I had grand plans for this weekend, but as usual the thing on my to do list didn't all get done. I'm sure it's a function of what was on my "To Do List" and not that I (or my husband) was a slacker. The thing with lists is that they don't account for things that could and do happen.
Although my list for this weekend included getting a majority of the living room/kitchen painting complete, it did not include my 3 year old touching a scorching 300 watt light bulb that was being used to light the area being painted. David and I are both beside ourselves with guilt so before anybody calls DCFS, I cannot imagine that a federal agency could make us feel worse than we already do. It was one of those moments when the pain of hearing your child cry for an hour makes you feel like an incompetent and undeserving parent. Just writing about it now - nearly 12 hours later - brings tears to my eyes and a lump to my throat.
Our 3 year old is fine now and the only reminder of the incident is a blister on his right hand and a lesson learned NOT TO TOUCH ANYTHING HOT OR ANYTHING THAT MOM AND DAD SAID NOT TO TOUCH. Unfortunately, the 2 year old hasn't seemed to learn the same lesson as he is still mesmerized by the painting lamp (now put high on a shelf where even I cannot get to it). The 3 year old is sleeping comfortably with the aid of lots of milkshakes, cookies, and anything else he wanted. It's amazing what parental guilt will make you give into when your child is crying.
Alas, the walls are not completely finished. There are 2 walls that are half covered with the paint color we selected - Wasabi - a greenish yellowish color that looks pretty good on the walls despite what the color sample looks like on line. Actually, it looks exactly like the color of wasabi. It's been a challenging weekend but I'm ready for the coming week and looking forward to next weekend where it will NOT include any painting or unpacking - "To Do Lists" be damned!
I think my feelings about moving to the suburbs are pretty well documented in my blog. I wasn't happy to leave the city - the place where I grew up - for the suburbs - a place where I spent 4 years of my life during high school. In recent months I have started to change my mind about the suburbs and I really started to like living out here. Truth be told, it really isn't that far from the city (5 minutes) and I like the preschool that our 3 year old attends.
A year ago, the turmoil in my life which seemed to come out of nowhere started. It was the beginning of putting our house on the market; looking for a new house; dealing with the autism witch-hunt; and the huge fall out with someone very important in my life. March 2007 was the beginning of a very tough year. Things weren't easy before March 2007 because we had a 2 year old and a 1 year old but after the events of March 2007, things seemed nearly impossible. By April I really thought that I would not survive another month - it was maddening.
This has been an interesting Easter so far. Easter for me has traditionally been a holiday that I spend with my extended family, but this Easter my parents and aunts are in another state; my sister is holed up at home with a new baby; my brother is living in another state; my sister in-law and niece are doing nothing; and my nephew is in the military in Virginia. For the first time that I can remember, my family is not getting together for Easter.
In my quest to be organized, we decided that an investment in
One advantage (or disadvantage) there is to living in a house owned by relatives is that your move to a new house can be spread over more than one day. I say it's an advantage because there's less stress, but it's also a disadvantage because sometimes the motivation to keep moving your crap out wanes. I take that back about the stress; you don't want to piss off your generous relatives so there's stress about that.
It's nearly 5:00 pm on this lovely Saturday and I've managed to accomplish only 2 of the things on my list. Granted those 2 things are items that were scheduled for 7:45 and 8:30 am and since then I have accomplished nada on my list. Okay, so maybe today wasn't a complete loss because the blinds we ordered from
I spoke too soon - the
Today I was able to plug in our wireless router and * POOF * I had Internet service. Yesterday the
I've begun the process of scheduling the transfer of services such as
We're moving forward with purchasing a house - one with a yard, a fence, and a basement. Although I've been through this process before, I've forgotten how much coordination it takes. There are loan papers and personal information to send out to the mortgage company; there are appraisers to talk to; moving to coordinate; and so on. In the meantime, I'm working on a project where lately I've felt like I've been drowning. Okay, maybe drowning isn't a good word - it's more like spinning my wheels. But, at the end of the day I've found that I don't think about work.
It has been quite a weekend - we're still taking part in what can only be labeled as the "worlds longest move". I spent the weekend packing more stuff and David spent a good majority of the weekend UNpacking as well as scrubbing the floors at the Temp House. My husband is really good at doing floors whereas I suck at that stuff. Apparently, I don't "do" it right and you have to wash with one rag and then dry with another.
Here is a great piece of advice: never say that things can never get worse. Why? Because it's not true - things can always get worse and a lot of times they usually do. I firmly believe that all the crappy days that I've had in the past have been preparation for today - hands down the WORST DAY IN MY LIFE up until now. I say "up until now" because I never know what tomorrow could bring. The picture to the left is what I look like now (a la South Park) after the past week's events.
I love to work - it's crazy but true. When I was working in consulting, I would get stir crazy when I was unassigned and would have to sit on the bench. Some of my co-workers were really good at sitting on the bench because they reasoned that 1) we were still getting a full paycheck and 2) when we were on a project we would work a zillion hours. In the end, it would all even out.
After writing about how I did no packing yesterday, I took some cold medicine and promptly passed out on the couch. The thing about living in a small space is that you are seldom alone and after about 30 minutes, I woke up to a cold little finger poking me in the nose. The funny thing is that I loved the cold little finger poking at me because it was attached to one of my 2 favorite "little people with sticky fingers" who lives with me. 


I'm Tired, So What Else is New?
Sooner or later I would like to have what I would consider a "boring" year. No job changes, no babies, no pregnancies, no large family blow-outs, and no moving. I would be happy if 2008 included only the ONE big event - the move to our new and hopefully LAST house that we will buy. If I could also have an end to world hunger, the mommy wars, and Heidi and Spencer's engagement that would be nice too. But, being that those 3 things are on the list of "Nope, Never Gonna Happen" I would settle for just the one big event in 2008 for me.
This Sunday the movers that I hired are coming to take the rest of our stuff to the house that we're renting. The house that we're renting will now and forever be referred to as the "Temp House" because I'm tired of typing out "the house that we're renting" when I refer to it. We close on the sale of our place the week after next and I will officially no longer be a resident of Chicago. Ugh - I threw up a little in my mouth when I said that.
So far the commute from the Temp House in a nearby suburb to our condo (where I shower and do some work) hasn't been that bad. However, when you leave the suburbs at 5:00 am there really should not be a traffic problem. Life should get a little bit easier on Friday when the Comcast people come to transfer my Internet service to the Temp House. Yeah, after it took them 3 days to restore service at our condo and I was left with absolutely NO Internet anywhere to do work.
Posted at 06:23 AM in House, Humor, Misc Commentary | Permalink | Comments (5)