screw work

rio is a love/hate relationship. there are days that i love being here and there are others that i am planning how to sneak out of the country with my daughter (you need to have both parents present on the trip or a notarized permission letter from the absent parent) on the next plane.

but today was a good day. a day that reminded me how lucky i am to live here and have the flexibility that i do to spend time with my little one who is quickly becoming not so little. today i hosted playgroup for this gringa playgroup i am a part of. i can't participate every week b/c of work and our random schedule and of course my laziness to go anywhere that isn't walking distance but i try at least once per month. today i hosted at clube paissandu, which is a great private club with facilities that i have only started to appreciate since laila was born. on most mornings it's usually laila + me + old ladies doing water aerobics but today i invited the gringa baby group and we had a great turnout. laila wasn't that social since we had been in the pool since 9:30 and she started getting sleep when the other kids arrived closer to 10:30 but she loves observing other kids in action, especially older ones.

it just reminded me of how lucky i was to have the flexibility to set my own schedule and spend time with my family. i kept my cel on the table just in case there were any urgent calls but you know, i just ignored the ones i got that seemed work related. i figured it could wait and i found out later i was right. i finally joined the 21st century and got a blackberry but i still have yet to turn it on since i returned to rio (i'm using one with a t-mobile account b/c the plan is MUCH cheaper than the brazilian one). i'm proud of myself for my blackberry control b/c i was getting a bit obsessed when i first got the thing. i got it so that i could respond to work emails when i was out with laila, but then i got here and i thought that if i was constantly on the bb when i was with laila, what was the point of being with laila?

so today i made the executive decision to slack off. and since i am the boss of me i guess that's OK. unfortunately that means i'll be up a little later tonight to finish the P&Ls for this month but definitely worth it given that i could spend a few hours with my daughter fully engaged w/o a work related thought. that is the beauty of leaving the corporate life and living in rio. i know i would never be able to really turn off my work brain and be with my baby if i were still in ny. it's funny how my priorities are so clear here. so i blew off a few phonecalls and emails until the end of the day when laila was napping and i could deal. and i don't feel bad about it. ha ha.