2.16.2004

New Discoveries where you least expect them
So I'm writing an article for a magazine. Amongst the array of parents I'm interviewing, I've decided to talk to one of my very good friends. She just sent me back her responses and I'm stunned. She shared an awful lot of information about her early days of motherhood and I realized as I read that I knew so little of it. She and I were at different points in our lives when her first child was born - she was a new Mom and I was struggling to get pregnant. We spoke during that time, but its was always brief and over the phone as she found her footing in her new world. We didn't actually get together face to face until she was well into the second half of her first year of parenting.

Here we are just over 5 years later and I learn so much more about her. Is it odd that I ache to reach out to that past version of her and just hug her tight. I know that there is no way the me of 5 years ago could have offered adequate support to her then. There was just no way I'd understand the notion of leaving a child with others while you go to work or dealing with that first fever, first thunderstorm, etc. There is no way I could have identified enough to be able to say the right thing or realize that sometimes the right thing to say is nothing at all.

I think today I will call her and I will tell her how much I love her as a person and idolize her as a mother. She's such a fantastic example of both roles. Amazing what a little side work can teach you. Here I thought I was just embarking on a new side trip of my career and instead what I've done is expanded my understanding of those around me. How lucky I am.
From Under my Rock
I'm lax with this blog. I completely intended to be at least good for a weekly update and yet here we are - weeks since my last blabber. Well, a girl can claim overwhelming demands at work and home I suppose. Or better yet, she can just find solace in remembering that this is for me and just me. The person or two that stumbles across it to read will hardly notice I've been MIA.

I also struggle with updating because it seems that when one takes such a hiatus the breaking of blog writing fast should really be something more than mindless prattle. It should verge on earth shattering or not. Perhaps I'm letting hormones and writer's block take me a bit too far into the melodrama.

This weekend my baby brother, my only brother, graduated with his Bachelor's Degree. He's going to be a chef - or he is one. I'm never sure of that distinction. Is one a chef before having gainful employment because he has a degree in hand from the "Ivy League" edition of cooking schools? Is it like being a doctor in that way? Anyway, I digress. So the brother has graduated and he's done so with little effort to find himself a job.

Of course, lack of effort means nothing in his graced life. The guy has two job offers already. He's handed a degree on Friday and today he has a meeting with his former externship employer to talk about a job with that fancy, high-flautin, rock-stars-eat-here, three figure dinner tabs eatery. On his way home from the college on Saturday he stopped in and spoke with another former employer. This one wants him to come in for dinner on Wednesday to talk about a job. When does the grace life end and reality set in?

My dear brother put out little effort for a job previously because he was convinced his externship was hiring him back. He went there for a pseudo-interview several weeks ago and was told they had nothing. It was only then he lobbed over a few resumes to various places. Yet here he sits, a single day into his first week post-graduation and he stares at two potential job offers. No one knows if either will be worth the effort to take. If the pay will be more than poverty level or even if the job is one that he's interested in. . .but there they are.

I meanwhile wonder if its possible to find my dream job - the one that pays me decently, keeps me within my chosen profession and doesn't require me to work more than two days. Maybe I should have my brother look for me.