When I saw this idea by way of Jenny’s post, it made me feel more inclined to read some of the limited selection available. I’m choosing titles based on what I can get from the faculty book exchange at work, which very few people know about and therefore don’t use. I wish that would change–and maybe I will take the P.R. upon myself this year–so that the selection would evolve a little bit. Most of the choices are older genre fiction. I’ve got the first four sorted out, plus the Stieg Larsson which a coworker just lent me, unsolicited. After the semester starts in mid-September, I am hoping at least someone will have dropped off a few decent things. If not, then I will have to add more from the romance, spy and western territory. It won’t kill me.

I’m starting with The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo so I can return it to my coworker. Who knows, maybe I will read the others (our library has them but strangely not the first one). I already have the movie but I won’t watch it until after I finish the book.

Today I poked around and also realized that I didn’t even write a “day in the life” last year AT ALL. 2009 was hated by a lot of people, but for me, up until mid-October when our utopian existence of affordable living in a relatively progressive community, a great job, super friends, and lots to do came crashing to a halt, it was a really great year. I’m sure we were just too busy having fun in the spring to even think of it. Of course now I wish I had written it just as a document of life at that time. It would have involved more complaining about irregular sleep patterns, but by last spring Maeve was solidly potty-trained, and had finished breastfeeding a couple days before turning three in April.

Nothing to do but forge ahead with this year’s though. And I will get to that soon. In the meantime, here are the previous versions:

• A Day In The Life (May 25, 2006). Maeve was only 1.5 months old, and my previous childless existence was going up in flames.
• Another Day In The Life (May 26, 2007). I was slowing down, or maybe getting better at incorporating my kid in the things I wanted to do. Wood from Sweet Juniper left a comment which made me feel cool.
• Day In The Life 3.0 (June 17, 2008). Two years old! I had gone back to work part-time earlier that year, and after a rocky adjustment to all the daycare germs and stuff, by summer we were getting used to the patterns.

Here is “Big Four” at her international school in Dubai a couple weeks ago.

Lots of things have changed since Day In The Life 3.0, living in Dubai being the hugest one of course. Summer vacation is coming in a while and we’ll have some interesting things to record on one of those days. Stay tuned!

My parents decided a few weeks ago to send Stan to kitty heaven, unfortunately without involving me in the decision, so it’s double the sadness.

I’m sorry Stan, you were the best cat, and maybe the only one I’ll ever have.

Here we are getting into some exciting repurposing craft activities. I’m in a bit of a rush to wrap up projects, too, before I give back the loaned sewing machine in a week or two. The primary reason for borrowing it was to hem the curtains for most of our apartment, and only Maeve’s room remains. Hers are double so it’s extra work.

I wanted to make her a wraparound skirt with some of the curtain scrap. It’s asking for some embroidery (a rabbit has been requested). In my attempt to minimize effort, I used the side edge of the scrap fabric, which had already been hemmed, for the waistband/tie. I just cut it off with a little extra to fold into it like bias tape. It wasn’t quite long enough so we may be putting snaps or buttons on the ends instead of tying it closed. I also used French seams on the interior, since wraparounds tend to flap open sometimes, so it looks very tidy.

The pattern is a formula I found online by searching for “girls wraparound skirt” – very simple and translatable to big people sizes too.

Size 4 is a bit big—should have measured Maeve first, as usual—but living in this boiling hot climate she can wear it year-round.

Barring the obvious switch to a full-time job, I have entered more of a survival-mode existence. I need more sleep, and I need more time to completely tune out (via TV/movies) where before I was multitasking a lot more.

That said, there will be a new knitting group starting at work next week and I am going to go. It’s totally in its infancy here at the moment, not much decent yarn to be had anywhere, but maybe things will improve.

This little Aranzi Aronzo monkey sums up the times for me, and for Maeve who is squarely in the middle of adjustment to her new school this week.

Maeve and her pal Ava from upstairs have birthdays coming up soon. None of the bunnies from last year made it with us, but the pattern and some scrap yarn did. Here is the first one, which I made while watching an episode of Justified yesterday. Not sure if I love that show yet, but we are giving it a try.

I still haven’t made plans for Maeve’s birthday, which is only 12 days away. This is hard when you really only have one friend who lives nearby. But we’ll do something fun, maybe go to the dolphinarium. I guess I can be grateful for a little less pressure to make a bunch of invites, food, and party favors, but I love that stuff.

I have noticed that I can buy a decent sewing machine, at Carrefour in Mall of the Emirates (and probably elsewhere).

Magrudy’s bookstore in Festival Centre has yarn and sewing notions, among other art and craft supplies, way in the back.

I am most looking forward to checking out the textile shops here sometime. They are in Satwa on Plant Street.

And I have started making a Berroco pattern, Nimbus, in a lightweight cotton blend, and with a revised gauge of course.

Finding time to make things won’t be too hard–kiddo still goes to bed around 7pm regularly–it’s the navigation in this wacky city on the way to places where you can get supplies that takes forever. A little bit at a time…

• Social opportunities galore. Everyone wants to see us, get in one more dinner or playtime with the kid or whatever. We have a lot of really good friends that I will miss like crazy.
• Got a fabulous new haircut. After fearing layers in my giant mop of hair for the last 15 years, I gave it a try and it’s awesome.
• Finished knitting Nuss. Also awesome. Hair and Nuss together below.
  
• Watching my kid turn into much more of a little person all the time. She is beyond the halfway point of age 3 and doing a lot of good things, not the least of which is sleeping an average of 12 hours a night. Also being more difficult than ever with her thrashing and refusal to do normal things like pee or get dressed, and the level of public bad behavior has definitely gone up (she’s 3.666!). My mom always brags about how I was reading by this age, which maybe might have some shred of truth if Maeve is like I was. I know she recognizes certain words already like “no” or “mom” and lately she digs looking at graphic novels to find terms like “BAM!!!” and “POW!!!” We had a long talk about exclamation points the other day.
• Despite the leaving what was a good life behind, I am getting more excited all the time about going to Dubai. IN ONLY 21 DAYS. I was musing about how it will be awesome to go to the airport to MOVE somewhere instead of just travel there. Sucky with all the luggage and 3-year-old and customs and security checks, but otherwise very very awesome.

This year I think I read about five books total. It’s miserable. I barely find time to get through “selected” articles in each New Yorker anymore. I have been reading the same Paul Theroux book for about two months now, a little here and there at bedtime. It’s really good and the fact that it covers so much of Oceania in little chunks makes it perfect for this kind of reading, which is not helping me. Someone please recommend something that sucks you in, fiction or non.

We finally became Mac people all the way. The iPod touch Rodney won at his holiday xmas party in 2008 was the gateway drug. I love having a computer that, when you push the On button, is just on. None of this waiting for 10,000 processes to run anymore.

Generally for me, 2009 was not that bad of a year. I had a happy life, a good job, a comfortable house, good friends, I ate well, we were thinking about going to Mexico or somewhere next year. It got a little crazy in October, but luckily the solution came about quickly. And what a wild solution it will be. Stay tuned and have a wonderful 2010 yourselves!