Early Waking

We had a fun-filled day yesterday and when I went to bed last night, I was really tired and went to sleep almost immediately. However, 4 AM rolled around and I was awake and haven't been able to get back to sleep. I occasionally have trouble sleeping -- usually it is when I have lots on my mind related to work, a trip, or something that is upcoming in my life or that of my family.

I often times will stay in bed and try to go back to sleep. After an hour or so of rolling around, however, I usually get up and think 'I'll get some work done' : ). We'll see how successful that idea is tonite/this morning...

One reason I couldn't go back to sleep this morning is because a new call for proposals was released from NSF that I plan to submit something for. So, my mind kept thinking about things for the proposal. I've not found a good way to turn off my mind/brain when I wake up in the middle of the night.

Any suggestions for how to get back to sleep when your mind won't turn off in the middle of the night?

Perspective

The last 36 hours haven't been all that great for me and several things culminated yesterday to make me think - what is going on??? A good friend of mine helped me put things in perspective; she said go home and give Callen a big hug and remember that is what is important in life and not all the crap that creeps in from time to time. So, I picked Callen up yesterday and gave her several big hugs, and the world seemed a much better place. It is so easy to let some events, particularly those at work, cause us stress; they creep into our lives and have more of an impact than we'd like. In reality, the events of the past 36 hours are tiny blips in the story of my life; however, the love of my family and seeing my beautiful daughter's face are more important to me than any blip along the way. Here's to keeping things in perspective and not letting the blips along the road of life get to us!

Social Networks and Distance

Over the past week or so I've had several conversations with friends and colleagues about having a child and living far from family and close friends. A colleague even remarked that his wife told him the first 8 years they lived in NY she was angry all the time and she realized it was because they were there, without family nearby, with young kids. We pretty much all agree that individuals who live near their families, in particular, and have kids may not realize how much easier they have it than do those who don't live near families. There is a caveat of course -- your family has to want and be willing to provide assistance when needed : )

On Saturday Bo and I had some things to do that were accomplished much easier and quicker without Callen being with us. We hired a babysitter to watch her for a few hours. How much easier would it have been if we could have called on Aunt Suzanne or Nana to watch Callen? Don't get me wrong, we had a great babysitter who Callen adores! However, just the coordination and cost involved, rather than having handy family members nearby, makes us realize how much we miss by not living closer to family members, in particular.

I wonder what strategies other parents use to overcome the lack of family in their nearby geographic community. Any suggestions or ideas to pass along to others?

3 Times in One Day?

I had my annual gyn appt. earlier this week. I'm not sure if it is people hearing/knowing that you have a gyn appt. or what it is, but I had 3 people in 2 different states ask me if Bo and I were going to have a second child. All three of these inquiries were before noon that day! I kept thinking, what is going on today?

How do you handle that question? My answer was 'probably not, but we're not positive'. In some ways I think I'd like to have another child; in other ways, I think no. I really enjoyed being pregnant and never had any complications from it. However, working full time demanding jobs, raising a toddler, and never having enough time to get half of what we need to done makes me very hesitant to even think about it. I really admire people who can 'do it all' especially with several kids.

So, how do other parents 'do it all'?

Doing Religion in the South

I must admit I'm not a very religious person. Since moving to AL, I'm constantly amazed at how religious this area is compared to other areas where I've lived. You see religion 'being done' in tv and radio shows, on billboards and bumper stickers, and even in interactions with strangers. I remember just after we moved here we were opening new bank accounts and the bank worker, who seemed to know everyone who came into the bank, stopped to introduce us to someone and she said: 'This is Shelia and Bo; they just moved to AL and they may not have found a church yet..." I was amazed at this at that time, but not so much anymore.

Well this morning on the way to work I saw religion being done on the back of a commercial truck, in a more productive way than I often see it. I wish I had had one of the cell phones with a camera. I would have loved to take a picture of it. Basically, the quote said: 'Don't take your organs to Heaven; Heaven knows we need them here.'

As someone who believes in the value of organ donation, I was glad to see this display. Maybe one way to appeal to the masses is to relate to something that they value highly or strongly.

Just some musings on a Monday morning . . .

Reunions

This weekend was my 20 year college reunion. I can't believe it has been 20 years since I graduated from my undergrad college, Wake Forest! I didn't make it to the reunion this time -- too much going on with work, too far, and a myriad of other reasons.

I did make it to the 15 year reunion, which was fun. Most of my fellow graduates had kids and were very successful in their jobs. At that time I was in my first academic tenure track job and still trying to figure out my niche in academia. Five years later I definitely feel more settled in my career and I too have a child. I wonder how many of my fellow graduates have young kids at this point in their lives. I know many of the people that I went to high school with have kids that are almost grown by this point.

Reunions are a nice time to reflect on where you are and where you still hope to go with your life. I miss having not gone to Wake this weekend for my reunion -- to see old friends who I rarely keep in touch with anymore, to see how the campus has changed, and to take time to reflect on where I've been and where I hope to go in the next 20 years.

Here's to reunions and to having time to reflect on our lives!

In The News

I was interviewed via phone yesterday morning for a story a reporter is doing on social networking sites (SNS - ex. Facebook, MySpace, Bebo, etc.). She had looked at some profiles on Bebo and was surprised at the level of profanity and the nature of some of the pictures on this SNS. I'm not all that familiar with Bebo, so couldn't really comment much on that SNS specifically. She was also interested in the impact of children viewing profanity and other things on these sites.

One of the things the reporter wondered was whether there was an age that was too young for children to use SNS. That is a good question. There are now so many different sites available and so many ways to form networks related to particular interests/topics on any given site that they could potentially be interesting to children of almost all ages who are capable of understanding how to use a computer.

So, I wonder, at what age will you let your children use social networking sites? My 22 month old already loves playing with the computer when we're on it. I'm not ready for her to have her own website or blog yet, but maybe soon : )

I wonder what the future will hold for the youth of today in terms of technology and the social impacts of technology. Any thoughts on this topic?