Blogmas Vol. 15

Tales From The Annual Sick Ward

Apparently it's that time of year my friends. Wherein we start stocking up on the cough drops and tissues and cough syrup. And we look like we've been hit by a mac truck and we just.can't.stop.coughing. The best is that my cough drops have fun "encouraging" slogans on them like "Be resilient" and "Dust off and get up." Guess what cough drop maker - you can take your slogans and shove em you know where!

And thus begins the annual whining about being sick as well :(

What is the deal with this wintertime plague that always seems to come around? The end of the year exhaustion? The exposure to many other sick people (hazard of the job)? And let me tell you what I know it isn't being helped by the fact that I am now exposed to a myriad of daycare germs. Baby snot is NO joke! And those kids love to share their snot with one another - like take it out of their nose and stick it in another kids face! (Luckily our daycare has a no touching each others faces/heads rule - which at first seemed silly and now seems GENIUS. This is where you trust the woman who has been doing this for 27years!)

The cruddy thing is I have a lot of things I'd rather be doing like say...addressing my holiday cards or making cookies!  But instead I'm munching on cough drops and post-nasal drip and laying on the couch hacking up my insides.

But at the end of the day I know I need to shut it. Because this sickness will pass. One day soon, I won't be coughing all the time and I won't be snotty and glossy and drained. And I'm very well aware that there are many many people out there who WISH they just had a little cold. So I'll take this obnoxious virus and I'll be grateful for it. 

But I'm definitely going to look like crap doing it...

 Merry Blogmas!

Treading water - in white water rapids

You guys.

It's been one hell of a ride lately around here my friends.

Let me just start out by saying - no babies.  No babies no babies no babies.  Now that we've gotten that out of the way, we can move onto this little piece of news...

We bought a house!

I'm not going to lie to you, purchasing a house prior to the age of 30 is making me feel pretty damn powerful these days.  A good thing too because let me tell you what, to buy a house (in California none the less) is no small feat.  

It takes several things:

1) Wine (if you're me, like 9 bottles or so...)

2) Patience (oh yes, clearly my forte)

3) Ability to not become emotionally attached (again with my forte)

4) A patient and loving spouse (thankfully I won the lottery on this one!)

5) All your money, and then some you don't have as well (oh sweet lord help me)

6) Kleenex (get the costco pack, you're going to need it)

7) A zenlike demeanor (BWAHAHAHA)

Luckily we worked with amazing people (if you live in norcal and need a recommendation let me know!)  Otherwise the process would have been terrifying beyond belief.  Instead it was only marginally terrifying (since handing over so much money in one big cashiers check is pretttyyy terrifying in any situation)  

Buying a house is also a good way to test your marriage.  You survive buying a house and you're probably doing pretty well.  Because let me tell you what, "we're buying and moving into a new house sarah" - she's a BIOTCH for lack of a better word.  She's snappy, cranky, sleep deprived and her control freaky-ness is off the charts (like in the stratosphere!)  But seriously people, it shouldn't be that bad should it?  Shouldn't buying a house be shiny and happy and full of gauzy smiley pictures.  Yeah.  My experience was not that way.  Most of the time I was freaking out - in a good way generally- but freaking out none-the-less.  It was happy, but it was no sparkles and rainbows - it was work!

We were "moved in" less than a week and we had our first house guests this past weekend. Luckily it was just my family because it looked like a natural disaster went off in the garage (and the master bedroom...the kitchen's wasn't great either)  But alas, everybody had a place to sleep and there is more than one bathroom - so it was pretty much shangr la!

To add insult to injury I spent the 5 days prior to the big move on Jury Duty!  w00t!  And while the process was fascinating, the timing literally couldn't have been worse - work is super busy, life is super busy. I suppose there really is no GOOD time for jury duty but still, come on universe, throw a sister a bone.

I have to say though, waking up in the morning thinking - this is our house - is a pretty amazing feeling.  Even if there is still much work to be done, and an old crappy apartment to clean etc etc

And maybe one of these days we'll get to turn one of these rooms into a nursery...but that's another story, for a less sleep deprived day.

Hope you all are well, I miss you blog people!

Besos,

Sarah 

P to the S: we have no internet yet in the new place (yes I know, blasphemy!) so no pictures for a little while...

How To Make Yourself Desperate For Babies

Some easy steps to get yourself to a threat level red on the "I need babies" meter:

1) think about babies all the time

2) track cycles and medications and doctors appointments on not 1 but 2 calendars (maybe even 3 or 4 if you really want to take it up a notch)

3) hang around with people who have babies or who are actively trying to have babies

4) make sure ALL of your friends and coworkers are pregnant at the same time

5) make sure you are definitely not pregnant

6) look at how much you've already spent trying to prep yourself to be pregnant

7) still don't get pregnant

8) make sure some more of your friends get pregnant

9) feel sorry for yourself

10) try to pretend your dog is a baby.  feel bad when she won't stay swaddled to save your life.

I jest, but I am feeling pretty sad about not having any babies right now.  I'm trying to focus on how great my life is (it really is great, I'm LOVING my new job and SP is feeling pretty great about the company she joined as well, we've taken some cool trips, life is good) but it's hard not to let that lonely part of my heart wander to the baby-less hole that is taking up so much space inside me.  I know, I know, just wait until I have a newborn and I haven't slept in 8 weeks I will look back on this "free" time and be grateful that I had it.  But right now, when there is no hindsight, its feeling pretty lonely in my baby parts.

And I know this sounds pretty self pitying and like i'm hating on my friends who are pregnant but only the first part is true (I'm throwing myself a pretty great pity party at the moment)  I'm LOVING my friends who are pregnant right now.  Of course I'm sad its not me yet, but I'm glad there are all these little loves waiting to come into the world.  Hopefully they will love their Aunty Sarah just as much as I plan to love them!

So here's to all you baby-less people out there.  And here's to hoping our little ones in heaven find their way down here soon...  If they don't, my dog is in really big trouble ;)

Dear Mr. Sandman...Seriously?!

A terrifying yet accurate portrayal of how I feel right now

I've never really been a great sleeper, its true.  Even when I was younger I was always an early riser.  The sleep overs of my teen years found my friends sleeping until noon and me in the other room reading an entire book.  Or me and my one other early riser friend making ourselves breakfast, reading an entire book, taking a walk, doing a little dance, and our other friends still not being awake.

It got a little better towards the end of high school.  My terrifying nightmares stopped (thanks crazy brain) and I was exercising a freakish amount (thanks water polo) and doing so many extracurriculars that I was so insanely physically exhausted I could always sleep.  I even took naps after school.  Oh Naps.  I wish I had that capability these days.

In college I learned to sleep like the dead.  I spent a good 6 years of my life living in residence halls and let me tell you what - when you live with anywhere from 150 - 500 18year olds who have just recently discovered their new found "freedom" you learn how to sleep.  Like sleep through a tsunami/hurricane simultaneous earthquake sleep.  

But my old age is setting in apparently.  And ever since moving out of the residence halls and learning to love the life outside (I LOVE IT!) and enjoying peace and quiet and a relatively normal schedule - I can't sleep.  A full, good night's sleep is really a rare commodity these days.  Yeah I probably get 5 hours of unadulterated sleep on a regular basis (which I know is really good for some people)  But 7 or 8 hours?  Of really deep good I feel rested in the morning sleep...almost never.  And on some nights, like this current one per say, I get about 0 hours of sleep.  Like I've been looking at the clock since 1:45am.  No joke.  And as I write this it is 4am.  And there has been no sleeping.  NO SLEEPING.

I don't know what to do.  Because I am tired.  Oh trust.  I'm tired.  And I exercise.  And I don't drink caffeine at night (and really rarely in general these days), and I try not to get to hyped up before bed, or read in bed or do anything you're not supposed to do to mess up your sleep cycle...and yet, I'm awake.  Again.

So, anybody got any suggestions.  I'm pretty game for anything these days short of needles in my eyeballs (wait...I might even try that)  Animal, vegetable, mineral.  I'm in.  Give me the goods people or find me a Sandman stat!

Yawn.

A Few Tips From A Worn Out Program Administrator

Dear people of the world who may or may not be applying to various programs or universities etc.  As someone deep in the trenches of admissions let me tell you a few things that will make everybody's lives better...

1) Never staple your checks.  Why would you do that?  Why would you put a staple in something that is essentially legal tender?  Would you staple a $50.00 bill?  No.  Don't staple a check.  Do you know how many machines that thing has to go through?!  Those little staples F those machines up.  Don't do it.

2) Don't staple anything.  See #1.  Most likely in this digital age if you are sending something in paper it has to be fed through a machine.  And your tiny staple is going to F my machine up real bad.  And then I don't like you.  This is why they make paperclips.  Great invention.  Try it.

3) Your issue or concern is not the only one I'm dealing with in the current moment.  In fact it is likely one of 5million issues I'm dealing with.  Please don't assume that your problem is the most important.  I'm not going to drop everything and make sure your issue is resolved.  I am going to do a good job and make sure that your issue is taken care of in a timely manner.  Don't hound me.  If you do you're going on the bottom of the pile.  

4) Don't assume you know how the process works.  You don't.  Even if you have someone on the inside who is telling you all the secrets.  At the end of the day they really don't know all the secrets.  Only I know all the secrets.  And I'm not telling.  Mostly because there aren't any secrets.

5) Just do what the instructions say.  Nothing less nothing more.  

6) In order to do #5 you must in fact read the directions.  After you read them.  You should probably read them again.  Maybe a 3rd time if you're a person who needs repetition to process.

7) If it's on the website I'm not going to answer your call.  If you can't use the resources that you have you can't make it in my program.  End of story.  Getting through the application process is part of the weeding process.  I'm sorry but it's true.  If you aren't smart enough or resourceful enough to submit a complete application (which means doing #5 and #6) you don't deserve a spot in my program.

8) Be nice.  Your chances of getting actual help go up exponentially if you are kind to me.  If you call me and demand things you will get the absolute bare minimum.  If you call and you are nice to me I might help you with #6.

9) If you're applying to a competitive program or school or whatever you're probably the absolute cream of the crop where you are now.  Guess what?  So is everybody else who is applying.  Recognize that you may not get in.  That doesn't mean you weren't qualified.  It doesn't mean that you weren't a good candidate.  It doesn't mean you won't get accepted in the future.  It means that most schools/programs have more qualified applicants than they have spots.  Them's the breaks.

10) Never. Ever. Blame. Me. For anything.  For not gettting back to you at the last minute.  For not walking you through every step of the application.  For not coming to your house to fill out your application for you.  For you not gettin in.  Let me tell you what, you start blaming me, your phone calls are mysteriously going to stop being answered and your application is going to be so far down on the pile it may never be found again.  Just sayin ;)

Apply on my friends.  Apply on...

What I liked about Today…the Yesterday Version

Yesterday I had a little breakdown.  My workdays have been out of control lately.  It’s to be expected around this time of year.  My job is very flexible 6 months out of the year and then 6 months out of the year it’s incredibly intense and all consuming.  Which has its benefits…and its downfalls.

I woke up grumpy yesterday.

And I hate that.  When it feels like the destiny for my day is already set.  So I grumped around until SP couldn’t take it anymore and made me talk to her and cry about how I have no life and I don’t do anything and  nothing is turning out the way I though it would and and and (everything is very dramatic once you start to spiral into grumpville…have you ever noticed that?  how its all ALWAYS and NOTHING and EVERYTHING and ALL THE TIME)

And then I felt better. 

Isn’t it crazy how just letting it all out and aired somehow in and of itself makes it better.  SP did tell me that I need to stop bringing my work home every night (she and I both know that some nights I have to but every  night and every day is really excessive)

So yesterday I didn’t bring my work home.

SP has been helping me so I don't go totally CRAZY

 

And I loved on my SP and my puppy.  Because the furry puppy she is always innocent and happy and just wants to love.  And my SP…she’s just the best thing there is.  A smile and a hug and a reassurance that everything will be ok.  And it is.  I’m so lucky.

And then she took me to Chipotle and the drive-in.

Wednesday is not a popular drive-in night...

 And that was the best remedy for a grumpy day ever!