Thursday Highlights - August 16, 2007

Well, today began with a rousing rendition of Happy Birthday sung by Jeff and me to our little baby one year old! I can’t believe that Langston is a year old. Although, while feeding him this morning I looked at my watch and cringed remembering that a year ago at that time I was being wheeled into surgery! Eek! But, how could I have known what a super fun and wonderfully amazing little boy I would now know. Yay!

After dropping him off at daycare I sped off to In the Image. I took a volunteer opportunity to hand out free shoes to Grand Rapids public school kids this morning. It’s actually a pretty great thing that Steelcase lets its employees do – volunteer on company time. So, I worked with families of school-aged children…helping them each get a new pair of shoes for school. Every family I worked with was Hispanic and in all but one family, only the children could speak English. It was very interesting – and very fun to send off these kids with brand new shoes. Although, it was boiling hot in there and by the end of my shift I was a total sweathog. One poor elderly woman I was working with was literally dripping with sweat. It really isn’t the heat…it’s the humidity….and the heat…that place was stifling.

Which wasn’t a good thing because after the volunteer gig I was going to pick up Langston to go get his (our) picture taken for his one year birthday! Since 99% of the time I am the one taking the pictures, I am never in them…based on our photo collection any stranger would guess that Jeff is a single parent. I had this wonderful vision of these adorable pictures of Langston (his first professional shots) and then a few thrown in there of him cuddling with his dashing, sophisticated – yet approachable - mommy. So, I stopped at home to perk up. I put on a plain black ¾ length sleeved shirt and a black skirt (see “sophisticated” above)…touched up the make-up to make my eyes pop and diminish my wrinkles (What? You’re his mother? You look MUCH too young!) Then after picking out some outfits for him to wear and his new toy truck (a FAVORITE hand-me-down from his cousin Justin) and a couple of his books I headed off to Appletree to pick up the birthday boy.

After an uneventful ride over to Pure photography (http://www.purestudiophotography.com/) we were ready for our close-up! Things started out so great….I had changed him into his totally studly khaki shorts and blue checked linen shirt…he was sitting adorably in front of the backdrop…smiling, cooing, charming the sox off all of us….oh, it was all working out so well….it was just like my vision!! Then the photographer suggested getting out the truck for him to play with. Oh my word! He just lit up…he started playing with that truck and it was like he was on fire he was so excited! Then the photographer suggested a change of scene…maybe a few with mommy (oh…well….only if it’s OK with YOU!!!) and that’s when the wheels fell off the truck, so to speak. He loves the truck so much that his only passion, from that moment on, became locating and reuniting with the truck as soon as possible. He was like the Terminator…nothing could sway him from his mission. So, pretty much any time I picked him up he started writhing and screaming….and basically became Langston crazy man for the rest of the shoot. So, I now call the event Sweathog II as I chased after him, tickling, chasing, cajoling, pulling away from the lights and cords, bribing with teddy-grahams, and then starting all over again. Oh my word…I just hope that she got a decent picture or two….I particularly hope she captured the beautiful moments of me “cuddling” Langston while he squirmed and squealed…really, he does like me…really, I promise.

After loading him back up in the car seat and turning the air conditioning on full blast I started counting down the minutes to the Heath flurry I decided to reward myself with. In the all the hub-bub I forgot about lunch and by 2:00 I was cranky and starving and convinced that every picture I’d just paid an arm and a leg for would now feature a crazed lunatic child with his sweaty, flustered, nutjob mommy.

And now…I’m in the peace and quiet of work…I’ve already written to my husband to let him know that I will not be whipping up cashew chicken for him tonight…I just don’t think I’m up for it. Which shouldn’t bother him because He is very excited that the 3 foot Costco birthday cake he bought is ready for pick-up.

I stole an idea from a mall photo studio and we are going to attempt to duplicate it tonight. Get a ginormous cake decorated…dress your kid in his skivvies…plop him in front of the cake…and fire away. They’ll probably end up being cuter pictures than the ones I paid someone to take. Oh well. It should be a pretty big riot at any rate.

So, that’s the day…oh man…I can’t believe it’s already been a year!

Thursday Highlights - Friday Edition 08/10/07

By mid-day yesterday nothing had happened, really, at all. So, I couldn’t bear to write a recap. So, I decided to wait until today and see if Thursday evening picked up at all. Actually, it kind of did…

All day Thursday I was in the final day of a 3-day class at Steelcase’s learning center. It was the last class in a series of classes my boss asked me to complete. Really the only thing that kept me going was realizing it was the last class and soon I would be done, done, DONE!!! This class was called EXECUTE and it was all about leadership and coordinating and synergizing and leveraging and A3s and Gibson’s Grids and FMEAs and objectives and SIPOCs…can you see why I felt like I had nothing to write yesterday? Did I mention that I’m now done with not only the class but the series??? You can’t see me but right now I’m doing my own interpretation of Jeff’s signature “Vegas Dance” which includes a shimmy, some fist pumping, and a soundtrack of ya duh dun duh duh dah!

The class actually broke a little early so I had time to book it out to a shoe sale…buy one pair, get 2 pair FREE!!! Of course I felt obligated to get 3 pair of shoes…but one pair was for Julie, so I feel like I was spreading the love.

I left right at 5:00 so I could get home in time to make a picnic dinner since we were planning to head out to Fredrick Meijer Gardens for a concert.

When Jeff came home he said that the refrigerator people could deliver the new fridge that night (Yes, our fridge died the previous night… it’s never fun to reach for the fudgcicle you are craving and get a handful of mush in return…fortunately we could haul up grandma’s mini fridge from the basement so we could save important things like milk, yogurt and jello! That thing has really come in handy…you just never know when you might need the services of a mini fridge…and it’s very exciting when you remember, hey, we’ve actually GOT a mini fridge!). This was good news but also bad news since it meant we had to totally clean out the old fridge (running at about 50 degrees) so they could haul it away. In a way it was very freeing. I mean, what a wonderful excuse to get rid of the 12 bottles of salad dressing with only 2-fingers of dressing left in the bottle…GONE! The jar of pickles where only 2 pickles remain…GONE! The jar of chocolate fudge sauce with the caked-on lid and 2 spoonfuls of sauce…GONE! It was actually quite a relief. But, it did add a pretty big job to an already limited time schedule.

After totally racing around with no time to catch our breath, Jeff’s mom and dad came in to babysit Langston. He was napping in his crib, woke up, and just started screaming…as if on cue. So, then I did some running around trying to pull together milk, food, diaper change, etc. And I felt bad that we were then essentially leaving the parentals with a very unhappy baby.

Sorry mom and dad…um….we’re off….uh…have a good time!

It was a pretty sticky night, threatening rain, hot. We didn’t think there would be a big crowd to see Dar Williams and Over the Rhine. And we were right. We walked right in and got a nice seat, met Julie there, started our snacking and then, kind of randomly this woman takes the stage with a guitar and starts singing. I am sorry to say that none of us knew who she was. Was she an opening act? Someone who just saw her opportunity and wandered on stage to serenade us? What was up? After about the 5th song we decided, hey, this must actually BE Dar Williams (this was about 2 songs after Julie had said…hey wait…that’s a Dar Williams song…but, this girl doesn’t sing nearly as good as her…so, I don’t know…) Oops. It was about this time that we noticed the woman in her 40s sitting right by us in a very determined lotus position. She seemed very proud of her flexibility given the many, many, many times she felt the need to bend at the waist and pick up something (what?) in front of her. She also knew every single song that Dar Williams sang (and there were many….most what I would classify as “complaint folk”) and sang along loudly and with a lot of expression and hand motions. I am not kidding. She was also the first and loudest to laugh at anything that Dar Williams said that even resembled wit or humor….including thigh slaps, head thrown back, and then, the inevitable bend forward to bang the ground. It was pretty fascinating. And annoying. We bet that this woman followed poor Dar Williams from venue to venue, sending love notes, filling albums with news clippings and photographs…and is possibly on the receiving end of a restraining order which necessitated her present viewing location at least 250 feet from the stage.

We also became pretty fascinated by this very sketchy looking guy who was just kind of roaming around everywhere. He would kind of mosey up to the stage. Then kind of stroll around behind. Then he would head off into the crowd. He was wearing this oversized baseball cap, weighed at least 400 pounds, seemed to do a lot of sidling up to security cards, etc. Imagine our surprise when it turned out he was “Juicy” the sound engineer for Over the Rhine! Too funny.

We really liked OTR and wished that they had been the opener. Dar was just kind of a downer and that crazy woman was just too distracting. But, we only stayed for about 30 minutes of their act because it was getting damp and dark, we thought our baby might be going wild on his grandparents, and it had been a long week.

But, there really is no better place to watch a concert. So relaxing.

We got home and heard that although he had been pretty cranky for awhile, a healthy dose of Tylenol had seemed to do the trick (he finally has his appointment with the ENT on Monday) and he had played hard, taken a long walk with “Papa”, and fell immediately to sleep.

After they left and Jeff drove our cast-off groceries over to his aunt’s house (they have curby pick-up today) I was alone in the house and wandered into the nursery to pick up sleeping Langston. I rocked and whispered to him and prayed for his future and our wisdom and snuggled him until the cares of the day melted away to nothing. With many smooches and whispered “I love yous” I put him back in bed.

A good end.

Thursday Highlights - August 2, 2007

This morning I woke up and went in to get little boy out of his bed and was greeted by a wall of stink. I had to part the odor like a beaded curtain to get into the room! It was slithering down the walls and hovered like a green cloud just below the ceiling. How could Langston be smiling and playing in his crib? Didn’t he realize that he was projecting a skunk-like plume of reek right at me??? As much as I love him, I almost didn’t want to pick him up…I was afraid of what might shoot out of the diaper onto my freshly showered self. But, I was the mom…I went ahead and picked him up. I tried to lay down some prep work on what I knew would have to be tactical perfection in order to remove, dispose of, and clean up after this explosion. I put several cloth diapers down on top of the diaper changing pad, flipped open the baby wipe container with wipes at the ready, pulled out a fresh diaper…and cautiously laid him down. His newest fascination is a flashlight…so, I turned it on and plopped it in his hand and gingerly started the diaper removal process. So far, so good….it was a crazy, freaky, ridiculous amount of bright orange slush…but I was super proud of myself as I used wipe after wipe without contaminating myself with even a droplet of ooze. Hey, it was actually going pretty well. After about wipe number 10 I thought I was ready for stage two of the process…onesie removal. Slowly and carefully I started shifting it up his little bod…and was just about ready to start the sleeve transition when…oh no…not really…oh come ON…yeah, unbeknownst to me a very generous amount of sludge had actually shot out the top of the diaper into a fat pile in the back of his onesie…precisely where I had put my hand to take it off…are you KIDDING me??? So, all my hard work had been for nothing…the diaper pad got all crapped on, I won’t even speak to you of what was going on in my hand…and I still had to get the thing off of him! Gagging and blowing and shifting on the balls of my feet I was finally able to free him. At which point I hollered for Jeff. There was no way I was finishing this on my own. After about the 10th yell (he's no fool) he came in and helped me wipe down Langston’s back, shoulders and neck…yes, neck…what kind of projectile offal was I dealing with here??? And then took Langston into the shower with him because no amount of baby wipes could remove all the traces of that load. Yikes. Yikes. And again…yikes!!!!

Utterly exhausted I gathered up all the offending materials…diaper containing Chernobyl-like fall out, 35 used wipes, 2 cloth diapers, and the onesie and headed into the kitchen for bagging.

Then I toweled off and dressed the now super clean baby (traces of the stank still lurking in the air…kind of like smoke damage after a house fire) and got him dressed. Lately, he is pretty happy to just be popped back in the crib to be warehoused while I finish getting ready. As long as I turn the lights up, throw in some toys and put in an energizing cd -- (these days we’re playing the broadway cast version of Guys and Dolls…he particularly enjoys “I’ve Got the Horse Right Here”…and this morning he got a bit of a giggle out of the line “call it hell, call it heaven, it’s a probable 12 to 7 that the guy’s only doing it for some doll”…I kept singing that line as we left the house and he kept bouncing and giggling…show tunes…oh, his father would be so pleased) so long as he doesn’t think I’m putting him to bed, he’s good to go.

We left the house in a flurry (as always) and shot off to Steelcase employee sales.

I bought two small pedestal/file cabinets to replace the ones I’m currently using as bedside tables in our bedroom. The new ones I bought are shorter by a drawer – which will allow for my new lighting concept per the bedroom update I’m working on. I needed some more vertical space and I think these new cabinets will be perfect. This week-end I hope to paint them white and glue down the tops. Anyhow, I had to go and pick them up. I really can’t wait until I get my mini-van (could be any time!) so I don’t have to keep facing the baleful expressions of the guys at employee sales who have to maneuver my purchases into the Buick. If I had a quarter for every time Frank sighed, “that’s never going to fit in there” and then magically, with some additional pointers and suggestions, was able to fit it all in…well, I think I’d at least be able to buy myself a decent meal. Anyhow, they got all loaded up and off we went to Appletree.

Langston really seems to like it there and was smiling and laughing and scooted off to play as I told Miss Carrie and Miss Amy why I had brought Langston an extra set of clothes for the day. Apparently this is going around…a little intestinal bug. Since Langston’s been on anti-biotics for about 30 days, I am not surprised that he is extra susceptible to viruses. They said they have a 3 strikes, you’re out policy on “loose” diapers…but, no phone call yet…so, he must be doing OK.

I then headed off to the Speedway for a pop…and….well….I have to make a confession: trash pick up day isn’t until Monday…and it’s just way too hot to put that in the garage…and no diaper genie in the world could possibly contain that diaper….so, I took my double-bagged sack of spoilage and tossed it in the gas station trash can. I’m not proud…but I just didn’t know where else to turn!

The rest of the day has passed fairly uneventfully. The heat drove me to try a new, and possibly sketchy hair do. I put part of it up and flipped the back. I’m not sure if I’m working it…or if it’s working me. I had a very long meeting where the end result was a list of people to invite to another meeting. I printed out a visitor’s guide to Door County, Wisconsin…which I have pitched to Jeff as a potential spot for our family “mini-break” in August. I got the world’s most annoying sales call. I checked out televisionwithoutpity’s recap on So You Think You Can Dance.

Tonight I am going out with Jeff and Auntie (Jeff says to me this morning…I didn’t realize that was a ME, you and Langston thing…I thought just you and Langston would go with Auntie…um….no) because Auntie wants to buy Langston some shoes for his birthday (which I can’t believe is days away). That’s actually very nice of her. Of course we are not headed for Value City or Target…we are going somewhere at Breton Village Mall. Should be a riot.

Thursday Highlights - July 27, 2007

Well, I just kind of ran out of time yesterday to get this out, so I will just have to give you yesterday’s recap today.

First, I must back up to Wednesday night. My very good-natured son has handled his two ear infections with minimal complaint – which almost makes me feel worse. Like, please, at least put up a fuss so I can try to comfort you instead of watching you gamely trying to soldier on. Anyhow, then he got this full-body rash (either an allergy or a virus…no one can tell which)…and still tried to keep a stiff upper lip. Well, last night he took this late nap and when he woke up he was just bawling and wouldn’t stop. So, I think…maybe he’s hungry…so we put him in the high chair…still bawling…and start feeding him. It would go like this…bawl, bawl, bawl…then a very brief pause while he moaned his way through a bite of food and then immediately start bawling again…it finally got to the point where the food would just lay in his mouth while he sobbed. It was about the most pathetic thing ever. Finally, my sister said…you know, this is not him, he’s obviously in pain…what could it be? So, we think…hmmm…maybe he’s cutting a molar. As he continues screaming I hold his head still as if in a vice and Jeff roots around in his mouth looking in there with a penlight…and, sure enough…hugely swollen, bright red gum. Oops. At least we did have some Orajel on hand that really helped.

So, based on the previous night’s despair I thought I better plan to stay home with him on Thursday.

He slept great – didn’t stir at all until almost 8:00 (he usually gets up at around 6:45ish). I was almost worried. I kept checking on him to make sure he was still breathing! But, when he got up, it was like we had Langston back. He was laughing and jabbering…so much happier. Literally and figuratively like night and day. But, I wanted to be sure, so I decided to stay home for the morning. Since I was staying home and all, I thought, why not take a walk? So, without even combing my hair I threw on a tee-shirt and shorts and loaded Langston into the stroller for a little adventure. And thought nothing of it (I will return to this later).

After a long and peaceful nap and waking up just as happy as when he went down, I decided that it was fine to take him into daycare and head into work. So, I dropped him off and he crawled madly for the toys and gave me a big giggle and I grabbed a bite to eat and went into work.

Waiting for me at work was an email from the President of Steelcase. He wrote that he had an early breakfast meeting and saw me walking down the street this morning. Augghh!!! I kept replaying my ratted up hair, no make up, the gigantic tee-shirt and blue tee-shirt shorts. Yikes. Not at all the way that you want anyone you work with to see you. Especially not the president of the company. Crap. Another career expanding event.

The afternoon sailed on by without incident. Then Jeff and I and Langston headed off for Lansing to visit my parents. Jeff is so sweet because at least half the time he is the one who suggests that we should drop over for a visit. So, the grandparents got some Langston time and I had a particularly good serving of nacho chili dip…delicious. And, we got home in time for me to watch a show I had Tivo’d, which I now love, called Damages. That Glenn Close is so chilling!!!

So, kind of a boring recap, but, such was my Thursday.

Thursday Highlights - July 19, 2007

Well…it’s been quite a day! I woke up to the sound of what I thought was an airplane taking off. Turns out it was just Jeff cranking up the window air conditioners and series of fans he has “circulating the air” throughout the house. We hollered our good-mornings and the day began.

Langston was pretty grimy from yesterday so I decided to give him a bath/haircut combo. He was getting a little shaggy over the eyes and I thought that the piles of hair were also probably pretty hot. I swear he’s the only 11 month old you could use a pair of thinning shears on…but, I guess it’s better than being a cue ball. Well, I bring him out to the sink…strip off his jammies, lay him down to whip off the diaper and as soon as I pull the tabs I realize it is LOADED with some very “loose stool.” Crap! All those anti-biotics he’s been on…they always warn on the label that it could cause this…but so far we’d gone unscathed. Um…not anymore. So, I kind of “gathered” everything back together and made a run for the changing table. None of this has phased Langston in the least, by the way. After the toxic clean-up we headed back for tub time…even more necessary now, I might add.

Well, the bath did kind of distract Langston while I took mad snips at his hair…but, he doesn’t make it easy. I think that I did better than last time’s scraggly disaster…but, let’s just say that his hair isn’t going to be getting in his eyes any time soon. Tee hee. Fortunately, Langston has no idea these things are going on around him. He was most concerned that “little Langston” was still in place throughout the experience. Any freedom from the diaper and he must immediately make VERY sure that all his pieces and parts are still intact. A lifelong concern, I guess….and endless fascination.

I scurried around getting him dressed because I had an 8 o’clock conference call. I had the number with me so I could just call in from home. But, of course time goes so fast. Especially when combining Langston’s morning prep with my own. And, the fact that there was about 1000% humidity in the house wasn’t helping either. I had a fan in the bathroom blowing directly on me and I was still all sweaty along the hairline. Yuck. I just hate that.

So, the call went on…with Langston jabbering and talking in the background. I’m sure everyone appreciated how he howled when I took the remote control away from him. I quickly left the room to somehow preserve the integrity of the call (yeah…I’m not calling in from home…yeah, I’m not distracted AT ALL!)…when I returned…like 3 minutes later he had literally gotten into EVERYTHING he is not supposed to. Books and magazines were scattered all over the floor…he had pulled the vcr off the shelf…he was sitting among a stack of cds and dvds, chewing on Jeff’s shoe. I’m such a good mother.

Well, after a totally breathless race around the house with my arm hooked under his arms…toting him around…stuffing things into the diaper bag, putting the dishes in the sink, stuffing my stuff in my purse, grabbing a bottle of water…FINALLY we got into the car and headed off. I had the air conditioning on high and guzzled said water as we cruised down the road. It was only 8:45 and I was already exhausted. I really don’t know how single mothers do it.

When I left him at daycare he was sitting in between two other kids (poor, sad little expressionless blobs) in the group high-chair table…he had a fistful of cheerios in one hand, a sippy cup of milk in the other, laughing and talking…so cute.

Work has been really quiet. So, I’ve been wasting a lot of time. A lot of web searches (can anyone explain to me how I can have full and total access to televisionwithoutpity.com but the moment I try to enter in my “pampers points” on the pampers website I get the access prohibited screen? What is with that?). Returned some phone calls. Updated my calendar. Cleaned out a drawer. Watered my plant. Boy, is it already 10:00??? This day is FLYING.

Anyhow, then I had lunch with my friend Sharon. That soup and salad combo at Olive Garden is pretty good. Although we both agreed that while the breadstix and soup were still terriff…the salad was getting a little lackluster. A lot of big, white chunks of iceberg lettuce…the dressing seemed a bit watered down…you know.

Then I got a phone call from the Grand Rapids Press. Turned out that the reporter was writing some story about Steelcase being listed on an application for a charter school from GVSU. This is true…but, it’s a long, tangled story and I’m not really thinking that we want to start talking about it right now to the media. Her deadline was early afternoon and I told her that I would try to track down the guy she wanted to talk to. Well, after a bunch of tracking down I finally get an email from him that he’s at some board meeting up in the UP and isn’t available until Monday. Actually, I’m pretty relieved. So, I call this girl back and tell her the sad tale of the board meeting and that it doesn’t look like we’ll be able to make her deadline…and I apologize. She says, “It doesn’t seem like you’re very sorry at all…and you haven’t tried very hard to help me” and hangs up on me. That just means I’ll be so much MORE likely to help her when she calls back again. I just had to laugh…boy, she sure told ME! What she doesn’t realize is that after my time working at the cable company, when all those sleazebags hosting porn sites with their cable modems would call and cuss me out when the service went down…I got a pretty thick skin. I mean really, once you’ve heard it from Herb the porn purveyor can Beth at the Press really make me feel bad?

Well, now I’m starting to think about how nice it will be to get home for the day. It’s been a long week. Mostly just because not much is going on. Everyone’s on vacation I guess. My phone has only rung once today – and it was hateful Beth at the Press, so it doesn’t really count.

So, I will spend some time thinking through some projects I want to do around the house…maybe make some preliminary plans for Langston’s birthday party (Can you believe he’ll be a year old in under a month? I can’t. Actually, you probably haven’t given it much thought…some friend.)…maybe check out some photographers on-line…or hopefully, scoot out of here early so I can get a head-start on the night. You have to take advantage of these things when you can. We are going to Lansing to have dinner with mom and dad tonight. That should be fun.

Thursday Highlights - July 12, 2007

Well, the old “get up and exercise, fatty” alarm went off at 6:05 this morning…and I don’t even remember turning it off. The next thing I knew it was a quarter to seven and little boy was hollering for some attention. But before you judge, let me at least try to win some points by telling you that I had already gotten up and exercised the 3…yes 3…mornings previous! Yes, I have finally reached critical mass (and I do mean mass) on my need to get back in shape. I’m very sick of the majority of my clothes still being tight. So, no more excuses! My strangling waist-bands tremble in fear! My straining zippers are ducking for cover! The 2/3 of my closet that I dare not venture into because it’s too depressing are crooking their fingers and beckoning. Soon, my old friends…soon we will be reunited!

Ok, that paragraph exhausted me.

Back to the day. Well, I scrambled around getting some stuff done around the house before I left, because the Bible study BBQ is back on….at our house tonight. So, I squeezed in some light dusting, put away some toys, put light bulbs in the paper lanterns I will be dramatically strewing throughout the branches that hang over our patio, and put some tea lights in the votive holders I hauled up from the basement to twinkle on the tabletops. I can’t help it…I just love parties…and any excuse to strew and twinkle! Poor Jeff spent all last evening creating his ka-bob “experience.” I call it an experience because in my world you cut up the vegetables and drizzle with some lemon juice and olive oil, you cut up the chicken and marinate it in some soy sauce and vinegar and call it good. That is not Jeff’s way. First there was brining the chicken. Then he had to mix up this special Greek marinade with all kinds of pestling of spices, careful measuring of fresh squeezed juices, then all the pounding and slicing and smelling and sieving….maybe that’s why I’m on “decoration” duty.

Then it was breakfast with our beat writer from the Press. It turns out that after 7 years covering Steelcase he has quit his job to go and work for an on-line industry rag, the Monday Morning Quarterback! This is the publication that has been the thorn in my side every since I’ve worked here. The publisher has this major hatred for the CEO and does really juvenile things like posting pictures of his cottage, photoshops pictures of our company sign with the words changed to say something pathetic, etc. So, I was actually kind of happy to hear that this guy was joining that publication. He really wants to mend fences and knows that it’s not professional for the publisher to be doing stuff like this. Plus, he said that he doesn’t want to ruin the relationships here that he has built at Steelcase over the years. So, I’m hoping that this will make my life easier in the future.

Blah, blah, blah…work, work, work…and then it was off to Forest Hills Foods to get some dessert for tonight (again…if Jeff had been in charge of this portion of the meal he would still be hand-shaving chocolate) and some lunch for myself. Delicious purchase by the way. I got this spicy 7-grain salad that was totally delish. I had to get some lunch because I had to go to a noon-three meeting – that asked us to bring a sack lunch! What kind of person schedules a lunch meeting, at the Learning Center (where you can oh so easily provide a meal ticket for your guests) and tells you to brown bag it? So, I did. But, when I got to the meeting he was all chagrined, because I guess someone had informed him of his gaff, so he did give us all meal tickets. Since I already had my lunch with me I just pocketed the old “bon appetit” card for use on a rainy day.

The meeting was on the company’s launch process. I had not originally been on the invite list for this gathering but my boss’ boss found out about the meeting and inserted me. I don’t really know why. I don’t believe that I added anything more than the one or two forced “yes, I’m not just a bump on a log, I am adding this modicum of value” comments. But, since it was on a topic I know nothing about it was actually a good learning experience.

Then I got back to my desk (after the meeting went nearly an hour long) to find an email from the IT group telling me that my new Blackberry would soon be ready for me. New Blackberry, you say? What of this? Well, I have been having trouble with my pancake-sized, early model BB – it occasionally refuses to dial into voicemail. Much like when your car is making a funny noise, of course it would never refuse to work when I was showing it to our tech group. Well, when I noticed it was doing it again I ran down to the IT department to show them. There I ran into the VP of the department. We’ve always been friendly – when we’ve been in meetings together I’m usually the one who is asking him some important question like how to turn on the “back light” on my device or how to change the font on my email. Anyhow, I ran into him and when he asked, I described the problem. So, he tries to fix it…trying a number of different things…I’m saying, Bob, you shouldn’t be wasting your time on this…you have more important things to do! Finally, he relents and I go back to the tech department where I’m told that it’s just some bizarre quirk with Nextel and that even Nextel doesn’t know why or what to do about it. OK. So, I just take out the SIM card and move on. On my way out to the grocery store I run into Bob! He asks about the BB. I give him the short answer. And he says, can I ask why you’re using such an old BB? I say that it’s really not that old – it’s less than a year old – it’s just the only one that the company allows you to order. He says that’s ridiculous and I need a “cooler” model. I tell him this one’s fine and that it’s no big deal…but he says he’s going to do something about it. Of course I don’t believe him. But there it is! I will be getting a cooler one! Bob came through for me! And, as my friend Sherry says, now the people in the tech department know that when I have trouble the VP comes down from on high to fix it. I love it!!!

So, now I wait for 5:00 when I will go pick up my sweet mop top from daycare. Lately, he’s been all the time doing this very exuberant “gasp.” Like all the time. When I bring him his anti-biotic he gasps with joy. When I put him in his high-chair he gasps with joy. When he sees me opening the applesauce he gasps with joy. It’s super cute. I hope that he continues to see this much excitement in all the little things in life.

Thursday Highlights June 28, 2007

I woke up and went in to get little boy up and for the 3rd day in a row he was already awake. What cracks me up is that he will be sitting cross-legged in his crib reading a book. When I walk in, he just looks up as if to say, “what’s up mom…just sitting here getting a little reading in.” Oh my word. He is going to be such a nerd! I love it! I predict glasses by the first grade. When I took him to his new daycare this week they asked if there was a particular comfort item he liked to take to bed – like a blanket or a stuffed animal – I had to tell them that his bedtime comfort item is actually a book. So fun.

Then I had to race into the office. Important meeting? Deadline to meet? Big workload? No…I had to come in to the quarterly departmental birthday breakfast with our senior VP. Because nothing says happy birthday like coming into work 45 minutes early. In my bitterness I ate a bear claw. And drank 3 cups of coffee.

Then I started just madly hacking off items on my “to do” list. Just a crazy level of checking off tasks completed. Let me give you a sample. Item #4: Check and see if there are any Michigan wine tours for the fall. I thought that might be a fun way to celebrate our wedding anniversary in September, since we did some Sonoma Valley wine tasting on our honeymoon. Since our anniversary is in September it is critical that I start my research now. Critical, I tell you. I actually found out that on our anniversary there is some kind of “stomp the grapes” event in Leelanau county…might be worth checking out! See! I’m so productive!!

Next I signed up for an investor relations conference in September. Boy, I am really tackling those September to-do’s! It’s in Boston and should be a blast. Yay…number crunching in autumn…it doesn’t get any better than that.

Then I heard that our Bible Study reunion BBQ was cancelled. We had decided to take a hiatus from Bible studying in the summer. But, we thought it might be fun to get together once a month purely to eat. Because eating really knows no season. Our first one was to be Thursday night. And what a great night for a cook-out…gentle breeze, warm sunshine, low humidity. But, the host husband came down with a kidney stone and was busy puking all afternoon. Strangely he didn’t really feel up to hosting friends for a cook-out. He’s so selfish. We’ll have to tackle that issue when our Bible study reconvenes. I didn’t care for his self-centered attitude.

I picked up little boy at daycare – smiling and laughing and eating a toy (him, not me) – he makes me so proud. On the way home we stopped at the greenhouse for the super clearance sale. I got 2 big hanging plants for $1.50 each. I love it! For once I was a good mother and actually determined ahead of time that if I put these plants in the back seat Langston would eat them. Proactively I stuffed them into the front seat and hoped for the best.

I got home to utter bliss. Earlier this season I had an excuse…I had wrist surgery and couldn’t really use my hands very effectively. Then I was in rehab and really supposed to take it easy. Then everything was healed but I realized I was just a super lazy person. Um….I’m speaking of weeding the front flower beds. Which are quite big. And get very weedy. Especially when you don’t ever weed. So, back when I had the surgery excuse I hired Tina's employment training juvenile delinquents to come out every other week to weed. What a wonderful way to spend $25. Anyhow, I was feeling guilty now as I noticed how many weeds there were, how terrible it looked, how lazy I am…and determined that I actually had to take action and just get out there in the soil and work. I decided I would start this week-end. But, as I mentioned, utter bliss…I came home from work and noticed immediately that the kids had been out and the weeding completed! Oh, I’m so happy. It looks wonderful and I did nothing more than come home. No bending, no stretching, no back cramps…I love being lazy sometimes.

We later decided to cheer up our kidney-stone-friend’s wife by bringing over some of Jeff’s special recipe margaritas. Yum yum. I also brought her one of the hanging baskets. Turns out that Thursday was her actual 10 year wedding anniversary. Spending it helping her husband puke wasn’t a very festive way to celebrate. She very much appreciated the margaritas and hoped that their week-end plans wouldn’t be ruined by the kidney stone. She feared she was being selfish. Please. He’s the one with the problem! No, really, we all felt very sorry for him. He looked like death warmed over. I have heard that it’s about the worst pain you can experience. So, hopefully he is feeling much better now.

Home to watch the results show of So You Think You Can Dance (Jeff and I are both hopelessly addicted to this show….I don’t know what to say) and we enjoyed all over again the recaps of our favorite dances.

Is the day already over? When did I work out? When did I read something thought-provoking? When did I challenge myself to be a better person? Oh shoot. I guess there’s always this week-end. Now that I don’t have to weed I really have no excuse.