Days off to De-Stress

Well that was the plan anyway but things in my life rarely go according to plan so there wasn't much relaxing. Don't get me wrong, I had a wonderful 5 days off but I really would have loved one day to sleep in and do nothing. If only I could have imagined how shitty work would be this week (no time to blog because I'm back to running!). Here's the breakdown by day and I'll add photos later. I haven't mastered blogging via iPad yet.

Wednesday
Nate's moving up ceremony was one reason I decided to take a mini-break. We had to sit in ridiculously tiny chairs made for pre-schoolers so thankfully it was just a quick speech by his teacher and then the kids sang the bumblebee song. They were adorable. Nate didn't want to wear his hat and didn't want me to take his picture. He did however want his presents and lunch at Friendly's. I can't believe my baby is starting pre-k in September. We came home and took a long family nap which felt great.

Thursday
After dropping Nate at school we headed to Home Depot for mulch. My gardens really needed some mulch for both appearance and to keep the weeds out and water in. Overnight it got very hot (did I neglect to mention that this vacation fell during the first heat wave of the summer?) so I was trying to rush so I could get it done quick. Love went to look for something so I grabbed some bricks to finish one garden and headed toward the mulch. After a few minutes in the blazing sun I decided that it was too hot to wait around. One at a time I loaded 6 large bags of stinky mulch onto the flatbed cart. I paid and went to the car. Two guys asked if they could help load the car and I told them my husband was right behind me. As soon as they drove away and I began loading the bags in. Those suckers were heavy but I did it. I was in the yard for 2 hours and I don't think I have ever been so hot. Sweat dripped off my face, I had swamp ass and I got sunburn after 10 minutes. A shower never felt so good. After relaxing for an hour we picked Nate up and took him to the aquarium. Nate ran around loving every minute. It wasn't crowded at all and it was nice and cool...until we got to the butterflies and birds. That was rough. We went outside to visit the snow monkey and as soon as we got there Nate started yelling that he was too hot so we rushed back inside. He runs hot like his daddy and he cannot handle the heat. His whole face turns red and he looks terrible. He took a good nap on the way home.

Friday
I still can't believe that Love and I celebrated our 10-year anniversary on Friday. We were married on a beautiful June day. It was perfect and we had such a great time. We celebrated a little differently than I imagined when we got married but we had fun. We went to breakfast at a tiny little local joint that is super cheap. It reminded us both of a place Love's parents used to take us called The Place. It's a throwback to another time which is a nice way to say the don't have air conditioning. It was so hot so we ate and hit the road. We did a little shopping and picked up Nate early. I had decided we should see a movie so we could be out of the house and also out of the heat. We saw Madagascar 3 and it was cute. Again, not how I imagined this day would go. On a side note, I buy cards for everything. I learned it from my mom and have always felt it is an easy way to tell people how you feel. Have I mentioned how stressful my job is in addition to Love's new schedule and Nate's new attitude? I realized how bad it really is the night before when in a panic I realized I never bought Love a card!!!!! The cherry on top was Love buying me TWO cards!!!!!! Worst...Wife...EVER.

Saturday
Our unofficial lazy day. Nate wanted to play on the computer which gave me the freedom to watch 2 movies while doing laundry and cleaning the kitchen. It was a reminder of what life was like before Nate was born. Weird. I dragged Nate outside in the afternoon to blow up his pool and sprinkler. Then it was 2 hours of playing in the water and cleaning up the yard.

Sunday
Nate and I joined a friend (and his girlfriend and her daughter) on a trip to Brooklyn to visit my brother and his family. We went to the Brooklyn Botanical Gardens and it was a great afternoon. It made me realize how much I miss my brother. Good thing it's the summer so I'll have more time with him. On the ride home I realized my vacation was over and it was back to work in the morning. I was so happy to come home to Love and get some rest. If I knew what I was walking into Monday morning I would have opened a bottle of wine and savored my last night. Oh well. I'll have to remember that for next time.

Birthday Weekend!

Sunday was my birthday and I am embracing turning 35. Up until now I have viewed it as the mile marker in my life when my fertility goes down the toilet – more than it already was. My mother has been putting the pressure on for me to have a baby but I am just not ready. 35 is just a number and if we have trouble conceiving a second kid then maybe Nate was meant to be an only child. We will cross that bridge when we come to it.

Saturday we had the family over for a barbecue and the weather was perfect. I actually got to sit outside and enjoy my yard instead of cleaning it up for once. I am going to make an effort to do that again this weekend. On Sunday Love had to work so Nate and I were left on our own to celebrate my day of birth. We lounged around in the morning and I had chocolate cake for breakfast. Once I got a little energy I decided it was time to go to the beach. We went to a very small local beach because I knew we wouldn’t stay too long. We were one of 3 cars in the parking lot so it was perfect. An hour later when people began to arrive we left and went to Target…where I forgot the one thing I went there for. Another sign of being a year older. If it’s not on my list I forget it.

When we got home I put Nate down for a nap and headed outside to plant my birthday lily from my parents and put new bricks around my mailbox garden. Nate woke up just as I finished so we headed inside for showers and dinner. It felt so good to lay on the couch after dinner with my magazine. I could have fallen asleep but I was patiently awaiting Len’s arrival from work. I ended my day watching True Blood while drinking sangria. A great end to a pretty good day. Now on to a 5 day weekend! That’s a vacation in my book!

As usual there are no pictures of me from MY birthday weekend because no one took any. Maybe next year. At least I got some cute pics of Nate because we can never have too many of those.

Summer Stress

I feel like a broken record when I lament over how terrible the summer is for me. It is only June 14^th and I am ready to have a breakdown. I had to work Saturday at a dog walk (don’t even ask) which pretty much ruined my weekend because it is the only day of the week that Love and I have together. I had to call in Monday because Nate was burning up so I took him to the doctor and he has an ear infection. I had a huge issue at work Tuesday which I did not need on top of all of the crap I had to deal with from Monday. One day out of the office is a total disaster for me and I am scheduled to be off for 3 days next week. I don’t know how I am going to be able to get everything done when I get back. I’m ready to cry just thinking about it and it’s a week away. Ugh.

My “To Do” list gets longer and longer and I am drowning. My biggest problem is other people not doing their jobs. If you have ever worked at a large business (we have over 1,000 employees) you have probably had to deal with people in other departments (we only have 7 full time employees in ours) and outside vendors and that that is usually where my stress originates. I have been doing this job for a long time and I think I do a pretty good job. I am organized and am good with deadlines and I can also handle whatever is thrown at me on any given day…until June arrives. Then I lose my fucking mind.

I pride myself on being a multi-tasker. Even at home if you watch me clean you will see me go back and forth room to room for hours until everything is done. I have ADD when it comes to that. I start cleaning my room and go to the kitchen for something and get distracted and start cleaning something in there. Then I remember my room and head back and take something from my room to Nate’s and get distracted again. You get the point. At work I have lists and notes everywhere because someone will ask me for something and if I don’t write it down or do it immediately I have lost it forever.  It drives me crazy and makes me feel very off but that is usually how my entire summer goes. Every year I vow to be even more organized and get things done more efficiently and it never happens.

Sometimes I think the problem stems from the amount of time I’ve worked here. Whenever there is an issue in the office everyone comes to me. “Do you remember such and such?” “Did so and so donate a whos-ima-wachit?” As someone’s assistant I also hear lots of, “When you get a minute” (holy shit no kidding – it just happened!) from my boss. I spend lots of minutes handling lots of things that sprout up and screw up my plan for the day. I usually start the day with good intentions of going through my emails and then moving on to my “pile”. I keep a neat stack of things that I need to get done each day on the side of my desk. A good day means I have gotten to the bottom of that pile. A bad day is when I have added more shit to the pile. Today is an okay day. I am really hoping tomorrow will be a great day…positive thoughts…

Yesterday I had piles everywhere :(

Jesus Walks

This week has been another rough one. Last weekend was a 3-day weekend for me but it flew by between the boys coming home Friday, my 5K on Saturday and my brother and his family visiting. I won’t even get into how many hours I spent outside doing yard work and how many loads of laundry got dragged up and down the basement stairs. By Monday I was exhausted and the rest of the week has been more of the same. The one exciting thing this week was getting Nate signed up for swimming lessons. I think it’ll be fun for us to take a class together. Of course it could be a disaster so check back with me next month.

Last week while Aimee was driving us to work she pointed out a man walking down the street carrying what appeared to be a very large wooden cross. We had been wondering why there was so much traffic and sure enough as soon as we passed him it was smooth sailing. I wish I had fished my phone out of my purse to take a picture because it was the most bizarre thing I have ever seen. The cross was as big as the man and it looked heavy although he carried it with relative ease. Aimee and I are sarcastic bitches so of course we started making jokes. I wondered if it would be easier to carry if his hands were nailed to it (I’m going to Hell already so may as well enjoy it while I can). Aimee tried to think of some religious holiday that he might be doing it for. The local church just up the road had just been named a Basilica so I thought that maybe he had made the cross for the church and his car had broken down so he had to carry it. He was dressed oddly (almost monk-like Aimee noted) so we were very perplexed.

We had a lot of questions that will never be answered:

How does he go to the bathroom?

When/where does he eat?

Where does he sleep?

Isn’t he tired?

Does he take breaks?

Did he train with smaller pieces of wood?

We got to work and of course no one believed us when we told them we saw Jesus on

Hill Street

. As we left work one of our co-workers drove past and told us that they were talking about Jesus on the radio. Turns out this man was dressed as Jesus, carrying a cross and he was walking all the way to Montauk…from Brooklyn! He wants to draw “attention to Jesus because everyone needs him”. The most interesting part is that he is a former male prostitute. Repentance anyone? I’m not religious so I don’t understand his need to do this, but good for him for doing something that he believes in. I think we could all be better people if we focused on something in our lives and gave it our all. Just don’t ask me to carry anything heavy.

The more casual side of "Jesus"



BTW the title of this post is also one of my favorite Kanye West songs.