the underwear drawer

not about sewing

I realize I may have given the mistaken impression in the last post that I've been away because I was so busy sewing scrub hats like some sort of benevolent little elf. Sew, very old one! Sew like the wind! This is not so much the case. I only started sewing this weekend. The rest of the time, I have been playing doctor and being mother-y (or smother-y, depending on your point of view). I also had to work on MY TALK, which I finally gave on Friday. Seriously, I was having so much anxiety about this TALK that I cannot tell you. But it was the sort of anxiety where you can only talk about how anxious you are, yet are unable to actually spend more than ten minutes at a time working on the actual project. Fie on thee, Power Point. But anyway, THE TALK went fine, and even if it didn't, I gave out candy to the audience, so all the mistakes and stuttering were insulated by a layer of chocolate coated with a candy shell.

Yes, but enough with the business. It is now time to laugh again! At the end of the week, we'll be heading down to Florida, where prelminary weather reports show it will be in the 80's and sunny. We just have to plot out what to pack for our trip, not so much for ourselves (I could probably pack my own bag in ten minutes) but for Cal, who has never been away from home for more than 36 hours. For instance, how many diapers to bring? How many changes of clothes? And do they have Cheerios and bananas in Florida? FOR THE LOVE OF GOD, WHAT OF THE CHEERIOS?

We have three more days, including an overnight call for me Thursday night. Then we can blow this pop stand. I mean, I like my job and all that, but last I checked, the hospital did not have a pool or a beach or a marina with dolphins. After we get back from Florida, we have two days to regroup, and then we're heading on down to Baltimore for the weekend to see Joe's sister and her family. This I am somewhat less excited about, since these visits always involve many many people crammed into a smallish house, with LOUDNESS and TALKING and PEOPLE and NO PLACE FOR NAPTIME and SCHOOL-AGED NIECES AND NEPHEWS ENGAGING IN VIOLENT HORSEPLAY WHILE PRETENDING TO STAB CAL WITH A PLASTIC SWORD, but these are the things you do when you're an old married person--you make the family rounds. Even if what you'd really rather be doing is holing up in your own house, in your own bed, because it's YOUR VACATION, dammit. I guess when you're part of a larger continuum, you have to learn to share everything, even your time off. Which sounds suspiciously like communism.

Currently reading: The Style Issue of The New Yorker. Jack Handey is funny. Yes, he's a little one-note about it, but what a note!