Pet Peeves

One of the things I can't stand is the "whole world revolves around me" syndrome, especially when combined with the "I'm the victim" mentality and the "manipulate by guilt" trait. How does one person have all three characteristics AND a stank attitude to boot?? Unfortunately, for whatever reason, some people have to remain in our lives. Maybe these trials are to make me stronger? More patient? More understanding? I don't know. I do know how aggravating and stressful our interactions are. I try to keep the frequency to a minimum but that's not always possible. It takes me a while to think of responses and I'm usually in shock that I'm being confronted at all. To the other person this may be perceived as admission or agreement which it never is. I don't want to say the wrong thing so I don't say anything. I have to work on that. By the time I do have time to come up with an appropriate response I don't want to bring up the subject again. And it becomes a cycle. Wonder where/when this became a part of me?

The Inconvenience of it All

Update: The dr's office said that once you've reached 36 weeks, you're expected to go to the hospital if there is a hurricane. The hospital said that you only come in if a hurricane warning is issued, and even then make sure to call the hotline number first for instructions. They also said no family members are allowed - no husbands, no children, no anyone. Well, it's looking like only a tropical storm anyway which is good.

If Ernie decides to keep his hurricane status and keep coming my way then I may have to check into the hospital tomorrow evening. And I'm pretty sure that would mean no kids allowed, including Sid. How could I be expected to be apart from Sid with a hurricane passing through and me not be there to comfort him if he gets scared? I could be jumping the gun because I haven't even called my dr yet to find out what he wants me to do. I do have almost four weeks until my due date. Ok, I'll call him before I start worrying.

Feeling A Bit Overwhelmed

My feet are swollen.
Someone stole my bike.
Sid has to be at school by 8:00 am.
I haven't been getting enough sleep.

And then there was...me

Words of Wisdom

I live in a cube farm. Sorry, I work in a cube farm. There are about 13 of us in this room and the walls are chin high - when you're sitting down. Needless to say there is almost zero privacy. But that's not what this post about. Every now and then my boss likes to come out and stand by my cube (the podium) at the front of the room and share his gems of wisdom. I'll give him his props - he's not a dumb guy and he knows how to politic. In the past he's said things like, "If you want to know the health of a company, follow the money," "It's all about perceptions," and "With change comes opportunity." In today's spiel he encouraged us young'uns to write down our past experiences because as we get older we'll remember less and less of them.

That made me start thinking a bit about the things I did in my youth. I'm talking about 20 years ago. That's a looong time ago. The one thing that stuck in my mind were the times that my cousin and I would go bike riding around the neighborhood. Well, we didn't just go around the neighborhood but that's not important right now. My cousin S is three months older than me so we were very close. Her younger brother, on the other hand, is a couple of years younger than us. That, coupled with the fact that he is a boy, did not make fun times for him back then. The times that he was around S and I would try to get out of the house without him knowing - but he always heard and would come running after us. We would then jump on our bikes and take off. He would scramble for his and then he was on our tails. We always got away. The fun for us was in the running. The chasing was not fun for him however. We either didn't realize or didn't care or a bit of both. A few years ago he let me know how much it bothered him the way we treated him back then. I apologized from my heart. I really was (and still am) sorry.

I've been quite busy doing some pretty geeky things lately. Not that I mind. I love to learn. I don't know where to start and I'm still in the midst of things but I can give you a quick rundown.

I'm very active in my church. On any given Saturday good luck if you find me sitting in one place for more than five minutes (I can usually go about 1/2 hr during the sermon until some "fire" erupts that I have to put out). All of the geeky stuff I've been working on lately has been directly related to my duties at church - trying to retrieve data from a harddrive, transfering domain and email hosting, and upgrading our website. This in addition to creating a budget and proposal for my department, sitting through lengthy church board meetings, editing our newsletter, working on announcement newscasts, and preparing for Communication & Technology Day, which happens to be this upcoming Saturday. My husband does the capturing and video editing of the services (at home) so I have my part to play in that too. After this Saturday, when the day is finally over, and I know I don't have to go back up on the platform, my stress levels will stabilize. In the meantime, I barely have two more days to go and I haven't written my editorial or my welcome or my introduction of the speaker yet, among many other things like doing up schedules, committee member packets, blah, blah, blah.

At work, I have a project due on Nov 1, nevermind that I'll be out in a few weeks. That means I have to do as much as I can by the end of this month and hope I still have time to handover whatever is left.

Plus, did I mention I'm having a baby? I went to the doctor's yesterday and he asked me if I wanted to choose a date. He said a lot of families do it for the convenience. I'm sitting there thinking, he's asking me if I want to decide when I want to go into natural labor?? That's not something I want to think about and work towards. Let it happen when I don't expect it. Basically you choose a date and the day before, if you've been having minor contractions or braxton hicks, and if you're dilated, then the next day you get admitted to the hospital and you get pitocin to induce labor. Umm, no thank you. First of all, I have not heard anything good about induced labor. Secondly, my family doesn't need the 'convenience' of knowing where I'm going to be beforehand, they can find out when I do. Maybe some women would prefer the select-your-labor-day option if they need to make plans for childcare and husband taking off work, but I don't have to think about that. Fortunately I have enough family and friends, and co-workers even, who can pitch in to make things work. So I'll pass on that offer, thanks.

There are not enough hours in the day.

Don't laugh because the only thing I can make these days is chicken pot pie. Hubby asked for it so I made it again. So there!

What's Up With You?

I'm here. No baby yet. She's not due til Sep 23. I know, that's less than two months away! Am I ready? You bet. I wanna see her and hold her and hug her and squeeze her. And I sure am ready to take a break from work and the daily routine. Sid is still adamantly telling people that she's his baby. lol. Her name is still up in the air. I'm rooting for Shelby. Some love it, some hate it. Hubby frowns at it. He's voting for Courtney as is my mother. My mother says if I go with Shelby she won't call her by that name. Yeah, right.

Speaking of boys, stepson is in TN right now visiting his aunt and he doesn't want to come back. Why? You know why - he's in l.o.v.e.! Unfortunately he has to come back to his life here in SFL.

No news from Uncle yet either. He says he only checks his email on Sundays. Ok. Two Sundays have past since the first 'hello' message I sent. No response to the letter I wrote to Aunt either. Hmm.

I had a dream last night that I met Mocha and Nikki. Is there anything to that? Are they headed my way or am I going on a road trip? (I love road trips but these gas prices are no joke! My little V6 took $45 to fill up yesterday. When I had my gas-guzzling Beamer five years ago it used to cost that much. Prices have DOUBLED since then. I can't imagine having to pay $90+ for gas at least once a week. I wonder what the mileage is for a Honda Odyssey minivan?)

Poor hubby - the company he works for has been indefinitely absorbed by it's parent because the money wasn't coming in fast enough. They let almost all of the sales guys go. Being as he was the one making the appointments for those guys I don't know what all this means for him. Of course, he had a dream a few days prior that there were only three people working in the office - the two owners and himself. Maybe this will turn out to be a good thing.

I finished "Their Eyes Were Watching God" by Zora Neale Hurston. I thought it was pretty good. I tried starting "Beloved" by Toni Morrison but it's taking me a while to get into it. In the meantime I also finished "Red Dragon" by Thomas Harris, the author of "Silence of the Lambs." It was ok. I liked the twist near the end. I haven't given up on "Beloved" but I'm taking suggestions of other books to read.

Oh yeah, the new bed is great. I don't know what to do with all the room I have!

Random thought: Why doesn't everyone iron their clothes before coming to work? I'm not saying that if you wore something already and you're wearing it again it necessarily has to be ironed even though you know it has those "I've been worn before wrinkles." I'm talking about those "I was folded and put down and not even folded properly, see my creases" kind of wrinkles. How do you come to work like that?