Here comes another year.

Are you ready?

I would have liked to spend this evening with friends or family. But, thanks to lack of planning, lack of babysitters and the fact that most of our friends also have little children who need to keep to their schedules, it's just not in the cards today. I was hoping to get a New Year's kiss from my husband, but he seems to have passed out in our son's bed. So, if I can hold out long enough, I'll treat myself to a glass of wine and a New Year's cookie, then I might prod my husband for my New Year's grunt.

I was in a similar situation last year and I seem to recall being a little put out and feeling a lot lame when I rolled over in bed, prodded my husband and whispered "Happy New Year," only to be greeted with a snort. This year I don't feel quite as lame or at all annoyed. I got in a good, hard workout after enjoying an afternoon with my son. We had a fun, relaxed dinner as a family at home, I've lost another few pounds and I get to sleep in tomorrow. As far as I'm concerned, that's as special as it gets.

Anyway, enjoy your New Year's Eve, wherever you are and whatever you're up to.

The History of Sex.

I'm watching the first part of the History of Sex on the History Channel. It's an interesting premise for a show, and not at all surprising that they'd choose to make something like it. Basically it describes people's notions about sex, including morality, monogamy, love, etc. throughout the ages. I must say, it's kind of disappointing. No, I didn't expect to experience any arousal watching it, though there are some pretty graphic pictures. Intsead, I was hoping that they would have more information on pre-Mesopotamian sex or something other than the standard Mesopotamian, Egyptian, Greek. As someone who used to study archaeology in North and South America and who's also dabbled in European Stone Age archaeology, I can tell you without a doubt that every other culture thought about it just as much as the Mesopotamians did and some may have written about it even earlier.

I'm always frustrated by the dogged focus the History Channel demonstrates on Egyptian and Middle Eastern archaeology. I think it's a hold over from the heyday of British archaeology when people thought that Egypt was the seat of civilization and didn't use common sense to get that, with so many people all over the world, "civilization" will reasonably develop in several different places in tandem or at slightly different times. What's truly fascinating is that so many civilizations separated by a vast amount of land and sea appear to have evolved more or less in tandem, which tells you a lot about the people who created them.

What's also interesting is that notions of sex and love are very similar in most places. Were I to create a similar show, I'd probably highlight that and also South American attitudes toward sex, prehistoric and current. I'm betting it would be similar to Middle Eastern attitudes, though with different stylistic elements to the graphic images.

Oh, well - can't have everything. I guess if I can write smut, I can research a book on sex in South America, right? That'll be an interesting idea to toy around with.

Never go to bed with a laptop.

I decided that I'm going to write, darn it. Whether I have the energy or not. So, I brought my laptop to bed. This isn't a problem for my husband, who is downstairs, happily researching away on his own computer, but I'm finding my blinks are growing longer and longer. Well, I only got about half a page, but it's something. At this pace, I might finish a short story by, hmmm, New Year's. Maybe, but only if it's flash fiction.

This week has been a weird one, probably since things are still a little off kilter from my being out of town all week last week. Surprisingly, there wasn't too much fallout. Plus, I got home just in the nick of time for my husband to get extremely sick, complete with fever, coughing, congestion - the works. Fortunately, my and Ragsy's immune systems seem to be somewhat stronger; we both had mild sore throats and some congestion but no fever. Of course, now that I've put that out there, we'll both be in the ER next week. I really don't want to make Ragsy getting RSV a Christmas tradition.

Last night was my team's holiday party, so we went to dinner somewhere in the wilds of O'Fallon. It was a lot of fun - I got to see the team tightass remove that stick from her butt a smidge, which was nice. Plus, my boss's sense of humor is raunchier than mine, if that's possible, so I could appreciate that. Still, driving home on 2.5 hours of sleep wasn't fun. Ragsy's been having some sleep issues; primarily that he's reverted to night waking again, wanting to sleep with us. We wouldn't care, except that he doesn't sleep well with us or wakes up at an ungodly hour and starts yacking. So, we've been refusing to interact with him at 3 a.m. other than to lay him down in his own bed, reassure him, rub his back and leave. He's not a fan of that and let us know in no uncertain terms from 1:30 a.m. to 5:00 a.m. yesterday morning. Have I mentioned he's a stubborn kid? Well, off I go to bed. This pointless post brought to you by the letter S, as in God, let me get some sleep, and the number 1, the number of days I have to get through to have the whole week of Christmas off. Yay!

Be careful what you wish for.

I made the silly mistake Monday of mentioning to our SVP while in Chicago that it would be nice to get back Tuesday, although I had booked myself to stay over until today and just fly direct from Dallas. I have now learned that I need to be very careful about what I wish for in front of our SVP and marketing director. Not only did I find myself booked on a flight fom Chicago to St. Louis at the last minute last night when our final Chicago focus group was cancelled, I also found myself getting into my car in the intermediate parking lot on Cypress at midnight last night. As I got home, I learned that our son had awoken. He was quickly passed off to me while my husband ran for the hills (or the bedroom, whichever he got to first).

A battle of wills ensued, wherein, after a long period of cuddling and singing, I refused to get into bed with my son because he doesn't sleep well with me. Instead we compromised, meaning that I stood at the doorway until he fell asleep. The battle lasted until 2 a.m. and I stumbled to bed on numb legs, only to have the whole thing resume again at 6 a.m. He was still mostly asleep, so he fell back to sleep quickly, waking at 7 a.m. I really could have done without that. I think I'll keep my mouth shut next time.

Now I should get into the shower. My flight to Dallas leaves at 1:15, so I need to get my car parked around 11 or 11:30, then sit around in the airport. Even though last night was a little bit of a hassle, I know they felt they were doing something nice for me, so I'm not going to quibble. After all, I did get to see my son this morning, and, after a rough start, got a few kisses in, too. On a professional level, I am very glad I went on this trip. I'm getting lots of useful information and, when I shut up, some much-needed sleep.

Speaking of quality information, aren't you glad you read this post?

The purpose-free life.

Both my husband and I have been somewhat malaised for a long time, and I think I know why. Both of us are lacking purpose. In other words, we need to establish some non-kid-related goals, whether personal, professional or both. I think my husband is going back to school to get his MBA soon, and I hope he does. Earlier he had said he didn't want to because he didn't want me to have to do all the work with Ragsy. On the other hand, I don't want that type of responsibility on my shoulders. In other words, I don't want to be the person stopping him. In fact, I refuse to be the person stopping him.

As for myself, other than my personal goals (getting organized, getting healthy, making our house look like someone not in college lives here), I'd like to start writing again. Ideally I'd prefer to do some creative work (i.e., smut); however, at this point I already have a potential freelance project lined up for a large publicly-held company. It won't be easy working full time and freelancing again. However, I do think it's true that if it's too easy to get, it's probably not worth having.

In other news, work is sending me to Chicago and Dallas next week to observe some focus groups. I already have reservations about the content of the focus groups; I think the proposed content demonstrates my department's unfamiliarity with product management, so I don't expect to get much information out of the focus groups. Which is a shame given the amount of cash they're throwing at the research group hosting them. But at least I'll get to network, meet new people, have an opportunity to learn and all that.

Oh, well. Before Ragsy wakes up I should get to writing. Then when he does wake, he's going to help me clean. and remove wallpaper in the bathroom (yes, there's still some there). Then it's time to cook dinner, bathe, go to bed. Then my night starts - first the workout, the quick-rinse shower, the prep for tomorrow's travel, etc.