I almost thought he was taking me to the wrong place, because I knew it was supposed to be a nice place and I thought those could not both be true. But they were. It was very nice. I had yummy salad and roasted chicken and teeny tiny potatoes.

Crazy cab driver asked where I was from (Utah, basically) and had lots of questions about Mormonism. Here's hoping I disabused him of some false notions. He was a big fan of the Word of Wisdom. You will see why in a minute.

He also told me about a natural living guru, last name Noel. I can't remember the first name. He was sure that following this guy's prescriptions would cure our infertility. Yah, like I said, kinda crazy. I did want to look him up, though, just because I am curious about craziness. Anybody got a cue on that for me?

And he showed me his adorable 2 year old daughter on his cell phone. So cute! And proceeded to tell me he does not vaccinate and would not stop talking about being anti-vaccination. Now, I respect people's decisions about their kids. But I think a cab driver or other service professional probably should not harp on customers about such an issue. Would you agree?

It's kind of sad when you go to an exciting city like LA and the most interesting part of the trip is your taxi ride.

Would you?

Would you go to LA overnight on a week's notice for a work-related meeting, leaving your long-suffering husband alone with four little wild things?

It doesn't seem altogether kind to him, but on the other hand, I've been the one left at home plenty of times. And a night in a hotel seems awfully appealing.

Plus, potentially a good chance to earn back brownie points lost earlier this year in the midst of crises and upheavals.

I haven't heard G's input yet. I'm sure that will make the difference. But on my own, I am kind of leaning toward yes, as crazy as that sounds.

Direct quote

From me:

"Fortunately I have a pretty good set of personal issues that occupy all my emotional space, so I don't really get all that upset about work."

Your sweet voice

Do you have a sweet voice? I do. It is reserved for use with babies, old people (even Nobel Prize-winning scientists) and, oddly, I realized today, female business contacts whom I don't know well.

I noticed this just now when leaving a message for the grizzled city editor at the local paper. No sweet voice for him.