Facie’s Ramblings

No, I don't mean I need to go somewhere with the hubby. We did that not too long ago, remember? And the kid will be at grandma's again in another week, so we should get to go on another mini-date. Mini because my husband will be on call, which he is six months out of the year. And that means he cannot go far from home in case he gets a call and particularly if he has to go somewhere. Which brings me to why I need a date. Next weekend I will be meeting up with some fellow bloggers, none of whom I have met in real life and at least half of whom have blogs I have never read, for dinner. I was planning to take Jordan since a couple of the bloggers are bringing their kids. Then hubby informed me a few days ago that he looked at our calendar and saw that I had a blogger dinner, so he figured that would be a good time to send the kid to grandma's. I had reservations about taking Jordan anyway. The next oldest kid there will be four, and I was not sure how Jordan would do wit...

One of these days I may write a heartfelt, detailed blog post about the angst I am having with my eight-year-old child. But this is not one of these days. Instead, I wanted to share a few recent things. Third grade is difficult. I cannot believe the amount of homework Jordan brings home most days. On a good night, she has about an hour; several times now she has had three-plus hours. Seems a bit excessive to me. On the bright side, she has pretty much gotten to the point where she remembers to bring the correct books home, which is a challenge considering most classes have a hardback book, a workbook, and a Simple Solutions book. I feel bad that my poor kid's backpack often weighs more than 25 percent of her body weight (yes, I have weighed it). Jordan came home from school today with a flier for a Magic Treehouse book club and an American Girls book club, each of which will meet once a month during lunch. Jordan told me that most of the girls in her class are going to be in the...

For many years, I had several best friends. A bit of a contradiction, I realize, since there really should be only one "best." But mostly I just considered myself fortunate to have different people I could talk to. When Brian and I dated, I did not consider him my best friend in the way many people in relationships do. In fact, sadly, I was closer to a few of my guy friends. But when Brian and I got back together again in the later '90s after a three- or four-month hiatus, I realized one should not be closer to her male friends than her actual guy. Fortunately, our relationship evolved to the point where I did consider him my best friend. As time has gone on, I discovered that by being so involved in/with my husband and child, I no longer have many close friends, let alone a best friend. I get that your family should be your top priority; I got a taste of this when many friends started having kids before I, and we pretty much stopped going out. I swore I would never d...

As I have probably written before, I am a pretty open, honest person. I say it like it is (or at least how I think it is), and I am just not about pretenses. Which is why this whole job search is seemingly adding to the already multiplying gray hairs I have and further stressing me out. For all my weaknesses, I like to think I have some good things to offer. So why do I have to, in some sense, be someone I am not? Why do I have to use certain buzzwords just to get an interview? Why do I have to put on a suit and curl my hair, just to be taken seriously? Can't someone see that I would be a good editor, even though I am not technologically savvy? Does it make me a bad worker because I really want to find a job where I can work five shorter days or three or four days a week so I can spend time with my kid? I have already second guessed myself on the jobs I applied for last week. I had to copy and paste my cover letter into a text box. I did that, but I jumped right into the "Dear...

I like to think of myself as a pretty good friend overall, and most of my friends would probably agree, at least insofar as the effort I make to maintain the friendship. But lately, I am considering trimming a few friendship tree branches. Over the last year or so, I had initiated a few (successful) play dates with a woman and her daughter who was in Jordan's class. Two weeks ago, I sent this woman, whom I now consider a friend, a note via Facebook to let her know Jordan and I would be at a certain park that weekend if she wanted to join us. She posted a comment on my "wall" saying they couldn't but that she did want to get together so how about the following week. We exchanged a few posts about dates, and the last post I sent was agreeing to the day she suggested. A few days later, the date came, and I called her house that morning to figure out when and where we should meet. I ended up leaving a message as she did not answer. An hour or so later, when I still had no...

I have to say that the writer's strike has hardly affected me, and I am actually a little disappointed that some of the shows that I watched pre-strike will be back. It has been kind of nice focusing (obsessing might be more accurate) on Lost; that is one of only two prime time shows I make it a point to watch. I thought Lost had a great season last year. This year might not be as good as last year (I kind of miss the surviving on the island aspect and the flashbacks), but there seem to be a lot more surprises and possible answers to seemingly 100s of questions. Did only six people get off the island? Why are the Oceanic Six saying that only six survived the plane crash when we have watched dozens of survivors for four seasons now? What happened to all the other survivors? Why do some of them want to get back to the island? Who is in the coffin? Why is Sayid working for Ben post-rescue? Who are these "freight people" and why do they want Ben? How/why does Ben have so much...