Thursday Highlights, January 31, 2008

Well, here I am again, back on Thursdays. Although, I wouldn’t exactly expect that these particular highlights are going to rock.

I overslept this morning. Almost a little on purpose. It’s just so cold out and bed was so warm and cozy…and Langston was still asleep…and I just couldn’t bring myself to get up. Jeff had the same problem, so we didn’t exactly help each other get motivated. It was just a lot of, “Oh man, I don’t want to get up.” “Yeah, me neither.” “I’m so sick of how dark it is in the morning…it makes me want to sleep in.” “Yeah, I agree.” Hey, I didn’t say it was interesting…just the ramblings of those postponing the inevitable.

Finally got out of bed and threw Langston in the shower with Jeff. Little boy is just a riot with that! I woke him up asking if he wanted to take a shower with daddy and he practically scaled the crib rails. When I picked him up, his feet were literally peddling, like Fred Flintstone, to get to the shower. So, I laid him down to strip him and he gets all worried, thinking that all of a sudden we stopped heading for the shower…and he’s going to get gypped of his shower…wild thrashings ensue. Finally I get his clothes off and I carry a dancing and giggling little boy to the bliss of the morning shower. It really is pretty funny.

Then when I got him out of the shower I had a genuine “awww” moment. I wrapped up this wet, naked little boy in a fluffy white towel and he just put his head on my shoulder and snuggled in…oh…does it get any better than that???

Laughter quickly turned to tears as I wrestled him into his clothes for the day. Cooperative he was not. He ended up with 2 stern warnings and then a firm crack on the thigh. Welcome to Thursday.

After dropping off Langston I was looking forward to driving to my meeting at the Learning Center. I hadn’t had time for breakfast (that oversleeping will kill ya) and I thought I could grab a quick snack there before my meeting. Well…about 2 minutes later I get a call from a co-worker asking where I was – our meeting was supposed to have started 15 minutes ago. Uh…wha? Yeah, my Learning Center meeting had been cancelled and I hadn’t put the new meetings in my schedule. So, no breakfast…I race to this meeting only to find that the 3rd person hadn’t even shown up yet. The guy finally gets there like 45 minutes late and the meeting goes just long enough that my stomach begins semi-audibly growling (it was like 10:00 at this point). I say semi, because I definitely heard it but I’m not sure anyone else did.

Thank heaven that meeting finally ended and I could have one of my new favorite special K bars…nutty honey. Fabulous.

Blah, blah, whatever, work, yeah, email, answer a call, blah, blah…when do I eat again? Oh yeah, I’m meeting a friend at a great new restaurant. And it was delicious! I had a cup of tomato soup (a winter classic) and a Michigan harvest salad and we topped it off by splitting a piece of Zingerman’s pecan pie. Oh, delish! And the conversation was great too. I’m so fortunate to know such smart, fun people.

And then back for more work. Interview here. E-mail there. Press statement here. Catch up on the on-line celebrity gossip there. And the day is drawing to a close.

Hmmmm…what should I make for dinner????

Wednesday Highlights - January 23, 2008

Since I have been terrible at keeping up with Thursday highlights lately, I thought I would get a head-start this time and go with Wednesday instead.

This morning I woke up on the couch. Jeff’s snoring had hit an ultimate low (or high, I guess) and sighing dramatically I flounced to the living room with my blanket and pillow and huffed loudly as I laid down on the couch. This high drama was wasted, however, since Jeff snored through the whole thing. But, at least it made me feel a little better. I get to sleep in an extra 15 on Wednesdays because Janice comes to the house and I get back the time it takes to get Langston to daycare. Jeff, however, doesn’t get an extra 15 because he actually has to get to work at 7:30 these days because of a sick co-worker. This morning he actually lost 15 because he was still snoring away when I went in the bedroom at 7:10 and woke him up. Oops. Well, because he was late that meant I started to run late because the whole delicate balance of the morning schedule was now out of whack.

And then Janice called to say she was going to be a few minutes late. All this insane snow we’ve been accumulating daily makes for extended commutes. This would be fine on any other Wednesday. But, I was supposed to facilitate an interview at 8:30. And it was now 8:20. Again, oops. So, she finally got there and I went flying out the door and …insert banana peel whistle sound here…fell down our snow covered front stairs. I ended up on all fours in a snow bank in our front yard. Very nice. At that point I wanted to go back in the house, lay down and cry for a few minutes. Instead, I kind of whimpered and limped to the van. I think what was mostly hurt was my pride…but I did kind of hurt my foot too and it’s been bugging me all day. But, since it was now 8:35 I didn’t have time to feel sorry for myself, I had to connect those 2 fools via my cell phone and hope the connection held.

Imagine you are watching the second hand of a clock. Around and around and around it spins…ticking off a minute every 60 seconds…imagine watching the hand sweep around 90 times…because that’s what I was doing as I listened to this endless interview on my cell phone of all things. 90 minutes? Are you kidding me? Really? You’ve got that much to say…and ask???

And, I was starving. I hadn’t had time for breakfast and I thought the interview would be 30 minutes max and I could have a snack. Um, not so much. By 10:00 I was ready to eat my own arm off.

Thank you Steelcase for having a cafeteria. I went downstairs and toasted a blueberry bagel.

Next I worked some on a power point for one of the breakout sessions for this year’s Strategy Forum at work. I am not a designer. I am not a power point genius. These things are kind of hard for me to do and, in the end, produce a product that is barely above average. Not very fulfilling work.

Then it was off to lunch at Tokyo Grill. Mmmmmm…ginger hibachi….very yummy.

Then off to a meeting at the pyramid building. As NeoCon gets closer and closer there are more and more weekly meetings to get the product launches queued up. Fascinating stuff. I brought my laptop so I could surf a little bit to stay alert during the meeting.

Driving back to headquarters, shivering in the old Odyssey, waiting endlessly for the heater to warm up from 2 degrees to the 88 I had set it to, I couldn’t help but to ponder how freaking cold it is outside and wonder when and if it’s going to let up. I set a very limited budget for Jeff and I for vacation this winter – if we can make it happen for that amount, then cool. However, the longer this cold snap endures and the more and more and more snow we get…I feel like, forget it! I’ve got to get out of here!!! Is there anywhere in the world where the sun is still shining??? I saw a great 24 hour sale for AirTran out of Flint…maybe we can make something work with that. Otherwise, I may have to go into hibernation for a few weeks.

Well I guess my plans for tonight are to put on my flannel pajama pants nearly immediately upon getting home, throw on a polar fleece pull-over, fuzzy sock and earmuffs (if necessary)….build a fire in the fireplace and watch American Idol and Project Runway. Perhaps I will also cuddle my young son for as long as he’ll let me…and maybe occasionally hold my husband’s hand….if I can pry it off the mac. Is it really only Wednesday???

Holiday Highlights - January 3, 2007

Well, since I’ve been absent for so long (which one of my possibly three, readers remind me of) it seems like I should begin the new year with a short list of holiday highlights:

*The Christmas carousel. After Christmas 06, dad Holquist passed along an old carousel he had found in his basement. You plug it in and it lights up, the horses go around and up and down, and about 10 carols repeat. PS, there is no way to disable the carol portion of the experience, which will make sense that I noted as you continue to read. So, I brought it upstairs with the rest of the decorations, thinking that Langston would get a kick out of it. I plugged it in and turned it on in front of him…and I witnessed Langston falling in love for the first time. Yes, the carousel inspired the first fiery, all-consuming love that Langston has ever known. He woke up in the morning thinking of it....running into the darkened living room to sit in front of it, turn it on and gaze lovingly at it. He went to bed crying to be separated from it. It was never far from his thoughts. He could sit and just watch it for like 20-30 minutes at a stretch -- I'm not kidding. It also played those blasted Christmas carols over and over and over - so, when Langston was out of the room or occupied, I would sneak over and turn it off. Mere seconds would pass before Langston would crook his head towards it...run over, and turn it back on. The slightly off-tune, tinny, calliope Christmas carols were the soundtrack of the Holquist holiday season and beyond. Sometimes at work I think I can hear it. I’ll wake up in the night sure it’s still on only to find that I’m losing my mind. It's the one thing from Christmas we haven't been able to put away yet...I hate to think of the drama when we finally do!

*Christmas presents. Jeff and I wanted to exchange one nice gift. Nothing outrageous. Nothing too budget-busting…just something kind of nice and thoughtful. We finally confessed to each other that we couldn’t think of a single thing to buy for the other person. When we changed tactics and thought to combine our resources and get one thing for us to share, we still came up empty. How pathetic is that? So, we ended up just buying just some smaller items and at least having something to open on Christmas Eve.

*Christmas Eve at the Holquist’s. It was a long and busy day. Langston was becoming increasingly not himself…with lots of crazy running around and screaming and flailing around when I tried to corral him a little…not his finest moments and not mine either as I was really starting to lost patience. So, I was already clinging to the end of the rope when after dinner I happened into the small office adjacent to the living room. They have a lovely cream colored wall-to-wall that went from the living room into the office. And I happened to notice a nasty glob of mustard on the carpet. We had just had dinner – with sandwiches included – so I wasn’t totally surprised, but a little shocked that someone had just glopped some mustard and walked away…then I noticed another blob…and another…and then, in horror I realized: THAT’S NOT MUSTARD!!! And I saw the back of my young son with smears of yellow poop from the middle of his back down to his little poopy buns!!! Like my life flashing before me I could picture this wild, out of control spazzy boy throwing himself down on the floor and rolling around (NO!) or flinging himself onto the sofa (NO!!) or running crazily through the house dripping poop behind him like Hansel and Gretel (NO!!!) So, I shouted, “Langston, freeze!” and then ran up to him…picked him up…held him at arm’s length, and ran through the house to the bathtub and dropped him in it. Of course he was not excited about this and was twisting and jerking all around and yelling. As was I. After a VERY difficult clothing extraction and then wash down and diaper removal and further washing down and then rebuilding (good thing he got some clothes as a Christmas present)…I was all…that’s it…we’re going home! Christmas Eve is officially over.

*Christmas Day with the Hills. Everyone came over to our house, which should have made everything easier. And it did…but I just didn’t feel myself (see next story to follow)…extra tired, extra crabby (which I tried to hide) and just a little extra impatient. But even I had to laugh at this…while Langston napped we (Julie, dad and I) decided to do a puzzle while we watched Elf. It was just a 300 piecer and we thought we had plenty of time. Which, it turned out, we did. Except, we were missing a piece. Augghhh! How can that be? It’s so unsatisfying! We looked under all the furniture…looked in other rooms of the house…got all disgusted at the cheap manufacturer who missed a piece and probably loaded the puzzle with lead paint, too. This continued until Langston toddled in from his nap, went up to his grandpa and placed in his hand, the missing puzzle piece. We just cracked up. Turned out Jeff had stolen a piece at the very beginning and kept it for when Langston woke up. He’s a sick man.

*Day after Christmas….5:00 AM. I wake up…Jeff’s not in bed…but, he’s had a bad cold and lately gets up if he can’t stop coughing, so I’m not surprised. I also realize that I am horrifically nauseated and noting a distinct rumble in my tummy that means all is not well. After an extended visit to the pink palace bathroom I lurch into the living room and mumble to Jeff that “I’m really sick…” and he returns the comment. Seems he’s been making his own visits since about the same time. We were both in total intestinal agony. And then we heard Langston wake up! Thank goodness he was not sick…but his cheerful energy was almost worse. Realizing that neither of us was well enough to care for him we were praising the Lord for daycare. But that meant one of us had to actually take him there and get home without getting sick. Neither of us felt at all confident. But, Jeff took pity on my crashing waves of nausea (getting worse by the second – and in fact, I did puke my guts out about 30 seconds after he left…so it was a good thing he volunteered) and took Langston in. We spent the remainder of the day in bed. Then there was the fight of who had to go pick him up! Jeff is quite the husband (or I was quite pitiful – either could be true). We found out the next day that 80% of the Holquist family was similarly struck down at the same time…we have racked our brains to determine if it was a virus or food poisoning. Based on what we’ve been able to figure – it looks like a nasty virus. Yuck. What a way to end the holiday season.

*New Year’s Eve. Dave (my brother-in-law) got free tickets to the Griffin’s hockey game, with parking pass and food coupons, so we joined their family for a night of very minor league hockey. Although the people watching was worth the price of admission. We also enjoyed the cover band that performed during the period breaks. This was a very family-centered crowd so we puzzled a little when they broke out with “50 ways to leave your lover” (Mommy….what’s a lover??) and then really laughed when they had the crowd “sing along” on the chorus. Is this really a message we want to send to this crowd of happy families? Hints that they should ditch? Not much singing along, but a lot of laughs. But, the fireworks were fun and it was something nice for the family to do (I have to keep this in mind now) together. Bring on 2008.

And now here I am back at work. A new year. Major post-holiday blahs. No resolutions. Just hanging on. You?