Needed: windless hallways.

I needed tablecloth weights yesterday for my skirt. There's a bit of a wind tunnel effect in the outside hallway between the building and the parking garage at work, and I was on the phone with my mom when up! went my skirt. I was pinned against the wall trying to keep it down, and there was a maintenance guy sitting on the bench on the phone and it was all I could do not to flash him.

I failed.

Wonder if I'll get better service from the maintenance guys now? Or the security guys, since that hallway is on video surveillance ...

*~*

The mortgage is moving forth now. I finally made a decision, and now I'm perfectly willing to hunt down all paperwork needed including reasons for settling a credit card debt 10 years ago. Geez! But that's fine, I'm the queen of writing stupid letters. That's what I do at work!!

Happy Mother's Day!

Thank you to all who texted, commented and emailed to say Happy Mother's Day. :) I'm terrible about writing back because, well, I am. But you all are wonderful.

My Mother's day was very nice. Christen made me breakfast in bed after I had already gotten up and fed Spencer ... but it was the thought that counted, of course. Spencer sat and watched the ever-cheesy 27 Dresses which while not the best movie in the world was certainly cute, and a nice brainless movie to watch this morning. We spent the majority of the day shopping for a kitchenette set and other various things that we'll want when we move into the new house but we instead spent about $30 at Old Time Pottery on a painting, a pretty platter and various cheap household items that will likely break on their first use. It was a nice day.

We got car side carryout of Carrabba's to have with the bottle of wine I got for mother's day. The bottle ... well, it was pretty good, especially as we kept drinking it. I haven't figured out why Christen had to kept emphasizing how expensive it was except because that's his way. It was very alcohol-y at the beginning (unappetizingly so), but after we finished eating I took a cookie with it and it was fantastic. We sat on the back porch and talked about wine and family and all of our trips while finishing the bottle of wine. I have to say it was fantastic by the time we finished it.

Now Christen is snoring beside me so I think I will try to get some sleep. We have the inspections on the new house tomorrow and I have to figure out my financing on the house. Blah. Only a month and 2 days until I own my own home!

Workin' through it

I’ve been meaning to write here, but it seems every time I think about it I'm doing something else and by the time I remember there's no time. Or by the time I open the screen I'm just not feeling it anymore. And once you get behind it's harder to even start again. Even now, technically I'm emailing this to myself from work so that I can get it down before life gets too busy, you know?

Anyhow, work has gotten better. I'm getting used to going to work every morning, and if I rush it in the am I can get to work early (7am) and get off even earlier (3:45pm) to spend time with my baby and my family. I missed working, to tell you the truth. I felt like I was only using my brain to count hours between feedings and to remember to pick up the dry cleaning. I only wish work wasn't quite so stressful. Does anybody have a local bookstore I can buy for like, a dollar and I can manage that?

Speaking of buying, we put an offer in on a house and yesterday it was accepted! So meet our new house: I'm sort of excited, although it really doesn't seem real to me so I haven't been able to get really excited yet. Also, there is a condition per the seller that we have to get pre-qualified through their lender to make sure that our financing isn't going to fall through. We don't have to go through them, they just want their Wells Fargo man to run our numbers to make sure we can afford the house.

So now I have to find a new daycare. I really love the daycare that he's at, so it sucks that we'll have to change, but it would more than double my drive to work in the mornings to continue taking him there. And I'm seriously no good at getting up in the mornings. Last week I was good about getting up in the 5:30am range, but this week I'm getting up just after 6, then I have to get myself and my son ready and leave by 6:25 (sometimes includes giving him a bottle). A 45- or 60-minute drive to work isn't happening. I drove down Memorial Hwy yesterday on my way home to see if there were any daycares on the way home to the new place (it's about a mile west of Memorial Hwy off Hillsborough), and there are a few but I think I'm going to have to check a bunch out next week when I have the inspections done on the place. I only saw one place that had a sign saying they were now enrolling, and I don't like only having one option. If I can't find a place right away, I'm going to have to keep him where he is until a spot opens up somewhere good.

Spencer's doing good. He had a bad cold last week and didn't sleep much (perfect timing, with me going back to work) but we got his mattress on an incline and started running a humidifier in his room and he's doing a lot better. Still the runny nose, but he sleeps better and seems a lot happier. I, on the other hand, got way sicker than him and I'm still very congested. We've been doing tummy time every night and he can scoot his body in a circle without lifting his belly. He only lasts a few minutes before he gets frustrated, but I'm really trying. He's always in such a good mood when I pick him up from daycare, so I've tried doing it right when we get home. He's still not going to bed until 10pm, but it's better than 11-12, like before. Slowly we may get him to a normal bedtime. :)

Anywho, so that's life as I know it right now. I'll try not to be a stranger, and don't you be either!

***update: daycare costs two to three as much near the new house! Spencer will be staying with his usual daycare for now. Even with the 20-30 minute longer commute, it's not as expensive as what those crazy people want to watch my son! We've worked it out so that Christen will take him to daycare and I'll pick him up. Holy cow! $215-272 a week!!!

****update numbero dos: They approved us with Wells Fargo, so we're good to go! Woohoo! I'm going to be a homeowner in less than 5 weeks!

Trying to keep my head above water

So two days into work and I already feel like I'm drowning. When I left I knew every file I had, and where I was on it, what needed to be done. Now even the files that are still mine (which is about 90% of them) I don't know what is going on with them. Plus I have about 45 new files, 30 of which are in a system I've never worked. I started today by just writing expense checks in the new system and even that was complicated. I know I can figure it all out eventually, but it's just frustrating. And in the meantime I have to get some semblance of work done, right?

I just want to go home. But really, I know I should want to go home and be with my son but more than that I want to go home and take a nap. Why does working have to be so stressful and hard?

I think that I'm insulted by the amount of people that now tell me how I "look like a mom now". What's that about? I go out and get professional looking clothes because my work attire was very casual before and now I "look like a mom". So what they're saying is I don't look like a teenager anymore, which is good but in saying that they make me feel like I look old instead of saying that I look good now. Blah.

Anyhow, I'm heading home. Christen is taking me for sushi, which I couldn't be happier about at this moment. :)

****update -- this really was the day from hell - I got rear-ended again! This makes twice in two months, and I just got my bumper replaced from the last one! This time it was worse, so I hope it's just my bumper and nothing more that costs more. The lady wants to take care of it herself but I got her insurance info anyhow. I better not get burned on this. I'm so annoyed.

Back to Square One

So our offer was not accepted on the house. We were told it was a good offer, and it was around the same amount as the other offer, but the people who got it made a cash offer with no financing. Damn investors, taking our house out from under us.

I know it "wasn't meant to be". But really, that's such an annoying phrase. Is it supposed to be less upsetting to know that we weren't "meant" to have that house? I don't really believe in fate, except in retrospect. I just hope they have major issues with it and have to drop a ton of money into the place. That's all I can do. Is that evil?

We are looking at more houses tomorrow; hopefully it will be a successful day.

We went to Square One burgers today for lunch. It looked very nice (and yuppy), and the onion rings were pretty good. We went specifically so that Christen could have their "Kobe burger". He wasn't impressed (I thought it had a good flavor, but not $14 good, especially with no sides). I got the "Angus hot dog" (fancy $6.25 way of saying all-beef) and I wasn't impressed at all -- they served it on a hamburger bun!!! I know it's a burger place, but if you are going to put a hot dog on your menu, spring for the hot dog buns. Just a piece of advice. Do me a solid, you know?

So it was just alright, and I doubt we'll go back. If we do, I'm ordering the cheese fries because those looked tasty. And I'm not going to get my hopes up so much when I read a review from the Trib, because they must have gotten better service than I did. I bet they may have even gotten their plain hot dog right on the first try.

That 100 things post, part one

So I've been blogging for (hold on, let me look) (since 7/06/04 ... calculate the time ...) 3 years, 5 months and a bunch of days. What, did you expect me to get it down to the hour? Well, I almost did but I didn't want you to think I was OCD.

Anyhow, I've been blogging for a really long time. And in that time I've been reading a number of different blogs and almost all do the "100 things about me" post. I haven't, and not because I don't have the time. I just don't have the attention span. So I was over at Michele's waiting for the Weekend thingie to start because I really don't want to get up and get ready for the day and I clicked on a random sidebar person. She had been working on her 100 things, in increments. And I thought, I can do that! So here goes on the start of my 100 things until I can't think of any more or I just get bored:

1. I have a half-brother and a foster sister that are 10 and 12 years younger than me, respectively. I spent a lot of time raising them before I moved out and I always feel more like their mother or some other older relative than their sister.


2. I used to be the lone copy editor and then the editor in chief of a small online magazine that made a 2-issue foray into print, called Today's Cacher. I feel like that was the one time I had a taste of what I wanted for work, even though I wasn't getting paid for it.


3. My only current hobby is all things internet, but some day I hope to get back to some of those previous activities and even pick up some more (more on those later).

And now Spencer's awake and doesn't want to let me type, so I'll have to resume later! This list might take a very long time!

You make stalking sexy

I was listening to our local 80s station tonight (which also plays 70s and 90s and even some early 2000 music ... don't get me started -- isn't there enough enough 80s music to keep a station running?) and Sting's I'll be Watching You came on.

Every breath you take
And every move you make
Every bond you break
Every step you take
I'll be watching you

Every single day
And every word you say
Every game you play
Every night you stay
I'll be watching you

I remember that song from when I was young and I never really knew what it was about. Then, about a year ago I was watching VH1 and they referred to this song and said that it "made stalking sexy". So of course now I always think about stalking when I hear it.

Anyhow, it came on tonight and I was singing along for Spencer when I started thinking about cyber-stalking. Not the scary kind, but one specific instance when my favorite New Yorker and I used to lurk on the blog of a certain whiny my-fiction-is-better-than-your-fiction, sucking-dick-doesn't-mean-i'm-gay, 9.5-inch-cock-but-yearns-for-10 ex-boyfriend of said New Yorker. And we'd talk about it. As a matter of fact, his online fights with his psycho girlfriend were priceless.

I wonder what happened to that blog. And certain person know if it's still active? And is there any body else worthy of cyber-stalking?

BTW, this post sounded so much more interesting in my head when I was thinking it in the car.