having a down day

Nepal is seeming far, far away, and back here in the real world I have to get up early tomorrow (have I mentioned that I am NOT a morning person?) so I can drive an hour in the cold to work. Although the homework for university still isn't massive, I have a stack of articles to read, and an obligation to report on malaria surveillance methods for Monday morning. There is laundry to do, dishes waiting, food growing scary science experiments in the fridge (I have a terrible phobia of bad food, so I make it worse by not dealing with it, so the mold progresses even more, adding to my phobia of cleaning it up...), and the kitchen table is once again being lost inch by square inch under junk mail and bills. Poor Naomi has been sick with a fever and respiratory infection (lucky for her, she was too ill to receive her 2 scheduled shots on Wednesday)for a few days, although she seems pretty much back to normal today. Michael is working late, so my only company is the voice on the speakerphone telling me, "Thank you for continuing to hold, your call is important to us..." -bet I eventually get disconnected, or told the business is closed until Monday. Oh, yup, prophetic indeed, it just cut me off, this very moment. Yes, I feel very blah today...

so much to do...

Yesterday we took some time for a family outing to Ross Farm. It was a bright, sunny and mild winter day, neither Michael nor myself were working, and my studies are still pretty light as term has just begun. Of course Naomi was more enchanted with the ginger cat than the farm animals (despite the 3 cats we have at home), but we did enjoy the roosters' ruckus and the geese getting all riled up.





There will be few occasions like this between now and our departure for Nepal in mid-April, as we will be very busy between now and then. I can't believe how soon April is coming, less than 100 sleeps! I am in school full time, while returning to my winter job, not to mention the time I spend promoting our cause and fundraising. And Michael works full time, with a long commute, and he usually works overtime too. Naomi stays with Grandma a lot, but she may even spend a few more days at daycare this term - luckily she loves it there -when I was a kid, I hated daycare. For me, the same kids who picked on me at school for wearing glasses and dressing oddly (even at 5 I had my own sense of style, although I must say it has improved), got an extra couple of hours to torture me at daycare. Fortunately, Naomi is a happy, extremely social kid, and she doesn't need glasses (thank god for her father's eye genes)so she remains unteased and well adapted.

This week I should start hearing back from a number of organizations who are looking over our project proposal, and hopefully any day now I will have good news to report regarding our potential benefactors. In the meantime, I dread telling Naomi she's getting 2 more needles on Wednesday the 3rd for Hepatitis A/B, and 1st of three for rabies, with still more to come. She's going to hate me, isn't she...

I do have some news to share today: www.ppdconnect.org, a site for women with post partum depression and its survivors, has posted my story. There is link a the left.

We Did It! Another hurdle out of the way

I'm so happy today, we met our goal of receiving 100 votes for our project at www.givemeaning.com, and we did it in less than 2 weeks! This means we will soon be eligible to receive contributions with their assistance, enabling us to give our donors tax receipts. This has been an all-consuming task for me, and for a while I really didn't think we'd get the votes - extra special thanks to Julia Drew Watt for spreading the word and starting the facebook group, and to Kate Venson, with her extensive networking abilities! And of course to everyone who voted! Spacibo bolshoi! We beat Hillary, Barack, Mitt Romney and the rest to the punch! For anyone keeping track, we are able to receive donations at this site, and it won't be long before our sisterlink is up and running and offering receipts. We aren't quite there yet, but I am growing more and more confident. And let me just say I am so impressed with givemeaning.com - I call their toll-free number with a few questions, only to learn that Tom, the head of the organization himself, had picked up the phone to answer my call. What's more, when I mentioned which project I was representing (there are thousands) he said, "oh yes, I remember this one." We had a very pleasant conversation, and afterwords I felt like I had just called Microsoft and spoken with Bill Gates.

I have approached several local organizations for their support of our work with Info-Nepal, and have been getting positive feedback from most quarters. Hopefully I will have some good news to report with sponsors starting next week.

What I dread most at this moment is letting Naomi know she is due for yet another injection on Monday. I intend to bribe her: I bought her a cute little mermaid doll, for my little girl who wants to be a mermaid when she grows up.

Nepali Lessons

Naomi and I had our second Nepali 'lesson' yesterday, using the only Nepali Language program we could find, other than books, of which I have also ordered one that has not yet arrived. Now this may help us pick up a few words, but I am quite doubtful as to how much of the language I can really learn this way, Rosetta Stone it is not. And just who designs this stuff anyway? Some of the words in the vocabulary are truly absurd: do I really need to know how to say sailboat (Nepal is mountainous and landlocked, hello) or igloo in Nepali? Is anyone living in an igloo up there on Everest? I can now say things like "the rabbit is in the hat," and "the gorilla is on top of the car," but have yet to get to the important stuff like "where is the bathroom?" or "Do you speak English?" But you can play the memory card game with Nepali picture and word cards, which Naomi enjoys. Thanks to http://sharad325.blogspot.com you directed me to Nepali lessons on youtube, which I will definitely be checking out. I have studied 8 languages already, never by computer, so I remain skeptical.

Sock Monkeys and Fuglies for donations!

Hand-made fuglies and sock monkeys for donations! Fuglies for $25 or more, monkeys for $35 (incl North American shipping).

Watch Out! Here Comes Jenny From the Block!

Tomorrow is my last day of freedom from reality, I will be forced to rejoin the harsh, cold, winter world of commuting, classes by day, and work by night. Let there be no confusion about this, I don't actually permit anyone to call me Jenny, but it is something of a self-referential in-joke that come tax season, I become Jenny From the Block. So as not to get Dooced here, I'm not actually naming the company I work for, I'll leave that to your inquisitive minds, but rest assured, I don't actually prepare anyone's taxes, although since I passed biostatistics last term with what I consider to be flying colours, even my husband has agreed to stop making fun of my math skills. No, have no fear, I am Tax Office Hostess Extraordinaire! I am not dissing my employer, I had a great time as Jenny From the Block last year (believe me, I am the most shocked of all), and look forward to a continued run. But I am worried about managing a full class load and a job, while still having time for my kid (I guess Michael will just have to manage). As biostatistics was my enemy last term, this semester infectious diseases will likely cause me the most grief, but I find them far more interesting. We already have ebola virus and black plague plush toys at home.

Mission Statement

Did you ever want to lend a helping hand? Did you ever just need to get away?

For any new readers who aren't familiar with my story:

Four years ago I had a beautiful baby girl, Naomi. Then I got sick with constant migraines and post-partum depression, which continued for over 2 years. I started having a kind of mid-life crisis, disappointed that I hadn't reached goals I had set for myself. I always wanted to work in the developing world, doing some small measure of good. I have degrees in international development and sociology, and yet I never found an opportunity to put these to use in the field. Four days after Naomi turned one, on my husband's birthday, the Tsunami happened, breaking my heart even more. I could no longer sing lullabies to my daughter at night without starting to tear up, thinking of all those children, washed away. I clung tight to my baby girl, blessed that we are so fortunate to have her.

I couldn't work, I was on as many as 9 medications at once (some of the side effects were truly fantastic: eating too much, eating too little, exhaustion, facial twitching, and my personal favourite, hearing voices), I could barely hold myself together, while also going through a painful family crisis with my long-lost father. Financially, things were tough, as my husband and I had worked from home for years, in a business now failing. He got a job in a call centre, where he has quickly risen through the ranks to management, but that too has taken its toll. He suffers from severe headaches, insomnia, and burnout. Partially for the fear that Michael's job might not be enough security for us, after 2 years of trying to find a job myself that pays more than $10/hr, I went back to university last September to do a second master's degree, this time in the field of community health and epidemiology. I hope this leads me closer to my goal of working in the field of health in the developing world. Now between my class schedule, part-time job and Michael's shifts, some days we see each other for as little as 15 minutes a day. We've had a harder and harder time keeping things together, despite nearly 12 years together. We fight more, he becomes more withdrawn, I become more frustrated.

But then we had a revelation, out of the blue. We'll quit this First World, Pop Culture Lite Uncivilization, at least for a little while, and live our dream: we'll volunteer for an NGO called Info-Nepal near Pokhara, Nepal. We'll teach our daughter about compassion; that there is more to life than tv, computer games and Barbie dolls; show her that there are very different ways of living this life. We'll be able to make some small difference working in a village clinic, teaching English and computer skills to local kids, work in an orphanage in one of the poorest countries in the world. And maybe, hopefully, we'll find some personal renewal, strengthen a marriage that really needs a boost.

Party Cat

Here is Zoro, the Party Cat sporting one of Naomi's tiaras and posing for Naomi's new Little Tikes digital camera, on which Naomi has taken nearly 200 blurry photos primarily of the living room rug.

I spent New Year's as I spend many evenings, the only one awake past 10 pm (Michael, who is sick, was up later than usual), watching CSI reruns. Very thrilling. At midnight I wished Gary Sinise, Melina Kanakeredes, Anna Belknap, Hill Harper, hottie who used to play Rachel's boyfriend Tag on Friends, and my fave, Carmine, a Happy New Year before popping a couple of Advil Liquigels and toddling off to bed at the crack of 1 am. Before I became such a homebody I would no doubt have found myself dancing and drinking the night away at Reflections Cabaret, the gayest spot in town, where the drag queens may be more beautifully dressed than the women. I love gay clubs, less chance of dull straight men hitting on you, more chances to dance with sexy men who don't actually want anything from you.

But today Michael doesn't have to work, and he's feeling somewhat better even if his voice somewhat resembles Freddie Krueger's. It's family day. We are making crafts. Naomi got a dreamcatcher and book about Native traditions from her grandma, and so today we are set to make her a mask. I have also been making kooky stuffed dolls for a couple of days (3 completed, 2 more cut out) for Naomi and some of our friends' kids. They are awesome looking. Then I will continue playing the role of the perfect wholesome mom and wife by preparing a homemade meal of corn chowder with chipotle chilis and cheese and onion bread.