Random Stuff You Probably Didn't Want to Know About Me

Emily from the Wheels on the Bus offered to interview people a few days ago. Because I love to talk about myself, I asked her to interview me. I've done this before, but Emily is a fascinating person and an amazing writer and I was curious to see what she would ask:

1) On any given day, how do you feel about your choice to have two children?

I love it. Well, I have to back up a bit. It really wasn't a conscious "choice" to have two. T and I had quite a bit of difficulty having number one. You can read a bit about that here and here. We never in a million years thought we could have an "accident," but we did and his name is Holden. Our children are 15 months apart.

Hands down, the best part about having two children is watching them interact. When Hollis takes care of his little brother or when Holden comes to tell me that "Mommy, Hollis is crying," it melts my heart. I hope they'll be best friends some day.

Now we struggle with whether to try for number 3. I'd like another. My husband is not exactly enthusiastic about the idea of being outnumbered and we don't even know if I can have another. We don't have all that much time to decide. I'm not getting any younger. But in theory, I think I'd like 3. Now, if I had unlimited time, money and energy, I'd have 4 or 5. How's that for insanity?

2) In your experience, do most lawyers make good friends (for you, at least)?

Yes and no. Three of my best friends in the world are lawyers, including Not Exactly A Princess who works with me. I met the other two in law school. But honestly, they aren't my friends because they're lawyers. They're my friends because they get me and I get them. The law is irrelevant.

Generally, I find lawyers to be about the same as the rest of the population. Some are pompous asses, most are decent human beings. Many, many, many of them are total control freaks. Not me, of course. {/sarcasm} And I've never met a lawyer that could back down from a fight unless required to do so by court order.

Seriously.

That's why I'm married to a computer geek.

3) If you had two weeks off of work, relatives to stay with the kids, and $8,000 you had to spend, what would you do?

Sleep and invest? That sounds really lame, doesn't it? Actually, I'd probably do what T and I are planning to do next Fall. We're getting grandparents to stay with the kids and going to Europe. We've been before, of course, but never together. I want to spend most of our time in Italy, but I'm sure we'll be stopping by London too!

4) It has been said that the problem with being a working mother is that you never feel like you're giving anything your all. Yet, you seem to have it all in balance. Does it feel that way to you? And, if it does, what's your secret so the rest of us can try?!

Baaaaahaaaaa!

Snort.

I'm very good at faking it.

I'm not very good at asking for help either, here or in my real life. Occasionally that leads to nuclear melt downs, which is probably not a good thing, but people think I have it all together as a result. I don't. But I don't really struggle with work/life balance more than anyone else with children does. If you stay home, your kids still suck up all of your time. I think even moms who are at home every day feel like they aren't doing enough of something. Those kids are endless black holes for energy, love, and attention. So I think we're all just struggling to figure out who we are as women and mothers, regardless of where we spend our days.

I don't get enough sleep. I get depressed. In fact, I'm taking some very nice happy pills now to cope a bit. But most of the time I just say, "fuck it," rather than get worked up over the stuff that was so important to me before I had kids. You know, like having a house where everything was just so and time to get regular manicures.

5) What makes you giggle?

My kids do on a daily basis. When Hollis and Holden laugh, and frequently one of them gets the other going, they laugh with their whole bodies. It's infectious and it never fails to make me laugh too.

When an H&H giggle fit happens in public, sometimes people will just stare and not even crack a smile. I'm always bewildered by that. I don't know how anyone can watch a child giggle without smiling. It's pure joy.

Aside from that, I have to admit I'm a big fan of juvenile potty humor. I embrace my inner 14 year old.

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So how about it? Anyone want to be interviewed by me? Leave me a comment with your email or send me an email at lawyermama at gmail dot com and I'll send you some questions.