Hi! Once upon a time, I used to go do important things and look more or less professional every day, but now I mostly work at home and can wear jammies if I want. This unbloggable thing, though, requires not only big prep but a professional presentation. (I'm pretty sure the persons in charge would specify "no jammies" if they thought of it, but don't want to test my theory.)
The internet is my bestest most fabulous friend right now! I'm brainstorming, and planning, and working out details, and lining up people to help prepare, etc.; and so far I've ordered 2 dresses, a jacket, a smoothing undergarment, jewelry, nosepads to fix my glasses, organizational supplies, and 5 light books plus an interesting one for later. Etc. (The 6th book is about scarcity, and how not having enough of what you need eats your brain's bandwidth, which I'm taking as justification for getting the stuff lined up that will help me climb the mountain, sail the uncharted sea. LALA LA LA, I don't hear you about light reading or proper undergarmentage being unnecessary to the task...)
In my real life, of course, the dish fairy didn't come yet, my son spent another 6 hours working on his dying car yesterday, and the shyest cat has taken to hiding under the bed all the darned time.
What's new with you?
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52 comments:
I haven't had to look professional since 2006, so the closet is not helping me much at this point.
kathy - Good luck with the upcoming Big Unbloggable Professional Gig.
W: Day-long visit to the ER for hubby. Cellulitis in his leg and other MS-related awful stuff. Poor guy - he's being a trooper, but I know it's really tough for him.
AW: Exceptional ER care. It really could not have been better.
((( Sue ))) So sorry about what happened to your beloved. Hope he is feeling better. Yay for the ER team! xoxoxo
Sue, hugs for both of you. Hooray for being able to use "exceptional" and "care" and "ER" in the same sentence.
Birthday party hangovers here. I just put Mini in bed at 6 PM, her swearing all the while that she wasn't tired. She was asleep at 6:02 PM. She is also suffering from "my sister got all the new toys" syndrome. Sweet is a bit overloaded but overall did great at her birthday party and was smart enough to take a nap at preschool today.
AW: I know I whined enough about the school decision for Sweet around here, so I figure I should AW too. We are so convinced that we made the correct decision to keep her in preschool an extra year (see above re: naps; and lots of other things). So nice to confirm a decision rather than teh second guessing, which is my usual stock in trade.
kathy a, good luck on looking professional.
I told you all I was in a RHPS floor show for about a year, right?
((Sue)) but yay for good medical care!
((Esperanza)) but yay for naps! and confirmations on good decisions!
Fireplacity fireplacing fireplacers. A fireplacing shutdown. Gee, that's helpful.
Liz -- drama experience,too!
Happy Birthday to Sweet Baboo!
My son called at 9 p.m. PST, after class, because he couldn't believe what he heard on the radio.
One friend is packing her desk. Another remarks that 1/2 her state's budget is federal dollars. A third just retired, and payments will be delayed. Federal employees who are sent home may be paid eventually, but federal contractors are out of luck. Poor people could be out of luck, too -- the need for food and shelter can't go on hiatus and then be picked up without missing a step.
Happy birthday to Sweet!!!
So sorry to hear about the shutdown. I won't pretend to understand any of it, but I do feel so badly for all the people out of work.
Hubby and I both slept well last night and his swollen foot looks better already.
AW: I have the kind of job that allows me to work at home on days when a team of nurses and technicians need to come and set up a mini-hospital in our living room.
Sending healing thoughts to Sue's beloved! Personal hospital in the living room -- oh, my. Sue, it is excellent that you have that team available -- he will be much more comfortable at home. So glad he is feeling better.
xoxoxo
Sue, I am giving you and Hubby so many hugs. Trips to the ER are always so stressful, even with exceptional care.
Following the shut down in dumbfounded disbelief. (Easy for us Canadians to be bewildered, hey?) I an ready to kick a few prominent politicians. Solidarity from your northern neighbour, Pixies.
W: My own Work Albatross. Or, at least, my motivation to work on it. I'm still adjusting to getting it done in smaller chunks, but it would be nice to have a whole day of writing, like I used to have. No logistical solution has presented itself.
AW: My parents are taking E this afternoon, and she is napping right now. If I can just get motivated...
AW: Sleep! Glorious sleep! E suddenly responded to a mild and half-hearted attempt at sleep training. Over the past four nights, we have only been up once, for ten minutes. She slept for 10 1/2 hours straight last night, chattered for a few minutes, and then slept for another hour when I didn't come get her! I think, if we get some blackout curtains for her room, we might even begin to skip the first wake-up.
I'm terrified to even say it out loud, for fear of jinxing or good streak, but I'm so thankful to have uninterrupted sleep!
((Sue)) send your beloved my love.
W: Furloughed.
AW: More time to make calls! And do doors!
AW: Husband is earning money at the moment.
Oh, Liz. You weren't even on my list. Good on the AW's, but This.Sucks.Really.Badly.
Liz: arrrrrrrrrrgh. This fireplacing shutdown.
Appreciate the northern solidarity, QWP! And yay, sleep!
The motivation is a harder thing, but use it when it appears!
QWP, hooray for sleep! Motivation and concentration powers should return with consistent sleep.
Baboos not sleeping well, particularly Sweet. It's on my list to talk about with regular ped tomorrow and developmental ped on Friday. She was up at 5:00 this morning, perhaps to remind me that she was born at 4:59 AM six years ago.
My grandmother is rapidly declining. Like, last week she could dress herself and fix her own breakfast. This week, she can only get out of bed with help. My mom is under a LOT of stress trying to figure out what to do. I'm trying to help from 300 miles away, which is not so helpful. AW is that my Dad is uncharacteristically stepping up to the plate.
Sending more northern solidarity!
So sorry about the furlough Liz. I hope it doesn't last too long. Yay for the AWs!
QWP - I hope the work albatross motivation makes a quick return too. Sleep will help for sure!
Sorry about the lack of sleep on the part of the Baboos esperanza, and I'm so sorry to hear that your grandmother is declining. I'll keep all of you in prayer.
Trying not to regret diving into a Book of Faces argument. A church friend (dual US & Can citizen, living up here) essentially said "shame on the US gov't," regarding all the children being affected by the shutdown. A bunch of conservatives jumped all over her, saying that the media is blowing it all out of proportion, and that if she was actually there she'd see that nobody was being negatively affected. (Oh, and apparently this is just vacation time for federal employees! Did you hear that, Liz? You're on vacation!)
And that's the point where I snapped. Just try not to waste my entire day dealing with the willfully ignorant.
((( Esperanza ))) I'm sorry about your grandmother. It is really hard, especially from a distance. Good on dad for stepping up to help your mom. xoxoxoxo
I'm pretty sure I was one of those up at 5 a.m. kids -- also a flashlight-under-covers reader, once I could read. Hope the sleep scheduling works itself out.
Go, QWP. A friend of a book of faces friend wrote yesterday that it didn't seem like much was shutting down! Easy enough for a well-off suburban housewife to say.
Thank you for sticking it to 'em, QWP!!! Yeah, we're burning vacation time, alright. But that means it won't be there for our actual planned vacations. And we'll burn through sick leave, and that won't be there when we get sick. And then we're on LWOP.
Douchebags.
Liz, I'm making this face >:( on your behalf a LOT today. And kathy a, it was another well-off suburban housewife that was informing me that nobody is really being affected by the shutdown, and certainly no children.
(((Esperanza)))
People are furloughed both from government and from government contractors -- there may be some different rules depending. But yeah, this is how someone should spend their hard-earned vacation and sick time? What if they get sick later?
For everyone's enjoyment, senator warren on the shutdown, beginning with how the hard-core nuts really hate access to contraception. Not the only issue, but it's definitely there. Jerks.
Lexicon alert. LWOP is [to me and many] a criminal sentence of life in prison without the possibility of parole. Today I learned that LWOP [currently and to many] means leave w/o pay.
Meanwhile, I first read it as "Lady West of Procrastination." And then realised what it really meant.
AW: There has been some A+ napping in this house today! AND I managed to vacuum without E screaming in terror! First time ever.
OMG, the smoothing undergarment is the work of the devil himself. And henceforth, I shall not try to combine the smoothing function with a bra, because gaaahhhh. All the problems of a bad bra fit, PLUS all the problems of a boa constrictor trying to play the part of an undergarment.
QWP is definitely angling for this week's mullet with her reading of the intials. Also, YAY for nappage!
I spoke too soon on the nap. She's had the correct amount of nap today, but woke up from the afternoon nap ANGRY! Out of desperation, I've made her spend a little more time in her crib. This might have been a bad choice.
QWP for Mullet!! Best interpretation of LWOP ever.
Sorry about the boa constrictor undergarment kathy a - sounds very unpleasant.
W: Meanwhile back at the hospital... yup, we spent another day getting things sorted out for hubby. It was another long day but he did get a whole bunch of tests done that our family doc wanted to have done anyway. Two birds, one cat scan...
AW: Hubby made a funny joke and made a urologist laugh. I think that means he wins.
I'm one of the gubmint workers on furlough. Yay. I cannot substitute vacation or sick leave and it is credited as leave without pay unless our dear legislators decide otherwise.
The only thing worse than being on furlough is not being on furlough from what I hear from those few still working.
Some of you may have noticed that I and two friends (who were old Army buddies back when we were thin and had all of hair) have declared it Cat Week and are posting cat stuff on the Book of Faces. If you knew us 20 years ago, this would not be conceivable. Life is cool/weird sometimes.
Hugs and brownies to everyone. I have to run off but I wanted to check in since I've been absorbed in helping with Other People's Work Albatrosses for the last few weeks.
Oh Sue, I hope the tests are at least helpful.
So sorry for all the furloughs and acronyms.
Sweet's checkup revealed she has made it on to the growth chart for weight (first time ever, bottom percentile line). She cracked up the nurses with her vision screen. Then I had to carry a screaming Sweet out of the doctor's office, with Mini trailing behind us. Sigh.
News from grandma land is not so good. We are all praying for her to die in her sleep. Now. She's sleeping all but about an hour a day, so surely that wouldn't be so hard to arrange, would it? Thanks for the hugs.
Ice cream for everyone. That is the only answer.
Oh, Sue. xoxo
Miranda, cat videos are of course one of our favorite things, and I guess it beats working w/o pay, but sheesh. Very good story about trading the cat videos with old army buddies.
((( Esperanza )))
So many hugs to go around, you guys. This is a particularly rough week for the commenting Pixies, isn't it?
(((Esperanza)))
(((Sue and Hubby)))
But hooray for Sweet being on the charts!
W: Mr. Q leaves for a four-day canoe trip on Friday. E had just recovered from Beloved Daddy's last camping trip. Separation anxiety is tough with wee ones.
AW: He doesn't have another overnight trip with the school until June.
AW 2: You guys, E's sleep has been miraculous lately. Five nights now, with us only up for a total of ten minutes. She had learned how to put herself back to sleep on her own. I feel less worried about Mr. Q going away, if this trend continues.
So sorry about the furlough Miranda. I'm with kathy on this one - ice cream all around, STAT!
((esperanza)) - keeping you and your family and especially your grandmother in my thoughts.
QWP - Yay for E's good sleep patterns! I'm sending virtual pixie-dust to help her sleep while Mr. Q is away.
AW: We are not, repeat, not at the hospital this morning. *happy dance*
Yay for no hospitals, Sue!
QWP, there is nothing that feels so good as good sleep. Sweet actually slept all night long last night, the first in many weeks (she must have heard me asking the doctor about it). Mini, on the other hand, did not. Mama would really love a solid 8 hours sometime.
Woot, not at the hospital!
Yay for E and Sweet logging the ZZZZzzzz's!
For those celebrating Cat Week, check out Maru's you-tube channel. He is a Japanese cat, famous for loving boxes. Recently, Maru acquired a little brother. Cuteness abounds.
I love Maru!! Yay for Cat Week (though our resident feline would question the wisdom of setting aside one ONE week for the celebration). Clearly. :)
Could the Cluestick Posse please go visit my mother who insists on sending me links to articles trying to prove antidepressant meds are unnecessary, bad, etc. My daughter is only functional because of an anti-depressant. She stays out of the psych ward because of her anti-depressant. You know what the side effect of depression is with Daughter? A funeral.
Fireplace it all. I'm taking a huge dish of icecream over here in the corner until I finish calming down. :(
Consider the Posse activated, Miranda. xoxo
Oh heck no. The posse is ready with cluesticks.
Thanksgivukkah. You're welcome. (Thanks to our friend Debangel.)
Life within a bubble: So, I was initially confused, because Canadian Thanksgiving is in a little more than a week. Oh right: Americans exist!
Posse on it's way.
AW: My company found me an interim assignment.
W: I had 4 billion things I could be doing at home!
AW: Getting paid, not burning vacation. These are good things.
Good! Even if you could be getting stuff done at home: getting paid is wonderful!
W: Mr. Q just left for his Outdoor Ed canoe trip, and now it's just me and Li'l E. She is already testing my boundaries. We've been awake drive 5:30, even though she needs so much more sleep. As do I. (It's like she's decided that, if she has to stay in bed until morning, she's going to test how early morning can be.)
Please pass all the caffeine.
Liz, not burning vacation days is good. Sending caffeine to you and QWP!
QWP, hope there is appropriate nappage. I know all the separation stuff can be hard and disruptive -- but this will all work out eventually. The overall goal is for her to know that Beloved Daddy (and Beloved Mommy)love her and always come back. Which, you know, is an advanced cognitive concept, but she'll get it via experience and reassurance.
Miranda, might your daughter's doctor suggest approaches for your mom? Because someone butting in and talking trash is not helpful here. I understand she is worried, but you have made an informed decision that is helping your daughter stay alive. xoxo
Pixies. My nearby cousin and his wife are going on a 2.5 week hunting trip, and asked me to watch their house. Which is fine, no problem about the house. They know how I feel about guns; I see no point in questioning the wisdom of camping in the freaking wilderness and shooting things in the middle of a federal forest. But they cheerfully promised me some of the catch, assuming they bag a large forest creature. There is no way that I'm eating any Bambi parts brought back across several states in coolers. My beloved pointed out that dogs will eat anything, which is a point. I will try not to judge. But wtf?
Miranda, that's the second time in one day I've heard of a grandma butting in where she has no business being, not to mention not knowing what the fireplace she's talking about. Posse is on the way.
W: Grandma moved to nursing home today. Stopped all medication. I haven't talked to my mom yet today. This is harder than I thought it would be.
((( Esperanza ))) love and peace. xoox
Release the Posse! Ugh. The old "If you just have a positive attitude" against anti-depressants makes my head spin. That's like telling diabetics to forget the insulin, hey can just think their way out of diabetes.
QWP, I had the same thought re: thanksgiving. Best wishes for the weekend.
Yay for the interim work Liz!
((((esperanza ))) I'm so sorry. Sending hugs....
AW: hubby got the all-clear - no more scheduled stops at the ER because today's assessment went really well.
(((Esperanza)))
Hooray for the all-clear!
Sue, such great news about the beloved!
Everybody should have a soft cotton comfy purple dress like the one that came today, with side pockets and a tie back. This one doesn't solve my looking professional problem, but I'm done dating everyday dresses.
Passing more ice cream, and some Thanksgivukkah appetizers.
((Esperanza))
Kathy, my idea of professional dress is lots of black with funky accessories.
Sue, hooray!!! Glad your Beloved can stay home and get well in peace and relative comfort.
QWP, I have black thoughts when I try to remember solo parenting while the kids were small and their father was out of town. I tried to institute a special "Daddy Gone" ritual just for those times to help ease the separation anxiety.
Liz, your employer is Teh Awesome. Do we have something that is the opposite of cluesticks to bestow upon entities/people who do the right thing even though they are not technically required?
Thanks for the posse. She called me today to ask if I saw the article she sent. I talked up the general awesomeness of her treatment team. She sort of whimpered, "Well, I figured you were on it but I thought more information couldn't hurt."
This has been a whiny week for me - so sorry! My back went out today and I found out a woman I used to hang out with with a daughter the same age as Tween Son (they used to play together when they were younger) has only a few months left due to the fireplacing cancer. She's in her mid 40s. I'm doubly upset that she didn't treat this more aggressively when it was first discovered a few years ago.
AW: My three children are amazing, empathetic, caring people. The older two have learned a lot about resilience this past year. My heart just bursts when I see them.
AW: I get paid next Friday for my pre-shutdown work. That is a relief. A huge relief.
((( Miranda ))) xoxo
Oh, Miranda, you are having a whine-worthy week.
But that is such a sweet sentence about your kids. I just about cried this week when Mini said to Sweet, "Don't worry, Sweet, I'll be right there with you." Little sis is becoming the big sis before my eyes.
(((Miranda)))
What esperanza said - you have had an especially whine-worthy week. The empathy, caring, resiliency and Teh Amazing are all things your children learned from you. Ya done good!!!
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