Updates
Ok, so this is not to place to come for thoughtful, introspective, end of the year, new beginnings yada yada yada. Perhaps another day.
But, I did want to post a quick update on the goings-on around here. The main one being that I finally scheduled my licensing exam. Um.. whoo? I'm not so sure. I guess the answer depends on whether I pass or not. I scheduled it for Jan 23, so I can possibly have some semblance of a normal birthday, where I don't have to stare at books and notes and flashcards all day. Of course, I could always postpone it if it gets close to the date and I don't feel ready. That's a distinct possibility. I have until Feb 24th to take it, but I want to be done with all of this sooner rather than later. Of course, only if I pass. If I fail the exam, I'm going to wish I had taken more time. At any rate, I've been studying for 3 months now, and I'm going to study like a crazy monkey for the next three weeks and then see what happens.
Which means....I'm probably not going to be chatting, going out, emailing, blogging (yeah, I know, I haven't been doing that much anyway) for the next couple of weeks.
I hope Todd cooks and cleans more during the next 3 weeks. That would be helpful. :)
Also, my new job starts on Monday. Supposedly. I don't know if I have any clients scheduled yet or not, but I now officially have days and hours when I am "available." The offices have been newly renovated and supposedly new furniture was to be delivered today. I'm only starting with part-time hours, so I don't know if I'll get my own office right away or not... but I think I will. The new office complex has more offices than clinicians, I believe, so hopefully I can make one office my own.
Those are all the big updates, I think.
Not doing anything spectacular tonight. I have a pot of corn chowder on the stove right now, and we picked up some king crab legs to make later for dinner. Mm. I haven't had crab legs in years. I used to get them frequently at a restaurant we went to when I was a kid, but I don't think I've had them in the last decade. I hope they're as good as I remember. Other than that, nothing fancy planned. I think I'm just going to spend the next few weeks trying to eat out of the cupboards and freezer because after the holidays we are packed with food. Leftovers from various big meals, leftover party stuff, etc. We could probably cook from what we have for a month.
So, after dinner it's probably a long night of studying for me, with a break to watch the ball drop. I'm sure Todd will spend the evening killing zombies, or whatever this game is.... although I'm trying to get him to switch over to the John Adams DVD set he got for Christmas. I'm afraid his brain is going to rot from all the video games he's been playing since Christmas.
12.11.2008
One Woman Stooges Act
Last night I was down in the basement trying to pull out the big cartons of Christmas stuff. I pulled out the first big box and set it on the bottom step. Then I pulled another box and set it on top of the first box, balanced on the next step above. I called Todd down to help me bring everything up. He grabbed the top box, and when he did that, the box underneath tipped and fell off the step it was perched on. When it tipped over, the contents of the box fell onto the floor. Of course this was the box with all the tree ornaments in it. I couldn't bring myself to examine them afterwards, but I'm hoping they didn't break. I had them wrapped pretty well, and many are in their own boxes. But I will be upset if any of them are broken.
So, we pick up everything that spilled out, and Todd carried both of those boxes upstairs. While he was doing that, I went back in for the last box, which was buried behind some other stuff in the basement. I picked up a bag that was on the floor, and I guess I accidentally picked up the wrong end of the bag, because a full can of spray paint fell out and landed on my toes. (Todd wants to know why I'm wearing socks in the basement, after that's what led to me falling down basement stairs a few years ago - apparently socks on painted wood is a very bad idea.) Right, so... can of paint lands on my toes, and I scream in pain. Apparently Todd has that skill that mothers of newborns have, where he can distinguish between the standard "ow" that he hears from me about 57 times a day and the real deal-something-bad-really-happened "ow" because he came running back down the stairs to see what happened. Usually he ignores the "ows" and I get mad and tell him he's ignoring something that could be a real problem. Well, apparently he understands when it's a real "ow." So, yeah. I had a can-indent on my toes for awhile, and now I have a nice bruise.
So I'm thinking, "hey, this basement thing is pretty dangerous, I should finish up down here...." and then I turned around and stepped on a screw. Ugh. Luckily it didn't puncture my foot, but let me say I will think twice before going down there without shoes on again.
So, I grab the last bin, which is the heaviest, and start pulling it behind me up the stairs. Todd comes over to watch me doing this, and says "this isn't going to end well," to which I replied "what makes you say that?" and then he grabbed the bin out of my hand before we could test that out.
Last night I was down in the basement trying to pull out the big cartons of Christmas stuff. I pulled out the first big box and set it on the bottom step. Then I pulled another box and set it on top of the first box, balanced on the next step above. I called Todd down to help me bring everything up. He grabbed the top box, and when he did that, the box underneath tipped and fell off the step it was perched on. When it tipped over, the contents of the box fell onto the floor. Of course this was the box with all the tree ornaments in it. I couldn't bring myself to examine them afterwards, but I'm hoping they didn't break. I had them wrapped pretty well, and many are in their own boxes. But I will be upset if any of them are broken.
So, we pick up everything that spilled out, and Todd carried both of those boxes upstairs. While he was doing that, I went back in for the last box, which was buried behind some other stuff in the basement. I picked up a bag that was on the floor, and I guess I accidentally picked up the wrong end of the bag, because a full can of spray paint fell out and landed on my toes. (Todd wants to know why I'm wearing socks in the basement, after that's what led to me falling down basement stairs a few years ago - apparently socks on painted wood is a very bad idea.) Right, so... can of paint lands on my toes, and I scream in pain. Apparently Todd has that skill that mothers of newborns have, where he can distinguish between the standard "ow" that he hears from me about 57 times a day and the real deal-something-bad-really-happened "ow" because he came running back down the stairs to see what happened. Usually he ignores the "ows" and I get mad and tell him he's ignoring something that could be a real problem. Well, apparently he understands when it's a real "ow." So, yeah. I had a can-indent on my toes for awhile, and now I have a nice bruise.
So I'm thinking, "hey, this basement thing is pretty dangerous, I should finish up down here...." and then I turned around and stepped on a screw. Ugh. Luckily it didn't puncture my foot, but let me say I will think twice before going down there without shoes on again.
So, I grab the last bin, which is the heaviest, and start pulling it behind me up the stairs. Todd comes over to watch me doing this, and says "this isn't going to end well," to which I replied "what makes you say that?" and then he grabbed the bin out of my hand before we could test that out.
12.03.2008
Grr....
1. I have the plague.
2. I was going to say "but I got a cute haircut, so that makes everything ok." Except I didn't. I got a bad haircut. I have bangs now. Not the cute flowy chunky pieces framing my face that I asked for. Big, heavy, full-on BANGS. And when the stylist said "I don't think we need to take much length off, just a small amount, to hit the shoulders...." I gestured to where I had it cut last time, and she said that she thought that was too short, so she was just going to take a little bit off the length and give me some more long layers. Well, somehow, my hair is now shorter than the length she said was too short (like, say, 3-4 inches above my shoulders) AND I have ugly bangs. UGLY BANGS.
Right before Christmas. Where I will see lots of people and there will be lots of photos and everyone is going to comment on my stupid hair.
Grrrrr......
1. I have the plague.
2. I was going to say "but I got a cute haircut, so that makes everything ok." Except I didn't. I got a bad haircut. I have bangs now. Not the cute flowy chunky pieces framing my face that I asked for. Big, heavy, full-on BANGS. And when the stylist said "I don't think we need to take much length off, just a small amount, to hit the shoulders...." I gestured to where I had it cut last time, and she said that she thought that was too short, so she was just going to take a little bit off the length and give me some more long layers. Well, somehow, my hair is now shorter than the length she said was too short (like, say, 3-4 inches above my shoulders) AND I have ugly bangs. UGLY BANGS.
Right before Christmas. Where I will see lots of people and there will be lots of photos and everyone is going to comment on my stupid hair.
Grrrrr......
12.02.2008
11.23.2008
Too old to be awake this late
Tonight I had a birthday party game night for Todd. He had a bunch of people playing games at the kitchen table, while the Wii was fired up the whole night in the living room. I'm all worn out and need to go to bed. I'm also way too full on yummy food. I made a ton of food, most of which is posted over on the food blog.
I made a bunch of new recipes. The spinach balls were.... interesting. Too much onion, though I followed the recipe. I might try a different recipe next time. They were still good, but not what I was expecting. The other things all turned out well.
I had a pesto hummus (store-bought), with pita chips, crackers, broccoli and carrots
Curry dip
Cheesy bread
Spinach balls
Black bean pinwheels
S'mores bars
Black Forest cake
The cake turned out pretty well.... can a cake be too moist? If so, this one may have been. But still tasty, and a nice change from the regular routine for cakes.
Oof. 3am. Must go to bed.
Tonight I had a birthday party game night for Todd. He had a bunch of people playing games at the kitchen table, while the Wii was fired up the whole night in the living room. I'm all worn out and need to go to bed. I'm also way too full on yummy food. I made a ton of food, most of which is posted over on the food blog.
I made a bunch of new recipes. The spinach balls were.... interesting. Too much onion, though I followed the recipe. I might try a different recipe next time. They were still good, but not what I was expecting. The other things all turned out well.
I had a pesto hummus (store-bought), with pita chips, crackers, broccoli and carrots
Curry dip
Cheesy bread
Spinach balls
Black bean pinwheels
S'mores bars
Black Forest cake
The cake turned out pretty well.... can a cake be too moist? If so, this one may have been. But still tasty, and a nice change from the regular routine for cakes.
Oof. 3am. Must go to bed.
11.19.2008
What three historical figures are said to be buried in Cologne, Germany?
So, last night at trivia, Michael, the guy who runs it every week, came over to our table and asked us if we would like to run trivia some week. Like, make up all the questions and read and score them, etc. Occasionally other teams do this, and sometimes it works and other times it's horrible. He has mentioned it to us before, in passing, but this time he came over and told us that he thinks we're the smartest team in the room, adjusted for the number of people on each team. See, usually it's just 3 of us... me and Todd and one other guy. Sometimes we have 4, but not often, and occasionally it's just me and Todd. Most of the other teams have 5-9 team members, so we often don't win, at least not first place. We come in second or third more times than not, which isn't bad. The teams there are pretty good, and most of the teams have been playing there every week for years. Last night someone from another team offered me a taste of his pasta dish, because "we're like family!" So, it's nice. We're pretty good at trivia. It's frustrating to lose, but fun to win, especially knowing we have a fraction of the number of people.
Anyway. So... if you have any really good trivia questions, let me know! I'm compiling a list. Todd's strategy is to ask the most impossible questions ever. I think that would result in us having to find a new place to play trivia. So, I'm looking for questions that fall somewhere between moderately difficult and impossible. Definitely nothing in the "easy" category. These people are smart and they don't like easy questions. :)
So, last night at trivia, Michael, the guy who runs it every week, came over to our table and asked us if we would like to run trivia some week. Like, make up all the questions and read and score them, etc. Occasionally other teams do this, and sometimes it works and other times it's horrible. He has mentioned it to us before, in passing, but this time he came over and told us that he thinks we're the smartest team in the room, adjusted for the number of people on each team. See, usually it's just 3 of us... me and Todd and one other guy. Sometimes we have 4, but not often, and occasionally it's just me and Todd. Most of the other teams have 5-9 team members, so we often don't win, at least not first place. We come in second or third more times than not, which isn't bad. The teams there are pretty good, and most of the teams have been playing there every week for years. Last night someone from another team offered me a taste of his pasta dish, because "we're like family!" So, it's nice. We're pretty good at trivia. It's frustrating to lose, but fun to win, especially knowing we have a fraction of the number of people.
Anyway. So... if you have any really good trivia questions, let me know! I'm compiling a list. Todd's strategy is to ask the most impossible questions ever. I think that would result in us having to find a new place to play trivia. So, I'm looking for questions that fall somewhere between moderately difficult and impossible. Definitely nothing in the "easy" category. These people are smart and they don't like easy questions. :)
11.13.2008
Fall, leaves, fall
- Emily Jane Bronte
Um, yeah. The fluttering leaves are great until they look like this. It took the two of us several hours with a leaf blower, rake and a giant tarp to haul them to the street. The worst part is that the pecan tree still has about 25% of its leaves, and the oak tree is still half-full. I'm too stubborn to pay our neighbor to take care of the leaves, though. He's been raising the prices for yardwork every chance he gets. Although, after this job, and knowing we'll have to do it again at least once.... maybe it's worth it to pay him. Cleaning up leaves sucks big time.
We did get a super-awesome leaf pile out of it, though. :)
| Fall, leaves, fall; die, flowers, away; Lengthen night and shorten day; Every leaf speaks bliss to me Fluttering from the autumn tree. |
Um, yeah. The fluttering leaves are great until they look like this. It took the two of us several hours with a leaf blower, rake and a giant tarp to haul them to the street. The worst part is that the pecan tree still has about 25% of its leaves, and the oak tree is still half-full. I'm too stubborn to pay our neighbor to take care of the leaves, though. He's been raising the prices for yardwork every chance he gets. Although, after this job, and knowing we'll have to do it again at least once.... maybe it's worth it to pay him. Cleaning up leaves sucks big time.
We did get a super-awesome leaf pile out of it, though. :)
11.08.2008
Sitting in my spot
Well, it's Saturday night. I hope you're all out doing something fun and exciting. I am sitting in my spot on the couch, studying for the licensing exam. I have now been studying for about a month. I think I'm doing about 20-30 hours a week or so. I'm not even halfway through the study guides. I have taken 3 practice tests so far, and my scores are not quite at the passing mark yet, but I'm not too far. I actually think that's pretty good, considering I haven't even glanced at half the material yet, and the material I haven't gotten to yet includes some subjects that I was never even exposed to in my graduate program. I also haven't gotten to neuropsych, stats or test construction, which are probably my 3 worst subjects. So, if I can get myself up to speed on some of those things, memorize the stuff that requires memorization.... I think I should be good to go. I have to say, though, that I am quite tired of this whole process. I sit in my spot on the couch for hours every day, with these books and a stack of blank index cards for making flashcards as I go along, and my stack of practice tests, which I "reward" myself with when I finish a study guide. Todd, Dan and Pam went to see a movie tonight. I'm staying home to study. Someone said to me a few days ago "Still a lady of leisure?" meaning "are you STILL unemployed, sitting around doing nothing but watching The View?" Um... ok, so... I have to confess that I do watch the opening segment of The View most days, but then I turn it off. But that does NOT mean that I am sitting around watching tv all day and eating bon bons. Studying for this exam totally sucks. I can't think of a better way to describe it. It's not fun. It's also not fun to study for weeks and take a new practice test and get practically the same score you got last time. I just need to pass on the first try. I keep reading people's stories about failing the first time, some the second time. I don't know if I would have it in me to go through this again, knowing that my best effort the first time didn't get me there. Not that I expect that to happen. I'm satisfied with my current scores, based on the amount of material I've gotten through thus far. I typically test well. I just need to figure out how to power through another month and a half of studying at this level, because I'm starting to feel burned out on this.
Well, it's Saturday night. I hope you're all out doing something fun and exciting. I am sitting in my spot on the couch, studying for the licensing exam. I have now been studying for about a month. I think I'm doing about 20-30 hours a week or so. I'm not even halfway through the study guides. I have taken 3 practice tests so far, and my scores are not quite at the passing mark yet, but I'm not too far. I actually think that's pretty good, considering I haven't even glanced at half the material yet, and the material I haven't gotten to yet includes some subjects that I was never even exposed to in my graduate program. I also haven't gotten to neuropsych, stats or test construction, which are probably my 3 worst subjects. So, if I can get myself up to speed on some of those things, memorize the stuff that requires memorization.... I think I should be good to go. I have to say, though, that I am quite tired of this whole process. I sit in my spot on the couch for hours every day, with these books and a stack of blank index cards for making flashcards as I go along, and my stack of practice tests, which I "reward" myself with when I finish a study guide. Todd, Dan and Pam went to see a movie tonight. I'm staying home to study. Someone said to me a few days ago "Still a lady of leisure?" meaning "are you STILL unemployed, sitting around doing nothing but watching The View?" Um... ok, so... I have to confess that I do watch the opening segment of The View most days, but then I turn it off. But that does NOT mean that I am sitting around watching tv all day and eating bon bons. Studying for this exam totally sucks. I can't think of a better way to describe it. It's not fun. It's also not fun to study for weeks and take a new practice test and get practically the same score you got last time. I just need to pass on the first try. I keep reading people's stories about failing the first time, some the second time. I don't know if I would have it in me to go through this again, knowing that my best effort the first time didn't get me there. Not that I expect that to happen. I'm satisfied with my current scores, based on the amount of material I've gotten through thus far. I typically test well. I just need to figure out how to power through another month and a half of studying at this level, because I'm starting to feel burned out on this.
11.04.2008
11.02.2008
Busy week
You know, for not having a job and all.
Tomorrow and Tuesday I am canvassing for my candidate. I don't really know what that entails, but I'm supposed to show up tomorrow at the local engineers union to find out what to do. After that I need to drop off lots of baked goods at our church. They're having a bake sale on Tuesday. The church is a polling station, and during every election the church women sell baked goods as a fundraiser for the church. I spent this afternoon making 3 quiches (2 veggie and 1 ham and cheese), 2 dozen chocolate cupcakes with cheesecake filling, and Todd made a dozen chewy cherry scones.
Tuesday, after canvassing in the morning, I have to go man the bake sale table at the church, drop off paperwork for my new job, go vote myself, and then get to yoga and trivia in the evening.
On Wednesday I'm going downtown to drop off paperwork to my old supervisor, so she can send it in to the licensing board, which they will hopefully approve without any problems, which will allow me to schedule a date to take the licensing exam.
On Thursday I have to go back downtown to see Girlyman. Whoo! One of my coworkers from my last job had tickets with a friend, and she just bailed a few days ago, so he asked if I would like to take the extra ticket. Sure!
And on Friday afternoon I agreed to go help the church ladies clean up the church. The church is celebrating it's 150th anniversary this coming weekend, and there are special programs and receptions and the bishop is coming on Sunday. After next weekend, I think I'm church-activity-ed out for awhile. They want me to bake something for the reception next weekend, too. I like cooking, and the church women are totally funny and irreverent and I enjoy hanging out with them (they're almost all grandparent age, but they're also all feisty and hilarious). However, baking for the bake sale, manning the table, cleaning the church, baking for the celebration reception, and attending all of the special programs next weekend, is a lot of church stuff for one week. I'll need a break after that.
And somewhere in there I need to find time to study because if the licensing board approves my application, I will have a window of only 2 months to finish preparing, schedule and take the exam. So far I'm about 1/3 of the way through the materials, but I've been studying for a month. I need to step up the pace a little bit.
You know, for not having a job and all.
Tomorrow and Tuesday I am canvassing for my candidate. I don't really know what that entails, but I'm supposed to show up tomorrow at the local engineers union to find out what to do. After that I need to drop off lots of baked goods at our church. They're having a bake sale on Tuesday. The church is a polling station, and during every election the church women sell baked goods as a fundraiser for the church. I spent this afternoon making 3 quiches (2 veggie and 1 ham and cheese), 2 dozen chocolate cupcakes with cheesecake filling, and Todd made a dozen chewy cherry scones.
Tuesday, after canvassing in the morning, I have to go man the bake sale table at the church, drop off paperwork for my new job, go vote myself, and then get to yoga and trivia in the evening.
On Wednesday I'm going downtown to drop off paperwork to my old supervisor, so she can send it in to the licensing board, which they will hopefully approve without any problems, which will allow me to schedule a date to take the licensing exam.
On Thursday I have to go back downtown to see Girlyman. Whoo! One of my coworkers from my last job had tickets with a friend, and she just bailed a few days ago, so he asked if I would like to take the extra ticket. Sure!
And on Friday afternoon I agreed to go help the church ladies clean up the church. The church is celebrating it's 150th anniversary this coming weekend, and there are special programs and receptions and the bishop is coming on Sunday. After next weekend, I think I'm church-activity-ed out for awhile. They want me to bake something for the reception next weekend, too. I like cooking, and the church women are totally funny and irreverent and I enjoy hanging out with them (they're almost all grandparent age, but they're also all feisty and hilarious). However, baking for the bake sale, manning the table, cleaning the church, baking for the celebration reception, and attending all of the special programs next weekend, is a lot of church stuff for one week. I'll need a break after that.
And somewhere in there I need to find time to study because if the licensing board approves my application, I will have a window of only 2 months to finish preparing, schedule and take the exam. So far I'm about 1/3 of the way through the materials, but I've been studying for a month. I need to step up the pace a little bit.
10.29.2008
Phandemonium!
The Curse of Billy Penn has been broken! And the city is on fire (literally).
But, there's going to be a parade! Whoo!
To be fair, this is only my 5th season of watching baseball, but I took to it in a big way, and I've probably watched more than half of the games during each of the last 5 seasons (except when I was sadly away from the area in NY). Todd was at the winning game the last time we won the World Series, 28 years ago. He estimates he has watched 75% of all of the games since 1977, which equals 3,766 games. And a half. :) We're going to the parade on Friday. Everyone is taking off from work, and we'll take the train downtown.
The curse of Billy Penn is kind of interesting, in the superstitious way that seems to permeate sports, and especially baseball. The statue of Billy Penn on top of City Hall was the tallest thing in the city up until 1987, when a new skyscraper (Liberty 1) was erected. Prior to that, Philly's 4 major sports teams had won a number of championships. As soon as Lib 1 went up and surpassed Billy Penn, none of the 4 teams in the city won a championship again. Just this year, the C0mcast building went up as the tallest building in the city, surpassing the other skyscrapers. In an attempt to break the curse, two workers attached a replica of the Billy Penn statue to the final beam that was placed in the new building.
And then we won! Whoo! Go Billy Penn!
The Curse of Billy Penn has been broken! And the city is on fire (literally).
But, there's going to be a parade! Whoo!
To be fair, this is only my 5th season of watching baseball, but I took to it in a big way, and I've probably watched more than half of the games during each of the last 5 seasons (except when I was sadly away from the area in NY). Todd was at the winning game the last time we won the World Series, 28 years ago. He estimates he has watched 75% of all of the games since 1977, which equals 3,766 games. And a half. :) We're going to the parade on Friday. Everyone is taking off from work, and we'll take the train downtown.
The curse of Billy Penn is kind of interesting, in the superstitious way that seems to permeate sports, and especially baseball. The statue of Billy Penn on top of City Hall was the tallest thing in the city up until 1987, when a new skyscraper (Liberty 1) was erected. Prior to that, Philly's 4 major sports teams had won a number of championships. As soon as Lib 1 went up and surpassed Billy Penn, none of the 4 teams in the city won a championship again. Just this year, the C0mcast building went up as the tallest building in the city, surpassing the other skyscrapers. In an attempt to break the curse, two workers attached a replica of the Billy Penn statue to the final beam that was placed in the new building.
And then we won! Whoo! Go Billy Penn!
10.27.2008
10.19.2008
Don't lose the message
Just a few minutes ago I watched C0lin Powell endorse Obama for President on Meet the Press. I have not always liked everything that Powell has said or done, but I did like what I heard this morning. Not just the endorsement, although I'm sure that will help the Obama campaign. The part of his conversation that spoke to me the most, was the part highlighted in this piece.
Last week I had the misfortune of overhearing someone that I have known for 8 years, someone who I have liked, respected, found to be intelligent and funny and spot-on in so many ways... I overheard her telling someone else that she has "read things about Obama, there is so much information out there, you have no idea, he's not a black American - he's an Arab American."
I don't know why I was so surprised. I guess it was my own stereotyping of people - I admit that maybe I had in my mind an image of the type of people susceptible to this particular type of fear-inducing misinformation about race, religion, "ties to terrorists." I didn't think it would be someone I know and like.
At any rate. So I watched MTP this morning, and I heard Colin Powell speak about his decision, and the thoughtfulness that went into that decision. He touched on many different topics - the economy, judgment, divisiveness, personality, experience, etc. It's all important. But the part that spoke to me the most, at least this morning, is this idea that it's "bad" to be anything other than a very narrow definition of "American" - a definition that for some people seems to mandate a specific race, religion, moral compass, background, upbringing, etc, etc, etc. In my mind, that's the exact opposite of what this country was founded on, and I was grateful to see someone finally calling people out on that. The fact that it was someone from the party engaging in most of the recent narrow mindedness makes it all the more powerful. To come out and not just say "he's not a Muslim so stop spreading misinformation" but to instead say "It doesn't matter what someone's religion or culture is. Period." That was the message that I took away from MTP this morning. Unfortunately most of the press response that I've seen so far focus on Powell's remarks about Obama being a transformational figure, and his steadiness in response to the economic crisis, etc. I hope the rest of his message doesn't get lost in the conversation.
Just a few minutes ago I watched C0lin Powell endorse Obama for President on Meet the Press. I have not always liked everything that Powell has said or done, but I did like what I heard this morning. Not just the endorsement, although I'm sure that will help the Obama campaign. The part of his conversation that spoke to me the most, was the part highlighted in this piece.
Last week I had the misfortune of overhearing someone that I have known for 8 years, someone who I have liked, respected, found to be intelligent and funny and spot-on in so many ways... I overheard her telling someone else that she has "read things about Obama, there is so much information out there, you have no idea, he's not a black American - he's an Arab American."
I don't know why I was so surprised. I guess it was my own stereotyping of people - I admit that maybe I had in my mind an image of the type of people susceptible to this particular type of fear-inducing misinformation about race, religion, "ties to terrorists." I didn't think it would be someone I know and like.
At any rate. So I watched MTP this morning, and I heard Colin Powell speak about his decision, and the thoughtfulness that went into that decision. He touched on many different topics - the economy, judgment, divisiveness, personality, experience, etc. It's all important. But the part that spoke to me the most, at least this morning, is this idea that it's "bad" to be anything other than a very narrow definition of "American" - a definition that for some people seems to mandate a specific race, religion, moral compass, background, upbringing, etc, etc, etc. In my mind, that's the exact opposite of what this country was founded on, and I was grateful to see someone finally calling people out on that. The fact that it was someone from the party engaging in most of the recent narrow mindedness makes it all the more powerful. To come out and not just say "he's not a Muslim so stop spreading misinformation" but to instead say "It doesn't matter what someone's religion or culture is. Period." That was the message that I took away from MTP this morning. Unfortunately most of the press response that I've seen so far focus on Powell's remarks about Obama being a transformational figure, and his steadiness in response to the economic crisis, etc. I hope the rest of his message doesn't get lost in the conversation.
10.13.2008
10.08.2008
Timing Issues
So, I am currently unemployed. We all knew that, right? Right. So, my post-doc position ended a couple of weeks ago, and since then I have been studying for the licensing exam and applying for jobs. Also, we went to Portland, OR for a few days for a wedding. Yesterday I had an interview at a group practice not too far from my house. It seems like a pretty good place to work, but I'm a little concerned that I might get stuck working with a lot of kids, which is not my favorite group to work with. Love kids, don't love doing therapy with young kids. It's mostly behavior modification, and less of the insight-oriented and relational therapy that I enjoy doing. So.... had my interview yesterday, and I thought it went pretty well. Oh, the job is part-time, no benefits. Which is ok for now while I'm studying for the licensing exam for a few months, but not ideal longer-term.
I've also been trying to connect with a woman from an eating disorder treatment facility about a job they have available. She left me a message on Friday while I was in Powell's in Portland, and I've been trying to get in touch with her ever since. We finally connected this afternoon, spoke briefly on the phone, did a mini-interview just to see if I had enough experience with the types of things they do there to bring me in for an interview (which apparently I did) and then we scheduled an in-person interview for Friday. Ok, great. Things are looking good, right?
Except then, literally 2 minutes after I scheduled the interview at the ED center, I got an email from the place I interviewed yesterday asking me to join their practice.
I hate being in this position. Yes, I know it's not a bad thing to have one offer already. But it seems like every time I end up in this position, the offer I have is not the one that is the most ideal and I have to juggle to see if I can get the second offer. I don't want to lose the opportunity at the place that offered me a position already, but I think the second job might be better for me long-term (it's full-time, with benefits, and the ED-specific experience would be really great for my resume). So now I have to play this game of asking the first place to give me a bit of time to make a decision, which is awkward. Bleh. Also, even though I'm interviewing at the second place on Friday, I have no idea how long they will take to make a decision about that position. I don't know how many people they want to interview, etc.
Sigh. Meanwhile, I got my first unemployment "check" (they use gift cards now, which are difficult to use). I checked the balance over the phone to see how much I got. It said my balance was zero dollars. Thank you, government. I appreciate the ease and convenience of this process. Blargh.
So, I am currently unemployed. We all knew that, right? Right. So, my post-doc position ended a couple of weeks ago, and since then I have been studying for the licensing exam and applying for jobs. Also, we went to Portland, OR for a few days for a wedding. Yesterday I had an interview at a group practice not too far from my house. It seems like a pretty good place to work, but I'm a little concerned that I might get stuck working with a lot of kids, which is not my favorite group to work with. Love kids, don't love doing therapy with young kids. It's mostly behavior modification, and less of the insight-oriented and relational therapy that I enjoy doing. So.... had my interview yesterday, and I thought it went pretty well. Oh, the job is part-time, no benefits. Which is ok for now while I'm studying for the licensing exam for a few months, but not ideal longer-term.
I've also been trying to connect with a woman from an eating disorder treatment facility about a job they have available. She left me a message on Friday while I was in Powell's in Portland, and I've been trying to get in touch with her ever since. We finally connected this afternoon, spoke briefly on the phone, did a mini-interview just to see if I had enough experience with the types of things they do there to bring me in for an interview (which apparently I did) and then we scheduled an in-person interview for Friday. Ok, great. Things are looking good, right?
Except then, literally 2 minutes after I scheduled the interview at the ED center, I got an email from the place I interviewed yesterday asking me to join their practice.
I hate being in this position. Yes, I know it's not a bad thing to have one offer already. But it seems like every time I end up in this position, the offer I have is not the one that is the most ideal and I have to juggle to see if I can get the second offer. I don't want to lose the opportunity at the place that offered me a position already, but I think the second job might be better for me long-term (it's full-time, with benefits, and the ED-specific experience would be really great for my resume). So now I have to play this game of asking the first place to give me a bit of time to make a decision, which is awkward. Bleh. Also, even though I'm interviewing at the second place on Friday, I have no idea how long they will take to make a decision about that position. I don't know how many people they want to interview, etc.
Sigh. Meanwhile, I got my first unemployment "check" (they use gift cards now, which are difficult to use). I checked the balance over the phone to see how much I got. It said my balance was zero dollars. Thank you, government. I appreciate the ease and convenience of this process. Blargh.
9.29.2008
Buy me some peanuts!
So, yesterday Todd and I attended this huge comic convention in Baltimore, and we stuck around for a fancy awards ceremony/dinner afterwards. We had about an hour to kill between the end of the convention and the cocktail hour for the awards ceremony. Seeing as how we had been on our feet all day, we opted to just hang in the lobby of the hotel where there dinner was being held. Somewhat bored, we stared into the giant aquariums lining the lobby wall. I identified some fish we saw while snorkeling in Costa Rica. Yellow fish.... blue fish.... getting more bored by the second... why won't they let us in yet.... we're hungry.... people watching.... ooh- they have fancy water available over there.... drink the tiny cups of fancy water.... watch the fish some more... waiting.... and then people in the bar area start whooping it up. I look over and see a woman come running out of the bar pumping her fists in the air, hooting, and flops down on the couch in the lobby, clearly relieved and excited about whatever is happening in the bar. So, curiosity gets the best of me and I walk over to the bar to see what's going on inside. There are large TVs on the wall.... I say to Todd "oh, something just happened in baseball. I don't know what it is. Oh, wait... is that... huh? But I thought.... wait, is that OUR guys? I thought they played at 7???" And apparently the Phillies just clinched the division. While we sat and watched the fish and drank our tiny cups of lemon-flavored water. Sigh. So... we missed it. Instead, we had tickets to the "sure to be exciting last game of the season!" today, which turned out to be played by the B team, rookies, and guys they just brought up from the minors, because today's game didn't count for anything.
So, exciting that we won the division, frustrating and disappointing that we didn't see it happen. And while I refrain from rubbing it in to those people that I know are huge Mets fans... I did laugh at the handmade sign I saw at the ballpark today that had a drawing of a soda can and said "Choke.... the official softdrink of the Mets." Lol. I'll stop there. :)
Sidenote on the convention and the awards dinner. So... I know nothing about comics. Well, I probably know more than some just based on osmosis. Usually when Todd tries to talk comics to me I just turn and say "blah blah blah Sparky," after which he usually gives up, but not before giving me a pouty face because I don't care about his hobby. But apparently some of that stuff sticks in my brain sometimes. Anyway, so... this comic convention is full of artists and writers and old guys (though fewer famous old guys than last year), (oh, and a famous old woman this year, too. Yay for women in comics!), and.... I don't know anything about them or what they do or why they're famous. I was thinking about this last night at the awards dinner, because everyone around me was clearly in awe at being in the room with some of these people, and I'm sure I was the most clueless person in the room.
So I was thinking about what the parallel event would be for me. Like, perhaps if I made Todd attend a foodie convention, and then we went to a ceremony with a room full of my famous chefs like Todd English and Eric Ripert, or more commercially famous people like Tyler Florence and Giada DeLaurentis. Or a psychology banquet where the presenters were Yalom and Beck and Ellis. I don't know. It's just a bizarre feeling to know you're sitting in a room with people that you *should* be impressed by, but you have no idea why. At one point the host of the ceremony (a friend of Todd's) came over and whispered to us "you do realize, don't you, that you're sitting between two of the greatest cartoonists of our times, right?" Todd just nodded in agreement. Later, I asked him what the guy on my left was known for, and he said he had no idea. But apparently we were in the presence of greatness.
At any rate, the dinner was tasty. And we got some good swag to throw up on ebay to recoup our gas and toll money. :)
So, yesterday Todd and I attended this huge comic convention in Baltimore, and we stuck around for a fancy awards ceremony/dinner afterwards. We had about an hour to kill between the end of the convention and the cocktail hour for the awards ceremony. Seeing as how we had been on our feet all day, we opted to just hang in the lobby of the hotel where there dinner was being held. Somewhat bored, we stared into the giant aquariums lining the lobby wall. I identified some fish we saw while snorkeling in Costa Rica. Yellow fish.... blue fish.... getting more bored by the second... why won't they let us in yet.... we're hungry.... people watching.... ooh- they have fancy water available over there.... drink the tiny cups of fancy water.... watch the fish some more... waiting.... and then people in the bar area start whooping it up. I look over and see a woman come running out of the bar pumping her fists in the air, hooting, and flops down on the couch in the lobby, clearly relieved and excited about whatever is happening in the bar. So, curiosity gets the best of me and I walk over to the bar to see what's going on inside. There are large TVs on the wall.... I say to Todd "oh, something just happened in baseball. I don't know what it is. Oh, wait... is that... huh? But I thought.... wait, is that OUR guys? I thought they played at 7???" And apparently the Phillies just clinched the division. While we sat and watched the fish and drank our tiny cups of lemon-flavored water. Sigh. So... we missed it. Instead, we had tickets to the "sure to be exciting last game of the season!" today, which turned out to be played by the B team, rookies, and guys they just brought up from the minors, because today's game didn't count for anything.
So, exciting that we won the division, frustrating and disappointing that we didn't see it happen. And while I refrain from rubbing it in to those people that I know are huge Mets fans... I did laugh at the handmade sign I saw at the ballpark today that had a drawing of a soda can and said "Choke.... the official softdrink of the Mets." Lol. I'll stop there. :)
Sidenote on the convention and the awards dinner. So... I know nothing about comics. Well, I probably know more than some just based on osmosis. Usually when Todd tries to talk comics to me I just turn and say "blah blah blah Sparky," after which he usually gives up, but not before giving me a pouty face because I don't care about his hobby. But apparently some of that stuff sticks in my brain sometimes. Anyway, so... this comic convention is full of artists and writers and old guys (though fewer famous old guys than last year), (oh, and a famous old woman this year, too. Yay for women in comics!), and.... I don't know anything about them or what they do or why they're famous. I was thinking about this last night at the awards dinner, because everyone around me was clearly in awe at being in the room with some of these people, and I'm sure I was the most clueless person in the room.
So I was thinking about what the parallel event would be for me. Like, perhaps if I made Todd attend a foodie convention, and then we went to a ceremony with a room full of my famous chefs like Todd English and Eric Ripert, or more commercially famous people like Tyler Florence and Giada DeLaurentis. Or a psychology banquet where the presenters were Yalom and Beck and Ellis. I don't know. It's just a bizarre feeling to know you're sitting in a room with people that you *should* be impressed by, but you have no idea why. At one point the host of the ceremony (a friend of Todd's) came over and whispered to us "you do realize, don't you, that you're sitting between two of the greatest cartoonists of our times, right?" Todd just nodded in agreement. Later, I asked him what the guy on my left was known for, and he said he had no idea. But apparently we were in the presence of greatness.
At any rate, the dinner was tasty. And we got some good swag to throw up on ebay to recoup our gas and toll money. :)
9.25.2008
Unemployment Line
I was just watching the news on tv and there was a story about how the jobless rate for last week was higher than estimates predicted.
Which reminded me that I need to figure out how to apply for unemployment. I have no idea how that works. I think they pay you like... half of something. Half of what you were making? I don't know. For me, that would be half of approximately nothing, so I'm not even sure it's worth it. My previous "salary" was called a "stipend" instead of a salary, so that should tell you something right there. Anyway.
Sigh. So... my job ended last week. It was a 1-year post-doc position, so it wasn't unexpected. But not being able to find a new job was a little unexpected. The thing that really gets me is that the people at the jobs I have applied for are totally bizarre and unprofessional and I don't understand what people are thinking these days.
First, I had applied for a job at a local community college back in April. Their job listing said they were accepting applications until mid-July, which was right in the middle of our honeymoon. I included in my cover letter a statement that I would be out of the country, but that I would try to check messages and email, yada yada. Nothing. When I returned, I waited about a week and then contacted them. I had a totally bizarre conversation with a secretary who would not tell me whether the position was still available, whether they began interviewing, anything. She kept telling me she did not know anything (she obviously did), but she also would not even tell me who would be a more appropriate person to talk to. I finally reached her boss, who told me they were reviewing apps and I would hear something by the end of August. Right. For the job I applied for in April? What is this, the stone age? Of course August came and went and I heard nothing. I eventually heard from my supervisor, who knows someone at that school, that they filled the 2 positions they had available. Thanks for letting me know. By the end of August.
Then I applied at another school, where I already knew some of the people in the counseling center. They called me immediately after I submitted my application. I showed up for the interview, and the person I was supposed to meet with (the director) "was busy." So instead I met with a couple of other people who didn't really know what they were supposed to tell me or ask me. One guy kept yawning the whole time. They told me I would meet with the director afterwards. Except afterwards, she was gone. Left to go to whatever she had on her schedule for the afternoon. I called her and emailed her afterwards, said I was sorry to have missed her, and asked if she would like me to come back in at a more convenient time for her, or if she would like to speak with me on the phone....? Nothing. No response. Zilch. And this is someone who KNOWS me, and works with and really likes my supervisor, who highly recommended me for the job. No response. It's been 2 1/2 weeks. I'm assuming I did not get the job. But seriously, no response at all, not even to an email? Come on people.
Then there was another job. I submit my app online and get an immediate form letter response - "we'll review your materials and contact you if we think you might be a good match." A few days later I get a voicemail message saying "I'm sorry I didn't call you yesterday when I said I would. There was some confusion because another woman with a similar name applied, so I'm sorry I didn't get in touch when I said I would, I was confused, but I would like to speak with you." So, I call back the next business day, leave a message thanking him, yes, I would like to speak with you about the job, I'm teaching a workshop until noon today, but you can reach me anytime after 1pm, or leave me a message with times you are available and I will call you back during those times." I get no response. Nothing. I email him at the email address that the form letter came from. 2 days later I get an email response saying that my resume looks "interesting" (interesting good? I can't tell) and asking me if I'm still interested in a position with their organization. Um... well, I APPLIED for it, within the past week, and I called you back saying I wanted to talk to you, and I emailed you saying I wanted to talk to you... what do you think??? So, I respond to his email, yes I'm interested, please call or email me to set up a time we can talk, or I can come in, whatever, just please give me a job already people!!!
And I get no response.
Wtf people?!? I am good at what I do, I have experience, I have a good resume and cover letter, I'm flexible, I probably won't realize or complain about you underpaying me, I have good letters of recommendation, I have one license and will be sitting for the doctoral licensure soon (that's another post), I'm willing to commute into the city (which is a p.i.t.a.), I'm good at lots of "extra" things like teaching workshops/administrative stuff/policy development/outreach, etc. Seriously. For the love of grog, please return my freaking phone calls, and then give me a job.
Because in the meantime, I'm sitting on my couch, trying to study for the licensing exam, being bored out of my mind, and watching The View. I need a job people.
I was just watching the news on tv and there was a story about how the jobless rate for last week was higher than estimates predicted.
Which reminded me that I need to figure out how to apply for unemployment. I have no idea how that works. I think they pay you like... half of something. Half of what you were making? I don't know. For me, that would be half of approximately nothing, so I'm not even sure it's worth it. My previous "salary" was called a "stipend" instead of a salary, so that should tell you something right there. Anyway.
Sigh. So... my job ended last week. It was a 1-year post-doc position, so it wasn't unexpected. But not being able to find a new job was a little unexpected. The thing that really gets me is that the people at the jobs I have applied for are totally bizarre and unprofessional and I don't understand what people are thinking these days.
First, I had applied for a job at a local community college back in April. Their job listing said they were accepting applications until mid-July, which was right in the middle of our honeymoon. I included in my cover letter a statement that I would be out of the country, but that I would try to check messages and email, yada yada. Nothing. When I returned, I waited about a week and then contacted them. I had a totally bizarre conversation with a secretary who would not tell me whether the position was still available, whether they began interviewing, anything. She kept telling me she did not know anything (she obviously did), but she also would not even tell me who would be a more appropriate person to talk to. I finally reached her boss, who told me they were reviewing apps and I would hear something by the end of August. Right. For the job I applied for in April? What is this, the stone age? Of course August came and went and I heard nothing. I eventually heard from my supervisor, who knows someone at that school, that they filled the 2 positions they had available. Thanks for letting me know. By the end of August.
Then I applied at another school, where I already knew some of the people in the counseling center. They called me immediately after I submitted my application. I showed up for the interview, and the person I was supposed to meet with (the director) "was busy." So instead I met with a couple of other people who didn't really know what they were supposed to tell me or ask me. One guy kept yawning the whole time. They told me I would meet with the director afterwards. Except afterwards, she was gone. Left to go to whatever she had on her schedule for the afternoon. I called her and emailed her afterwards, said I was sorry to have missed her, and asked if she would like me to come back in at a more convenient time for her, or if she would like to speak with me on the phone....? Nothing. No response. Zilch. And this is someone who KNOWS me, and works with and really likes my supervisor, who highly recommended me for the job. No response. It's been 2 1/2 weeks. I'm assuming I did not get the job. But seriously, no response at all, not even to an email? Come on people.
Then there was another job. I submit my app online and get an immediate form letter response - "we'll review your materials and contact you if we think you might be a good match." A few days later I get a voicemail message saying "I'm sorry I didn't call you yesterday when I said I would. There was some confusion because another woman with a similar name applied, so I'm sorry I didn't get in touch when I said I would, I was confused, but I would like to speak with you." So, I call back the next business day, leave a message thanking him, yes, I would like to speak with you about the job, I'm teaching a workshop until noon today, but you can reach me anytime after 1pm, or leave me a message with times you are available and I will call you back during those times." I get no response. Nothing. I email him at the email address that the form letter came from. 2 days later I get an email response saying that my resume looks "interesting" (interesting good? I can't tell) and asking me if I'm still interested in a position with their organization. Um... well, I APPLIED for it, within the past week, and I called you back saying I wanted to talk to you, and I emailed you saying I wanted to talk to you... what do you think??? So, I respond to his email, yes I'm interested, please call or email me to set up a time we can talk, or I can come in, whatever, just please give me a job already people!!!
And I get no response.
Wtf people?!? I am good at what I do, I have experience, I have a good resume and cover letter, I'm flexible, I probably won't realize or complain about you underpaying me, I have good letters of recommendation, I have one license and will be sitting for the doctoral licensure soon (that's another post), I'm willing to commute into the city (which is a p.i.t.a.), I'm good at lots of "extra" things like teaching workshops/administrative stuff/policy development/outreach, etc. Seriously. For the love of grog, please return my freaking phone calls, and then give me a job.
Because in the meantime, I'm sitting on my couch, trying to study for the licensing exam, being bored out of my mind, and watching The View. I need a job people.
9.14.2008
9.09.2008
How did that happen?
I'm about to be unemployed again. Didn't I just find this job? Well, no, I guess not. It's hard to believe that I've been at this job for a year already. And, oh yeah - it was just a one-year post-doc position. So....in less than 2 weeks I will be unemployed. Again. I'm tired of job searching. I've had at least 12 jobs in the last 10 years. I know this because I have had to cut-and-paste every single one of those jobs into online HR job application systems for a whole bunch of jobs I've applied to recently. So far, though, I've only had one interview, yesterday. I don't know how it went, really, but I don't have a great feeling. For starters, the person I was supposed to interview with, the director of the center, was "tied up" when I got there for my interview. I met with a couple of other people instead, with the idea that I would meet with the director afterwards. Except that afterwards, she was gone. On to her next meeting or appointment or whatever she was doing yesterday. Sigh. Of the 3 people I did get to meet with - I've met two of them before. I got a good vibe from those two. The other guy, whom I've never met before... stifled yawns the whole time, and jetted out the door as soon as he decided we were finished. The other two women stayed around and chatted with me for awhile. The unfortunate thing for me is that the guy is the assistant director, and if his opinion counts more heavily than the others, it might not be good for me. Hrm. I don't know.
So, I'm home today, using up some of my remaining personal days before my time runs out. I spent all day today looking online for jobs, and applied for 2 more. Hopefully one of these things will work out soon, because I don't want to be unemployed for too long. Although, I do have to admit that having some time off to clean the house and organize the basement, and really start studying for the licensing exam would be awesome. If only you could collect a paycheck for cleaning your own house and studying for your own exams. Hrm. Gotta work on a solution for that.
I'm about to be unemployed again. Didn't I just find this job? Well, no, I guess not. It's hard to believe that I've been at this job for a year already. And, oh yeah - it was just a one-year post-doc position. So....in less than 2 weeks I will be unemployed. Again. I'm tired of job searching. I've had at least 12 jobs in the last 10 years. I know this because I have had to cut-and-paste every single one of those jobs into online HR job application systems for a whole bunch of jobs I've applied to recently. So far, though, I've only had one interview, yesterday. I don't know how it went, really, but I don't have a great feeling. For starters, the person I was supposed to interview with, the director of the center, was "tied up" when I got there for my interview. I met with a couple of other people instead, with the idea that I would meet with the director afterwards. Except that afterwards, she was gone. On to her next meeting or appointment or whatever she was doing yesterday. Sigh. Of the 3 people I did get to meet with - I've met two of them before. I got a good vibe from those two. The other guy, whom I've never met before... stifled yawns the whole time, and jetted out the door as soon as he decided we were finished. The other two women stayed around and chatted with me for awhile. The unfortunate thing for me is that the guy is the assistant director, and if his opinion counts more heavily than the others, it might not be good for me. Hrm. I don't know.
So, I'm home today, using up some of my remaining personal days before my time runs out. I spent all day today looking online for jobs, and applied for 2 more. Hopefully one of these things will work out soon, because I don't want to be unemployed for too long. Although, I do have to admit that having some time off to clean the house and organize the basement, and really start studying for the licensing exam would be awesome. If only you could collect a paycheck for cleaning your own house and studying for your own exams. Hrm. Gotta work on a solution for that.
8.31.2008
Sad day in Shoe-ville
I spent all day today cleaning. Cleaning-cleaning. I re-organized the upstairs bathroom and sorted things into storage baskets. I washed the dust-ruffle on our bed. I had Todd lift the bed up so I could sweep and swiffer under the bed. The enormous pile of dust-bunny-ness was truly disgusting. I found the garment bag for my wedding dress, which I have been searching for for the last month. Our bedroom was such a mess that I didn't realize it was right there the whole time. I did 4 loads of laundry, ironed, picked up walnuts in the yard so the grass can be mowed, cleaned the refrigerator, organized the beer by style (still leftover from the wedding, though Todd and his friends have been doing a nice job of drinking it down), went grocery shopping, and made beef stew in my new crockpot.
The bedroom still needs more cleaning. I made a good start, but I'm not done. I want to devise a storage system for my off-season clothes. Last winter's clothes are still in bins in the middle of my dressing room from last winter. I will try to slide them under the bed tomorrow. I may need to make a trip to BB&B for some other type of storage system if that doesn't work.
In the process of cleaning and organizing, I had to make some decisions about things to keep and things to get rid of. I am sad to report that I had to throw away my most favorite pair of black shoes. I'm pretty sure I have had them for at least 10 years...probably more. They're scuffed beyond belief. Even shoe polish can't return them to their former glory. For the last decade I've accepted the scuffing. It gave them character. My uncle always tells me they look like pilgrim shoes. Still, they were the best shoes I've ever had. However, the heels are now worn down on the outer edges which makes me turn my ankle when I wear them, and the leather is cracked and curling on the inside. It was time for them to go. I am sad. Goodbye shoes. You served me well for over a decade.
I spent all day today cleaning. Cleaning-cleaning. I re-organized the upstairs bathroom and sorted things into storage baskets. I washed the dust-ruffle on our bed. I had Todd lift the bed up so I could sweep and swiffer under the bed. The enormous pile of dust-bunny-ness was truly disgusting. I found the garment bag for my wedding dress, which I have been searching for for the last month. Our bedroom was such a mess that I didn't realize it was right there the whole time. I did 4 loads of laundry, ironed, picked up walnuts in the yard so the grass can be mowed, cleaned the refrigerator, organized the beer by style (still leftover from the wedding, though Todd and his friends have been doing a nice job of drinking it down), went grocery shopping, and made beef stew in my new crockpot.
The bedroom still needs more cleaning. I made a good start, but I'm not done. I want to devise a storage system for my off-season clothes. Last winter's clothes are still in bins in the middle of my dressing room from last winter. I will try to slide them under the bed tomorrow. I may need to make a trip to BB&B for some other type of storage system if that doesn't work.
In the process of cleaning and organizing, I had to make some decisions about things to keep and things to get rid of. I am sad to report that I had to throw away my most favorite pair of black shoes. I'm pretty sure I have had them for at least 10 years...probably more. They're scuffed beyond belief. Even shoe polish can't return them to their former glory. For the last decade I've accepted the scuffing. It gave them character. My uncle always tells me they look like pilgrim shoes. Still, they were the best shoes I've ever had. However, the heels are now worn down on the outer edges which makes me turn my ankle when I wear them, and the leather is cracked and curling on the inside. It was time for them to go. I am sad. Goodbye shoes. You served me well for over a decade.
8.14.2008
Brain Rot
1) Buy a Wii for your husband (hee, husband!) as a wedding gift
2) Husband buys Lego Star Wars and Harry P0tter games for Wii
3) Boxes arrive from Amazon with what seems like 800 different Wii controllers
4) Husband goes to work bleary-eyed every morning because he stayed up until 3am playing Wii
5) Husband decides trusty old tv does not do justice to the Wii.
6) Husband brings home a 42" plasma HDTV
7) Husband buys Wii fit (for you!)
8) No one ever leaves the house again.
9) Get eaten by Alsatians
1) Buy a Wii for your husband (hee, husband!) as a wedding gift
2) Husband buys Lego Star Wars and Harry P0tter games for Wii
3) Boxes arrive from Amazon with what seems like 800 different Wii controllers
4) Husband goes to work bleary-eyed every morning because he stayed up until 3am playing Wii
5) Husband decides trusty old tv does not do justice to the Wii.
6) Husband brings home a 42" plasma HDTV
7) Husband buys Wii fit (for you!)
8) No one ever leaves the house again.
9) Get eaten by Alsatians
7.27.2008
so, where were we?
Right. Capsized kayak.
So, the day after the capsized kayak, we found a guy on a different beach who rents snorkeling equipment. Or, for $20 more he will take you out on a boat for 3 hours, and take you to 2 different coral reef sites to go snorkeling. We decided to do that. Turns out the actual guy doesn't take you. Instead, he sent us out with "Juan Octopus" (because octopus is the only English word he knows) and some other guy who drives the boat. Neither spoke a word of English, except "octopus." Juan Octopus also carries a handmade spear, with which he (you guessed it) spears octopi. I had never been snorkeling before, and it took me a few minutes to figure out that yes, you can breath under water with the snorkeling equipment. The first few times I tried to go under water, I came up gasping for breath, because my body seemed to understand that you're not supposed to be able to do that. Eventually I got used to it, though, and thought it was awesome. We saw all kinds of cool stuff. Fish of all different colors - bright blues and yellows and polka dots and stripes. Puffer fish, lobsters, a moray eel, a sea snake, scallops, etc. Todd saw a sea turtle, but it disappeared before I could get there. The other guy we were with saw a manta ray. On the boat ride back we saw two sea turtles mating, bobbing along on the surface of the water. This is the season where they, mate and then come lay their eggs on the beach at night.
After snorkeling we headed to the southern peninsula, to another beach, in the town of Montezuma. Todd got pulled over for speeding. Police officer spoke no English. Our mediocre Spanish somehow managed to get us out of the ticket altogether. I'm pretty sure the officer was trying to get us to pay him cash on the spot, but I know they're not allowed to take money from people (they still try anyway. We were warned about this ahead of time). Anyway, so.... after 10 minutes of broken conversation, and after getting the cost reduced twice, he eventually just let us off when he realized we weren't going to pay him. In Montezuma we stayed in a bungalow under a grove of mango trees. Howler monkeys live in the mango trees. I thought it sounded cool. It ended up being the worst place we stayed. It was full of bugs, had a dead crab in the bathroom, and there was monkey poop everywhere. We did not see any actual monkeys, however. It was hot, and the room just had a dust-covered ceiling fan. We left first thing the next morning.
We found an open room at an inn on the beach. It was beautiful. It had a nice back yard that went right down to the rocky beach. The yard had a grove of palm trees, loaded with coconuts. All the trees were strung with hammocks. The beach was full of tide pools - one large enough to swim in. There were pelicans and an iguana in the trees in the yard. The office had lots of board games in case of rain. We opted for an air conditioned room with a private bath. I had massive sunburn from snorkeling the day before, so I opted to divide my time between the hammocks in the yard and the A/C'd bedroom. Todd headed out for a specific hike that he was looking forward to. Unfortunately, the hike defeated him, and he turned back before reaching his destination because he was afraid he was going to pass out on the trail alone. It was much more hot and humid in the jungle than on the beach. Alas, we never made it to the beach at Cabo Blanco, which was supposed to be gorgeous. In town there was a restaurant that showed movies every night with dinner, so we saw the Wedding Crashers one night, and August Rush the next night. True to the town's name, Todd woke up the next day with a case of Montezuma's revenge. Heh.
Next day, we headed to the Marriott resort for 4 days. This turned out to be perfect timing, because over the next 4 days I had my own bout with The Revenge (food poisoning? Accidental ingestion of local water? Who knows). I also had a few days of fever and sore throat, which I think were unrelated to The Revenge. Needless to say, I was happy to be in the fancy hotel during all of that. The first day there we saw 4 scarlet macaws in a tree on the hotel property. We spent one lazy day reading by the pool. Another day we went horseback riding to a waterfall. And our last trip was to a national park, where we saw sloths, hermit crabs, rodents of unusual size, and white-faced capuchin monkeys. I did about an hour of hiking, and then I opted to stay on the beach while Todd did some more hiking. As soon as he left, I was treated to a 45-minute long monkey show. A troop of capuchin monkeys came right up to where I was sitting, jumping around the trees above the beach. They ran down and grabbed some food from people sitting under the trees. A few had babies clinging to their backs. They ran around in circles. I was able to get really close to take photos. A few minutes after they left, Todd came back from his hike. Luckily for him, we passed the same troop of monkeys on our way out of the park, so he was able to see them up close before we left.
One last night in a hotel by the airport, and then we made our way home. We got home Tuesday night, and got out of the airport so quickly that we actually went to trivia that same night. It's an addiction, what can I say? We came in second place, missing first by just one point. We came in first place the last two times before we left. We're on some kind of streak, so we need to keep going before the luck runs out. :)
So, we're back. It's going to take awhile to get back to feeling normal. The weeks before the wedding were totally crazy. Our house looks like it was hit by some kind of wedding tornado, between the gifts that need to find homes, the centerpieces and candles and lanterns that we brought back from the reception, the room full of projects and craft supplies and whatnot where I created everything, to the suitcases full of honeymoon clothes and souvenirs and gifts. I don't know where to start. I got my thank-you cards written today, though, so I'm happy to get that crossed off the list. The other things can get done when they get done. I'll just keep going through one thing at a time.
All of the photos are on Todd's computer. I'll try to get some posted sometime this week. Unfortunately, a lot of the things that were the most fun were not things that were conducive to photo-taking (and no, Kel, that's not what I'm talking about. :) Things such as snorkeling, and the zip-line. That's what I'm talking about. :) But, we do have a couple of good photos, and I'll try to get them up here soon.
Right. Capsized kayak.
So, the day after the capsized kayak, we found a guy on a different beach who rents snorkeling equipment. Or, for $20 more he will take you out on a boat for 3 hours, and take you to 2 different coral reef sites to go snorkeling. We decided to do that. Turns out the actual guy doesn't take you. Instead, he sent us out with "Juan Octopus" (because octopus is the only English word he knows) and some other guy who drives the boat. Neither spoke a word of English, except "octopus." Juan Octopus also carries a handmade spear, with which he (you guessed it) spears octopi. I had never been snorkeling before, and it took me a few minutes to figure out that yes, you can breath under water with the snorkeling equipment. The first few times I tried to go under water, I came up gasping for breath, because my body seemed to understand that you're not supposed to be able to do that. Eventually I got used to it, though, and thought it was awesome. We saw all kinds of cool stuff. Fish of all different colors - bright blues and yellows and polka dots and stripes. Puffer fish, lobsters, a moray eel, a sea snake, scallops, etc. Todd saw a sea turtle, but it disappeared before I could get there. The other guy we were with saw a manta ray. On the boat ride back we saw two sea turtles mating, bobbing along on the surface of the water. This is the season where they, mate and then come lay their eggs on the beach at night.
After snorkeling we headed to the southern peninsula, to another beach, in the town of Montezuma. Todd got pulled over for speeding. Police officer spoke no English. Our mediocre Spanish somehow managed to get us out of the ticket altogether. I'm pretty sure the officer was trying to get us to pay him cash on the spot, but I know they're not allowed to take money from people (they still try anyway. We were warned about this ahead of time). Anyway, so.... after 10 minutes of broken conversation, and after getting the cost reduced twice, he eventually just let us off when he realized we weren't going to pay him. In Montezuma we stayed in a bungalow under a grove of mango trees. Howler monkeys live in the mango trees. I thought it sounded cool. It ended up being the worst place we stayed. It was full of bugs, had a dead crab in the bathroom, and there was monkey poop everywhere. We did not see any actual monkeys, however. It was hot, and the room just had a dust-covered ceiling fan. We left first thing the next morning.
We found an open room at an inn on the beach. It was beautiful. It had a nice back yard that went right down to the rocky beach. The yard had a grove of palm trees, loaded with coconuts. All the trees were strung with hammocks. The beach was full of tide pools - one large enough to swim in. There were pelicans and an iguana in the trees in the yard. The office had lots of board games in case of rain. We opted for an air conditioned room with a private bath. I had massive sunburn from snorkeling the day before, so I opted to divide my time between the hammocks in the yard and the A/C'd bedroom. Todd headed out for a specific hike that he was looking forward to. Unfortunately, the hike defeated him, and he turned back before reaching his destination because he was afraid he was going to pass out on the trail alone. It was much more hot and humid in the jungle than on the beach. Alas, we never made it to the beach at Cabo Blanco, which was supposed to be gorgeous. In town there was a restaurant that showed movies every night with dinner, so we saw the Wedding Crashers one night, and August Rush the next night. True to the town's name, Todd woke up the next day with a case of Montezuma's revenge. Heh.
Next day, we headed to the Marriott resort for 4 days. This turned out to be perfect timing, because over the next 4 days I had my own bout with The Revenge (food poisoning? Accidental ingestion of local water? Who knows). I also had a few days of fever and sore throat, which I think were unrelated to The Revenge. Needless to say, I was happy to be in the fancy hotel during all of that. The first day there we saw 4 scarlet macaws in a tree on the hotel property. We spent one lazy day reading by the pool. Another day we went horseback riding to a waterfall. And our last trip was to a national park, where we saw sloths, hermit crabs, rodents of unusual size, and white-faced capuchin monkeys. I did about an hour of hiking, and then I opted to stay on the beach while Todd did some more hiking. As soon as he left, I was treated to a 45-minute long monkey show. A troop of capuchin monkeys came right up to where I was sitting, jumping around the trees above the beach. They ran down and grabbed some food from people sitting under the trees. A few had babies clinging to their backs. They ran around in circles. I was able to get really close to take photos. A few minutes after they left, Todd came back from his hike. Luckily for him, we passed the same troop of monkeys on our way out of the park, so he was able to see them up close before we left.
One last night in a hotel by the airport, and then we made our way home. We got home Tuesday night, and got out of the airport so quickly that we actually went to trivia that same night. It's an addiction, what can I say? We came in second place, missing first by just one point. We came in first place the last two times before we left. We're on some kind of streak, so we need to keep going before the luck runs out. :)
So, we're back. It's going to take awhile to get back to feeling normal. The weeks before the wedding were totally crazy. Our house looks like it was hit by some kind of wedding tornado, between the gifts that need to find homes, the centerpieces and candles and lanterns that we brought back from the reception, the room full of projects and craft supplies and whatnot where I created everything, to the suitcases full of honeymoon clothes and souvenirs and gifts. I don't know where to start. I got my thank-you cards written today, though, so I'm happy to get that crossed off the list. The other things can get done when they get done. I'll just keep going through one thing at a time.
All of the photos are on Todd's computer. I'll try to get some posted sometime this week. Unfortunately, a lot of the things that were the most fun were not things that were conducive to photo-taking (and no, Kel, that's not what I'm talking about. :) Things such as snorkeling, and the zip-line. That's what I'm talking about. :) But, we do have a couple of good photos, and I'll try to get them up here soon.
7.14.2008
Brief update from C.R.
So... Costa Rica is interesting. There are no street signs here. Anywhere. We lasted less than a day without GPS. Garmin has been our fearless captain since Day 2.
Volcano = awesome. Todd called it the Volcano Alarm because we did not have to set our alarm clock. The volcano blasted us awake every morning.
First hotel -swanky big-name hotel. Awesome pools, awesome food, awesome perk of having access to the eecutivel lounge meant we could load up our packs with snacks and water bottles for the rest of the trip. Those snacks have been lunch many a day.
Second hotel - the closest you can get to the active volcano. Used to be the observation center. Now has lodge rooms. Saw monkeys and toucans. Were woken up by volcano blasts and howler monkey calls every night and morning. Chickened out on doing the zip line.
Third hotel - really nice inn at the cloud forest preserve. Awesome staff set us up with all kinds of activities. Talked Todd into doing the zip line. He thought we were going to die. Now he thinks it´s the most awesome part of our trip so far. 19 zip-lines through the cloud forest, with howler monkeys yelling all over the place. Zip lines often went above the forest canopy. Really cool. Finding a scorpion next to my suitcase in our room... less cool.
Now we´re at the beach. Went sea kayaking today. Were about a mile out to sea when boat began to sink and we capcised. Crapola. managed to right the kayak and on the 5th try I was able to hoist myself back in. Todd grabbed onto the back and kicked while I rowed us back to shore. I´m going to be sore tomorrow. Hard work. Also, as soon as we tipped, it started raining. Awesome. We are going snorkeling tomorrow. One guy went today and saw manta rays, sharks, a sea turtle and an octopus. Yikes!
More soon!
So... Costa Rica is interesting. There are no street signs here. Anywhere. We lasted less than a day without GPS. Garmin has been our fearless captain since Day 2.
Volcano = awesome. Todd called it the Volcano Alarm because we did not have to set our alarm clock. The volcano blasted us awake every morning.
First hotel -swanky big-name hotel. Awesome pools, awesome food, awesome perk of having access to the eecutivel lounge meant we could load up our packs with snacks and water bottles for the rest of the trip. Those snacks have been lunch many a day.
Second hotel - the closest you can get to the active volcano. Used to be the observation center. Now has lodge rooms. Saw monkeys and toucans. Were woken up by volcano blasts and howler monkey calls every night and morning. Chickened out on doing the zip line.
Third hotel - really nice inn at the cloud forest preserve. Awesome staff set us up with all kinds of activities. Talked Todd into doing the zip line. He thought we were going to die. Now he thinks it´s the most awesome part of our trip so far. 19 zip-lines through the cloud forest, with howler monkeys yelling all over the place. Zip lines often went above the forest canopy. Really cool. Finding a scorpion next to my suitcase in our room... less cool.
Now we´re at the beach. Went sea kayaking today. Were about a mile out to sea when boat began to sink and we capcised. Crapola. managed to right the kayak and on the 5th try I was able to hoist myself back in. Todd grabbed onto the back and kicked while I rowed us back to shore. I´m going to be sore tomorrow. Hard work. Also, as soon as we tipped, it started raining. Awesome. We are going snorkeling tomorrow. One guy went today and saw manta rays, sharks, a sea turtle and an octopus. Yikes!
More soon!
7.02.2008
Semi news-worthy
1) Last night we won first place at trivia, for the second week in a row (1st place is a VERY rare treat for us).
2) I tried ostrich for the first time. It was pretty good. More like beef and less like chicken than I expected
3) I did not, in fact, get food poisoning from the bad scallop I ate last night. I was worried that I would have to miss work today (my last day for 3 weeks!) because I would be home repeatedly purging the toxins from my body. But, it did not happen. Hooray for stopping after the first scallop and not finishing the rest of my meal!
4) T-3 days to the wedding! Yikes! I'm mostly ready. The things left to do are primarily organizational things that seem stressful and complicated, so they're being put off until the time they actually need to happen. I am looking forward to the rehearsal dinner, though.... we have some fun gifts that I can't wait to distribute to our peoples.
5) This morning's weather report is calling for partly cloudy, partly sunny on Saturday, which is an improvement over yesterday's prediction of scattered thunderstorms. Whoo!
1) Last night we won first place at trivia, for the second week in a row (1st place is a VERY rare treat for us).
2) I tried ostrich for the first time. It was pretty good. More like beef and less like chicken than I expected
3) I did not, in fact, get food poisoning from the bad scallop I ate last night. I was worried that I would have to miss work today (my last day for 3 weeks!) because I would be home repeatedly purging the toxins from my body. But, it did not happen. Hooray for stopping after the first scallop and not finishing the rest of my meal!
4) T-3 days to the wedding! Yikes! I'm mostly ready. The things left to do are primarily organizational things that seem stressful and complicated, so they're being put off until the time they actually need to happen. I am looking forward to the rehearsal dinner, though.... we have some fun gifts that I can't wait to distribute to our peoples.
5) This morning's weather report is calling for partly cloudy, partly sunny on Saturday, which is an improvement over yesterday's prediction of scattered thunderstorms. Whoo!
6.18.2008
Basically, two weeks
So.... I was talking to my mother on the phone tonight, about wedding plans, and....some things are not getting done as quickly as I would like them to, and I can't really do some other things until these certain things are done first, and.... well, my mother ended up saying "um, are you feeling a little bit stressed out about all this?" Uh.... you think? :) Apparently I was snippy. I apologize. Oof. But, if "snippy" is the worst of it, I guess that's not too bad.
I made what I hope to be the last run to the craft stores. I'm probably kidding myself on that one. Ha! Everything is all worked out with the caterer and ready to go. I need to get our final music list to the DJ in the next couple of days. We're meeting with our officiant for the first time this Sunday. (The minister at "our church" is out of town the weekend of our wedding, so he found a replacement to officiate). On Saturday we will finalize the rehearsal dinner menu with the manager there. Flowers are all set. Cookies need to be baked in massive quantities this weekend. I think I'm on the hook for 3 varieties. 20 dozen cookies. Whoo! Todd and a friend made a bootlegger run to DE this evening to buy booze. My mom is working on paper flowers and the out-of-town guest bags. We got a 4-wheel drive vehicle for the honeymoon (uh, "rainy season?!?") What else? Patiently awaiting rings to come in. Come on rings, you can do it! I hope they come in on time. Final dress fitting this Friday. Need to bake and freeze quiche for the brunch. I don't entirely believe you can freeze quiche, but my quiche-baking supervisor says you can, and she's never been wrong yet about a cooking issue. Blah blah blah.
I feel like I'm missing something. Or a lot of little somethings.
Whatever. I mean... seriously..... it's kind of like when you go on vacation.... and you always feel like you're forgetting something. As long as you have underwear and a toothbrush, you can pretty much buy anything else you need, or else it's not that important. And even the toothbrush you can probably find without too much trouble. I need to keep reminding myself that this is the same thing. Our marriage certificate is already at the church, with our minister. That's kind of all we REALLY need, right? If the crafty sign listing our "local beers" selection doesn't get made, people will still be able to drink beer. They just won't have a cute sign telling them what their choices are. If the kids don't get fun bags full of play-doh and bubbles and stickers, they will have to just run around and chase each other and entertain themselves.
It's all good. There's a lot to do, but none of it is earthy-shatteringly important. Repeat those two sentences over and over. And over. :)
So.... I was talking to my mother on the phone tonight, about wedding plans, and....some things are not getting done as quickly as I would like them to, and I can't really do some other things until these certain things are done first, and.... well, my mother ended up saying "um, are you feeling a little bit stressed out about all this?" Uh.... you think? :) Apparently I was snippy. I apologize. Oof. But, if "snippy" is the worst of it, I guess that's not too bad.
I made what I hope to be the last run to the craft stores. I'm probably kidding myself on that one. Ha! Everything is all worked out with the caterer and ready to go. I need to get our final music list to the DJ in the next couple of days. We're meeting with our officiant for the first time this Sunday. (The minister at "our church" is out of town the weekend of our wedding, so he found a replacement to officiate). On Saturday we will finalize the rehearsal dinner menu with the manager there. Flowers are all set. Cookies need to be baked in massive quantities this weekend. I think I'm on the hook for 3 varieties. 20 dozen cookies. Whoo! Todd and a friend made a bootlegger run to DE this evening to buy booze. My mom is working on paper flowers and the out-of-town guest bags. We got a 4-wheel drive vehicle for the honeymoon (uh, "rainy season?!?") What else? Patiently awaiting rings to come in. Come on rings, you can do it! I hope they come in on time. Final dress fitting this Friday. Need to bake and freeze quiche for the brunch. I don't entirely believe you can freeze quiche, but my quiche-baking supervisor says you can, and she's never been wrong yet about a cooking issue. Blah blah blah.
I feel like I'm missing something. Or a lot of little somethings.
Whatever. I mean... seriously..... it's kind of like when you go on vacation.... and you always feel like you're forgetting something. As long as you have underwear and a toothbrush, you can pretty much buy anything else you need, or else it's not that important. And even the toothbrush you can probably find without too much trouble. I need to keep reminding myself that this is the same thing. Our marriage certificate is already at the church, with our minister. That's kind of all we REALLY need, right? If the crafty sign listing our "local beers" selection doesn't get made, people will still be able to drink beer. They just won't have a cute sign telling them what their choices are. If the kids don't get fun bags full of play-doh and bubbles and stickers, they will have to just run around and chase each other and entertain themselves.
It's all good. There's a lot to do, but none of it is earthy-shatteringly important. Repeat those two sentences over and over. And over. :)
6.06.2008
6.05.2008
The weather was deceptively nice during the game
Did you have storms last night, too? Last night we went to the Phillies game with 2 friends. It was pouring rain when we got there, but the rain stopped about 20 minutes before game time, and we were able to dry off our seats and had really great weather for the rest of the game. As soon as the game was over and we were back in the car, the rain started again. But for the duration of the game, not a single rain drop. Excellent!
Except then Matt checked his voicemail. Matt had parked his car at our house and carpooled down to the game with Todd. When our friend/boarder Pam got home from work she called and said "um, if that's Matt's car in the driveway.... he should probably call me ASAP." A gigantic tree branch and crashed down onto his car, shattering his windshield, crushing the front part of the roof, and denting the hood. It looks like the engine is ok, but the body work is going to be expensive and take a long time to repair. At first we were convinced it was a branch of our neighbor's tree, because one of his branches came down on my old car within the last year. But this morning, in the light, Todd looked and thinks that it probably came from our pecan tree. Because we need another expense right now. Dur.....
Did you have storms last night, too? Last night we went to the Phillies game with 2 friends. It was pouring rain when we got there, but the rain stopped about 20 minutes before game time, and we were able to dry off our seats and had really great weather for the rest of the game. As soon as the game was over and we were back in the car, the rain started again. But for the duration of the game, not a single rain drop. Excellent!
Except then Matt checked his voicemail. Matt had parked his car at our house and carpooled down to the game with Todd. When our friend/boarder Pam got home from work she called and said "um, if that's Matt's car in the driveway.... he should probably call me ASAP." A gigantic tree branch and crashed down onto his car, shattering his windshield, crushing the front part of the roof, and denting the hood. It looks like the engine is ok, but the body work is going to be expensive and take a long time to repair. At first we were convinced it was a branch of our neighbor's tree, because one of his branches came down on my old car within the last year. But this morning, in the light, Todd looked and thinks that it probably came from our pecan tree. Because we need another expense right now. Dur.....
6.02.2008
working up the chain
So, the last few weeks of conversations with the group sales manager at the hotel have been ridiculous and upsetting and stressful. Last week I finally contacted her manager, the sales director. He proved equally unhelpful. Then today I ran around town on my day off (because that's how I wanted to use that time, right?) and found some rooms at different hotels, which are not nearly as nice, but they had rooms available. Those people were extremely nice and helpful and felt sorry for the situation I was in. The sales people at the original hotel? Completely useless and couldn't care less that they are causing me all this stress. So, while I was initially satisfied that I had at least found some alternatives, I was still really mad at the original hotel for causing all these problems. Also? And this is not a huge deal, but is really annoying. We were supposed to have our room free once 15 rooms got booked through our block of rooms. Then, due to their own incompetence, they don't even have 15 rooms available in our block, so there's no way we could possibly get a free room for ourselves.
Anyway, so.... I marched myself down to the original hotel today and asked to speak with the general manager. I am assuming she is the boss of all the other people I have spoken with so far. The general manager was super duper helpful. She fixed a couple of things right then and there. One of my cousins had booked 2 king rooms because that's all they had available, and she has her husband and 3 kids. The manager instantly changed that to a double room, even though they "don't have any available." She changed the rate on Angie's bill, because Angie had been told the group rate doesn't start until Friday when it really starts on Thursday. Magically changed. She also said "I personally guarantee that your guests will get the rooms they need. I can do that. Have them talk to me directly. You talk to me directly."
so.... anyone who reads this and is still in need of a room... call the hotel whose info is in the invite. Ask to talk to Marie. She'll hook you up. Supposedly. I believed her, because I saw her make those changes while I was there. She said she would bump other people if she had to.
WHY didn't I talk to her sooner? I feel bad about all the confusion and stress that this has caused my guests. Some people have already found other hotels. That will make other things complicated, since they won't be going to the same places. Also, I'm not running all over the county to deliver out-of-town gift bags to people in 800 different hotels. And we won't get our free room because people are staying in all different places.
Oof. When this whole thing is over, the general manager is getting a letter from me detailing the horrendous service I received from the group sales people, and high praise for the assistant GM. For now, I'm just happy that there are rooms available for people (or rooms will be made available). This whole thing is supposed to make things easier for guests, not more difficult. Grr.
I am now putting off calling the caterer. There is only so much confrontation I can handle in a day.
So, the last few weeks of conversations with the group sales manager at the hotel have been ridiculous and upsetting and stressful. Last week I finally contacted her manager, the sales director. He proved equally unhelpful. Then today I ran around town on my day off (because that's how I wanted to use that time, right?) and found some rooms at different hotels, which are not nearly as nice, but they had rooms available. Those people were extremely nice and helpful and felt sorry for the situation I was in. The sales people at the original hotel? Completely useless and couldn't care less that they are causing me all this stress. So, while I was initially satisfied that I had at least found some alternatives, I was still really mad at the original hotel for causing all these problems. Also? And this is not a huge deal, but is really annoying. We were supposed to have our room free once 15 rooms got booked through our block of rooms. Then, due to their own incompetence, they don't even have 15 rooms available in our block, so there's no way we could possibly get a free room for ourselves.
Anyway, so.... I marched myself down to the original hotel today and asked to speak with the general manager. I am assuming she is the boss of all the other people I have spoken with so far. The general manager was super duper helpful. She fixed a couple of things right then and there. One of my cousins had booked 2 king rooms because that's all they had available, and she has her husband and 3 kids. The manager instantly changed that to a double room, even though they "don't have any available." She changed the rate on Angie's bill, because Angie had been told the group rate doesn't start until Friday when it really starts on Thursday. Magically changed. She also said "I personally guarantee that your guests will get the rooms they need. I can do that. Have them talk to me directly. You talk to me directly."
so.... anyone who reads this and is still in need of a room... call the hotel whose info is in the invite. Ask to talk to Marie. She'll hook you up. Supposedly. I believed her, because I saw her make those changes while I was there. She said she would bump other people if she had to.
WHY didn't I talk to her sooner? I feel bad about all the confusion and stress that this has caused my guests. Some people have already found other hotels. That will make other things complicated, since they won't be going to the same places. Also, I'm not running all over the county to deliver out-of-town gift bags to people in 800 different hotels. And we won't get our free room because people are staying in all different places.
Oof. When this whole thing is over, the general manager is getting a letter from me detailing the horrendous service I received from the group sales people, and high praise for the assistant GM. For now, I'm just happy that there are rooms available for people (or rooms will be made available). This whole thing is supposed to make things easier for guests, not more difficult. Grr.
I am now putting off calling the caterer. There is only so much confrontation I can handle in a day.
5.29.2008
Being Peace
So, I'm reading this book, by Thich Nhat Hanh, a Vietnamese Buddhist monk. This morning, on the train, I was reading a section about "being", and about how we are not separate from the things we are experiencing - we are not observers, but participants. We feel joy, joy is in us, we are joy. We feel irritation, irritation is in us, we are irritation. Anger, disappointment, whatever. We must embrace it, and not feel the need to eradicate it, lest we eradicate a piece of ourself. He also advocates smiling a lot.
So today, I will try to smile a lot as I embrace being disappointment, irritation and anger. Why, you ask?
First of all, the hotel where I reserved a block of rooms for our wedding guests.... doesn't have the rooms available. I signed a contract with them reserving 15 double rooms and a handful of king rooms, and they apparently did not have any double rooms available to block in the first place. Which they did not tell me, and in fact wrote up the contract listing those 15 rooms as part of the rooms which were blocked for us. I only discovered these rooms don't exist when I noticed that the "personalized website" they created for us only listed king rooms. I went round and round with the sales rep, who eventually (like, weeks later) admitted they did not have the rooms available. BUT, she assured me that they felt confident they could honor their commitment (how?) and move doubles over to our block "as they became available."
As I'm sure you can guess.... this never happened. And now my guests, most of whom are coming from out of state and traveling as a group, or have children with them, etc, are complaining to me and my parents that there are no rooms available for them. And, because our wedding is on a holiday weekend, my guess is that it will be difficult to find a double room in any of the other local hotels. Not to mention the increased cost because they won't get the discounted reservation rate. I just emailed the sales rep's manager, because the sales rep herself is no longer responding to my emails.
Also, we recently received the detailed contract and costs from our caterer. From Day 1, he has told us that the total cost per person would be between $X and $X+4, which would include all the hors d'oeuvres, non-alcoholic drinks, entrees, all serving staff, tax and gratuity, cake, etc. Everything but the alcohol, basically. Now, when I sit down with a calculator and do the math, the amount he gave us in the contract comes to a few dollars higher than the highest number he said it would be, AND we're not getting out cake through him. So, the total should be at least $2 per person less than his original highest amount, right? Right. So Todd talked to him last night and the caterer went on and on about how there are fixed costs and it's hard to say exactly what the "per person" cost is because of those fixed costs, and that there wouldn't be much difference in the price whether we had 110 guest or 125 guests (ahem, so... invite more people?) yada yada, and Todd had to interrupt him to explain that he has an accounting degree and understands fixed costs, but that the total cost is still higher than what he told us it would be, yada yada. And so the caterer told Todd to have me call him. WHAT?? Because I don't have an accounting degree and therefore he thinks I will be easier to hoodwink? I don't think so. I'm the one who figured out he was overcharging us in the first place. So the caterer got an email from me this morning, too.
And we still have about 50 people who have not RSVP'd, even though we're now 4 days past the RSVP date. Like I have time to track down 50 people to ask if they are coming to our party. Come on, people.
And finally, I began applying for a job 2 weeks ago. I am in desperate need of a job for the fall. There just haven't been many openings in the settings I want, in this area. So, I jumped at this opening, and began the online application, but it required 3 letters of reference, attached to the online submission. The online submission would not be accepted without the 3 letters. So, I got one from an old supervisor who sent it immediately, and asked my 2 current supervisors for letters as well. It has been over 2 weeks since I requested the letters. I indicated that I wanted them by this past Tuesday at the very latest. I got one. The other... not so much, despite frequent assurances all day yesterday that I would have it by the end of the day. As I left the office last night, I was told it would be emailed to me, that it would definitely be finished before that person left for the night. I come in the morning... nothing. And this person is now out of the state until next Wednesday. If I lose the opportunity to be considered for this job because I didn't get my stuff in early enough, I am going to have the rage. The rage will be in me, I will BE rage. Apparently.
And I will be the rage with a smile on my face, because somehow that is supposed to help.
Hrmph.
:)
(is it working yet? I can't tell. Do you feel peaceful?)
So, I'm reading this book, by Thich Nhat Hanh, a Vietnamese Buddhist monk. This morning, on the train, I was reading a section about "being", and about how we are not separate from the things we are experiencing - we are not observers, but participants. We feel joy, joy is in us, we are joy. We feel irritation, irritation is in us, we are irritation. Anger, disappointment, whatever. We must embrace it, and not feel the need to eradicate it, lest we eradicate a piece of ourself. He also advocates smiling a lot.
So today, I will try to smile a lot as I embrace being disappointment, irritation and anger. Why, you ask?
First of all, the hotel where I reserved a block of rooms for our wedding guests.... doesn't have the rooms available. I signed a contract with them reserving 15 double rooms and a handful of king rooms, and they apparently did not have any double rooms available to block in the first place. Which they did not tell me, and in fact wrote up the contract listing those 15 rooms as part of the rooms which were blocked for us. I only discovered these rooms don't exist when I noticed that the "personalized website" they created for us only listed king rooms. I went round and round with the sales rep, who eventually (like, weeks later) admitted they did not have the rooms available. BUT, she assured me that they felt confident they could honor their commitment (how?) and move doubles over to our block "as they became available."
As I'm sure you can guess.... this never happened. And now my guests, most of whom are coming from out of state and traveling as a group, or have children with them, etc, are complaining to me and my parents that there are no rooms available for them. And, because our wedding is on a holiday weekend, my guess is that it will be difficult to find a double room in any of the other local hotels. Not to mention the increased cost because they won't get the discounted reservation rate. I just emailed the sales rep's manager, because the sales rep herself is no longer responding to my emails.
Also, we recently received the detailed contract and costs from our caterer. From Day 1, he has told us that the total cost per person would be between $X and $X+4, which would include all the hors d'oeuvres, non-alcoholic drinks, entrees, all serving staff, tax and gratuity, cake, etc. Everything but the alcohol, basically. Now, when I sit down with a calculator and do the math, the amount he gave us in the contract comes to a few dollars higher than the highest number he said it would be, AND we're not getting out cake through him. So, the total should be at least $2 per person less than his original highest amount, right? Right. So Todd talked to him last night and the caterer went on and on about how there are fixed costs and it's hard to say exactly what the "per person" cost is because of those fixed costs, and that there wouldn't be much difference in the price whether we had 110 guest or 125 guests (ahem, so... invite more people?) yada yada, and Todd had to interrupt him to explain that he has an accounting degree and understands fixed costs, but that the total cost is still higher than what he told us it would be, yada yada. And so the caterer told Todd to have me call him. WHAT?? Because I don't have an accounting degree and therefore he thinks I will be easier to hoodwink? I don't think so. I'm the one who figured out he was overcharging us in the first place. So the caterer got an email from me this morning, too.
And we still have about 50 people who have not RSVP'd, even though we're now 4 days past the RSVP date. Like I have time to track down 50 people to ask if they are coming to our party. Come on, people.
And finally, I began applying for a job 2 weeks ago. I am in desperate need of a job for the fall. There just haven't been many openings in the settings I want, in this area. So, I jumped at this opening, and began the online application, but it required 3 letters of reference, attached to the online submission. The online submission would not be accepted without the 3 letters. So, I got one from an old supervisor who sent it immediately, and asked my 2 current supervisors for letters as well. It has been over 2 weeks since I requested the letters. I indicated that I wanted them by this past Tuesday at the very latest. I got one. The other... not so much, despite frequent assurances all day yesterday that I would have it by the end of the day. As I left the office last night, I was told it would be emailed to me, that it would definitely be finished before that person left for the night. I come in the morning... nothing. And this person is now out of the state until next Wednesday. If I lose the opportunity to be considered for this job because I didn't get my stuff in early enough, I am going to have the rage. The rage will be in me, I will BE rage. Apparently.
And I will be the rage with a smile on my face, because somehow that is supposed to help.
Hrmph.
:)
(is it working yet? I can't tell. Do you feel peaceful?)
5.07.2008
Guilt Complex
So.... there's a woman. She calls me on the phone. I do not know her. She is calling a wrong number. The first time she called was a few months ago, around midnight. I was asleep. She asked for Jennifer. I told her she had the wrong number. She apologized, hung up, and I went back to sleep. I didn't hear from her again for awhile, but she called again. One day she called me three times during the day. My phone was turned off because I was at work, but I later heard 3 messages, which were mostly her trying to talk to the person who did not answer. "Hello? Can you hear me?" Of course not; it's voicemail. One of those messages was different from the others. In one of those messages she just kept saying "Norman" over and over again. "Norman? Norman? NormanNormanNormanNormanNormanNormanNorman (this goes on and on for a long time before she says: "Oh, forget it!")." Click.
That same week, after leaving 3 messages in one day, she called me again, in the evening, once again asking for Jennifer. I said to her "I'm sorry, but you have the wrong number, and you've called me several times. I think you need to double check the number with Jennifer. This is not the right number for her." She said "oh, I've called you before?" Me: "yes, several times. Three times on Tuesday, and once a couple of weeks ago." Actually there were several other missed calls in there, too, but she didn't leave messages those times. It must be a dozen times now that she's called. Again, she laughed and apologized. It was a pleasant conversation. I didn't hear from her for the last few weeks, until last night. She called while we were at trivia, around 10:45pm. I missed the first call. She left a message, mostly of her sighing, and then hanging up. I noticed the missed call just a few seconds later. I listened to the "message." I recognize her number now. I put the phone back down on the table. A minute later, my phone rings again. It's her. Again.
Me: Hello? (Silence). Hello? (Silence). HELLO??
Her: Oh, wrong number I think.
Me: Yes, it is definitely the wrong number. You keep calling me, and it's always the wrong number.
Her: I've never called you before.
Me: Yes, you have. We've talked at least twice before. In fact, you just called me 30 seconds ago.
Her: No, I've never called you.
Me: But you have. You usually ask for Jennifer.
Her: Oh! You know where Jennifer is?
Me: Aargh! No! I do not know where Jennifer is. I do not know WHO Jennifer is. This is not Jennifer's number. You need to stop calling me. You call me when I'm at work, you call me in the middle of the night. It is always the wrong number. You need to ask Jennifer the next time you see her what her actual number is, because this is not it. You need to delete this number from your phone book, because it is not Jennifer's number.
Her: Well, you don't have to yell at me.
Aargh!
So now I feel guilty that I yelled at a woman who sounds as though she is not a native English speaker, and who is probably someone's grandmother, or possibly has dementia. Who knows. But I feel bad now. Although, I did not "yell" at her so much as reiterate strongly that she needs to find a better method of reaching her Jennifer. Sigh.
So.... there's a woman. She calls me on the phone. I do not know her. She is calling a wrong number. The first time she called was a few months ago, around midnight. I was asleep. She asked for Jennifer. I told her she had the wrong number. She apologized, hung up, and I went back to sleep. I didn't hear from her again for awhile, but she called again. One day she called me three times during the day. My phone was turned off because I was at work, but I later heard 3 messages, which were mostly her trying to talk to the person who did not answer. "Hello? Can you hear me?" Of course not; it's voicemail. One of those messages was different from the others. In one of those messages she just kept saying "Norman" over and over again. "Norman? Norman? NormanNormanNormanNormanNormanNormanNorman (this goes on and on for a long time before she says: "Oh, forget it!")." Click.
That same week, after leaving 3 messages in one day, she called me again, in the evening, once again asking for Jennifer. I said to her "I'm sorry, but you have the wrong number, and you've called me several times. I think you need to double check the number with Jennifer. This is not the right number for her." She said "oh, I've called you before?" Me: "yes, several times. Three times on Tuesday, and once a couple of weeks ago." Actually there were several other missed calls in there, too, but she didn't leave messages those times. It must be a dozen times now that she's called. Again, she laughed and apologized. It was a pleasant conversation. I didn't hear from her for the last few weeks, until last night. She called while we were at trivia, around 10:45pm. I missed the first call. She left a message, mostly of her sighing, and then hanging up. I noticed the missed call just a few seconds later. I listened to the "message." I recognize her number now. I put the phone back down on the table. A minute later, my phone rings again. It's her. Again.
Me: Hello? (Silence). Hello? (Silence). HELLO??
Her: Oh, wrong number I think.
Me: Yes, it is definitely the wrong number. You keep calling me, and it's always the wrong number.
Her: I've never called you before.
Me: Yes, you have. We've talked at least twice before. In fact, you just called me 30 seconds ago.
Her: No, I've never called you.
Me: But you have. You usually ask for Jennifer.
Her: Oh! You know where Jennifer is?
Me: Aargh! No! I do not know where Jennifer is. I do not know WHO Jennifer is. This is not Jennifer's number. You need to stop calling me. You call me when I'm at work, you call me in the middle of the night. It is always the wrong number. You need to ask Jennifer the next time you see her what her actual number is, because this is not it. You need to delete this number from your phone book, because it is not Jennifer's number.
Her: Well, you don't have to yell at me.
Aargh!
So now I feel guilty that I yelled at a woman who sounds as though she is not a native English speaker, and who is probably someone's grandmother, or possibly has dementia. Who knows. But I feel bad now. Although, I did not "yell" at her so much as reiterate strongly that she needs to find a better method of reaching her Jennifer. Sigh.
5.04.2008
Everyone is back in the saddle again
Ha. I started writing this entry, with the title "Back in the saddle again," and then I put it aside for awhile and went to check out everyone else's weekend entries, and apparently Shannon is also feeling back in the saddle again, too. I guess these are good things. :)
So, at the beginning of the year I had some plans. The usual: cook more, exercise more, walk more/drive less, etc. But then I started teaching, and all plans promptly went out the window. Teaching, in case you couldn't guess, requires an unbelievable amount of prep work. I *knew* it was going to be a lot of prep work, but the reality of it was about 5 times more than even my highest estimates. So, I didn't do a whole lot over the last 4 months, other than go to work, prep for my class, and sleep.
My class is now over, and things are returning to normal. Or, as normal as you can be when you're 62 days before your wedding. Yikes! More on that later.
But, this week I'm pledging to get back on the cooking more/walking more/exercising more wagon. For starters, I made a delicious flourless dark chocolate cake for a dessert party at work this week. We were saying goodbye to the practicum students we've had working with us this year. It's hard to believe the academic year is over already. It flew by. I'm looking forward to having a relatively relaxed summer semester where I can focus on some outreach projects that I've had on the back burner all year. I've also been making various versions of my standard summer lunch "salads" - some mixture of wild rice, barley, orzo, cous cous, quinoa, etc, mixed with some variety of vegetables (cherry tomatoes, asparagus, broccoli, carrots, spinach, etc), fun "extras" (feta, almonds, raisins, toasted pinenuts, etc) and some kind of vinaigrette that makes sense with whatever ingredients I threw in. I've been eating this nearly every day, but it's always different (well, every couple of days at least), depending on what sounds good or what I have in the kitchen. Yum. Last week it was orzo with spinach, cherry tomatoes, green onions, asparagus, feta, toasted pinenuts and a drizzle of olive oil. Yum!
On the wedding front - we're full-speed ahead around here. Sometimes it feels like it's "all wedding all the time." I'm up to my elbows in paper flower pieces. Most of our invitations went out, and the last batch should be going out tomorrow. The calligraphy process took longer than I wanted, and in fact they're still not all finished. I may just print the remaining envelopes on the printer so I can get them in the mail. We're kind of down to the wire with the invites right now. 62 days.
My mom is working on a lot of projects. My dress is being altered as we speak. I've been avoiding florists like the plague, because I think it is *ridiculous* to throw money away on something that is going to die in 2 days. However, I would like fresh flower bouquets, so I need to get on that project soon. It seems like every night I'm tracing or cutting or gluing something. This weekend I worked on music. I found a couple of songs to be sung during the service, and a list of music to suggest to our organist for the prelude, processional and recessional. We will not be using the D@rth Vder march as our recessional, but apparently a lot of people do. :) I don't think our organist would be amused.
Last week we met with our minister to go over the "personality" test he had us fill out. Apparently we're "very highly compatible" (obviously), with just a few "soft spots." Which, actually, when we discussed them, turn out to be not so much areas where we disagree, but rather different ways we interpreted the questions, or chose from among the "not quite right" answer choices. So, that's all good. The next step in the process is that we're both supposed to read this book about Chr1stian marriage. The only thing I will say about this book is that it has a photo on the cover of a man and woman walking hand-in-hand, and the woman is wearing a dress that looks suspiciously similar to the "prairie" clothing worn by the sect in Texas that is being investigated right now. The book is out of print, so I had to order a used copy online. I will be reading it on the train this week. I will report back. I'm skeptical already. I am not looking forward to having to discuss this book with the minister next week. Sigh.
62 days. Yikes!
Yikesyikesyikes!
I need a time turner, please.
Ha. I started writing this entry, with the title "Back in the saddle again," and then I put it aside for awhile and went to check out everyone else's weekend entries, and apparently Shannon is also feeling back in the saddle again, too. I guess these are good things. :)
So, at the beginning of the year I had some plans. The usual: cook more, exercise more, walk more/drive less, etc. But then I started teaching, and all plans promptly went out the window. Teaching, in case you couldn't guess, requires an unbelievable amount of prep work. I *knew* it was going to be a lot of prep work, but the reality of it was about 5 times more than even my highest estimates. So, I didn't do a whole lot over the last 4 months, other than go to work, prep for my class, and sleep.
My class is now over, and things are returning to normal. Or, as normal as you can be when you're 62 days before your wedding. Yikes! More on that later.
But, this week I'm pledging to get back on the cooking more/walking more/exercising more wagon. For starters, I made a delicious flourless dark chocolate cake for a dessert party at work this week. We were saying goodbye to the practicum students we've had working with us this year. It's hard to believe the academic year is over already. It flew by. I'm looking forward to having a relatively relaxed summer semester where I can focus on some outreach projects that I've had on the back burner all year. I've also been making various versions of my standard summer lunch "salads" - some mixture of wild rice, barley, orzo, cous cous, quinoa, etc, mixed with some variety of vegetables (cherry tomatoes, asparagus, broccoli, carrots, spinach, etc), fun "extras" (feta, almonds, raisins, toasted pinenuts, etc) and some kind of vinaigrette that makes sense with whatever ingredients I threw in. I've been eating this nearly every day, but it's always different (well, every couple of days at least), depending on what sounds good or what I have in the kitchen. Yum. Last week it was orzo with spinach, cherry tomatoes, green onions, asparagus, feta, toasted pinenuts and a drizzle of olive oil. Yum!
On the wedding front - we're full-speed ahead around here. Sometimes it feels like it's "all wedding all the time." I'm up to my elbows in paper flower pieces. Most of our invitations went out, and the last batch should be going out tomorrow. The calligraphy process took longer than I wanted, and in fact they're still not all finished. I may just print the remaining envelopes on the printer so I can get them in the mail. We're kind of down to the wire with the invites right now. 62 days.
My mom is working on a lot of projects. My dress is being altered as we speak. I've been avoiding florists like the plague, because I think it is *ridiculous* to throw money away on something that is going to die in 2 days. However, I would like fresh flower bouquets, so I need to get on that project soon. It seems like every night I'm tracing or cutting or gluing something. This weekend I worked on music. I found a couple of songs to be sung during the service, and a list of music to suggest to our organist for the prelude, processional and recessional. We will not be using the D@rth Vder march as our recessional, but apparently a lot of people do. :) I don't think our organist would be amused.
Last week we met with our minister to go over the "personality" test he had us fill out. Apparently we're "very highly compatible" (obviously), with just a few "soft spots." Which, actually, when we discussed them, turn out to be not so much areas where we disagree, but rather different ways we interpreted the questions, or chose from among the "not quite right" answer choices. So, that's all good. The next step in the process is that we're both supposed to read this book about Chr1stian marriage. The only thing I will say about this book is that it has a photo on the cover of a man and woman walking hand-in-hand, and the woman is wearing a dress that looks suspiciously similar to the "prairie" clothing worn by the sect in Texas that is being investigated right now. The book is out of print, so I had to order a used copy online. I will be reading it on the train this week. I will report back. I'm skeptical already. I am not looking forward to having to discuss this book with the minister next week. Sigh.
62 days. Yikes!
Yikesyikesyikes!
I need a time turner, please.
4.11.2008
eh.
So... surgery kind of sucks. Just sayin'. I had some minor outpatient surgery this morning, and it was certainly not as bad as last time, but still not all that pleasant, either. It seems that each time I have anesthesia, I "wake up" with a different set of side effects that I really wasn't able to predict. This time it was muscle tension and twitching. Kind of like when your eyebrow twitches uncontrollably (that has happened to all of you at some time, right?) only it was almost all of my muscles doing that. It was unpleasant, but not horrible....and also kind of weird to observe. Kind of like "hm...is this was people experience when they go through drug withdrawal?" I have no idea, having never been a drug user. Just something that I wondered about. Anyway.
Moving right along. My invitations are almost entirely finished. All the pieces were cut with Angie last weekend. Last night Heidi and I assembled all but the few I inadvertently left at home. Todd's mom finally has the envelopes and is working on the calligraphy. We should (hopefully, pending calligraphy speed) be ready to go in another week or so.
I guess the next phase is to finalize all the things we're sort of behind on (cake, tuxes, flowers, music) and keep working on the smaller DIY decorative things (placecards, menus, bathroom baskets, etc). I think the only semi-major things are the cake, music, honeymoon details. And those things are all in the works. It's not so bad, I don't think. Getting the invites made feels like a major accomplishment.
So, that's where we are. How are you?
So... surgery kind of sucks. Just sayin'. I had some minor outpatient surgery this morning, and it was certainly not as bad as last time, but still not all that pleasant, either. It seems that each time I have anesthesia, I "wake up" with a different set of side effects that I really wasn't able to predict. This time it was muscle tension and twitching. Kind of like when your eyebrow twitches uncontrollably (that has happened to all of you at some time, right?) only it was almost all of my muscles doing that. It was unpleasant, but not horrible....and also kind of weird to observe. Kind of like "hm...is this was people experience when they go through drug withdrawal?" I have no idea, having never been a drug user. Just something that I wondered about. Anyway.
Moving right along. My invitations are almost entirely finished. All the pieces were cut with Angie last weekend. Last night Heidi and I assembled all but the few I inadvertently left at home. Todd's mom finally has the envelopes and is working on the calligraphy. We should (hopefully, pending calligraphy speed) be ready to go in another week or so.
I guess the next phase is to finalize all the things we're sort of behind on (cake, tuxes, flowers, music) and keep working on the smaller DIY decorative things (placecards, menus, bathroom baskets, etc). I think the only semi-major things are the cake, music, honeymoon details. And those things are all in the works. It's not so bad, I don't think. Getting the invites made feels like a major accomplishment.
So, that's where we are. How are you?
3.27.2008
Yikes!
Not that I'm totally clueless about any of this stuff, but seeing it in print confirms it in a whole new way.
According to the Kn0t to-do-list tracker.... it says that our wedding is in 99 days. 99 days!!!
And that I have accomplished 43 items on their to-do list, but that there are 141 more things on the list.
Yikes!
And their list doesn't even include the random unique things that I've decided to do for my own wedding that don't necessarily show up on generic lists generated by the WIC. Things like.... baking 9million cookies and getting friends to bake 9 million more cookies, and finding a way to store and freeze and transport and serve them so that they still taste awesome in July. And handmaking my centerpieces, escort cards, wish tree cards, invitations, programs, card box, la la la la la la la, probably a million other things I've decided to DIY. Scanning photos for a slide show. Finding equipment for said slide show. Figuring out if we're going to do the left-right sway or actually get someone to teach us how to dance for a full 3 minutes without looking like arses. Etc, etc, etc. I think the 141 items left to tackle are probably closer to 175. Jimminy cricket. Aaaaahhh!!
We're leaving at 3am tonight/tomorrow for a long weekend in Napa (for a friend's wedding). I think when we return, it's going to be All Wedding All The Time. Whoo!
Not that I'm totally clueless about any of this stuff, but seeing it in print confirms it in a whole new way.
According to the Kn0t to-do-list tracker.... it says that our wedding is in 99 days. 99 days!!!
And that I have accomplished 43 items on their to-do list, but that there are 141 more things on the list.
Yikes!
And their list doesn't even include the random unique things that I've decided to do for my own wedding that don't necessarily show up on generic lists generated by the WIC. Things like.... baking 9million cookies and getting friends to bake 9 million more cookies, and finding a way to store and freeze and transport and serve them so that they still taste awesome in July. And handmaking my centerpieces, escort cards, wish tree cards, invitations, programs, card box, la la la la la la la, probably a million other things I've decided to DIY. Scanning photos for a slide show. Finding equipment for said slide show. Figuring out if we're going to do the left-right sway or actually get someone to teach us how to dance for a full 3 minutes without looking like arses. Etc, etc, etc. I think the 141 items left to tackle are probably closer to 175. Jimminy cricket. Aaaaahhh!!
We're leaving at 3am tonight/tomorrow for a long weekend in Napa (for a friend's wedding). I think when we return, it's going to be All Wedding All The Time. Whoo!
3.12.2008
Sigh
So....sorry for the long time between posts. I've been super busy, and rather stressed, and lots of things that are going on are maybe not so appropriate to talk about here. Like, oh, my future in-laws have been living in our house for the last 3+ weeks, following the future FIL's heart surgery. I'll just leave it at that. Just trust me when I say that's stressful and crankiness-inducing, but also something I just need to put up with.
And I found out I have another fizzgig issue, so I need to have some minor surgery in April. Fantastic. Looking forward to that. At least this time around I will have a better clue about what to expect. Last time.... I knew I was going to be anesthetized, but I didn't really know that I was going to have a tube down my throat. So, when I woke up and couldn't breathe right and my throat was killing me and I couldn't even talk to tell someone I couldn't breathe.... that was scary. Maybe someone should have explained that to me, you think? But now I know. Blargh.
And finally, the wedding countdown is in full force. Nothing is complete, but everything is underway. Last weekend I located and purchased the main component of my centerpieces (curly willow). I'm working on the paper flowers, but I am now making them in a miniature size that I created by reducing the template. I still need to find rectangular vases at a reasonable price, but for the most part, the centerpieces are finished. I'm also working on wrapping glass candle holders in mulberry paper (the paper with bits of flowers and other goodies pressed into it) and random cool scrapbooking paper in different designs. I'm going with this whole art paper thing, and it's pretty fun searching for awesome papers and figuring out different ways to use them. I can't wait to get enough finished that I can put together a table mock-up to see what it's going to look like at the reception site.
Coming up this weekend: printing the invitation pieces. Woo! I'm going up to Angie's apartment this weekend to get this major project knocked out. Keep your fingers crossed that it will be a smooth process. With all the cutting and printing and trimming and sizing and blah blah blah, I feel like there is potential for it to be a giant pain in the arse, and I'm sure I will be cursing my decision to design and print my own invitations, but I feel like there's no going back now. I've committed, and spent a ton of time and and energy and money on pulling it together, so this is the final stage. I think I can.... I think I can....I think I can....
I guess that's about it. Truckin along, checking things off the list, trying to stay sane.
Finally: Question of the day. When addressing the envelopes....
1) Mr. and Mrs. Joe Schmoe
2) Mr. Joe and Mrs. Jane Schmoe
3) Mr. and Mrs. Joe and Jane Schmoe
4) Joe and Jane Schmoe
This is assuming same last name. For our guests with different last names, I have no issues with Mr. Joe Schmoe and Ms. Jane Doe. No problems there. I'm mostly trying to figure out the married couples/same last name issue.
I have an opinion on this, of course, which has been challenged by the person doing our calligraphy. So, you know..... feel free to chime in and give me your honest opinions. I'm less concerned with what the etiquette books say is "proper," but I would like to hear what other people prefer to see when they receive an invitation.
So....sorry for the long time between posts. I've been super busy, and rather stressed, and lots of things that are going on are maybe not so appropriate to talk about here. Like, oh, my future in-laws have been living in our house for the last 3+ weeks, following the future FIL's heart surgery. I'll just leave it at that. Just trust me when I say that's stressful and crankiness-inducing, but also something I just need to put up with.
And I found out I have another fizzgig issue, so I need to have some minor surgery in April. Fantastic. Looking forward to that. At least this time around I will have a better clue about what to expect. Last time.... I knew I was going to be anesthetized, but I didn't really know that I was going to have a tube down my throat. So, when I woke up and couldn't breathe right and my throat was killing me and I couldn't even talk to tell someone I couldn't breathe.... that was scary. Maybe someone should have explained that to me, you think? But now I know. Blargh.
And finally, the wedding countdown is in full force. Nothing is complete, but everything is underway. Last weekend I located and purchased the main component of my centerpieces (curly willow). I'm working on the paper flowers, but I am now making them in a miniature size that I created by reducing the template. I still need to find rectangular vases at a reasonable price, but for the most part, the centerpieces are finished. I'm also working on wrapping glass candle holders in mulberry paper (the paper with bits of flowers and other goodies pressed into it) and random cool scrapbooking paper in different designs. I'm going with this whole art paper thing, and it's pretty fun searching for awesome papers and figuring out different ways to use them. I can't wait to get enough finished that I can put together a table mock-up to see what it's going to look like at the reception site.
Coming up this weekend: printing the invitation pieces. Woo! I'm going up to Angie's apartment this weekend to get this major project knocked out. Keep your fingers crossed that it will be a smooth process. With all the cutting and printing and trimming and sizing and blah blah blah, I feel like there is potential for it to be a giant pain in the arse, and I'm sure I will be cursing my decision to design and print my own invitations, but I feel like there's no going back now. I've committed, and spent a ton of time and and energy and money on pulling it together, so this is the final stage. I think I can.... I think I can....I think I can....
I guess that's about it. Truckin along, checking things off the list, trying to stay sane.
Finally: Question of the day. When addressing the envelopes....
1) Mr. and Mrs. Joe Schmoe
2) Mr. Joe and Mrs. Jane Schmoe
3) Mr. and Mrs. Joe and Jane Schmoe
4) Joe and Jane Schmoe
This is assuming same last name. For our guests with different last names, I have no issues with Mr. Joe Schmoe and Ms. Jane Doe. No problems there. I'm mostly trying to figure out the married couples/same last name issue.
I have an opinion on this, of course, which has been challenged by the person doing our calligraphy. So, you know..... feel free to chime in and give me your honest opinions. I'm less concerned with what the etiquette books say is "proper," but I would like to hear what other people prefer to see when they receive an invitation.
2.19.2008
More on cake
Or, moron cake, as the phrase has been tumbling around my brain. I definitely have cake on the brain.
Ok, so... Saturday we had our first cake tasting. They gave us a plate of 5 cupcakes, in their most popular wedding cake flavors, and then left us alone to devour and discuss. There was a yellow cake with mocha mousse, yellow cake with lemon curd, chocolate cake with raspberry jam, and carrot cake... and something else that I can't even remember. They all had buttercream frosting. They were good. But not fall-out-of-the-chair good. I must say that the cake samples did not live up to my memory of whatever cake I had previously had from there. Dur.
However, things looked up considerably when I asked the baker to bring me some of their cream cheese frosting. Then we were in business. I simply do not like buttercream frosting. And everyone always says "oh, that's because you haven't had REAL buttercream frosting. The stuff in the grocery stores is fake shortening-and-sugar frosting. WE use real butter. You'll see. You'll like it." I don't like it. It feels slimy and greasy. Because it's butter. You're eating butter, mixed with sugar and maybe some flavoring of some sort. But the bottom line is that it's butter. I like my butter IN my cake, not slathered all over it.
So. Yes. Now I'm stuck with how to proceed. I REALLY liked the mocha mousse, raspberry jam (uh. SO good. I wanted to eat it with a spoon), and the lemon curd. They were all fantastic. The cake part, though.... was good. But just "good". So, we left with a tentative plan of having 3 tiers - Tier one would be chocolate cake with a layer of mocha mousse and a layer of cream cheese frosting as the two filling ingredients. Tier two would be yellow cake with a layer of raspberry jam and a layer of lemon curd. And the top tier would be carrot cake with cream cheese frosting. Yum. IF we decide to go with them.
But then...I spied a flourless chocolate cake in the display case. Oh, and then I saw a flourless chocolate cupcake for $1.75. I had to have it. I brought it home and had a bite the next morning. And I was in heaven. THAT was the cake I must have had previously. It was melt-in-your-mouth rich dark chocolate heaven. I doubt they put that in their wedding cakes. But I must have that cake. Birthdays, weddings, funerals, holidays, skinned-my-knee-and-need-a-cake days? I have to have this flourless chocolate cake. Bridal shower, anyone? ;)
So.... I guess the bottom line is that we haven't decided on this bakery yet. The samples were good, but not earthshattering. The raspberry jam and lemon curd were fantastic, but you can't eat those things on their own. We have another tasting scheduled at another bakery next week. They have many, many more choices, but I don't think their cakes look quite as good. I've never tasted anything from them. We'll see. Regardless, I will return for the flourless chocolate cake. I may even be tempted to screw the whole thing and just get 15 "regular" cakes- including some flourless chocolate cakes from the first bakery, and something involving the lemon curd and raspberry jam. Those were by far the most exciting things I've tasted in awhile. And we get to keep tasting cakes. For free. This has to be one of the best parts about this whole planning process. Mm. Free cake. :)
Or, moron cake, as the phrase has been tumbling around my brain. I definitely have cake on the brain.
Ok, so... Saturday we had our first cake tasting. They gave us a plate of 5 cupcakes, in their most popular wedding cake flavors, and then left us alone to devour and discuss. There was a yellow cake with mocha mousse, yellow cake with lemon curd, chocolate cake with raspberry jam, and carrot cake... and something else that I can't even remember. They all had buttercream frosting. They were good. But not fall-out-of-the-chair good. I must say that the cake samples did not live up to my memory of whatever cake I had previously had from there. Dur.
However, things looked up considerably when I asked the baker to bring me some of their cream cheese frosting. Then we were in business. I simply do not like buttercream frosting. And everyone always says "oh, that's because you haven't had REAL buttercream frosting. The stuff in the grocery stores is fake shortening-and-sugar frosting. WE use real butter. You'll see. You'll like it." I don't like it. It feels slimy and greasy. Because it's butter. You're eating butter, mixed with sugar and maybe some flavoring of some sort. But the bottom line is that it's butter. I like my butter IN my cake, not slathered all over it.
So. Yes. Now I'm stuck with how to proceed. I REALLY liked the mocha mousse, raspberry jam (uh. SO good. I wanted to eat it with a spoon), and the lemon curd. They were all fantastic. The cake part, though.... was good. But just "good". So, we left with a tentative plan of having 3 tiers - Tier one would be chocolate cake with a layer of mocha mousse and a layer of cream cheese frosting as the two filling ingredients. Tier two would be yellow cake with a layer of raspberry jam and a layer of lemon curd. And the top tier would be carrot cake with cream cheese frosting. Yum. IF we decide to go with them.
But then...I spied a flourless chocolate cake in the display case. Oh, and then I saw a flourless chocolate cupcake for $1.75. I had to have it. I brought it home and had a bite the next morning. And I was in heaven. THAT was the cake I must have had previously. It was melt-in-your-mouth rich dark chocolate heaven. I doubt they put that in their wedding cakes. But I must have that cake. Birthdays, weddings, funerals, holidays, skinned-my-knee-and-need-a-cake days? I have to have this flourless chocolate cake. Bridal shower, anyone? ;)
So.... I guess the bottom line is that we haven't decided on this bakery yet. The samples were good, but not earthshattering. The raspberry jam and lemon curd were fantastic, but you can't eat those things on their own. We have another tasting scheduled at another bakery next week. They have many, many more choices, but I don't think their cakes look quite as good. I've never tasted anything from them. We'll see. Regardless, I will return for the flourless chocolate cake. I may even be tempted to screw the whole thing and just get 15 "regular" cakes- including some flourless chocolate cakes from the first bakery, and something involving the lemon curd and raspberry jam. Those were by far the most exciting things I've tasted in awhile. And we get to keep tasting cakes. For free. This has to be one of the best parts about this whole planning process. Mm. Free cake. :)
2.12.2008
Cake
So....the one thing in the whole wedding-planning process that I have a mini-meltdown over... is the cake? The cake. I don't even particularly like cake! My mother just brought a gigantic chocolate cake to my house for my birthday. I had zero pieces. Zero. I did not have any cake. I don't like cake because I don't like the TYPE of cake that most people usually have - the cakey-cake with buttercream frosting. Totally not my thing. Dark Side of the M0on cake, with it's dense, torte-like inside and rich dark-chocolate fudge frosting - THAT is my kind of cake. Or carrot cake with cream cheese frosting. Something with lemon curd and fresh raspberries sounds delightful. I want a good cake. I don't want a vanilla poundcake with buttercream flowers. I want something fantastic, and I want it from here.
Which costs a zillion dollars. And suddenly, this becomes the thing I don't want to compromise on. I've had their cakes, and they are gooooood. Really good. And expensive. And our wedding is in July, when they will only do fondant cakes because of the high temperatures. Which is even more expensive. But, for whatever reason, this is the thing I feel like I need to have. And maybe it's precisely *because* I feel like I have compromised on so many other things that I feel like I want one really fantastic super good beautiful thing. And it has to be the cake. I don't know.
I called and talked to the woman at the bakery this morning and explained that I couldn't afford the regular price of their big fancy schmancy wedding cake, but that I really, really, really want our cake to be from there, and what could they possibly do to help me out. She had a lot of really good solutions, and she was super nice. Not about coming down in the cost at all, but finding other ways to work around it - smaller cake supplemented by other cheaper desserts, or maybe not having a "wedding cake" but going with some of their other "regular cakes" served buffet style, etc. So.... I'm hopeful that it will work out, and that I will not have to pay the astronomical full-price cost of the cake for 150 guests.....
but I gotta have that cake! The tasting is on Saturday. If it doesn't live up to my memories and expectations, the melt-down would have been for nothing! :)
So....the one thing in the whole wedding-planning process that I have a mini-meltdown over... is the cake? The cake. I don't even particularly like cake! My mother just brought a gigantic chocolate cake to my house for my birthday. I had zero pieces. Zero. I did not have any cake. I don't like cake because I don't like the TYPE of cake that most people usually have - the cakey-cake with buttercream frosting. Totally not my thing. Dark Side of the M0on cake, with it's dense, torte-like inside and rich dark-chocolate fudge frosting - THAT is my kind of cake. Or carrot cake with cream cheese frosting. Something with lemon curd and fresh raspberries sounds delightful. I want a good cake. I don't want a vanilla poundcake with buttercream flowers. I want something fantastic, and I want it from here.
Which costs a zillion dollars. And suddenly, this becomes the thing I don't want to compromise on. I've had their cakes, and they are gooooood. Really good. And expensive. And our wedding is in July, when they will only do fondant cakes because of the high temperatures. Which is even more expensive. But, for whatever reason, this is the thing I feel like I need to have. And maybe it's precisely *because* I feel like I have compromised on so many other things that I feel like I want one really fantastic super good beautiful thing. And it has to be the cake. I don't know.
I called and talked to the woman at the bakery this morning and explained that I couldn't afford the regular price of their big fancy schmancy wedding cake, but that I really, really, really want our cake to be from there, and what could they possibly do to help me out. She had a lot of really good solutions, and she was super nice. Not about coming down in the cost at all, but finding other ways to work around it - smaller cake supplemented by other cheaper desserts, or maybe not having a "wedding cake" but going with some of their other "regular cakes" served buffet style, etc. So.... I'm hopeful that it will work out, and that I will not have to pay the astronomical full-price cost of the cake for 150 guests.....
but I gotta have that cake! The tasting is on Saturday. If it doesn't live up to my memories and expectations, the melt-down would have been for nothing! :)
1.31.2008
Dresses? Check. Finally.
My long and tiresome quest for bridesmaid dresses has finally concluded. For some reason, this was a bigger stressor than almost anything else so far, with the exception of choosing the reception location. I mean, you would think finding my OWN dress would be more difficult, but I ended up buying the very first dress I tried on (after going to multiple other stores and trying on about 50 others to be sure).
But the deed is now done, and one of my womenfolk has already paid for her dress, so there's no going back now.
I feel like things are about to go full-force, wedding-planning-wise. The pocketfold invitations arrived in the mail yesterday. I'm going to start working on the design and inserts. I can't print them until we get the ceremony site finalized, but I can work on the design. Todd is working on the honeymoon plans. We were planning on Croatia, but apparently it's uber-expensive during July, which is their high tourist-season. As excited as I was to go to Croatia, I'm not excited about going anywhere in high tourist season.
So, Plan B is looking like Costa Rica. I wanted to study abroad there back in college, but didn't have the money and didn't want to ask my parents for it. Looking back, I totally wish I would have asked for the money for it. I think a semester in a Spanish-speaking country would have sealed the fluency thing for me. However, I can make do, and we were able to get around Peru with little difficulty. The only problem I couldn't quite get out of was the day we went to Machu Picchu - the night before we had ordered a bag lunch at our hostel, and paid for it. The next morning when we picked up our lunch and stowed our bags in the storage area, they charged us again. Todd thought they were charging us for the bag storage, so I paid it, but then later realized that they were charging us for the bag lunches, which I had already paid for. Trying to translate "I just paid too much because I thought you were charging us for bag storage, but really you were double-charging us for the lunch we already paid for...." didn't work out so well. Luckily our bus driver walked in right at that moment and worked it all out for us. :)
Anyway, so... Costa Rica. They have monkeys! They also have volcanoes, and monkeys and beaches and monkeys and I think we can do things like kayaking and horseback riding. And monkey-watching. We can also use Todd's hotel reward points, stay in a luxury resort hotel on the beach for free, and have the entire trip end up costing less than just the airfare to Croatia.
Lol. At this very moment, Todd is reading a description of some day trips in Costa Rica - "incandescent rock explosions from the volcano!" Todd is extremely excited about the incandescent rock explosions. Oh boy.
So, as I was saying.... things are moving right along, though I'm starting to feel like the next 5 months are going to fly by and I'm still going to end up totally crunched for time before I know it. But at the end, there will be monkeys.
My long and tiresome quest for bridesmaid dresses has finally concluded. For some reason, this was a bigger stressor than almost anything else so far, with the exception of choosing the reception location. I mean, you would think finding my OWN dress would be more difficult, but I ended up buying the very first dress I tried on (after going to multiple other stores and trying on about 50 others to be sure).
But the deed is now done, and one of my womenfolk has already paid for her dress, so there's no going back now.
I feel like things are about to go full-force, wedding-planning-wise. The pocketfold invitations arrived in the mail yesterday. I'm going to start working on the design and inserts. I can't print them until we get the ceremony site finalized, but I can work on the design. Todd is working on the honeymoon plans. We were planning on Croatia, but apparently it's uber-expensive during July, which is their high tourist-season. As excited as I was to go to Croatia, I'm not excited about going anywhere in high tourist season.
So, Plan B is looking like Costa Rica. I wanted to study abroad there back in college, but didn't have the money and didn't want to ask my parents for it. Looking back, I totally wish I would have asked for the money for it. I think a semester in a Spanish-speaking country would have sealed the fluency thing for me. However, I can make do, and we were able to get around Peru with little difficulty. The only problem I couldn't quite get out of was the day we went to Machu Picchu - the night before we had ordered a bag lunch at our hostel, and paid for it. The next morning when we picked up our lunch and stowed our bags in the storage area, they charged us again. Todd thought they were charging us for the bag storage, so I paid it, but then later realized that they were charging us for the bag lunches, which I had already paid for. Trying to translate "I just paid too much because I thought you were charging us for bag storage, but really you were double-charging us for the lunch we already paid for...." didn't work out so well. Luckily our bus driver walked in right at that moment and worked it all out for us. :)
Anyway, so... Costa Rica. They have monkeys! They also have volcanoes, and monkeys and beaches and monkeys and I think we can do things like kayaking and horseback riding. And monkey-watching. We can also use Todd's hotel reward points, stay in a luxury resort hotel on the beach for free, and have the entire trip end up costing less than just the airfare to Croatia.
Lol. At this very moment, Todd is reading a description of some day trips in Costa Rica - "incandescent rock explosions from the volcano!" Todd is extremely excited about the incandescent rock explosions. Oh boy.
So, as I was saying.... things are moving right along, though I'm starting to feel like the next 5 months are going to fly by and I'm still going to end up totally crunched for time before I know it. But at the end, there will be monkeys.
1.21.2008
A day on
So, apparently I was one of the few people who had to work today. Not only did I have to work, but I had to be there extra early. The reason for this was that the occupational therapy department at my school had canceled classes for their upper-level students and had them all gather to engage in discussions related to MLK day. We broke the larger group into smaller groups of about 7-8 students, and then had them start with discussions about what they themselves have to offer their community - personal gifts, strengths, resources, privileges, etc. From there we moved on to talking about identity. Each of my students wrote their name in the center of a piece of paper, and then drew circles around the paper, connecting to their name in the center. Each of these circles had pieces of their identity, however they chose to identify. Daughter, student, first-generation American, church member, employee, mentor, etc. Next, they turned to the person beside them and did the same for that person, only this time with their perceptions of their neighbor. Finally, we discussed their sheets. Each person talked about how they see the identity of the person beside them, who then had the opportunity to confirm or refute those perceptions. It was interesting to see what people choose to put in their identity circles. Almost no one wrote down racial or ethnic identity, or gender. I had to poke and prod to get them to "see" those basic characteristics.
Part of that, I think, is their desire to see each other as whole people, not just the visible parts. For the most part, students wrote things like "good student," "caring," "dedicated," etc. Which is great -they really recognize each other's strengths, and how those strengths will make them good at their chosen profession. It's so hard to get people to acknowledge those other, "sticky" issues, though. I saw this in my graduate program, too. There is so much pressure in our society to be "P.C" that people start to think it's a strength to be color-blind (and gender-blind, and disability-blind, etc, etc, etc). The danger in that is that we miss the opportunity to acknowledge those aspects of that person's identity. We essentially take it away, or imply that we don't want to see it. Talking about the influence of someone's race or ethnicity or sexual orientation or gender is suddenly too taboo. And so it gets lost. People can't share how their lives have been influenced by those things. In an effort to not offend, we lose out on learning about the richness and complexity of people's lives.
So, I pushed and prodded and tried not to preach too much, but to make a point and to help people see that you can acknowledge what you see and the assumptions you make, as long as you come from a place of curiosity and respect. It was a really enriching experience for me, and I was so lifted up by being in this room with these young people who are so devoted to their helping profession. They were full of optimism and openness and activism and energy. I was so impressed with this department in my school - I think they stand out in their approach to teaching and their view of the world. They really foster a respect for the human condition, with all it's uncertainty and diversity and needs and gifts.
So, as much as I did not want to get out of bed on this cold, cold morning and trek into the city extra-early, I'm glad that I had the opportunity to be a part of these conversations with these students. I'm glad they let me push them deeper, and I hope that they continue thinking about the things that we just scratched the surface of today. In many ways they were more open and reflective than some folks in my graduate program. Which gives me hope.... :)
So, apparently I was one of the few people who had to work today. Not only did I have to work, but I had to be there extra early. The reason for this was that the occupational therapy department at my school had canceled classes for their upper-level students and had them all gather to engage in discussions related to MLK day. We broke the larger group into smaller groups of about 7-8 students, and then had them start with discussions about what they themselves have to offer their community - personal gifts, strengths, resources, privileges, etc. From there we moved on to talking about identity. Each of my students wrote their name in the center of a piece of paper, and then drew circles around the paper, connecting to their name in the center. Each of these circles had pieces of their identity, however they chose to identify. Daughter, student, first-generation American, church member, employee, mentor, etc. Next, they turned to the person beside them and did the same for that person, only this time with their perceptions of their neighbor. Finally, we discussed their sheets. Each person talked about how they see the identity of the person beside them, who then had the opportunity to confirm or refute those perceptions. It was interesting to see what people choose to put in their identity circles. Almost no one wrote down racial or ethnic identity, or gender. I had to poke and prod to get them to "see" those basic characteristics.
Part of that, I think, is their desire to see each other as whole people, not just the visible parts. For the most part, students wrote things like "good student," "caring," "dedicated," etc. Which is great -they really recognize each other's strengths, and how those strengths will make them good at their chosen profession. It's so hard to get people to acknowledge those other, "sticky" issues, though. I saw this in my graduate program, too. There is so much pressure in our society to be "P.C" that people start to think it's a strength to be color-blind (and gender-blind, and disability-blind, etc, etc, etc). The danger in that is that we miss the opportunity to acknowledge those aspects of that person's identity. We essentially take it away, or imply that we don't want to see it. Talking about the influence of someone's race or ethnicity or sexual orientation or gender is suddenly too taboo. And so it gets lost. People can't share how their lives have been influenced by those things. In an effort to not offend, we lose out on learning about the richness and complexity of people's lives.
So, I pushed and prodded and tried not to preach too much, but to make a point and to help people see that you can acknowledge what you see and the assumptions you make, as long as you come from a place of curiosity and respect. It was a really enriching experience for me, and I was so lifted up by being in this room with these young people who are so devoted to their helping profession. They were full of optimism and openness and activism and energy. I was so impressed with this department in my school - I think they stand out in their approach to teaching and their view of the world. They really foster a respect for the human condition, with all it's uncertainty and diversity and needs and gifts.
So, as much as I did not want to get out of bed on this cold, cold morning and trek into the city extra-early, I'm glad that I had the opportunity to be a part of these conversations with these students. I'm glad they let me push them deeper, and I hope that they continue thinking about the things that we just scratched the surface of today. In many ways they were more open and reflective than some folks in my graduate program. Which gives me hope.... :)
1.11.2008
Wanted, to buy: extra hours in the day
I can't figure out how I used to do all the things I did in the time I had. It makes no sense. I remember when I was working 30 hours a week at my job-job, 16 hours a week at my unpaid internship, going to school full time, making it to the gym a few times a week, cooking, and going away to visit friends in faraway places most weekends.
And now, I have one job (until next week, when I start teaching in addition to that)... and I can either go to the gym or cook, but not both. And I don't mean on any particular day. I mean, over the course of a full week I can either go to the gym 4 times (new year's resolution) or I can cook and have good food ready for packed lunches and food prepped for heating up at dinnertime. But I can't seem to do both. This week was a gym week, and I had frozen meals and cans of soup for lunch all week, and I have to say I did not terribly enjoy it.
Is it because I'm getting old? Is time playing some kind of nasty trick with me? I just don't get it. Tonight I went to the gym after work, Todd made dinner when I got back, and then I promptly fell asleep watching the travel channel. At 8pm on a Friday night. The students aren't even back to class yet, so these last few weeks have been mighty quiet at work.
Sigh. So, this is all leaving me quite worried about what is coming down the road. The class I'm going to teach starts on Tuesday. I don't have my syllabus finished. I don't have any "lesson plans" (or whatever you call it when you're teaching a college course) written yet. We have a full day planned on Sunday. I'll be working later hours from now on to make up the time I'm taking away from my regular job to teach this course. I need to start looking for a new job for the fall when my post-doc position ends. Oh yeah, and plan a wedding. Where I'm DIYing almost everything, because I have no funds to outsource things. I have no idea when those things are going to happen. I can't even outsource things to friends yet because I haven't found the time to do the prep work, like purchasing materials and laying out designs for things, etc.
So if anyone has any spare hours laying around, I'll barter you something for them, because I don't see how this is going work any other way.
Dur.
Oh, and I picked up my diploma today. I'm official now.
I can't figure out how I used to do all the things I did in the time I had. It makes no sense. I remember when I was working 30 hours a week at my job-job, 16 hours a week at my unpaid internship, going to school full time, making it to the gym a few times a week, cooking, and going away to visit friends in faraway places most weekends.
And now, I have one job (until next week, when I start teaching in addition to that)... and I can either go to the gym or cook, but not both. And I don't mean on any particular day. I mean, over the course of a full week I can either go to the gym 4 times (new year's resolution) or I can cook and have good food ready for packed lunches and food prepped for heating up at dinnertime. But I can't seem to do both. This week was a gym week, and I had frozen meals and cans of soup for lunch all week, and I have to say I did not terribly enjoy it.
Is it because I'm getting old? Is time playing some kind of nasty trick with me? I just don't get it. Tonight I went to the gym after work, Todd made dinner when I got back, and then I promptly fell asleep watching the travel channel. At 8pm on a Friday night. The students aren't even back to class yet, so these last few weeks have been mighty quiet at work.
Sigh. So, this is all leaving me quite worried about what is coming down the road. The class I'm going to teach starts on Tuesday. I don't have my syllabus finished. I don't have any "lesson plans" (or whatever you call it when you're teaching a college course) written yet. We have a full day planned on Sunday. I'll be working later hours from now on to make up the time I'm taking away from my regular job to teach this course. I need to start looking for a new job for the fall when my post-doc position ends. Oh yeah, and plan a wedding. Where I'm DIYing almost everything, because I have no funds to outsource things. I have no idea when those things are going to happen. I can't even outsource things to friends yet because I haven't found the time to do the prep work, like purchasing materials and laying out designs for things, etc.
So if anyone has any spare hours laying around, I'll barter you something for them, because I don't see how this is going work any other way.
Dur.
Oh, and I picked up my diploma today. I'm official now.
1.03.2008
Holy Crapamoly
So, Todd and I were watching the Travel Channel tonight, and during a commercial break he started to tell me something about the comic book he was pricing at that moment, when in the background I heard something familiar. I turned my head toward the TV and realized that it was a Bank of Amer1ca commercial, but the song that was playing (in the commercial!) was none other than my superstar ex-college-roommate Antje! Todd and I just stared at the tv with our jaws dropped for the duration of the commercial, and then I had to get up and call Gwen. Hello, cable tv! Whoo! I guess this is why she's been too cool to return my emails lately. :)
So, Todd and I were watching the Travel Channel tonight, and during a commercial break he started to tell me something about the comic book he was pricing at that moment, when in the background I heard something familiar. I turned my head toward the TV and realized that it was a Bank of Amer1ca commercial, but the song that was playing (in the commercial!) was none other than my superstar ex-college-roommate Antje! Todd and I just stared at the tv with our jaws dropped for the duration of the commercial, and then I had to get up and call Gwen. Hello, cable tv! Whoo! I guess this is why she's been too cool to return my emails lately. :)
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