Sliding my jeans back on after dance class late on Tuesday night, I felt a bulge in my pocket and reached in to pull out a cell phone, a cable needle, and a binky. This is very indicative of my life right now.
It’s been quite the week.
Luke and I saved a computer client from a malicious software threat on Wednesday. Sometimes duty calls when preschool isn’t in session, you know? Luke played with pretend sushi on the floor of the server room while I worked. I explained everything to him as I went along.
“So what do we know about viruses, Luke?”
“Virus bad.”
“Good boy.”
I want to make this perfectly clear to everyone I know. If you get an unexpected email with an attachment that has “.exe” at the end, for the love of god, don’t open it. Viruses, you see, are like vampires. You have to invite them into your house before they can cause any trouble, so don’t go rolling out the welcome mat.
Shawn and I built a drupal site while Luke sat on our feet and built some lego towers. Not entirely a different process actually. I made some maps and made some muffins, read a technical manual and read Ten Apples up on Top, met a friend for coffee and met some geeks for a user group. Luke’s learning to read. I’m learning to read php.
On Tuesday afternoon my dad sent me an instant message. “Don’t want to bug you while you’re working,” he says. I blinked. Are there other ways to work?
I’ve moved into projects that fit into single servings and concurrent uses. Knit one row, read one short story, eat this string cheese, and get back to work. You can listen to an audio book while you take the kid to school. You can fold a little laundry while you’re waiting for that map to export. Make tea one cup at a time for the pot will surely go cold before you get to the bottom of it, and thank the powers that be for microwaves or nothing would ever be hot around here.
These days, this all works reasonably well. Not that there aren’t days, of course... But the moments where I’m tempted to sell my kid to the gypsies and run off to join Starfleet Academy are fewer and farther between. There’s a Mr. Potato Head in my laptop bag, I’m trouble-shooting printers and the vacuum cleaner at the same time, and yesterday I caught Luke browsing the web on my cell phone. I can muck with CSS code while Sesame Street is going on in the background. The house isn’t really getting cleaned, but honestly, it never really did. The cats don’t get to the vet as prompting as they ought to, but they’re alive, fed, and mostly furry. This edition of the Crow has been significantly delayed, but we’re still in business. I have a cold, and a deadline; my car needs work and the bills need to be paid. But we’re okay.
It’s working.
This all seems to have become doable. At least this week. It does happen (slowly). It’s nice to see that, minor fluctuations aside, the general trend is moving on up.
And right now I think I have time to check in on a client and maybe knit a few rows before I get dinner on. Right after I reheat my cup of tea.