We finally got around to having a lazy weekend after many weekends of plans and work.
Saturday we hung around listening to music and doing art projects in the morning, had a pizza party for lunch, did laundry, picked up some groceries and stopped by lowes to see forklifts, played soccer and practiced drawing letters in the backyard, ate BBQ chicken for dinner and watermelon for dessert. I fell asleep at 930.
Sunday we went to Tom’s for pancakes then spent the morning at Underhill playground (Asher calls it UnderWEARhill Playground), cleaned up, hung on the stoop for a while, had Uncle Danny over for dinner and did more laundry.
Looking forward to the week ahead – one of my last before work really picks up.
Well hello. Things have been busy around here and I find that the more time I spend with Asher, the less time I have to sit at my computer. Not really surprising I guess. Its all good and stuff but I get behind on things.
I finally got my wisdom teeth out (2 top) and it took about a week of watching bollywood films and battlestar galactica to recover. The day after my check up at the oral surgeon we flew to Florida to hang with my parents and whoops, my mom got admitted to the hospital the day after we arrived. It was a very eventful/uneventful visit. She’s fine now, actually much better than she’d been in a while. We did the usual beach, pool, breakfasts with my grandparents and we even went strawberry picking.
We got back late last week and I’ve been slowly getting back into the swing of things. I feel like after Christmas trip, crazy work schedule/work trip, Matthew away, 3 weeks of (my own) sickness, 1 week of oral surgery recovery and a week of vacation its taking me a while to remember what it’s like to be home and healthy and normal.
I’ve been doing tons of playdates and activities with Asher and we’ve spent a lot of time outside enjoying the weather. Since he has refused to wear a jacket for over 2 months its kind of a relief to feel spring in the air and not worry about him freezing his booty off. “BRRRRRRrrrrrr…noo, *teeth chattering* I NOT cold”
I’ve read 5 books in 2 weeks (still havent finished night circus…) and actually make dinner 3x-4x a week. This is a huge accomplishment over previous weeks average of 0-1x. I’ve set up Asher’s spring/summer schedule as well as much of my own. He is continuing his current 2 mornings a week at school, one at music class and one at soccer until June when he switches to 3 mornings at camp and 2 mornings at outdoor soccer/free play. It looks like I am more or less off until May then pretty busy through mid-september with 5 different shows. I’ll be going to Denver, Atlanta 2x, SF (YAAAAY!!) and Philly. I popped into the office at pre-school today to find out the 1st day of school because I’ll be traveling early Sept. I felt a little psycho but I am already missing his birthday due to work and just kind of want to know about school too. They didn’t know. Some people!
That’s all for now, he is stirring and I’ve gotta pack up our snacks. We are heading to Jane’s Carousel after naps today.
Things have been a little nuts around here with Matthew gone and me working tons of hours. He finally got home after spending a week in Detroit on Tuesday but I’ve been working until 9 or 10 every night this week, and I assume it won’t end until I get back from my work trip at the end of the month.
Thankfully after an entire week of jetlag Asher started to sleep through the night, well 11-630 or so but I’ll take it! Last night I could not fall asleep until I got out of bed, turned the light on and wrote out my to do list at about 430am. Work was crazy with a ton of last minute changes coming in at 5pm that I absolutely had to finish before the morning. This is super typical the week or 2 or 3 before the event. Everyone wakes up and starts changing things that were set months before. Luckily Matthew was home (Matthew is almost never home before Asher goes to sleep) so I could work through bath and story time and actually finish by 10:30pm instead of who knows when.
I know people probably think I exaggerate about how stressful my job is but I don’t. My job is most likely more stressful than your job. Actually I am sure my job is more stressful than your job. I have to work on the weekend and answer emails at midnight and take calls during dinner. We can’t say no, ever, so every last minute request has to be fulfilled up until the second I walk out the door to the airport and then for 15ish hour days for a week at the event. Everyone wants us to come up with the ideas because we are the “experts” but they don’t want to use our ideas they want to use theirs so we have to convince them they came up with it so we can get things done or there will be no show. They can think ugly things are nice and super out of date things are hip and modern and sometimes they think a 9 or 11 minute video is ok but it’s really not because people will fall asleep and think we did a bad job so you have to convince them to cut it down but in a way that makes them think its their idea or they will fight with you and not want to work with you. If you know the clients well its easier and fun because they trust you but even if you are working with the same company on the 7th job its new people that have to be trained to do things how we need them to be done but they are the clients so you can’t tell them how to do anything or they will think you are pushy. If you are not pushy they will think you don’t know what you are doing. Its just constant problem solving on your tippy toes 24hrs a day.
My job is #6, after a bunch of people who save lives for a living. HAHAHA. The article is really about how few women have these jobs but I’d say 90% of the people I work with are women, sometimes 100%.
My friend Sarah refers to my jobs as “the prom” which always makes me laugh. We hang out with the kids a few times a week when I’m not working but I barely see her or anyone else when I get busy. People tend to understand the mad rush before prom because someone has to blow up the balloons and make sure we have enough streamers. That gal is me.
The hard part of the last few weeks is bearable because once the show is over I am done. I no longer work for a company who would have me back in the office the next day doing post-production on this and pre-pro on 3 other jobs. I am free. This time I have 6 weeks off before my next job and I just hope no one calls me. I can’t wait to take Asher to soccer and have PJ days and chill with the babyfriends. I can’t wait to unpack from our Vancouver trip and put away the channukah wrapping paper and organize all of Asher’s toys and clothes. Catch you on the flip side, blog! I’ll be back before you know it.
I assume everyone who reads this know that we belong to the Food Coop. Basically you work a 2.75hr shift every 4 weeks and you get to shop there. Even with the traveling and the toddler and the crazy work schedule its worth it because its the best thing in the whole world. Fresh AND cheap.
I had my regular coop shift today and since I also had do a make up because of a schedule change I did 2 shifts in a row instead of having to go back another time. That’s 6 hours of office work in an office I don’t work in. It was rough. After spending my day there I came home and saw this:
There is an entire blog made up of Ryan Gosling/Food Coop inside jokes. Its so hilarious it makes me happy I get the jokes.
Yes, all those are real actual rules at the coop. You aren’t allowed to eat food you haven’t paid for yet or have someone hold your spot in line while you shop. If you miss your shift without calling you have to do 2 makeups, not 1. It gets a bad rep because of the RULES but as long as you can manage working every 4 weeks there’s really nothing to complain about because the coop has the best, freshest, cheapest food on the planet. Ever have a checkout worker that actually wants to be there? At the coop we do and it’s kind of fun even though it could be S-L-O-W because I have to explain the diff between a mango and a papaya to the person ringing me up. At least they have mangos and papayas and they also have free childcare while you work and shop and I have to drag Asher out of the room crying every time. My favorite thing about the coop, besides the fact that they let every single person use the page system (most of the people there are exactly like you think they would be and its the best!) is that if you are looking for something on a shelf and someone else is also looking for something they say:
“Do we have any red quinoa or only the whole grain”
I’m back at work and have a project that goes straight through the end of January. Its pretty much 3 days a week spread across 4 days for now, then it ramps up later this month to a full 4 days. Its a lot of working time. As most of you know I work from home and as all of you know I have a 2 year old. Those things don’t mesh.
Anyone who says they can work from home with their kid around is doing a disservice to both their work AND their child. Its just not possible to be a productive worker with a kid around, and who would rather concentrate on writing emails when there’s a little boy in your face saying “mommy, lets do puzzles!” I don’t even bother trying. Asher is in preschool 2 mornings which has been a dream. I usually drop him off then work in peace all morning and pick him up on my “lunch break” when Jackie meets us at the house. She helps with his lunch and takes him out after his nap so I can keep on keepin on. 2 additional days Jackie comes for the full day and I try to split when I know they will be home.
I can do everything but conference calls at cafes and my favorite time to go is mid-afternoon. After the lunch rush and before the after-school rush. A hot chocolate with almond croissant is apparently part of most kid’s afterschool snack and they pile in like crazy and it gets loud and exciting. If I wanted loud and exciting I would have stayed home.
My other sometimes option is heading to Matthew’s design studio with him. There are big windows with city views and its super quiet but I hate going alone. Its in Dumbo which is close enough but the walk from my desk to the bathroom is really far and that’s not worth the 30min each way if I don’t have anyone to talk to when I get there. If Matthew is going (he only goes a few days a month) then its much more fun and worthwhile.
As much of a pain as it is I would not give it up for anything. I have to figure out everyone’s schedule every single day to make a work plan and between mine/matthew/asher/jackie/house cleaner/etc its so complicated and tiring sometimes. On the bright side, I do get to wear yoga pants and have lunch with Asher every day if I wanted to. I get to fold laundry on conference calls and not be bothered by people stopping by or music or the dumb office stuff I hated when I worked at an office. Or commuting. Lord I hate commuting. And wearing shoes. Who can work with shoes on? Not me anymore, that’s for sure.
We applied for Asher to go full days next year (its 830-245, so I guess full-ISH) and I really hope they have room for him. We find out mid-december and I am already fantasizing about working from home from 9-230 all by myself. Ahhh, the good life. My fingers and toes are crossed and if it comes through we might have to celebrate with a hot chocolate and an almond croissant!
The study, which controlled for demographic factors like education and partisanship, found that “people who watch Fox News are 18-points less likely to know that Egyptians overthrew their government” and “6-points less likely to know that Syrians have not yet overthrown their government” compared to those who watch no news.
This is not actually news to people who don’t watch FOX News. We all know that people that watch FOX News only watch it over real news stations because they are
a)scared of the real news
b)uneducated/ignorant
c)under a rock
d)all of the above?
Guess what, I do not watch any news. I READ news and not even every day. I am no fancy pretentious npr listening NYTimes reader (like my husband) I still know quite a bit of current events. Amazing right?
*If you read my blog and rely on FOX “news” for your information you should probably stop one of those things. We don’t mesh.
Farmers market, donuts, walk through the park, collecting sticks, throwing leaves, seeing the ducks, climbing mountains, home, puzzles, trains, fresh turkey sausage and apples for lunch, naptime, trains, trucks in gravel, baking bread from scratch, out for dinner, bookstore, bathtime, stories, bed.
TV time, trucks in gravel, driving cars, organizing art supplies, painting with watercolors, coloring with markers, stamp set, story time, lunch, nap, puzzles, tickle time, video chat with grandma, grilled chicken for dinner, playing catch, bathtime, stories, bed.
Matthew was away until Sunday afternoon but we made the most of it.
This is something I used to do a bunch, and I even have a sticky on my computer where I still track things to post, then don’t ever post. AKA story of my life. Intentions:11 Follow through:3. Eh, 2. Who are we kidding. I have 43 posts in my drafts folder.
In any case, Novemblaaaaagh is a special time where I go through all of my old drafts and think about finishing up posts from April (Did you know we went to California on vacation and I took over 1000 photos. I posted 1 photo on my blog. ONE.)
3 of the drafts I found contained posts about stuff I like written in this very format. Turns out I still like them so yay, we both win:
I have always hated earbuds but became a convert out of desperation. Matthew has a similar pair I’ve been borrowing and after losing/breaking/breaking 3 sets of headphones (left on a plane/crushed in my bag/spontaneously combusted) in the past 3 months I was ready for something new. These are pricey but come with 6 sizes of buds and have great sound. Since I bought Matthew his pair for Christmas I feel like I recommended this product to myself. Go me! (I wrote this in May but still very true. These are fantastic earbuds for the non-earbud lover.)
My friend Chana got this for me after I complimented the one she has. I went from using it onsite where I didn’t like carrying all my cards around to using it every day and leaving extraneous stuff at home. It holds a spare key, lip balm, ID, debit and money and fits in my back pocket. Everyone needs a friend like Chana.
These shoes are awesome. So light and comfortable and the sole is like a reef flip flop for those days you don’t want to get subway slime on your pedicure. As a primarily reef flip flop wearing household during summer months branching out into sanuks took a little convincing but Matthew and I both have and love these shoes to bits. (Ok these are kind of summery. Sue me)
Everything is adorable and well made. Asher has a bunch of tshirts but if I had a girl I could see myself going a little crackers over there. The quality is great and I occasionally find older ones I really want on eBay. So sick of the GAP, and Old Navy fits Asher like crap. Its apparently made for only short children.
