Josh has been working 7pm to 5am this entire week and while it’s fun to pretend to be a single gal living it up in my big house, the novelty has worn off. The first few days of multi-tasking, getting a massage, taking class, making jewelry, watching movies has now lapsed into aimless wandering. Oh sure, I’m still making jewelry and experimenting with painting blocks of wood. But I’m a big baby when it comes to sleeping alone, and I look forward to Josh’s return to a normal schedule.
At work I baby-sat a six month old who was charming for ten minutes and then spent a half hour roaring with tears over a stomach ache. He cried until he was purple, he cried until he got the hiccups, he cried until his little fist became balls, his sobs switched to random bursts as I pumped his back with my hand and walked him up and down the wheelchair ramp of our building. Multiple co-workers aided me in the struggle and it was certainly confirmed: he was constipated. Forty five minutes later his mother apologized, saying she hadn’t slept in two days due to his stomach troubles. The batteries were promptly removed from my maternal clock.

A few weeks ago an unhappy customer at the studio threatened me, “I’m a blogger.” She said this menacingly, as if she had already composed a hateful passage about how expensive the baby classes are, how few people were in attendance, and the hellacious parking. This was after I had done everything I could to abate her, appease to her sensibilities, and yet she came in with a big chip on her shoulder and no way could we knock it down. I realized the threat, “I’m a blogger” is a very new millennium insult. From the days of bad mouthing school mates on Live Journal to slandering businesses on the web we have reached a scary age of intimidation. I was hard pressed to respond, and told her, “Well, we’re not for everyone.” Sure enough, a scathing review of our business popped up on several websites. I’m sure I was mentioned but I have no interest in finding out. Of course she doesn’t mention the personal phone call the owner made to try and work it out with her…or how nice I was by helping her carry her double wide stroller up the steps.
In other news, I recently confirmed my participation as a “Freedom Dancer” in a Soft Rock Spectacular premiering at the Rebar in June. It should be fantastic.