OK, so here's an update

I've been pretty lucky in the past couple of months, in that I haven't often been up between the hours of 12-5 am, so I guess an occasional episode like tonight's shouldn't get my goat too much. The Midget has actually subjected me to untimely wakings for the past three nights. Normally these experiences are so infrequent that I'm not sure which flavor of Ferber I ought to practice. Also, I don't go back to sleep nearly as easily as I did in former years.

A summary of recent events seems appropriate. I hope I'll have time to elaborate on one or more of these points as the week goes on ... only if other life doesn't get in the way.

1. We're home from a recent trip to Philadelphia, a visit to my sister which was marked by only a FEW feelings of unspeakable envy. Schwester's got a nice house, an AWESOME fiance, two sweet soon-to-be-stepdaughters (though only the younger child was home, the elder having gone to church camp). She's getting married in November, and we picked out a dress for her (go to s 2 of the Fall 2005 section; it's the 6th one, #25287). Is it wrong that I was a tad gleeful that despite the pads inserted into the bodice, on top of Schwester's padded bra, she was still nowhere close to filling it out? Being stacked ... that's like the ONLY category in which I stack up well against my sister. Trip highlights included: driving the Lexus with the psychotic GPS, going to Philly's Please Touch Museum, enjoying a grown-up coffee hour with this woman, and having a real date with my husband, that SDG I mentioned once upon a time! AND on the date I got to wear a new dress, which Schwester had ordered for herself but (too bad for her) got sent the wrong size -- my size!

2. School started in our little town this week. For my girls, it means preschool for the Handful 3 mornings a week (9:15-11:45). Both Handful and Midget will go for the extended day on Wednesdays (9:15-2:45), and Midget might go Friday mornings as well. It seems a bizarre and uncomfortable switch in my schedule, going from PDO ("full" days) to preschool (just half days). Not sure how I'll accomplish anything while Handful's in school, which makes me feel horrible WRT how that speaks to my attitude toward the Midget. She's such a sweet, sensitive, easy-going child, and utterly devoted to Mommy. How dare I treat her like an obstacle? When I delay responding to her cries from the crib, reasoning that a few minutes of fussing is worth it, since I'm indulging myself in personal Internet time -- what kind of monster does that?

3. Wow ... I didn't know I was going to go *there*! It's 5am and I've been up for over an hour. And I really despise myself for being so cavalier about my baby's cries.

4. New job prospect on the horizon. Two PhD positions at the local oil company. Even as I've gotten excited about the idea of pulling in a FT income, I'm hesitant to apply. The situation presents a three-fold difficulty for me: 1) I haven't been in a real lab in almost 8 years; 2) my sole work experience after grad school was in academia, not industry; 3) I'm an organic chemist, but the potential job is mainly analytical, heavy on IR and Ramen spectroscopy. I can count on one hand the number of organic chemists I know who can identify anything more than a simple carbonyl band. ONTH, despite SDG's protestations to the contrary, I feel that he will be disappointed if I don't go for it. Funny thing is, I'd have to put in so much work/preparation to GET the job, that the job itself could seem easy by comparison.

5. Went to the movies and saw "Wedding Crashers". Was f*ucking hysterical. Highly recommend.