Artemis

I am finally posting a new entry. My sister jdoc was here visiting, so I spent my time with her instead of writing. It was great to have her here with me, even if I did have to work for part of her visit. We spent some time in "The City" (as everyone calls it here) with her friends, which was great fun. Then she got to experience my life as a nanny in CT. Not as much fun, but better with her around. It is nice to have someone finally see what my life is like as a nanny far from home. I already miss her. Having her visit gave me something to look forward to, something to keep my mind off of my job. Now I need something new to count down to help pass my time until I leave, so do I have any takers for a visit to CT? Let me know. I know this is brief, but I need to go to bed. Not only was it an emotional day with having to say goodbye to my sister, it has also been a long day since I worked until 9:30 tonight (it was supposed be until 8 pm, but who's keeping track?). Buenos

DNA frees man - 18 years later . It is cases like this that have made me change my views on death penalty. I used to think a person that killed or raped or hurt a child deserved to die. Then I saw the movie Life of David Gale . They proved to me that there will always be resonable doubt, that no matter what evidence there is, what people saw, we will never know 100% what happened in the majority crimes. So I no longer believe in the death penalty. Especially when people can be convicted of a crime and then 18 years later be freed when they prove it wasn't him. Poor man.

Let me set the scene: Dinner time Thursday night. We all sit down to eat. Baby S2 is going to eat too. She eats cereal now, so the mother (L) is feeding her. If anyone knows what it is like to feed a normal, happy, energetic 5.5 month old, it is not an easy or clean task. Here is the conversation that took place: The father (P) "L, what are you doing? You are getting cereal everywhere, S2 is a mess"; L "If you think you can do better, you feed her"; P "It is all about the right technique". The right technique at this age? That doesn't exist. He cleans her face off and starts feeding her. Soon you hear, "S2, no, no, no. No spitting. Come on S2, you are getting it on my glasses. No, no, no, S2." The cereal is everywhere yet again. As we are eating, L and I are trying to hold back our laughter. L says "The right technique, huh, P?", caving into her laughter. P "She is too active right now"; Me "If you think she is activ

The father (P) that I work for is Mr. Negativity. He is complains about everything. Nothing can ever be done right, for instance, when the cleaning ladies comes, this is how it goes every time: (P)"Were the cleaning ladies here?" (me) "Yes" (P) "Oh" (as he is doing a white glove test, without the white glove) (the mother[L]) "Why?" (P) "You can't tell". And mind you, yes you can tell, they do a wonderful job. So when something actually does go wrong, you can about imagine how well he takes it. Two days ago a man came to fix some stuff in their unfinished basement, mostly sanding some cement, among other things. The basement door hasn't been latching lately, so it pops open, as well as other doors in the house, including mine (now fixed). When the man began to sand, dust was coming up the stairs and getting everywhere. I kept trying to close the door, but it just popped back open. There wasn't much I could do and I knew the c

Winter storm in Minnesota, tornadoes in Missouri, wildfires in Texas, 70 degree temps and severe thunderstorms in the Tri-state area (Connecticut, New York, New Jersey); are we trapped in the movie "The Day After Tomorrow" or is this really happening? Since it hasn't been mentioned for so long on my blog, can we say GLOBAL WARMING? It was reported that only 20 tornadoes touched ground in the Midwest, but there were 100 in all, killing 10 people. Seven were killed in Texas from fires. And 10 inches+ of snow fell in Minnesota (which is fairly normal for this time, but it was connected to the storms with the tornadoes). And I am taking S out to ride her bike when S2 wakes up. None of this is normal. And none of it is good.

I got my haircut yesterday. Nothing drastic, just a trim. I am in the process of growing it out to donate it to Locks of Love for my second time. When I get my haircut, I like to have my hairstylist blow it out straight, it is luxury since I hate trying to do it on my own. So about once every two months, I have straight hair for a couple days. It is a nice change; I like my hair both straight and curly. However, I am finding that when it is straight I get twice the attention from the opposite sex. So it made me wonder, do guys like straight hair better than curly? I already know my dad doesn't like my hair straight, he said it doesn't look like me, but he seems to be in the minority when it comes to guys, at least from what I have noticed. And if guys do like straight hair better, oh well, I guess I will get less attention then (which is fine by me). I am not about to spend the 30 minutes it would take me each day to straighten it. So I will enjoy my straight hair once every c

I have a predicament. I have been frequenting a new local coffee shop this past week. So here's the thing, their chai teas (all I drink at coffee shops besides hot chocolate) are okay, but not my favorite. Starbucks doesn't have my favorite chai tea either, but it is better than this new coffee shop. I am all about supporting the small businesses so big corporations don't put them out of business. Question of the day: What would you do, go to the small coffee shop even though it isn't as good, but not terrible or go to Starbuck's where it is better but not supporting the small town businesses? I am torn between the two. On the topic, I get a tidbit of info everday in my email called Ideal Bite and today it was about Starbucks (after I had already gone their today), here's what it said: "Company Background Ben Packard, head of Environmental Affairs, told Ideal Bite, ... that five years ago the company took a big step forward when it signed on to the United N

That's right, tomorrow is my birthday. I can't believe I will be 25 already, I don't feel that old. Not that 25 is old, my sisters are 6 and 8 years older than me and I don't consider them old at all. But my whole life I have been treated like the baby (probably because I am the baby of the family) and being 25 suddenly makes me feel like I need to act like an adult. I am not too excited about this birthday, and not because of the age. It is my first birthday away from friends or family. I always had someone there that I loved to celebrate with me and now it is just me. Don't get me wrong, the family I work for is trying to make it special for me, but it just isn't the same. We celebrated my birthday tonight because the father is leaving to go out of town tomorrow. They bought me a cake, and not a last minute deal either, the father had to drive 30 minutes out of his way on the way home from work to pick up a cake that they had made for me with a picture of the

I spent 2 hours today taking photographs. I had been eyeing this spot since a month after I moved here. I wanted them to be night shots, so tonight after spending 2 hours babysitting the girls, at 9 pm I ventured out. I realized how different this place is from Montana more than ever tonight. The mother I work for was shocked that I would go out to take photos so late. She said she couldn't believe how devoted I was. I thought back to the summer and how we would be in class until 9 pm and then we would go out and take photos, sometimes all night long and then go to class the next morning at 9 am. Tonight, as I was on the side of the road taking photographs, cars were slowing down to see what I was doing. One car even stopped, got out of their car, watched me for a minute, got back in and drove off. Apparently taking photographs at night is a foreign thing in this area. In Montana, you could hang upside down from a bridge or stand in the middle of the interstate taking photographs a

"If a day goes by without my doing something related to photography, it's as though I've neglected something essential to my existence, as though I had forgotten to wake up." - Richard Avedon