Juggling Life

Self, I hardly know ye . . .

I got gas this morning at 7:10 a.m. at a Costco almost 30 miles from my home. It has become preferable to leave early to fill-up rather than go after work.

Whoulda thunk it?

I have almost an entire lifetime of being a night owl behind me. I say almost, because, let's be honest, after 45 I became more of a "middle-of-the-day" gal.

But a morning person?

I never thought I'd see the day.

And yet . . .

the signs are there . . . .

The waking up naturally BEFORE the alarm goes off at 5:45 a.m.

The thinking that getting out of bed at 7:30 on a Saturday morning qualifies as sleeping in.

The acceptance of a 10 p.m. (or sometimes earlier) bedtime.

That said, if I blog about exercising before work, you will know not to worry about it being warm in hell!

 

Shattered Solitude

Social Butterfly and I were sitting next to this lovely scene enjoying a picnic lunch when Mr. Fix-it called. He'd been on a bike ride near the Great Salt Lake and biffed it big-time. It was a five stitches, major road rash, Vicodin prescription-caliber spill.

Of course we didn't know when he first called the extent of his injuries and his desire to rest in his car for a while (after riding his bike eight miles into a headwind to get to the car after his fall) before going to the hospital was troubling. Take a nap? Are you kidding me?!

I hate feeling helpless. I am a very competent person and it just kills me to not be able to figure out a solution or formulate a plan; to be helpless.

It all turned out fine, but that was just luck. It's all just luck.

I really prefer to have the illusion that I can control things, events, people. This was a reminder I really can't, that none of us can.

 

Nuthin' but Blue Skies

When the sky outside looks like this . . .

it would be a travesty to spend it inside.

Mr. Fix-it, MVP, Social Butterfly, Beaux and I set off to explore a hike I've long wanted to do, but somehow never have.

 
How can a path like this not beckon one?

This is where the trail ended . . . the last part of the trail was a 450 foot elevation gain which doesn't sound like much, but it sure felt like much.

 
Some of the things we saw along the way . . .

I had a lot of fun with these peeps . . .

All in all, a lovely spring day.

Party Like It's 1899

Wednesday was my birthday. 48. Which I'm pretty sure means I can no longer say I'm in my mid-forties; I've crossed over to my late-forties. C'est la vie. I am one of those people who never complains about my age because I've known far too many people who never made it this far. Moaning and groaning about my wrinkles and gray hair would feel disrespectful toward them to me. So . . . Yay! 48!

I had a very low-key birthday, but it felt just the right speed for this year and was filled with moments of sweetness.

Like the pineapple-upside down cake one of my students made for us to share in class.

Like the coolest triple-blader herb scissors Grownup Girl sent me.

Like all the texts and Facebook birthday wishes from friends and family.

Like when OMomK asked how I was celebrating and when I said "With Family Dialectical Behavioral Therapy," she said, "You sure do know how to party!"

Like when I suggested take-out sushi for dinner and Mr. Fix-it said, "I don't really feel like sushi" and Social Butterfly and I exchanged baffled looks and he responded, "Oh! Your birthday! Right! I forgot for a moment. Sushi! Of course! Let me go get it!"

We will have our official birthday celebration on Saturday because MVP will be here for the weekend (backstory in tomorrow's post).

I DID learn a valuable lesson on my 48th birthday. Even if you only consume the caffeine in one Diet Coke each day--say an ice cold one from the vending machine at work that you drink during lunch while you work at your desk--if you forget that Diet Coke because you're busy giving 110%, you WILL realize (at 5 p.m., waaaaay too late to have caffeine) that lack of said Diet Coke is likely the reason you're plodding through your afternoon, yawning to stay awake, with a mild headache. And you might just have to go to bed at 9 p.m. on your birthday.

 

 

 

Working Girl Shoes

 

One cannot expect a woman that works five days a week to do so with the same number of shoes that would be required when working four days a week. Am I right? I wore my latest acquisition on Tuesday with a brown pencil skirt and a lime-green sweater. I felt both professional and tres chic.

Also? It is really hard to get a decent picture of a shoe without your feet and ankle looking hideous. Seriously, it took almost my whole lunch hour!

Taking the Opportunity

Today I was asked to cover an afternoon class at the last minute. My response? "You bet I will! This is NOT one of the days in which I have to leave early to go to the Eating Disorder Treatment Center, so of COURSE I will help you out. I'll say until midnight if that's what you need!"

Thankfully, they just needed me until 5:30. I offered to not take overtime and count it against the hours I will leave early tomorrow, but they insisted I take the OT.

110% people. I mean it.

In Other (Good) News . . .

Today (Thursday) was my first day of full-time work. I have added coordinating externships to my teaching load.Two part-time jobs are equalling one full-time job.

When I decided to stick my my current employer I had some reservations about certain things. My personal philosophy is that if you see something you don't like you need to try to change it; so that's what I set out to do.

Now that I've taken on this new role, I can make sure that my students not only get the education they paid for and deserve, but also the externship experience that will be the capstone of their program.

For a job I was only going to do for three weeks, and that had a rocky start, this has turned into something I just love. The first group of students that I have shepherded from day one are just getting ready to go on their externships. Not only do they have their state pharmacy technician licenses, they have already passed their (optional, but important for improved employability) national certification exam. A couple of the students that started the program with a different teacher, but finished with me, have jobs lined up at a really great company where I have some contacts.

I love the teaching I am doing, I adore the students and I'm very excited about growing the program and making it excellent from beginning to end.

I cannot say enough good things about the empathy and flexibility my supervisors have extended me during this time when my daughter's treatment requires me to leave early and work from home a couple of days a week. I would never give less than 100% to my job, but rest assured they will get 110% from me forever now; they are doing the right thing, but many employers don't do the right thing.

I am so lucky to have found work that I truly love.

Eating Disorder Chronicles: Telling It Like It Is

Our family has chosen to be very public about Social Butterfly's eating disorder, anorexia nervosa: restrictive type. It started with SB and Mr. Fix-it encouraging me to write about it on this blog; once it was on the blog, it didn't make any sense not to tell people in real life.

Our reasons for being open are two-fold. First, we would only try to hide something we were ashamed of and why would we be ashamed that our daughter has this disease? It's an illness, not a moral failing. Secondly, keeping secrets is hard work--and we've already got some very hard work on our plate, thank you very much. We need our energy to fight ED, not to keep secrets.

I realize our approach may not feel comfortable to everyone, but I would ask people to at least consider it. Quite simply, it is one less thing to worry about at a time when we could use one less thing to worry about.

Social Butterfly has spoken directly to a couple of people, but that SB's giving me and Peanut the go-ahead to tell people means that she doesn't have to tell everyone herself. What a relief that is for her. Because her friends know what's going on with her, and know they're supposed to know, they can support her with text messages and Tweets.

When I am with friends, I can be me and get the support and/or distraction that I need.

The biggest bonus to not keeping SB's eating disorder a secret is that we have already seen, through this blog and real life, we have helped others that are struggling and may not even have realized exactly exactly what their struggle was.

 

Unbloggable Exposed: The Wait-and-See

I had an interaction with a co-worker yesterday that seemed to go fine at the time, but boy-howdy did I read that wrong.

Part of the conversation was me trying to place a student for the co-worker. I started with "male." Nothing. I added "tall." Nothing. I added "thinning hair." Still nothing. I added "gay." Still nothing, so I figured it wasn't going to happen and we moved on to another topic.

It may be pertinent to this anecdote that this particular guy is openly-gay and we were talking about his desire to work at a pharmacy that specializes in H.I.V. meds; a perfect niche for him as he is also openly H.I.V. positive. Also? I adore him and I'm pretty sure he thinks I'm swell as well.

Later in the day I was the recipient of an email severely chastising me for speaking about a student in a disrespectful and derogatory fashion. I was very upset for a variety of reasons. One: that someone would think I was anti-gay. Two: the email went to several people. Three: that I was an idiot for having been so tone-deaf that I didn't realize that there are people that might consider the descriptor "gay" to be deragotory.

The outcome of this was that the co-worker and I discussed this incident with our supervisor and we both acknowledged our role in the brouhaha--me for not being more politically correct with someone I didn't know very well and who didn't know me, her for not stopping the conversation and expressing her concern.

It all ended on quite a high note and what had started out as a potentially bad day ended up as a great day.

It turns out PTA politics are not quite same as office politics. Live and learn!

 

 

Nesting

Mr. Fix-it flew in Friday and San Diego put on its best performance of an early spring day to greet him. The sky was bright blue and a warm breeze was blowing. I had on stylish earrings and smelled nice; it was a lovely homecoming.

Social Butterfly stayed home while I went to the airport so she could time her banana bread (his absolute favorite baked good) to come out of the oven right when he got home.

Saturday we made last-minute plans with our friends Jim and Sandra. Last-minute plans are pretty much the only kind that work with the four of us due to MFI's schedule and the fact that Jim is an airline pilot and is on call or gone on many weekends.

Because we've crossed over to the slightly older side of middle age, we saw a movie at 4:45 and then had dinner after the movie. The movie was "This Means War" and while it started slowly and was really predictable, I did laugh quite a bit--I'll take that. Dinner was sushi and it was fantastic food at a really reasonable price-especially considering the amount of Kirin on the tab. The evening was over at 9; 25 years ago that would have meant the evening was a bust, but now it means it was a wonderful time.

Sunday was laundry, yard work, baking, lesson prep and the gym; the three of us did various combinations of the aforementioned; I love that kind of day.

My life definitely has a rhythm that varies with whether or not my husband is home. I tend to go out a lot when he's not home and then I'm happy to settle in and be a homebody when he returns. He's starting to find more things to do on his weekend in Salt Lake City, which is great. It's still not the schedule we'd prefer, but I do think we make it work fairly well.

Most of you are off today for President's Day, so enjoy! I'll be working, but that's okay--I had Valentine's Day off while everyone else worked, so fair is fair.

How was your weekend? What are your plans for today?