From 1993 to 1999, I lived in a townhouse with my husband and children. Both children were born when we lived there - in January and December of the same year, in fact. Yes, my kids are ‘Irish Twins.’ Right around the corner from the townhouse was a gas station and convenience store, so close, in fact, that it took less time to walk to the store than to get into the car and drive to it. Beyond the convenience store was a little strip mall, and then the day care center where the kidlets spent several years. They loved it when we would walk them to “school” in the morning or back home in the evening, and I enjoyed the opportunity to get out into the air. One afternoon, there was a man smoking a cigarette outside the convenience store when I walked past to get the kids. I nodded a hello, and skirted pretty widely around him so I didn’t have to breathe the smoke. On our way back, my adorable three-year-old son said very loudly, “Eeeewww!!! Mommy, that man is smoking!!!” I wanted to sink into the earth. After we were safely past, I began to explain to him about addiction, and how some people want to stop smoking but have a very hard time with it, so we should be kind to them. (Well, we should be kind to them anyway, but still. It was the moment.) He’s always been a smart little booger, because he never exclaimed like that again.

Also speaking of my smart little booger, when he was about ten months old, Robbie figured out that he could walk, as long as he was holding something in his hands. He’d been cruising around furniture for quite a while, and using walking toys, and doing just great. One day at his day care center, Robbie was holding a building brick (I daren’t say the trademarked L word!) in each hand. His teachers caught photos of him standing and walking, holding a building brick in each hand. He was perfectly confident, since his hands were occupied. It was so cute.

Since voicetrembles has told the story of her kitty Miracle, I thought I’d share how Midnight came to be with me. In the spring of 2001, one of my coworkers sent an email to a group of us. Her ex lives on a farm about an hour’s drive from here. There are many cats living all around the farm, but he doesn’t have the financial resources to gather them all up and have them all spayed and neutered. So he ends up with a couple litters of kittens every year that he then finds homes for. He was bringing in five or six newly weaned kittens that day to see if anyone in the office would adopt one. I called home to ask, and was told that I could bring home an all-black kitty if there was one. So that afternoon, I went downstairs to see the kitties. There was an all-black kitty in the box. He was being affectionately called Demon Seed, and he acted the part. That kitty did not stop hissing or yowling or trying to bite. Since I had a first grader and a second grader at home, I knew that Demon Seed was not the kitty for me. In another corner of the box hunched a little tuxedo kitty. She hissed and nipped when I reached for her, but as soon as she felt secure in my hands, she settled in for a good snorgle. As I held her warm teeny furry body to my chest, I think we both knew we were meant for each other. So kitty came home with me, and was dubbed Midnight by the other family units. Now that I’m in my own place, Midnight is with me, and she’s enjoying having free rein without being herded by the Australian shepherd.

When I was a young teen, a new family moved in on the block. The little street we lived on had a pretty tight little community of neighbors, so of course the new family was greeted and welcomed. One afternoon, Mom and I were over there visiting. I was mostly tending to the three young children so that the moms could sit and chat, and also so that I could try to build up brownie points so she would remember me when she next needed a babysitter. The new neighbor came out with this amazing statement, “When we were first married, my linen closet used to look like the ones you see in magazines. But with three children -” (pause for a sigh) “- I just can’t keep it that way.” Somehow Mom managed to keep the reaction from her face. She would never express it this way, but the best way to describe her reaction now would be “WTF?!?!?” I’ve never seen the kind of magazines with pictures of linen closets in them. I kind of hope I never do!

In my first six months working for the company I’m with, I had three different bosses.  First, R hired me in April 2003, but then he left the company for greener pastures about five weeks later.  I wasn’t sure who my new boss was supposed to be; I mostly communicated with R’s manager J.  Then F stopped by my desk to say, “Did J tell you?  I’m going to manage this group now.” Okay, fine.  Though the group consisted of only me at the time - whatever!  Just tell me what you want me to do, and I’ll do it!  F moved to Texas in December 2003 - at which point we had two other new members of our team.  J managed the group while a job requisition was opened and candidates were screened.  I submitted my resume for the position.  Then the company did a management reorganization, and all management requisitions were put on hold until the reorg was complete.  When it was complete, J’s position had been eliminated.  Now J and I were the two candidates for managing the group.  I withdrew my name, and continued to work for J until this January, when I moved to another department.  But ever since that initial shake-up, it was fun to try to scare people by telling them I was really hard on bosses.