Untethered Typings

I got together for coffee with two old friends from high school the other day. I have seen them since high school here and there, but hadn't sat down to chat in a while with either of them. Perhaps one of my happiest days in university was when I discovered that I didn't have to do a thesis as part of my four-year bachelor degree. I realize this makes me seem like a commitment-phobe. Or indecisive at least. At the time it also made me feel, just..."less" somehow, but I stayed the course and remained thesis-free. Well one of the friends I had coffee with, after doing his undergrad locally (and doing a thesis of course), a Masters stint at Tufts University and pursuing his doctorate across the Atlantic, has just submitted his 300-plus page Ph.D thesis to his folks at Cambridge. He's also preparing to start teaching a first-year university class in South Africa in the new year. I look at this life of his and I am in awe. And a little ashamed at first glance. ...

For me, one of the hardest things about being a parent is being a parent - read: adult - all the time. Not that I think I'm an overly immature person by nature. I just mean us parental folk are always expected to have our parenting game faces on, be the triumphant leaders of the life journey for our families, always ready to find the life lesson in every moment. That kind of stuff. To be completely honest, and I like to be that way here, it can be boring, striving to be this way all the time. Well, right now, I think I've got a reason to celebrate. In case you haven't been exposed to any kind of retail outlet lately, and thus may have missed it, Christmas is coming. I love Christmas. Christmas has always been very special and very exciting for me. I love it all. The anticipation played out through the advent wreath. Choosing a tree (don't even talk to me about artificial ones). Decorating the tree and the house. Buying presents. Christmas baking (not that I...

One day my husband and I went out for a late breakfast (pre-kids of course) with two of our good friends. After we'd stuffed ourselves with bacon and eggy goodness washed down with way too much coffee, we made our way to another business in the same strip mall as the breakfast joint. It was an Afghan food market. My husband and I love all kinds of food, so it was totally normal for us to want to go into this kind of place. Not so normal for our friends, particularly the male one - let's call him Darb. There was very little English in the store: in the language being spoken, in the music playing and on the food labels. As I walked through the store checking it all out, I happened to glance up to see Darb standing in the middle of the store, eyes flitting about nervously. I walked over to him. Once I was very close he uttered very slowly and quietly, "Do you ever feel like you don't belong?" He was intending to be funny, and he was. If you knew Darb, you...

“So how does it feel to be a single parent?” This from my husband a week or so ago. Let me give some background on this query. They say the first six weeks after a baby is born are the hardest. The baby's sleep pattern is, well, non-existent; the baby and parents are trying to figure out the feeding thing (especially true with breastfeeding); parents are adjusting to the effect a baby has on their relationship; and so on. Well, with this being our second go around with this baby thing - and thus our status of trained professionals who've got it all down pat - my husband and I felt that these first six weeks wouldn't be hard enough with just a baby (and let us not forget a two year old as well) so we decided to throw a basement reno, with very little hired help, into the mix. In case you're wondering, adding such an activity to those six weeks does, in fact, make them more difficult. Okay, so my husband and I are not really that idiotic and we didn't decide to ho...