2. I’m trying to decide if I’m going to blog about my job and explain what it is I’m doing now. I wouldn’t mention the company by name, and I have nothing bad to say about any of the people I work with, so it’s probably fine, I just tend to be a little paranoid about those types of things.

3. I’m still sick. I caught Catie’s last cold, and while she managed to recover completely in about three days, I’m going on two weeks and still feel like crud. It’s not cool. I mean, the excuse to take copious amounts of NyQuil is nice, but that’s really the only perk.

4. My ribs, which I hurt falling down the stairs nearly three weeks ago? Yeah, they still hurt. Combined with the cold, I’m kind of a big whiny mess.

5. It’s Thursday and I still haven’t watched Tuesday night’s LOST, because I’ve just been that busy. This is practically unheard of.

6. Dave needs a haircut because he’s starting to look like Hugh Jackman in Wolverine. I mean, not with the metal talons or psychotic gaze or anything. Just the ridiculous volume of hair. I’m hoping that by mentioning it on my blog, I’ll shame him into going to get a damn haircut already. (Hi, honey!)

7. New Catie tricks (which we can entirely attribute to daycare because lord knows I didn’t teach her this): she’s trying to wipe her own butt and she’s flushing the potty herself. I know this is like the most boring child development update ever (unless you’re my mom), but it’s a pretty big deal around here.

8. Here’s a picture of a cute happy toddler until I can figure out what else to write about that won’t bore y’all to tears.

Happy almost-weekend!

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Admittedly, I’m not a Buddhist, so maybe I’m not an expert on the exact definition of karma. But I believe in the basic principle that what comes around goes around. That if you try to put positive things out into the world, positive things will come back to you. Same is true for the negative.

About seven years ago, I had a job that required me to drive all over the greater Seattle area on a daily basis. I’d start my day at my company’s office in Redmond (a relatively posh suburb), then set off from there to whatever client’s office needed me. If I knew that my day’s agenda involved going through downtown Seattle, I knew there was a good chance that I’d pass a homeless person on the side of the road. I always felt guilty about just driving past them. Sometimes I’d give them a couple of quarters or whatever spare change I had in my car’s cup holder, but it never felt like enough. But with that job, I never carried cash on me (too risky), so what else could I do?

One day, when I heard I was going to be heading into Seattle, I stopped at the 7-11 next to my office to buy a Diet Coke before I set off. I decided to also grab a couple of other things – a sandwich and a bottle of water – to take with me. When I saw a frail old man standing at the end of the I-5 off-ramp with his cardboard sign, I rolled down my window and handed them to him.

Later that day, my boss called me into his office and gave me a raise. No lie. I was not expecting any sort of payoff that fast, but that’s how it worked for me. From that point on, I always stopped at 7-11 to get food for the homeless people I would pass, and those days always ended up being my best days. It became something of a habit for me.

In fact, I gave some sort of snack (I think it was just some peanut butter crackers that I happened to have in my laptop bag) to a homeless person on May 24, 2004. Later that evening, I had a first date with a cute British guy that had contacted me through match.com.

Yeah. That was Dave.

Now, is there some cosmic connection there, like would I have not met Dave (or would we not have “clicked” as much as we did) if I hadn’t given crackers to a homeless guy earlier that day? Probably not. Our date had been scheduled for a couple of days, I don’t think it had much to do with the homeless guy. But I like to think that the two things are related. That because I did a good deed, something good (in this case, Dave) came to me.

There are also times when I’ve tried to do something good for someone, and it’s backfired horribly. Either my motives were misinterpreted, or the person took advantage of my generosity and I was left feeling used and horrible. But for every one of those experiences, there are so many more where the rewards were a million times better than whatever my small gesture was.

I refuse to let the negative experiences make me cynical or jaded. I will not sacrifice my desire to help people who are truly in need, just because of a few “bad eggs.” If I honestly know that my motives are pure, then I have to believe that something good will result from it. Even if it takes me a while to see it, I have to believe that the positive is there, somewhere.

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1. This post of Sally’s from 5 years ago. Read the comments. Had me laughing until tears ran down my face.

2. This video, no matter how many times I see it.

Click here to view the embedded video.

3. Oh, and while I’m linking videos, let’s really hope that this isn’t the house we’re buying. (Thanks, Angie. I love this one.)

Click here to view the embedded video.

4. Catie, who in the past couple of days:
4a. Has started trying to sing the alphabet song, and OMG I have to get a video of that, because it’s hilarious.

4b. Was really good at the gym’s nursery while I worked out yesterday, so as a reward we went to the pool afterward. We haven’t been to the YMCA’s pool yet this year, I forgot how nice it is. They have a “splash zone” which is basically just an area of fountains that shoot water out of the ground in various formations. Watching Catie run around sticking her hands and feet in the water was so much fun. (She never jumped into the fountains, she’s way too cautious for that. And she got pretty mad when she stuck her hand in one fountain and it splashed water in her eyes.)

4c. Bashed me in the face with the back of her head during a particularly overzealous toddler bounce and split my top lip open. When I told her that she hurt me, she wanted to kiss it to make it better, which was sweet, but my lip was gushing blood at the time, so, NO. I let her kiss my lip when I finally got the bleeding under control, and she said, “All better now?” I said, “Thank you, sweetie, but no, it still hurts.” She said, “No. It all better now.” Well, thanks for setting me straight then. Guess there’s no need for this ice pack I’m holding to my face.

4d. Got irritated with me for getting too interactive during our bedtime routine. We lie in her bed together and read books, and the Curious George alphabet book has a line about “C is for a crab with two clamping claws,” and I tried to do a crab claw and tickle her tummy. Usually she thinks that’s funny, but I guess she was particularly tired and grumpy on this night, because she pushed me away, sighed exasperatedly and said, “Mommy, go to bed.” Nice.

4e. Has started calling me “Mom” as well as “Mommy.” It’s cute because using “Mom” makes her sound like a grown-up, but I thought I’d be Mommy for a few more years. I’m not sure I like it so much.

4f. Sang “Do-Re-Mi” in the car this morning on the way to daycare. I didn’t realize that she knew all the words, but she does – complete with holding her hand to her chest during, “me, a name I call MYSELF.” It was so cute I almost cried.

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That’s right: an iPhone and a Kindle. Both. I would never have dreamed of dropping that much money in one swoop, but it was Dave’s idea (he surprised me with the Kindle, then suggested we go get the iPhone), so who am I to object? They are both so cool, I can’t decide which I like better.

But seriously, I have to go see an eye doctor. The more I try to read these tiny little consoles, the more my right eye keeps going all wonky and blurry and then OH MY GOD, the headache. I love that the Kindle lets you make the text extra-large, or else I probably wouldn’t be able to use it for more than about ten minutes at a time. Trying to use Twitter on the iPhone, though, is killing me.

Other random stuff, in bullet form because I’m lazy:
* I finally got the pictures from Kris & Tony’s wedding uploaded.

(I know you read this site sometimes, so hi, Leslie! Love you!)

You can see the whole set here.

* We’re really enjoying having Mags here a few extra days. Her black eye is pretty impressive, but she’s otherwise feeling ok, so that’s good.

I think there’s a slight family resemblance there, no?

And for the record, my mother-in-law is a bad-ass, because I don’t think she’s taken so much as an ibuprofen for her concussion, and she still stood on her feet to make us a shepherd’s pie the day after her accident. She is one hardcore Brit.

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The only significant thing I can come up with about this particular birthday is that I’m now the age that my dad was when he & my mom got married. (My mom was a young lass of 23 at the time; 10-year age gap between them.) When I was little, I thought he was soooo old. I mean, eww gross, my mom married an old man. Nice, right? Actually, come to think of it, 33 is also the age that Dave was when he and I got married. Huh. Weird.

Dave has made some noises about my present, so I’m not sure what he’s going to have in store for me. I haven’t even tried to guess, because if someone has gone to the trouble of planning a surprise, I don’t want to guess and ruin it. I told him he didn’t have to get me anything, because I’m a good wife like that. (He’s totally laughing at that sentence, btw.)

The only big thing happening for my birthday is that my brother and his girlfriend are driving over from Charlotte for the weekend. I’ve never met her, but she sounds nice, and I’m sure it’ll be a fun visit. Technically they aren’t coming until Saturday morning, which is the 17th, so really, it has nothing to do with my birthday and everything to do with the fact that they wanted to go someplace for the weekend since they have Monday (MLK Day) off from work. But it should be fun. Even though it means I’ll be frantically cleaning the house all day tomorrow in preparation for their arrival (sheets need to be washed, guest bath needs to be scrubbed, etc.). Not exactly my ideal way to spend my birthday, but oh well. A spotlessly clean house can be my birthday present to myself, right?

So, yep. Thirty-three. There it is.

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You can go see my Twitter page here, and my most recent tweets will be over there on my sidebar. There’s nothing interesting so far, but it occurred to me that when I’m stuck places with just my cell phone (like oh, I don’t know, the pediatric emergency room), it might be handy to have a way to communicate.

Alright, now I’m going to clean. Really, I am.

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Now excuse me while I either go throw up or fall asleep. I haven’t decided which.

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