Scene: AJ�s bedroom at bedtime.

Harriet: Goodnight, AJ. Sweet dreams!
AJ: Mommy, could we talk about how I behaved today?
Harriet: What do you want to talk about?
AJ: Well, I wasn�t very good today.
Harriet: It wasn�t one of your best days.
AJ: I was grumpy.
Harriet: That happens to everyone sometimes. But if you try to have good manners � listen to people when they�re talking to you and talk nicely to people � then you�ll usually feel better. Hopefully we�ll have a better day tomorrow.
AJ: I�ll get my bad manners out of my body while I�m sleeping.
Harriet: How are you going to do that?
AJ: Well, I�ll just tell them to go away.
Harriet: That sounds great. I look forward to seeing your good manners in the morning.
AJ: But what if they don�t go away?
Harriet: I bet they will. Just show them who�s boss.
AJ: Who�s the boss?
Harriet: I am.

* * * * *

AJ has been trying very hard to wrestle with his preschooler mood swings. Like a teenager, he is suddenly very sensitive about being laughed at and whenever he thinks you�re not paying enough attention to him. I know how he feels. I haven�t been on such an even keel myself.

I am currently in a frenzy because I accidentally overstated the state of my dissertation to my advisor(or rather, my statement was somewhat misinterpreted, but I was vague) and now he seems to have the idea that he�s going to see the entire thing sometime in the next two weeks. The thing is, if I didn�t have to entertain AJ, grocery shop, cook, clean and sleep, I think I could do it. And the very idea of being that close is spurring me on. But I am a complete basketcase and am likely to be come worse in the next couple of weeks. Plus I just realized the first application deadline for one of the jobs I�m looking at is October 1. Maybe if I�m insanely busy I won�t have time to feel unready for what is about to come.

0 people said it like they meant it