White Orchid Melody

I had a nice breakfast friday, with some friends with whom I’d worked at May Co.  We got to talking about how different our lives are now versus when we were working.  We were all making quite a bit of money, especially by midwestern standards.  But we were all equally miserable.  Where did all that money even go?  I can’t believe how much I spent on clothes and shoes and crap for the house.  A bunch of stuff I really didn’t need.  And I probably wasn’t as bad as most people.  But it was like a compulsion.  I’d go to a store and feel like I HAD to buy something.  It was a way of filling the void left by an abusive workplace.  We were so degraded there.  There was constant criticism.  Our VP even admitted once that they were so negative and hard on us because they truly believed we wouldn’t work as hard if they gave us praise.  Wow, hard to believe that company went out of business!  Anyway, all three of us are on different career paths now.  We could have gone and gotten fashion jobs making as much or more than we were at May, but we opted out of that whole scene.  We were all really burnt out and bitter and our self esteem had suffered.  We each realized that the money just wasn’t worth that. So even though our household incomes had been basically cut in half after quitting, we were much happier.  And the interesting part was that our standards of living hadn’t really changed.  All that money was pretty much down the drain to make up for our misery at work.  I think a great deal of Americans fall into that pattern of rewarding themselves for putting up with an awful job, whether it is through shopping, drinking, or whatever addictive entertainment makes those 40+ hours a week tolerable. And why? For an illusion of security?  Because working a 9-5 (or so) is a guaranteed paycheck?  Well tell that to all those who’ve unexpectedly lost their jobs due to mergers and consolidations.  There is no such thing as job security; it’s like Santa or the Easter Bunny.  Of course, sometimes a job is necessary.  Somebody has to bring in the money to pay the bills.  The point of my reflection on my working days is that they were a big waste of my time because of how I spent my money.  I should have been stashing away as much of my paycheck as possible to pay off student loans and for savings.  At least that would have some tangible benefit for the future.  If I had to have a job again, I would look at things very differently.  I would make sure I was maximizing my income and using it in the absolute smartest way possible.  It never makes sense to say “I deserve this because I work so hard.”  If you wouldn’t buy it if you didn’t have the job, you shouldn’t buy it at all.  Reward yourself by building a nest egg that will either let you retire from your job early, or maybe just quit altogether and pursue a different path.  But realize that spending your money by shopping for things you really don’t need or by eating out all the time or by going to happy hour every friday won’t solve the problem at hand.  That is just treating the symptoms, not what is causing them. 

I’ve always been doctor-adverse.  So even though I love my OBGYN, I still don’t like all the appointments and procedures.  I had my gestational diabetes screening yesterday and had to drink the glucola, which is like flat orange soda with 50 grams of dextrose!  I was on a sugar high for about 30 minutes and then crashed and felt like crap!  Plus I got to spend the rest of the day worrying if I’d passed or failed.  Thanksgiving at Grandma’s wasn’t going to be much fun on a GD diet!  But they called this morning and I passed.  That was a relief.  I was just pondering what a silly thing it is to put most women under undue stress for all this testing.  Everytime we’ve had a procedure done I have a ton of anxiety over the potential outcome.  And I am a pretty healthy person, not at risk for any issues or complications.  They should really use more discretion with ordering the tests, I think.  But in the age of litigation I guess they have to cover all the bases.  I guess I should just be relieved that I passed the test and all is well with baby and mom.  Now I can look forward to Thanksgiving dinner!

It’s been a crazy sort of week.  Last friday night we babysat a friend’s 2 year old.  Sounds scarier than it was.  She is actually really smart and communicates well.  The whole frustration with small children, I think, is their inability to communicate what they do and do not want.  So, we had a good time.  Then Saturday morning, we met Brian’s aunt and uncle for breakfast.  They were driving their RV through town on the way back to Minnesota.  We had breakfast at the historic Bevo Mill.  We’d never eaten there before.  It was really nice.  They had a great brunch buffet and were smart enough to seat the pregnant lady right in front of it!  I didn’t have to eat for about 8 hours after that!  (which is a big deal for me, I’m on a 2 hour feeding schedule!)  After breakfast we visited with them for awhile and then had to go to an appointment to show one of our apartments.  It seemed to go well.  We had another showing Tuesday, so hopefully one of the two will want it!  It will be a relief to have everything fully occupied!  Sunday we just worked around the house.  We are reorganizing our closets, which we thought would be a weekend deal, but it has taken about a month already.   Brian also started staining the furniture for the nursery.  Everything is coming along slowly but nicely.

The one-car simple living experiment is still going well.  Although, I think we’ll be making some adjustments to our schedule.  I’ve been running errands on Monday afternoons after I finish teaching.  This is such a headache for me.  First, I am not used to fighting afternoon traffic.  Second, the area where I get my groceries is under construction.  The combination is horrible!  It takes so long to get to the store and back home.  I would just shop elsewhere, but Trader Joe’s is so much cheaper than the other groceries.  So, I had a bit of a meltdown Monday when I was tired from teaching and running errands and then knew I had to go home and make dinner.  I came home crying (its the hormones!) and told Brian that someone else needed to make dinner.  So we ordered pizza.  But that is only a temporary solution.  We can’t eat out or order out every day I’m tired, because that would be every day.  We need to get a deep freezer so I can start cooking things up one day a week to have quick meals on hand.  That is going to be more important as I become more physically limited in the next few months.  Then after the baby, well, let’s just say Brian doesn’t really cook.   So, the plan of action is to have the vehicle every other friday to run errands and then cook like crazy one weekend a month to freeze for those “I’m exhausted” emergencies.

So then Tuesday, I go out to the garage to get my bike out to go to the gym and discover that our garage door is all smashed in!  Thank goodness we’d already sold the car!  Our garage opens up to an alley.  The neighbors across the alley don’t actually use their garages, so I knew it wouldn’t have been them.  However one of them is having some work done in the back, a wall built and the yard levelled.   So, I thought it might have been his workers.  I went and talked to him about it and he said, no, his workers weren’t there on Monday.  However, the contractor had advertised for free dirt and someone had come by to get the dirt.  That was the most likely suspect.  No one else would have been trying to back up or turn around in a 10 foot wide alley.  But seeing as how they weren’t noble enough to leave a note, we’re out the money for a new garage door.  We filed a police report, but the officer said unless someone saw him do it, or the guy admits it, we can’t really do anything.  Grrrr!  The joys of city living.  These are the sort of things that make me wish I lived out in the country somewhere! 

Relative to the start of the week, the rest has gone smoothly.  Yesterday was my last day of riding my bike to the gym.  I have a week more to work there, but I’ll have the vehicle all next week as Brian will be in training at his job.  It hasn’t been too bad, really.  In fact, I’m pretty sure it was good for me :)  But I need a nap after biking 40 minutes and working out between my classes.  It leaves me pretty worthless in the afternoons.  Maybe I’ll continue riding my bike for exercise while the weather is nice.  We’ll see.

Update on the networking: We are operational thanks to our kind and generous neighbor, Paul.  Yay, Paul!  We owe you a beer or six.

We’ve been rearranging the house a bit…simplifying, if you will.  We have technically four bedrooms, though two of them are rather small.  So, three are upstairs and one downstairs.  We had the downstairs bedroom set up as a den, with the tv and a sofa and chair.  It was nice because the tv was in its own room and could be closed off.  But with the new addition on the way, we needed to consolidate.  So, we had Salvation Army pick up the sofa that was in the living room and moved the sofa and the tv from the den to the living room.  The tv is in an armoire, so it isn’t too bad having it out in the living room.  In fact, its much simpler, and we actually use the living room more now.  Anyway, we had the office upstairs, so after a week of repainting the den, we moved the office downstairs.  It looks great, and it is more comfortable.  The upstairs bedroom where we had the office was always hot in the summer and cold in the winter. 

 

Part of the office moving project was setting up a wireless network for the laptop.  Neither Brian, nor I are very technically savvy.  So, this has been sheer frustration.  We followed all the directions and it still doesn’t work.  Grrrr.  So I’m spending the morning trying to figure out what is going on.  And now the laptop is freaking out with the stupid McAfee program.  It keeps giving me an error and won’t let me uninstall.  I guess you can’t ask too much from a $400 laptop.  Clearly the poor thing is stressed out.  I guess I should have taken some computer classes instead of so many drawing studios in school.  Oh well. 

Just getting this page formatted was a nightmare…I have to say this still isn’t ideal.  I would prefer to have my blog integrated into my webpage through GoLive.  So if anyone knows how I could do that, let me know!