Disclaimer: The thoughts and feelings expressed in this post are solely the author's and do not represent the official position of any government agency.
I'm starting to understand what it must be like to be a reporter during the 24-hour news cycle. You've got to put out the content, but the truth is that there's not much new to say. So you find yourself saying the same thing over and over again in less and less interesting ways.
But today is Saturday, and that's usually a fun day for the family, shutdown or no.
You know our morning routine by now: So, we did that.
I went for a run before the guys got up. While running, I listened to a great 80's new wave/post punk playlist on MOG. (Vienna by Ultravox is a great song, isn't it?) I scared two rabbits, separately, as I ran slowly past them. They scared me back. You'd think I would have been ready for the second one after the first, but you'd be wrong about that. (Oh: C25K, week 5, day 3, 2.26 miles - 5 min warm up, 20 min run, 5 min cool down.)
As I sat in my living room floor tapping out that last bit on my iPhone, a military helicopter flew over our house, fast and pretty low. That was unsettling.
(I know I've done a lot of navel gazing, in this series of blog posts, and muled about how angry I am at Congress. But I do worry about national security during this shutdown. We're not doing the kind of intelligence gathering that we normally do because of the furlough. What if a terrorist plot slips through this giant crack of a government shutdown and something truly unthinkable happens? Shudder.)
I also met with the personal trainer for 30 minutes at 8:30 this morning. Yes, the trainer who was the impetus of the cartwheeling incident. I've got five more paid session with her (well, four, now), so I need to use them up. We're mainly doing abs and arms. No acrobatics.
I should have waited to go running. The temperature dropped 13 degrees between the time I entered the gym to meet with the trainer and the time I left the gym. Nice, cool fall weather.
I should have waited to go running. The temperature dropped 13 degrees between the time I entered the gym to meet with the trainer and the time I left the gym. Nice, cool fall weather.
So, I came home, showered, and got dressed in normal clothes. It's the first day since Tuesday that I have fixed my hair, put on make-up, or put on any jewelry other than my wedding band. I don't wear that much make up anyway, and my hair's not at all complicated to style, but it was still nice to get fixed up a bit.
I took a break from furlough blogging to write a quick post about Mom Jeans.
I took a break from furlough blogging to write a quick post about Mom Jeans.
Mid-morning, a friend texted to let us know that the bill that would allow back-pay to furloughed federal workers passed the House 407 to 0. Amazing. I really didn't think they cared about or valued us. I was wrong. I am glad I was wrong. We'll see if it passes the Senate tomorrow, and whether the President signs it.
Late, morning, we all went to toddler music class. The Boy sings the songs from class around the house quite often, and seems to like them. But in class, he seems less engaged, sometimes unruly. All the other kids in the class are girls. I'm starting to wonder (by which I mean "believe") that it's a "boy thing," not a behavior or interest thing. He's just very wiggly and physical...his classmates, not so much. I feel like I'm getting a taste of what real school will be like four our guy. I am preparing myself for the parent/teacher conferences about how our smart, energetic little boy won't sit still and face forward for eight hours a day. I know lots of creative, smart, dedicated teachers, most of them are friends from college. I hope that he gets teachers like them, and not a staid, old nag that doesn't understand kinetic little boys.
After music class, we had lunch at Rudy's BBQ. Yum!
And then we came home for nap time, which we call "rest time" because The Big Boy says he doesn't take naps anymore. I hear what you're thinking, they start to reject naps at a certain age. Not my boy, not yet. What he rejects is the word "nap," not the concept of afternoon sleeping. He consistently has a 2 to 3 hour "rest" every afternoon, and without it, he becomes manic-crazy-cranky boy. (Also, without it, his parents become exhausted, desperate zombies. It's a freakshow around here without "rest time.")
And then we came home for nap time, which we call "rest time" because The Big Boy says he doesn't take naps anymore. I hear what you're thinking, they start to reject naps at a certain age. Not my boy, not yet. What he rejects is the word "nap," not the concept of afternoon sleeping. He consistently has a 2 to 3 hour "rest" every afternoon, and without it, he becomes manic-crazy-cranky boy. (Also, without it, his parents become exhausted, desperate zombies. It's a freakshow around here without "rest time.")
During nap time, I also napped a bit (as did The Working Dad), and I folded some laundry (for there is always laundry).
And after nap, we went to the Pumpkin Patch and had fall fun!
I barely thought about the shutdown at all today, apart from reading about the back-pay bill and writing this blog post (of course), that is
