Wow, long time
Apr. 7th, 2019 03:02 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
eee1313Hey people! There are, I believe, three of you who may see this. If so, hello, old friends! Where to even begin? I haven't updated in so long that I don't even know where to start. Okay, let's do this.
The state of me: I'm doing okay. I've gotten fat. Like, quite fat. I need to lose weight. I need to sleep better (my son won't sleep unless I'm in bed with him, so being smashed into a twin bed with a 60 lb 4-year-old is definitely not the way to a good night's rest). I also fell down the stairs a few weeks ago and seriously injured my tailbone. For a while it hurt to stand up or sit down, so only sitting stick-straight, lying down, or standing up felt good. That's not fun when your job is to sit in front of a computer for 8 hours, plus the 1+ hour commuting to/from work. But it's getting better.
Last month I went to Vegas with deeablo (at least one of you knows her) to go see Robbie Williams in concert. I've been wanting to see him perform for almost 20 years, so this was absolutely amazing. He did a show at the Wynn and did a lot of Rat Pack standards as well as some of his biggest hits. It was just so good. Robbie was the last musician on my bucket list to see perform live, and it was just so amazing. It sounds silly, but I legitimately cried hearing him sing live. And the show was so much fun. I flew in on a Friday morning, deeablo joined me a few hours later, we walked the Strip, took a nap, went to the show that night, and then flew home the next morning. It was also really good just to have some time with her and reconnect. Despite only living an hour or so apart (yay, Chicagoland traffic) we almost never see each other. So it was a good mini vacation.
Work continues. It's been really busy for a long time now, and last month I got reamed out by my boss for having a negative attitude and bringing down the department. (It was me and two other people that were being negative. I kind of feel that if 1/2 of your entire department has a negative view of things, maybe you need to look at how the department is working and not just those people...) Anyway, I've been very stressed about things since. It stinks that I'm supremely confident in my work, but now I have nothing but self-doubt about my place at the company. They're pushing this new initiative to make a shit-ton of money, and I worry that the higher ups are biting off more than they can chew. I've seen this happen at other jobs I've worked and it's ended in layoffs, so pardon if I'm skeptical. I don't really want to drink the Kool-Aid if there's a good chance it may end up poisoning me, you know? Anyway, for the first time in the 10 years I've been at this job, I'm actually concerned about getting a bad review. Which sucks, because my work itself is top-notch. I don't like the idea that I'm going to be judged on my personality and not my work, especially when there's never been a problem with my personality before. This push to have "the right people in the right seats" scares me, because it seems like a threat hanging over our heads; we may be able to do the work, but if we don't have the right attitude it doesn't matter. Great. I find it interesting how many long-term employees are calling it quits and retiring early lately. We've had a rash of those. That should be a telling sign as well...
What else is going on? My marriage is fine, albeit a bit strained. We don't have too much time alone these days, which sometimes really gets to us. There are days where we both will be on completely different wavelengths and start snapping at one another, and we just have to dial it back and figure out why we're reading each other wrong. Other days we can literally finish each other's sentences and know exactly what the other person wants without saying it. We're coming up on our 11-year anniversary in a few weeks. I haven't gotten my husband a gift yet -- I'm not sure there's anything he'd want/need. I should probably think of something good soon.
The kids are coming along. VEE is still kicking ass and taking names at school. Her teacher loves her because she always has a great attitude and can be counted on as a behavior leader. She actually won an award at school for her good behavior, so I was very proud. She's reading on something like a fourth-grade level, which is bonkers and great. Math is a bit of a trouble sometimes; she's fine with addition but subtraction confuses her. There's her first school musical coming up next week. She's an owl.
MDRE is progressing, which is good. We had to suspend his ABA therapy for a few weeks due to confusion with insurance. He'll start back up again tomorrow, but our bill is still astronomical. He's only in therapy for six hours a week and we're looking at a $2600 bill, with more to come. Yikes. But it's helping. Between the outside therapy and the work they're doing at school with him, we've seen a lot of difference in him. He's now sometimes using utensils to eat, and he's talking. (Right now he's out in the living room yelling "race cars, please!") His talk, however, tends to be solely when HE wants to talk and not when we want him to. But he's also 4, so that kind of makes sense. Potty training is still a pipe dream. Someday...
Oh, we got a cat after the New Year. VEE lost two fish and was very sad about it, and we'd been kicking around the idea of getting another pet. The Scientist and I would have rather gotten a dog, but seeing as how we're not home most of the day AND we don't have a big yard OR a big house and we also can't stand small dogs, it just didn't make sense. So we got another cat. We went to a shelter our friend recommended and walked out that afternoon with this cat. He's a tabby, short hair, which is not what I thought I'd get, but he has zero dander and thus I don't have allergy issues. We got a boy cat because they're almost always friendlier, and the people at the shelter told us this guy is "stupid friendly." They'd been calling him Ricky and it was beginning to work for him, so we kept it. Though we did change the spelling to Rikki after Rikki Tikki Tavi. He's so friendly, but he's also the loudest cat on the planet and all he wants to do is eat. So combine those together and he's REALLY annoying at 4 in the morning. But I love him, and he doens't mind the kids, and he ADORES the Scientist, much to his chagrin. Heh.
So that's life around here. I'm sure there's a lot more, but I need to go put laundry away, so I'm calling it quits. See you in another five months or something.
The state of me: I'm doing okay. I've gotten fat. Like, quite fat. I need to lose weight. I need to sleep better (my son won't sleep unless I'm in bed with him, so being smashed into a twin bed with a 60 lb 4-year-old is definitely not the way to a good night's rest). I also fell down the stairs a few weeks ago and seriously injured my tailbone. For a while it hurt to stand up or sit down, so only sitting stick-straight, lying down, or standing up felt good. That's not fun when your job is to sit in front of a computer for 8 hours, plus the 1+ hour commuting to/from work. But it's getting better.
Last month I went to Vegas with deeablo (at least one of you knows her) to go see Robbie Williams in concert. I've been wanting to see him perform for almost 20 years, so this was absolutely amazing. He did a show at the Wynn and did a lot of Rat Pack standards as well as some of his biggest hits. It was just so good. Robbie was the last musician on my bucket list to see perform live, and it was just so amazing. It sounds silly, but I legitimately cried hearing him sing live. And the show was so much fun. I flew in on a Friday morning, deeablo joined me a few hours later, we walked the Strip, took a nap, went to the show that night, and then flew home the next morning. It was also really good just to have some time with her and reconnect. Despite only living an hour or so apart (yay, Chicagoland traffic) we almost never see each other. So it was a good mini vacation.
Work continues. It's been really busy for a long time now, and last month I got reamed out by my boss for having a negative attitude and bringing down the department. (It was me and two other people that were being negative. I kind of feel that if 1/2 of your entire department has a negative view of things, maybe you need to look at how the department is working and not just those people...) Anyway, I've been very stressed about things since. It stinks that I'm supremely confident in my work, but now I have nothing but self-doubt about my place at the company. They're pushing this new initiative to make a shit-ton of money, and I worry that the higher ups are biting off more than they can chew. I've seen this happen at other jobs I've worked and it's ended in layoffs, so pardon if I'm skeptical. I don't really want to drink the Kool-Aid if there's a good chance it may end up poisoning me, you know? Anyway, for the first time in the 10 years I've been at this job, I'm actually concerned about getting a bad review. Which sucks, because my work itself is top-notch. I don't like the idea that I'm going to be judged on my personality and not my work, especially when there's never been a problem with my personality before. This push to have "the right people in the right seats" scares me, because it seems like a threat hanging over our heads; we may be able to do the work, but if we don't have the right attitude it doesn't matter. Great. I find it interesting how many long-term employees are calling it quits and retiring early lately. We've had a rash of those. That should be a telling sign as well...
What else is going on? My marriage is fine, albeit a bit strained. We don't have too much time alone these days, which sometimes really gets to us. There are days where we both will be on completely different wavelengths and start snapping at one another, and we just have to dial it back and figure out why we're reading each other wrong. Other days we can literally finish each other's sentences and know exactly what the other person wants without saying it. We're coming up on our 11-year anniversary in a few weeks. I haven't gotten my husband a gift yet -- I'm not sure there's anything he'd want/need. I should probably think of something good soon.
The kids are coming along. VEE is still kicking ass and taking names at school. Her teacher loves her because she always has a great attitude and can be counted on as a behavior leader. She actually won an award at school for her good behavior, so I was very proud. She's reading on something like a fourth-grade level, which is bonkers and great. Math is a bit of a trouble sometimes; she's fine with addition but subtraction confuses her. There's her first school musical coming up next week. She's an owl.
MDRE is progressing, which is good. We had to suspend his ABA therapy for a few weeks due to confusion with insurance. He'll start back up again tomorrow, but our bill is still astronomical. He's only in therapy for six hours a week and we're looking at a $2600 bill, with more to come. Yikes. But it's helping. Between the outside therapy and the work they're doing at school with him, we've seen a lot of difference in him. He's now sometimes using utensils to eat, and he's talking. (Right now he's out in the living room yelling "race cars, please!") His talk, however, tends to be solely when HE wants to talk and not when we want him to. But he's also 4, so that kind of makes sense. Potty training is still a pipe dream. Someday...
Oh, we got a cat after the New Year. VEE lost two fish and was very sad about it, and we'd been kicking around the idea of getting another pet. The Scientist and I would have rather gotten a dog, but seeing as how we're not home most of the day AND we don't have a big yard OR a big house and we also can't stand small dogs, it just didn't make sense. So we got another cat. We went to a shelter our friend recommended and walked out that afternoon with this cat. He's a tabby, short hair, which is not what I thought I'd get, but he has zero dander and thus I don't have allergy issues. We got a boy cat because they're almost always friendlier, and the people at the shelter told us this guy is "stupid friendly." They'd been calling him Ricky and it was beginning to work for him, so we kept it. Though we did change the spelling to Rikki after Rikki Tikki Tavi. He's so friendly, but he's also the loudest cat on the planet and all he wants to do is eat. So combine those together and he's REALLY annoying at 4 in the morning. But I love him, and he doens't mind the kids, and he ADORES the Scientist, much to his chagrin. Heh.
So that's life around here. I'm sure there's a lot more, but I need to go put laundry away, so I'm calling it quits. See you in another five months or something.
no subject
Date: 2019-04-08 01:20 am (UTC)I'm so happy to hear from you, even if some of the news is less than positive. I'm sending good thoughts your way for all the challenges, and cheering you on in the rest.
Also, Robbie Williams with Deeablo? Dream vacation!
*more love*