The experiment (read about it here):

It’s been two weeks since I cooked this thing up. This week has been a challenge. C came to work with me yesterday morning (daycare provider had a doctor’s appointment) and she’s pretty self-entertaining for a four year old, but it’s impossible to do head-down concentration work with her around, without benefit of Reading Rainbow or Disney film. Combine that with needing to respond to a bunch of messages in anticipation of vacation, and it was a morning of pinball-brain, rapid-fire, message-hopping madness. I really felt yucky at the end of it. Like there was something physiological going on. I think in the past I would have mitigated that feeling by patting myself on the back for getting so much done. And the stuff needed to get done, but I just didn’t feel good afterwards.

The other day I was working on something and I kept telling C “two more minutes” as I tried to finish it up. I didn’t like that, though whatever it was really needed to be done. But I wondered whether she would remember her mom always glued to the computer, putting off play time to work on something. Even though I am trying to improve.

I am now in a rhythm of doing e-mail and web stuff in two blocks of time each day. It comes out to more than an hour total, but it seems reasonable and manageable, since so much of it is actual work, rather than futzing around. However, this week I have fudged even the two blocks of time, what with the RevGalBookPals discussion, though that was well worth it.

I feel like I need to maintain “experimental” status for another week or two before calling it something else (a habit?), but I definitely want to continue exploring this. I had lunch with a friend today and another e-mailed yesterday asking when we could get together and it feels good to realize that, while I treasure my RevGals (and guess what? I’m still reading you), I am also blessed to have friends who are in the area that I could/should get to know better too. The time and space has opened up to nurture that. Good stuff.

Enough of that.

Random:

• I had a prenatal appointment today. The midwife cast about for a while with the Doppler in search of the heartbeat, but BB finally stopped wiggling enough for us to get a good listen. Everything’s fine. I’m almost 14 weeks now. Anytime that second trimester surge of energy wants to come, I’m ready!

  I also shared that the recent ultrasound revealed possible boy bits, though the tech said “Don’t buy blue yet,” and the midwife rather pooh-poohed the whole thing: “That’s incredibly early.” So I sense another online poll coming on sometime soon… will boy be confirmed? Or will there be yet another surprise? (R says I’m just in denial.)

• This evening C got dressed in her leotard and tutu and arranged her stuffed animals on the couches for a recital. Big Bird, the chef puppet, the cow, Piglet, and the plastic hippo shape-sorter were all in attendance. (Curious George sent his regrets—apparently he was busy working on his boat.) She had made a tinker toy “rose wand” and gave an extended show with two intermissions, during which she came out into the audience and shook hands: “Thank you very much for coming.” The encore was a stirring rendition of the Hokey Pokey, with vigorous shaking-all-about, and turning-herself-about not once, but twice on each verse.

  You think someone’s excited about “Pre-Ballet and Tumbling” class this summer?

• Speaking of classes this summer, I’m thinking about registering for an online poetry writing workshop taught by one of the editors of a mom-zine I read and have contributed to. Apparently the group works via yahoo group—there are posted lectures, the instructor provides feedback on pieces each week, and participants have the opportunity to workshop their stuff at least twice over the ten weeks. Sounds fun, and of course the online aspect makes it doable. But how to put boundaries around that experience in light of my recent Internet-curtailed lifestyle?
• That’s all she wrote.