sometimes we just need to be alone
don’t take it personal; but i think there are some times when mom’s just need to get away. i’m not talking a week long spa stay…but just a quick two days away. no kids, no husbands, just the ladies. i’m fortunate enough to have a best friend that has a great network of friends and co-workers…and even luckier to be included into this circle of amazing women. it was a short drive {1.5 hours}, to a gorgeous home on a peaceful lake…we kept it simple, each of us had food assignments {mine was drinks}. we had a crazy time out on the lake thanks to our hostess’ generous family {thanks lyle} its too bad that pontoon boats don’t have potties {i’d put a photo here..but i’d never be invited again!}
we stayed up late, watched movies, played the adult version of ping pong…and otherwise enjoyed each others’ company. in the morning we made breakfast, did a quick clean up and headed home. the best part of the weekend was just hanging out….no kids to monitor, no laundry, nothing to interrupt our down time. it was heaven!
thanks to my fantastic friends for a great weekend!
sans make up? spare me!
so there is this recent trend of celebrities going without make-up on purpose to show their ‘natural’ selves. whats the big deal? it got me thinking…how many days have i gotten out of the house without my complete ‘face’ on? the answer: more times than i care to admit! after discussing with a co-worker how long it takes her to get her face on {5 minutes} i realized that i can’t remember the last time i put my make-up on in one continuous space of time!
as mom’s we pride ourselves on multi-tasking. i know my hectic mornings do not include an un-interupted 5 minutes…ok…maybe in the shower…a scant 8 minutes, if i’m lucky. but after that, i’m a multi-tasking maniac! between getting the boy up, keeping him on track, making coffee, putting lunches together, getting dressed…all while doing my make-up in between.
so in answer to the ‘celebrities’ showing up in public without make-up…who the f- cares? i don’t watch you in order to see you looking like a haggard representation of my sex…so please, spare us all and keep those make up artists employed, put some goddamn make up on!
workin’ for the benefits
these days i don’t think its a bad thing. in the past, when i was much, much younger, i imagined i would find a job or career that i would love forever. i would work for a company for many years, excelling, moving up and generally being very happy. for a long time that career was in retail; but when you work in with the public in that kind of setting for too long, it makes you cynical and maybe just a little bit crazy. so crazy, in fact, that you decide, ‘wow, i should open my own business!’ [that is entirely another post] suffice it to say, that by now i am seriously just working for the benefits. and that’s okay.
the hardest part of my day is to not really show how much work i am really capable of. as an organized and highly efficient person, its sometimes difficult to watch the train-wreck of ‘organization’ that happens inside corporate america. so this makes, working each and every day a bit more challenging and i must say interesting.
i’m happy to say i’m in the running for a permanent position with corporate america, instead of my current temporary position. permanent means that vacation is accrued, sick days available and the best part, benefits. now, we currently have health care coverage, but its a health savings account with a high deductible [$5,000].
is there anything wrong with working for the benefits? to take a job that you can easily perform with perhaps 60 -70% of your brain power? how long can i do it…that will be the true test.
sooner or later
i knew it was bound to happen. it just happened a bit sooner than i thought. my son lied to me. he’s only nine. it wasn’t a big lie, but a lie nonetheless. it was the typical morning rush to get out the door. my normal questions to him as i’m trying to get myself ready; did you feed your dog?- yes; did you feed your gecko? – yes. well, right there was the lie. he in fact had not fed his gecko…and i knew this because it actually takes more than 30 seconds to feed a gecko.
just for point of reference, feeding a gecko requires a little bit of calcium supplement powder sprinkled in the bottom of the dish. next…and here’s the fun part…you have to dig a few little meal worms out of the handy refrigerated container, then drop them into the dish. last, like all pets, gordon the gecko likes fresh water.
all of this takes more than a few minutes. well for whatever reason, my son decided to lie and tell me he fed his gecko when really he did not. obviously, i had to call him on it. it was a moment that i’ll probably remember for a very long time; but it had to happen sooner or later…i just wasn’t really prepared.
balance
the last couple of weeks my life balance has felt off. between my lack of motivation and general bitchiness i don’t know what’s going on. in the past i might say my work – life balance was out of whack; but having quit my weekend job and working a structured week; i can’t quite put my finger on it. could be that my husband has been working close to eighty hours a week. that some days i feel what it might be like to be a single mom. [my sincerest admiration for those amazing single moms] or even that my allergies have kicked in full force. it could be the fact that i haven’t had a regular monthly cycle [yes – that cycle] in the last few months.
whatever it is i’m looking for some ways to pull my life back into balance! i think i’ll start by practicing the hardest work in the english language….’no’. i’ll let you know how its going!
i hate being late
gah! why are mondays the ultimate slap-in-the-face-after-a-perfectly-lovely-weekend? i know i need to change my attitude about mondays; but for now it is at the very bottom of my list. no matter how much i prepare; clothes ironed, laid out, lunches made, coffee prepped, its is still a mad dash to the door. do some of us have the oh-my-god-i-can’t-be-late gene; and others not? for myself; it is almost painful for me to be late. it’s a physical feeling in the pit of my stomach, working its way upward manifesting itself as the annoying acid-reflux. even though i know that my current [temporary] work-place doesn’t really pay attention if we are 3 minutes late; its hard for me to get back on track after running behind.
so did my monday go to shit because i was late? or was it an entirely different set of parameters that determined the shittiness of my day? could it be my manager [yes, temporary] that can’t seem to buck up and take care of the things that they should? today, that would be difficult customers, stupid emails and requests from others for stuff i have no idea how to do. or is it because i was almost ten minutes late to my desk?
at least i had a freshly ironed, cute outfit and a great lunch to eat!
un-friended
wow. it kind of hurts. while i will admit to un-friending only a couple of people; i wasn’t really paying attention to how many friends i had on facebook. a lot of my friends don’t post very often, some all the time. so when i ran into this person and said, ‘hey, its been a while, how are you?’ and there was a sort of awkward silence, that got me thinking. since i’m online every day i realized that i hadn’t seen a post from this person in quite a while. after a couple of minutes of stilted conversation [luckily my kid was restless and ready to go] we parted.
after getting home i decided to check, and sure enough, i was no longer ‘friends’ with this person. and boy did it hurt. since i had known this person for a few years, worked with them, i thought that even though we didn’t see each other on a regular basis we would still be friends. even if it was just FB friends. i enjoy seeing and hearing from people who i’ve known over the years and i hope they enjoy hearing from me. FB makes it easy to stay connected to people who you enjoy even though geography may separate you.
those of you that know me would never say that i have a marshmallow center. more likely its a nice chewy caramel center; not completely hard, but certainly not soft. but this un-friending hurt. now i’m re-playing every conversation, every event and trying to figure out what i did wrong. what do you think? have you been un-friended? did it bother you and did you do anything about it?
almost famous
so one of my twitter friends mentioned me on CNN tonight! @QueenofSpain is her twitter name; you can find her blog here http://queenofspainblog.com/ . i follow her on twitter because she is insightful, progressive and even if she’s into hockey [whatever] she shares my point of view as a mom, working and raising kids in this crazy world.
since i don’t have tv; i had to watch it online…thanks Queen for sending out the youtube link…the segment was about video game violence and the supreme court. now, in my state [iowa] most of those games can’t be sold to people under the age of eighteen. i tweeted to Queen earlier in the day that we allowed our 9-year-old to play Modern Warfare, but limit the amount of time he can play. we also have at length discussions about the difference between real life and video games and/or movies.
anyway…i think its cool that @QueenofSpain mentioned me on CNN!!!
definitions
pod people. what comes to mind? for me its shallow, non-thinking, follow-the-crowd people. my adventure thus far in cubbie-land is leading me to believe that pod people work almost exclusively for ultra large corporations. this is not to say that EVERYONE that works for said ultra large corporation is a pod person. but, it is my observation that a great many pod people are very gainfully employed by ULC [ultra large corporation].
over the last two months i’ve gotten to observe why the ULC has multiple layers of managers and managers. not only is it job security for a great many people; but if you are only working at a 75% capacity then it appears that there is just too much work for one person to do, thereby creating another job for someone else. so far i have not seen any single employee’s productivity questioned. how is it that one person [a temp] can learn a job and execute the job in half the time of a long time employee? trust me, i ask myself that question almost every day.
now, admittedly, i am an overachiever; but even at my 80% effort i am easily able to keep up with the work load. i guess it comes down to how i want to spend my day. under-achieving? i’m starting to think of it as conserving my brain power for bigger and better things [not related to helping the ULC make more money].
what do you think? is it ok to give the ULC only 80% of my brain power? will that make me pod-person?
its been a while
human motivation. what a tricky thing. it can’t be bought. it can’t be stolen. you either have it or you don’t. lately my motivation has been elusive. after starting back to work full-time i’m finding it hard to balance my time. my foray into ‘cubie-land’ has been interesting and not without rewards. interesting in the sense that i haven’t really worked for someone else [let alone a huge corporation] in a very long time; rewarding in the fact that each week i get a paycheck [also haven’t had that for a long time].
Over the past year or so i’ve worked up to five different ‘jobs’ at the same time in order to bring in some sort of revenue. after starting in cubie-land i decided that i could safely let one of those jobs go. so i gave up my retail gig. as much as i loved it [most of the time] it was the job that paid the least amount and required working weekends.
this has been my first weekend off and its been a different kind of challenge. deciding what projects i ‘want’ to do as opposed to what projects i ‘have’ to do. i’ve also been able to devote some needed time to job #2. i like having stimulating projects to kep me busy and when you find one you enjoy and they pay you…even better. i just wish that job #2 could afford to pay me full-time. so for now; cubie-land is my full-time, temporary, long-term job and job #2 is my part-time, permanent job.
so even though its been a while since i posted; my brain is full to brimming with thoughts and ideas. i will endeavour to be more consistent with my posts! if you have thoughts on what keeps you motivated, i’d love to hear it!
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