Me again...

Yeah, I'm here. Still. I just don't seem to find the time to write about much anymore. Perhaps because I'm spending a lot more time writing other stuff (consults, progress notes, 10-page evaluations, etc...) over the course of the week.

This week's 'excitement' was the dreaded JURY DUTY...

Sorry if I just caused shivers down your spine.

I don't recall when exactly I was inflicted with the Jury Duty summons but at the time I had obviously decided that the date they wanted me to appear was not going to work out for me. So, I thought ahead and decided that icy, snowy January would be the perfect month! And I picked a Wednesday because I knew it would not be a work day for me since my girls only have a half-day of school each Wednesday. In November, I got the reminder that Jury Duty was fast approaching and I immediately called in the reinforcements to be sure I would have all my kids covered for the day.

All was under control.

That was, until I realized that since we are on a 1-day, 1-trial system I might actually be impaneled on a case that lasts more than just one day. Uh-oh. Thursday is our "evaluation" day at work and originally I had not been on the schedule to do an evaluation for this Thursday...however, we had some change of plans at last week's staff meeting and I offered to take on the evaluation. In doing so I had forgotten about that day's proximity to my Jury Duty day - and perhaps I just had my head in the sand refusing to believe that I could be unlucky enough to be impaneled, let alone be stuck dealing with trial that extended beyond the day I was asked to serve. So, I didn't even bother to worry my little head about it until Tuesday night when, in a sudden panic, I sent off an email to my coworkers telling them that I was hopeful that I would be able to do the evaluation but that I would be at the mercy of the courts on Wednesday. Eek!

I arrived at the courthouse at 8:00am to check-in and made it through the metal detectors without issue. I had decided it was the better part of valor to leave my knitting needles at home in case I were accused of bringing potential weapons into the courthouse. When I walked into the lobby I scanned the room to size up my potential fellow jurors and I couldn't believe my eyes! I actually recognized one of the people in the room - a former coworker from my days working as a secretary in the Psychology Department at UMass! Small world, indeed. Tom and I got caught up on each others' lives and I found out that he continues to work at the university (but in a different department) and that he still has co-ownership of a bunch of sheep, goats and bunnies. He and his friends raise the animals for their fiber and they spin their own yarn and use it for different kinds of fiber art. You can probably guess why Tom and I were good friend when we worked together! I still have a great little snowman he made for me one year for Christmas - it's body is made of raw wool, he has a little black felted wool hat and his 'coal' eyes and mouth and 'carrot' nose are made of polymer clay. I think of Tom every year when that snowman comes out of storage for the Christmas season. :-) (Side note: Tom informed me that my plan to leave my knitting at home was a good one - apparently, the last time he had jury duty they made him return his knitting needles to his car!)

Shortly after I arrived and started to chat with Tom a woman came into the courthouse and she and Tom seemed to know each other and she joined our conversation. We chatted for a while before I finally introduced myself and found out that she is actually the friend who owns the farm where Tom's menagerie lives! I had heard many things about her in the past but had never actually met her. Not knowing just how long we might be stuck in the small, windowless jury room, I was more than thrilled to have a friendly face (or two!) to suffer with. At least I wouldn't have to suffer in silence!

As it turns out we were in that small room for only about 25 minutes - and 15 of those minutes we got to watch the horrible, low-budget Jury Duty Service Informational Video. Once the video ended the bailiff and judge came into the room to give us some information about what the day looked like. The judge reported that there was a trial that was continued from yesterday and that there were also negotiations going on between lawyers and their clients which might result in scheduled cases not actually making it to the courtroom. She did not know if we were going to be needed at all but she wouldn't have more information until later in the morning so she allowed us to leave the building until 10:30. The bailiff released us with a warning not to loiter in the lobby or outside the building because, as he pointed out, "we don't want you mixing with the kinds of people that are out there...and I mean that in the best way possible." LOL That bailiff was actually pretty funny.

Tom, his friend Kathy, and I decided to hightail it to the nearest Dunkin' Donuts for a cup of coffee. We hung out and chatted for the next hour and a half. They filled me in on the latest happenings in their departments (Kathy actually works for the Linguistics department from which I received my undergrad degree) and it really just seems like not much changes when it comes to office politics and "The Way the University Operates" (or doesn't, as the case may be). They grumbled and groused about this and that encouraged me to "come back to UMass!" so I could join in the fun. ;-) I said "thanks, but no thanks" and told them that in many ways I work for an equally dysFUNctional company and had my share of office politics to try to avoid.

We headed back to the courthouse to settled ourselves back in that small, windowless room. I was tense and had called to give my coworker an update on the situation. I promised to let her know by 4:30 if I was going to be out of work on Thursday. She made some phone calls to let people know that the evaluation was "on hold" pending more information about my jury service.
I was really hoping that I wasn't going to have to cancel. The families who employ our services usually wait a good number of months for an evaluation date and I would not want to make them wait another few weeks or possibly a month or more!

About five minutes after we got back to the jury room the bailiff returned and gave us the status report. The case that was continued from yesterday was the "court case from hell" (His exact words! I told you he was funny.) and it was taking a lot longer than anticipated. Apparently, it related to a fight that broke out among some frat boys and there were approximately 15 witnesses who needed to give testimony. Boy, am I glad I didn't get impaneled for that case! In addition, there were a few cases that were negotiated outside of the courtroom (guess some of the parties got cold feet once they arrived and realized what might happen next?). Finally, the bailiff said "that's just my long way of telling you that you are free to go home and we thank you for your willingness to serve. And by the way, just a piece of information I'd like to pass along...the card that I told you about that you will be receiving in the mail and serves as proof of your service today? Well, let's just say that your employer will know what day you served but it will not state the time that you were released. For all intents and purposes you could have been here until 4:30pm. Ahem. So, that's all I want to say about that. Have a nice day." (see! funny AND nice!)

And there endeth my Jury Duty story for 2009.

Just for showing up today and being so 'willing' to serve (ha) I am relieved of any Jury Duty for the next three years...so long as I keep the card that shows my proof of service. If I lose the card the bailiff was nice enough to point out that my "punishment" would be that I would have no choice but to serve if my name happened to randomly come up again within the next three years. Yeah, well...that precious piece of paper is going directly in my fire box as soon as it's in my hot little hands.

Oh, and all was well for the evaluation, thankfully. I was able to call my coworker back about 20 minutes after my first call to her to let her know that I was good to go. I did the evaluation with another coworker today and it all went well. Now, we just have to finish writing up the report!

Time for me to sign off and get Youngest girl to bed. It's been a long day and I still have some work to do before tomorrow. Not to mention lunches to pack and laundry to do - it never ends, does it?

The 12 of 12 that wasn't....

I only managed to take a total of 7 pictures on Monday. Not nearly enough to attempt to throw in one or two last boring end of day pictures to post and actually participate. Sigh...

Maybe next month. (And maybe someone other than Rick will actually read the blog again if I post a link on Chad's 12 of 12 site!)

I guess I was silent for so long that even my few "regulars" stopped checking in! Not that I blame them. It's been a very long draught around here.

Today is normally a "no-work" day for me but once a month I have a Wendesday meeting to attend. Today is that Wednesday. Blah. Youngest girl normally goes to daycare two days a week but on my meeting week she goes three days in a row. Although she is finally getting better about going to daycare she still has a tough time when she has her three day week. Her dropoff routine is to snuggle on the couch with me or Rick and then we let Lauri take over with the snuggling and she is fine. Today I sat with her for a few minutes and then, when she was seeming sullen, I asked "How are ya doing?" Her response: "I'm still not happy." And then she broke down in tears. Sigh.... She was not likely to 'be happy' unless I suddenly decided it was not a Lauri day and she could come home and hang with mom. I finally encouraged her bribed her to be good by promising to buy more M&M's today so she could have some this evening IF Lauri reports that she had a good day at daycare. Naughty mommy...I just have a hard time saying goodbye to tears.

This coming weekend we are headed down to my hometown to visit my family. We are also invited to a party at my good friend S's house. She was my next door neighbor growing up and she was a year behind me in school. I think that many of the invitees are alumni from our high school -- many of whom I may not know (or recognize!) because they were in her graduating class. But, I should know a few of them and I'm really looking forward to hanging out with everyone this weekend! Something that I find neat and kind of funny about the party - most of the invitations were sent out via Facebook! I have become a regular user of Facebook Fanatic. I check in with my Facebook 'gang' whenever I'm at home checking email or just wasting time on the computer. Facebook can be such a HUGE time waster! I had to laugh when I read this post over on Notes to Self about the FB experience. Although I don't have any pothead ex-boyfriend's, my mom is actually on FB and I find myself second-guessing myself before I post anything because I start to remember that not only can my MOM read it, but a former professor of mine, co-workers past and present, and even my nieces and nephews are my FB friends. I do love it though. I feel that my relationship with said nieces and nephews has been strengthened by FB because we can have these little inconsequential but fun conversations that would not have been possible, or likely to ever happen, otherwise! I'm also chatting with certain other people that I would not have made the time to call or to email. I notice they are online and I send a quick "hello" which is sometimes not much more than that and sometimes it turns into a lenghty catch-up conversation. I am proud to be a Facebook Addict. No need to send me information on a 12-step program. I'm good.

Time is whizzing by...

Tap, tap, tap...

Hello?

Is this this still on? Can you hear me out there...?

Sorry I have been so silent around here.

What can I say? Life has been a tad BUSY.

Unoriginal? Yes.

The honest truth? Absolutely.

My "part-time" job often feels like a job and a half...perhaps because motherhood does constitute a full-time job and therefore I really AM doing a job and a half. Makes sense to me.

It makes me wonder where the happy medium exists. When I was home with the girls I felt, in a way, 'busy' - but a lot of it was just busy work (laundry, errands, preschool pickup/dropoff, etc...) and I did not feel like I was using even a small fraction of my brain most days. It was mundane and predictable and I had quite a bit of time in which to do all that mundane stuff. I could procrastinate on chores because after all, "tomorrow is another day."

Now, however, my brain is on overdrive as I learn all the new things I need to know for my job, I am rushing through my days and feeling like I don't have enough time in the day to do it all, and the faster I run the behinder I seem to get...not to mention the big behind that I AM getting because I have no time to actually "run" (or walk). I miss my morning walks with Lauri. We used to walk from 6-7am. I now leave for work by 7:15 three days a week and the other two days are jammed packed with all the things I used to spread out over the course of a whole week.

I honestly do not know how any mom with young children can work full time and still manage to stay sane. Each and every one of them deserve an award - one that includes lots of cash and yearly allowances of chocolate and wine!

So, what exactly has been going on in the Elastic Waistland? Let's see...

We had a lovely Christmas here at home. Rick's brother and nephew visited from Virginia and were here for about 5 days. Santa was very good to the girls and they loved their gifts. Eldest girl loved her crystal growing kit, her snake and manatee webkinz, and her new books. Middle girl's favorites were her new dollhouse (taller than she is), the seal webkinz, and her vet kit. And youngest girl seemed pleased with just about everything, but especially her Little Pet Shop virutal pet. Santa gave her that because she had been asking for a Tamagotchi for a while but this virtual pet seemed more age-appropriate (I'm just guessing as to Santa's rationale for not getting her the real thing, of course - what do I know?).

Just after Christmas I decided to get back on track with my exercise and try to get my weight back under control and did a treadmill workout. I figured I would be fine with an interval workout that included some hills. Boy, was I wrong. I ended up wrenching my back but good and was flat out for three days in bed and literally could not move without excruciating pain. I iced it, took plenty of Advil, and have been to my chiropractor three times in the last week. It is definitely getting better but it's still not quite right.

I'm now officially afraid to exercise. The pain was that bad. Being afraid to exercise is not good if I hope to get the weight off. Not good at all. I am going to wait for another while before I try to get on the treadmill again and I will NOT be doing any hills. Nice and flat and slow to begin. My back problems are making me feel old. Old, I tell ya!

During the week or so that I was incapacitated Rick took care of everything. He is amazing and I'm so blessed to call him mine! The poor guy was probably happy to head back to work after the New Year's holiday. Work probably seemed relaxing after the week he had at home taking care of everything.

Now that the holidays are over and it's the start of a New Year (how the heck did that happen?) we have already begun to look ahead to vacation planning. It's that time of year, after all. Time to think about summer vacation destinations and what we may be able to afford. I have been bringing in a good amount of money this year but, fortunately or unfortunately, most of it is paying for a new roof. Sexy, huh? Just what I always wanted to spend thousands of dollars on. A new roof! Yee. Haw. I am thankful that we will be able to just pay for it outright and not deal with a bank loan but it's just not all that gratifying to get a new roof, ya know? I mean, if it were leaking and causing problems already it would be a relief to have a new roof and it might make spending that kind of cash somewhat more palatable. But of course I don't want to wait for that to happen. It is much more sensible to plan ahead and take care of things before they become an issue. Sensible is never very exciting, is it?

So, vacation planning thus far is limited in my mind to an April vacation visit to Virginia to stay with Rick's brother and nephew for a few days and perhaps a long weekend or two to the Cape to stay with my parents. The Cape is nice enough, don't get me wrong, but when you grow up there it sort of loses it's "vacation" appeal. In fact, we prefer to visit there on the off-season when it's more peaceful and serene and the beaches are nearly empty.

Other than that - there is not a whole lot going on around here. Rick and I are both busy with work. My MIL is being a saint about taking the girls when we need her to based on my somewhat crazy schedule. In fact, she even offered to feed them dinner last night and put them to bed so Rick and I could go out on a long overdue date night. We happily took her up on the offer and went out to see Gran Torino (I would recommend it) and went out to a favorite local restaurant for dinner. It was lovely - a much needed break.

The girls are doing well all around. Eldest and Middle girl are doing well at school. Eldest has been making strides in her ability to talk in class. She did a book report recently where she had to present a poster she had made about the book and she also had to present some information with a classmate about Native American Pottery. Both presentations went very well according to Eldest girl. I was relieved to hear that she has been making such huge strides in this area! Middle girl is learning to read and for Christmas I bought her some My Little Pony beginning reader books. She is doing so well and impressed grandma last night by reading one of them to her before bed. Youngest girl is finally getting used to going to her godmother's daycare. It took most of the fall before she really started to feel comfortable and I was worried about going back after the break. Thankfully, she adjusted again very quickly to the old routine.

Due to Youngest girl's long adjustment period to daycare and my work schedule, we have opted not to send her off to our beloved little preschool next year. She is going to continue to go to daycare for at least one more year. I'm very sad about it but cannot fathom working out a sane schedule when I work three full days (Tu, Th, and Fr) and the preschool is only four half days (Monday through Thursday). It would be difficult and I am only hoping that we can manage to deal with it for a year so that she will have the experience of going to that same school that the older two attended. Time will tell.

Ok, I think I've babbled long enough and probably many of you tuned out long before this last paragraph. I will try to post more often so that I don't ramble like this again in the near future!