« One Month | Main | Uncles and Aunts »
April 28, 2008
Multitasking
Contrary to the impression one might get from reading this blog, Alden is not the center of Robbi's and my universe. She is cute and tiny and great and all, but we are very busy people with full and complicated lives. We are not the sort to be derailed by the arrival of an upstart baby. For example, my higher education marketing work continues apace.
Just last week I was in the midst of writing an undergraduate viewbook for a very fine liberal arts university when it came my turn to look after the baby.
Alden lay upon my lap, correcting my spelling, lambasting my overuse of the passive tense, and periodically making noises akin to the squeaks of a guinea pig. Her unwelcome contributions, consistently unhelpful, did not keep me from the task at hand.
Further, our Idiots'Books ventures continue at full steam. Last week we prepared the Volume 14 mailing. Again, Alden insisted on being cared for. This time it fell to Robbi to cater to the baby's petty whims while doing the honest work of the household.
Robbi was the epitome of the multitasker.
She made notes in the subscriber notebook with one hand while entering data into the subscriber spreadsheet with another. With one foot she gently rocked the restless baby. With the other she successfully fended off not one, but two, dogs in want of attention.
Later, when the muscles in poor Robbi's foot had turned to utter mush, it fell to me to soothe the baby while I folded letters, placed stamps, stuffed envelopes, adhered labels, and licked foul gummed surfaces.
This darn baby makes things take twice as long.
Those of you who feel (and rightly so) that Volume 14 was a few weeks too slow in arriving at your doorstep may blame the small, ungrateful child.
But don't expect an apology.
It's simply not her style.
Posted by bogenamp at April 28, 2008 12:10 AM