Tuesday, February 13, 2007

Say hello and wave goodbye

It's official: My hiatus is about to become permanent. As I was telling Kate in an email earlier, I'd set today as a mental deadline for either returning to blogging or pulling the plug permanently. Much as I miss checking in with you all, I am really appreciating the space not-blogging has created in my life. My attention span is a little longer without so many fascinating tales to read, and I'm a lot more focused since I'm not obsessively checking for comments all day.

I don't mean to elicit another outpouring of goodbyes -- though your responses to my last post were so nice to read -- but just wanted to let know what's going on over here. So before I close up shop entirely, a few updates for the sake of narrative closure:

~Jelly is still with us, although she is effectively on probation. We are half-heartedly trying to find her a new home, although I suspect she will be ours for whatever time she has left.

~Ess' nine-month checkup was yesterday, and the doctor was very pleased with all her growing. (She's now 16 lbs., 8 oz. -- still a peanut, but one with a very round belly.) Ess is being evaluated by the state child development folks on Thursday since she's still not rolling, crawling or even raising her hands over her head. The doc said we're not being too neurotic, as I'd feared, by scheduling this, but doesn't think we'll come out of it with anything more serious than some physical therapy. And after half an hour with us -- can I tell you how much I love our doctor? -- she pronounced Ess (with great affection) a "happy, sociable, lazy girl." Takes after her mother... at least when it comes to that last adjective.

~D and I continue to talk and talk and talk about work/life balance issues. I actually applied for an editing job at a consulting firm in the Bay State, hoping I could telecommute -- figuring that at least I could make a lot more $$ and quit the freelancing that encroaches on all my free time these days. Doesn't look like that's going to pan out, but at least I've got my eyes open. And it turns out that Ess' daycare has some flexibility, so I can drop her off for an occasional half-day if I'm on deadline, which helps immensely.

~I did yoga! For the first time since Ess was born! It only happened once, but boy was it nice. As was the date I had (inside the house) with my husband last night. Hoping for more of the same in weeks to come.

So there you have it: the end of Run Cook Write. I would love to keep in touch with you; if you're so inclined, you can email me at [redacted]. Just eliminate the spaces and you'll be good to go.

Happy February, everyone, and thanks for reading.