Half Assed Mama

The last few months have been very, very stressful at work. I find the spring semester is always harder because not only are you in the midst of a brand new academic semester, you're also having to deal with the end of the academic year. It basically means that you're having to deal with two business cycles at the same time.

It has been particularly rough this year for a variety of reasons, and the upside of it is that I don't have a lot "extra" to give when I come home. I feel like I'm having to preserve my emotions so that I can sustain my own self worth, and when Conor gets all clingy and fussy I don't really have much left over to give him. This of course makes Conor more clingy and fussy and makes me more likely to back away instead of stepping up and meeting Conor's needs.

Sometimes, if I can take a deep breath, then ok, I don't mind if he has to sit in my lap and eat breakfast or dinner. But sometimes, when I'm cooking after being at work all day and he will not stop clinging to my legs and crying "Mommy! Mommy! Mommy!", it makes me absolutely crazy.

The upshot of this is that it's gotten really, really hard for me to be as good a mother to Conor as I want to be. Fortunately, Dave has stepped up and taken over some of the things I used to do. When there's cooking and crying, Dave will take Conor out and play with Patches or pick up sticks. But it's not really a habit I want to get into.

And maybe the mommy! mommy! mommy! cling-on is annoying to anyone, but I always thought I'd be the one to be able to defuse the situation, calm him down, distract him and get back to making dinner. Instead, I want just 5 minutes....just 5 minutes by myself so I don't feel like a complete and utter loser.

The Goslings

We have a lot of Canadian Geese on campus. And oddly, this causes mixed reactions among folks around here.

On the one hand, it's nice seeing families of geese strolling about, pecking in the grass for food. It also gives our campus a quaint, small town feel when traffic has to stop to let them cross the road.

On the other hand, they are mean. One of our grad students was attacked a few weeks ago by a hissing goose hanging out on the retaining wall of a steeply sloping hill (the sidewalk passes just beneath it). She was on the cell phone talking and heard a funny hissing sound coming through the call. All of a sudden a goose let loose and pecked her right on her head. Another grad student was chased down a hill by a goose gone bad.

But right now, it doesn't matter which side of the goose debate you're on. The goslings have hatched and those fuzzy little birds toddling along side their parents are one of the cutest signs of spring we have around here. The last few mornings, I've walked in surrounded by a chorus of Awwwwwwwww's every time the faculty, staff or students pass by a young family.

It is awfully cute.

Because I Can

I'm still figuring how this whole new blogger thing works. Nonetheless, this is the first time I've ever been able to blog while I'm at work.

And despite the fact that I'm too busy to say anything witty, it doesn't mean that I can't say anything at all.

So there. I say "Anything at all."

Now I must go.

Welcome to My New (Blog) Home

Well, this is it.

This is going to be the new place where This, That and The Mother Thing is going to live.

If you want to catch up on what happened before, feel free to go back to Salon and This, That and the Mother Thing (aka, And Baby Makes Seven) over there.

Bear with me (bare with me!) while I try to figure out this new system on very limited free time.