Much better

Today has been not nearly as crappy as yesterday.

I started out the morning....well, first of all, I started the morning without a headache, so that was a win. And then today was the Housestaff Council (like Student Council, but for residents) had our annual holiday charity Brunch with Santa. We collected donations for Ronald McDonald House, SECU house (like RMH, but for families of adult patients), Toys for Tots, and the NC Food Bank. It was a RAVING success. Over 250 people. Over $800 raised. Over 350 toys and over 350 food items collected. Hard working community and resident volunteers. And the restaurant we had it at this year was just awesome. We got the whole place to ourselves, which was fantastic. The atmosphere was wonderful and festive, there was a great turnout from the Psych department, there were many of my friends' children playing and being adorable. I got great pictures. It was a wonderful way to spend the morning.

Plus, there were Marines. In uniform. Wh0 - sadly - were probably way too young for me, but were still scenic. (Okay, mostly it's the uniform.)

I went home after that and played on the computer and snuggled with my dog and knit a little, and then I got great news - I'm an aunt again!!! My wonderful friend Bianca from back home, after two days of being a super duper trooper in labor, had a little girl today. She's a wee bit early, but then, I was born at 35 weeks, too. Welcome, little one!! Cannot wait to meet her.

And, of course, take lots and lots of pictures. Natch.

So then I got this Facebook message from my friend Syd, who noticed I had just posted, and was like, can you babysit? And since my dinner plans tonight had turned into coffee plans tomorrow, I was like, yeah, sure. Her usual babysitter flaked at the last minute, and she'd called a bunch of people, and then saw I was on, so, here I am.

Her son is...I'm going to say two. Could he be three? Yeah, he might, but I still think two. And he's completely adorable. We played Thomas the Tank Engine and read a bedtime story called Dog (he was having trouble picking a story. So I saw this one and suggested that the dog - this HILARIOUS big lab they have, whom I also find completely adorable - wanted to hear that one. So we did). And then, he was not crazy about the idea of going to sleep, and was clearly tired, but a little upset that his mom and dad weren't here (not that he'd admit that, it was very cute), so we snuggled in the rocking chair for a while until he was mostly asleep. He was out in like five minutes, of course. I kept going an extra five for good measure.

It was just the sweetest thing. He had that great little boy smell, like shampoo and Dreft and, I don't know, snips and snails and puppy dog tails or something. And was all warm and cuddly, and I was sitting there thinking, wow. I can't believe she's actually going to pay me for this, too.

So now I'm hanging out by the baby monitor, on their computer (which is so much cooler than mine), thinking about how very much this makes my uterus ache. Five years ago? I was kind of thinking I might not ever want kids. Like, I could be the cool aunt. These days? I'm thinking more about how my eggs are getting old. Tick, tick, tick.

Okay, the ticking is still fairly faint. And, honestly, I do NOT want to do that alone. So a husband would be the first order of business. No, wait - boyfriend comes before husband, right? It's been a while (never) since I've had a functional relationship...