I voted!

If you're an American living abroad and you want to vote, go here to get information about receiving your federal write-in ballot.

Labels: the expat files

posted by swissmiss @ 10:45 Comments: 2

Dear International Herald Tribune print edition printed in Switzerland:

If you have space in your print edition for a short blurb about Jet Man, you might want to mention that the Swiss Finance Minister had major heart surgery and was in a medically induced coma for two days and that it remains unclear when or if he will return to the government, all in the middle of the worst world financial crisis in decades.

Just sayin'.

Love and strange priorities,
Swissmiss

Labels: Switzerland

posted by swissmiss @ 10:23 Comments: 2

A confession

It started out as a business relationship, someplace to concentrate on my writing, perhaps a way to meet fellow poets. But it started getting personal. I told a few stories about my children, I shared a few poems. I started spending more and more time there, neglecting other relationships. I'd save up experiences and stories to share there. I realized I was putting my emotional energies someplace else, but I can't give it up.

It's true. I have another blog.

Labels: blog housekeeping

posted by swissmiss @ 09:37 Comments: 2

This blog is clearly on life-support

June 20? Really? My last post was June 20th? Maddy's comment down there ("why can't I see the countdown clock?") inspired me to at least post some random bulltets of update:

• R. is back from his trip, which is why you can't see the countdown clock. I took it down.
• We survived.
• I had a few classic Great Moments in Parenting, but we survived.
• I do not do well on continued sleep deprivation.
• R. brought back fireman rain boots for Small Boy. He would wear them all day in 30 degree weather if I let him.
• R. also brought back the most authentic little fireman suit I've ever seen. We're hiding it. Because if Small Boy saw it, we'd never get him out of it. I'm waiting for cooler weather.
• Boychen has six teeth. Six!
• Boychen isn't crawling yet but manages to scootch from here to there somehow.
• When Boychen starts to crawl I am so. screwed.
• These are really good.
• Hey guess what? He's got another one of these in November! Oh joy!
• These are really good.
• This blog is clearly on life-support.

posted by swissmiss @ 18:18 Comments: 2

Sigh

You know it is going to be a long day when you have taken a walk, finished with the zoo, eaten a happy meal and exhausted the McPlayland all before noon. And hey, check out the countdown clock in my sidebar. Oh yeah.

On the upside, I fit into a pair of pre-pregnancy summer pants today. Which is nice. Since it's summer.

posted by swissmiss @ 12:39 Comments: 4

Euro 08 comes to an end in Bern

Well, Bern's part of playing host to the Euro 08 is over; from here on out we're not hosting any games anymore. Contrary to my concerns, it was really hardly an issue at all. On the three days we hosted the Dutch games the city was at capacity, but it was a friendly capacity. Once the Swiss team crashed out, the Bernese seemed to adopt the Dutch - staff at many restaurants were wearing Dutch jerseys and a lot of shops had "Hup Holland!" ("Go Holland!") banners up. But all in all I have to say the overall "Euro-phoria" was muted, to say the least.

posted by swissmiss @ 17:04 Comments: 0

Finding a fellow traveller

Remember "gaydar?" The little bell that goes off in the heads of the gay and gay-friendly that makes you think somebody is part of the community, a fellow traveller? That little something? Do you think infertiles have something similar? (What would we call it? Inf-dar? Bar-dar? ART-dar?) Because I did the strangest thing this afternoon.

I hold my cards pretty close to the vest regarding the whole IVF-thing. Neither my family nor R's knows that Small Boy and Boychen are IVF/FET babies (though sometimes I think R's mom might suspect). Some of our good friends know - three we told during the process, people we'd been friends with for over a decade and who stood up for us at our US wedding; but Small Boy was one before I told Dutch Friend and two before I told Australian Friend. I don't mind people knowing, but I don't broadcast it. As I said, I hold my cards pretty close to the vest.

Today I was at a playgroup some of the expat moms have been trying to get off the ground forever and talking with a new woman; I had come into the conversation late and she and Australian Friend were talking about how hard twins would have been and we don't know how we would have done it. But then we all agreed that we would have done it because it is what it is, and you just do it. Especially twins with a first (successful) pregnancy - you don't have any basis of comparison and infants are just hard anyway. And then we all agreed that twins the second time around would be really hard and I said - to a woman I'd just met five minutes ago - that when we were trying to get pregnant with the Small Boy I was willing to risk twins with a two-embryo transfer but the second time around, with Boychen, we only ever considered single embryo transfers. It just slipped out of mouth with all the natural ease in the world.

And she said, that's what we're doing too.

Whoa.

Her child is an IVF baby too. We have different REs but they use the same lab and she knows Herr G, the Labmeister, too; we agreed he's a super-nice guy. (Did I ever mention that after my last transfer - the Boychen transfer - we hung around with Herr G chatting about cycling, the Tour de France, Lance Armstrong, and Fabian Cancellara? Well we did.) What a small world. And how strange that I would have picked that moment, with that woman, to say something that honestly I never introduce into conversation.

What do you think, fellow ART-ers? Do you think we have an "ART-dar?" Has yours ever tingled? And were you right?

Labels: the infertility files

posted by swissmiss @ 15:04 Comments: 4