When the Hell did it Get to be August?
It was another great beach day with Playgroup Peeps Sarah/Abigail and Debbie/Kaitlin. Somehow, Jack and I keep missing the weeks that Maureen/George are able to be there, so Jack was with the girls again today and George was the only boy last week.
Have I ever given a description of the Mom/Baby pairs in our little playgroup? I don't think that I have, so let me do it now so that you all know whom I'm blogging about. The way that we all got together is like this: Amy (of Amy/Abby) and Maureen (of Maureen/George) were in the New Moms/New Babies class that I took when Jack was a wee little baby who spit up a lot. I recognized Amy because she had been in our birthing class at the hospital when Jack was still the Alien in my Buddha. After the NM/NB class was done, Maureen met Sarah (of Sarah/Abigail) at an exercise class for new moms and Amy met Debbie (of Debbie/Kaitlin) at another new moms program. Those four pairs started meeting on Wednesdays and then, in February, when all of the babies were turning one and we had a small reunion of the original New Moms/New Babies class, Maureen and Amy invited Jack and I to join their group. I met Jennifer (of Jennifer/Katherine) through another new parents group and invited her to join us. So that's how the 6 of us got together. I'm giving all of this detail in case there are other new moms out there looking for support: I think that the formal programs and groups provide a great opportunity for networking (shoot me for sounding so corporate then); that is, take what you want from the formal group but keep your eyes and ears open for someone who has similar interests, lives in the same area, is rolling her eyes at the same time you are, or whatever and then just start your own group.
And this is one of the secrets of parenthood and one of the less obvious reasons, I think, that people have kids: kids give you an enormous opportunity to meet new people. Take the beach, for instance: I used to go to the beach with my towel and my sunscreen and my book and my bottle of Poland Springs and I would sit there and read and have a swim and go for a walk and read some more and take a nap and have another swim and go home without talking to anyone else on the beach. Now, I've got a jogging stroller with a cute baby in it (a cute baby who was just standing up buck naked in the back of the station wagon) weighed down with a million sand toys and a cooler and a little pop-up tent and immediately everyone else with kids smiles at me and I smile back at them and Jack steals their buckets and their kids come and sit in Jack's tent and we've made 40 friends within 3 hours. So, I don't know if it takes a village to raise a child, but I do know that you get to know the whole village when you have one.
So Where Was I?
So, of the moms, Maureen, I think, is a born leader. She has great energy, both physically and spiritually. She is an artist and a skiier and is working part time teaching fitness classes and as a personal trainer. She's pregnant again and is originally from Nebraska. She's very open and warm.
Amy I've written about a little bit: she's an educator, a former Peace Corps volunteer, an avid runner. Amy is has incredible compassion and sensitivity. She's a great listener and is very creative. She is soulful. She's home with Abby almost full time, although she was teaching classes at Gymboree for 3 year-olds this year. Amy is originally from Upstate New York.
Sarah is small and blonde and very, very, very smart. (Please note that all of the women in this group are smart; I guess that what I mean is that Sarah has a very sharp mind and she's inquisitive and sees all of the angles. She'll ask a question that makes me wonder why I hadn't thought of that same thing.) She's an attorney specializing in environmental law and is working 20 hours per week (which, for a lawyer, probably means more like 30.) Sarah is incredibly soft spoken, which I think is a funny trait for an attorney. It is no accident, I think, that Abigail has best vocabulary of the group.
Debbie is one of the nicest people I have ever met. She has an MBA from Harvard and is incredibly laid back and nice and, even though she lives further west than any of us, is always happy to come into the city or to places closer to the rest of us. Once, when it was Debbie's turn to pick the activity for the week, she suggested going to the Aquarium. Two of us demurred: too expensive, too hard to park, blahblahblah. Without missing a beat and without losing her good nature, she suggested an indoor play park that was easily a 40 minute drive for her but was convenient for everyone else. Oh, and she's pregnant, too. Debbie isn't working since her husband is a consultant and is in Texas right up until the baby is due.
Jennifer is a self-described Army brat who moved here from California when her husband was transferred here for his work. She was looking for a job when she became pregnant with Kate and so put the job hunt on hold. Jennifer is an avid reader and she reads Salon and some Salon blogs and other mommyblogs. Jennifer is a lot of fun: she and I were the two who ordered margaritas when we had lunch at a Mexican restaurant before going to the Discovery Museum with the kiddies.
Next time, I'll blog more about the babies. I guess that I'm just feeling very fortunate to have found a group of women with whom I have more in common than a baby born in the winter of 2004. They're all keepers.
Epiphany
I had one a few weeks ago that I've been meaning to write about in here: I've decided that my fifties will be all about me. I started thinking about how my 20's had been given up to higher learning (and cute boys) and my 30's were spent on my career. Now my 40's are going to be given, willingly and gladly and without regret, to Jack. So, I'm thinking, my 50's are going to be all about me. I'm going to finish my masters (if I want to; or maybe I'll just take some writing classes.) I'm going to get a job that I want to do rather than one that I have to do. I will go to a yoga class 3 times a day to make up for all of the classes that I'm missing now. And I will ride my bike all the time (and it will be sheer pleasure when my 10 year-old son is riding up ahead of me.)
That's the new plan.
9:28:00 PM 
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