That's Nuts

Work has clearly gotten in the way of my blogging. I haven’t been this busy since before I left to have my first baby, Jack, in 2003. I still remember slaving over a presentation at 10 PM for a 7 AM meeting the next morning. My water broke at 5 AM and I spent the next two hours frantically sending out emails trying to transition my work because I was expecting to work for another week or two. Obviously I didn’t give the presentation at 7 AM—I was checking into the hospital.

Brian left for the Grand Canyon on Wednesday October 11. This was a four day trip to hike across the Grand Canyon (south rim to north rim), rest a day, and then hike back (north rim to south rim), thus called Rim2Rim2Rim. Personally I think this is nuts but Brian seems to really love doing it and he’s really good at it. The only downside of this trip is having to take care of the kids by myself for those days. On Wednesday night I went to a parent social/meeting at the YMCA with both kids. It was difficult to get food with both kids hanging on me but we got through it and we took a survey and had a meeting while the teachers watched the kids. On Thursday after work, Jill B, The Saint, came over with her three kids and brought a homemade pizza. Unfortunately the pizza pan didn’t fit in the convection oven so we had to put it on the bottom rack and it burned the bottom of the crust. Oh, well. After Jill left, Yvonne, Colton and Gianna came over to baby-sit while I went to play volleyball. Ty was already in bed but Jack started to get really clingy and cried as I was leaving and for a while after I left. I felt bad about that.

On Friday I met Jill M for lunch. Things have been just as busy for her as for me but it was great to get connected. She and her husband travel a lot more than Brian and I do but they found a great nanny so that is a huge relief. After work I took the kids to the mall and met Yvonne, Colton and Gianna there. It’s great to have other people with you when you are at the mall. For example, I got dinner for the kids and sat down and Jack announced that he needed to go the restroom. I momentarily panicked at the thought of leaving a table full of food in a food court while I spent the next 10 minutes schlepping both kids to the restroom. Fortunately at that time Gianna came up and asked if I needed any help so she was able to take Jack to the restroom. The kids loved playing in the play area in front of the book store and then going to the book store. Gianna and Colton, who are both 12, have a great time laughing at my kids, and Jack and Ty love them so it all works out.

I hung out with the boys on Saturday and then Sarah came over and we all went to the mall. This time we ate and then went to Pottery Barn Kids. Sarah helped me bathe the kids and then Brian came home. It was great to have him home.

On Sunday morning I met the girls for breakfast. Pam officially got engaged and we got to hear about Jeanette’s trip to China and of course, lots of talk about the joys of pregnancies (Jeanette and Nancy). Pam seems a little horrified about the whole pregnancy thing. Her day will come soon enough. I think those of us who are experienced mothers like to talk about all the not so good stuff just because it terrifies the new mothers so it’s like a sport. Tee hee. I hung out with Brian and the boys for a while and then went out for a little shopping. Found some tall boots that I’ve been looking for and then went to a specialty jean shop. Yes, this is definitely more expensive than shopping around for the perfect pair of jeans but at these places, you can tell them to find you the perfect pair of jeans, park yourself in the dressing room and then they pretty much bring you every single pair of jeans until you find the right one. My requirement is that they are not too low rise which actually eliminates a ton of jeans. I can’t believe how low rise most of the jeans are. It’s not that I want Mom Jeans. I’m thinking just a couple inches higher than what they have out there would be good. So I found a great pair of jeans within 30 minutes.

On Monday I went to the dermatologist for a skin check. I keep reading you should have these periodically especially if you had at least 3 really bad burns at a child. I had maybe 20 – 30 bad burns as a child and then tried to tan as a teen-ager. I pretty much stopped that in my early 20’s and almost always wear a hat if I am outdoors for a long period of time. After checking my skin she said it didn’t look like I had that much sun exposure so that was good news. We talked about some of my skin problems and she said she didn’t think I had acne but some other kind of bacterial infection so she gave me a prescription for antibiotics. I was skeptical but I am willing to try it.

Since I was already playing hooky from work, I decided to head to Costco where they were doing flu shots. I have gotten flu shots for maybe 12 – 14 years straight with the exception of the year where there wasn’t enough to go around (because the demand for flu shots in the prior years was so low) and then suddenly everyone wanted one and that created this mass hysteria. Now that year I thought that I deserved one just because I had been a faithful friend of the flu shot for over a decade. But I wasn’t going to stand in line for 5 hours to get one. I waited about 10 minutes at Costco. Sometimes when I get a flu shot I feel like I have the flu in one arm but that is as bad as it gets. But I woke up at 3 AM feeling really hot and then freezing and I felt nauseous. I think the puke feeling was from the antibiotic but the other symptoms were awfully flu-like. The next day I felt like a truck had run over me and my whole body ached. That’s the first time I had that reaction after getting a flu shot but it only lasted a day.

On Thursday I hosted an all day meeting at work where people flew in from different cities and so I hosted a dinner out. Going to dinner out with a bunch of co-workers can be really bad if everyone talks about work or somewhat interesting if people don’t talk about work. Fortunately the non-work talk was more prevalent which made me feel better about ditching my volleyball game that night. On Friday night Brian and I got a baby-sitter to go to a retirement party at Rustler’s Rooste. The guy retiring was Brian’s boss about 10 years ago and most of the people at the party were employees of this software group. What a bunch of nerds. I could see and hear people talking to each other about work. Blech. Fortunately, there were a few people who were as interested in the open bar as I was and definitely didn’t want to talk work stuff. So I had a good time.

I felt really lousy on Saturday… like premenstrual crampy and tired. I went to get my hair cut and my stylist’s assistant kept asking if I was OK. I felt like I was in a fog. Jack, not my son, has been cutting my hair for 10 years. Not once in all that time has someone else cut my hair. My hair is super straight, fine and thin. I have hated my hair my whole life, especially in the 80s when you had to have really big hair. I had fry my hair with these horrible perms to make it as big as was required back then and they always looked horrible. But Jack seems to be able to cut my hair so that I don’t hate it and in fact, for most of the last 10 years, I have actually liked it. Jack likes to stay with the times and pushes his clients to be a bit more modern. Because of this, most of the time I tell him to do whatever he wants. I give him boundary conditions. Like when I am pregnant, I say, I need a hair cut that doesn’t get messed up when I take a nap. My main boundary conditions are: no bangs and my hairline in the back cannot show. So he cut about 4 inches off. It looks much healthier and thicker now and I am very happy. It takes half the time to dry in the morning.

Later in the afternoon, we went to Missie’s daughter’s birthday party at My Gym. That is a neat little set up for a birthday party and definitely minimal work for the hostess. This is good for Missie since she is 9 months pregnant. Jack had a great time doing a running leap into a big vat of plastic germ covered balls. Because I wasn’t feeling that great. I didn’t feel overly social, and I wondered if that is what an introvert feels like. Like it felt kind of exhausting to talk to anyone. What a crappy feeling. Brian let me sleep in the next morning and I felt back to normal.

We got chastised by the preschool for sending nuts with Jack’s lunch every day. I really have no idea why we have this sudden explosion of nut allergies. I’m really upset that you can’t get peanuts on an airplane anymore and instead you get a lousy bag of pretzels. How can anyone live without nuts? My family is really into them and Jack loves them and even Ty has already had some cashews. We are nut snobs too. You know those mixed nuts cans where it says “less than 50%” peanuts? Well, I can tell you that they are 49.9% peanuts because when my family eats those, there is half a can of peanuts left and all the good nuts have been picked out. Brian sent a bag of mixed nuts to school with Jack and it came back with all the peanuts left in the bag. I was actually proud.

I’m not going to bother talking about work and how screwed up I think everything is there. Fortunately, I got to let off some steam playing volleyball Thursday night and going out afterwards for a beer. Then on Friday night the Book Club Party Van picked me up to go out to Marion’s who lives 30 minutes away from the rest of us. We have lots of preggos in the book club right now so that provides some good designated drivers. No one drank too much but we still had a great time. I’m embarrassed to say that even I didn’t read the book this time. Fortunately I have already read the next book club book so I have time to finish this one.

I still have a job

Well, I made it through the lay offs at work. I can't believe the number of people who actually wanted to get laid off. I am not sure what that means. I mean, do they have something better lined up or do they hate their jobs? I still like what I do although I still have issues with someone at work and I think management is having a really hard time getting their act together in terms of getting clear roles for people and what they are supposed to be doing.

I left off with the somewhat outrageous Friday evening with Tracy/BJ and Annette/Todd. On Saturday Brian took Jack to the Diamondbacks game because it was one of the last ones with Gonzo. They had a great time watching the game and eating peanuts. When the boys are older, I can definitely see us buying season passes because we all love baseball. Saturday night I went to Nello's to visit with a friend who used to live here and now lives in Folsom. There were several people there and so I only got to talk to Alan for a few minutes. That was really disappointing. Alan, Mike and I used to play on the same volleyball team and we would go out and drink beer and play trivia at this dive bar. We wouldn't hesitate to go before the volleyball game if it was a late game. It didn't really change the level of play. Those were some good times.

Brian hiked Camelback on Sunday morning in his preparation to hike Rim to Rim to Rim. A lot of people love hiking but it's just not my thing. I hiked Havasupi a few years ago (10 or 12 miles one way with a 35 lbs pack) and decided that I just didn't like it. To be good at it, you have to train. To train, you need to use your spare time. I have other things to do with my spare time like having lunch with friends, doing Pilates, playing volleyball, playing with my kids, socializing... plus Brian is a natural hiker. He hikes faster than anyone else I know and so I would be hiking on my own and be several hours behind him. Like I said, I would rather be socializing than hiking alone for 10 hours. So when Brian got back from hiking Camelback, I went to brunch with Missie. And we did a little shopping. She is about 1 month from her due date.

I took Jack to his swimming lesson on Tuesday and the regular instructor was not there. The substitute instructor "Jason" was a very hot guy in his early 20's. He was great with the kids and it was fun for me to watch him with the kids. Ha ha. Unfortunately the regular instructor showed up on Thursday. On Wednesday we met Tracy and BJ and their kids at a park to help their daughter Hunter with her volleyball. I did some drills with her and then Brian did. The kids had a great time running around and playing on the playground. The weather is finally cooling off so the evenings are very nice.

We had a women's conference at work on Thursday. I am not sure what I think about these conferences where a bunch of women get together and we hear things about career development and mentoring and networking. I hate the way "networking" is a verb and I don't like events where you are just supposed to "network". I think of a network as a noun. It's something that you build through activities like working with other people, or playing volleyball or doing Pilates at a gym or meeting new people at a happy hour. Just to throw a bunch of people together and say "go network" is lame. Just my opinion. I didn't meet any new people at this conference but ran into a ton of people from my past, so that was fun.

The weekend was really laid back. Brian and I attempted to get caught up on a bunch of chores that have been sitting for weeks. Our $50 water bill has been around $112 for the past two months. That's a lot of extra showers and loads of laundry. Most likely it's a pool leak but we are not sure. Our neighborhood had a garage sale so we walked around and mostly socialized. We bought some kids stuff like games and puzzles.

My sister Krisy had her baby on Sunday. His name is Reid Alexander. Congratulations Kris-Kris and Paw-Paw!