Tuesday, April 2, 2013

Post Easter Thoughts

Oh, hello! Where was I?

1) Working a lot, that's where. (Spring break is now here/my super busy time is over = problem temporarily solved.)

2) Treating my kid for lice, that's where. Yes, I've said it here recently: I did not know if I could survive a child of mine getting lice. Every parent has their own personal, irrational no-go area. For some, it's vomit, or blood. Mine was lice. Well, the worst has officially happened and I'm pleased to report it was not nearly as bad as I had imagined it would be. I learned that lice cannot actually jump six feet through the air to land on someone's head and infect them. Nope, they have to crawl. (Thanks, CDC website). Sharing hats or say, batting helmets is a much more likely method of lice transmission. They're relatively easy to kill with over-the-counter products (such as Nix), or an Rx, followed by a thorough nit-picking, plus washing the bedding. It was a whole hell of a lot of laundry, which was the part I took care of and I probably went overboard on it, and luckily DH handled the actual hair treatment and lice and nit removal part. If lice ever make their way onto your precious child's head, I strongly recommend one parent be the hair person, the other the laundry person. Also, if you live in a large city, you probably have some sort of "lice service" business that can come to your home and help you problem-solve. Put their number on speed dial.

3) Starting perimenopause, that's where. My trusted doctor said so. Says it is often misdiagnosed, just like pretty much everything else under the sun in women's health, no? I almost wish it were something, anything else. But on second thought, I do not.

4) Hosting our annual Easter Egg Hunt, that's where. After putting this on for the last 3 years in a row, we have (the Saturday before) Easter entertaining down to a science. We ask people to bring a side dish, plus drink cups and baskets for their kids. We provided the ham and wine. Took away the dining room chairs, turned the dining table into a two-sided buffet. Set our alarms and went off hide the (recycled from prior years' plastic, plus a few real dyed) eggs at 5:30am. Told people to come at 11am, knowing several of them will always be late, started the hunt at 11:45 as we had secretly planned. Bonus points for guests who brought small hostess gifts (Daffodils! Stargazer lillies! Chocolate bunnies! Hooray), wore their Easter best, and/or wrote thank you notes (I just got one in the mail today, awwww).

5) Reading Lean In by Sheryl Sandberg, that's where. Awesome book, no matter what your work preferences/statuses are, trust me, contrary to what the Sandberg haters on the internets who have not done the reading are saying, this book cannot possibly offend you. Period. In fact, it is one of the most heartfelt love letters to a SAHM (her own mother) I have ever read - surprise, surprise. Also, I read the part about what happened to her kids when they were traveling with her on the plane for work at the exact time the same thing was going down in our house -- made me feel better about it. I guess sharing really is caring. Anyway, everything she says in terms of workplace advice is straight out of a book I have been recommending since forever: Nice Girls Don't Get The Corner Office by Dr. Lois P. Frankel. If you loved Lean In, read Frankel's next to make Sandberg's advice more granular -- awful title I know, but if I could gift this book to every woman on her first job, I would.

6) Watching the premiere of Game of Thrones, Season 3, that's where. It's the only show I'll stay up past my laughably early bedtime to watch. Would somebody, anybody please kill off evil Geoffrey Baratheon already?! I can't wait for the Khaleesi's dragons to grow up.

7) Waiting, impatiently, for the premiere of Mad Men, Season 6 next Sunday, April 7, that's where. Yes, I love good TV. To me, it never feels like wasted time. Matthew Weiner suggests we watch the last 10 minutes of the final episode of Season 5 right before tuning in to the new season. So that's my plan.

I will resume regular posting soon. I have one brewing which will involve me kvetching about Suzy Lee Weiss's WSJ piece "To (All) the Colleges That Rejected Me" (thanks for your post alerting me to it @Catherine Johnson/kitchen table math).

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

Oh, but Lean In doesn't discuss the plight of the endangered Panamanian golden frog. That offends me. Therefore I have no desire to read it.

hush said...

@nicoleandmaggie - Yes, but what about the concerns of the Mexican Staring Frog of Sri Lanka? A-to-the-mutha-effin-men sister!! Preach it!

Marcia (123 blog) said...

I had to comment to say I also love the Nice Girls book - recommend it to everyone too :)

I've downloaded the kindle sample of Lean In and enjoyed that - waiting for it to go a bit cheaper on the Kindle (our exchange rate is terrible at the moment)

hush said...

@Marcia (123 blog) - Thanks for your comment. Yes, the "Nice Girls" book truly is an indispensable resource. I'm not exaggerating at all when I say every woman should be given a copy of it when she gets her first job. A former colleague was kind enough to refer me to it during one of my very competitive grad school internships at a Big Company, after she saw me make a huge gaffe I didn't even realize I was making at the time, in which I unconsciously gave up some of my power (it involved me very publicly serving cake to my mostly male peers in the office... cringe).

Cloud said...

Sympathy on the lice thing... I'm dreading the day when they show up in our house. But also expecting it.

I read the WSJ piece and thought it was meant to be satire/funny. My Twitter feed is divided on whether it is satire or real. I'll be interested to read your take on it. I personally am going to move on and write about Panamanian tree frogs for awhile.

Or actually, I have a series of posts on productivity planned, in the lead up to the release of my eBook on the topic.

hush said...

@Cloud - Thanks for the lice sympathy; I keep saying it really was not half as bad as I had made it out in my mind to be.

Re: The WSJ piece - I don't think it was per se satire, though I wish it were. I think the WSJ published it because they wish to argue against race-based affirmative action in response to the cases in front of SCOTUS. My post is going to focus on elite college admissions, how the criteria have shifted since Gen X applied to college, and why nobody ever gets a WSJ op-ed published critiquing legacy and recruited athlete admissions, despite the actual stats.

Mutant Supermodel said...

ACK every time someone talks/writes about lice, my head itches. I have avoided that monster at my house so far (knock on wood, infinity) because it just freaks me the heck out. I like your idea though- you get the hair, I get the laundry: GO TEAM!
I never drank the Haterade Sandberg flavor. That book is on my list at the library. I will add Nice Girls to it as well because I bet Nice Girls don't collect the child support either. *grumble, grumble*

hush said...

@Mutant Supermodel - Thanks, and can I just say your name makes me smile every time - love! I know exactly what you mean about the reflexive head scratching I do whenever the topic of lice comes up. Knocking on wood right along with you. Hope you enjoy "Nice Girls" as much as I did.