Levels of Geekery

Now, I've been a geek since birth. Or at least since I was 3 or 4 years old and my dad started reading 'Lord of the Rings' to me. It really shaped who I've become.

As I grew up, being a geek or nerd was not cool and not something most people wanted to be. I was completely out in my geekery in high school though as I had a picture of the crew of Enterprise from Star Trek: The Next Generation in my locker. I was also going to small Star Trek cons at this time with my dad.

I continued deeper into hardcore geekery in college as I started going to anime cons and gaming a lot - both table top and live action. Even at that time, it wasn't really very accepted to be a geek.

Now, being a geek is much more accepted than in my youthful days of high school and college, and some people associate themselves with that title that perhaps wouldn't have in the 'old days'.

So, it got me thinking about the levels of geekery. Here are how I could classify the types of geeks out there:

A aspiring geek is someone who watches a few sci-fi tv shows, thinks they are cool but doesn't involve themselves with the geek culture at all.

A casual geek is someone who may do some gaming, mostly video games, and watches the popular sci-fi shows.

A prevalent geek is someone who attends conventions, but doesn't cosplay. They also do the things a casual and aspiring geek does. - This is the type of geek my husband is.

A hardcore geek is someone who attends cons, who cosplays, who LARPs, who is involved in one or several geeky organizations (like a Browncoat group of a Starfleet chapter), among all the other stuff the other types of geeks do as well. This is the height of geeky-ness, and this is the type that I am.

Missed Christmas

Even though it's been over a month since Christmas, I'm still feeling pretty sad that I missed it.

I was physically there, but mentally, not so much. My memories of the 24th and 25th are pretty much not there because of whatever happened to me that landed me in the hospital for 5 days.

I still have the ingredients for Christmas cookies and Pumpkin cheesecake that I should have made on Christmas Eve in my kitchen / fridge. And I was too out of my mind to go to church on Christmas Eve.

But I think the thing that bothers me the most is that we have no pictures of Emily opening presents and such on Christmas. Christmas is one of my favorite holidays, and a special one since I became a mom because it was my mom's favorite, so it's still just really bothering me that I didn't get a Christmas last year.

SAHM+

If you want to get really technical, I am a stay at home mom (SAHM for short). I don't have a traditional job and do spend most of my time caring for Miss Emily.

But I also do go to college where I am studying to work in a medical office, and I also have work-at-home job via ChaCha.com. I don't make a lot of money at ChaCha but it allows to have some extra money for things like conventions and costumes.

I think it's great how opportunities have opened up for people who may not want to work a traditional job (or may not be able to), but now are still able to be able to make money.

So I guess I'm a "Stay At Home Mom College Student Online Worker" type person! And I think that's a great type of person to be.

It's been a while

It's been a while since I blogged. And that's because I got very sick over Christmas. To the point that the doctors still don't know what's wrong.

I'm trying my best to get back into the swing of normal life, and along with that I'd like to start blogging again.

For now, this is just a filler post saying that I haven't fallen off the face of the earth and I will get back to geeky mom blogging soon!

Date Afternoon

One of the challenges after you have a child is finding time to spend alone with your spouse, It's been extra hard for my husband and I because he's been working 6 days a week, and we are both in school.

But today, a friend of mine came over to watch Emily, and my husband and I got to go out to the movies. We went to see the newest Narnia movie, which was awesome. But it was just awesome to be able to cuddle in the movie theater with my husband.

I love my daughter, but I also love my husband, and it's nice to get some time away from Emily sometimes.

To Santa or not to Santa

I know that a lot of parents struggle with 'The Santa Question'. For my husband and I, we decided very easily to make Santa real for our daughter.

We had both believed in Santa when we were small, and I don't think having lived 'The Lie' damaged us in the slightest. I know that I loved keeping 'The Lie' up after I gave up believing, because my little sister still believed. In fact, my sister asked our mom point blank if Santa was real, and mom said no. Well, she wasn't ready to give up believing so she just ignored that conversation with our mom for another year!

Emily's bedtime story last night was "The Night Before Christmas" and she was excited at all the pictures in the storybook of Santa. Though she wasn't quite sure what to do with the 'real' thing when we took her to see Santa at Walmart over the weekend.

I think Santa adds to the magic of the season, and Christmas is so much more magical with a child to share it with!

Breaking Gender Stereotypes

When I was shopping for Emily's 2nd birthday gifts, I really wanted to get her a baby doll, because she didn't have one.

I saw the tool truck that is pictured, and I thought she would really like that too, because she really likes driving cars on the floor.

So she got a baby doll and the tool truck. She really liked both right out of the wrapping paper, but now, a month and a half after her birthday, she plays with the tool truck most of all.

Now I'm sure there would be people out there that would think this is a 'boy' toy that I shouldn't have gotten for my little girl. Though I do think that number is probably decreasing.

I hate the girl / boy toy thing. This stems back from my college years when I worked at McDonald's. I really disliked that we had two different toys, and that I had to ask which parents would want. When I was a kid, there was just one toy, and we liked it!

Now that I have a little girl, I want to encourage her to be herself. She loves trucks and playing tools, but she also loves to play kitchen and with toy food. I don't think there is a problem with liking either!