What would ALI bloggers do?

So the little one is cutting her first tooth – and I sent an e-mail to the fam to tell them all about it.  I was a bit soppy about it all, really.  My MIL wrote back:

YEAH, for V!! And praise for her parents who embrace all these signs of growing up, even with a tinge of sadness for soon she’ll be out of the nest and off on her own!! If you think you’ll miss this one, you may decide you shouldn’t wait too long to start on the next one. That way you won’t have to learn everything all over again! But wait long enough so that you can enjoy some of these ooohing and ahhhh stages just for V!

Take care. More will soon arrive (teeth, that is).

Would you?  Come out of the IF closet, that is?  Or would you just ignore the e-mail and it’s subtle-as-skywriting subtext?

first snow

Good grief, long time no post.  Today was the first real snow of the year, falling thick and fast in the lamplight.  We took a bunch of stuff to the Salvation Army before stopping at the grocery store for some oddments.  The Little One-One (Critter’s new nickname, evidently) seemed fascinated by the falling flakes, although she didn’t like the cold wind in her face. 

This weekend was kind of tough – T. wasn’t feeling well, and I felt like I’d just as soon not have him around at all than have him around all tired and mopey and not much help.  Today was better, but now he’s all melancholy about leaving us for ports abroad, and the end of the year, and no more commuting.  Well, it’s not the commuting he’ll miss, but the ability to spend 60% of his time here in upstate NY rather than his hometown in VA (which he’s bored with). 

In good news, my SIL has agreed to come nanny for us while T is in Mongolia!  She’ll be here 2 weeks out of the 3, but I think I’m going to spend a good part of the Thanksgiving break visiting my sister in Savannah.  Yay!

not taken for granted

So I finished the grant application.  It was a lot of work.  I don’t know how good it is.  I keep thinking of things I should have presented differently, other authors I should have cited.  But it’s done, and it was my best work given the constraints I am under.

I put it in the mail on Saturday morning, and promptly developed a splitting headache followed by an episode of food poisoning.  Ugh!  For a moment while I was battling nausea, feeling exhausted, repelled by the thought of food… I wondered if I could be pregnant again?  It would be way too soon, really.  And ironic and strange.  But after the bad food I ate finally came back up and was purged from my system, I knew it was just food poisoning.  I drank some ginger ale and my headache ebbed away.  Today I’m kind of sad knowing that it was just food poisoning.  Sad and glad. 

Oh, I have to tell y’all about my dream the other night – a reviewer for the foundation I submitted the grant to was scolding me for referencing one particular theorist, saying “Philips is very problematic, especially in upstate New York!”  When I woke up I was thinking about it and realized that 1) my last name sounds like Philips, and 2) my project has nothing to do with upstate NY, but it’s where I live right now… so what I’m actually worried about is that I am not good enough, me personally, as opposed to my actual work. 

Now that I write it out it doesn’t seem that funny, but at the time it kind of made me laugh.

forgot to mention

Oh yeah – did I forget to mention that T. is going to Mongolia for 3 weeks, right before Thanksgiving?  Yep.  The last 3 weeks of my semester.