Helloooo Internet

So the thing with having a blog is that you actually have to WRITE in it once in awhile.

I'm not going to apologize for not showing the love to my blog lately. I have been busy. I have been a busy little bee and you know what? I have also been sick for 48 years. Never mind that I am only 36, they are 48 figurative years. 48 long, long, figurative, very sick and snotty years.

I knew Nora would get sick a lot, and she has (she is sick again right now, as a matter of fact!) I was smug enough to assume that since I'm an adult with an adult immune system and I go to work every day and do adult stuff (not that adult stuff), I wouldn't get sick as often. I was partially right, because while I haven't been sick often, the illness I did get has had a stranglehold on me for about 3.78 weeks now. And that's no exaggeration. I think I have actually had three colds in that time, that keep cycling through my bent and battered body. My immune system has started to wave the white flag, the flag that says "enough! I know you are self-righteous enough to believe that the medical establishment is kind of up to no good, but girl, it is time to seek out antibiotics!" The left side of my face wants to be rescued. I want to taste food again, and my coworkers want to stop hearing the sounds of snot exiting my body.

Through this illness, I managed to host a 'jury' at work. When I say I'm in jury people get excited and expect me to give juicy details of gory trials or something, but really they are meetings at which groups of artists decide which other groups of artists get to have money for their projects. They are, nonetheless, intense experiences, where we sit in a darkened room for 8 hours at a time, 5 days in a row, and discuss/debate/lightly argue about art and I am tasked with the duty of keeping pace and keeping peace. Also tasked with the final process of who-gets-what. I like it, but this time around, I was so sick that already on Monday afternoon I was picturing what it'd be like if one of my committee members (who I'd only just met) had to suddenly give me CPR. I could not breathe. I had to take frequent bathroom breaks to blow my now-raw-and-zitty nose, and in the dark I was holding my forehead just so, to try to 'break' the pain somehow. It was kind of miserable.

Also, we have been pushing through to the end of winter. It's decently warm outside (some would say dangerously unseasonable but I'll take it this year, I hated winter so hard) and the snow is melting, and I feel like the end is in sight. The last bit has been a tough slog, as Nora went through a stomach flu, a cold, then gave me the cold, then got the cold again (along with my father and hubby), and now she's getting over THAT cold but I am still sick. Or sick again. I have been taking care of illnesses for what feels like forever.

We've been making some progress on this cottage project, however, despite the illness. Through February, we've been meeting with our builder and have finally settled on a bunch of things that needed to be settled before we begin (cost, timeline, final design). I have also received the septic evaluation, so we can move forward with the building permits etc, which (fingers crossed) are ridiculously easy to get in our municipality. Rick, the guy in charge of that sort of thing, is super affable and knows me from my brother-in-law's build, and he likes me. So that should go pretty well. I have a meeting with the bank tomorrow, and have made some adjustments to my insurances etc. to save some dollars here and there. I will present this project to you in full detail once we're further along. We hope to get started in May.

I have discovered, in the past few months, the joy of carpooling. It has its drawbacks as well, of course – I am less flexible when it comes to leaving work early, taking days off, and running errands after work - but I carpool with a super nice gang of locals and we have formed our own little group. For a couple of us, it has sadly become our social life, this coming and going from work. Other advantages include reduced cost of parking, reduced gas usage, reduced mileage on my car, and we get to take the carpool lanes, which allow us to zoom past traffic and get to and from work pretty quickly. I love my carpool. Highlight of my day (my workday, that is). Our kids all kind of go to daycare together too, so it's a double-nice community thing, this carpool.

And then there is Nora. Sweet Nora, who can now talk quite a bit and is really super hammy. I love the personality she has become. She is small and feisty and stubborn and knows what she wants, but at the same time she's quiet and has a wisdom about her that I appreciate. She isn't noisy. She doesn't complain much. She sort of quietly processes stuff and then throws it back out at you later, when you least expect it. She has the wisdom of the ages that one. You get the impression, when communicating with her, that she doesn't suffer fools and can see right through your crap. She definitely sees through all the tricks I use to try to get her dressed and fed. She is also currently embroiled in a deep love affair with Elmo. Elmo has been helping us motivate Nora to do things she might not otherwise want to do, like eat her supper, or have her diaper changed. It's often the first thing she says when she gets up in the morning ("Elmo?" as in 'are you there Elmo?') often followed by "Oma?" because my mom bought her an Elmo doll. So now it's "Elmo? Oma?" and then when I explain that yes, Oma gave you Elmo, and Oma is at her house with Buppy (my dad), she says, nodding, "Elmo. Oma. Oma Buppy?" She is starting to sound like David Letterman hosting the Oscars – "Uma – Oprah – Uma – Oprah."

I have been spending lots of time online, even though I haven't been good at this blog-writing thing. I discovered Pinterest, which holds my attention for about a half hour a day. I use it mainly to collect ideas for this cottage we want to build. I have also been spending time on facebook (of course, mostly chatting with my mom. Hi Mom!) and on Gawker, which is where I choose to get my news. My snarky news. I surf Etsy quite a lot since I discovered it has a vintage section. It is way more up-market than Ebay, which is now like the equivalent of those flea markets full of people who sell bags of socks and bootlegged DVDs. I read a great blog on www.Babble.com written by Samantha Bee and Alanna Harkin called "Eating Over the Sink", and March Fug Madness has begun on www.gofugyourself.com. That, in addition to all the regular news and gossip sites, pretty much makes up my internet profile of late.

That's a snapshot of me at this moment. I am wearing a grey-striped boatneck sweater, black dress pants with an awkward and unfortunate tie-belt situation in the front, and black socks, and am sitting at my desk with my legs folded under me, chewing gum because I forgot to brush my teeth this morning. My hair is up in an "I need a haircut" clip, disguised as a messy French twist. I have no makeup on, as it would interfere with the aforementioned nose-blowing. Pretty huh? So that's where I'm at right now, internets. See ya next time.