Jaunt to Maryland

Shots from my Tuesday evening run on Buffalo Road. Despite the onslaught of new real estate (deliberately avoided by the camera. It's what you can't see on the right side of the road), the left side still has retained its bucolic beauty as I've always remembered it. I've probably run hundreds of miles on this road over the last fifteen or so years, and I love it.

Ah, going home. I love Pittsburgh, but of the fours states in which I've lived - Maryland, Tennessee, Maine, and Pennsylvania - there's nothing like my Old Line state. I wish we could've spent more time and seen a few more people, but Olive and I managed to squeeze in a blissful three days with my family and a few friends. Tuesday we enjoyed the company of my friend since the age of nine, Natalie, and her three year-old son, Jackson - a boy through and through with five new stitches in his little chin. They're always a fun pair to see, and spending time with Natalie is so wonderfully refreshing; never have I known someone who has changed so little in the twenty-one years I've known her. And she still towers a full head over me.

On Wednesday we made the harrowing-yet-nostalgic trek down I-495 to Falls Church, VA, to see Sam, my adorable college roommate and her arguably even more adorable ten month-old ice cream scoop of a son, Grant (seriously - his round, velvety-bald head resembles a heaping scoop of Breyer's vanilla. The rest of his body is comprised of marshmallow). Though she's got seven months on him, he outweighs her by a few pounds and his head dwarfs hers, making her appear even more pixieish. Later on that day my goon-girl and I took our first dip in Ben's mom's new pool. The water was warm and Buggy was eager to submerse herself herself in the saltwater-chlorine oasis - with her old Buddy and his doll of a sister, Jenna, to boot! This was pleasing to me since she hadn't taken what anyone would call a real shine to the Highland Park pool. Perhaps the water was always a little too chilly, or the kiddie pool a mite too crowded - or she was intimidated by the thirteen month-olds confidently paddling around her. Understandable. I could easily have spent another month down in Maryland, most of which would probably be spent at Ben's, but work called. Oh, and my husband. My dear, good, kind, and sweet husband. We arrived back home on Thursday night, and it felt so good. It was great to be away (the AC set at 81 degrees felt positively heavenly compared to the swampy air in our apartment), but it's great to feel such a sense of home-ness in our corner of this beautiful city.

Position in which I found my sleeping goon on night before I went to bed. She'd entertained herself for two hours before finally succumbing to slumber by pulling down Roma's box of football cards.

Grant "Scoopy" Fiddy, our son-in-law-to-be, gazing lovingly at the goon.
Grant had this rad stuffed tapir (!) - easily the coolest stuffed animal I've ever seen.

What to Do?

I just returned home from a fantastic day spent with friends - the morning with Sam and Grant in Falls Church, VA, and later with Ben and his sister, Jenna, at their pool just down the road. Great, quandary-free day. However, when I checked my e-mail a message read that the full-time prison art teacher was not returning for the year and they'd like to hire me on to replace her rather than being the summer substitute. Listen, I have come in to fill the shoes of an art teacher who opted to not come back to her classroom, and I can honestly say that that was not the most pleasant experience, unless you count meeting Rob and bearing Olive as a result of that job. Now that I have secured those treasures in my life, I need not look to an art teaching job to obtain such things. This job would also fall on two of the four days per week that I watch my beloved Khorey kids. I'm not willing to give up that job in favor of this one, but I don't see how I can do both. I feel inclined to give this one a shot. I was dubious about my job in Maine when I was offered the position (in part because I was severely under-qualified; now I feel far more well-equipped to work with the criminal element), but great things were in store for me, I'd soon learn. It's selfish of me, though, to approach this decision with a "what's in it for me?" attitude. I know what I can bring to these inmates, for whom it is a great privilege to take these classes. I also know that it will be a humbling experience for me, and that I may, in fact, have a little to learn from some of these men and women. It's certainly more in my field, professionally, but I adore my nanny job and grow fonder of those three kids each week. I love that I get to bring Olive with me and the interaction that all four children have. I love that it's .7 miles away from our home. I also love that I'm able to provide consistency and structure in a busy household, and I'm honored to have been chosen to care for a family's kids. It's not a small thing.

Is it any wonder I'm sitting on the fence over this?

In the Last Week...

...we've endured a bit of a heat wave. Though it's been in the 90s mostly the heat index has risen to above 100. I don't love it, Rob is melting, and Olive has been especially sticky-bodied and cruddy in her neck creases. Twice-daily cold showers do little to rinse away the sluggish feeling that this kind of weather elicits; I wouldn't bother except for the fact that they feel so divine. And we're still kickin' it without AC.

And while I'm on the subject of no AC, I have the opportunity to work in third world conditions where the temperature yesterday hit 98 indoors. Of course I've experienced hotter, but it was definitely the hottest I've ever been for that long a time span (9 1/2 hours) with no relief but a weak oscillating fan that blew around the fetid air. Mmmmm. I biked down to the market and didn't stop sweating until I walked outside at the end of the day. It was not at all unlike being in a sauna for far too long. I drank just under three gallons of water - an exorbitant amount of fluid, folks! - while I was there. It simply had to be done. Needless to say, no one was coming in to shop for oils that day, so it made my being there that much more depressing. Today, on the other hand, was a mild, almost autumnal 90-92 degrees. The customers all complained and carried around small paper fans, but all of us who stuck it out in the crematorium yesterday told them to be thankful that they hadn't been through the day before.

Amidst this unpleasant run of weather, we were visited by Rhett and Amanda, Rob's older brother and sister-in-law, who had driven from Oregon and are on their way to Hartford, Connecticut, where they're relocating for Amanda to attend pharmacy school. Of all the times for a couple of Alaskans-by-way-of-Oregon to come to our city! Both times Rob's siblings have come to see us the weather has been inhospitable (his older sister, Schelly, came in October to spend her one day with us in the chilly rain). We did decided to break out the window unit to make sleep possible for them in the back apartment where they stayed. Rob proudly gave them his behind-the-scenes tours of the aviary and zoo each day. I didn't get to see much of them because Thursday saw Olive struck with a fever so she and I stayed behind. She's been getting in a few more teeth, but I'm not sure the two things have anything to do with one another. The heat certainly wasn't alleviating the situation. Fortunately it only lasted the day and she was back to her old tricks the following morning.

I've been spending my evenings this week at the Khoreys' helping them get their house ready for a French family that is coming to live there for nearly a month as part of a house swap that they're doing. Nina, Lisa, and Alex, in turn, will be staying at their home in Marseilles. It's times like these that I wish I was a nanny to a passel of wee tots and I'd have to travel along with them on trips such as this. But then I wouldn't have an amazing and precocious almost-12 year-old with whom to spend my time. And since I can't go to France I'm taking the opportunity to go down to Maryland to see my family (my dad's sister, Holly, will be visiting from Florida while we're there) and all the friends I can possibly see in three short days.

A couple of videos, the first of which showcases Buggy's decidedly avant garde fashion sense:

Blueberry Sickness

One of the advantages of having Olive's crib in our bedroom is that we can be at the ready should she ever wake in the night in a vomiting fit - or three. On Thursday night/Friday morning we were awoken after fewer than two hours of sleep to the miserable sound of an earlier premonition coming to pass. As I was putting Buggy to bed that evening I considered removing her shirt in case she should throw up. This has happened very seldom - so seldom that one would wonder why I'd even take precautions, but it crossed my mind. However, I dismissed it; she'd given me no reason to expect her to, yet I had, just prior to laying her down to sleep, allowed her to shovel nearly an "Amish pint" of blueberries into her face. This is what led me to believe that she wasn't, in fact, sick-sick, but merely sick of blueberries. I sprung from bed and leapt the foot and a half to her crib to find her in a puddle of purple mash. We removed her sheet and shirt, covered in the stuff just as I had feared, comforted her and put her back to bed. An hour passed before she was at it again. The third time it happened, not two hours later, I'd used up the last sheet so had to put down towels on her mattress. When we all woke at 6:30 she was fine and in good spirits. I'm convinced that it was simply a case of overindulgence.

It'll be a while before she has blueberries again.

A Nuddy and Nutty Goon

Since I've been lax on the Buggy pictures lately, here are a few from the last week. She's been sweeter than ever lately, and I mean sweet. If someone had told me when I was pregnant that I'd have a child like her I would've said they were out of their minds - what did I do to deserve someone this absolutely delightful, this pleasant? (But I guess I could say the same about Rob; how did I land such people?). She's been a complete surprise.

Speaking of which, can she really be turning 17 months old next week?

Guitaring

I found myself with no plans this Friday night. Rob was working late at the zoo (though not an overnight - those aren't fun for either of us), Zoe went to her grandmother's, and I was enjoying Buggy's company playing a game of Run and Hug where she'd run off just out of sight and spin round and dash at me with open arms. She'll lessen the distance between us each time till she's mere inches from me before she turns to deliver the precious hug, nearly choking with laughter. It's a game I enjoy quite a bit. Her literary choice this evening, Good Night Moon (or Good Night Goon, as I like to refer to it) was a series of more affectionate gestures: she made sure to kiss each and every character as the pages were turned. How I love those sweet kisses she gives. She's pretty generous with the ones she gives us, too.

I had a mind to break out the old guitar tonight after hearing a live version of Springsteen's Thunder Road on the radio, and Katrina must've read my mind because she called to see if we (or I, rather) wanted to have a music night. She came over shortly afterward, we played with Olive who went to bed very easily after setting her up in her crib with some reading material (she's always been a bit of a book nut, but tonight they were especially tickling her fancy. She sat in the large rocking chair in the living room for nearly thirty minutes babbling over The Very Hungry Caterpillar). Kat and I prepared a simple-yet-delicious dinner of sautéed broccoli, green beans, snow peas, and onions over whole wheat rotini pasta, then got out guitars and my Beatles songbook to play and sing. She had me teach her a few basic chords since she's always wanted to learn guitar and it was kind of nice to be back in the role of guitar teacher again. We're looking forward to more music nights in the future - especially when she can bring along her saxophone and Rob can rock out on the trombone.

Swamped

It occurred to me this week that I am going to be utterly and completely bogged down for the duration of the summer. My cherished multiple-times-weekly pastime of posting on my blog will have to take a back seat to the wild and rip-roaring summer that is bubbling around me as I type. It is advantageous that I still haven't heard back from the folks regarding my teaching position at the local slammer; where did I think I was going to fit in that job? My criminal background check and child abuse clearances came through (whew.), so who knows? What I do know is that I needed a fourth job this summer like I needed to bleach my hair. The garden's already in danger of going to seed and Katrina and I have been working like serfs to whip the plot into shape and keep the rabbits and other vermin at bay. It's been terribly discouraging to witness the fruits of our labor chomped to nubs each time we go out there. Also, my running regimen has dwindled considerably in the last month. I'd been going strong in early June but having one more child in the house has taken up more of my time than I'd imagined, and I'm not keen on the idea of taking Olive out in the jogging stroller in the 90-something degree heat of the day. Sure, I could run the Baltimore marathon in October if I really wanted, but I'm not seeing how I'm going to be able to train properly for it until September at the earliest and thus I will wait until next year, I suppose.

Here's something way cool, though:

Rob was just offered a part as a stand-in for Batman in the newest movie that's going to be filmed here in Pittsburgh. He supposedly has the ideal height and build and no tattoos which make him a prime candidate. Unfortunately he had to turn it down because it requires availability on weekends and he just began part-time work at the aviary on Sundays and Mondays and his being there is critical. Still, we felt that it was a rad thing, indeed. If he weren't administering meds to sick birds, folks, you'd be seeing my dude in various shots all over the film. If it were me I'd have gone for it, but I do admire how committed he is to his work. Plus, I'd take Rob over Christian Bale any day.