Livre d'Or

Right. So. I've been hinting about this and talking about it under lock for ages, but now it's official, so I can tell you all: I'm leaving my job at the end of the month to retrain as a Reform rabbi.

( the story )

Sorry for being mysterious for ages, I just didn't want to put anything on the public internet until it was properly official.

So my partners and metamour had a baby this week! It's very exciting, but also very weird because we are quarantined apart. I had been a bit nervous and a lot excited about forming a relationship with a child from birth (I suppose that was the case with my siblings, but the period when I was aged 2-6 doesn't count in quite the same way.) But now that's not really going to happen; I'm planning to carry on waving to her from 2m away, but babies don't bond to people who occasionally wave from 2m away.

There's no point being sad about no baby cuddles; I'm already properly sad about having to stay physically distanced from my actual partners and the middle two children whom I miss desperately. Family life during a a pandemic is weird, but that's hardly news.

I started spending extended time with her older siblings when they were 2 1/2 and 6 (now 8 and 11). The thing I found most difficult about interacting with younger children is how emotionally intense they are. Does anyone have any advice (from personal experience or theoretical knowledge) about how to cope when people you care about find every small setback or frustration devastatingly upsetting? It's something I want to do better this time. Note that I don't want advice on how to prevent small children from inconveniently expressing emotions around me, I just want to find better ways of handling my own feelings.

It's probably a skill worth learning in general, because with a terrifying global pandemic everybody is more emotionally on edge than usual. And of course it's something that all parents must manage somehow. I just... don't see it talked about a lot in eg parenting guides.

To wildeabandon and obandsoller on getting married, and holding the most beautiful wedding to reach that state.

( wedding happiness )

On 7^th April, to j4 and addedentry, a daughter, Imogen Ruth. I know that offspring don't turn out exactly like their parents, but I have great hopes for the future of a new person who may be more like Janet and Owen than most other people.

( misc social plans )

May 1^st marks the official second anniversary of Dreamwidth. This means that the three_weeks_for_dw project is in full swing from yesterday. I'm a bit behind with that stuff, but it seems to be doing pretty well without me. It's a fun fest, but seems a lot less necessary than it was this time last year, which is an encouraging sign. As you might have guessed from the above list, I'm pretty busy for the next three weeks, but I'll see if I can contribute something. I might do a FONSFAQ, perhaps on a Jewish or sciencey topic, and I might at least attempt one of the floating memes. But anyway, let me know if there's anything you particularly want me to post about and I'll see what I can do.

And last but very much not least, jack and I are getting married on Sunday 20^th May 2012. We still have lots of details to think about before we can officially invite people, but just so you know.

Guess who's getting married! (Well done to Mum who was the first to spot this exciting announcement.)

(For people who don't know my crowd and therefore might find this less exciting, Gerv is also semi-famous for creating Bugzilla, so he's indirectly an influence on Dreamwidth too.)

I have a few. The site's still very much in beta, and really so, we're actually working on bugs, not just that web 2.0 thing where everything is permanently in beta. But if you want to play around or reserve your username before the official launch, do comment. I expect you all know what Dreamwidth is by now; I might do a post talking about it properly later on, but right now codes up for grabs. If you think I don't know your email address, pm me.

And yes, I am planning to move over fully as soon as the site launches into public beta. More on that later.

ETA: Four down, two to go... within a quarter of an hour of posting. You guys are quick like bunnies!

ETA2: All gone! I'll try and pick up some more but no promises, they're still limiting site growth pretty strictly just now.

ETA3: Already 3 8 people in the queue for any more that show up. There may be faster ways of getting codes than joining said queue, but I'll give them away as fast as they show up if you'd like to add your name to the list. Sorry, Americans, it just fell out that way.

I'm back in Cambridge and I'm 29. Limmud was absolutely wonderful and involved far too much Talmud and not enough sleep, so I'm going to post this and then make a start on some heavy-duty sleeping.

I've missed all you guys. There's no way I can catch up on a week's worth of friends page, but I'll see lots of you on Saturday evening. Hope everyone relevant had a good Christmas. I'm still not really around online until I get back to Sweden on 3^rd Jan, since I'm going to try to cram half a year's worth of socializing into the next few days.

Just had a phonecall from ploni_bat_ploni, she's in hospital with heart trouble. Probably minor but they need to do loads of tests to make sure. She mainly complains of boredom rather than anything worse.

She asked me to post here; our friends don't entirely overlap but it's better than nothing. She'd been feeling poorly for a while but cleverly managed to get herself admitted while she was in her Home Country, so at least her fiancé and friends can visit her and she speaks the language. (Apparently she has internet access, but the system is too old to cope with LJ or her email account, so effectively she's out of touch.)

Update 10 May: ploni_bat_ploni is now out of hospital. See her journal for more details if you know her.

(Me, I'm ok but uncommunicative for various reasons. I will update once I manage to follow through on the intention.)

I have internet! It was totally straightforward to set up, too; I put the start CD in the drive and it asked me if I would like English instructions, and then it gave me clear and comprehensive instructions, which worked. I know there are lots of people around here who get kicks out of doing everything manually and would probably find the CD unbearably patronizing, but fast and easy suits me very well.

This particular evening I have a lot better things to do than fiddling around configuring my internet access, because fluffymark is on his way here and I'm about to leave to meet him. But after more than two months internet-less there is too much squee not to post straight away.

I have gone to the Antipodes in search of the elusive snark post-doc. Back on 29 November. I'll have limited net access in that time, so assume minimal email and probably no LJ.

Have fun while I'm away. And do lots of things that I wouldn't do and then post about them so I can enjoy them vicariously.