Sometimes I sort of understand why young Mormon kids get married ASAP to the first person they click with; just to check themselves out of the insanity of the search.
Dating is emotionally exhausting.
Dating with a kid is emotionally exhausting.
Dating with everyone else's expectations and constant pressures is emotionally exhausting.
Dating someone with emotional baggage is exhausting.
Dealing with your own baggage while dating is exhausting.
I'm taking my toe back out of the pool for a while...
Last night I got to see Sarah McLachan, one of my favorite artists of all time perform at the Lilith Fair. I had resigned myself to no more concerts pretty much ever, because they are so expensive, but I got an e-mail offering 10 dollar lawn tickets and I couldn't pass it up. We just caught the last three acts which were Sara Barielles, The Courtyard Hounds (Dixie Chicks minus Natalie Maines) and Sarah. She played all the stuff you would want to hear (Adia, Building a Mystery, Arms of the Angels, I Will Remember you), and some more obscure fan favorites (World on Fire my favorite song of hers, and Icecream as an encore). She also played three songs from her new album which I really enjoyed.
Sarah's music was the soundtrack to some difficult times in my life. I listened to Mirrorball and Afterglow probably thousands of time during my pregnancy. I also love Sarah McLachlan because she is so passionate about so many different causes (she is the one in those supersad animal commercials) and she really puts her money where her mouth is.
So well worth ten bucks in my opinion. We also didn't have to pay for parking and my friend paid for tolls, so cheap night all round. And perfect weather to boot.
This was taken of me my sophomore year at Pitt. If it's not ten years old, it's pretty close.
It was taken on this newfangled contraption, a camera that put your pictures right on the computer: a digital camera! Seriously, these pictures were the first time I had ever seen or heard of one. This isn't my dorm room, it is down in the engineer guys room (co-ed floor with girls wings and guys wings).
My room...
And just for fun.... (in case you couldn't tell, it is a flyer for LOCKERS)
Easy... I always take the pictures and am rarely in them.
I'll keep going with the old school Isaac theme.
Isaac as a curly haired baby, looking at a picture of his dad with my school stuff behind him.
These were pictures from when my old job, where I worked with kids with autism and severe behavior problems.
It's sad of course, because the student who inflicted these on me (and yes, those are exactly what they look like, individual finger marks as a result of being grabbed and squeezed) was in such complete crisis, which is terribly hard to deal with. Behavioral meltdowns are a crisis and are exhausting mentally, physically and emotionally for everyone involved.
It also is a stressful time personally for me because my particular job description at that point in my career at this school was to help de-escalate kids in crisis, and it seemed like there were constantly kids in crisis. This really took it's toll on me day after day and was very hard to deal with. In addition to working full time at a physically demanding and stressful job, I was in grad school full time, running around constantly, getting very little sleep and not seeing my baby for long stretches. It was a hard time in my life.
In the end, it was worth it and I did what I had to do to finish school and get where I am today.
I don't remember tomorrow's topic, but hopefully it is more cheerful.
Babies make me happy. In particular, my baby.
These are some old ones of Isaac that people who only read this blog might not have seen. Or, for those of you who followed me over on the old myspace blog, some flashbacks.
Playing around in my make-up....
An old one of Isaac and my brother Tom. I *LOVE* this one...
His dad never lets his hair get curly anymore... (and don't I look super young? and frighteningly pale?)
First smile caught on film
Tiny baby? Or massive cat? Or BOTH! (Isaac is less than a month in this pic with my parents old cat Danielle)
Sometimes I sort of understand why young Mormon kids get married ASAP to the first person they click with; just to check themselves out of the insanity of the search.
