Thursday, August 30, 2012

Take Me Away

I wish I got to go on more weekend getaways. Really just more vacations in general.  It sounds easy enough to pack a bag and drive to a new destination a couple hours away.  Not to mention we live within a couple hours of the beach and the mountains, so there's a decent amount of destinations in our radius.

But unfortunately it's not that simple or that cheap for us.  First we have to find someone to watch the dogs. My work schedule when I worked retail was all over the place so planning some time off is a process.  And there's the financial aspect of it. While the groupon getaways* themselves are fairly reasonable and we've had good luck with the two we've used, there are other costs that add up. The gas to get there, eating out, any activities we do, the dog sitter/boarding, all of that adds up. The wedding and honeymoon are over (and paid for), but we just put several hundred (several, several hundred) dollars into my car to fix it, and I need a crown (and not the pretty sparkly kind princesses wear either) in a month which, *cries*.  And extra income is being allocated into accounts for school,** paying off my credit card, and rebuilding dinocroc's braces fund*** (savings), not vacay.

We just took our honeymoon which was great and much needed. But there probably won't be many more instances like where we can both take time off like that.  Or really any time off for that matter.  Now with me being in school full time and working 3/4 time between 2 part-time jobs (and no benefits!), my schedule is packed.**** Hopefully by the time I receive my masters I'll have a full time job (with benefits), which would definitely alleviate a lot of the school/work balancing stress, but that's also around the time to start family planning (and balancing in a whole different sort of way).  And then there's the part that once we have kids, we'll need to find a baby/pet sitter,* or take a family vacation.  Which don't get me wrong, I'm really looking forward to those because they'll be fun and great in their own way. But they certainly aren't quite as romantic as couple vacation.

But oh well, that's life. It's not the end of the world that I don't get to go on vacation. I just wish I had a few more of them or weekend getaways under my belt. That's all.

*I had to unsubscribe from the groupon getaways since it was making me sad seeing all the possibilities and knowing they're a no go. Great for the honeymoon deal. Not so good for everyday.
**we're trying to do grad school on no or minuscule amount of loans. And while I hope to be in school for only 2 years so it's not a huge strain financially, but it's a stressful way to go through school feeling like you're just an expense.
***fingers crossed they get my eyesight and my teeth since I didn't need braces.  And yeah my eyesight isn't great but Mike's is worse, so mine is definitely the lesser of two evils.
****I'm not in the plan my days in half hour increments mode yet, but it's around the corner.
* We're always going to have to find some sort of pet sitter anyway though since we definitely plan on having a family dog. But it still won't be a puppy.

Wednesday, August 29, 2012

Diet

So the dogs are on a diet. Yep, you read that right. The dogs. Mike thought Jules was looking a little bigger so we weighed both girls the other night. They've both put on 5 lbs. (If we're being honest so I have I, but I'm happily married so I can let everything go now)  For Bailey 5 lbs isn't as huge a weight gain as it for Jules proportionally, but for Jules 5 lbs is 25% of her body weight. Eep!

It's not too hard to figure out how this happened. They get a lot of treats and not so much exercise. Treats to go in their crates. Treats to come inside. Treats to go outside. Treats to distract them from barking at the neighbors (which, for the record, does not work). Peanut butter in the morning to take an allergy pill. And momma is really bad about "dropping" cheese every time I cook with it. (and I wonder why they stay around my feet when I cook).

As for the exercise... summer is hot as balls in North Carolina, so it's somewhat difficult to find a time when it's not too hot/dark to take a w-a-l-k to work off all those t-r-e-a-t-s. And playing with them is also difficult because they like to play differently, (one likes fetch, the other likes keep-away) but if they realize you are playing with the other one, they get jealous and want to play with you too. They both like tug of war, but that's even more difficult to navigate between those two than the fetch/keep-away juxtaposition. Not to mention they fight over toys. Real, scary, snarling, biting actual dog fights.

The good news is that we noticed the weight gain now before they got really obese. It's cooling off in the day time so an afternoon walk is a possibility. But if I have to get up earlier in the morning when the temperature is right and carry a flashlight with me to pick up after them to take them around the neighborhood I will.  And sadly no more treats for them, the dentastick being the exception because it takes care of their teeth (and their breath is disgusting) And they only get those after walk.

My poor tubby girls. Diets suck!*
Who you calling tubby momma? We just a little bigger boned!
*At least that's what I've heard. I've never been on an actual diet. **
** I know. I'll shut up now.

Tuesday, August 28, 2012

Easiest Job Search

So. I got an additional library job. No biggie.
--snort-- I'm totally kidding y'all this is a huge 'effing deal for me!

The librarian at my husband's branch heard that the circulation manager at UNCC needed some part time non (UNCC) student (I'm UNCG). She thought of me, I gave her my resume to forward along, and I just accepted the job a few hours ago! Easiest job search yet!
I immediately went down the chain of command squealing my news. First Mike, then my mom, my sister (via gchat) and then twitter. And then I emailed my new boss at the public library with my new availability. Fortunately, the academic library job has set hours, and my public library job will work with me.
THANK GOD.  I can do both! And go to grad school! And quit my retail job!

Things are starting to really, truly line up for me right now.  I'm in school to start my career, I have not one but 2 jobs in places I want to be.  I don't want to be boast too much because I don't want to jinx any of this. But I do feel like I can breath a little easier now!

Friday, August 24, 2012

The itsy bitsy spider

I'm not terrified of spiders.  Now by no means do I like them. But I can see one, not freak out too bad and kill it need be. I don't point and scream spider! and wait for my husband to run in and kill it with his shoe. BUT. I will say having a husband who will kill them for me is quite nice.  And there are always exceptions because turns out I am quite scared of the really big ones.

Like when we were on our honeymoon. Every now and again we had a few spiders in in our room which didn't surprise me that much since we were in the rainforest. Most were small and whoever saw it first took care of it. But one time I when I opened the drapes there was this huge spider that was hiding behind them. 

me: -pointing and screaming- Honey! Spider! Really big spider! Get it!
mike: It's ok, I got it. -He heroically smacks it a few times with his shoe for good measure-
me: Phew! Thank you.
mike: You're welcome.
me: You know, I'm normally not that scared of spiders. But that one was huge!
mike: It was pretty big.
me: Yeah, that was definitely a "boy killing" spider.        

Tuesday, August 21, 2012

Smack talk

My neighbor had some friends over the weekend and they all brought their dogs over as well. Which, whatever, we have dogs, the neighbor has dogs and there's a fence to give boundaries and keep everyone with 4 legs and a wagging tail safe. 

When we let the dogs out after they ate, both Bailey and Jules ran to the fence to investigate the new people and dogs.  And Bailey's way of greeting (both dogs and humans) is a "bark head off first think later" approach.  Which riles up her sister, and now we have two spazztastic dogs who can't be distracted and won't come back to the house when called, even with the lure of tasty treats.   And two spazztastic dogs in full spazztastic mode can be somewhat dangerous because it has lead to fights and someone inevitably ends up hurt. So Mike and I navigate the minefield known as the backyard to pull the girls back from the fence and into the house.
So here we are, trying to get our dogs back under our control and we toss a hello to the people in that I would stop and talk to you but you can clearly see that I've got something else going on and you understand why we're not stopping to shoot the breeze sort of way.  When one of the guys sees that Mike is wearing a Browns T-shirt (which is the status quo here since that's 80% of his t-shirt collection), his way of greeting us over the barking and spazzing is to announce that he was going to invite us over to have a beer until he saw the Browns shirt.

Which, really? It's not that I don't get sports rivalries and that I've never teased someone based on their sports affection (case in point, my husband is a Browns fan, teasing is nothing knew here). But really, that's the way you say hello to people you haven't actually even met, sports ball busting? We don't know you, and he's a guest at our neighbors home with no real invite rights to begin with in the first place.

And while I know really nothing to get my panties in a twist about, I still thought that this guy using a sports jab in place of a hello made him an asshole.

Monday, August 20, 2012

HOA

The other day we received a violation letter from our HOA notifying us that our portable basketball hoop was in the wrong position, ie: the hoop must be perpendicular to the driveway and not facing the street.

Two things:
One: you're going to threaten to fine us for the wrong position of the moveable hoop?  Is a 90 degree turn really that egregious to warrant a fine?
And two, the much more pressing matter in my opinion: is that we don't have a basketball hoop.

Yeah.

Needless to say, my husband was none too pleased. So he called the company, wrote a letter and they called back saying "our bad" and the violation was erased and never happened.  But maybe as a good bussiness practice they should double check the address before they start slapping fines on people. Just saying.

Friday, August 17, 2012

football wife

me: Hey, isn't he (the kicker) franchised?
mike: Yeah. He's been there since '99, when the team started.
me: Hey, aren't you proud of me for knowing that?
mike: Yes!

Mike couldn't have asked for a better football wife! 

Thursday, August 16, 2012

Woot!

I'm going to work for the library again! I'm going to work for the library again!! I'm going to work for the library again!
Squeeeeeee!
So, anyway, I had an interview last week and I felt really good about it.  Actually really would get a job out of this round of interviews feel good about it. If you were one of the lucky ones who would be offered a position, the library would give you a call. If not, you would get a letter from HR.

I got a call :)

After accepting I immediately started jumping up and down and squealing. (of course I did).  And I wanted to share the news with everyone. But! My husband wasn't home yet because he was still teaching. And I figured this was the kind of news he should hear from me first and not via social media. (Though I'm totally going to tell him I'm pregnant via twitter when the time comes) Calling his office wouldn't do me any good since he was in a classroom, not to mention he would then have to go back to his office and check his voicemail which would add more time, and he turns his phone on silent when he teaches so texting him the news wasn't going to expedite the mass amounts of squeeing either. 

HOWEVER! I could text him to tell him to call me asap since I had good news. Yes! Brilliant! This is exactly one of the reasons I work at a library, because I can come up with brilliant plans like this!  So after squirming with excitement for an agonizing 15 minutes, he called, I squealed my good news. Then I promptly told my sister via gchat and called my mom.  Then to the interwebs! 

I guess you can tell I'm happy huh?

Sunday, August 12, 2012

Email

Remember how I was a little scared of my uk email address?  I thought I was over that completely by graduating and giving uc the bird.
Yeah. I have the same anxiety for my grad school email address too.
Dammit.

It's not a crippling sense of fear and you'll find me curled up in the corner rocking myself whenever I have to check my school email.  But as someone who checks 4 different email accounts 4 times a day the point of having to remind myself to check my grad school email something into itself. And then I have to search for a little bit of courage and will myself to do so, and I can't log off soon enough.

UK was NOT uc.
UNCG is NOT uc either.

I will not be fighting tooth and nail to flounder in grad school.  I will not doubt or struggle on my career choice. And I will not fail here. 
And yet, the smallest whimper escapes me when I have to check an email account.  Dammit.

Tuesday, August 7, 2012

Slap on the Wrist

So because I have a specific career in mind for myself and it requires a specific post graduate degree, I'm going to graduate school. That's exciting for me.  But it means I have other things going on in my life and my availability for work changed.  Which wouldn't be a problem if i didn't have a small (and small I really mean tiny) supervisor position at my job.
I like my job, I like my coworkers, and I don't want to come across as complaining because I'm not. But I don't want to advance in the company, so I had to give up my supervisor position. And I completely understand the company's standpoint on this, because they want to promote from within, and there are people who are not me that do want to move up in the company.  And it's not like I'm giving up my job completely and while it's a small pay cut, I still have a position.
This isn't a huge reorganization or a company announcement and will barely be a blip on the radar for my coworkers, if it even blips (is that even a word?) in the first place.  But a tiny part of me kinda feels like I'm getting a slap on my wrist for pursuing something higher for myself.

Name Game

--scene: at my bridal shower--
priya: if sharktopus and dinocroc, and I should clarify I mean the creatures, not your future children, were to get in a fight, who do you think would win?
me: I'm glad you clarified the syfy creatures and not the kids, because that was totally going to be my next question. Ok, I think Sharktopus would win in a fight, because not only can it walk on land, hide in shallow water despite it being a ginormous creature, and swim in the deep sea, so it could drag Dinocroc back to the sea and take it out there.
priya: Who do you think mike said would win?
me: Sharktopus
priya: Yep. He said the tentacles give sharktopus a tactical advantage.
my (at the time future) mother in law: Wait, what are those names again?
me: Sharktopus and Dinocroc.
mil: And how did you come up with that?
me: It was actually Mike. When we were battling for the naming rights of Jeanne's son one of my suggestions was Sharktopus, and Mike loved that one so much that he said really hoped it wouldn't get picked* so that we could have it for ourselves. He was quite adamant in that.
mil: Oh dear.
me: Yep.

I don't know if she was afraid that her future grandkids would actually** be named that, or that she was happy that her son found someone just as dorky as him and indulges his sea creature obsession. Probably little from column a and a little from column b. 
*It didn't. Eventually Scipio Africanus won out. Or 'Skip,' for short. Like you do.
**We're completely serious about this. Don't be stealing our names now.