it's the little things...

I realize that 99% of posts now have to do with the baby. I was thinking about that and wondering what else is going on in my life. Honestly, the baby really is taking up most of it (which is fine and awesome) but there have been a few other things to keep me busy. Work has gotten much busier. To the point of overwhelm at times. I've been traveling more and August isn't looking much better. We had our annual July 4th party. Everything turned out really well. I didn't put as much work into it as I usually do. No new craft projects--just used what I already had and bought (gasp) one new decoration. Didn't make as many food items as normal and the pot luck ended up working out perfectly. It's amazing how that happens. For the first time, we had multiple little ones running around (as well as one being held--that would be mine). No fireworks this year since we had the party on the 3rd but I think that was the best option. Good times. The following weekend we had our fam...

Remember when I actually wrote about what was going on with my life? How I'd write maybe every other day? And you knew where I was traveling to and what projects were going on at the house and how the gardens were growing? Yeah, I barely remember that... I've been traveling a lot. Work has been incredibly busy. I've worked many a late night when I've actually been in the home office. I'm torn between working over the weekends (and feeling bitter that I'm working) and working these long hours on weekdays (and giving all daylight hours to the job). I'm exhausted. And overwhelmed. And hormonal. And irritable. Yep, you should feel sorry for me but you should feel worse for the guy who has to live with me. I'm crankypants meets ticking time bomb. Sigh... I guess the good news is that I have two sort of easy weeks coming up. Then, after some news I got today, return to crazy for another two weeks. I'm very much looking forward to upcoming tr...

I'm going to be celebrating these last 4 years by spending a few days in Chicago. Where I'll see no sites other than the hotel and whatever is between it and Midway. And my days will be booked from 7am-9:30pm. But I'll get lots of good food. And will be bored to tears. So it goes... Have a good week, everybody. Try not to die in the heat. And pray that the area in the Caribbean doesn't turn into a hurricane that dumps oil all over us.

Part of me wants to write just to get that last post out of the top spot. Another part wants to procrastinate. And a third part doesn't feel like I write much anymore. Things have been ridiculously busy. May was oddly not terribly regarding work but we did some traveling (Dallas and Kansas City), celebrated my SIL's birthday and Memorial Day, and I got to have lunch with some friends/old co-workers. I must say that Memorial Day weekend was pretty low-key...exactly what I needed going in to June. June? Other than celebrating my lovely husband's birthday this past weekend, I think it's going to be a nightmare. It's kicking my butt. It was kicking my butt 3 days into a short workweek. I've already got a hole I'm trying to dig myself out of at work. I even worked some yesterday but still don't feel like I made all that much progress. And the entire month is jam-packed with travel. Where to? Several local visits, San Antonio, Kerrville, San Antoni...

Not much to report here. I had two training meetings for work this year. One was in Atlanta and was very brief. We were away from the city a bit so I didn't get to look around. It was the first time I was outside of the Atlanta airport, however. I got to drive by (in a cab) the Hubby's alma mater. And we got really good food. The second was in Vegas and I'm going to say it was my favorite. Got to hang with some nice folks, friends and strangers. Food? Less good. Gambling? Lost $20.

Braindumping... Remember when I said there was a potential new job? Got the second interview but didn't get the job. Was it the perfect job for me? Probably not. I guess the current overwhelm with work led me to try to find a way out that was different from actually just tackling all the work that had been piling up. So this last week I finally got to the point where I could suck it up and just DO THINGS to help me feel better. Mark some things off lists. Get organized. File a few piles that were on the desk. I got over some pretty big hurdles but have at least one big item to finish. Overall? Feeling a bit better in this area. I heard somewhere that only boring people talk about the weather. I disagree. Perhaps you're boring if that's ALL you talk about. I must say the change of seasons is my favorite time. Fall has been interesting so far. Some torrential rains, several days where you need to run the heat and air conditioning in the same day (we're sticki...

And apparently now I'm supposed to be working. Blah... I've got lots of pictures and stories but first I will need to sift through my millions of emails and address what is suddenly a ton of work that piled up while I was gone. Good times. Yea reality.

Holy moly, people. And suddenly it's a week from my last post. Here's the run down: You know how I had that crappy travel day last Monday? I totally made up for it the next day when I flew to San Diego. First class. Also first class coming back on Tuesday. And that means I had but one night in my super posh suite in the hotel. Upgrades all around. We had a nice little outing with the Houston work folks on Friday. I ate ice cream and chatted with some ladies I rarely see. Too bad not everyone could make it. I had my first bridal shower on Saturday. It was really nice. Mostly family. We got some nice things, ate great (and pretty) food, and some lovely homemade favors were given to our guests. I also had a cute dress and got a hair cut that morning so that I could take advantage of someone else fixing my hair. And it wasn't so bad opening gifts in front of all those people. I guess I haven't done that since a birthday party in about 2nd grade. Last Saturday...

And I would drive 223 more... It was another trip across Texas this week for work. I'm very glad to be home. This concludes my crazy 4 weeks of travel. Instead of celebrating with a dental appointment, I'm on an annoying conference call. Dentist will have to wait (apparently till July 3rd--sheesh). Now begins about another week or two of crazy office time. I'll need to work over this alleged long weekend. I'll need to sift through my now 125-strong inbox backlog. At least I'm home. I'll also need to be working on invitations this weekend. I bought stamps this morning. Most exciting stamp purchase ever! I have three weeks to get them assembled, addressed, stamped, and out the door. Can you believe it's already time to send invitations? 78 days... No other big plans for the weekend. You? I imagine we'll end up doing a little yard work. I may do some shopping on Monday (take advantage of those weekend sales). Anyone want to feed me BBQ? Anyone?

I'm finishing up a very compact 3-day trip to California for work. By "compact" I mean that I had to get up ridiculously early on Tuesday to make it out here. And I won't get in until after midnight, probably closer to 1:30am, tonight. Ugh. "What makes it all worth it?" you ask. Is it that it means I still have a job even in this economy? Oh, sure. That's nice, too. But what makes me happiest here? Is it the weather? Ah, not this time. It's a little chilly. What makes this trip worth it is the sandwich. If you could be in love with a sandwich... This is the site where I take a nice little walk up to the liquor store to buy lunch. I know, I know. I don't drink my lunch. Perhaps if alcoholics could get their hands on this sandwich all their problems would be solved. It's the Christopher Columbus. It's mayo, mustard, turkey, provolone, avocado, and lettuce on sourdough. Sometimes I add tomato. If you so desired, you could a...

Nothing can start off a week like a biopsy. Well, except maybe a biopsy combined with bad news at work. Biopsies? Not a barrel of laughs but not as terrible as one would imagine. (Which I find is the worst thing...what one imagines.) I got to the doctor's office and decided to skip the vicodin. The Fiance seemed surprised when I told him I really can get a grip on my anxiety and calm myself down physically so that part wasn't a big deal. So you get to lie down on a massage-type table but instead of hanging your head through the hole, you hang your boob. Awesome. I think it's better that you can't see what's going on down there. I got more details from the technician when we were done. They deaden your skin and actual boob (which burns a little, I won't lie). And then they basically jam a straw through your skin and suck out specimens. But, you know, instead of an actual straw it's a big, fancy, expensive machine. I had about 6 taken out and they ...

I woke up this morning having to potty about 45 minutes before the alarm was set to go off. (Did I mention that last week I suddenly had a terrible UTI and had to go to Urgent Care in California? Yeah, that was fun. Better now.) So, I couldn't fall back to sleep until about 10 minutes before the alarm went off. Sigh... So I guess I've been up since about 4am. It was a productive day at a site I'm very behind at... I break for lunch and can't find a parking place. Park in a tow away and thankfully didn't get towed. I leave the site to head to the hotel and traffic is terrible. The GPS gives poor directions. She might as well say, "You have to turn in 0.2 miles but I'm not going to tell you which direction in hopes that you're in the wrong lane and have absolutely no way of making it over all those lanes in all this traffic." It took almost an hour to make it not enough miles to justify that length of time. I get to the hotel just now and it's a...

I flew to Dallas this morning because I was supposed to be at one of my sites today and one tomorrow. When I got here at 8:00, I found out that my site wasn't opening until 11:00 but the winter weather warning had just been extended to 4:00. The weather (and traffic) was so bad here today that we just went ahead and postponed today's visit and I ended up working at the hotel. They're talking about frozen fog on the news. I've never even heard of such a thing. Yea for room service. Yea for not having to get out on icy roads in freezing temperatures. I've also had a chance to try to figure out our Washington DC itinerary. I'm always so last-minute with planning... If you've been, what would you suggest seeing and what wasn't worth your time?

So it's been almost a week since I last wrote. Thing is, I don't have a lot of coherent things to say. Another braindump it is. There are some active little squirrels around my yard today. In other wildlife news, I had two raccoons walk across my porch while I was watching tv the other night. One just looked in at me. Freaked me out a little. Something (maybe them) have been digging in my newly weed-free (mostly) front bed. Hey, whatever. Just don't eat any new plants (if I ever get around to planting them). I am now planning on visiting one of my good high school friends when we go to DC in December. Yea! I haven't seen her or her husband since they got married in 2000. Is that right?! Crazy. Also get to meet their daughter. Even though my schedule this week has been slightly better than expected (because I rearranged some things), it's still been nuts. That said, I was very happy to get home at 9:15 last night instead of 11:30. It was only a 16-hour da...

Work requires me to be gone at least 8 days per month. I'm often gone much more than that. This month, however, I'm just squeaking by..you know, what with Election Day and the Thanksgiving holiday and one meeting day and a dentist appointment and fighting my increased property taxes. As it turns out, between this week and next, I'm getting in 7 of those 8 days. Sheesh. One could really use a break that weekend in between. Not me. I'm going to camp. Not let's-pitch-a-tent camp. (Praise tiny baby Jesus; it's going to be freakin' cold this weekend!) We're staying in cabins, and it's for my volunteer gig. The kids get to do all sorts of fun activities this weekend. Hopefully it will be a good time for everyone and everything will run smoothly. I'll get back on Sunday and will head to Corpus on Monday, Lake Charles on Tuesday, and Albuquerque on Wednesday before I get a day at home. I think I'm going to need a nap.

Good heavens, people. There have been so many issues with work over the last few days it's ridiculous. I mean, so ridiculous that I didn't even cry about it. Well, until today. And then only briefly. My work computer finally died. It was, of course, the worst possible time--3 outstanding reports, a site having crises and me not having access to any solutions, a BlackBerry that hadn't yet been set up, all right before vacation. I'd complain more but I think the internet can only handle one superstar who can make more money blogging than working at the job that fired her for blogging. Amidst everything, I decided to say no. Part of it was for my sanity. Part of it was because it's finally getting to me that it doesn't seem like anyone else works this hard. I can't tell you the number of times I've called coworkers only to find them taking care of some personal or leisure activity during business hours. It seems like I'm the only one stressin...

I slept through the entire flight this morning. As we taxied to our gate, the flight attendant said something about going out there and making today a good day. Apparently that's what I needed to hear because I thought, "She's exactly right. It really is up to me to make it a good day." On Monday, I went to the doctor to see about some meds for my troublesome allergies and also to complain about a few other problems I've had lately. And I've just felt run down. She basically attributed everything to stress, even the headaches I've had like clockwork once a month for the last few months. I don't think I buy that explanation for that one, but when I asked her what to do about it she said, "Break the cycle." What she meant was to take meds right before I knew the headache was going to come on. What I took from it was to just get out of this freakin' rut already. I've been so overwhelmed for so long that even when something goes ...

There is no little emoticon on the website I use for "inadequate." If there were, that's what I'd have over there. For most of the last year I've felt great. Pretty much better than I had in years and years. Something in me has changed. And I really do believe that or else there would have been many more days months of feeling inadequate over the last year. But here I am anyway. Everything stems from work. After two years of working the same project, I knew it backwards and forwards. I knew all the people with whom I worked (even if I hadn't met them face-to-face). I knew everyone's roles. I knew how to get to all my sites in other cities/states and knew my way around those offices. I knew who was good at their job and those who were less so. Even though I didn't love Shreveport, I knew what to expect. And right now, even going there doesn't seem so bad. (And you know I'm not doing well if I'm saying that.) Now I've been on two new pro...

So there's this woman at my company who I'm sure is very nice. Awhile back she started sending us these quotes every Friday. You'd think I'd love her for that, right? I love quotes. But she sends them as a PowerPoint slide and my computer is so slow that sometimes I just delete without reading because, seriously, if I have to wait on one more thing--especially something that's not work-related--I'll go insane. And then there's the joy of getting my inbox down by one more message, to a so-close-to-being-almost-in-the-vicinity-of-manageable number of e-mails. Regardless, here's the quote for today that I opened as I pondered what I have to get done today and what I'll have to "come back into the office" to get done over the weekend. “Besides the noble art of getting things done, there is the noble art of leaving things undone. The wisdom of life consists in the elimination of nonessentials.” –Lin Yutang Now if only I could get this Lin...

Awhile back I realized what makes life (and blogging) interesting sometimes is the part of today that makes it stand out. What happened today that was different from any other day? Sometimes you are hard-pressed to find anything. Other days, it's simple. So for June... 4th : The Boyfriend's first birthday since we met. 5th & 6th : Finally getting a grip on one of my new studies. Thank goodness for the help of kind co-workers...one whose job should not have included training me. 8th : Went sailing on The Boyfriend's dad's boat for the first time. Also planted our tree babies. This was the first time I planted trees that I actually had to then take care of... They are both still alive and growing. 13th : Last last day in Shreveport. 14th : My first time seeing the Yankees play in Minute Maid Park. (Oddly enough, second time to see them this season.) 15th : Fantastic day at the local winery--complete with tour, tastings, food, live blues, and dancing. 18th & 19t...