Friday

Yeah....it's Friday! Weather isn't too shabby either, a little cool but I'll take this over snow and frigid temperatures any day of the week.

The only bad thing about today is the fricking pollen. I have got the world's largest elephant sitting smack dab in the middle of my face, at least it feels like it. As if I don't already take enough allergy medication, at lunch I had to make a trip to Wal-Mart to get something for this headache. What a nightmare! This new meth law in Illinois makes you feel like a criminal for wanting some relief from what ails you. In order to get a 10 pill package of Aleve Sinus & Headache I had to find the card for it on the shelf where it used to be. Then I have to stand in line with all the other pleasant people that dread the Wal-Mart pharmacy to hand the card to the lady behind the register. She needs my drivers license, which she enters something off of into the computer and waits to see if it's going to let me have my Aleve. Ding Ding, my lucky day - the computer determined I'm not running a meth lab. What a joke. As if any of this is going to prevent a true meth lab operator from cruising around town and getting their 2 packages at every pharmacy, grocery store or convenience store in town.

The other good thing about today is that I get to take off work an hour early today. I'm not telling my family though, this gives me an hour of time to myself to run all the errands I usually try, unsuccessfully, to get done at lunch. The other lawyer in the office (my lawyer is gone for the afternoon in court in another county) is letting us leave but get paid since it's secretary's week. Hooray! Not that it makes me feel any more appreciated, it's just an hour.

Guess what? I'm finally in the 21st century with my cell phone. My birthday was Monday and I decided to buy myself voice mail on my cell. It's like $5 a month. I'm so excited. My husband thinks it's a waste of money for me since I only talk on my phone for about 30 minutes each month. Pretty much the only people that call me are my family, my boss and an ex-boyfriend that resurfaced after nearly 10 years. I'll get into that one on another post - it's complicated.

So - HAPPY FRIDAY!!!!

Not that you've noticed.....

I've been pretty bad about posting this week. I'm sure you've noticed - NOT! I'm just so swamped with work that I honestly don't even have the time to pee somedays.

Oh yeah, Happy Fricking Administrative Professionals Week/Day (yesterday). Big whop-a-dee-do. Just another crappy day of work with no appreciation for what you do. It's pretty sad that somebody out there thought it was necessary to make all of us that fit in to that "category" realize how under appreciated and paid we are. For that, thank you who ever you are, and if you're dead (which I'm sure you are) I hope you are appointed the secretary to some worthless boss of some sort in whatever universe you're in for the rest of eternity.

Anyway. Hubby got off 12 hour days today so maybe, just maybe, he'll be bearable tonight at home. Jury's still out on that one though. He's an absolute dick when he has to work overtime. Should be against the law!

Happy Birthday to me

Yep, the big day has arrived. Big deal.

Got flowers from my boss. Would have rather had the money the flowers cost but oh well, at least it's a gift.

Tonight boss is taking me out to dinner. Not on his own accord, it's a legal secretary meeting that happens to be bosses night. I'll make sure I drink up a huge bill tonight on him. Then we'll see who gets the last laugh!

Scratch that

So, after my post yesterday I started surfing the net for information about colleges offering online degrees in Liberal Arts. I was mostly wasting time, but I think for the most part I wanted to prove to myself that such a thing didn't exist. Boy was I ever wrong! The good news is, I've requested some information from a (not-so) local college that has just what I'm looking for. In no time at all I could have my long sought after bachelor's degree from the University of Illinois at Springfield. Cool! Maybe all hope is not yet lost...I'll keep you posted.

My daughter has a knot on her leg the size of a baseball today. It's grown at a rather large speed; Tuesday it was the size of a quarter, Wednesday it was the size of a silver dollar. I did call the doctor's office yesterday (see, now I sound like my husband - calling in and not actually going in. It's different though, really) to see if this was "normal" after getting the required school shots. Unfortunately it's very normal, and although it may bother me it's not bothering my kid at all. She's got this huge red mark that's raised and the size of a baseball and she says it doesn't hurt at all. OK, whatever, I'm still keeping my eye on it. I don't remember her having this kind of reaction to shots when she was a baby and this is just a follow-up of shots she's already had.

Tomorrow we have to go to the school where she'll go for kindergarten in the fall for an orientation. Fun. It's right in the middle of the fricking day. Don't these people realize that probably 98% of these kids parents work for a living? I'd love to be independently wealthy and not HAVE to work, but I'm not and I do. So now I have to take personal time off. I'm already out of vacation time until the 1st of July, used all of last years saved vacation days to go to Arizona in March. This sucks. The worst part is that I'll take her to the sitter in the morning, which is about 10 miles from town, I'll have to leave an extra 20-30 minutes before we even have to be at the thing just to go and get her and get back into town. That's the part that I'm going to miss the least about her going to school. No more driving for 10 minutes to get to the sitter, we'll just have to drive across town to go to school.

Now, for anyone reading my babbling that lives in a big metropolitan area, you're probably thinking, why is this chick ranting about having to drive 10 minutes to get her kid to a sitter. Because, I live in a town of 7,200 in the middle of Corn/Bean Field USA and I drive my kid to a smaller town (500) to go to the sitters. I drive right past the county day care to do it too. I know, doesn't make sense. Financially, it's a smarter move to drive her to the sitter 10 miles away than to go to the county day care. Whatever works, right? She loves her sitter and her sitter loves her - and that to me is worth the hassle.

So, anyway - better get back to work. Countdown for today is 5. I don't know why I care, I already got my iPod a month ago that's my present from husband, daughter and all the animals.

The countdown is on

6 days and counting.

Monday is my birthday. Big deal. The older I get, the less amused I become with my birthday. Don't get me wrong - I'm not that old, I'll be 34. It's just that with each year that passes more and more things that I wanted to do or have done aren't. Then, as the list of things I wish I'd done continues not to be done I give up on them ever being done.

Here's a perfect example: I wanted to have 2 kids by the time I was 30 so I could be "done" having kids. I had my first, and likely only, child 4 months before I turned 29. I've mentioned to my husband several times over the course of the last 5 years since our daughter was born that I'd like to have one more. You know how it goes, we don't have a big enough house (we don't) we don't have enough money, we're done with diapers - why start that all over again.......on and on and on. I've always said, if you wait for the perfect time to do things, like when you have saved enough money, bought a big enough house, etc, the time never comes. So, here I am - 33 years and 359 days old with one kid, giving up on my wish to have another.

I wanted to have my bachelor's degree by the time I was 30. I know, a shocker, don't have it and I've pretty much given up all hope on that one too. I need to find an online college that will take all my credits in miscellaneous areas and give me a liberal arts degree. It would also be a bonus if they gave you "life" credits, you know - where they take all the jobs you've worked in your lifetime and do some strange mathematical equation and come up with credit hours toward a degree. Good luck finding that. I'm just too old to go back to college, and besides that I can't afford not to keep my full time job. Yep, another one to cross off the list.

One that I might actually be able to keep on the list and cross off as accomplished is that I'd like to get another tattoo. I have one I got in 1996 and ever since then I've been trying to find something else I'd like to get placed permanently on my body. I have this idea with my daughters name and birthdate or her little foot prints from when she was born. I don't know. Someday I'll figure out what it is I want and I'll just go do it. That's what happened with the first one.

So, as I get ready to cross another year off the calendar of my life....I've decided not to make any more lists of things I'd like to do. It's too depressing when I think back and realize that none of it has been done and by the time I get to the point where I want to do something about it - it'll be too late.

Random Babbling

I am so glad that the whole Easter buy all the candy in the world thing is over. I swear, my daughter has half the candy known to man. It seems that no matter how many times you tell your friends and family that candy isn't what you'd like your kid to have - you get candy. Oh well, she did get some good stuff that Mommy and Daddy are pretty fond of. (There goes my diet, again)

This weather has been incredible. Finally! I don't know what I ever did to anybody to deserve living in such a miserable climate. I don't remember hating Illinois this much as a kid, but the older I get the less I want to tolerate snow and the freezing cold temperatures that go along with it. I almost, almost, had my husband convinced that we needed to move to Arizona a few years back. Then all his friends that lived there started moving back here to raise their families. It's pretty hard to convince him now that this is not the best place in the world to raise our family, especially when so many of them left the opportunities they had in Big City Arizona to come back to Small Town Illinois.

Today is kindergarten physical day for my daughter. For weeks she has been bawling about the shots she's going to have to get and how she doesn't want them. We've tried rationalizing with her, which is what we've always done, it isn't working. I even told her that I got the shots when I was little even though I was scared and that I lived through it. She doesn't care. She doesn't want anything to do with school if it means she's got to get a needle crammed in her body. I don't blame her really, I hate shots with every ounce of my being. Come to think about it, I don't know anybody that enjoys getting a shot.

All of our friends and family are rushing to get their taxes post marked by the end of the day. No one can believe how calm we are about it. Well, ours are done, have been done for a good 2 months now, refund was received the end of February. What's to stress out about? My money's already in the bank (or spent). Last year I discovered these great things called Turbo Tax and e-filing. Gotta love it.

It's going to start getting harder and harder to concentrate on work as the weather gets nicer. At least I have access to fresh air while sitting at my desk. We have a screen door on the front door of our office and it's about 15 feet away from my desk, now if the traffic on Main street wasn't so damn loud!

I want to play hookey

Today is such an awesome day! The sun is shining, there's a slight breeze, and it's about 80 degrees. Hey, spring in Illinois, if you've been here you know these days are few.

I had to drag myself back into the office after lunch. There really should be a rule about nice days like these and not having to work. Hell, if I lived in Florida or California I'd look at things a little different, but I live in Illinois.

I don't have to work tomorrow, nice little 4 day weekend. Hopefully the weather will stick around and I can enjoy some of this from outside the screen door instead of behind it sitting at my desk at work like I am right now.

It's scary, really

Wow. I just had to do a search on the web for some information for work. I've been doing research on DCFS (Department of Children and Family Services).

On the Illinois DCFS website you can access a list of how many reports were made in the year 2005 by zip code. Out of curiosity I checked it out. There isn't a single zip code in the state of Illinois that hasn't had at least 1 report. That's phenomenal. I mean, around me there are literally towns that are so small they shouldn't even have a zip code. My city alone, 140 reports.

This information is scary. I know, for a fact, that some of the reports are trumped up bogus crap. I work for a lawyer, we deal with this stuff on a regular basis. Messy divorce, custody fight, unmarried couples that split. Happens all the time. Still, it's scary.

Ahhh the weekend

What a weekend.

Friday night hubby decided he'd like to have the recliner from the tv room in the living room. Isn't it funny how moving one piece of furniture turns into a project that takes the entire weekend and ends up costing about $500? Ended up with a new computer armoire, bookcase, computer chair, curtains... It does look nice and makes more sense this way, just wish it hadn't consumed my entire weekend.

Saturday was the first soccer game of the season. It was so cold I was questioning why I signed my kid up in the first place. Ever try to watch 4 and 5 year olds "play" soccer? It's nuts. Even if they do well in practice it's totally different when you get another team and the sidelines crammed with screaming parents. I don't scream at my daughter - I think it's a waste. If anything, at this age, it scares them. It doesn't make them go after the ball, kick it harder, or anything else. 9 times out of 10, when a parent yells something at their kid, the kids stops what it was they were doing to look at mom on the sidelines yelling at them. At least wait for that until they aren't in the swarm mode of soccer at this age. If she wants to play again in the fall league I'll sign her up, but I'm not going to push it.

That was the extent of my weekend. Why is it that the work week goes soooo slooooow and the weekend gets crammed so full of stuff you wish you were at work so you could relax?

The Marvels of Modern Medicine

Sometimes prescription drugs can be the best thing in the world. Hubby came home from the doc with more pills to take - these, somehow, did the trick. He's somewhat back to normal now, bearable at least.

UGGGGH!

Well I just got back to work after spending my lunch hour at home with Mr. Personality.

You know, I was trying to be helpful. I was eating my lunch and he mentioned he was hungry, so I offered to make him some soup. Instead of saying no thanks he goes into this whole screaming at the top of his lungs using every curse word known to man routine. What's the point of that? So now his throat hurts worse, because he just screamed at me, AND he's pissed me off. Good luck getting me to offer help to you again asshole.

You know, I went through 18 hours of labor with his child to end up getting the slice and dice number and not once did I scream obscenities at him. I could have, I probably should have, but I didn't.

I don't know, maybe it's some macho man rule. I guess that if, for some chance, you admit that you're sick and actually seek the help of a trained professional you're required to be a complete and total ass to the people around you.

And he says I'm moody. News flash - it's because I live with him!

Unbelievable

Un-fricking-believable. Hubby's going to the Doctor today.

He must be on his death bed.

The Punies

I don't know why, but when I was a kid and stayed home sick my dad would come home from work and question me about my (in his eyes) supposed sickness. I didn't miss a lot of school as a kid, I was hardly ever sick, so I have no idea what his interrogation tactic was all about.

Anyway, when he would determine that I was indeed sick he'd refer to me as having "The Punies". I have no idea what that means.

Right now my entire house has "The Punies"...all except me and the animals that is. In the past two weeks my husband has had poison Ivy, which has finally passed, and now has a major league sore throat. He finally broke down and called the Doctor's office for some drugs. Typical man, calls the office to get meds but won't step foot in the office, then complains to me when the meds he got (and didn't see the doctor to get) don't work. That's an argument I'll never win.

My daughter is now complaining of a sore throat this morning. Great. She's also getting her permanent molars in right now, so she's a real barrel of fun. I think the sore throat is a monkey see monkey do thing with her. You know, Dad's sick and gets to lay around and have mom wait on him hand and foot, maybe I could do the same. Nobody ever waits on me when I'm sick. Oh well, part of being a Mom I suppose.

I think I'll get out the Lysol and spray so much I have a haze in the house.

It's all about me

Me and the husband have been married for almost 8 years and we have a 5 1/2 year old daughter. It's the typical American Dream story except that we only have one child instead of 2.2 or whatever the "National Average" is. One is enough for me thank you very much. My other children have four legs and tend not to talk back to me. Besides, I think I can count my husband as the other 1.2 children I'm supposed to have.

Both of us come from divorced families, both of our mother's were very young when they had us, we're both the second of two children. That's about where our similarities end.

You see, I admit that I'm not perfect and that my family is messed up.

The Beginning

So...here it is, my very own blog. I guess I can finally have a space for all the ramblings in my head. Think it'll make more room in there for more useless information? Doubtful, but it's worth a try. Maybe this way I won't be awake at all hours of the night trying to sort through all the dysfunction that is my life. We'll see.