It’s Columbus Day, so Jose and I were both off work and Charlotte’s daycare was closed. Emma, however, still had school. I can’t even remember the last time Jose and I were together, but with only Charlotte. When she was an infant, and before Jose went back to work, I guess?? It basically never happens. But it was great! Charlotte was in a happy mood all day, she entertained herself perfectly during our 2+ hour lunch out for Jen’s birthday, and she took a longer-than-usual nap. When we had just Emma, parenting seemed hard but now that we have two kids, having a day with just one felt amazingly easy. Funny how your perspective shifts with time and number of kids…
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Emma is “leader of the week” at school this week, so last night we spent some time making her poster. I helped with the letters and tape, but otherwise it was entirely done by her! I was pretty proud of her final product, and from what I heard this afternoon, she had a lot of fun sharing it with her class today.
(Side note: I had been warned about this by friends with older kids, but I still have found it quite jarring to transition from daycare — where I saw the teachers every day and knew all the other kids (and parents) in her class — to elementary school — where I only see the teacher if I set up a conference and don’t know any of the other kids or parents. The level of independence Emma suddenly gained by starting elementary school is huge!)
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I read this NYTimes opinion piece this week called “You’ll Never Be Famous — And That’s O.K.” and feel like I should print it out and post it on my cubicle wall. I’ve mentioned a few times that work has been a bit of a struggle for me lately, and honestly it’s probably 75% internal — which is annoying to the more logical side of my brain, but sometimes logic doesn’t solve the problem. A large portion of my dissatisfaction right now stems from the feeling that I am not “important” enough. That I got a promotion a couple years ago yet am now less visible than I was before. That I’m out of sight and out of mind.
I need to just chill out. And I’m trying to do just that.
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Other miscellany:
The Astros are going to the ALCS!!! First time they’ve made a league championship appearance since 2005. I just spent 15 minutes re-reading some of my October 2005 blog entries back when Jason, Chris and I had partial Astros season tickets and thus were able to snag tickets to the entire post-season. (And I got picked to work as a photo runner at the World Series.) Man, that was some FUN. Here’s hoping this year’s team can go all the way!
I haven’t done much sewing in the last couple weeks, and have instead been spending my free time working with a freelance client getting her patterns ready for print. It’s been fun! I’m reminded of working on the Technique (aka the school newspaper) when I was at Georgia Tech, and how much I enjoyed being a section editor and getting to put together my section every week. I think that’s my sweet spot in the graphic design world — less emphasis on illustrations, and more on getting everything laid out and looking just so. My perfectionist tendencies work well in that context.
It’s October 9 and it was 90 degrees today. I’m very, very ready for fall. We had one week of really nice weather right after Hurricane Harvey (aka the universe throwing us a bone) but since then it’s been back to heat and nasty humidity. I got an email from someone in Denver this morning who said that it snowed — I mean, what?? Come on, cold fronts!
Also, it’s October 9 and I still don’t have a plan for the girls’ Halloween costumes so…that needs to happen this week.
Becca says
I think contributing to something bigger than oneself is an important part of finding meaning. I think that’s what’s so inspiring about every role at NASA, not just the “visible” ones. I think the visibility part is more about ambition than meaning, but we women, especially, try to cloak one thing in the other, but I don’t think there’s anything wrong in a talented and successful female professional just admitting she’s ambitious. If it helps yourself any you can remind yourself that in general careers do not advance typically in the period of time between ones late thirties to early forties, its one of the periods of usual career stagnation. Also, this is apparently our happiness “dip” period, especially for women (http://www.oprah.com/sp/new-midlife-crisis.html).
This is certainly something I have struggled with a lot. And still am. I have to pick a new job next year, and I am starting to try to figure out what the line looks like between meaning, ambition, and achieving my goals for both my personal and professional life. But, that’s a solid #firstworldproblem choice, because I have choices. That said, Let me know if you can figure it out.
I just added Middlemarch to my to-read list.
Sarah says
Jose read Middlemarch a year or two ago. This article made me want to read it too!