gee thanks...

Oh, mylanta. Tomorrow is Thanksgiving. The best part about that?

Three words.

Four. Day. Weekend.

I get a breather from my usual daily grind to catch up on life in general. And my other jobs.

I am thankful for the many sources of income for my family. Really. I am. I promise I'm not trying to convince myself. There's just a lot I have to do to keep up with the part-time jobs I have.

On tap for this weekend:

• family time all day tomorrow followed by a tryptophan coma
• decorating the homestead for Christmas
• going to the gym to run through the new BODYCOMBAT and BODYATTACK releases I received in the mail last week (Les Mills Christmas 4 times a year! squee!)
• catching up on Bible reading for the 6 weeks I slacked off
• grading student pre-tests for PSY 101
• teaching at the gym
• Christmas shopping!
• plenty of naps (it is a four-day weekend after all)

But through it all, I give thanks. Thanks for the wonderful people I have in my life. Thanks for the amazing opportunities I have to grow personally and professionally. Thanks for shelter, freedom, love, and the ability to be a crazy, type-A person who has a bit of a scheduling handicap. I wouldn't have it any other way.

my brain is ready to tap out...

Ever have one (or three) of those days where all the work you have to do involves a helluva lot of thinking and at the end of it your brain is just tired? Yeah...it's been like that for a few days.

While I admit that my job keeps me (mostly) busy and (mostly) out of trouble, the work that I have to do on a daily basis doesn't tend to be all that mentally taxing. Seriously. I love what I do because of this. I got my fix of brainy work during my 4 years of college and 2 years of grad school. It's nice to get a brain-cation now. Not that I can work on autopilot, but I think you catch the drift. It's not like I'm the leader of the free world or anything...

This week, the story has changed a little bit. I have had to do some serious cranial calisthenics. If I haven't been in a meeting where I needed to be mentally alert, I've been trapped in front of my computer analyzing different finance things going on at the Club. Too many numbers, too many meetings, feeling mentally drained, ready for a nap.

Or maybe just dessert.

so i'm kind of a rule follower...

My entire life I have been a bit of a rule follower. Understatement. I am a nervous nelly who strongly believes that rules are handed down for a reason. The reason? To be followed.

Yesterday the hubs and I took a hike out at the Wind Cave Trail in Usery Pass. It was a beautiful day yesterday, and it was perfect for the hike. We made it up to the top in about an hour, and the view was incredible. What does all of this have to do with following the rules? I'm getting there.

When we got to the actual wind cave, there is a sign with a few simple rules to follow. The first: pick up your trash (easy - we had water bottles). The second: clean up your animal waste (easier - no animals in tow). The last: do not feed the chipmunks. People food is not chipmunk food (seriously. the sign spelled it out this way).

As Steven and I made out way to a spot to sit where we could rest before going back down the mountain, there was another group at the top sitting and eating snacks. The first thing they do? Throw saltine cracker bits toward the chipmunks. My reaction? Heart palpitations and trying like crazy not to tell them they were breaking the rules.

I don't know where this overwhelming urge to make sure the rules are followed has its roots. I've just always been that way. Perhaps this tendency also complements the type A in me. There is a certain way things need to be done, ergo I will do them in that manner and do them well. I will make sure the rules are followed so the powers that be are pleased with my work (as long as the rules are reasonable and do not ask me to do anything illegal).

What do you think about rules?

working for a charity has its perks...

From time to time there are some nice fringe benefits associated with being employed by a charity. Sometimes.

My more than full-time employment with the Boys & Girls Clubs is probably reasons 1 through 5 why I am so busy all the time. Ok, forget probably. It is reasons 1 through 5. But every once in a while we get little perks. Like free tickets to sporting events. Or I get to have a day like today.

Today I spent the day at the Phoenix Country Club. They are hosting the Goldwater Tennis Classic this week, and the Boys & Girls Clubs of the East Valley is the beneficiary charity (thank you, Grant Woods!). Earlier this week I had been there a couple of times for part of the day, but today was a full day there. From 9 am till the fat lady sang and the tennis tournament ended around 6 pm.

It was a nice, laid back day that was a complete change of pace from the usual chaos I get to endure at the Club (did you see what I did there? I said "get to" not "have to." perspective is a beautiful thing...). I seriously needed a break from the Club melee. The first two days this week this week nearly took everything out of me. So today I enjoyed a day at the country club (sounds kinda pretentious, yes?).

The day included, in no particular order:

• eating a ridiculous amount of Dunkin Donuts munchkins. seriously. i think i ate the equivalent of a dozen donuts. ok, i overspoke. half a dozen.
• watching one set of a singles match that was seriously one-sided and chuckling at the grunting. did i mention the grunting was in a foreign language? it was. i wish i could make this stuff up.
• scoring a DELISH wildberry margarita from the Cruz Tequila reps while selling raffle tickets at a ladies' luncheon.
• eating an equally delish lunch prepared by the PCC at an outdoor table at the edge of the golf course. amazing.
• preparing my variance report while watching a doubles match and soaking in some rays. did i mention the spot where they had us posted was freezing? i found many an excuse to sit and watch matches where the sunlight was ample.

And now I sit in my very warm and comfy yoga pants and long-sleeved gym shirt with slippers warming my now defrosted tootsies looking forward to an equally slow-paced and fun weekend.

It's the little things that make life beautiful, don't you think?

and now for a word from our sponsors...

It's time for a commercial break. Or at least a plain old break.

It seems like the past week was especially hectic, but I blame the lack of a weekend. There were times when I could swear I saw my precious and fleeting free time being sucked into a maelstrom. Hasta la vista.

An observation I made this past week is just how quickly time seems to slip away when you're inside the four walls of a hospital. My sister was in the hospital Saturday night and stayed through Monday morning. She was experiencing numbness down her right side and excruciating pain in her abdomen. After a late night and full morning of test after test, turns out she had gotten a bad kidney infection. She also had a migraine, and the migraine was so bad she wound up numb down her right side. There was a collective sigh of relief when the neurologist confirmed that she hadn't had a stroke and told us all her CT's and the MRI were normal and clear. Despite the fear and the desperation of waiting for test results and consults, it seemed like the time slipped away incredibly quickly. Every time I looked at the clock, it seemed like at least an hour had passed, sometimes more. Before I knew it, I had been there for twelve hours and was on my way home again.

There was some comic relief that came out of the 12 plus hours I spent hanging with Jess and the family on Sunday. Watching the Vikings/Cards game, we saw a sideline analyst wearing what looked like a football fanny pack. If you want to know the new name I gave the fanny pack, ask me off the record. Trust me, it will be worth it. And now anytime anyone in the family does anything, the challenge posed is "now do it with your right hand." There were plenty of "that's what she said" moments, but the best was when the phlebotomist was drawing Jess's blood and told her "I'm glad you weren't too hard" (that's what she said).

The excitement of the weekend was compounded by a very eventful first few days this week. When I got home tonight, I gave Steven a HUGE hug and sighed into his ear "I am soooooo glad we have NOTHING to do tonight." Finally rest. And five minutes to update the blog.

Now back to our regularly scheduled programming.

in today's episode....

...the hero gets the win. Or something like that.

I had a little guy get sick to his stomach shortly after he got to the Club today. He threw up just feet away from the front desk right before snack and was bawling because it scared him so much to throw up, which is a pretty typical response. I mean, even I cry when I throw up. What? You mean everyone doesn't do that. Oh...

Anyway, after helping him get himself cleaned up and making sure people weren't standing around staring at him, he started to shiver. Seriously, the gym at the Club is ridiculously cold. We went outside to warm up, and he asked me some funny questions. My favorite? "Why don't my dogs throw up? They eat stuff off the floor and chew on sticks."

As if that weren't funny enough, he then proceeded to explain to me that he's a vegetarian and vegetarians are people who don't eat meat. Just in case I didn't know. Except the vegetarian cheese is pretty gross so he threw it away. And he's pretty sure the water he drank last night is what got him sick since there was a lot of water in his throw up. Or probably the chips he had at lunch today since they were in his throw up, too.

After much laughter and when he warmed up again, we went back inside and he took it easy until his dad came to pick him up. I spent the rest of the afternoon doing pretty mundane stuff (by comparison). Really, how can helping an 8th grader with his math homework top cleaning up and comforting a 6 year old after he threw up? It can't.

ch-ch-ch-changes

Things are always changing at the speed of life.

It seems like every time I turn around, something is different. No two days of my life are exactly the same. I like it that way.

"You're one of the busiest people I know."

J. Davis, close friend of many years, reminds me regularly of this fact. And I have realized recently just how true that is. I am busy. All the time.

Don't get me wrong. I am not trying to brag about being busy or fishing for people to feel sorry for me. I don't want a gold star for being a go-getter, nor am I looking for accolades. I realized that being a type-A personality and the melee in my schedule that results is who I am. It's simply me.

So here I sit. Blogging. Watch out, world. When I get a spare minute (or five), this blog is gonna hear about how things are changing. Let the type-A melee commence.