Coming to a town not anywhere close to you.

After 19 months of trying, it finally happened. I found myself pregnant. And I still am. Currently.

Just in case you care about all this information...

• According to my LMP, my due date is November 30th.
• According to my ultrasounds, my due date is December 7th.
• Going by my U/S due date, I'm 8 weeks 3 days with 221 days to go.
• My first pregnancy symptom was sore boobs.
• My most recent symptom is being nauseous all the time. Although I don't throw up. Which is the only blessing in that.
• My meals typically go something like this: Jamba Juice for breakfast, ignore what I packed for lunch and instead of lemon sorbet and potato chips, and then become desperate for anything substantial by dinner that doesn't include meat, dairy, or anything else that sounds, smells, or looks gross at the moment.
• Things that Jared now does all the time include the cat litter (potentially getting toxioplasmosis is a convenient reason to avoid it), washing the dishes, and any cooking that is done (which is very rare now that I'm not doing any of it).
• I would like a girl but have had many dreams where it's a boy (actually, I haven't had a baby dream since I got pregnant).
• Jared says that if I'm going to say "boobs", I should add that I want to sleep all the time. I'm not sure what the two have to do with each other, but there you have it. :-)
  

I <3 My Sisters

They keep me entertained throughout my otherwise usually boring work days.

Lindey: I'm so mad. Epik High is going to be performing in San Fran a month BEFORE I get out there. D:<
Me: Who is Epike High? I prolly don't want to know.
L: Kpop/Internation artists. They're pretty darn awesome. Especially Tablo.
Me: Yeah... like I said.... :-D
L: *hits you*
Me: :-D
L: DANG IT ALL. Mamma Mia's not actually next month. It's July. GAAAAHHHHHH
Me: *pats*
L: No Mamma Mia, no Epik High. Hmmm, wonder if Rain, Se7en, or Big Bang would be out there... Or DBSK.
Me: Or... wait until you actually have money to see these things? *ducks*
L: ...... *hits you again*
Me: MISS!! Cause I already ducked.
L: *goes low* *hits you!*
Me: I GOT A BABY!! You can't hurt me.
L: ........ D: You fight dirty.
Me: :-D Only way to fight from across the country.

In Need of Vacation Ideas

So. I have 106 hours + 1 day of vacation to take this year. That's 14.25 days. I only have 2 maybe 3 days planned (because I have to cancel 5 other days of vacation). Which leaves me with about 11 days.

Any ideas? I'm thinking maybe a lot of 3 day weekend trips. Or just random Wednesdays off. But... what to do?

What Mandatory Means

You may think I only have interesting things to say about work. Well, that is probably true. And it probably isn't all that interesting, but let me regale you with another story.

Account Manager: *sends out email about new procedures put in place and notifies everyone of an all-hands meeting that will be taking place where attendance is required*
Suki: *schedules said meeting putting "mandatory" in the subject line and put a little blurb from Deborah's meeting in there*
Technical Manager: *sends out a second email further clarifying some points in Account Manager's email*

At the meeting: everyone gets yelled out, jobs threatened, reputations destroyed.

Suki: *schedules follow-up meeting for all the misfits who didn't make it*

I've gotten three types of responses so far.
1) Okay, will be there. --No response necessary.
2) On vacation. Deadline coming up. After this date will be good. --Silly people. Account Manager is not willing to wait more than a week and a half after the original meeting. Maybe the mandatory bit didn't clue them in. Or the meeting happening the very next day of the original email going out. Or the closeness of the follow-up meeting to the original meeting.
3) We already had an account meeting this month, why do we need another one? --Maybe if you had attended... you would know.

Plus, it's more fun to be in one of these meetings with MORE people than less... you don't want a one-on-one lecture. Not with this junk that's going on.

Another Work Moment

Sometimes I get reminders of how nice it is to work in the corporate world. Today was one of those days. I had the privilege of getting my great-grandboss lunch. Good thing I drove today.

Boss: I need you to get Stu lunch. *Hands over a Hamilton* Turkey sandwich, everything but onions, a bottle of water.

The journey: Where? Subway is closest. Let's go. Does he like Subway? Maybe Quiznos would be a better choice. Gonna have to be Subway. Ack! Two different types of turkey sandwiches. Turkey breast will do. Uh oh... the bread choice. She gets to pick whichever goes best. Turned out to be whole wheat. Cheese. Cheddar? Toasted? Um, why not?

Luckily, that was the end of it. Then when she asked as confirmation "banana peppers, blah, blah, and blah?" Yep. Why you'd want nasty dill pickles and five types of peppers on your sandwich beats me though.

Oh, and a bottle of water.

Let's face it. When you are already sometimes decision-challenged (except when I'm at Subway... I know what I like and the only thing that varies is the bread), making decisions for your great-grandboss is even worse. It's a good thing he seems very nice and easy going. And he calls me lady whenever he comes to visit so that is automatic points right there. And I don't think that's because he doesn't remember my name. My grandboss made sure of that.

So a nice reminder of being an admin in corporate America, where you're asked to do things not in your job description because... well, that's what you do.

Managers....

I know. My second post in the same day. How weird is that? I just thought this was too classy to not document.

---------
Manager 1: I need this room for this meeting.
Suki: You're sure it's a separate meeting than this one?
Manager 1: Yes.
*Suki makes necessary changes*

Manager 2: What?????
Manager 2: Why???
*Suki explains*
Manager 2: It's the same meeting.
*Suki faceplants*

Suki: Manager 1, Manager 2 says it's the same meeting.
Manager 1: Then she can go to the other meeting while the rest of us attend this one.

Manager 2: It's the same meeting.

Suki: Manager 2 still says it's the same meeting.
Manager 1: Put her meeting in this room and give me the good room.
*Suki face plants*

---------------
I even told Manager 1 that she needed to talk to Manager 2. I just told her that I'm not doing anything else until that happens.

Grouch.

A Rude Awakening

The alarm went off at 6:20 am. As usual, I thought about how I should get up. I could make 10-grain hot cereal. And then I promptly hit the snooze button and snuggled up next to Jared. 1st snooze.... 2nd snooze.... Okay, now it's 6:40, we really should get up. I start waking up Jared and we're talking a bit. Then we hear a loud noise in the living room followed by a thump onto the bed and across our faces.

The next thing I know, Jared has his hand to his face yelling "My eye! Owww!!!" I move his hand away and see a scratch above his eyebrow that is bleeding a little bit. A few seconds later I notice blood gathering under his closed eyelid. "Uhhhhh...." I ask if he can open it. He can't. So "Um, okay. Emergency room." Jared: "Maybe it will fix itself?" I call my mom. While I'm trying to get dressed fast while formulating a coherent question in my brain, Jared stands up. "Uh, I feel sick." Then the blood starts flowing down his cheek. Easy fix: tissue. He didn't mention not going to the ER again. We throw clothes on--I feed the cats--and we're off.

It wasn't very busy. By the time we get past the check-in point (the second one), the blood has stopped and he can open his eye better. His eye looks fine. It's just his eyelid. We think.

The doctor comfirmed it. It wasn't deep enough for stitches. His eye wasn't touched. As for where it is... you know when you pull down your lower eyelid and there is a fleshy part? Well, the cut start at the top of the eyelid where you could see it and the continued on the inside of the eyelid on that fleshy part. It seems pretty amazing that the eye wasn't touched with the cut located like that.

The doctor prescribed an antibiotic ointment that we're to put in his eye several times a day. Jared tried to and couldn't. So I get to squeeze it in. It's not too hard. If he would stop blinking. I told him that now he knows how Jaeden felt when we had to do it to her.

I did enjoy going into work late though. :-)

If I had anything brilliant to say, I would say it.

As per my random habits, I tripped onto YoungLDS one day. I'm a predominate lurker there. Can't quite break entirely the habit of venturing there every once in a while. As some of the Old Timers say, you don't have to be single to be there. Besides, I'm still young, right?

Perusing the "recent posts", I came across one titled Engaged before a mission? Trust me, the topic had turned from that to something different and I didn't read the whole thing. A few people were discussing how their parents behaved towards the people they dated, the questions they asked, and what they seemed concerned with.

Someone has a 2 month old girl. She said " I trust her judgment, yes. But sometimes people get caught up in lust and fall for the wrong type of people. That's all." To which someone, let's call him Sam, replied with this post about... "if you do insist in still asking a bunch of questions, please know that it's imperative that you NEVER ask them in an accusatory way and know that it IS possible your child may feel like you don't trust their judgment."

I stated my opinion of that I like to think that my children will have a good relationship with me and that they'd feel comfortable coming to me. Since the first person has a girl, I specifically used the phrase "giggly girls" to represent being really good friends. Sam took it pretty literally. To paraphrase, there's nothing giggly about serious questions. Some questions might be giggly, but the more serious ones could turn into a trust issue. The first girl agreed with me that she hopes to be really good friends with her daughter.

I clarified my point by expressing how I would hope to know my kids well enough that I could tell if something was going on based on their actions when dating someone. There is value in serious questions, but there are some questions to which the answers are acceptable or unacceptable or would just be a nicety.

Sam ripped me open for having such a high ideal. He made it sound like I should lower my ideal because reality would most likely be much different. He tried to hit on some raw nerves to make his point (he missed). He said you can hope, but it just won't happen.

I dislike people who live in a pessimistic realistic world. Optimistic realistic is much, much better, geez. There is nothing wrong with having an ideal. Things may not always turn out the way you would like, but try like it will. Let me give you some classic examples that can all be titled rationalization. "I need to lose 50 pounds." "Never gonna happen. When are you gonna exercise? You're probably not going to change how you eat either." "You're right... okay, maybe 10 pounds?" Or try this one. "I'm not going to lie." "You're human, of course you'll lie." All of a sudden, it's less important to not lie and you feel like a little lie every now and again is okay.

Can you explain it? I don't get it. Let's let pessimism rule our life and tell us that we can't do it and come up with reasons why not to do something. Or we can be optimism, set our sights high, and reach for it. Just be aware of the reality around you and not let other things fail because of what you're doing. Let's just not lower ourselves because "it probably won't turn out that way."

Dave's saying applies anywhere, not just to Ramseyites. If you will live like no one else now, then you can live like no one else later.