Painting on the Wall!

But first, Kid Art. I put some notes on the flickr site.
And next, I had to go to the office on Monday to help transition a project from a manager who is leaving to another manager. While I was there, my work status came up, as it does nearly every time I'm in the office. So, you're not ready to come back full time? In my mind, I was laughing hysterically and thinking, "no, it'll be about 14 more years before I want to come back full time". But I simply said, no, not yet. Then on Wednesday, I had another work meeting and this time, someone else says, "Are you coming back full time?" Uh, no, where did you hear that?

I've tried to write about all my thoughts about work a couple times, and it always sounds whiny and annoying. So, I scrapped it. Suffice it to say that all this is on my mind, my choices and priorities, and that same yucky feeling I've had since Sofia was born that I'm not giving work what they want.

Then, I found out today that the daughter of a principal at work has several autoimmune diseases. Her mother (my co-worker), wrote me to offer support in response to something I had said about Maia. It was very nice of her, and a little surprising since I haven't worked with her much. She mentioned that she and her daughter's doctors feel environmental triggers are causing a rise in the incidence of autoimmune diseases.

Even though our focus and Maia's doctors' focus has been on her treatment, I think and wonder a lot about the "why" of all this. What triggered her body's immune system to go haywire? What are we going to find out in 10, 20, 30 years from now that we didn't realize? Is it the non-stick cookware? The flame retardant bedding? Something in the water? Is it some random food allergy? Or a weird vaccine ingredient? All of the above? I wonder if anyone's researching this.

So anyway, about painting on the wall. I painted the chalkboard (big mess now cleaned up) and now I'm working on a faux gold frame around it. It's a little tongue in cheek but I like it so far. And painting on the wall is fun. But shhh, don't tell my kids, they might get some crazy ideas. I'm also practicing my chalkboard writing a la Trader Joe's. Hopefully it'll be done soon, so go ahead, hold your breath.
And finally, I'm having a little autumn envy. Many in the blogosphere are basking in their autumn wonderfulness. I used to love autumn, the cooler weather, the crisp air, putting on a sweater... granted, where I grew up, it was not the traditional northeast autumn and we had a spell of "Indian Summer" as it was called, but it was a different season for sure. But here? Autumn is all about blazing hot, dry, hills on fire. So I'm having a little autumn envy. I know, it's only the first week, quit complaining. Ok.