I see my WordPress article got posted over at Geek Girls Network. I couldn’t NOT write this up after my own issues with getting up to speed on WordPress. I like to think I am pretty handy with the press, no? Click over there and read it.
If you don’t feel like doing that, I’ll put it here in a few days.
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I was on a mini holiday last week. Yes, this was after the big family holiday taken the week before that. I know, a lot of holiday. I took myself to Seattle to see my niece graduate from high school. I know, I’m not old enough to have a niece that old! Tee hee hee. Yes, I am.
She is a beautiful girl, as you can see. There I am with all my Auntie pride…
Isn’t she gorgeous? Oh so tall…
Watching the graduation and the energy coming from those young people was incredible. I would say if you are ever feeling down around May/June go to a high school graduation, it will definitely recharge your batteries. I looked out onto them. all those young faces full of pride, hope, eagerness, happiness. The parents and relatives and friends in the stands were full of pride, happiness, joy…it was a beautiful thing. I didn’t see a single melancholy face in the crowd.
Which makes you think of the question, what time can one be truly happy during life? Really, there aren’t that many moments of sheer happiness. Graduations, Weddings, Commencements, Religious milestones…the list is quite short. Sure there are plenty of times when we are happy, but then we always have something to distract us like the turkey in the oven or the mess to be cleaned. There just aren’t enough hands-down, throw care to the wind, happy-go-lucky times in our life. That’s a good thing or the laundry would never get done.
Even though it was my niece’s party some of that exuberance bleed from her to me. She was so excited I don’t even have the words to describe the feeling that night. Electric, charged, fulfillment were all there. I imagine every student from one of the twenty nine valedictorians to the poor soul who graduated at the bottom of the class (there has to be someone there) was happy that night.
I could say a lot about how the overachievers won’t get far in life or blah, blah, blah, but that would just cheapen the moment. It was beautiful
Tags: Family · me!No Comments.
You all know that JC Hutchins is my buddy? My pal? He is one of the most talented writers of our generation and he has a new experience disguised as a book that was released today!
Remember the mom from the E.T.? She digs him too, but don’t listen to me. Hear her tell it.
I went back and forth whether to publish this post or not. It is pretty negative for me, but I just need to get things off my chest.
So, my regular and not-so-regular visitors know that I have in my household: One mommy, one daddy, two children, one kitty and one nanny. So that is five humans and one cat. The cat is old, she is sixteen. The children are young, and both Jason and I work full time +. I add the plus because an added benefit to our jobs is a sizable travel burden coupled with rather non-standard working hours. With all this as a factor, we decided to hire a live-in nanny to look after the kids. There was no way we could find a decent daycare, as we are scattered to the winds as far as job location, and with the travel burden it never made sense to have the kids in a day care near my job or close to Jason’s job. What would happen when one of us was on travel? We do stagger our travel time so the nanny is never completely alone with the kids, one of us is always home. We hired a young girl she was 24 when she arrived two years ago. She is very quiet. I like this. I never wanted some noisy, bossy person in my house. Unfortunately she is almost too quiet. She pretty much stays in her room, except every now and then she hangs out and then it feels weird. We don’t live in a huge house, so there really isn’t that much space, KWIM (know what I mean)?
We went on holiday last week, and in a effort to be nice I asked if she wanted to go along. At first she said no, then she changed her mind and said yes. You know, I must be a glutton for punishment. So we had booked in this lovely Marriott property that was a timeshare resort. It was fantastic and it had two bedrooms and lots of living space. I guess I had thought she would be sharing with the kids, but she didn’t want to. Okay, I reasoned that she had paid her own air travel down, and she was mostly paying her food bill. Of course we were paying for the room, the extra car rental for we need a van, etc. never mind, she wants her own room. Luckily, there was a sofa bed and the kids slept on that.
Well, she just kind of lurked around the hotel room. Honestly, I hadn’t expected to see her much. I thought she would be out on the beach, or at the pool, etc. She just kind of shadowed us everywhere. Very weird. We didn’t do much, we had the little ones so it was like, beach, pool, room, watch TV, find food, sleep, TV, pool, beach, go to playground, food, etc. That kind of thing. When we went to the pool, she went to the pool. When we went to the beach, she went to the beach. One day she did her own thing. She went with us to the Everglades and even though I knew she wanted to go on an airboat tour, she never went. Jason and I didn’t want to take the young ones on the noisy boat ride, but the nanny could have went. It’s not like we would have left here there. She never “worked”.
It was just having her there was a bit weird. You know, it kind of felt like going on holiday with someone you’re dating. It always seems like when you get home you break up. I never noticed how lazy she was, for example. Then I recalled she always put the kids in the car to drive them to Emma’s school, even thought it is literally a block from the house. Like, a three minute walk. I always kind of bent over backwards for her, but then the light went on in my brain and I thought, “bad economy”. I’ll bet there are lots of nannies out there right now who need work. Why should I cater to her?
The other thing is that I am really getting sick of someone who is not related to us, living with us. It is getting old. Really old. The older the kids get, the older it gets. There we are, sitting down enjoying an evening of tuning out, and she pops out of her room to do laundry or log onto the computer. It’s just a jolt, but one you don’t really appreciate. Especially as these are the years where we get these long, free evenings. Soon they will be gone. Unfortunately, I just don’t see any other way to have childcare that will mesh with our life, plus get the in-home privacy we crave.
Listen, you didn’t come here to hear me moan about my child care situation. The take home message is this. Don’t ever take your nanny on vacation with you unless you intend her to work. Then it will be your vacation, not hers and you will have to pay her for the week + give her that time in vacation for herself. If you don’t intend for her to work, then don’t take her. Trust me on this.
I just re-read this, and I know it sounds like I intensely dislike the nanny. This is not true. The fact is I find some of her habits annoying. That is all.
Tags: Family · travel2 Comments
Go get it! I did!
I kissed it, I can’t help myself. 
Go out and support JC Hutchins, one of the coolest people ever!
I would check the websites or call first to make sure the book is in stock. You can always default to ordering online, but whatever you do, do it NOW!
Tags: novelsNo Comments.
Marco Island is great. We got here early Saturday morning, well actually got into Tampa, then drove to the resort in Marco Island arriving around 3pm. We checked into the hotel and got our bearings. Then we woke up yesterday, hit the beach, pool, go some lunch, took some naps, then woke up went back to the beach, pool got some dinner poolside, then back in the room. Great day! I’ll leave you with some photos and check back with you later in the week, so don’t unsubscribe that RSS feed, be sure to re-visit later in the week for a wrap up, more pictures and next week I’ll have a special post.
See you next time!
Photos fixed!
I don’t know how I can even try to write a post about the “little things” when I am all kinds of stressed out about a 7am flight in less than 2 days (that would be Saturday), with 2 kids, husband and Nanny with all the requisite baggage plus two of the biggest car seats you ever saw. Argh. That way lies madness. So instead of living in the now, stressing out about things I can’t affect now (like the packing, the cat, etc) and worrying about how we are going to drink 3/4 of a gallon of milk in ~36 hours (Milk, anyone?) I decided to paint my nails a girly pink, plop down on the sofa with The Abyss in the background and tell you all a little story. Much better.
I love the little things. Things how these pink nails will make Emma happy when she sees them. I have a lot of milk to drink, that means more lattes! I can have cereal for breakfast tomorrow instead of running out the house hungry. I have to stay a bit later anyway, and I really need to clean Samantha’s kitty carrier and she has to go to the kennel tomorrow. Things like how nice it is that my kitty is still around and very lively even though she is 16 years old (where is that kitty, anyway?). I get happy when I look at my mad flower beds and know that they are lovely from all the weeding Martin and I did. I still love the smell of baking cakes and cookies, and how lovely a chocolate chip cookie is straight from the oven. I love when I make Jason smile over some silly thing I did or said. I love that first sip of a perfect cup of coffee from my awesome machine (seen in the Flickr RSS on the side.) I love playing a new video game, and revisiting an old one. I love the feeling of those sweet little baby arms around my neck, and the feel of their soft skin under my lips and they give me a tight hug and everything is alright in the word.
See, the little things really do make life better.
Tags: Family4 Comments
See the previous posts:
Worst Day Ever Explained, Part I
Worst Day Ever, After
Worst Day Ever, Aftershocks
All righty then, caught up? Now for part two. At the end of my previous post I had gotten back to my vehicle, and handed Officer Dufus my ID. he takes a look at it, then opens his mouth and these words come out, “You are trespassing on federal property. You are charged with willfully disobeying a direct order from a federal police officer, blah blah blah.” The blah, blah, blah is where my brain refused to cooperate any further and was no longer able to process the sounds coming from his mouth into the English language. At some point Officer Dufus must have said something along the lines of, did you hear me? or something like that, I can’t be sure. I must have blathered somethign along the lines of, “I don’t know what you’re talking about. I never received such directions, I had no idea what the guy said, etc.” At some point my neurons began firing in the correct order that allowed me to once again become capable of coherent thought. I realized (somewhat belatedly) the complex set of directions that Officer Mumbles had given me were not directions to the building I was now in front of, but the directions to a vehicle checkpoint that I had not gone to, but was ordered to. The keen powers that are mine to command. So, never fearing that this was all a silly misunderstanding, I explained this all to Officer Dufus, whose only reply was, “Looks like your co-worker just got you in a lot of trouble.” What? Did he hear me? Hunh?
Then he put the icing on the cake, “You can follow me in your vehicle back to the visitor center or you can ride with me. If you ride with me though, you’ll be in handcuffs.” I had to pick myself up off the ground (figuratively), I mean who says, “Yes please!” Who? I declined his offer and followed him to the gate.
Now, listen. I am not a large woman. I think the appropriate term is “tiny”. I am small. If you have ever seen me, you know this is true. A few years ago, I posted this photo, see? That little person there? That’s me. All five feet, two inches.
I could not possibly have intimidated this man, so what was up with the handcuff thing? All right. So I get back to the visitor center and Officer Dufus goes behind the Plexiglas to talk to Officer Mumbles. Then Officer Dufus comes back out and starts saying more things to me. Sorry, my brain got all jangled up after the handcuff statement so I was once again incapable of processing human speech. Then he put the cherry on top. I did manage to catch, “Lucky for you no-one has to go to jail today,” then the reasoning dropped out AGAIN! Jail! Was he kidding, it was all a crazy misunderstanding. Listen, why would I purposely run the gate then go exactly where I said I was going? Hello, MacFly? Anyone home? Then he got all chatty and smarmy with me. “You have a good day now, Dr. Pavlina,” or some random shit like that.
I. Was. Pissed. The. Hell. Off.
You do NOT treat people like THIS. Ever. Officer Mumbles had a few more people to write out passes for and mumble to, so I waited. Getting more and more pissed by the microsecond. When Officer Mumbles had processed all the waiting people, he then says he needs my vehicle registration. So I had to go back out to my van and get it. Then I stand there while it takes him 15 minutes to write up the ticket. By this point there were like another 4 or 5 people in the center. He hands me back my vehicle registration and my driver’s license.
Then he says something like, “sign this.”
I then ask him what it is and he looks at me and says, “It’s a ticket.”
I said, “Yes I realize that, but what kind of ticket is it? What jurisdiction is it under?”
“You never got a ticket before,” he says.
Oh good grief.
“Not one like this,” I say. “Let’s pretend I don’t know anything. Explain it to me like I’m a three year old.”
He sighs then explains the ticket, though not very well. Yes, and all this happened in front of the waiting crowd. I’m sure they were powerful amused. In the end it was a battle of wills, who would give out first and it was me. I gave up, signed the ticket and stormed out. Looking at the ticket I saw the total was …..315 USD. Oh my stars.
The best part was, I never had to get my van inspected, and I was allowed to return to the building and “finish my work.”
Was that not the most incredible story you ever heard? Like I said, everything is true. The best part was, when I went back for my “court date” that wasn’t really a court date but more like a pre-trial hearing, the charges were completely dismissed. So I suppose there is still some justice in this world.
Tags: worstdayever1 Comment
Whew. Remember my worst day ever? Well, it’s over. It was still the Worst Day Ever, but at least it had a lovely conclusion. Remember how I though it was a Kharma pre-payment for my glee over my idiot ex-boss being let go the very next week? Well, I still think that is what it was. I hope we are even, Kharma.
So I’ll tell the story now. I won’t name any of the other players by their legal names. Know that everything I am about to write is the honest to goodness truth. This is not a work of fiction, though I wish it were. It may be a bit long. If it runs too long, I’ll cut into a part I and II.
February 23, 2009 ~10:00
I approached the gate area to the Edgewood area of Aberdeen Proving Ground. I had never been there before so I followed my co-worker to the visitor center. We had driven in separate vehicles, I had a large scientific instrument that we were going to demonstrate to the customer. The gate area was temporary as the entire base was, and is still, under construction. The visitor center was a small, temporary portable. I entered the small building, followed by my co-worker. There was a small space to my right and on the left was a Plexiglas window with gaps on the bottom for passing documents and small holes for the guards to talk through. I immediately saw a sign stating I would need my vehicle registration, so I turned around and went back to my vehicle to get it. When I returned to the small room, I saw my co-worker having a heated discussion with the guard/officer on duty. It appears my co-worker didn’t know the building number where we were going, only where we were going. We waited for a bit while my co-worker was able to call up the customer and get the right building number.
My co-worker talks to the officer/guard and receives his visitor pass, then it’s my turn. I hand over my Driver’s license and vehicle registration. When I am asked where I am going, I say “the same place he is,” and gesture to my co-worker. The officer/guard grunts (I swear) and begins filling out the visitor pass, then turns around to the photo copier. At this point he begins mumbling a set of complex directions to the copier (may be important, just saying). He turns to me, handing me the visitor pass and my Drivers license back. I look him in the eye and say, “excuse me?” (Something you should know about me. I have terrible hearing so I need to be able to look at people’s lips when they speak) My co-worker pipes up saying, “Don’t worry, I know where we are going.” So we leave the gate, get into out respective vehicles and go off to the building.
I get to the building, get the instrument out of my vehicle. Then go into the lab, and begin setting everything up. A few minutes pass. I am squatting on the floor (ripping my pant’s lining in the process, they are were my favorite pants but could not withstand the winter feeding, I fear). So I was already all upset, and at this point I didn’t know if it was my pant’s lining or if my pants had split. I didn’t want to take off my coat, as I thought I would be standing there in split pants. So anyway, there I am, squatting down with a split lining in my pants, fiddling with something. I hear a disembodied voice, “Is there a Pavlina here?” (Okay, the voice said my REAL name, but you all know me as Pavlina, right?) I turn around to see Officer Dufus (Not his real name) standing there, handcuffs at the ready, hand on service weapon. I think my chin hit the ground, my mouth was open so wide. My first thought was, “What the %#$%@?” I really, really, really considered making a break and running for about a millisecond. Then I closed my mouth, then re-opened and said, “That’s me.”
“You need to get all your belongings and come with me,” said Officer Dufus.
“what’s this all about?” asked my co-worker
“None of your concern, Sir,” continued Officer Dufus, then to me, “You need to come with me. You’ll be gone a LONG time.”
At this point I am CONVINCED they have got the wrong person. What on Earth could be going on? Why is this cop here getting me? What the Hell is going on?
So I said, “Ugh, all this stuff is mine,” and I gesture to the gurney with the instrument on it, my laptop bag, etc.
He turns to look at the pile o” stuff and says, “This is all yours?”
“Yes,” I say, wondering if they think I stole it or something.
“Well, all you really need is your ID.”
Ooookay. All I needed was my ID but then this idiot tells me to get all my stuff. Whatever. Problem was I left my purse in my vehicle. I always do, one less thing to carry. So I tell Officer Dufus my ID is in my vehicle and we both leave the building to get it. During all this, my co-worker kept asking the officer what was going on and the officer kept telling him it was none of his business. Since we have a bit of a walk to my vehicle, I asked him what the problem was and he totally ignored me. So I get to my vehicle, get my purse, hand him my ID.
And we’ll cut it there. I just saw how long this post is. Come back for part II.
Tags: worstdayeverNo Comments.
