if you will not have me as myself, perhaps as someone else
Hello, lj. Didn't mean to disappear on you, though I guess a week isn't really that long. This week just felt rough, is probably the best way to describe it. It was long, for one, every day seeming to take forever to get through, but it also felt like it took work to get through each day. It's hard to explain, but basically I was feeling pretty drained by Wednesday and then still had to make it through two more days.
Part of it was money related - we had essentially spent our last dollar by mid-week, and even though we knew I was getting paid on Friday, it seemed just monumental to make it those last few days till payday. I'm not really sure why it was such a mental struggle this week, since we've been dealing with low funds for a couple months now, but whatever. I did in fact get paid on Friday, and things feel a lot better now. September rent is paid, finally, along with just about all of the bills (one I have to go to the post office and get a money order for, which will happen today or tomorrow), so that's a relief. AND. Most exciting is that I went to the bank yesterday and got approved for a credit card! I trust the bank a lot more than Capital One, and this card has no annual fee, either. It'll be nice to keep building Canadian credit and obviously having a credit card will help with a ton of little things. So yeah, that's good stuff.
This week was a flood of babysitting requests. I don't know why, but I'll go a month or two where no one needs me to watch their kids, and then all of a sudden everyone wants me on the same weekend. I had two meetings set up with new families, one Wednesday, one Thursday. The one on Wednesday went well, despite me being 15 minutes late because of horrendous traffic. Seriously, google maps said it would take 17 minutes to get there, so I left a half hour early, to leave a little extra time, but it ended up taking me 45 minutes to get there. I felt like an ass, but the mom was very understanding and we had a good chat. Funny thing is that their daughter's name is Kira, lol. I of course texted my sister about it. I ended up watching Kira Friday night, which went pretty well, and I would happily sit for her family again.
(Excuse me, a purring cat just climbed onto my lap and demanded cuddles. Who am I to deny her? She's pretty damn cute.) Anyway, so Thursday I had a meeting with another new family. After exchanging a couple emails, the mom had called me last week to set up a meeting, and we'd agreed on Thursday at 4:30. I went over after work, only to have dad answer the door and tell me that the mom wasn't there. And dad hadn't had any idea that there was supposed to be a meeting. He invited me in, tried to reach mom on her cell phone (went right to voicemail), and then spent the next ten or fifteen minutes running around like a chicken without a head - offering to make me an espresso, asking me a couple questions, waking his son up from his nap to meet me, trying to call his wife again, telling me about how he was on antibiotics for strep throat, and ultimately deciding that he was going to go drive down the street to find her, because he thought she was likely at a park just a minute away. So he does come back with mom and the other two kids, and mom was very apologetic for forgetting our meeting, but even once she got there, things just seemed very scattered and disorganized. They'd wanted me to sit on Saturday, but I'd already been booked by one of my regular families, so we'll see what happens if they ask me to sit in the future.
Here's a question, I know I have at least 4 moms on my friends' list (and possibly others I'm forgetting at the moment) - I'm throwing a baby shower for my friend who's due in November. I already made her a baby blanket and gave that to her a month or so ago, so I was thinking that instead of giving her something else for the baby at the shower, I'd give her a gift for her. But what is a good new mom gift? Jess, Heather, Caitlin, Lianne - when you were pregnant, what are things you would have appreciated receiving as gifts? Anyone else can feel free to weigh in with suggestions as well! :)
This probably won't affect anyone who's reading this, because obviously if you are, you've already found the most effective way at keeping up with my life, but I'm deactivating my facebook account. I've been getting more and more annoyed at the site for awhile now, and the latest changes were just the final straw. I realized that the people I'm closest to, I communicate with primarily outside of facebook anyway, so the contact I am having with people through facebook is only of a pretty superficial level, and I don't think I'll really be missing much by not being on it. And if that's the case, I don't really see much point in staying. I'm giving myself the week to get contact info from everyone I want to stay in touch with, and to make sure everyone who wants it has mine, but then I'm saying goodbye by the end of the month.
To end this on a totally random note, I absolutely haaaaaaaaaate using the touchpads on laptops, so I have always had a USB mouse. The mouse I'd been using has been dying a slow, painful and supremely aggravating death, so I finally bought a new one yesterday. I got a mini mouse with a retractable cord, which is a feature I am already really appreciating, as the cord of the old mouse was constantly getting tangled and caught on stuff. It's taking a little adjusting to get used to the tiny size, but overall, I'm just pleased to have a functional mouse again. And I think that's all I have for now. Time to go do some dishes/finish the laundry/do other cleaning around the house/not be a lazy bum all day. :p
Part of it was money related - we had essentially spent our last dollar by mid-week, and even though we knew I was getting paid on Friday, it seemed just monumental to make it those last few days till payday. I'm not really sure why it was such a mental struggle this week, since we've been dealing with low funds for a couple months now, but whatever. I did in fact get paid on Friday, and things feel a lot better now. September rent is paid, finally, along with just about all of the bills (one I have to go to the post office and get a money order for, which will happen today or tomorrow), so that's a relief. AND. Most exciting is that I went to the bank yesterday and got approved for a credit card! I trust the bank a lot more than Capital One, and this card has no annual fee, either. It'll be nice to keep building Canadian credit and obviously having a credit card will help with a ton of little things. So yeah, that's good stuff.
This week was a flood of babysitting requests. I don't know why, but I'll go a month or two where no one needs me to watch their kids, and then all of a sudden everyone wants me on the same weekend. I had two meetings set up with new families, one Wednesday, one Thursday. The one on Wednesday went well, despite me being 15 minutes late because of horrendous traffic. Seriously, google maps said it would take 17 minutes to get there, so I left a half hour early, to leave a little extra time, but it ended up taking me 45 minutes to get there. I felt like an ass, but the mom was very understanding and we had a good chat. Funny thing is that their daughter's name is Kira, lol. I of course texted my sister about it. I ended up watching Kira Friday night, which went pretty well, and I would happily sit for her family again.
(Excuse me, a purring cat just climbed onto my lap and demanded cuddles. Who am I to deny her? She's pretty damn cute.) Anyway, so Thursday I had a meeting with another new family. After exchanging a couple emails, the mom had called me last week to set up a meeting, and we'd agreed on Thursday at 4:30. I went over after work, only to have dad answer the door and tell me that the mom wasn't there. And dad hadn't had any idea that there was supposed to be a meeting. He invited me in, tried to reach mom on her cell phone (went right to voicemail), and then spent the next ten or fifteen minutes running around like a chicken without a head - offering to make me an espresso, asking me a couple questions, waking his son up from his nap to meet me, trying to call his wife again, telling me about how he was on antibiotics for strep throat, and ultimately deciding that he was going to go drive down the street to find her, because he thought she was likely at a park just a minute away. So he does come back with mom and the other two kids, and mom was very apologetic for forgetting our meeting, but even once she got there, things just seemed very scattered and disorganized. They'd wanted me to sit on Saturday, but I'd already been booked by one of my regular families, so we'll see what happens if they ask me to sit in the future.
Here's a question, I know I have at least 4 moms on my friends' list (and possibly others I'm forgetting at the moment) - I'm throwing a baby shower for my friend who's due in November. I already made her a baby blanket and gave that to her a month or so ago, so I was thinking that instead of giving her something else for the baby at the shower, I'd give her a gift for her. But what is a good new mom gift? Jess, Heather, Caitlin, Lianne - when you were pregnant, what are things you would have appreciated receiving as gifts? Anyone else can feel free to weigh in with suggestions as well! :)
This probably won't affect anyone who's reading this, because obviously if you are, you've already found the most effective way at keeping up with my life, but I'm deactivating my facebook account. I've been getting more and more annoyed at the site for awhile now, and the latest changes were just the final straw. I realized that the people I'm closest to, I communicate with primarily outside of facebook anyway, so the contact I am having with people through facebook is only of a pretty superficial level, and I don't think I'll really be missing much by not being on it. And if that's the case, I don't really see much point in staying. I'm giving myself the week to get contact info from everyone I want to stay in touch with, and to make sure everyone who wants it has mine, but then I'm saying goodbye by the end of the month.
To end this on a totally random note, I absolutely haaaaaaaaaate using the touchpads on laptops, so I have always had a USB mouse. The mouse I'd been using has been dying a slow, painful and supremely aggravating death, so I finally bought a new one yesterday. I got a mini mouse with a retractable cord, which is a feature I am already really appreciating, as the cord of the old mouse was constantly getting tangled and caught on stuff. It's taking a little adjusting to get used to the tiny size, but overall, I'm just pleased to have a functional mouse again. And I think that's all I have for now. Time to go do some dishes/finish the laundry/do other cleaning around the house/not be a lazy bum all day. :p