Little moments

I constantly find myself amazed at the little things in life that can seem so great. You know, like when someone holds the door for you, or when a stranger passes on a smile. And sunshine! don't forget sunshine. These are the moments that make my life wonderful; the simple, everyday things that often go unnoticed but can make a world of difference if you stop to look at them.

One of these moments happened last year. That one simple moment I can recall with great ease and feel exactly all of the same feelings. One thing that I have never really written about, although it has had a tremendous impact on my life, is spending the summer on Nantucket two years ago. This was by far the best summer of my life so far; I met so many amazing people and had unforgettable experiences. During this time I cared for three amazing children, and one of them was just a baby.

I try to get back to Nantucket to visit that family every time I can, which turns out to be a couple of times a year. Last summer I was visiting with the girls and having a great time playing at the beach when I encountered one of those priceless little moments. The youngest girl, who was only a baby when I watched her, reached out her arms, cueing me to pick her up. Of course I did and at that moment she threw her arms around my neck and gave me the biggest, best hug I could have ever asked for. And it wasn't just a "fake hug," this hug lasted for about 30 seconds. 

I think about this moment a lot when I'm feeling sad about the job I have now and when I question if I am making a difference in peoples lives. I think back to that hug because, at that point in time, she remembered me. She remembered me even though so much time had passed and that hug said "I love you." 

I guess why I am writing about this is to say don't let the little moments pass you by because, without them, life is just a big blur. Cherish these times and cherish your life. The "good old days" are now.

Apologies

I apologize for my brief hiatus. I was on sabbatical. I've always wanted to say that and really don't know what it means. So yeah, I wasn't really on sabbatical I was just being busy and lazy at the same time. But! I do have some upcoming posts that should thrill the pants off of you, Internet.

In the mean time here's a funny conversation that happened today:

Preface: Tori's mother threw out her flipflops because they were too small. Tori is understandably devastated by this and proceeds to make her own flipflops by standing on her Birkenstock clogs and fashioning some sort of string and rubber band contraption to hold her feet to the shoes.

"Tori, you're funny"

"What makes me funny?"

"Well, I don't think I know anyone who would try to make their own flipflops out of some string"

"I do. There's this guy…oh, what's his name….um… Ben Franklin! he would make his own flipflops I bet"

After much consideration

When I blog, I write about real things; things that happen to me every day in my life, good things and bad things. However, some of my recent posts I think have become a little, for lack of a better word, inappropriate.

I’m not going to write about my job anymore. No bad details. There will still be funny stories, so don’t worry if you like them. After a few “I can’t believe you said that”s and “what if she reads this”s I don’t think I’m going to write about the Lesbian anymore.

But you will be the first to know if I get fired/ quit my job/can’t take the shit anymore/finally grow some balls to stick up for myself.

Oh, child

The other day I was helping Tori study for her social studies test. This particular test was on a unit called “Our Country” like what it means to be a citizen, the president, fun stuff like that. Seeing as how this is the second grade we’re talking about, she had quite a word list to define:

citizen, symbol, ballot, vote, celebrate, the Statue of Liberty

Despite being taken aback by how much information she had to know for this test, she forged ahead banging out every definition and trying her hardest to sound out and read every word. At the end she was quite exasperated and turned to me and sighed, “Jen, you’re so lucky that homework gets easier as you get older because you can read all the long words.”

I just looked at her and laughed and turned back to studying neuroendocrinology. Hey, at least I can say it.

Protected: This is when correcting her would be the RIGHT thing to do

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Protected: Where’s the Line?

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Speech, Interrupted

On Monday I am going to do something I never have before: I am going to ask my boss for a raise. While I am somewhat of a virgin asking someone to “Please, nice lesbian, pay me more money so I don’t end up working as an exotic dancer” I’m not really that nervous. I deserve $5 more an hour since I have accommodated their every want/need in the entire 6 months I have been working for them. And nowadays I think that $10 an hour for 2 kids is nothing. I hope that I never have to experience this feeling of “college days broke” when sometimes I have less than $100 in my bank account. And this is without excessive spending. I know– or rather I hope– that later on times are going to get easier so until that happens I am just going to keep on keeping on and do my best. And that is enough for me.

I once told my dad I got a job at Hooters. He laughed and said “Nice”. At least I always have a backup.

The Best Birth Control

I have worked with kids for eight years. Close to seven of those years have been good. For the past six months I have been working as an au pair for 2 families, each with 2 kids. Both sets of kids are between the ages of 6 and 10. This means that for 12 hours each week I deal with whining, helping with homework, giving stair time-outs when they won’t stop throwing balls at each other, asking them 5 times what they want for dinner, cleaning up their shit, and trying to get them to listen to me. Meanwhile I do my best to keep my shit together and not tell them to “shut the fuck up.” So far, I have been quite successful.

All the health classes teach abstinence as the best birth control. And before working with these children it was my belief that somewhere between abstinence, condoms, and Ortho TriCyclen that the young people of today would be able to keep themselves out of ‘trouble.’ However, it is my new-found belief that you should stick all middle and high schoolers with four 6-10 year olds for a couple of hours and there would be a lot less teenage pregnancy.

Sorry Ortho.