Violets are Blue...berries...

Lately, I am starting to feel a bit like this:


See?

Oddly, when I visited my old job this week, everyone told me how fabulous I look. "You look so... relaxed and... not stressed!" I met with those who took over the conference planning, and let's just say that my dissipated stress seems to have found a new home. "You are definitely missed," said one dear colleague. "I mean, not just because of all of the work you did, but, well, you are DEFINITELY missed." I am not sure what DEFINITELY meant. Maybe it meant that I was the sassy one in the room with turrets-like candor who would push back when it wasn't the bureaucratically correct thing to do. What good is an employee who always tells you that you have great ideas, I always say.

I confess that looking back I could have measured out more diplomacy with that candor. At the time I thought that thought the opposite extreme from other's behavior a more favorable and raw form of communication. Still, that is no excuse. Mine were interpretive expressions of disrespect, and interpretations are not reality. To think that an individual is spineless and is unable to muster up enough integrity to say what needs to be said is just as inaccurate as the individual who says,  "I am just being honest" to excuse their unkind words or bad behavior, and never own up to the real emotions percolating in their hearts. To objectify another human being is to remove the humanity in them, and terrible things happen when we stop seeing one another as human beings. We alter our worlds to match our skewed reality, and we stop being honest with ourselves to justify our own behavior.

But that isn't really where I meant to wander off to this midnight hour. I wanted to say that really important things pass through my mind these days. Things like finding the perfect double stroller. I boldly stop parents pushing favorable strollers and ask their opinions. This has been going on since week 6 or so, and 11 weeks of querying parents has led me to this conclusion: The perfect stroller is located here - http://www.babyjogger.com/city_mini_dbl_dtl.aspx

I believe that this is the stroller destined to allow me to navigate through normal sized doors and not make me look like a freak show. Cute, no? I haven't decided on a color, maybe the green, but you get the idea.  Thank you kind woman at the mall for doing all of the research to find this for me, er, I mean your children. I can now sleep at night knowing that I won't have to lug around a monstrosity to be a functional human being with my little dumplings as they try out their harmonious little vocal cords in public places.

Speaking of sleep, I think I ought to.