Sunday, August 29, 2010

Mount Rainier


So now that other business is out of the way, I have time to tell you about the trip Kyle and I took to Mount Rainier on Wednesday. First of all, we are not outdoorsy people. Well, that's not exactly true. I like the outdoors quite a bit. I like hiking, and seeing new places. And I catch insects, for crying out loud. But I don't camp. Day trips are my friend. Or at least give me a cabin with electricity and hot showers and possibly internet. I need to blow dry my hair. And Kyle, well, he's even worse. He loves being outside, playing sports and things, but the majesty of nature? Forget it. And he hates being too hot or too cold, and bugs? Freak him out.

I've been trying to get him to take me to Mount Rainier since, oh, before we got married, two years ago. He's only lived here for a little while, and hasn't seen a lot of the cool things our area has to offer, and I wanted to go and... finally we planned the trip. It's quite a few hours drive from Seattle, so we had to get an early start. I drove so Kyle could nap in the car.


 It was a perfect day for this trip. The sun was out and the skies were blue and it was warm even though we were at 6300 ft. Maybe a little too warm, and I had planned for it to be slightly more chilly, so we were in long pant, which may not have been the best idea.  Even so, it was beautiful.

We hiked along one of the trails, and I thought it was wonderful and amazing, but there were lots of bugs out and Kyle was hot so he was freaking out a bit, and we ended up turning around pretty early. My husband is a big baby.


After we finished our hike we found a pinic bench to eat the lunch I packed for us. I was feeling particularly housewife-y the night before, so I made Kyle PB&J sandwiches with the crusts cut off, a roast beef sandwich for myself, and I cubed up some watermelon. Add some chips, cookies, and lemonade, and it was a really nice meal.

Kyle drove home and took much glee out of using no gas coasting down the mountain. I of course fell asleep.

Saturday, August 28, 2010

Two Things

First, Kitty Update. The Bird Cat came out of surgery just fine, and it ended up costing us slightly less than the low end of the vet's original estimate, so that is good. She's kind of irritated with her cone, but other then that is fine, if a little sleepy. We spent all of last evening napping and cuddling on the couch. I think I needed it as much as her, as work this week has been excessively stressful--a coworker quit and walked out in the middle of her shift yesterday.



Two, the privacy thing again. Now you know more about my cats than you do about me and my husband. I think about this an awful lot. If I get pregnant, or even if I just get a haircut, I want to post pictures! And I want to discuss baby names. And OMG, it is really hard for me to keep typing"husband" instead of his actual name.

So hi, I would like to introduce myself. I am Astrid. (See, the A. I know, very clever.)


And this is Husband. His name is Kyle.


Anyway, nice to meet you.

Thursday, August 26, 2010

Fur Babies

Today I wanted to write a nice lively post about Husband's and mine trip to Mount Rainier yesterday, but shit has gone down, and plans have changed.

Husband and I have cats. Lots and lots of cats. Well, three, but when they are long haired and shed everywhere and you live in a teeny house it feels like a lot. We love them. LOVE them.

We also really suck at naming our pets. We gave them these fantastic names, and then.... never used them. So they each have two names, the "official" one, and the commonly used nickname.

When Husband first moved to Seattle we adopted two kittens, sisters.

This is Sal:

 

I named her Sal because it means salt, and there is nothing that Husband loves more than salt. Except for maybe napping. But really, salt. He puts salt on everything, without even tasting it first. Including things like cheeseburgers and pizza. Gross. Hit brother got him a salt lick for Christmas once. Anyway, when she was little she made chirping noises all the time, and they sounded vaguely bird-like, so she was henceforth "The Bird Cat". Very creative, I know. The bird kitty apparently has a death wish. When we were living in our very first apartment she jumped and/or fell off our second story balcony. A couple years later she ate a bunch of thread and had to have several thousand dollars of surgery and other veterinary hoopla. I guess she is not very smart. She loves me most of all and sleeps on my feet every night. Sometimes she likes to chew on my head and it kind of hurts but it is too adorable to do anything about.

This is her sister, Echo:


 

I named her after Echo from Ovid's Metamorphoses, because that's what I was reading in my Latin class at the time. And I like the myth of Echo and Narcissus a lot. Because I'm kind of weird. Anyway, she is kind of deformed and all of the bones in her tail are crunched up together in a little ball so instead of a majestic cat tail she has a little bunny poof. So naturally, we call her The Bunny Cat. (See this very creative theme...) The Bunny is madly in love with her daddy and pretty much wishes I (and the other cats) didn't exist. When Husband and I briefly broke up she stayed alone with him and I think she longs for those days. She seems, though, to have accepted that I am here to stay, so she doesn't yowl at me any time I walk into the room anymore.

Less than a year after we adopted The Bird Cat and The Bunny, they started getting really big and not so cute and kitten-y anymore, so, to bring even more cuteness into our home, we adopted yet another cat:

 

This is Lancelot. He is adorable. Clearly, however, we couldn't just use his god forsaken name and call him Lancelot, so he became known as The Kitten. I know, you didn't think it could get less creative, but it did. It's even worse, because he is so clearly not a kitten anymore, but we can't bring ourselves to call him anything else. He is friendly and loves everyone and I think he might be slightly asthmatic because he sometimes wheezes when he purrs and snores when he is napping. He loves his adopted sisters, who mostly just tolerate him, and sometimes tries to give them baths.




Last night The Bird Cat was bleeding and had a huge wound behind her ear. Looked like she had gotten into a fight. I washed her off as best I could and put some Neosporin on it and kept a close eye on things to make sure it wasn't getting infected. But when I came home from work today it was bleeding again and she had been scratching at it and I got another look at the injury and it looked a lot worse on closer inspection than it had the night before. Off too the vet, hoping they might just give her some stitches and a cone and maybe some antibiotics and we'd be out a hundred bucks or so.

Turns out she has a nasty abscess. They had to anesthetize her and put a drain in it and keep her overnight tonight. And charge us a lot of money, of course. We get to pick her up in the morning. Or rather, Husband gets to pick her up because I have to go to work. The vet called and told us that her surgery went well, but I am still feeling very sad, and I am going to miss her sleeping on my feet tonight.



It is always The Bird Kitty that gets into trouble. Maybe she should have a new nickname: The Million-Dollar Cat.

Tuesday, August 24, 2010

I can't get pregnant...

...so I will just write more about work.

I wrote that I was excited about my job and making it into a career and whatever the other day. I am, it's true. I get to do some really cool things. And since we finished construction I've been given the go ahead to get more creative than previously, which is awesome. But lately work has been very trying.

My boss was recently promoted, so now he has his own store to run and he isn't my boss any more. Since I started with my company I have had three different bosses, and five (five!) different general managers. The regional whoever people that are supposed to be replacing him are apparently dragging their feet, because its been a month since they were supposed to start looking, and they don't even seem to be close to hiring anyone. And by the way, a month is forever in retail. So besides that the work that my boss would be doing has to be split amongst me, a couple coworkers, and our GM, two of us haven't had any training on our positions. And since our remodel our store is under the corporate microscope. So, um, stress.

Our general manager burst into tears in the back room today because she apparently feels terrible that me and coworker R get all the bullshit heaped on top of us. It was nice to at least hear that from her, because she is on our asses all the time to move faster and do things better and GET. MORE. DONE., even though I rarely take all my breaks. It's not possible to do any more than we are currently doing, but we are understaffed and under-led and under pressure.

I don't mind the hard work, or even over-working myself for short periods of time when something big or important is going on, but I've been running myself down for the past three or so weeks, and it doesn't really look like our work load is lightening up anytime in the near future. Or like, until mid-January. But what we're doing now is completely unsustainable, and I'm pretty sure all of us on the behind-the-scenes side of my store are venturing into nervous breakdown territory.



In other news, today is cycle day 33. I took a pregnancy test today just to confirm what I already knew... not pregnant. You know, with all that sex I haven't been having. I was doing a really good job temping up until work got all super crazy and my schedule went spastic and charting was impossible, so I don't even have a clue where I am in my cycle. I wouldn't be surprised if I delayed ovulation because of stress and sleep deprivation and what-have-you, but since we're now on the officially trying boat, I really want to, you know, do that. But I am here again, treading water until I can start with a new cycle.



I do have a much needed day off tomorrow. (I do feel a smidge guilty about it, though...) Husband and I are going to take a day trip to Mount Rainier and hike one of the trails and see the views and have a picnic. I've been trying to get him to visit The Mountain with me, oh, only for the last two years. Finally.

Saturday, August 21, 2010

Part Three: I apologize if this is incredibly boring.

I was really bummed when Husband quit his job recently. Not only because we now have a lot less money, and not just because I'd miss him waking up at normal hours, but really because of health insurance. I mean, it's not really that big of a deal. We were covered through his job, and now through mine. So no loss or anything. But if we're covered through my job then... well... I can't exactly leave it once I pop out a baby. After I finally came to the conclusion that this is what I want. Them's the breaks, I guess.

So I've been trying to come to terms with my future as a working mom. I suppose a starting point would be liking my job...

An aside about what I do. I am a visual merchandiser for a major clothing retailer. That means I do things like style mannequins and create window displays. It's also boring things like deciding which rack or table goes where and which color order those sweaters are displayed in. And making sure all the signs that tell you their price are up. Among other things. And I don't get complete say over any of this, of course, because corporate wants all the stores to look similar, so I have more of an interpretation role. It's fun and I like it, but it is far less glamorous than it sounds. Most days I lift heavy things, break fingernails, and sweat a lot. Very nice.

I sort of fell into this as a career, because god knows I didn't set out to become a merchandiser.  I got a part time job as a sales associate after I tired of working in food service, and eventually found myself helping more and more on what we call the "brand" side of things. I was good at it. And soon it did become something I rather liked doing.

So now I'm trying to figure out how to turn this job into a career I'm excited about. There are a couple positions higher than mine, but they turn into people management pretty quick. And then the next step is to become the GM of my own store, which is so far from what I want to do. The other route I could go is corporate. This is the true creation of all the visual displays I implement. That sounds more like something I could get into.

We just finished remodeling our store, and in the last week before our reopening, the corporate merchants came to help. Oh. My. God. Wow. That is what I want to do.



So I'm in a better place right now. There is some stupid drama and stress at work right now, but there always is. At least now I have a career path I can be excited about as a venture into motherhood as a working girl.

Friday, August 20, 2010

Part Two: A New Plan

So, I came to terms with the whole I-want-to-be-a-mom thing. It was kind of difficult to do after spending my whole life so far not even considering it as a possibility. And possibly looking down on the women who did make that choice. (Sorry, I was wrong.)

I felt so good after I finally got on board with the idea. I could see myself being mom all day. And it seemed like a sensible plan, too, since daycare in our area costs approximately as much as I make, so why the heck would I pay someone my entire salary to take care of my kid when I could do it myself for free? I was worried that staying at home would be a selfish decision, but now it was the financially responsible thing, too!


Around the same time that I settled on my new, uh, life goal, I got a promotion at work, one that I had been vying for, for pretty much forever.  But whatever, I'll work until I have a baby and then I'll quit or come back part time or something if I need to get out of the house, no big deal. Husband is doing well at work, we have an actual budget for the first time, um, ever, and like, health insurance! We're moving into our own place soon, and the stage is set for everything I ever wanted (at least since last year) to work out for me. Huzzah!

Wednesday, August 18, 2010

Part One: Career Girl Gone Bad

So my daydreams when I was younger generally didn't involve, well, babies. I was going to be a novelist or a mathematician or a lawyer or maybe the first woman on the moon. Actually I went through a phase where I really wanted to terraform Mars. I'm not kidding. Sure, I would have kids someday, of course, when I was good and ready and establisher in my career and could afford a nanny and whatever. Just like mom. (P.S. I love my mom and think she's this most awesome woman ever, so this is no dig at her.)

But when I met Husband, things started to change. I was in school studying biology, which, don't get me wrong, I still love, but... oh, it was slowly becoming clear that this was not a career I wanted to pursue. But what the hell was I going to do? At the same time, the baby itch was growing.

It took me years to figure out what was going on. I'd been getting encouragement for years from my parents and my teachers and pretty much everybody ever that I could be anything I wanted to be. A doctor! A teacher! The president! Yay feminism! Stay at home parent? Not even mentioned.  So it finally dawned on me that the reason I wasn't getting all excited about any particular job or subject was because I didn't want a career, I wanted a family.

Um, weird.





This is getting longer than I anticipated, so I'm going to split it into part. How many, who knows. So let's call this part one.

Saturday, August 14, 2010

All work and now play.

Hi blog! I miss you. I'm sorry I've been so neglectful. Life, you know.

Ok, so. I haven't really talked much about work here, because I'm not really sure how appropriate it is to be divulging info about my job and my store and whatever, and since I have a problem shutting up once I get going I am trying to avoid the getting going in the first place. However, this past week or so at work for me has been interesting, to say the least, and I am feeling differently about some aspects of myself and my life as a result, so I am trying to come up with away to speak about this while maintaining the privacy I need.

But yes, work has indeed been busy recently, and I haven't had a spare moment to see husband, much less blog. I am now heading out to a Big Gay Dance Party to celebrate with my coworkers the amazing successful close of a crazy stressful week, and in my next post I will fill you in (all two readers!) on what I can.

Love.




Also, congrats to the Preconceptionist (which she isn't so much anymore)!  :)

Tuesday, August 3, 2010

News!

Well, I'm not entirely done unpacking yet, but I've made a ton of progress, and it's starting to feel like we actually live here. I haven't done much grocery shopping yet, and Husband is out with the car at his baseball game, so I'm taking a break and waiting for a pizza.

Big changes for us this past week, and not just the move. Last Tuesday evening, after we picked up the keys to our new home, Husband said that he wanted to talk to me. Long story short, he wanted to quit his high-paying IT job and take a part-time position as a personal trainer, for an hourly wage less than my pathetic salary. Say what? 

So it's not actually as bad as it sounds.  He would also make commission his training sessions, and he'll continue to do freelance IT work and various other things. I was thrown through a loop by all of this and I asked if it could wait until, say, AFTER we finish moving, but alas, the offer was immediate. So, instead of packing like we should have been we sat down and crunched the numbers and thought up all the worst case scenarios and... yeah.

I kind of hate this.

Husband is sort of an odd duck.  He hates having a job. I know that sounds stupid and that most people don't love every waking second of working for a living, but he is just terribly miserable working the old nine-to-five. I, however, LOVE when husband has a regular job. It means he is awake at normal hours and home at a reasonable time and that he gets roughly the same amount of  money on each paycheck at regular intervals.  But it makes him so unhappy. And he is my husband and I love him and he had a plan and how can I say no?

So husband quit his job last week. It's actually kind of nice that now my paycheck and my job aren't completely superfluous, but like, not really, you know?  I will tell you, though, that I only agreed to all of this as long as we didn't have to postpone any of our baby-making plans. And that we like, officially start trying. So yay to that. It still throws some things off, though, because now we have to get our health coverage through my work, so the option of me staying home with baby is completely out of the question now. I'm a little bummed, but more than anything I want my husband to be happy. So we'll do it.

I'm still digesting it all.

Monday, August 2, 2010

Almost Home

Hello Internets!

Husband and I are moved in to our new place and we got our internet and TV reconnected today. We're still living in a sea of cardboard boxes, although I'm making a dent in them, slowly but surely, and I'm really starting to feel like this is home.  There have been a couple issues regarding sinks leaking and that we forgot to check to see if there was a dishwasher before signing the lease, and other such things, but we are working on fixing and/or accepting these things.

There is some big (not baby) news here in the Science Experiments household, but I've given myself a deadline of Thursday to be 100% unpacked and put away and pictures and curtains hanging on the walls, so it'll have to wait a couple of days until we are more settled. Soon.

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