New Challenges & Complaints

I see that my old friend Craig has finally started writing again, and I quite enjoyed reading his blog. He has a quite a nice writing style when he is not writing about computers. That is not a diss. It's just that not everyone can understand all that techno-babble.

I am still working on various projects, and because I am spread too thin, I am afraid to say that my projects are not making much progress. Slowly but surely - well, a better way to describe it would be "1 step forward, 2 steps back." I probably shouldn't commit myself to so much stuff. What is funny though is when my husband questions my "busy schedule" saying he can't imagine what could possibly keep me so busy in the evenings.

Well, let me just say that I am way to busy to even sit down and write a list of all the tasks I have to accomplish each night while trying to squeeze in just a little bit of project time each day as well. Even though he seems to have no idea what I've been up to, I want to slap him when he says such things.

Well, here is what I have been up to:
1. Volunteering for AFWJ as their newsletter editor for the Kanto District
2. Volunteering for the Convention 2009 committee which will take place in Chiba
3. Still working on creating the Bilingual Kids Club
4. Still trying to develop the on-line magazine, which is much much harder than I thought.
5. Updatng my 2008 Chronological family scrapbook each month
6. Planning this summer's trip to Wisconsin
7. Exercising to shed some baby weight - (of course, this doesn't work well when your husband buys a huge bag of chocolate at Costco and then leaves it on the table...)
8. Watching the first season dvd of Beverly Hills 90210 (Hey, I remember wearing flourescent biker shorts and thinking I was so cool.)

I would advise myself to drop something from the list, but I know that some of this will end at some point.

Of course, there is also daily chores like laundry (Japan with its obsession of using balconies merely as places to hang ones laundry!), preparing Ailin's stuff for daycare, dinner-related chores, etc.

Well, I have a beef with TV shows that I grew up with such as the Cosby Show. Okay, Claire was a lawyer who always left work at work and each night she came home at the same time to a perfectly kept home, a stocked fridge & a present husband. Cliff was a doctor who only worked the occasional odd shift when delivering a baby in the middle of the night, but that never took long and he was always back home for the next scene. He never seemed stressed out, and the family had plenty of time to banter (or communicate) and deal with their daily issues (however big or small). I have a few questions.

Where was their cleaning lady? How come we never saw her? When & how often did she come to clean the house?

Who did the grocery shopping for all those kids? How did Claire always know what to make for dinner?

What about laundry? They must have gone through a lot! Did the invisible cleaning woman take care of that too?

The 80's really pisses me off. Where do they get off portraying the working woman as someone who could do it all without the help of, well, a paid staff.

And, just one more thing...I was complaining to my mom one day about how I needed someone to come in and help with laundry and cleaning - there are always things that just never get done. I said I wanted to spend my weekends enjoying my time with my family - why should I have to be down on my knees cleaning out bathroom drains with a toothbrush? And, putting away a week's worth of laundry that has been piling up on my bedroom floor?

She said, "You need a wife. Those are the things that wives do, and that's what you need."

Ha ha, Mom.