Miscellany

I enjoyed the interesting emails I got about the name dilemma. Opinions ranged all over the place, from a) I would be in my rights to send an aggressive letter demanding the use of my legal name, to b) it's a legitimate complaint but perhaps not worth wasting my energy over, to c) my desire to be called by my correct name is analogous to a Muslim man marrying into a non-Muslim family and then demanding that all of the women cover themselves in his presence.

In the end, I think it's possible to stand up for your beliefs without getting too worked up over it. I'm not going to sit around waiting for Jake's family to change, but I can also stop accepting correspondence addressed to somebody who doesn't exist. And then forget about it.

Today we had a snow day everywhere except at the university, which stayed open and enforced the last day of the final exam schedule. Poor students who had a final today! It would have been very difficult to drive anywhere and I only got to work because I walked, and even then it took me almost twice as long to walk there as normal. Then I discovered that I was pretty much the only person who had come in, but that's okay, as it's easier to get a lot of work done when things are quiet. These days I am putting a lot of energy into really focusing on work when I am at work, and really focusing on home when I am at home. When the kids are asleep I can work for a couple of hours, but otherwise, I put it out of my mind and just focus on them. This feels like a good way to be because it gives me license to not be guilty (about leaving my kids, about not working more) and just honor where I am at any given time.

This week Nora is into having pretend conversations and Milo is into testing us. Nora will start up a conversation in nonsense words and then mimic our voices and intonations perfectly. It's hilarious. Milo has developed a love of touching (and messing up) our ugly plastic on the windows. So we're saying no and then trying to distract him with other things, but he's amazingly single-minded. Now he'll crawl towards the window, pull up, and then look at me as he deliberately reaches for it. When I say no, he is starting to listen. Nora, not so much, but one step at a time...