Flowers

I finally got my flowers - yesterday at work I had a special delivery. It seems hubby decided to go with another company, one more reliable. The delivery person was under strict instructions that only I could sign for them, so that there could be no confusion over who and where they got delivered. I had figured the flowers were a thing of the past, but hubby felt that I deserved them, even if they were 2 weeks late. He definitely earned some points for that. I'm so lucky to have him in my life.

He didn't know he was broken

I brought my rabbit in to get neutered. Some people wonder why I did that, since I have just the one and he is a male. Well, I was tired of being "loved" by the rabbit every chance he could. Plus, male rabbits spray their territory and he made the mistake thinking I was his territory one too many times. This should help his bad behaviors dissipate somewhat. We'll see. Right now he is content to stare at me balefully, with a look that says "why would you be so cruel to me". He'll heal, but I'm feeling a bit guilty. Hubby is taking the rabbits side, which is in itself surprising since he goes on about how tasty rabbit stew would be, but then again they are both guys and the surgery touches on a tender area.

In my search to find a vet who does take care of rabbits, I came across a a nonprofit organization that helps place abandoned rabbits. They list vets who neuter, but a lot the information was out of date and the prices were much lower than the going rates for today. I contacted them about it and received a prompt email back. They appreciated my input, but needed a volunteer who would update the list. Guess who volunteered? I can't help it - I truly enjoy helping individuals or animals in need. If you don't have a voice, I will be your voice. It's my nature, something I can't change, and I don't want to either. All my life I have been drawn into the roll of rescuer. Maybe it is a second child trait, I don't know. What I do know is I have a pile of work to do this weekend - type PTO minutes (volunteered to step in for the missing secretary
); count, cut and mail in boxtops (volunteered to be the school's liaison for community fundraising), help with the cubscouts, and now update the bunny vet list. Those are just my volunteer commitments, never mind my "real" life. Oh well, I enjoy it.

Jury duty

I survived jury duty, with nary a scratch upon me. I was out the door by 6:30am, after reminding hubby that he had to make luch for the boy. I was a bit worried that I would miss my bus due to the fact that the drive to the park and ride took longer than I thought it would. It seems a car was broken down in the left hand lane and was snarling the traffic for miles. I made it to the station with seconds to spare, walking from the parking lot right onto the bus I waved my jury summons at the bus driver (it is free to use public transportation when reporting to jury duty as long as you show your summons to the driver)and sat down for the ride in. The use of public transportation was very smart of me for several reasons. The garage that the internet recommended jurors park in has not yet been completed, and I doubt the construction workers care all that much about keeping the paint job on the car pristine. It was also quite fun to watch the rest of the traffic that was at a standstill as we whisked by in the HOV lane. What would normally be an hour drive was just a 30 minute ride for me.

I knew I had to walk a few blocks to the courthouse when I got off the bus, but was unsure of the exact way. Luckily, the woman who got off the bus ahead of me was going in the same direction and guided me to my location. (Thank you kind stranger!). The county I am in does many jury pools in one day, with about 1500 people called in to serve that day. I was polled for a civil trial, which I was happy for since they usually last just a day or two. I didn't actually get selected for the jury, as I was potential juror #26 (remember, they only need 12). Some of the potential jurors were very obvious in their attempts to get removed from the jury pool. If I had been selected, I might have had to ask to be excused anyway - the plaintiff's lawyer had such a heavy Louisiana accent that I was having a difficult time understanding him!

We were dismissed around lunchtime and I headed to my bus stop, which was different than the one from the morning. I circled a 3 block radius a couple times, asked the homeless guy at corner three if he knew where my stop was (he tried to help, but actually had me going the completely wrong way), waved to homeless guy #2 as I passed him again as I and finally found my way. Luckily, the bus comes every 40 minutes, so I didn't miss it and in fact got a little exercise in the process.

Civic Minded

Tomorrow I report for jury duty and I am hoping it is an uneventful experience. I think most of the experience will be taking public transportation downtown. I had planned on hubby driving me, but that put us in a jam when it came to the boy. I have to leave the house at 6:30am to make jury duty at 8:00am. The boy does not wake upo until 7:00am and his bus leaves at 8:15. Since none of us know how to time travel, it'll be best for me to just ride the bus and have hubby put the boy onhis school bus in the morning. My neighbor will watch the child in the afternoon if I'm not home in time.

Although I think being on a trial jury would be neat, I don't want to get picked. Arranging care in the morning for my son will be difficult, since hubby normally leaves the house by 5:45am. I don't think his boss will appreciate him arriving late and leaving early, nor will he be able to get any of his work done.

My work can get buy without me, we are in a slow period right now. In fact, it would probably help our budget if I didn't show for work.

Wish me luck. I'll just have to go in saying "I have no problem listening to the evidence, but we can skip it 'cause they'll all guilty anyway."

Flower Update

For those who were curious, I never received my flowers. Plus, every attempt to contact FTD was met with failure. The hold time was estimated to be over one hour, and it was, since I actually was on hold for more than two hours one night before I gave up. I say one night, because I have tried to call them every day since Valentine's day and there has been no connection, just the indefinite limbo of the "hold system", which is an attempt to get you to hang up before speaking with a real person. Why else would they play muzack from the early 80's?
They also did not respond to any emails sent by hubby, even though the website said the response would be within 24-48 hours. If this is any indication as to how well they handle the holidays, I would strongly suggest not to use FTD Florists.

Valentine's Day

Let me tell you about my Valentine's Day. It has fury, mystery, humor and romance.

I came downstairs and saw on my kitchen table two cards, one from my son and one from my husband. My son was very creative - he had folded paper accordian style into a heart which I could open up to read the message in side. He had also enclosed a dollar bill, since he loves getting money so he figured I would too. Very sweet.

Let's see what else hubby left. Two cadbury creamy eggs. My thought: It's Valentine's Day, not Easter. Why the negativity? I knew hubby had gone out at 10pm the night before, and I assumed this is all he got. I had gotten his gift weeks ago and had actually put thought into it. I try to think positively - the card is very sweet, I knew when I married him that romanticism was not a word in his vocabulary.

Off to work I go, where I am surrounded by tales of plans of romance and fun. I steam, and futively hope that something will arrive at work for me, which is silly since he is not romantic.

The day passes; I go home, debate whether or not to wash the car for hubby, say "screw it he got me nothing", sit on the couch and read, hubby comes home.
He asks "How was your day?", my response "It was OK".
He stares at me and says "Just OK?" "Yes, why are you staring?"
He looks around, then goes upstairs to get changed. Comes back down. "Did you get your gift?"
"Yes, I got the card on the table this morning."
"Anything else?"
"The 2 Cadbury eggs" What significance of those candy eggs that he wants to bring them up again?
"Nothing at work?"
"No, was there supposed to be?" my heart perks up.
Come to find out; yes, there was supposed to be a delivery of flowers at work. For whatever reason they didn't come. Sweetie is a romantic and was thinking of me throughout the day.
Hubby is furious they didn't get delivered - he did notice the chill in the air when he came home. He searched the house to see if I had put the flowers somewhere, anywhere. As he put, it's not fair his heart was in the right place, he even wanted to show me the receipt to prove that he ordered them.

I didn't need to see a receipt. All I needed was to feel appreciated. Once he told me that he had sent flowers, it did not matter that I didn't get them. It may have actually helped that I didn't get them, because I could appreciate the thought more that was behind the action. We were actually able to get several laughs out of it, especially as he told me his impressions on things when he came home, which would not have occurred if the flowers had actually been delivered.

Final note, especially if hubby is reading. This only works once. :)

flirting with fame

If you go to www.gofugyourself.typepad.com, you'll see a picture labeled "meet the fuggers". Shanna Moakler is in it. I know her(actually I know her brother better). As teenagers/young adultss, hubby and I used to hang out at her family home. It is so odd to see a person who is "famous" and know that you have seen her in a less than desirable state many times, perhaps hugging the porcelain god once or twice. And to know that she comes from a very "normal" New England home. Her dad is a dentist, for goodness sake.

Hi

Just got off the phone with my nephew.

He said "Hi"

He's 17 months old.

He talks to no one on the phone. Not his mother, not his nana, not his papa, no one.

He said hi to me. Twice

Don't I feel special (can you see my ear to ear grin from there?).

School Zone

I was running errands the other day and one of the streets I travel on has 3 school zones: 2 elementary and 1 middle school. I happened to hit them at the time when school was letting out, so instead of being able to go 40 mph, I had to go 20mph. Rather frustrating since I had to run my errands before the boy got home, which gave me all of 17 min. At one point on this road, there is a section where you can go back to the normal speed limit. For whatever reason, my gut said don't.

I looked to my left and I saw groups of children walking on the sidewalk, going home. I noticed one girl who decided to cross the street; not at a corner where there is a crosswalk, but in the middle of the street. I watched her as she meandered across the street, looking straight ahead. She got to the island in the street, crossed that and walked right in front of my MOVING vehicle. Luckily, I was paying attention and did "the swerve and hit the brakes" manuever in time. She saw my car the moment she was in front of it, not a second before. I could tell this by the look of utter shock and fear on her face when her short life probably passed in front of her eyes. She had no headphones on, she wasn't talking to any of the other kids across the street, she just was oblivious.

Morale of this story: honor all school zone speed limits. They do save lives.

The cold that would not leave

I'm still sick, which is amazing to me since I usually get a stuffy nose for 2 days and then I am done with it. Instead, I've had this silly chest cold, stuffy head, on again/off again fever for 5 days. Today I am going to attempt to work out. We'll see how exhausted I become.

The boy recovered quickly - he was back at school on Monday. However, when I spoke with his teacher on Friday, she did say he had been very well behaved and quiet throughout the week (which is not normal for him). He might still have some of the lasting effects of the cold. He slept through the first hour of Saturday morning cartoons, which never happens. He is usually up before they even start, parked on the couch, watching an informercial in anticipation of the cartoon that is sure to come on shortly.

insomnia

It's 3:30 am and I am wide awake. It may have something to do with my chest cold, it might be that cup of coffee I had at 7:00 pm or it might be that my body has turned into a fine tuned machine that needs no sleep. Whatever it is, I'm up.

A smart person would take advantage of this extra time and do some of those tasks that she had been putting off for months. Yet, after I tossed in a load of laundry in the washing machine and folded the one in the dryer, I've drawn a blank. I know entering an instant win contest on line (I didn't win) was not my only priority, but it is the only thing I've accomplished so far.

To be honest there are a few things I can think of, such as doing some accounting for my son's PTO; but if I've put them off this long, I certainly can't accomplish them with little sleep, can I? Maybe I'll give it a whirl. If nothing else, it might help put me back to sleep.

The Plague

This past week at work has been interesting. On Monday there was one person out, on Tuesday there were two. On Wednesday there were four...a plague has hit my office, one that involves high fevers and severe vomiting. Which is always fun for those of us with stronger immune systems. My boss showed a much more caring side of himself by asking everyone as they came in, "How are you feeling?" and "How are the kids feeling?". Well, it wasn't really caring. We have a very small staff and when 4 people are out in a day, that is over half our work force. That meant my boss had to pick up some of the slack. Of course, so did the rest of us, but I found it to be a fun challenge to see just how many tasks I could complete in one day. I did pretty well, even though my standard answer to many a customer "well, I'm pretty sure we've ordered those and normally I'd transfer you to D, but she's out and so is L. her backup...so...".

I was bragging about how many family has a strong immune system yesterday and of course it came back to bite me. My seven year old came home from school complaining of an upset stomach - uh oh - and he didn't want his afternoon snack. In the morning He had said he had a headache, but I thought it was the "I don't want to go to school so I have a headache" type of pain. Red flags started waving and sirens were going off in my head. Quick temperature check - 102.5. I'm surprised he lasted all day in school.
He's still got that same fever today, but nothing else. On the bright side, it is the weekend so none of us have to miss work of school. On the negative side, we actually had a full weekend of events planned, with birthday parties and hockey games to go to. Looks like our schedules are going to need some rearranging.

4 things....

Thanks to Wally, you have the following lists to contemplate.

Four jobs I have had:

Archaeologist
EMT
Postal Clerk
Bookkeeper

Four movies I would watch over and over:

Shawshank Redemption
Monty Python's the Meaning of Life
American History X
...No others come to mind...


Four favorite foods:

Coffee icecream
Stuffed zucchini flowers
Rissoto ai gamberi
Red velvet cake

Four places I have lived:

Vicenza, Italy
Fayetteville, North Carolina
Long Island, NY
Houston, TX

Four place I've been on vacation:

Disneyworld, Fl.
Grand Canyon, Az.
Pompeii, Italy
Innsbrook, Austria

Four Websites I visit daily:
Fat Cyclist
envoy-ette
the resident curmudgeon
this mom blogs

Four places I'd rather be:

Actually, I enjoy where I am but if I have to answer the following would apply because it's where family and friends are:

Arizona (the whole state since they are spread out)
Rhode Island (hey, it is small enough that I don't need to name a city)
Florida
Kentucky

Back to normal

Work has finally slowed down enough so I only need three hands instead of the two bodies and 6 arms I've felt like I needed two weeks ago. We are starting to get back feedback from our corporate office, and have heard positive things. Bonuses have come into the store (no I won't see them directly, life's not that good), and congratulatory notes are coming in as well. It is good to be recognized by the higher ups since the boss doesn't care.
I'm still sticking to my New Year's resolutions of being less judgemental of my co-workers (I said less, which means I can judge a little), although they try me, oh they try me. When I correct someone, I expect them to take heed of what I say; not do the same error three more times. With me correcting them again. Between each error.
With it slowing down, I've been able to get back into my workout routine. I'd love to be able to run in a 10K race. This is quite a challenge for me since (1) I find running to be one of the most boring sports ever invented and (2) I seem to have developed a sharp pain in my heel which flares up every time I try to run. We'll see how it goes. I'll have to find a race and sign up for it and then let you know. You will keep me accountable for my commitments. I'd be too embaressed not to follow through.

Geocaching

Over the holiday, hubby was given a GPS device from his mom, with the thought that he would enjoy using it for a hobby called "geocaching". In geocaching (gc), you go to the gc website and look up coordinates for "treasures" that are buried in your area. You enter then into the GPS unit and then you are off to find the cache. Once there, you log your visit into the log book, take a small prize and leave one behind. Sometimes there is a "travel bug" that has a certain destination in mind, that you might want to help move along.
While we were on the East coast we picked up one that wanted to travel along Route 6. We helped it go 1500 miles by taking it back to Texas with us and leaving it in a cache on Route 6 here. We logged it on the gc website so its owner could follow its adventures. It is a cheap hobby once you have your GPS unit, and it gives one the chance to see parts of the local neighborhood which you likely would never visit on your own plus enjoy the outdoors at the same time.
Since we've been back, we've gone every weekend. It is a very reasonable family fun event where anyone of us is likly to find the cache. Our 7 year old has had as much success as we have. Sometimes it helps to be on his eye-level, especially when the cache is hidden in the hollow of a dead tree. It is comical at times to watch us wading through overgrowth; we are not as stealthy as we should be, but we are enjoying ourselves.

New Year's Resolutions

With the new year comes the new year's resolutions, which I absolutely detest. Normally, I would skip all pretenses of declaring how I will change in the coming year since, let's face it, 90% of resolutions are broken within the first two weeks anyway. However, this year I made one resolution: To be more tolerant of my coworkers. Notice how I did not say of people in general, no I am trying to be realistic in my goal. So far, I am sticking with it, although several of my coworkers are not following my lofty ambitions. They know of it and have already said to me several times "still going for that resolution, are you?".

Hubby has also made some resolutions, ones which I don't think are all that important. I have a list he could have chosen instead which would have much better benefits for me, but I guess it is about his growth not mine. One of his resolutions is to reduce clutter. Great, super. His computer desk is a mess, as is his garage space and his half of the closet. Except, he doesn't start in these areas, he starts in on MY kitchen counters. I walked into the kitchen yesterday, and notice that several utensils that I keep in a caddy missing. In fact, all of the utensils are missing and caddy is empty. Hubby thought it was cluttered and decided to put them in the already cluttered utensil drawers. I happen to look across the kitchen, as I am drawing a deep breath, and I see that the bread machine is gone. Where to? The garage. Why? Because that is where he plans to put his clutter, which makes no sense to me. Clear it out, don't just move it to a new space. Plus, he wanted to see if I would notice. Arrrghh!!!! Work on your clutter not mine!!

After a heated discussion, in which I insinuated that I would start in on his clutter if he didn't leave mine alone and he would find that it was gone for good; we agreed that he would focus on his own things first. This resolution thing is for the dogs.

Final Vacation Post

After our long plane ride home, we got home late Sunday night. We walk in the house, verify Santa came while we were gone and send the boy up to get ready for bed. I hear him exclaim "Hey, who cleaned the house?". Of course the answer is no one,I cleaned it before I left. I hate coming home from a trip to a messy home.
Finally, my efforts have been recognized by family. It has nothing to do with the fact that my stepmother-in-law's house was full of clutter and mine is not. No, I choose to believe that my son just decided to recognize all the hard work I do around the house. Na,na,na,na - I can't hear you if you are saying anything different!

More vacation tales

So Christmas morning I hear stirring in the room my son is sleeping in. I pray that he waits a little longer before getting out of bed (it is 5:15). I also hope that he is not disappointed when he sees that "Santa" has left him but one gift here at my in-laws, and remembers that Santa was stopping at our house in Texas instead. I also hear the steady beat of a cold rain against the roof top. Luckily, baby boy goes back to sleep.

It's now 7:30 and I decide I have made J wait long enough to get out of bed. He hears me open the bedroom door and comes bouncing out of his room.
"Mom, Mom, I heard Santa's reindeer last night! They were on the roof! I heard their hoofs!" It seems the downpour sounded differently to my son than it did to me. What joy is on his face as he tells me this wonderful news.
He is not disappointed in getting only one gift under the tree; in fact, he is amazed that Santa found him here at his Nonna and Pepere's house.

Meeting my nephew

My sister also flew in, and brought her 15 month old with her. This was the first time I met him, and he immediately was willing to go into my arms. That is, until he saw my husband, then he wanted to be in his arms! I dare say that hubby was his favorite person of all the visitors; each time the baby saw him he would reach his arms out to be held by hubby, or would run around the table until he got to him. If hubby came in late, the little guy would squirm out of whomever's arms he was in and run over to hubby to hug his legs and ask for a lift up!

The little peanut is only 18 pounds (he doesn't eat anything) and into everything. When he laughs his eyes light up, his mouth goes wide, and then he's usually silent -a silent laugh. It is odd to see, but hilarious at the same time.

We were curious to see his reaction to me - after all, his mother and I are identical twins. Only once did it seem to throw him for a loop - he was crying and ran towards me, then suddenly stopped with a slightly confused look on his face as if to say "wasn't my mom just standing right there?" and turned back around to find his real mom.

Back from vacation

Hello, I'm back after a long vacation. Yes, as the old joke goes, I need a vacation from my vacation. Luckily I am off today before going back to work tomorrow.
Where to start telling you about my holiday? Hmm, this is a tough one, there was so much going on.
The morning we packed up to leave, my son couldn't understand why he wasn't allowed to wear his normal clothes. "But mom, it is short sleeve weather!" "Yes dear, it is here, but where we are going it is long sleeve and coat weather." After two long but uneventful flights, we arrived in New England to snow on the ground - yay! After getting the luggage and rental car we were off to my in-laws house. There, we were created with hugs and kisses and food, lots and lots of food, which was to be a theme throughout the holiday. My step-mom-in-law is a party person, who seems to know everyone in the state of RI, which although it is a small state it is not possible to do, and needs to invite them all over for at least one meal. Either that or she is going to their funeral - no word of a lie, she went to four funerals while we were there, and her relationship to the individual was convoluted to say the least.
We were up to midnight, including my 7 year old, and continued that theme of late nights for the rest of the holiday.