mamajoan

Oh boy. Where to begin?

We went to the cottage over the weekend. It was nice. The weather was perfect and the kids had a blast. Isaac is letting go more and more of his anxiety about the water, which is great. As usual, it was hard to leave and we ended up getting home quite late. d'oh.

Friday was our last day at the old Harvard Square office, which was sad. Also, not surprisingly, it was chaos. Everyone was packing up and so forth. Very little work got done and most people left early. Yesterday was our first day at the new office, and it was somewhat chaotic, but not too bad. Desks and everything were already set up so you could pretty much sit down and plug in and get going -- although the network connections were spotty all day.

The new office is nice enough, I guess. It's big and spacious so the entire company can all be on one big floor together -- which was what our CEO wanted, as opposed to the old office where we were split into two sections of the building, separated by a short hallway. It's a very old building (used to be a twine factory) and we're on the top floor, so we have cool exposed woodwork of the roof -- I don't know what you call them, beams? -- and slanted walls. We also get plenty of sunlight and have a pretty good view of the area.

Getting here is a SEVERE pain in the ass though, unfortunately. Today's only my second day and I already hate the commute with the passion of a thousand suns. I'm going to try some different ways of doing it, but I can already see that they're all going to suck.

Yesterday the commute that I tried was: In the morning, basically the same as it used to be. Drop Isaac off first, drive to Davis Square, park, drop off Ruthie, get on subway. Instead of two stops, I go four stops; and then instead of a one-minute walk there's about a 7-minute walk. So that part wasn't all that bad, except that I wanted to stop for some breakfast and milk to put in tea (not knowing what kind of kitchen facilities would be functional yet) and I didn't have any cash and couldn't find an ATM in Kendall Square. Then I found one, but it wanted to charge me $3 to withdraw. THREE DOLLARS!!! I have a huge chip on my shoulder about ATMs charging me fees for the privilege of accessing my own money, so I hit cancel. And that turned out to be fortuitous, because after I crossed the street in the direction of the new office, I found a branch of my own bank hidden away in a corner. So I got my cash and lunch and milk, and between all of that, didn't get to the office till 9:45. But I figured that was okay because it was the first day.

For the return trip, I thought I'd try the 88 bus, which is the one Ruthie and I usually ride. It goes right past Isaac's preschool and right to Davis Square where Ruthie's daycare is. Since preschool closes at 5:30 and daycare closes at 6, it made sense to pick him up first (but this is not what I've been doing all this time, because of the way the locations are laid out). So I thought I'd catch the 88 bus at Lechmere, which is right near the office, and pick up Isaac, then catch another bus with him to pick up Ruthie.

The schedule said that the bus leaves Lechmere at 5:04. I left the office at 4:55 by my clock, and got to Lechmere at 5:03 by my clock; no bus and the station was deserted. (Lechmere is a major hub from which about five different bus lines and one subway line depart.) So I knew the bus must have just left. Sure enough, in the next 5-10 minutes huge crowds of people arrived, and finally the 5:22 bus arrived. So I got to Isaac's preschool around 5:32ish. And then of course we had to wait FOREVER for the next bus. I guess I should have thought more about the fact that the bus runs approx. every 20 minutes and I was planning to get off and then want to get back on it going the same way. So we had to wait, duh, about 20 minutes. We got to Ruthie's daycare at about 5:59, and she was literally the LAST kid left. I was all worried that she would be a basket case, on account of it was over 45 minutes later than I usually pick her up. But she was fine: all peppy and full of cheer. Thank goodness for my girl's cheery nature. How did I manage that?

But *I* was all worked up (in fact I was on the edge of tears by that point, which just goes to show that PMS is a bitch, because come on -- but it was frustrating) so when the kids said "let's go run around!" I was like, sure, why not? There's a stretch of bike path behind Ruthie's daycare where there's a nice grassy area. So we went back there and the kids started running and I thought I'd put down all my stuff and just watch them -- oh did I mention I had enormous armloads of stuff? My backpack and their two lunchboxes as usual, but also two large plastic bags full of Isaac's wet clothing and bedding from school because he had an accident during naptime. So I had JUST put all this stuff down on the ground, when Isaac trips on an exposed tree root and falls down and scrapes his knee and starts crying horribly. So I sit down on the ground with him and get him calmed down, inspect the knee (almost no blood at all, just a lot of ground-in dirt), make sure everything's okay. He agrees that we should go home. So we get up and I gather up allllllll that stuff again, and we start to walk...we get about ten feet before *Ruthie* trips and falls and scrapes HER knee! Arrrrgggghhh! So she's bawling and I'm carrying all the stuff (she had run off ahead because I tried to get her to carry her own lunchbox) and now I have to carry her too, and her crying gets Isaac started again. Argh! Literally we have about two blocks to go to our car, and it starts to feel insurmountable.

So I basically just bullied Isaac along and we get to the car and get everyone and everything inside. Ruthie continues sobbing the whole time we drive home -- she wasn't that badly hurt, just upset and wanted nursie. FINALLY we get home and get inside and have nursie and all is well again. PHEW!!

So yeah...that day's commute was a major bust.

Today I thought I'd try the tactic where I drive almost to the office, but then park on the city line where it's still technically Somerville -- I can't actually park near the office because I don't have a Cambridge resident sticker. So I drove both kids to their respective schools and then drove down to the area "on the wrong side of the tracks," literally speaking -- there's a nice residential area that's Cambridge, then some train tracks and an ugly industrial area that's Somerville. Kinda sums it all up. Anyway, I had to drive around a bit until I found an area that was on the Somerville side and also legal to park. So I park, and I'm gathering up my stuff when I suddenly realize that...I forgot to leave Isaac's clean bedding at his school with him. (Remember above where I mentioned that he had an accident yesterday at naptime? So I had packed up a bag with a clean sheet, blankets, and pillowcase, all responsible-like. And then left it in the car when I dropped him off.) D'OH!!!!!

So I sat there for a while pondering the idea of driving allllll the way back there just to drop off his bedding. And it was already almost 9:15. So finally I decided not to, although I felt terrible about it, but yeesh.

Anyway, then I had to walk from there to the office. This took about 20-25 minutes, but I'm not entirely sure how long it really was because I stopped off for another egg-and-cheese-on-bagel sandwich on the way. Still, it was a pretty long walk. It was nice enough today, since the weather was nice and I had a good book (Water for Elephants), but there's no way that's going to be feasible come winter.

Yeah, so today's commute is looking like a bust too. Siiiigh. I'm going to have to leave the office at like 4:45 today just to get to Isaac's preschool in any kind of reasonable time fashion. This shit sucks.

So, unfortunately, things aren't going too well in the commuting to the new office sense. And I can only foresee it getting worse instead of better, once Isaac starts school. Sigh.

Just to end the post on a lighter note, though, here's a new Ruthie funny. Lately Ruthie is into saying that she loves things. At dinnertime, "I LOVE spaghetti!" At diaper time, "I LOVE changing my diaper!" We're going to grandma's house, "I LOVE gramma!" You have to mentally hear her voice pitch going up about half an octave on the word "love," lol.

She's also very much into the "why" stage. WTF? I thought this didn't come until much later! She must be precocious. ;) Everything is whyyyyyy? whyyyyyy?

So the other night we're driving home from the cottage and we pass by a miniature-golf course with a little waterfall. My mom and I were like, oh look, there's a waterfall. Ruthie: "Dat's a waterfall?" me: "yep, it sure is." Ruthie: "Whyyyyy?"

There's a brief moment of silence while the adults in the car contemplate how to respond to this essentially unanswerable question.

Then Ruthie pipes up again from the back seat: "I LOVE saying 'why'!"