Friday, June 29, 2007

#4 Get out with Katie more

Some of the things I want to do are ongoing and must be reported on periodically. One of those things is wanting to get out with my 13-month-old daughter more often. Now that she is walking, she needs more stimulation and I need to get out of the house more. I've set a goal of getting out of the house with her at least 2 times per week when we weren't just doing an errand or going for exercise. I started a little late this week but despite several efforts, only managed to get out once this week. Today, Katie and I went to Playspace, a local children's museum, for an hour and a half. She had a great time and mommy came home exhausted! Next week, I'll try harder to get out twice.

Thursday, June 28, 2007

#1 Fix the mirror, #2 Get a massage, #3 Get a job

Okay, so when we turned my daughter's car seat around to face forward, I immediately started missing the mirror that I used to be able to check on her when she was facing backward. So, I went to Target and bought a mirror that hangs down from the rearview mirror so that you can keep an eye on children in the back seat. This is, after all, safer than turning around all the time to see what they are doing which is what I was trying to do without the mirror. It worked great...for a week. Then is started wiggling, then wobbling, then outright flopping around every time I accelerated or decelerated the car making the whole point of the mirror moot. Plus, it is supposed to flip up out of the way when you don't have a kid in the car but it was too loose and kept falling down. So I took it off...and got a crick in my neck every time I wanted (needed) to know what was going on in the backseat (yes, I'm that kind of mom). So I decided to try and fix it. Anyone who knows me knows that I am not especially handy but I do okay. I discovered that the mirror had exactly one screw. That meant that either it would be easy to fix or impossible to fix. So...I tightened the screw, a lot. Then I put it back in my car. I drove around with it today and it worked well...until I saw it move just a little bit when I braked at a stop light. So I pulled out the screw driver and tightened it again for all it was worth. We'll see how it goes. Updates to come.

Today I went to get my first massage. My wonderful husband Jim bought me a massage as a stocking stuffer. That's right, for Christmas. Technically it expired 5 days ago but they honored it anyway. Since I've decided to spend more time doing more for myself in this second year of my daughter's life, it was way past time to get that massage. And it was FABULOUS. Jim, forgive me for not being grateful enough.

Getting a job. When I got pregnant with my daughter, I had just started a 1 year intensive Masters program that would also certify me to teach. Due to less beneficial timing, my daughter was born during the last 5 weeks of classes so I chose not to complete the program with my cohort. I stayed home a year with her and completed the program in May/June of 2007 with the following year's cohort. Since I now have the Master's degree and am now certified to teach, I am trying to find a job and finding that consternating for a lot of reasons. This is one of those tasks that won't be done until someone else decides it is done. It could be done tomorrow, or next week, or next month. I will tell you about my Murphy's Law day yesterday as I went to two interviews. The interviews themselves went fairly well but everything else that could go wrong, did. I drove my husband's ailing Honda (he had my car with the car seat) halfway to the first interview when smoke started pouring out of the vents. I was already running a little late (yes, I know he told me to leave earlier) but I had to pull over because I thought that my engine might be on fire. When I couldn't get a hold of my husband, I decided to turn the AC off and drive on more slowly and just keep an eye on it. Fortunately, it got better. When my husband called me, he reminded me that his AC doesn't work and it was probably just the fan that was burning. Great! No AC in my dress clothes in the south on a 95 degree day going to 2 interviews 20 miles apart. Fantastic!

So I get to the interview and it's fine. I leave. I also leave my portfolio in the room with the interviewers and have to go back and interrupt them as they are interviewing another candidate for the same job. Then, I can't find my car keys. Apparently I left them somewhere and someone helpfully turned them in. Since its summer though and there is no receptionist, they turned them into the bookkeeper whose office was way back in the administrative offices. So, of course, I found them, after looking frantically for ten minutes, afraid I would also be late to my next interview.

I managed to get to my next interview on time (exactly). Fortunately, they were interviewing other folks so I had moment to cool down since, after 30 minutes in a car with no AC I was literally drenched in sweat. So I am desperately trying to dry out my dress clothes so I don't look too nasty going in to my interview. That interview also goes fine. Even well. Then I walk out to my car and realize that I left the lights on and the battery is dead. Fortunately, we keep a battery pack in the trunk for just such an occurrence and I was on my way in moments. So, no job yet, but I'll keep you posted. BTW, I did basically nothing else that I didn't have to do for the rest of the day.

I suppose, if it had truly been a Murphy's law day, the battery pack wouldn't have been in the trunk and I would have left my cell phone on top of the car as I drove away. Here's to small blessings. :)

Wednesday, June 27, 2007

Reasons behind the blog

This is my first (and perhaps last) attempt at a blog. I have gotten hooked on reading a friend's blogs and recently been inspired by her attempt to complete 100 tasks in 100 days (http://100things100days.blogspot.com/). As I mentioned in my profile, my husband and I have created a gargantuan "to do" list of things that need to get done around the house, for our photography business, etc. I have also decided that, in this second year of my daughter's life, it is important that I start adding back into my life some things that aren't strictly related to my child. I love her, she's amazing, but to be a good mom, I need to take care of me, the person, first and my marriage as well. To that end, my list includes some things that are not strictly "necessary" tasks. They are necessary for my sanity but not to keep the house clean, for example. Some of the tasks are ongoing and can't be done once on one day since they are either recurring or simply have an end date out of my control so I will keep you updated on the progress of those tasks as I go. You all are my conscience to keep me accountable to my list so that stuff keeps moving forward so feel free to poke if you haven't seen me in awhile!

At the moment I don't have the time or the wherewithal to complete 100 tasks in 100 days. After being home for most of a year with my daughter, I will hopefully be returning to work when teachers go back on August 17th. That leaves me about 45 days (give or take) and I've decided to try to accomplish 30 things in that time. We'll see how it goes. And if I turn out to be a terrible blogger, it will be a painlessly short period. :)