First quarter update, 2023
Wednesday, April 19th, 2023 08:15 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
chanalehTrying to get a little more back into the habit.
OUTINGS:
- In late January, we went into Chicago with some of Aria's school friends to see Disney On Ice: Frozen/Encanto edition. So I have now been to the United Center, which I gather is the local basketball-and-hockey venue (Boston Garden equivalent) under ordinary circumstances.
- February 14 was our 9th wedding anniversary. We celebrated by dropping Aria at Grandma's with McDonald's and going out for Indian food. <3
MOM:
- Not directly relevant to me, but my mom traveled back to California for two weeks, the 2nd half of February, to visit her sister (that is, in the same town where she and my stepdad moved when he retired in 1996 and lived for the ensuing 22 years).
- More directly related to me, Mom is turning 80 next week, and as her "birthday trip" she took me and Aria to Walt Disney World over Aria's spring break at the beginning of April. In a fit of "interesting timing", that spring break happened to overlap with Passover, so we flew out Saturday morning April 1 and flew back in time (mostly) for first seder on Wednesday night, April 5. I need to write up more of a trip report, but overall it was a blast, plus the whole thing was fascinating from a cultural standpoint.
- Unfortunately, Mom also came home from that trip with covid, spiking a fever of 102 the very next day. I got her a Paxlovid script and she was mostly recovered a week later.
- For her actual 80th birthday, we are planning a dinner party the last weekend of April. My brother said "I'll pay for it if you do the planning" so here I am. More on this later.
KID:
- We were both in the synagogue Purimshpiel again this year, on March 6. Last year's edition was "Marry Esther" (based on Mary Poppins); Aria got to be Esther and I played Bigthan-and-Teresh (by virtue of some amateur puppetry). This year's was "The Sound of Purim" (based on The Sound of Music), in which Aria played Zeresh and an assortment of other small roles, and I played the neighborhood yenta (don't ask). One good thing to come out of this is that we finally sat down to watch the original movie, and Aria liked it a lot and has watched it a few more times on her own since.
- She recently got invited to participate in our school system's "high ability" (gifted ed) pullout class for the next 2 years. Apparently this is a magnet program that they only run for grades 3-4, and kids are bused from all over the district to this one elementary school. She is reluctant because she has a new bestie in her current 2nd grade class, and also she's very attached to the fact that she goes to the same elementary school her dada went to - but we have a few more weeks to get her buy-in before we sign her up definitely.
- On March 25, she successfully spent her first full overnight away from home, a sleepover at said new bestie's house. She's never managed to make it through a night at my mom's without calling us to come retrieve her at bedtime, but this, she was excited to do. OK then!
WORK:
This is my "new job" that I started a few days into 2021, thus, well over 2 years now. I haven't had much to say about this, but it's going well. I like them, they like me, I have enough flexibility and enough responsibility. I am learning new stuff all the time, or sometimes, learning the limits of my knowledge (like, it turns out it would be helpful for me to understand more about networking: VLAN, subLAN, firewall, blah blah blah help).
MEDIA:
- I have seen almost no TV or movies in the last year that weren't directly Disney-related and watched with Aria. There is undoubtedly grown-up stuff out there that I would like to watch, but, like, when and how?
- Exception: I rewatched Yentl on Amazon Prime for the first time in many years, and now I want very much to write genderqueer polyamorous fanfic of it. That is, I actually started a draft some months ago, but it's kind of fallen by the wayside.
- I have rediscovered library e-books on my Kindle phone app. Last fall, I read all of Naomi Novik's Scholomance trilogy and moved on to her Temeraire series, which is like 12 books long and I'm partway through book 4 now. I don't know if I care about it enough to push through the whole thing, but it's pleasant enough.
- I also read a few Jodi Picoult novels (as recommended by![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
jessruth), and Ta-Nehisi Coates' Between the World and Me.
- In my spare time, more literally, I am still playing Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp and Design Home. I also recently discovered 2248, which is like 2048 crossed with Tetris and I may have to uninstall it from my phone. :-}
- I still don't do podcasts, but my unterboss gave me and some other coworkers a subscription to Brendon Burchard's Growth Day (she's a big fan), so I am occasionally listening to the daily audio inspiration on my way to work.
OUTINGS:
- In late January, we went into Chicago with some of Aria's school friends to see Disney On Ice: Frozen/Encanto edition. So I have now been to the United Center, which I gather is the local basketball-and-hockey venue (Boston Garden equivalent) under ordinary circumstances.
- February 14 was our 9th wedding anniversary. We celebrated by dropping Aria at Grandma's with McDonald's and going out for Indian food. <3
MOM:
- Not directly relevant to me, but my mom traveled back to California for two weeks, the 2nd half of February, to visit her sister (that is, in the same town where she and my stepdad moved when he retired in 1996 and lived for the ensuing 22 years).
- More directly related to me, Mom is turning 80 next week, and as her "birthday trip" she took me and Aria to Walt Disney World over Aria's spring break at the beginning of April. In a fit of "interesting timing", that spring break happened to overlap with Passover, so we flew out Saturday morning April 1 and flew back in time (mostly) for first seder on Wednesday night, April 5. I need to write up more of a trip report, but overall it was a blast, plus the whole thing was fascinating from a cultural standpoint.
- Unfortunately, Mom also came home from that trip with covid, spiking a fever of 102 the very next day. I got her a Paxlovid script and she was mostly recovered a week later.
- For her actual 80th birthday, we are planning a dinner party the last weekend of April. My brother said "I'll pay for it if you do the planning" so here I am. More on this later.
KID:
- We were both in the synagogue Purimshpiel again this year, on March 6. Last year's edition was "Marry Esther" (based on Mary Poppins); Aria got to be Esther and I played Bigthan-and-Teresh (by virtue of some amateur puppetry). This year's was "The Sound of Purim" (based on The Sound of Music), in which Aria played Zeresh and an assortment of other small roles, and I played the neighborhood yenta (don't ask). One good thing to come out of this is that we finally sat down to watch the original movie, and Aria liked it a lot and has watched it a few more times on her own since.
- She recently got invited to participate in our school system's "high ability" (gifted ed) pullout class for the next 2 years. Apparently this is a magnet program that they only run for grades 3-4, and kids are bused from all over the district to this one elementary school. She is reluctant because she has a new bestie in her current 2nd grade class, and also she's very attached to the fact that she goes to the same elementary school her dada went to - but we have a few more weeks to get her buy-in before we sign her up definitely.
- On March 25, she successfully spent her first full overnight away from home, a sleepover at said new bestie's house. She's never managed to make it through a night at my mom's without calling us to come retrieve her at bedtime, but this, she was excited to do. OK then!
WORK:
This is my "new job" that I started a few days into 2021, thus, well over 2 years now. I haven't had much to say about this, but it's going well. I like them, they like me, I have enough flexibility and enough responsibility. I am learning new stuff all the time, or sometimes, learning the limits of my knowledge (like, it turns out it would be helpful for me to understand more about networking: VLAN, subLAN, firewall, blah blah blah help).
MEDIA:
- I have seen almost no TV or movies in the last year that weren't directly Disney-related and watched with Aria. There is undoubtedly grown-up stuff out there that I would like to watch, but, like, when and how?
- Exception: I rewatched Yentl on Amazon Prime for the first time in many years, and now I want very much to write genderqueer polyamorous fanfic of it. That is, I actually started a draft some months ago, but it's kind of fallen by the wayside.
- I have rediscovered library e-books on my Kindle phone app. Last fall, I read all of Naomi Novik's Scholomance trilogy and moved on to her Temeraire series, which is like 12 books long and I'm partway through book 4 now. I don't know if I care about it enough to push through the whole thing, but it's pleasant enough.
- I also read a few Jodi Picoult novels (as recommended by
jessruth), and Ta-Nehisi Coates' Between the World and Me.- In my spare time, more literally, I am still playing Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp and Design Home. I also recently discovered 2248, which is like 2048 crossed with Tetris and I may have to uninstall it from my phone. :-}
- I still don't do podcasts, but my unterboss gave me and some other coworkers a subscription to Brendon Burchard's Growth Day (she's a big fan), so I am occasionally listening to the daily audio inspiration on my way to work.
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Date: Wednesday, April 19th, 2023 03:03 pm (UTC)no subject
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Date: Thursday, April 20th, 2023 07:44 pm (UTC)