Livingston, I Presume

Birthday success

Months and months ago it was announced that the sixth Harry Potter movie was going to be opening on July 15th, a.k.a. my birthday. Obviously a sign from the gods, I set about trying to figure out how I could see Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince on my birthday, given that I have pesky children who get frightened at the first sign of the Death Eaters and are totally unable to handle PG-rated movies. Geez. Kids. They're so selfish! Luckily it finally occurred to me that because of Chip's job situation, we could totally go to the movies in the middle of the day. The middle of the day means Connery is in school, which left only the very attached baby to figure out.

We decided to try the Dew Drop-In Childcare Center for a few hours of Em care, and it seemed to go just fine. We got 2 hours, 33 minutes of uninterrupted movie time, and she got to play with a few kids her own age for the first time in a month and a half. Win-win all around. And the movie was awesome--well worth the ticket price and babysitting cost.

Afterward we hit the Livingston Farmers Market for dinner, socializing, and birthday pie purchase. When we got home, I even got to blow out a candle. Connery of course wanted to know why I didn't have 36 candles. Fire codes, son.

We got the kids to bed--where both of them stayed without complaint, a stellar birthday present all by itself--and watched History Detectives and season one of The Wire. I even got a birthday call from my brother-in-law (better known as Uncle Dude). In all, I have no complaints about this birthday, even though it edged me closer to that scary "big" birthday that everyone seems to fear. I figure I'll let Chip have that one first and see how it goes.

36

Closer to 40 than 30 as of today, I thought I'd better not waste any time returning to the blog. Would that I had some exciting news to share or, well, any news to share other than my birthday. Perhaps the most interesting news is that we're more than a month into UnemploymentFest 2009 (Better than CroupFest 2009? Worse? Hard to say.) and I have not yet lost my mind. So there's that.

Job applications continue apace, and the only thing we know for sure is that this is not a great time to be looking for a job. My bitterness toward the company that did the laying off also continues apace, never good for general outlook. Chip thinks I need to get over it and move on, while I believe that it is perfectly rational to use scissors to cut company logos off of things we might still want to use. I look at it this way: I am harboring the flame of resentment so that he doesn't have to. I'm doing him a favor!

It's not like there aren't advantages to having Chip home. He's taken on most of the household management--including cooking and childcare--so that's a nice bonus. I switched up my own work schedule so that we can have more flexibility for trips. We've been doing a lot more as a family and even socializing more. It is amazing how much more energy there can be when one person isn't working 50 hours a week. And here's a big advantage: Today I'm going to take the afternoon off and go, with my husband, to see a movie. In the middle of the week! In the middle of the day! Never would have been possible a month ago.

Really, unemployment would be so enjoyable if it weren't for the pesky needing money thing. We've got to work on that as a society.

So, here's to 36. May it bring joy, fun, and--most especially--a job.