Making it Up As I Go

It’s 8:59 pm. It’s dark outside and crickets are chirping. It’s 75 degrees with 78% humidity.  It’s pleasant.  There aren’t a lot of street lights on our road, so it’s actually pretty dark out.

I’m tired. I was up early, and I’m feeling it now. I’m sitting in the computer room, listening for Tiny’s coughing. She didn’t get into bed until 8:45, because she was coughing and it was keeping both her and Zoe awake. It’s always slightly unclear in these situations if it’s a matter of post nasal drip, reactive airways (a type of asthma- when she has an attack she coughs rather than wheezes), or reactive airways reacting TO post nasal drip. I gave her a breathing treatment and the coughs changed to a different kind of cough, leading to me to believe that it was a little bit of both. So now she’s in bed, and I’m listening for the stray cough that indicates that she’s not actually asleep. I keep thinking that she’s out, and then the cough comes. But there hasn’t been one for a little while, so hopefully she’s asleep, and hopefully she sleeps straight through the night and doesn’t start coughing again. Aaaaaand there’s the cough.

I’m still kind of buzzing over the comments on the last post. Molly from Lunch Money and Caspar Babypants! That’s just amazing and awesome. The girls were so thrilled they couldn’t even talk. 🙂 I read the other day that we are only one step away from any one else; one call, one email, one hi, and it’s so true. I forget sometimes that people are just people- talented to be sure, but people just the same. It was something I learned when I worked in the comic industry; amazing artists that I admired so so much were just people who were nervous about people liking their work. And they were so genuinely touched when readers expressed their appreciation for that work. So let someone know you appreciate their work. Send an email, post a fan letter on your blog. 🙂 Anything. You may not get a response, but if they see your words you’ll boost their day. And everyone needs a boost, no matter how cool you think they are.

Tiny’s still coughing. It’s going to be a long night.  Good thing we don’t have much planned for tomorrow.

I stretched my brain today, working on writing hiragana and learning the variations on the basic hiragana that change the sounds. Practicing writing hiragana is quite humbling. The characters just don’t come out right, and I have more empathy for the girls, learning to print and write in cursive. Tiny gets so frustrated because she can’t do it right instantly, and I know how she feels.  I’m also reading a book about the spiritual side of yoga, and maybe it’s because I’m tired, but it just isn’t clicking. The words make sense, but I can’t make the connections that I know are there. More humblingness.  But humblingness is good. Even if it’s not really a word.

We got to skype with my sister, brother in law, and my nieces and nephews today, which was wonderful.  The girls love their cousins so much, and it’s awesome that we live in the future and have the technology to be able to see and talk to them. Do you remember when people used to speculate about video phones, and what if someone called when you were still in your bathrobe??? Because you couldn’t possibly not answer the phone. Anyway, we got to see their origami projects, and the kids played hide and seek (surprisingly fun over skype!), and they sang songs and played musical instruments for each other. It was lovely.

The girls spent quite a bit of the day running around in superhero costumes.  They’ve been trying to decide what to be for Halloween, and since I don’t know how available Halloween costumes will be here, I’m planning that we’ll either have to use something we have, sew something, or put it together out of other things. Zoe kind of has her heart set on being Kiki from Kiki’s delivery service, which is doable. If it comes down to it, I could figure out how to sew her smock together. Tiny, on the other hand, has wanted to be Toto (Dorothy’s dog), Totoro, and various ponies from My Little Pony. A bit more challenging to say the least. But today she thought about Minnie Mouse, and I thought we had a Minnie costume in the costume box (we didn’t), and we found the superhero dresses. Wonder Woman and Supergirl were flying around the house all day. 🙂

Tiny’s asleep, I’m going to bed. What’s going on with you at this moment?