Today has been one of those few days at work where just being "reactively available" is all that is required of me. There's a terrific number of things you can do with your time when you have the time. I kept the bed on my back till almost 9am. (with my cell phone handy...no really, his name is handy) I went to the gym for a good long workout. (with my cell phone, handy) I made it into the office just in time to take me and my cell phone handy out for a nice long lunch. Now, handy and I are are back in the office at the near-close of this reactively available Wednesday and it's only right that I tickle the keyboard for atleast a few mins today and post a blog.
Last night as I was toggling between a late night e-mail exchange on the Technical Computing Initiative scope-of-work for fiscal year '07 (yawn) and my 3rd attempt on the trickiest game of free cell ever(#27945), I went on a quick search for a document I thought I needed and stumbled across a word doc I had composed a couple years earlier. I had appropriately titled it: "Probably an ignorant list of things to keep in mind when I have kids" There were a few things on that list that even the two passing years of accrualed wisdom caused me to scoff at but deeper down the lengthy list I began to remember that there was a reason why I was compelled to record such a meandering list of thoughts and suggestions for my distant but all-too soon destination to parenthood. I wrote it because just 6 years fresh from high school I am already losing touch. I remember making a pact with one of my more patient and "born-to-teach-pre-school" friends that she would raise all our booger-nosed, dirty-diapered brats from infancy through grammer school, and I, the more in-touch and terminally cool would swifty see them thru puberty and on to social greatness while keeping them firmly grounded in their morals and academic responsibilities.
I would raise a generation of Lindsey 2.0's.
The upgrade of course being that they will swifty sail through puberty and acheive social greatness while maintaining standards and intelligence, blah, blah blah, blah blah. Just a few of the minor glitches in Lindsey 1.0.
Now, as I round another turn in my mid-twenties, I gush at the sighting of a boogered-poopy toddler, and gasp at the sight of teenagers today. I didn't write the list because I thought I would fail at checking the temperature of milk or mastering "the **Shannie Shuffle". I guess I knew enough at that point to think about the many ways my young adult will judge me and look to me for more then just the basics...I'll be forever under the scrutious eye of hypocrasy watch.
I guess in parenthood I should count on many more days and years of being "reactively available." Sleeping in and long lunches may not commonly been on the docket, but I'll always keep my cell phone, handy.
**Shannie Shuffle: This amazing rock, cradle, and bounce that my sister Shannon used to coax any child into a sleepy and/or sedated submission.
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