The Heir to the Throne Jr has arrived weighing in at a whopping 5lbs 2oz, which is considerably larger than we were led to expect. So, we’re feeling quite a bit better than we were a few hours ago.
And – my mother got the news via text message. hahahaha. Kharma. I tell ya.
I am anxiously, very anxiously, awaiting news about my newest nephew – The Heir to the Throne JR and when 1:30 came and went and there was still no news, I sent my mom a text message.
I didn’t really think my mom DID text messages and was surprised when she texted me back really quickly with an answer. I sent another text… she didn’t reply. But then I got email from her.
My text messages were costing her .75 a shot. Oops. Are there really people who don’t have at least some free text messages on their plan? Apparently, there are. Who knew?
So now I’m back to waiting impatiently for the phone to ring – since I’m pretty sure nobody will text me the news.
Things you learn while waiting for a baby… Read More »
I agree with Senator McCain and fully support his belief that gay folks should be able to create legal contracts and partnerships that give them the same legal rights as hetero couples. I think that Ellen and other gay folks who are all bent out of shape because they aren’t allowed to sit at the special “married” table are asking to sit at a table that’s not worth sitting AT.
Marriage is screwed up. It’s been screwed up for centuries.
What we need are the same legal protections, the same tax breaks, the same insurance opportunities and the same RIGHTS as heterosexuals. From there, you make your own “celebration”, just like Ellen says she was planning to do long before it became “legal” to celebrate.
Quit getting all bogged down in the word “marriage”. You’ve got a Republican who agrees that you should have the same legal rights as heteros.
Yep, I could vote for McCain and I just might. (Thanks for tweeting Lelonopo!
I could totally vote for McCain Read More »
I would normally be twittering this stuff but twitter is down… it’s too good NOT to share so I’ll publish for posterity right here:
We were at our desks, and suddenly TW leaps out of her chair and barrels through the boxes and the furniture and the dog running toward the door.
I’m like WTF? And then I realize, the UPS truck is here. The Wii Fit has arrived.
She’s opening the box, not listening to a word I’m saying about MR Obama and his misogyny and suddenly… she SNIFFS the Wii Fit. Yes, she SNIFFED IT.
What in the hell will this thing cause her to do next? (Besides log off of her computer for the day…)
Wii Fit has arrived and… Read More »
I am the person in this house who is responsible for finding things. It doesn’t matter what is missing, or even if it isn’t missing, everyone – and I mean everyone – yells “Denise (or mom) have you seen….?” And I either immediately reply with ….’s whereabouts. Or, I immediately get up and find it – usually within a few moments of looking. It’s my job and I’m so good at it that nobody ever bothers to look for anything at all. They just ask me where it is.
Yesterday was a very long day. I had something like eight phone calls on top of the zillion emails and all of the other stuff I do every day. I was tired. I twittered that I was going to log off, without packing any boxes again because I was just that tired. More twittering occurred and I changed my mind and decided I could pack just one box. (My goal right now is one box a day…)
I got up. I packed three boxes. All of the purple books from the bookshelf. I needed the packing tape. I went to the bedroom and looked on the grandma cubby, on my bedside table, in my bedside table, in the living room on the entertainment center, in the dining room on the bookshelf. All places where tape is routinely found. No tape.
I looked around the office. I looked inside of my desk. I looked inside TW’s desk. I looked in the little red IKEA box that holds spare pens, glue and office supplies. I looked in the plastic bins stacked in the office, full of stuff we’re planning to sell on eBay or on Amazon. I looked in the little red basket that sits on my desk top. No tape.
I gave up and went to bed. TW and I bought packing tape this morning. That tape is still in the trunk of the car.
Just a moment ago, I came out of the bedroom and into the office and there is the tape. On my desk. Right in front of me. The place where I sit every single day for at least 12 hours a day. Right there. In front of me. Click the picture, you’ll see it.
We may be in trouble because I appear to be losing my touch.
We may be in trouble Read More »
And the questions about the move just keep on coming… some I will never answer in a blog post but if you’ve asked, I’ve replied by email anyway – that’s good enough for those. Other questions will be answered in a series of posts I’ll be making about moving – stay tuned, I swear the first one will appear next week. Other questions, I’m trying to answer as time allows. Time. I need more of it.
Now, on optimism and positive thinking. Yea. Whatever. That’s pretty much my answer to those of you who are bound and determined to get me to look at the bright side. Yea. Whatever.
I spent more than 20 years moving around the world because the Air Force insisted I do so. I was full of optimism and positive thinking. Any time I see a military spouse upset about her new tour of duty, I kindly remind her that “your tour is what you make of it….”
I know, I know. Really, I do. I appreciate the attempts at positivity but they aren’t all that necessary. Once we’re in full-fledged move mode, I’ll be fine. Once we’re there, I’ll be mostly fine. In the meantime, I’m going to bitch as much as I want to – or need to, because believe me – I need to.
And while I’m sure living in the suburbs of Chicago will be AWESOME for a dozen reasons, it’s also never going to be a place that I regret leaving. This, I can guarantee. And that’s ok. I can live anywhere for eight or nine years. I’ve lived in worse places and under worse circumstances. It will be fine. Once we do it and once we settle into it.
And to answer one of Vered’s questions, very specifically…
Can you name something, anything, that is better over there compared with Gainesville?
I’ve already named one – Joy! Joy will live there! Joy who is the mother of THE Jory DesJardins. That’s better.
Also, major airport makes it much easier to book flights to wherever we need to go. Flying from Gainesville stinks – to put it mildly.
Optimistic answers Read More »
So. Vered. I like that chick. Even if she DID tag me for a meme… the 3 random things meme when radomness is something I struggle with. I won’t hold that against her. She’s new. She hasn’t seen me question the very existence of random.
Here’s my shot at it…
1) I’m really angry right now with my former workplace. I’ve been annoyed about one particular issue since 2001 and I just read something that turned my annoyance to anger. Lately, I’ve been talking about blogging my personal branding rant – this thing I’m angry about is related to that post I haven’t written. Or maybe the post I haven’t written is related to what I’m angry about? Whatever. Chicken/egg – Egg/Chicken, it’s all the same thing. But, instead of blogging while I’m angry, I’m sitting on my hands – again. How long will I be able to sit? On my hands?
2) I just ordered vegetable fried rice and fried wontons for dinner. (Why does wordpress think wontons is is misspelled?) I had frozen eggrolls for lunch. It’s that kind of week around here. Frozen. Whatever’s handy. Spend $50 to have food delivered. I hate those kinds of weeks but they are better than not eating at all – which is my ultimate preference.
3) I’m looking forward to watching Survivor tonight. We watched it last week from the hotel but it feels like we didn’t watch it – because we weren’t in our space. That’s weird, isn’t it? I’m like that, I like my house – not the house, just you know, my personal living environment and my boring everyday life and routine.
Now, about that tagging five people thing… errr… who would I tag that hasn’t already been tagged? Since TW tagged Vered and then Vered tagged me – that six degrees of separation thingy is at work and I’m either going to have to re-tag someone who’s been tagged, tag someone who does NOT do memes, or tag some poor new to BlogHer person who will think I’m insane for tagging them out of the blue.
So, rather than risk scaring off the new BlogHers – consider YOURSELF tagged if you’re reading this and you haven’t BEEN tagged or haven’t BEEN tagged in the last six months. And If I stumble into someone I think deserves to be tagged – I’ll come back with that link. I swear.
I know, I’m sorry, I came home to a ton of work and have had absolutely no time to blog more about our trip north. I still don’t have a lot of time and I’m working on a series of posts about moving that won’t come ’til next month – hopefully this will tide you over for a while.
When we arrived in Chicago and had that weird automatic that expected me to shift, we took a quick driving tour of houses we were interested in seeing – we started with a house in Lincolnwood then hit two more in Glenview. From there, three houses in Wilmette and then onto five in Evanston and then finally two in Skokie. By the time we hit Evanston, TW was ready for a pit stop so she said “if you see a McDonald’s, I’d like to stop” (code for I have to use the bathroom.)
This caused me to realize that we’d been driving for a very long time, covering a lot of territory and I hadn’t actually seen a McDonald’s or any type of fast food besides Dairy Queen, Jimmy John’s and Einstein Bagel – all in strip malls. We’d also seen Starbucks in strip malls. But no stand alone McDonalds, Burger King, Taco Bell etc… hmmmm
I kept driving and finally when we hit Dempster, I knew we’d find some because I had heavily researched Dempster because I was SURE we were going to rent a house on that street. (We didn’t.) I pulled into McDonald’s – TW raced for the restroom – I pulled out my phone to call Michelle. I also ordered a coke and while I was ordering, I said to Michelle “Well, it took us two hours of driving to find a McDonald’s.” The woman who had just ordered in front of me turned around and burst into laughter. I thought for sure we were going to see ourselves on Overheard in Chicago. heh
A lot of you have asked “So, what’s it like in Evanston/Glenview?”
It’s hard to describe, particularly if you’ve never spent much time in Indiana or Illinois. It looks like THAT. I think we boiled it down to “Evanston looks like Chicago but without the stuff that makes Chicago cool.” and Glenview looks like a suburb of Atlanta would look if Atlanta was in the midwest. Does that help?
Let’s see… what else can I tell you?
I finally ate at Cheesecake Factory. I’ve never been – I don’t think I’ve ever seen one. I’ve always wondered why people go there for birthdays and make a big deal of it. It’s a chain, what’s the big deal. I see now. It is a chain but it’s a specialty chain. And I enjoyed it.
We went to Trader Joe’s, finally! Yay. There’s one around the corner from where we will live. No more care packages from California are necessary (though I have greatly appreciated the ones I’ve been sent.)
Also, The Blind Faith Cafe in Evanston was awesome. I had this Shiitake Gorgonzola Biscuits thingy and it was awesome. I said awesome, right? We also hit the Cafe Express on Dempster and the chick working was very nice, coffee was good, too.
What else do you want to know?
More from the great north Read More »
We have discovered a silver lining in this sow’s ear of a move. Living within a few miles of the mother of THE Jory DesJardins… being able to see the childhood home of THE Jory DesJardins… being able to sit at a desk in the girlhood bedroom of THE Jory DesJardins…being able to wander into the basement that THE Jory DesJardins spent time in as a child… what a silver lining that is.
I mean seriously. Jory’s house… we walked in and we felt immediately at “home” even though the house itself didn’t look like my childhood home, it felt familiar and comfortable. But let’s not talk about the house. Or about Jory. Let’s talk about Joy – from Joy of Six.
Joy is awesome. She’s fun to work with and fun to hang out and chat with. We laughed and we laughed and we laughed, and we weren’t always laughing at stories about Jory as a little girl. We laughed about all sorts of things.
I still don’t really relish the idea of moving north but at least Joy will be there and she’ll let us come and hang out with her in that cool house and she’ll tell us stories about her kids and her grandkids and we’ll just laugh and laugh some more.
Silver lining.
Dear citizens of Chicago, Evanston, Wilmette, Skokie, Glenview and beyond….
When you meet someone who says “I’m moving to Evanston from Florida” your answer should really NOT be anything remotely similar to “Are you CRAZY?” Also, blank stare, mouth hanging open and “You’re kidding, right?” is also not all that helpful.
I understand the shock. Believe me. I understand. I’m going through it.
It would really be very helpful if you would just answer with “Welcome to Evanston” and leave it at that.
After all, if you can’t say anything nice about your own town… maybe it is better if you don’t say anything at all?
Thank you.
Flamingo House Floridians Moving North
A little helpful advice… Read More »