I'm so deeply grateful that the universe plugged into my brain and said "The kid thing? Not for you. Don't do it." Knowing my psyche as I do now, life would have been an ugly mess if I'd tried to cope with a typical kid day in and day out. Even when they're not being cantankerous and fussy and challenging, kids being kids at close range puts every nerve on edge.

Rick, that is a super interesting perspective. Having a brain with an active reward center sure is complicated.

When it comes to kids, I am Connie. I realized at a young age that I just don't have the patience to raise kids. I'll stick with cats.

Yep, pets are good for me.

Timelies all!

Well, we're muddling along the best we can with Mr. S.(in general, not something specific today) Some whining, the occasional meltdown.(and then there's the preschooler. I jest!) Hopefully getting the diagnosis we got for him will help us deal better.

I hope so, Sheryl.

mac stopped whining pretty quickly, but when really agitated he would resort to physical violence to get his way or indicating to strangers that I was hurting him - so yeah, I stopped blaming parents for how their kids act.

Surprising absolutely no one, Mac is not making great headway on being out of the house in 28 days and is shunning all attempts to help.

ION - There is a house for sale in Baltimore that I am now in love with and it is wayyyy too early to actually be buying a house (current job has not weighed in on if I could stay with them and work remotely - I have no other job - my house is not ready to sell - I do not have house buying cash on hand) - and yet it is the most perfect yet house I have seen and I have been looking for months -so..... I am wrangling a long distance viewing and I emailed many people today to

1) throw out the idea
2) get a meeting set up with work people
3) explain one big issue that might make staying with this company a non-starter
4) see how much cash I could get quickly for a down payment

so, yeah - plans? who needs plans?

Good luck msbelle!

How is New Orleans doing? There was a lot of news about the potential for massive flooding, but I never heard much about it after that. I'm hoping that means things weren't too bad.

Yeah, non-local weather media LOVES to whip everyone up in a frenzy in a jackal-esque glee that some Katrina style footage will come over the wire. It's actually incredibly irresponsible and hurtful and increases the static to crowd out actual info. Then, nothing happens and despite the previous week of fear-mongering, no one bothers to walk any of that shit back.

Sorry to vent. It's just, god, can the media leave New Orleans alone for a hot minute? Or at least focus on actual city-killing issues like our entirely for profit charter school system or the prison pipeline of black boys? Or the fact that the NOPD's consent decree oversight has been laughably useless?

This city is so hard sometimes. It's like post grad level urban issues. I'm just... done, I guess. And I feel incredibly guilty about walking away from the dysfunction because I have the means to do so. It's stupid to think I'm abandoning this place... like, who am I to make any change? No one. But the city is so small that in a hyper local level, I know deep down that's not quite true.