Monday, February 27, 2006
Four Things That Bite
Hmmm. Two weeks since my last post. Has it really been that long? Let's see...what have I been doing?
Teething. Yes, I have been teething. I am aware that I already have a full set of teeth. But the thing is, when you are with someone all day long who is frequently feeling pointy, sharp parts of their mouth ripping through soft, smooth parts of their mouth, it pretty much becomes a group effort. Baby B is an awesome little fighter. It's hard for me to imagine being that young and in pain, and not knowing what it is, why it has to happen, or what you can do about it. She does, however, know that she can count on her mama to hold and snuggle her whenever things are getting bad.
Lots more to say, but it seems that my time is up for now. Her ears must've been ringing, knowing I was talking about her while she slept. Stay tuned for more updates at future nap times...
Teething. Yes, I have been teething. I am aware that I already have a full set of teeth. But the thing is, when you are with someone all day long who is frequently feeling pointy, sharp parts of their mouth ripping through soft, smooth parts of their mouth, it pretty much becomes a group effort. Baby B is an awesome little fighter. It's hard for me to imagine being that young and in pain, and not knowing what it is, why it has to happen, or what you can do about it. She does, however, know that she can count on her mama to hold and snuggle her whenever things are getting bad.
Lots more to say, but it seems that my time is up for now. Her ears must've been ringing, knowing I was talking about her while she slept. Stay tuned for more updates at future nap times...
Monday, February 13, 2006
So Far So Good
It's 10:30 on Monday morning, which seems like a perfectly good time to give you an update on the implementation of the ideas in my "Just Do It" post. I spent most of Friday and Saturday feeling really yucky and tired, but continued thinking about my new strategy for getting things done. Sunday was a good day to hang out with Husband and Baby B, and on rare days when there are no pressing tasks and my husband is not at work, we like to have a lazy day together.
Today, however, I woke from a good night's sleep with the decisiveness that I could indeed get some stuff done without feeling like I was doing anything at all. Baby B woke me around 7, and then she played while I checked my email and pumped (you nursing moms know what I'm talking about). When I gave her breakfast, I did some little stuff in between the bites when she likes to take her time and play with the spoon. This included putting away some dishes, opening the curtains, and feeding and watering the cats. Then we had some good play time together before her nap. After I put her down, I did what I always do and went downstairs immediately to avoid the five or so minutes of mandatory nap-protest-crying. But instead of flipping channels or talking on the phone, I went immediately to the laundry. I sorted the pile on the floor and got a load in the washer. Before coming back upstairs, I cleaned the litter box. This wasn't bad at all since it was cleaned over the weekend. Normally I avoid the litter box at all costs because it's so disgusting, but if I keep up on it, it's an easy task. Needing a quiet activity for the rest of nap time, I sorted through some of the paper mess in the office. When Baby B woke up, I sat her in her swing to play and vacuumed the living room floor. And she's hanging out in the swing while I'm writing this.
By 10:30, I've accomplished more than I normally do by dinner time. And I have no feelings of being behind, so that stress has been lifted and I'm in a good mood. I don't feel overwhelmed, and I feel like I can redirect this energy towards the baby. I hope I can maintain this new outlook on things because I think it's going to make me a much happier and less stressed out woman. Off now to play with Baby B!
Sunday, February 12, 2006
The First Day of the Rest of My Life
Today is the fourth anniversary of my first date with my husband. Every February 12th for the last four years, I have been reminded of how lucky and thankful I am to have met such a wonderful person. That was one of the best days of my life.
We actually met for the first time the previous summer, at a beach outing that one of my co-workers organized. There were five of us there - the co-worker, her then boyfriend (now husband), a good friend of hers, and her boyfriend's best friend (my husband). We took a train from Boston to the north shore and spent the day. I was attracted to him immediately, but figured that nothing would come of it because he was fantastic - so of course he wouldn't be interested in me. I assumed that he might be interested in the other woman there. I didn't bother telling my co-worker what I thought of him in order to avoid any possibly embarrassing situations.
Several months later, I was discussing my lack of a social life with the same co-worker, and she asked if she could give this guy my email address. She said it was no big deal, but we were both fairly new to the area, and were looking to meet new people, so maybe we would want to hang out. When he emailed me in the next day or two and asked if I wanted to get together for a drink, I had no idea if we were going out on a date, or getting together as friends.
We met on a Tuesday night at Beer Works in Boston. I had grossly underestimated the time it would take to get downtown from my job in Newton, so I arrived about 45 minutes late. But he had waited and greeted me with a smile and a wave. Seeing him at the table reminded me of how handsome he was. I had to calm myself a little as I was walking over because now I was really hoping this would turn into a date. Our conversation was great. He was so kind and easy-going, and I was so comfortable with him. We talked about all sorts of things - our jobs, where we came from (Wisconsin for me, upstate New York for him), what brought us here, what we thought of Boston so far. There was very much a mutual curiosity about each other that kept us talking for hours over beer and calamari.
Around 1:00am I noticed that it was getting late and asked him how early he needed to be to work the next day. I didn't work until 10:00 so I would have time to sleep. It turned out that he needed to be up extremely early and would only get a few hours of sleep. I was really excited that he found me interesting enough to sacrifice sleep for. We walked together to the corner, but then were going in different directions. I was kind of hoping for a good night kiss, but he was very much the gentleman and wished me well as we parted ways. I was giddy like a school girl the entire way home and spent the next day at work trying to figure out what qualifies something as a date (versus a night out with a friend). I still get goose bumps when I think of that night.
Most people I talk to think it's completely ridiculous that I keep track of the smaller, non-traditional anniversaries. But how can I ignore dates that started me on the path that I wanted to be on? Absolutely everything was right about that night, and I knew right away that whether it was to be a romance or a friendship, I didn't want to mess it up. So happy first date anniversary, Husband.
Friday, February 10, 2006
You Don't Have to Tell Me Twice
Upon being caught trying to sneak away some of my previously claimed sushi, Husband came back with, "You're not the boss of me. I don't need your perdention!" OK then.
Wednesday, February 08, 2006
Good Ole Wholesome Family Fun
I realized that I might be watching too much Little House On The Prairie when Husband handed me a roll of toilet paper and I said (very naturally, without realizing it), "Much obliged."
I can't help it. It's like the new Law and Order. It's on, like, 47 channels over several hours of the day. And there's the really old ones when Laura was little (Law and Order original), and the Laura teenage years (Law and Order SVU), and then even a few weird all adult ones (Law and Order Criminal Intent). Gotta go see if I can squeeze an episode in before Husband claims the TV for Mythbusters.
Tuesday, February 07, 2006
Just Do It
Lately I've been thinking about some things that might eventually help me become a more productive person. My brother and I often refer to ourselves as procrastinators, but this is a little different. Looking around my house, I see a lot of unfinished stuff. We've got laundry piled up all the time, there's always a stack of paper on the desk (even though I clean it up every weekend), there's cat fur everywhere, and the sink is always full (see that big box under the counter? oh, you put dishes in there and it cleans them?). Don't even get me started on the litter box.
I've been trying to figure out why I can't get these things taken care of - why I always feel so far behind. And I've come up with this (and actually just came up with something else while typing this which I'll go into later): When I get something done, I feel like it's done. Really done. Like, I don't need to worry about that for awhile. Although this works for things like doing your taxes, this is not how I can continue to look at my everyday routine. Yea, I just did seven loads of laundry. But there's going to be more in a few days. The clothes we're wearing right now? Dirty. Need washing soon. So instead of going to the laundry area and looking at another ten loads a week later, I can beat the laundry. OK, I'm getting dumb, but you know what I mean. I'm in that area of the house everyday - that is, the basement - I should check on it often. Not taking up extra time, but just as I'm walking by. Oohh, almost a full load ready. Check back in the morning. Yea, that's a full load. Put it in. Done. Dry it. Done. Fold it now, not tomorrow. Done. So then no more huge laundry projects, just a part of my everyday routine. All right, more for me than for you, let's look at the computer desk situation. How did I let all that pile up? I go through the mail every day. What is all this stuff? How did it get here? A stack of tax forms. Well, they can go in the file labelled "tax" as they come in. They don't need to be on the desk. Recipes I printed from the computer (who knew that personal finance bloggers do so much cooking? well I suppose it makes sense - they're saving so much money). Shouldn't be in here - print them and take them to the recipe box immediately. What I've been doing is starting things and not finishing them. Not by procrastinating, but by not following through on very simple things.
I am constantly stressed out. I used to blame it on having a newborn. But now, it's a matter of just thinking things through. It seems that a lot of the work that I'm stressing about is work that I have created for myself. And I'm the one that hates inefficiency so much. And I've been so inefficient all this time!
Starting today, I'm going to make an honest effort to change this behavior. I won't kid myself into thinking that it will be easy, or that I'll be able to do it all the time, but if I can retrain my brain, I might actually get something done around here.
Monday, February 06, 2006
Comcast, You're Irritating Me
As if our 48 hour hiatus from cable and internet last week weren't enough. Over the weekend, Husband noticed some problems with our cable channels. Much like the prelude to our loss of cable and internet last week, the picture on several channels was scrambled. So we didn't hesitate, but called (Husband, does that make four or five calls last week?) to get a tech out here. He did arrived today promtly between 2 and 5, but that meant that I had to postpone my afternoon errands. Tomorrow is already booked, and Wednesday is looking pretty full, so some semi-urgent errands might have to wait until Thursday. The tech did get here closer to 2 than 5, so I was holding onto hope that I might be able to salvage some part of the afternoon.
Well, the cable got fixed and the tech left. But it didn't occur to me until at least a few minutes later to recheck the internet. It worked fine all this morning, so I didn't Greatly Anticipate any problems (hee hee). So of course, there was no longer an internet connection. But hey, I can watch TV now! Did I mention that just like last week, our phone (still loving Vonage!) goes through the internet connection so no internet = no phone? Better charge up that cell.
I did just call Comcast to demand that someone fix this now. They walked me through several options over the phone - all of which involved me and my mommy-velour-sweatpants getting all cat dusty and furry on the floor while trying to figure out where several cords and wires lead to. So internet is back up where it should be. To the guy on the phone's credit, he didn't seem to fret at all when I was totally irate about the situation (maybe unfortunately because he is so used to customers being dissatisfied?).
I also remembered, while I had someone on the line, to ask for a credit for the two full days we were without both of these services last week. So we will be paying $6.97 less on our next bill. I'll want to double check the math, but it sounds about right.
See that part in the blog title about getting something done around here? Yea, that's just not happening today.
Thursday, February 02, 2006
I'm On A (blog) Roll!
Imagine my surprise when little ol' nobody-reads-my-blog me starts my regular morning blog reading and finds a link to...my own blog! Not only does someone read this other than when I force Husband to, but she thinks I'm faboo enough to add me to her list. Thanks, Mean Coffee! My own brother has yet to add me to his...
Update: Make that 2 links! Thanks to Jane Dough at Boston Gal's Open Wallet.
Wednesday, February 01, 2006
Reply Desparately Needed
Husband and I have had an interesting few days that have totally altered my routine. On Monday, I noticed the lights in several rooms dimming, and then coming up again. Not flickering, just a slow dim and then back up. And then Monday evening we realized that we no longer had an internet connection (thank you Comcast). And as Husband was taping our favorite show while I was at rehearsal Monday night, he learned that we had no cable connection (again - thank you Comcast). We also have Vonage for our phone service (love it!), so without an internet connection, we were without a land line.
It turns out that there was some kind of loose wire that was easy to fix, so the electricity problem was resolved on Tuesday. They (Comcast) wouldn't come to fix the internet/cable situation until today (Wed.) between 1 and 5. It's all better now, but we were without all of these formerly-expendable-but-now-totally-necessary things for almost 48 hours. I know, poor us, but it was really rough. Did I mention that I had the flu (again) during all this? So the couch potato-ing, watch TV to kill time while resting and feeling crappy just wasn't happening.
The (not so) funny part is that when the Comcast tech left this afternoon, he told me that we should've mentioned on the phone that the service was completely out. They would've prioritized us as an emergency situation and fixed the problem right away. Husband actually told them that we had no service during each of his three calls to Comcast and they never offered speedy service. We already hated Comcast...
But I'm keeping my sense of humor. No cable and internet? Oh, big emergency! Lights and sirens! Quick, get somebody on that. And as the tech is leaving and asking if there's anything else he can do to help, I'm thinking, "Yea - tell me what happened on 24 Monday night. It looked like it would've been a good episode!" And nobody I know watches 24. This and Arrested Development. People, what are you watching that could possibly be better?
So, please, if you know what happened on 24, do leave a short or long comment. How can I concentrate on Beethoven's Eroica without knowing if Jack brought Walt down?
Punny People are Awesome!
My friend Piercello was over today and said, "Hey, you should take pictures of all of Baby B's bibs and bind them together. Then you'd have a BIBliography!"
Ha! These things are Funny!
