We spent all day today in an adoption parenting seminar. Different speakers and such, talking about different issues surrounding adoption and parenting. And meeting more families adopting kids, mostly from Ethiopia it turns out, although most of them weren't from that close around here. Nevertheless, I am now terribly prepared and shall commence the perfect parenting, just as soon as I have a child- preferably one who wishes to be perfect along with me. It works out the best that way.
Then off to meet my neighbors at the annual get-together "picnic" (which ended up indoors due to the dog's nose of weather we are having here) and subsequent neighborhood association meeting. I had previously been blissfully unaware of all the things a neighborhood association did, or why they bothered to exist at all except to collect my yearly dues and tell me how I can and can't decorate or alter my house. So, it turns out, they also have to trim the shrubberies out in front of the big signs with our neighborhood name at the entrance to the neighborhood. And stuff like that. Very exciting. And all done in annoyingly official manner, which means there is a ridiculous amount of cumbersome and unnecessary paperwork involved. Good times. My neighbors seem like decent humanoid beings, although most are older, with kids at least in middle school if not all grown up and moved away. So... no other babies on my cul-de-sac to corrupt my perfect dreamchild. However, perfection aside, I find this disappointing.
