News Update

Well. Where to start? I apologize in advance for the lack of pictures. Michael has finally broken down and decided that I will never blog again if he doesn't make the pictures easy, so he's installing PhotoShop on the netbook soon. I did use the online photo tool a few times, but it's true that you'd get more pictures if PhotoShop appeared on the desktop.

My job...um, year of service... is great! Today 11 baby goats argued over the right to suck on my fingers and then I got to pet a seven week old adorable ball of fuzz who will grow up to be a great big half-Great Pyrenees livestock-guarding dog. Ok, so I also worked on a brochure about the community gardens, worked on a report for the USDA to wrap-up a big planning grant, sat through an hour and a half conference call, prepared for a Monday to be spent deep in USDA reporting minutiae, and ate freshly-baked bread with freshly-made chevre from those baby goats' mommas' milk. Oh, wait. That last one probably doesn't make you feel sorry for me over my work load, huh?

Seriously, though, I'm enjoying my work a lot so far. I work with good people and I'm working on issues I care about a lot. There's a lot to be done, and I have a to-do list that would be overwhelming if I sat down and really concentrated on everything that needs to be done. Luckily, I'm pretty good at blocking all of that stuff out and concentrating on what I can do for THIS hour in between THAT meeting and THIS conference call.

The first week was somewhat miserable. I started on Tuesday and Darcy was sick. So I stayed home with her until my first event at noon and Michael took the afternoon off with her. When I left, she seemed better than the day before. When I returned at 5 for an hour before an evening meeting, she was a miserable little unresponsive human being and we decided she needed to go to the ER rather than wait for the appointment Michael had made with the doctor the next morning. So I started the meeting waiting to hear from them at the ER. It turned out to be a really bad ear infection and she was home from daycare all week.

Michael took one for the team and stayed home most of the week since I had a full training schedule. He went in a couple early mornings and late afternoons/evenings. It was a tough way to start.

This week has been much better. Darcy has been an absolute star at daycare. She's happy to go in the morning and reluctant to leave in the afternoon. Wednesday, she announced that she wanted a sister when I arrived to pick her up. Thursday, she announced that N and M (the other two kids in her daycare) were her sister and brother. I'm glad she solved that issue for herself, because fictive kin is the only way I foresee her gaining a sibling.

It's actually pretty impressive, once again, how quickly Darcy has adapted to a new situation. She doesn't seem at all unhappy about my working or her going to "school" every day. There are still times when she's unhappy about not being in Cima anymore and it's heartbreaking when she starts listing all the things she misses about Cima while little tears start welling up in her eyes and her lip starts quivering. She listed all the animals she used to get to watch at Cima for Miss L, her daycare provider, the other day, and I thought we were going to get full-on tears there for a while. She held it together.

The impressive thing, to me, is that she is able to articulate very clear preferences about the two places now. We talked about how we wouldn't live in this house forever and that we'd either move to another new place altogether, or if we stayed in Crescent City, that we'd probably try to buy a house that we could paint, etc. She told us she wanted any new house to be "like Cima House". And I thought, really? You want to live in a 25 year old double-wide with doors that blow open, leaky windows, fake wood paneling, no edging on any of the counters, and no neighbors to be seen? But when prompted, Darcy explained that she wants a house without stairs, like Cima House. I think she misses being able to run the full length of the house and have all her toys on one level, but it amazes me that three months after leaving Cima House, she can explain that preference.

But now I'm just rambling 'cause I'm really tired. We had Friday night pizza night with our neighbors tonight and my fellow Crescent City VISTA joined us. We got home not much before 9 and thanks to brownies for dessert, Darcy didn't go to sleep until amost ten. I'm tired. But I've blogged.