Let’s be other people

(You know, I like the song title thing but after almost 600 entries, it gets harder to remember what I’ve already used. But I can’t bear to drop it either because then I fear all entries would just be titled with the date.)

I don’t have anything specific to say today but I feel the need to write for some reason. Things are going well. Zoe has 4 teeth now and the sleepless nights have gotten much better. Last night she was only awake for 15 minutes for a feed at 2am. She’s even happy to go back into her cot awake now and chat to herself and her mobile until she falls asleep. She’s so goddamn cute sometimes that I’m sure they must have mixed her up at the hospital. I finally got round to uploading pics of her Being back at work means I have less time to do this, but I have to remember otherwise the mother in law nags Duncan. Which reminds me, last week she moaned at him because we were only going over for 10 days not 3 weeks. Now, I know she’s the grandmother and all, which is why I put up with the month-long visit with (mostly) good grace, but she is completely tripping if she thinks I’m gonna use all my holiday for our trip over. What about visiting my own family? I’m already concerned that Zoe will be at an age where she’ll pick up their racist language and use it without understanding it. I am dreading that.

Work is good at the moment. We settled for a pay increase which isn’t equal but is much better than we’re on now. So it’s worth sticking it out here until January next year at least. In the meantime, I’ve sent off my application for the post-natal course and am off to Darlington on Sunday to sit in on a tutorial and see what I think. There are 3 other ladies in the North Tyneside branch applying which seems rather a lot and I’m not entirely sure how much work we’ll get between 4 of us but I’m determined to do this, I think I’d be good at it. It means though that something has to give. The chair of the North Tyneside branch basically implied that unless I’m volunteering for them on a regular basis, there won’t be any funding for me (the other 3 are all actively involved in the charity in the area) which means that I’m gonna be stuck doing all the volunteer stuff nobody wants to do to prove that I can be involved and get the funding. It’s a shame I can’t fund myself but then I should probably be volunteering anyway. The thing that gives is bookcrossing. I’ll still be reading, passing books on and being active on the forums and groups but I can no longer organise the local meets. I just need to find someone who will. I haven’t been since August and, I have to say, I haven’t missed them. I’ve missed Sandy (who’s in Paraguay) and Hellie (who’s doing 3 jobs at the moment and doesn’t have time for anything) but I don’t miss the meets so much any more.

What I am looking forward to is Brighton though. 6 months ago, I was dreading it. We didn’t seem to have organised anything and yet were getting money from people for the weekend. Now, however, it seems to be coming together and I’m looking forward to seeing friends that I’ve not seen since Birmingham last year. There’s also the relief that I’m not at all involved in 2008 and I can’t see I’ll be involved in 2009 unless it’s in Newcastle so there’s some time off from organising at the end of the tunnel. That should give me more time for the NCT, reading, my knitting, oh, and looking after Zoe as well!

Until there is a next time…

xx