Little Sickie

I feel like poo.

I've picked up a cold or something and it's kicking my butt. I can't breathe from my nose and when I can, it means that it's running. My eyes are puffy, my throat is scratchy and my nose is red and raw.  I am the epitome of sexiness.

So I haul my tired, poo-feeling butt in to work today.  I have a stack of things on my desk to get done, a ton of email to respond to and an annual report to begin working on but that isn't why I came to work today.  I came to work because today and tomorrow are the last two days to drop classes and I wanted to be here in case we had students who needed help.

Then a student pops her head into the office and asks me to guess what grade she's making in her history class.  When I croak out "I don't know, what grade?" she says "A 92- " then stops short as my voice registers with her and says, like she's annoyed,  "Is everybody sick?" then abruptly turns and walks away.

Oh, I'm sorry I put my personal comfort aside so I could be here to help. I'm sorry I came to work because I was worried that someone might come see me to drop and then just not do it because I wasn't here. I'm sorry if I feel like it's more important to be available on critical dates than it is to be sleeping. So. Terribly. Sorry.

I may be just a wee bit grumpy.

I do get it - who wants to be around someone that's sick?  But honestly, I think it's allergy/sinus stuff and not something contagious. Maybe I just don't take it seriously enough because I don't get why everyone is acting like I've got the plaque.

Like last night, when I got home. It was a little before midnight and of course, everyone was asleep. I crawled into bed and leaned in to give my husband a hello kiss and the first thing he did was pull away and say was "No! I don't want any of your disease." Of course, I thought he was kidding because um, hello, I've been gone for five days. That should be long enough for him to miss kissing me, right?  But no, he totally wasn't kidding.

Is a runny nose really that repulsive? Apparently so.

I did end up with a little peck on the cheek. A small compensation prize, right before he told me to scoot to the other side of the bed.

Thanks, honey, for making me feel like a biohazard.

I think ultimately,  I just need sleep. Conference was full of fun things, which meant late nights. I didn't actually get to go dancing - but I'm not bummed about it at all. In fact,  I had an even better time than I could have imagined.  It was...amazing.  It will definitely go down as my all-time favorite conference.

So yuck stuff and no sleep have me running on empty.   I think I'm going to call it a day and go home and take a nap.

And I may or may not intentionally cough all over my husband's pillow.

Sausage Queen

It's almost time - in a few days I'll be heading out to New Mexico for a conference!

Shockingly, I'm actually almost all ready.  Of course, instead of feeling proud that I'm ahead of schedule, I am plagued by the feeling that I have forgotten something. I keep checking my list and I think I've got everything done but still...

In addition to being ready, I'm also really big. As in physically.  This is the most I've weighed, ever. Even when I was pregnant with both girls.  I only gained 11 pounds with M and 10 with M2. But that's not anything to brag about because it just means I already had all the fat my body needed. Women who are already overweight will either gain very little or even lose weight during pregnancy so the fact that I was already fat when I got knocked up isn't really worth celebrating.

But just that I am heavier than my pregnancy weight - ugh.

So I'm headed to this conference and I'm going to look like a stuffed sausage because I'm squeezing my fat ass into clothes that do not fit anymore. I did attempt to find size appropriate clothes and had no luck. I shopped, and shopped and shopped and could not find anything. So stuffed sausage it is!

Besides feeling big, I've also been feeling really adventurous lately - I just want to do something exciting. So I texted a few girlfriends and asked them if they would go skydiving with me in New Mexico. I thought it would be a fun experience for us to share.

I've been skydiving before - years and years ago.  It was an amazing experience. I went with a guy friend and to this day when we talk, that experience still comes up. It was kinda funny because my boyfriend and I had recently broken up so when he found out I was going, he called and scheduled a skydive two days before mine. So weird. I don't know what that was supposed to mean but I guess he really got me, he went skydiving first!

But neither of my friends were willing to jump out of a plane.  I don't know, something about having too much to live for or something...what weenies!  So then the discussion turned to a hot air balloon ride. How exciting, right? I really thought that was going to work out but it was a little pricey so looks like that's not going to happen.  I completely understand but I am a little bummed. Like when will I have another chance to balloon over the city of Albuquerque?

So I'm banking on at least a few fun nights out as compensation. I will have to dance at least once to not feel cheated. That may not be fun for anyone else - have you ever seen a stuffed sausage dance?
But I'm going to have a blast!

Yes, Deer!

So the hubby went hunting this weekend and shot a deer!

He went hunting Saturday and got one but couldn't track it. Which turned out to be a kinda good thing because M was upset when she found out he went hunting without her and then when she heard he got one, she was really bummed.  Of course, he felt horrible about killing it and not getting to it.

So they went together yesterday and got another one!  He sent me a text from the field when they tracked it asking if I wanted to help clean it.  That would be a negative ghost rider. Not going to happen.

Which of course, he knew. It was a total joke because I mean, hello - it's me.

M was so excited. When they got home she was telling us about tracking it and finding it and was describing the grossness. She even watched him gut it. Ewww! She definitely does not get that from me - I wanted to puke just hearing about it.

My hubby gives me a hard time because I think gutting animals, chopping heads off chickens and all that other stuff is disgusting. I don't want to hear about it and will never do it. Ever. It makes me gag just pulling all that stuff from the middle of a whole chicken I buy from the store. And I sure don't touch it with my hands. Blah!

He always tells me "You need to know how to do this stuff. What would you do if you had to live off the land?  You would never survive."

He's right. I wouldn't. If the world ever comes to that, you will find me in the middle of the mall eating the world's last piece of chocolate, crying my eyes out.

So now I have to learn how to cook this stuff. That's my contribution to this whole deal. You hunt it, clean it and bring it home. I will cook it and make it look pretty on a plate. That's even, right?

*And bonus points for me for using some of the right hunting terminology. "field", "tracking" - I might be getting this down after all.   It drives my husband crazy when I say "Did you catch anything?" He was like "Kill. You don't "catch" a deer, you kill it." Oh. Taking notes now...

Halloween was a bit of bust this year. I had an itinerary of things to do and the second thing on our list was a trunk or treat but when we got there the lot was empty. No one was there. I checked and we were in the right place so I don't know what happened. Cars kept pulling in and driving around so I wasn't the only one that got bad information.

Then we tried to go door-to-door but hardly anyone was participating. And let me tell you, if you aren't giving out candy - turn off your damn light!

I can't tell you how many houses we went to that no one answered. So frustrating!  Especially since we couldn't find very many houses - it was like false hope. We were walking away from the first house that did that and M2 said "They're doing it wrong!"  Yes, baby, they are!

At the end of the night though there was candy (not a lot but enough) so it was all good...

I'm So Excited, I Just Can't Hide It

Oh. My. Gosh.

I am SO excited!

I just got an email from a legislative assistant informing me that a Representative read my oped that was published a few weeks ago and expressing support. Besides the fact that it's just cool that they thought what I wrote was worth commenting on, do you know what this means?  It's an opportunity to develop a relationship and win a TRIO supporter!

Yes, he's just a state Representative but it's just as important to get state support as it is to get support from our US delegation. It's always blown my mind that people don't understand that. I get it, we're funded by the guys in DC, they have all the power.

But what people are missing is the fact that those guys in DC started somewhere and it's usually at the state level! If you can get their buy-in when you don't have a lot of competition, when you can make it something they really care about then they are  more likely to support it when they get to DC. You make it their passion, not just yours.

And even if they never leave the state - the more "powerful" supporters we get, the better. There are all kinds of opportunities for advocacy/freebies/favors when you have a connected supporter.

I'm really not trying to gloat - I am just super, super excited about this!

My day is made!

Ain't No Mountain High Enough

Ever have so much to do that you don't even know where to begin?  That's me today.  I'm just not able to focus or get anything done.  I'm just spinning my wheels, completely unproductive. I would like to get some things but I just...can't.

So here's some random, unrelated, unimportant commentary to keep me distracted:

There's a guy in our building, about my age that I only run into when I'm wearing the same two dresses. I swear, I hardly ever see this guy but when I do I'm in the same dang thing! Not that he even notices, but how does that keep happening? I have a lot of clothes. A lot. 

***And that's as far as I got.*** 

See, I told you I was having a tough time concentrating!  Just so you know, that was from Monday - the rest of the week was much more productive.

Looking forward to the weekend. We've got adult plans tonight and then of course HALLOWEEN!

I LOVE Halloween! It's just such a fun holiday. I mean, dressing up and candy?  Who doesn't love that? I work extra hard to make sure my girls develop that same love. Again - dressing up and candy - it isn't too hard. And of course they take after their momma - anything with candy and they're in.

I took them to a little Halloween party last night - kept them up way too late but it was worth it. Plus, we're sticking them with my Mom tonight so I don't have to deal with their lack-of-sleep grumpiness.

And then of course I have got to catch up on laundry! M came to me this morning and said "Mom. Our dirty clothes basket is up to here." as she put her hand almost up to her eye.  And the sad thing is, she's probably not even exaggerating.

I do have a semi-reasonable defense though - besides my natural laziness and inherent disdain for housework.  I'm only allowed to do one load of laundry a day! Seriously.  It's in our lease. Something about the water lines and the threat of being responsible if they burst...or something. All I really paid attention to was the "one load per day" part. Because I like to stockpile my laundry. Okay, it's not that I really "like" to...it's actually just a result of me trying to avoid it.

So what I usually do, what I've always done, is just do a whole bunch of laundry in one purge - load after load after load after load after Dear Lord, please make it stop! 

And like pulling a band-aid, it hurts for a second and then it's over. Finally.

So this whole one load a day crap. It's not going over so well.

Honestly, I just forget to do it more than anything. I'm just still not used to having to get a load in every night to get it all done. Laundry is totally not on my radar. The hubby has been working almost every night after work until 8 or 9 so I've been single parenting it for a while.  By the time we get home, get dinner, get through homework, get the dishes done (and have I bitched about not having a dishwasher yet?  If not, remind me and I'll get to it in a minute), and get the house picked up - the only thing I want to do is nothing.

See what a whinebag I am?  This is like any normal night for anyone and I'm over here like "But I'm too tired to do laundry! Waaaahhhhaaa"

But seriously, this fourth grade homework stuff is no joke. I'm embarrassed to admit that there have been multiple occasions that I could not help with math homework. Multiple. Isn't that horrible?  I mean, I have multiple college degrees and I can't work fourth grade math? Wow. I don't even know how that's possible.  Well, yeah I do...I suck at math.

So yeah, my weekend will be filled with costumes, candy and lots of tears as I wade through the mountain of laundry....

Midnight Madness

Had a great meeting today!

It's so exciting when things come together. This organization focuses on moving people from housing vouchers to self sufficiency- either through employment or education. Which is where I come in- send them to me and let me help them graduate! Of course, the program could also be beneficial for some of our students getting housing assistance because they offer a cash incentive to move them in that direction (self sufficiency). So it's definitely a win-win.

I drove back to the office blasting music and singing (screeching) at the top of my lungs, I was so pumped about the prospect of this partnership. In addition to working with them, they also shared some other state programs that would be beneficial to get connected to, so good things are bound to come out of this.

Of course I was also thinking about what I said and how socially awkward I am...I'm just so dorky! But I didn't let that drown my excitement.

Know what's not exciting? Writing a grant that I'm not qualified to write...really struggling here. It doesn't help that I don't have any work space at home. Hard to concentrate when Barbershop is on and I'm planted right in front of the tv. I really have to wait until everyone is asleep before I can get a good workflow so I'm burning the midnight oil getting it done. Or trying to get it done, anyway.

And then, of course, I jump on the internet and play as a distraction. Anything to avoid doing the thing I need to do the very most!

Monday, Monday

Today kicked my butt!

After a four day weekend, it was a tough Monday.  Spent the long weekend up at Lake Tenkiller for some much needed fun. Did a tiny bit of fishing, a whole lot of eating and even more laughing.

Happy girl. I think I need to laugh more often...

Attempted to make my first ever jello shots. Mainly because I wanted to use my brand new OU jello mold. I didn't have any vodka so I improvised with coconut rum...no clue if it would work but it was the best I could do. After hours of waiting the moment of truth arrived - they were ready.  But I couldn't get the dang things out!  No matter what I did, those little suckers were stuck.  After a full jello rescue team, we managed to get two out intact, the rest were just a clump of jello blobness. Didn't stop us from eating them though, those things are good!

Can you even tell those are shaped like OU?

We got home yesterday with enough time for me to unpack bags, do laundry and get the house in order for the start of the week. I have a couple of big projects going. Actually, one super big project that I need to have finished by Thursday. And it's not looking promising because I made very little progress today. I was productive but had too many fires and interruptions to make any real progress.

I had something super exciting happen though. Well, exciting to me. I got a phone call from a man who read my op-ed in the paper. *Last weekend on our way to Tulsa I got a sweet text from a friend with the following picture, letting me know he had read my op-ed. I have the best friends! 

This guy runs a program through the Housing Authority and he said he had never heard of TRIO until reading my article but he felt like we might be able to collaborate. He wanted me to come out to speak with his staff and educate them on TRIO and learn more about their program too.  It's a little thing but I am super pumped - that's what advocacy is all about! 

So I'm meeting with him tomorrow. Of course, it's one more thing I'm trying to cram in but it's totally worth it!  Going to try to knock a few things out tonight. Kids are in bed, hubby is working - let's see how much work Momma can get done!