The last couple of days have been scramble-tastic,* what with the logo-making and the client-troubleshooting and the endless, persistent teething with its related inconsolable screaming. One of these things is not like the other! One of these things does not belong! Part of me misses having an actual job**.

HowEVER, I am rocking the pajama-bottom and tee-shirt ensemble, and isn’t that what working at home is all about? I feel that this is what has been missing from my WAHM experience, and I may have to purchase several pairs of cute pajama bottoms simply so I can wear them while I work. Slouching around in sweats is so not the same thing.

Speaking of work (which we were, ad nauseaum) my OCD kicked into high gear this morning and I got up when Not So did, bringing my developmentally-impaired laptop upstairs with me so I could get things done while the baby slept. Which he did, adorably. My child is amazingly adorable. He is even adorable when he snores. The snoring thing = totally his daddy, too, since I am all girl and therefore incapable of something so coarse as snoring. (You bought that, right?)

My laptop pisses me off when I’m trying to get things done, seeing as it keeps denying the existence of a wireless signal in the middle of a page load, only to admit, grudgingly, that the signal is there once I turn Airport off and then on again. Rinse, repeat. STOP FUCKING WITH ME, STUPID LAPTOP! I KNOW THE SIGNAL IS THERE! I probably need a new Airport card, but now that the laptop has been relegated to Backup status it isn’t nearly so important. I mean, what, it’s too big of a deal for me to go downstairs and work on the Mac Mini? Especially, you know, if I’m rockin’ the pjs.

Given all that it isn’t surprising that I failed to get much done during my frenetic morning geek session. I still need to make some tweaks to one client’s site and send out some site estimates and finally, finally make another blog post and send out the March couldbe studios newsletter. First, though? I have to get this housework thing under control because OMG TOO MESSY CANNOT DEAL.

* Yes, I am aware I append far too many words with “-tastic” and I am seeking help.

** No, I am not suggesting that being a mother is not, in fact, a job. I am referring instead to the nine-to-five drudgery that I always complained about but had, at least, an end.

Look at this picture. Do you see me smiling? I am smiling because we finally have office furniture. More than one person can sit down at the same time. And no one has to sit on the floor! This, my friends, is progress. Also progressive: baby, sleeping. He really needed a nap. Really.

Now that there is a place I can park Happy Fun Baby while he sleeps, I can actually do things in the office. Things like work. I know! Crazy talk. Today, for example, I have checked my e-mail, read my rss feeds, set up the wee little TV/DVD combo, and rearranged the desk. Not work in the classic sense of the word, perhaps, but still nice.

Currently I am somewhat less than thrilled with the speed of our internet, but since I left my phone at home I can’t call and sweetly request that I get some sort of boost. Yes, you read that right: I left my phone at home. My lovely Blackberry Pearl is sitting on the charger even as we speak, lonely, abandoned. I will be back for you, phone! I have not forgotten you! (Except that I did, obviously.) I feel so…disconnected. And somewhat naked. You know that feeling when you realize you’ve left the house without a bra? Only none of my bras can check my e-mail, and maybe that’s the crux of the problem right there.

I had some high hopes for this afternoon, many of which involved going to Shoefly and seeing if they had any cute clearance shoes in my size, but instead I am browsing the interwebs while my kid sleeps. It works.

technorati tags:blackberry pearl, couldbe studios, office furniture

My first article for Digital Web Magazine was published today. I sound clever, yes? It’s a trick. But, dude, it is SO NICE to be writing again! As a side note, did you know that writing an article is roughly 50000 times harder with a toddler? I know, crazy talk. But it’s true.

technorati tags:digital web magazine, article, does your copy hold up to a quick glance

The other day Not So and the baby and I went over to our favorite kid shop (they sell kids there! Thank you, I will be here all week) to pick up some black-and-white stripey BabyLegs so I can continue with my master plan of turning my toddler into a wee little goth. I was still sick, of course, because I am stubborn at just the wrong angle and refuse to actually go to the doctor. So my ears were still quite plugged for our little outing. Plugged ears make the world seem somewhat surreal and disconnected, like watching the TV on mute. A lot like that, in fact. As an added bonus I had become completely unable to gauge the volume of my voice, so in addition to constantly saying “What?” I was also, probably, shouting like a crazy person. Fun!

So of course I decided to get into a conversation with the owner of LilyToad about my recent flirtation with toymaking, which led to her expressing a genuine interest in carrying Cranky Pals at the store, which is highly improbable but nonetheless true. So, yay! Also: eek!

My “inventory” (if by inventory you mean a stack of felt remnants and a bunch of batting) is woefully sparse, and I still haven’t figured out the damned sewing machine, so naturally my first instinct was to go out to Bolt on Alberta and touch all the fabric. We picked up some yummy fuzzy something-or-other (one of these days I’m going to keep track of which fabric is which) and then, bolstered by our brave foray into the outside world, decided to walk a mile and a half in the fresh air, which surely held health-giving powers. Yes?

No. I spent the next day sick, exhausted, and weeping, completely unable to do anything in the least bit useful and annoying Happy Fun Baby by my refusal to be fun and/or engaging. Did I go to the doctor, you ask? I did not. But, to be fair, I felt much better the next day.

I have been sewing like a mad fiend since then in an effort to make up for the days I lost to my stupid cold. I’ve been referring to it like that pretty consistently – my stupid cold – and I intend to continue until every trace of phlegm is out of my system. Which might be never. I’ll just be that girl with the perpetual case of the sniffles.

Related: I’m thirty-two, for Christ’s sake. Enough with this “girl” thing already. ::shakes head at self::

So I’ll be bringing a bunch of Cranky Pals over to LilyToad tomorrow; keep your fingers crossed for me.

technorati tags:cranky pals, lilytoad, crafts

My wretched cold has moved into my ears. Why my ears? Why not my lungs, like usual? I’m used to hacking stuff up from my lungs; the ear thing, though, that’s just unpleasant.

Not So was sick enough to stay home from work today. He’s losing his voice, so the two of us are an unintentional comedy routine today.

Him: Hey, (mumble mumble mumble mrf)
Me: What? What?
Him: I said (mumble mumble) the baby (mumble mumble mrf)
Me: What? What?
Him: Never mind.
(Curtain.)

In an effort to regain at least one of my senses, I took a homeopathic sinus pill. I had to melt it under my tongue, which is very unpleasant and made my mouth water like a sprinkler. It also made me really dizzy. Or maybe the congestion made me dizzy. Either way, my head goes SPIN! and I kind of want to lie down, only not, because, hello, congestion? So instead I’m online. Which is like sleep, only with more keystrokes.

In other news, I wrote an essay for the Weblog Tools Collection about my love affair with my blog. You should go voite for it, right now. Go. Do it.

And if you have any words about the new theme, use them in the comments. I will also use words to respond to you. Brilliant!

technorati tags:hylands, homeopathic, sinus, congestion, weblog tools collection, essay

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Why, hello, anxiety! It seems like it’s been days since I’ve heard from you. I didn’t think of you, honestly, but let’s not dwell. You’re here now, and it’s as if you’d never left.

The anxiety thing is funny, if by ‘funny’ you mean ‘annoying.’ There’s almost always a thing that sets it off, so instead of being all say, I’m having an anxiety attack but everything is actually okay I think oh god I’ve made a huge mistake and now everything is going to hell in a handbasket. And I panic, because that’s what you do when things go to hell: you panic. What? You don’t? Well, that’s nice for you.

Even when I know I’m having an anxiety attack (which is most of the time), it’s sometimes hard to evaluate just how much of the triggering event is all in my head and how much is that I have actually, you know, irrevocably screwed up my life in a fit of incompetence. Because seeing that someone I know on a social networking site and adding them to my contact list only to have them send me an e-mail saying “I’m really not into social networking and I don’t know how there’s an account in my name” is probably NOT a sure sign of the apocalypse, but how can I be sure? Especially when that someone happens to be my landlord, who surely thinks I am a shifty, inappropriately-social cyber-stalker now. Just as an example.

If you’re wondering, my warning label would say “Contents Under Pressure.” And there would be a graphic of my head exploding. I might just have to make a tee-shirt out of that.

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The cats were being absolute monsters last night. First there was the tag-playing, which goes runrunrunrunTHUMP runrunrunrunrunHISSSSSS runrunrunCRASHrunrunrun. Then there was the yowling at the bedroom door, prompted by the tag-related hallway exile. Then there was the body-slamming of said door, interspersed with more pathetic yowling and some door-scratching, for good measure. I dare you to sleep through that, especially when you’re sandwiched between an extremely cranky (but blessedly sleeping, finally) baby and a snoring spouse.

Last night’s cat drama might have something to do with today’s case of the blues. I feel very ninth-grade today, all glasses and braces and ugly bangs. Why, you ask? Well. I failed to survive the cut on the LiveJournal friends list of someone I know IRL (that’s “in real life” to those of you who have, you know, lives), and even though I know I rarely update my LiveJournal I still felt like the popularity police had revoked my cool license. Which they totally would if they had read that last sentence. (Cool license? Seriously?) Then I found out that I hadn’t been picked for a blogging gig on a new multi-author parenting blog. Which I’m sure lots of people applied for, blah blah blah, but I’m a good writer. Right?

On the other hand (the one that’s still popular – yay!) I am now a proud member of the 9rules Network. Can I explain how happy that makes me? Can I? Because it makes me really freaking happy. Joining me in this round of acceptances are people like IzzyMom and Plain Jane Mom, so obviously I am in extremely good company. Congrats to everyone who made it!

technorati tags:9rules, izzymom, plain jane mom, geek, popularity, cats

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