Blog

September 30
I'm going gray. I noticed my first few gray hairs right after Lily's second birthday; I don't think it was a coincidence. I'm now finding (and pulling out) more and more of them. It's starting to be alarming.

I'm rather vain about my hair in some ways. I've always prided myself on having low-maintenance hair and hair cuts. I've never done much to it - I don't blow dry it or straighten it or curl it or color it. It may be an over reaction to watching my mom wrestle with her hair over the years. She has incredibly thick and very curly hair. For way too long, she tried to make it behave and keep it straight, which meant blow dryers and curling irons and hair products. I don't have that kind of patience.

I've also never colored or highlighted my hair - aside from one unfortunate spray-in blonde experiment and one brief stint as a red-head. My sister, who is seven years younger than I has had to cover her gray for a few years now. I've felt a little smug that she got those genes, not me. I have friends who have to go to the hair salon every six weeks to return their hair to its "natural color," and I've always been glad I never started down that path. I barely remember to get my hair cut every six months. Having to go in every six weeks for a touch up would be impossible to keep up with.

But now that I'm getting more gray hairs than I can pull out, I may have to give in and start to color or highlight my hair. The question is, do I do it myself at home, or do I splurge on the hair dresser? My problem is that I have always thought I should have been a red-head - hence the one experiment. But if I make the switch, I'm going to have to keep it up. I don't think there's any going back.

I'm a little too vain, and a little too young, just to let my hair go gray at this point. It's bad enough that my crow's feet are getting worse. I don't need to show my age with my hair, too.

September 27
My neighbor Lisa and I were talking today about how we don't watch that much TV anymore. Neither of us watches any shows religiously. I used to make a point of watching West Wing every week, but it hasn't been the same since Rob Lowe and Aaron Sorkin left. I've fallen out of the habit of watching the new shows, although I sometimes watch the reruns on Bravo. I also used to always watch Buffy and Angel, but they are both off the air now. I haven't found any new shows to get addicted to. Part of it could be that I spend most evenings working after the girls go to bed. We also have four zillion premium channels, so if Brandon has the TV on, he's watching a movie.

But I do have my new favorite Web site that I log on to at random times of the day - the Panda Cam at the National Zoo in Washington, DC. They have a baby panda there, and you can watch him sleep or move around during the day on their Web site - http://nationalzoo.si.edu/Animals/GiantPandas/. Today I got to see the baby try to stand up and take a few wobbly steps. He never actually got his fat little tummy off the ground, but he did scootch in a few circles before getting hung up on a piece of bamboo. Often, though, he and his mama are both sound asleep. I'm amazed at how much both of them sleep.

I let the girls watch the bears, too. Lily now hops up on my lap when I'm at the computer and asks to see the baby panda. But she gets bored pretty quickly if he's snoozing away.

It seems I'm not the only one who tunes into the Panda Cam for entertainment. Our paper had an article about people who stay logged on all day to keep an eye on the bears and then call each other when something exciting happens. I'm not that bad - yet.

September 26
OK, this is ridiculous. This heat has got to stop! It was 108 on Sunday and 107 today. It's late September, for goodness sake. We should have already had one cool front come through. Instead of rain from Hurricane Rita we got heat. That's just not fair. Sunday was particularly bad. Each time I went outside it felt like a blast oven.

My running is suffering in this heat. One of the side effects of my new migraine medicine is the possibility of overheating. I had a bad time on Saturday's run as a result. I was worried I was going to need to crawl up to a house and ask for assistance and an ambulance at one point. I fell behind my running group and ended up walking a huge hill while all these really fast runners came flying down. When I finally was able to run again, it wasn't much more than a slow shuffle with walking breaks on the uphills. I made it a water fountain and drank my body weight in water and soaked my shirt and put it back on. That cooled me down enough to make it back to my car. My friends were standing at the corner making search and recovery plans.

I spent the rest of the day feeling hot and drained from the heat. At the girls' nap time, I rested for a while in my room with the AC set at 74. I was still hot.

I hope I either adjust to the medicine or it cools off soon. I may have to give up running if I can't handle the heat, and that's not an appetizing option.

September 20
Geeze. I hadn't realized it had been so long since I last posted. What have I been doing with my time? Actually, I've worked most evenings until 10:00 and then gone straight to bed, too pooped to post.

I've given up, for now, on any plans for the Freescale marathon. My running lately has been embarassing. I'd like to blame it all on the problems I've had getting my migraine medications balanced, but while they have played a large role in my lack of running, they're not the sole culprit. Mostly I just hate running in the summer. I get too hot and I fall apart. Last week was particularly bad. Each morning was more humid than the last. I finished two of my runs on the verge of heat stroke. I felt like my head was about to explode. I cooled off by standing in the shower at the running trail and then dripping my way back to the car. I just couldn't force myself to start planning for a marathon while running so poorly in such bad conditions. It was causing me more stress than it was worth. I'll re-evaluate things once I get on a more regular running schedule. I can usually ramp up pretty quickly in cooler weather.

After months and months of steady work from Holt, I'm now facing a future without any projects on the horizon. I'm sending in the invoice for my last project tomorrow. While I welcome the break from deadlines, it does make me nervous not to have any gigs lined up. There is the possibility of a project in October, but I'm not holding my breath. I did send out some feelers at Holt today. Perhaps something will come of them. I am copyediting a white paper for a local non-profit group. It's a one-time deal worth about $100. It's not much, but it's something.

I had a very lucrative summer with Holt. Unfortunately, I've spent all of it either at the dentist or on a new AC unit for the house. I suppose I should be grateful that I had the money to spend, but I would really rather have done something fun with the $9,000 (yes, you read that right) I've given the dentist or the $5,500 we gave to the AC guy. We could have taken a really nice trip with that money, or refinished the floors in the living room - something we could actually see and enjoy. But I will admit that I'm glad we replaced the AC unit. I was tired of having the front of the house get up to 85 degrees in the heat of the afternoon. I tend to keep the house too cold now, just because I can. I'm hoping it will make a big difference in our electrical bills.

There, I think I've cleared most of the gunk that was in my brains.

September 7
Things are slowly starting to return to normal around here, whatever that may mean. After a two-week break, which included five days at the beach, the girls are back at school, and we're getting the hang of our new schedule. Lily now goes to preschool three mornings a week, and I can't wait to enjoy having an extra morning to myself each week. Last week I spent one long morning at the dentist, and this week we had a short week because of Labor Day, so I haven't had a full week of normalcy yet. But I'm sure it will be nice whenever I do.

Lily really isn't my baby anymore. Not only is she sleeping in a big-girl bed, she's potty training herself pretty much. Her teacher at school started it, so I decided to continue this weekend. Saturday was kind of rough - we had a few puddles. But it's been great ever since then. Unlike Ella, Lily doesn't really seem to need reminding. She's been great about stopping what she's doing to go use the potty at the right time. But I still ask every half hour or so, just in case. I can't imagine what it will be like not to have a child in diapers for the first time in almost five years. I never imagined the day would come.

Ella's transition to her new class and new teacher couldn't have gone better. It's helped that she's still with all of the same kids, with a few new ones mixed in for excitement. And it's not as though the teacher is a stranger. Ella saw Meredith every day at school during this past year. Meredith also came for a home visit, which Ella thought was really special. I'm impressed with Meredith's class already - Ella was singing a song today and was spelling the word yellow while singing it. I asked her if she could spell yellow without the song, and she could. Then I asked if she thought she could write the word. She rolled her eyes at me and said that she already had at school. I'm guessing she'll be reading by the end of the year. She'll start kindergarten in good shape.

So things are rolling merrily along and I'm just trying to keep up, as usual.