A Moment to Breathe

Or more fittingly, to blog.

Tomorrow marks the 3-week point in my experiment of living at home. So far, so good. I've been working remotely for my SF company for the past few weeks, which is an exercise in patience and motivation (I just want to go outside!), but that's done next Wednesday, to no small relief I must admit.

The next day I start my new job (gig?) as a part-time babysitter/nanny for a family that lives about 10 minutes from me - by foot. When I moved home I made some personal resolutions that I wouldn't lose every aspect of my city life, and walking places was among them. I'm pleased to say I've been keeping this up pretty well. Whereas high school Julia would have driven to the gym (.75 miles), the coffee shop (.5 miles), and people's houses (varying, under a mile though), city-to-suburbs Julia is keeping up the walking pretty well.

Okay, I digressed.

The family I'm babysitting for is pretty lovely. The mother is a Philly mural artist (check some of her work out here), the dad is a commercial real estate developer, and they have 4 kids and 1 dog. It's going to be regular, set hours which is a relief, both for my bank account and my fears of being bored.

I'm also babysitting more occasionally for a few other families, including 2 little girls who I sat last Saturday. What were the major lessons I taught them that evening? Not to go into dark alleys alone, and never to pull your shirt down, point at strangers, and yell "hey boyyyys." Especially never in tandem. It's the little things, really.

Honestly, I had a big SF-retrospective post planned. Things I did, people I saw, etc etc. The motivation slipped away from me though, and now I find myself focused much more on the present and future, so I think the entry is abandoned...for now. Sometimes it takes a while to gather one's thoughts after a life shift, and this may be the case here.

I do think living at home, and especially working with kids, will result in some entertaining and blog-worthy moments. I'm already planning an entry on the neighborhood bunny, pictures and all. You're excited, I know.

Also, everyone send some good thoughts Ben's way - he's currently in the midst of the GA flooding. And Ben - living at home isn't so bad, and I fully support the decision.