Must. Post. Blog. Entry.

So. I'm back.

It sucks.

I am so not inspired to write (mostly I am only inspired to cry and/or stare zombielike into the distance), but also not willing to do anything that might feel like or lead to me giving up on my blog. So, instead, a list of things I want to write about sometime. Maybe the list will inspire it to actually happen, or maybe the wanting will have to suffice.

- Our board meeting, which was an exercise in disillusionment and sticking up for myself and finding my breaking point.

- The wedding: It was a wedding, all right. People were most definitely wed.

- The date: it was nice. But how do you measure potential?

- My niece Hailey: she is learning to name the world and how you can watch her making connections and learning, and getting delighted at the simplest things. Look - a whale! or That girl's head just disappeared behind that blanket! Ohmigosh!

OK, OK... One quick story: my Grandmother's name is Jo, and she is... flamboyant. At Christmas time, she introduced herself to Hailey thusly:

Points at the baby: "Hailey! Hai- ley!"
(baby stares back in bemusement: Yup, that's me.)
Grandmother pats self vigorously on the chest, says "Jo! JoJoJoJoJo!" About 17 times.

Now this is a smart baby. Excellent genepool, amazing resume; you should see her letters of reference. Stellar. And she has learned to sign. She signs "more", "all done", "please", "eat", and a number of other (ohmigosh how absolutely adorable) words, a skill which greatly decreased her and her parents' stress level back when her little vocal chords were not yet able to form the words. And so she has learned that signs convey meaning, and so my grandmother's name will forever be a wide-eyed "JoJo!" accompanied by a sincere chest pat. Her boyfriend? "Papa JoJo," of course.

Hmm. This "just one story" thing just doesn't work if you're an auntie. One more is in order: We were staying at my dad's house, all us kids. Hailey woke up early and my sister brought her upstairs to me (bright eyed and jetlagged) and went back to bed. So I cut up all sorts of goodies for her to stuff by the fistful into her mouth, and then... hmm. What do you talk about with a baby? I made small talk for a while, but after a few minutes I was stumped. So I just, you know, waited for her to make conversation. I think the kid's going to be an extrovert (a left-handed one! Go her!), because she was awfully dang good at it. She'd look at me for a while and then ask "Papa?"
"Sorry honey, Papa's working."
"Ad-da?" (that's Dad to those of you not fluent in Baby).
"Ad-da's downstairs sleeping!"
"Tairs?"
"We'll go downstairs in a minute, honey, when Mama and Ad-da are all done sleeping."
"Noh?" (that's "more", made much easier to recognize by the convenient sign)
And in my coup de grace as Auntie Jessie (Chessss-eee!, pronounced in italics), I taught her the word 'melon'! Go me!