I am thankful that I’m in a position to be able to volunteer in Clara Jane’s classroom, even if it’s going to kill me. Two weeks ago that meant chasing a pack of kindergarteners up Monk’s Mound.

Really. What the hell was my fat ass thinking? Well, I know what my fat ass was thinking. It was thinking, “Robin’s brain, you may think you know shit, but you don’t and if you try to climb that I’m going to make sure you suffer greatly.”

Those kids were long gone by the time I got to the top with some other moms who, like me, are slighty older and probably should have considered we’d be middle-aged and tired by the time kindergarten rolled around. There was much high-fiving and heaving.

Monk’s Mound truly is awesome, but I think from now on I’ll celebrate it with spiritual introspection or, if the opportunity arises, sitting on the bottom step in the middle of the night, drinking beer.

A week later I volunteered to help the class bake bread. Did you bake bread in kindergarten? We didn’t. Mean ol’ Mrs. Albright was far too pinched and repressed to partake in activities that relate to the inherent debauchery of humans, such as eating.

The kindergarteners got to make wheat yeast bread with a snazzy techique that involved mixing all the ingredients in a zipper bag (tidy!), then kneading it.

(Clara Jane, making bread with a boy who calls her his “little princess”. She confessed recently that she thinks she’s “kind of in love” with him. And now they’re baking together.)

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On Friday I increased my productivity a billion-fold by dishing out the cash for a chair. My ass is so picky, as is my desk. I’m using Brian’s childhood desk, made by his dad, which works well since I’m a shorty. Only problem is, desk chairs with arms don’t fit under it because it’s short. Desk chairs without arms are ugly. I’ve tried dining room chairs, but they’re not comfy enough and make a great excuse for sitting in my arm chair with my Macbook balanced on the arm and my body tourqued at angles never intended.

Remember last spring when I was having some mysterious health problems? Part of it was out of control allergies that require four Claratin a day. The rest of it? I’d fucked up my back because of the acrobatic pose I take while working from said armchair. I tried to break the habit, but got back into it. Only it’s worse now because I’m working a lot more now than I was last March. $180 spent at Pier 1 for a chair seemed like a better deal than another month of physical therapy.

Here’s where it all happens now, except when I take my freak show on the road to one of my coffee house satellite offices:

Ah, comfort and tackiness – my recipe for success.

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Oh, there’s not much of that in my life right now. I’m grabbing 20 minutes to gulp a coffee and catch my breath before I do some work stuff at a restaurant across the street, where I could be drinking coffee and writing, but that would feel weird. I’ve got to have some boundaries. And yet, two guys, obviously restaurant types from what I’ve overheard, are talking business and it’s all I can do to not rush over with my business card.

Ugh. Boundaries and balance. I need some of both right now.

After I made my last post I realized that my life is so different right now than it was when I started blogging five years ago. At first it was a project to keep me from going nuts while home with infant Clara Jane. Then it became therapy when staying home with infant Clara Jane and the hormones I was housing made me insane. Then it was all funny shit about my neighbors and friends. And then the move. A few career and kid things. The move to Prettytown. And now …?

Just like sands in an hourglass, so is the blog of my life.

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No, I did not go into hiding or drop flat dead when I turned 37. It’s all been well.

I’m flabbergasted, still, at how busy my life has become. I was under the impression that I would work while Clara Jane was in school. She’d come home, I’d banish the computer, and it would be all quality time.

That doesn’t work, does it?

Instead, I’m spending more time at school during the day than I expected. In fact, I’m pecking this out as fast as I can before I need to be at her school to volunteer. And then there was the week of early dismissals last week, along with the Halloween parade and party and ,oh, did we mention that it’s a four-day week? No? Oh, well, it is! And here are two more writing assignments, which you’ll love doing during breaks in making Clara Jane’s witch costume. And Halloween! Pumpkins and feathers and costumes and …

Good lord.

I’m not complaining because it’s all been fun and rewarding and damn if I’m not doing exactly what I want to do. It’s just not quite as well-scheduled as I’d hoped. But is anything?

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