First Day of First Grade, originally uploaded by amber_h.

This was the cheesy grin BabyDaddy received while getting Elizabeth to pose for her first day of school this year. She was far too excited to get in the car and get to the school to give more than one smile for the camera… which is interesting considering how much of a ham my child is.

Things have been absolutely hectic at work, which has made everything else in my life suffer because of that. As things seem to be relatively calm for the moment (in two weeks, it’ll be hell again, but that’s another story), I thought, What the hell, I’ll see if I can even remember my password to the blog. And, since receiving a lovely baby announcement from the Wonderful Zoot yesterday, I thought, hmm… maybe I should be blogging again.

So let’s sum up with a few Random Bullets™, cause you know I love them.

• Elizabeth starts First Grade on Monday. When the hell did that happen?
• On the plus side, I’ve got all her school supplies in order… on the negative side, I really need to sit down and cull out her clothing that is either too small or not appropriate for school.
• Our landlady (whom I’ve never actually met) sent a real estate agent by a week or so ago to appraise the house. Her assistant, on letting me know she’d be by, made a point in telling me that they weren’t trying to sell the house out from under us, but looking at her options once our lease is up on March 1. That’s pretty much telling me that I need to find a new place to live before the lease is up.
• Elizabeth starts First Grade on Monday. Seriously, why didn’t anyone warn me that was going to sneak up?
• We’ve got to head over to her school tomorrow for orientation and to find out where her new classroom is.
• I’ve gotten hooked on the Twilight books, much to my chagrin.
• I’ve also gotten hooked on the Dark Hunter books, though I still refer to them as Porn with a Plot.
• I’ve given up on Twitter and am now spending a little time on plurk.
• Dragoncon seriously snuck up on me. But, I’ve got a room in the host hotel, and we’re thinking of maybe having Elizabeth skip it this year to spend some time with her cousin. Which may just save a bit of my sanity that weekend.
• Big Ol’ Sports is kinda chapping my ass lately… but I’m going to keep that an Un-Bloggable Issue for a while.

I’m sure there’s more, but my brain’s a little scattered from the sinus meds that the wonderful world of living inside the perimeter of Metro Atlanta causes.

While my posting was light at best while Elizabeth was gone, now she’s back (as of last night), and I really question how many hours there are in a day vs. how much stuff I need to do.

If I can get some free time soon, I’ll summarize in one of the infamous Random Bullet Lists™.

George Carlin died yesterday.

From the 7 Words to his stint on Thomas the Tank Engine, this man never ceased to amaze me. I felt like I was getting away with something during the brief times that I was allowed to watch his stand-up when I was younger.

Pretty much, his wikipedia entry covers everything that I remember and more.

You’ll be missed, and I hope that you’re now up on the roof just like you thought you’d be.

While the Insane Mommy Brain™ jumps to the forefront of my thoughts more often than not as Elizabeth gets older, I’m always a little freaked out by hearing that parents are getting shit from other parents because they’re allowing their kids to be independent.

Seriously, what in the hell is wrong with us? What happened to the old axiom that I heard far too many times as a kid of “Let ‘em learn on their own”? What kind of grown adults are our kids going to be if they can’t wipe their own asses and buy their own things?

In the interest of full disclosure, I drive Elizabeth to school and drop her off at the front doors, and she’s in the after school program simply because she’s 6. The bus isn’t an option because we’re in an odd location for the district we’re in, and there’s not enough grade school kids for them to send a bus out (Yes, I still live in Buckhead, and I’ve already argued this point to death with the bus people). Elizabeth pushed and prodded me to walk her into class for the first bit of the school year, but after a little time, we came to an agreement for me to just drop her off at the front doors of the school. After starting that, I noticed some of the parents who I would walk from the parking area to Elizabeth’s classroom giving me dirty looks as I let my child off at the front. It’s not like I’m making her walk to school, 3 miles away and crossing some of the busiest roads in Buckhead, I’m Dropping. Her. Off. At. The. School.

I don’t really think that Elizabeth’s old enough to be completely on her own at age 6, but I caught myself having a touch of Helicopter Parent when I got a little freaked at the idea of her playing outside in the yard by herself. When I was younger than her, I spent most of my days outside in the acre of garden and such in my back yard, my grandmother not caring unless I didn’t come when she called me. Yet, I had an issue with her being in the driveway by herself. Yes, we live in Atlanta, which is completely disparate from Gloucester Point, Virginia, but I kicked myself when I realized that I didn’t trust my kid enough to be able to make decisions on her own at all.

I don’t think I’ve done or will be doing a shitty job in raising and teaching Elizabeth how to survive in the world. I know she’s got a lot still to learn, and I’ve got a lot that I wish she didn’t have to ever learn, but I hope I have and can prepare her for both the good and the bad things out there. It killed me to realize that I didn’t trust my kid… does that mean that I don’t think I’ve taught her well or that I just don’t want her to grow up?

Maybe Suebob’s right… this is just another moment in the saga of the Mommy Wars, or in her words, Insecurity on Parade. I have enough insecurity in myself for a small country… and that’s one thing I know that I don’t want to hand off to my child.

It’s just shy of a week without Elizabeth in the house and off having fun in Alien-land.

The house, she is Sooooo Quiet.

Since my parents showed up back at the beginning of the month, I’ve gotten to see three movies, two of which I saw this weekend (Caspian and Hulk, for those who care). We even got to go over to a friend’s house and hang out without waiting for the inevitable tears and screams that happen whenever you get children around each other… oh, they still happened at our friends’, but I didn’t have to go running for once to see if it was my child in tears or causing another child to cry for once.

All that being said, though… I still miss coming home and getting a hug and a cry of “Mommy!” every day. At times I look at the calendar and curse that we have so little “grown-up” time left, and in the same instance, look forward to her getting back more than anything.

Bob Asprin, originally uploaded by dene foye.

While aged, this is a perfect representation of how I remember Bob Asprin from when I was a child. Sitting around, guitar in hand, though the Irish Whiskey isn’t in the shot, from my memories, it was close at hand.

As I got older, and as we moved around, I found his books, and could finally put an amazing story to the songs I grew up with. The Thieves World Musical is one of those things that seemed to finally make sense to me, outside of the fact that I loved those songs simply because I wouldn’t get in trouble for swearing if I was singing along to “Hell Hounds”.

Later, running into him at a con as a teenager, he pissed me off royally, just being himself.

“You’re too old to be Dinah’s Daughter.” Exit, Stage Left.

Yeah, and you’re looking not-so-hot yourself, Bob, thanks.

Come to think of it, that was the last time I spoke to him. I know that he was at Dragoncon last year, but I never did run into him unlike my party because of my commitments. Now I wish I had, because while he could get under your skin without much effort on his part, he was still a good person. And a damned great writer.

Rest in peace, Bob. I’m off to TimeGate this weekend, and I’ll make sure to have a drink for you.

EDIT:

While I’m seeing all kinds of Memoriams out on the Great and Powerful Interwebs, Patty sums it up pretty nicely and reminded me of things I’d forgotten here.

If anyone wonders where I’m at for at least the next 24 hours, here’s your answer. I know that my stepfather over in Alien-land is doing the same thing as I am. I’ve usually been waiting until the books come in a set and getting them off of Zooba.com, but I really couldn’t wait until this one came out to be that cheap.

And, yes, I’m just enough of a super-geek to be working on a Dresden filk, as well.

Blah, blah, blah… whine, whine, whine… bitch, bitch, bitch.

Ok, I’ve got that out of my system now. I just actually read through my front page, and realized that I completely suck. Outside of the whole Moleskine thing, which I’m doing everything in my power not to purchase 12 of them at once.

Let’s sum up, shall we?

1. BabyDaddy is still out of work. And that’s a post in and of itself for another time.
2. I’ve started writing again. Well, I’ve started opening up my doc files and writing a couple paragraphs.
3. I’m trying to get off my ass and actually plan (I know, fucking scary) out things for my contributions to the Apocalypse Rising track at Dragoncon.
4. I’m also planning on going to TimeGate, since it is just up the road from me, literally. Google Maps says it’s about 7 miles away, so I’m having a hard time justifying the cost of a hotel room. But it’s a con… I feel the need to have a hotel room.
5. The PTA ladies really scare me. Again, another full post for another time that I can think outside of an ordered list.
6. My birthday back on the 18th was good but completely un-blog-worthy. I’m officially old now.
7. Work is trying to kill me, by handing me way too much to do and I’m still a damned contractor.
8. I’m working on another design for this blog, but #7 is keeping me from finishing it.

I’m trying to get up the funds and time to be able to head down to the Island sometime at the end of April or beginning of May, but we’ll see.

Remind me again why the hell I moved to Atlanta?

Cabbagetown, originally uploaded by Lance McCord.

Nope, that’s not some war-torn third world country, that’s Cabbagetown in Downtown Atlanta, taken last night after a tornado tore through there. Cabbagetown seems to be hit the worse, partially because it was the main residential area to be hit (The Dome/CNN Center got hit hard as well - during a basketball game at the Dome).

Up here in Buckhead got some tree debris thrown around, but nothing other than that, thankfully. I feel for the people in Cabbagetown, especially from the old Cotton Mill lofts down there who had entire floors collapsing on them. My thoughts are with them.