Archive for May, 2010

Wishes

admin May 28th, 2010

When I was a kid, it seems like every start-up conversation with an unfamiliar person near my own age followed a variation of the same predicable formula

Kid: Hi!
Me: Hi!
Kid: What’s your name?
Me: My name is PA? What’s your name?
Kid: My name is “Kid.” What’s your favorite color?
Me: Blue.
Kid: Mine is purple.
Me: That’s gross.
Kid: What would you ask for if you had three wishes and you couldn’t ask for more wishes?
Me: A magic carpet, the ability to fly, and to find a four-leafed clover.

I don’t know why I would need a magic carpet if I could already fly. On retrospection, that was poor planning on my part, but I did find that four leafed clover. It resides inside a hard-bound copy of the works of Rudyard Kipling. My mother, not too long ago, donated all my old childhood books to a local library. I wonder if anyone will ever find my four-leafed clover stuck to a page in a collection of “just so” stories.

I was, and remain, pretty proud of that discovery.

I find myself engaged lately in considerable self-reflection. Where do I want to go from here? I ask myself. What should I work toward? Will all my hours spent poking around the internet and watching Big Bang Theory prevent me from achieving some of my goals? I need to start working on my next goals. What are my goals, really? HOW DO I KNOW IF I AM REACHING MY GOALS?

This is what happens when you reach big goals. You start making more. (You being me, here, of course.)

And while self-reflection is a good thing, a NECESSARY thing, sometimes I begin to feel overwhelmed by number of things that I want to do, that perhaps someday I COULD do, that I have not yet even THOUGHT to do, but I am not doing right now. I am not doing things right now that I want to do but I don’t know what they are. Ahh!

Well, thanks to Karen Walrond over at Chookooloonks, I have been inspired to make a list. She does that, that Karen Walrond. She inspires.

Back after a long hiatus

admin May 10th, 2010

After a long hiatus I am hoping to start writing again here on my beloved PA. Let me tell you what has happened since I last posted:

1. My kid is now almost 2 years old. Can you believe it? Oh, he is SO fun. Occasionally exhausting but really fun. I am hoping to chronicle more of his growth and hijinks here. PS: Spell check suggested I change the word to hijacks. Yeah, hopefully not.
2. I have a new job. Get this – I am an official Science Writer!! I now work for a major science magazine and have a real title and everything. So. It really CAN happen.
3. I moved to new city for my job. It was scary. I did it anyway. I am hoping that this is a good thing.
4. After spending (and loving) 1.5 years at home with my son, I now have a good dose of working mother’s guilt at going back to work. Sometimes I really wish I was still with my son. Maybe I should have just moved into a smaller but still nice house so that I could stay with him for these next few years and be able to buy a few things and save too and do this writing gig later, you know, when I will have all kinds of time. Instead I am in new city away from friends and family with more expensive housing and doses of guilt. These are the things that keep me up at night.
5. But, I love this job and I love the directions that the job will allow me to follow in the future. I figure that it’s only fair that I bring you along with me.

So, hello all you all. I’m back!