Percolating and Cookin!

Behind all the ordinary splendors, I've been thinking about big picture vs. small picture. I haven't had time to sit and write it out, but the whole tragedy in Colorado brings up a lot of stuff. I'm hoping to write something cohesive soon.

In the meantime, looks like my summer will be insane. The Big Annual Conference is in mid-September, so most of my co-workers are buried in that. They'd thought to keep me out of it so I could work on RFPs or emergency client work as needed. However, one of our freelancers flaked out and so I'm back on the Gala. This would be fine except the creative director, while someone I love as a person, in work mode I call The Eye of Sauron. As in, "It's passing by, hide or he might notice you moving! DUCK NOW!" He is Mr. Intensity and expects the same of all who work with him. As of yesterday, I'm revising the three initial concepts while generating two wholly new ones. Both new concepts are a bit vague and (I think) a bit cheesy. That's all due by day's end today. Then I jump right into an RFP that's due on Tuesday. I told them I will NOT work on this over the weekend.

Saturday is my birthday. We're planning to go to Ft. Worth to expose Brex to the paintings of Lucien Freud (literally. He does a lot of life-size nude portraits). Jrex is looking for a place where we could do a fun lunch with the baby. Then we'll grab take out for dinner, have a sitter come in and go catch a movie. Either the Avengers at the dollar theater or Dark Knight.

Last night was the open house at Brex's new day care. Jrex met us there. Brex happily scooted around looking at new toys while they gave us the overview. Overall I'm happy with what we saw. The only down side is that they don't support cloth diapers. The thought of us contributing a mountain of filth to a local landfill makes me ill. The dilemma is whether to keep the diaper service. Maybe I'll buy some cloth diapers so we can use those on weekends? Sigh... I just don't know. The other down side is that we have to label all his clothes, hats, bottles, etc. Looks like a fun Sunday afternoon (we also have to install the car seat)!

The next dilemma is that they need a "PTA" person for the classroom. I'm thinking about volunteering. It sounds like a role where I forward emails to the other parents, create social opportunities (fun!) and attend a once-a-month PTA meeting. Since I miss seeing people, that might be good. Also, if I do want to do freelance, networking opportunities are usually a good idea. Downside is adding anything else to my to-do list. On the upside, the other parents look like an interesting crew. There's another Caucasian/Asian couple, a Chinese family, a couple we're already friends with, an African couple, an Eastern European family and two Caucasian families. Brex and the African girl are both 10-months old and one of the other boys is a big 9-month old, so he won't be the oldest. After him being the ethnic representative in the local day care, it's fun to have an international posse for him to be with for the next few years.

Again, I'm sorry I don't have the time/energy to go deep. I'm heart sick, humbled, weirdly hopeful and tired all at once. Hope you are all doing well.