{"id":230,"date":"2012-01-24T22:14:56","date_gmt":"2012-01-24T22:14:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/kamillamilligan.com\/2012-01-24-pick-a-topic-any-topic\/"},"modified":"2012-01-24T22:14:56","modified_gmt":"2012-01-24T22:14:56","slug":"2012-01-24-pick-a-topic-any-topic","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kamillamilligan.com\/index.php\/2012\/01\/24\/2012-01-24-pick-a-topic-any-topic\/","title":{"rendered":"Pick a topic, any topic"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Today was one of those busy days (with admittedly a good dose of procrastination) and tired evenings where, once I sit down to blog, all the interesting topics I thought of writing about today vanish from my head. Baby just went to sleep and the house is mainly clean thanks primarily to husband who did a lot of cleaning and planning ahead today. I did a round of clean-up while he bathed baby, putting away laundry, sorting the kitchen, putting diapers to wash, emptying the dishwasher. It&#8217;s amazing how much work can be left even after a reasonably thorough clean-up!<br \/>\nThat train of thought leads me to a related observation: housework is never done. Perhaps not original, but particularly striking for me of late. We really have done a pretty good job of decluttering our things. No piles of junk, no newspapers, most extra clothes gone, books thinned, baby&#8217;s toys down to the ones she plays with. We pick up after ourselves. Yet by the end of a quiet evening at home, there could easily be 1.5 hours or more of housework to do. Astonishing!<\/p>\n<p>This leads to a dream, goal, elusive state I pursue: to pare down our lifestyle so this excess work can be minimized. I think I&#8217;m chasing a chimera, but I&#8217;m willing to keep pursuing because I would really love more time to do other things. WRite, for example. Which I may or may not get to tonight, tired as I am. Reading an escapist novel seems more fun.<\/p>\n<p>As I write this post I&#8221;m acutely aware of an article I read today about <a title=\"pronoun use\" href=\"http:\/\/hbr.org\/2011\/12\/your-use-of-pronouns-reveals-your-personality\/ar\/1?cm_sp=most_widget-_-hbr_articles-_-Your%20Use%20of%20Pronouns%20Reveals%20Your%20Personality\">pronoun use<\/a> and what it says about our psychological state. I wonder, does saying &#8220;I think&#8221; in the last paragraph (or &#8220;I wonder&#8221; in this one), project a lack of confidence or competence?<\/p>\n<p>As I type I&#8217;m also comparing this experience with typing on my NEW WORK LAPTOP! Arriving just yesterday, the new Macbook Pro promises to be a sleek and enticing toy to use for minutes, presentations and that&#8217;s about it. Oh, if I&#8217;m lucky I&#8217;ll fit in a video editing seminar at work and then edit small videos for our website too :). It&#8217;s cleanness, neatness, ease of set-up (open and use &#8230; brilliant!) contrast with the slooooowness of my own laptop, now almost 2.5 years old. It probably just needs a clean-out, but it has been frustratingly slow for the past month or more. Long delays while surfing, even typing.<\/p>\n<p>I missed bay more than usual today. I kept imagining her intense sweet face with those dark eyes staring out at me as I drove off to work. I had a conversatino with another woman at work today who returned to work from mat leave at about the same time. She is also feeling unbalanced (5 days a week, 2 kids) but without other options right now. The world just isn&#8217;t perfect. Moms and babies deserve more flexibility and support for the crucial first few years. I still am not settled on being a working mom, particularly with my baby the age she is. Yet I don&#8217;t have a lot of choice right now. So it is.<\/p>\n<p>enough randomness. Good-night.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Today was one of those busy days (with admittedly a good dose of procrastination) and tired evenings where, once I sit down to blog, all the interesting topics I thought of writing about today vanish from my head. Baby just went to sleep and the house is mainly clean thanks primarily to husband who did [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"saved_in_kubio":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[121,226,241],"class_list":["post-230","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-self","tag-laptop","tag-time","tag-work"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/kamillamilligan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/230","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/kamillamilligan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/kamillamilligan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kamillamilligan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kamillamilligan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=230"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/kamillamilligan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/230\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kamillamilligan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=230"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kamillamilligan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=230"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kamillamilligan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=230"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}