Almost a Week in Photos: 4/14 - 4/19

There was a lot of beautiful weather in the past week and I did my best to document it.

This is my Dad at breakfast in Oscar's in Westport.
Breakfast is his favorite meal of the day.

This photo was taken from my car on the first real topdown day.
It was fantastic!

Zoe on a bunk at her sleep away camp.
We went for an open house and as expected, she love it!

This is a jade plant that is on my desk.  It has been growing a lot so
I wanted to take a photo to compare in a few months.

This is the view from my office window on an incredible day.
It was really hard to stay inside and work on this day.

A cool sunset.  The photo doesn't do it justice, but it was amazing.

Zoe trying fly fishing at softball practice.  What??
There was a guy practicing his technique when we arrived at the
field and he let Zoe give it a go.

A Night without Zoe

Zoe is on school vacation this week and because I have to work this week and my options for childcare are limited, my sister-in-law graciously agreed to have Zoe sleepover Sunday night to Monday and bring her home Monday night. When we got home from dropping her off on Sunday night both Rob and my mother were complaining about missing Zoe already. I know some of it was exaggerated for fun, but I still got the real sense that they were truly missing Zoe after only a couple of hours and what would really amount to one missed bed time and one missed morning with her. I have to report honestly that I didn’t feel the same.


This immediately made me feel like a bad mother. After all, if her father and her grandmother were missing Zoe so much, shouldn’t I be missing her too? Do I not love her enough?

I mulled it over for awhile and the realization I came to is this: Zoe’s being gone for a night was a break for me and only me. The only thing truly different for Rob and Mom was that she wasn’t around. Of course I love having Zoe around. I do everything for her. And right there is the crux of the issue. I do everything. Yes, Rob helps and my mother helps – a lot, but I am the one who is truly responsible for all her comings and goings, her needs, her schedule, her clothes, her everything.

So, while Rob and Mom continued to complain about missing Zoe, I erased the bad mommy thoughts and went to bed with a smile on my face. I was able to go to bed when I wanted, set my alarm for later, get up and shower and leave for work when I was ready and I was quite relaxed about all of it. Zoe safely returned to us on Monday night and all was well. She had a terrific time with her cousins and her aunt and uncle, and I too, had a brief holiday.

Title Nine Indeed

Softball season for Zoe started up this week and it really got me thinking.

I never played softball.  I never played any sports really.  OK I swam when I was younger, but if you blinked, you might have missed my high school career.  As a young girl I took ballet, but it wasn't strange that I didn't do any other sports when I was older.  None of my friends played sports.  There were some "jock" girls in high school that impressed/scared the hell out of me, but I never even considered I could actually play any of the sports they played.

These days girls can play every sport under the sun and in most cases it seems like our local high school has a team for it.  In elementary schools girls can start playing soccer, basketball, softball and lacrosse through the town leagues.  That did not exist at all when I was a kid.  To be clear these girls on the teams are all kinds of girls -- from the kind that wear pink and hang up Justin Bieber posters to the kind that wear their brother's clothes -- not just the "jocks."  It seems like most girls play at least one sport.

I think because it is something that was so completely incomprehensible to me at her age it gives me a real thrill to see Zoe out there playing basketball, field hockey, softball and even just tag with her friends.  She looks so confident and natural out on the field/court/playground.  I love seeing her in a uniform all sweaty and involved in the game and then smiling and laughing with her friends.  I love how she feels about playing games or sports.  I'm jealous of all that physical confidence and I hope it lasts her entire life.

What are you saying?

I spend a lot of time in meetings and there's nothing like a meeting to bring out the jargon, metaphors, and cliches.  These all make me cringe, but nothing is more painful to me than when these things are misspoken.  So, I thought I would share the joy with a few of my recent favorites:

• When the devil gets into the details
• Follow on
• I'm being tongue in cheek
• Planful (this is an actual word, but it is an awful word)
• The Ask is that your team... (what they mean is "request")
• Moving the bar
• On-boarding
• On a go-forward basis
• Collab (because it is hard to say collaboration)
• Dial in (used in place of phone number)

I know I am not the only one who suffers actual pain from these kinds of things.  After all there are many, many websites dedicated to corporate bingo.  Please share some of your favorites.

TV in Bed

In case I haven't mentioned it I've been working on a mega project. It is exciting to be project managing the biggest project I've ever worked on, but it is fairly all-consuming too. I've been working long, rather intense hours and I am exhausted at the end of most weeks. As a result I have found that around 2 or 3pm every Saturday and Sunday I crave lying in bed and watching TV. And a lot of times I actually manage to get there.

It feels ridiculously and deliciously indulgent to crawl under the covers on a Saturday afternoon. It also feels kind of selfish and counter to my normal approach to weekends. Generally I've always preferred cramming my weekends with every possible activity, but now I find myself weighing potential plans against lying in bed and watching my TV. Activity or something Zoe needs? Of course I'll go. Dinner with friends and opening weekend of the Hunger Games? Yes, certainly worth getting out bed for. High school version of Beauty and the Beast? Not so much. 30% off at Banana Republic? I'm on the fence. Really.

Not sure if this craving will continue after this project is completed, but for now I'm going with it rather than fighting it. And in a way I hope I do continue the indulgence once in awhile.