We used to joke that she wouldn't have made it out the door (literally) without me, and it was kind of true. My anal retentive tendencies, combined with a disturbing recurring dream in which I missed the school bus led me to take ridiculous measures: I'd find her uniform sweater, grab her some lunch money, and lay out her shoes on the stairs, so she could step in them as she ran out the front door, often as the bus was rounding the corner.

I, of course, had been prepped and ready for some time, standing watch near the front door ready to call out "BUS!" the second it appeared on the horizon, a quarter mile away.

But tonight, my sister, who didn't arrive in the world until ten minutes after I had, is somebody's mother.

I am thrilled, amazed, excited, and truly happy for her. But also a bit bewildered as to how this all happened so quickly.

I was a little surprised and impressed when she went to college and managed not only to make it to her classes without me, but also to go on living her life. She graduated, got two dogs, a husband, a classroom full of students, and now, a baby.

I know that we have different lives now. I know that she is now a very grown up, responsible person, and that she'll be a wonderful mother (somehow, even when I was screaming at her to PLEASE HURRY UP AND GET DRESSED, I knew that one day, she'd be a good mother). And yet, I still can only marvel as to how the girl I shared everything with for the first 18 years of our lives now has part of her walking around outside her body in the form a different person.

Congratulations to Liz, Dave and Baby DJ, my new favorite nephew!

(Gratuitous pictures to follow just as soon as I can make it home this weekend to meet the newest family member of mine.)

I know the child isn't actually overdue yet (also, that he isn't actually a library book) but I'm starting to get a bit impatient with my future nephew. WHY doesn't he want to meet us? Why can't he come out? I swear, I'll buy him toys and stuff.

I had a dream last night that somehow, I accidentally quit my current job to go work at my old job again. Except instead of working for my old boss, I was working for an editor who'd replaced her. My old boss was still there, in a different position I guess, or maybe I was just assisting a different editor. New boss was very different from old boss -- she wore shapeless, dowdy outfits and reminded me of someone who'd teach piano lessons in her living room. But she was still useless, incompetent, and felt it was perfectly reasonable to ask me to transcribe her edits from paper to computer because she didn't know how to do that. Anyway, it was a horrible, sick feeling and as I sat in a meeting, I kept muttering to the girl next to me, "Why the hell did I do this? I actually liked my other job. What was I thinking?"

So I guess that's my way of saying I don't miss publishing at all.

If you haven't seen Little Miss Sunshine yet, I urge you to go find it playing at a theater near-ish you.

(Yeah, I haven't had much interesting to say this week. Sorry, guys.)

Snow day!

Or maybe it's a "heat day," since there is most definitely no snow outside...

Yesterday, I arrived at work to discover the front door flung open (normally, everyone needs to be buzzed in by the receptionist -- part of that fancy "security" system) and a faint humming noise. Also, the incredible heat did not stop in the doorway like it normally does when one enters an air conditioned sanctuary.

"Shit," I said, by way of greeting to the receptionist. Which is when I noticed the IT guy standing next to her, looking a bit dismayed and perplexed. I was informed that there was limited electricity, no air conditioning and our servers were down.

I made my way up the four flights of stairs to my windowless office, where I sat around with my coworkers bemoaning the ridiculous amounts of work we needed to get done and our inability to do them. After about 20 minutes, our directory announced the conditions were "unworkable" and we were released.

Normally at 9:30 if I don't have to be at work, I am in bed. However, since I'd already showered, dressed, eaten breakfast, had my large iced coffee and spent a solid 30 minutes waiting on ridiculously hot subway platforms and squished into overcrowded (yet mercifully, air conditioned) subway cars, I was not exactly sleepy.

It was fine -- I killed off some time running errands I'd been meaning to do for a while before heading back to Queens where I spent the rest of the day being mostly useless.

My boss, being the wise person she is, suggested I not hurry into work tomorrow morning, but rather, sleep in a bit, call around 9 to find out if there would, in fact, be work. So this morning, I set my alarm a bit late, showered, dressed and called the office.

I did this without actually considering that there might not be work today. Had I considered it, I probably would've stayed in bed, waited a bit longer, and then called the office.

Because now, it is 9 am and I'm showered, dressed, not yet caffinated but nonetheless feeling pretty wired -- too wired to go back to bed, anyway.

And there is no work.

YAY!