Milestones

My new job has officially begun and I'm home today on my first unofficial sick day. Just before breakfast this a.m. Bela Simone coughed, then blew chunks everywhere. I don't think she has the stomach virus that has afflicted so many first graders already. She's just got a snotty nose draining into an empty stomach but legally/ ethically I couldn't take her to daycare. I wonder how many other parents actually follow the rule that says a child cannot come back to daycare/school until 24 hours from the last vomiting/diarrhea episode.
Anyhoo, much has happened since my last post. I finished reading the Audacity of Hope, finally! Obama rocks. The last portion of the book talks about the struggle of mothers in this day and age. His understanding is rooted in his wife's experience as a working mom, but he also acknowledges the struggles that stay-at-home moms have (particularly, to paraphrase, that they get no respect). Not, however, that working moms always get the respect they are due, but I'm not ever going to be in the mood for the mommy wars.
I had my first "away" trip to go to a conference in Rochester, NY, last week. Bela, Griffin, and Brett did fine without me. Sure, I was missed. And for my part, I felt like I was wilting (kind of like what happened to Elliott when E.T. was dying) but Angela gave me an Advil and I was all set. Best of all, I did not come home to what one of the Manic Mommies did. Check out the video under "When Mommy Goes Away on Business." Hmmm. It appears that in my hiatus from TJM, Blogger has made some changes. I hope that the above will actually turn into a link.
Quickly, because I hear Bela waking up and I still have to do some work for today, my other milestones: I quit the neighborhood association recently. I began to realize that I was not doing things for myself and since Sarah Palin and Rudy Guiliani don't think community organizing is a worthwhile pursuit, I'm now doing things that are totally self-indulgent. (That's tongue in cheek, I really could not care less what the GOP spews). Take last night, for example, I went to a yoga class that was AMAZING! The teacher, Shiloh, understood breathwork, used the sanskrit terms for the postures, manipulated students into deeper expressions of the postures, AND led us in the sound of Om!! Then I got my hair cut at a fancy pants salon ... and I bought product.
Time to go!