Socal Mom

Early Birthday Present

Shhh! Look what just arrived at my house...

What a Difference a Week Makes

I feel like I've been drowning in stress.

April was overwhelming. Sure, I had fun at the start of the month, going on that little corporate junket... but I had to hit the ground running when I got back and it never stopped!

It's all been complicated by the lousy economy and travel planning. My husband's geotechnical office has been greatly affected by the credit crunch. His usual clients (land developers) have put the brakes on just about everything. There are fewer projects out there and more competition for them, and he's been working his butt off chasing after what little there is.

The rising cost of living hurts, too. We have downsized plans to visit my husband's family in the UK this summer; he finally booked a solo flight to visit his mother without our daughter and me. This is killing me, because it has been several years since we've gone in the summer (when the weather has a chance of being nice, but airfare costs even more).

I watch a lot of BBC programming and seeing scenes of the country makes me want to go even more (especially of London and my husband's hometown of Cardiff, which is where both Doctor Who and Torchwood film). We try to use American Express points to pay for the flight, but our summer dates appear to be blacked out and airfare is up about $500 from where it was the last time we flew during the summer months. Add that to the higher cost of car rentals, fuel (currently about $8 per gallon), and the sinking dollar, and you're talking $10-15,000 for a family of three. It's just not prudent when the economy is so uncertain.

So much for travel blogging on this site.

At least, now that we've made that decision and booked his flight, I can start thinking ahead to BlogHer. I can also look into using some of those American Express points for that -- and perhaps some kind of family getaway in THIS country.

I've also been dividing my time by writing on several collaborative blogs. None of these are helping my bottom line (and I'm seriously considering getting a "real" job again to help pay bills) -- but I'm amazed by the power of being a part of a supportive team of wonderful women who write. I feel like I've made some new friendships that will stand the test of time. Also, it's a lot more fun than writing solo, and I feel like the challenge is forcing me to be better at it and work outside the little mommy blogging box I set up for myself here.

For instance, last week I found myself in a conference call with some of John McCain's advisors, learning about his proposal for solving our nation's healthcare crisis. That became the basis of a post I wrote for the MOMocrats.

It was an exciting week over there: we (I say "we," even though I really had nothing to do with this coup!) got an exclusive with Barack Obama, who answered some questions we wish he'd been asked during the last (dreadful) debate. (We posed the same questions to Hillary Clinton, but as of yet have not received a reply.) That, in turn, caused us a lot more excitement, as we got front page linked by the Huffington Post, Politico-com, and countless other sites and blogs. (The MOMocrats are some of those new friends I alluded to above; I am continually amazed by the energy, intelligence and humor of these women!)

More current events: At 50-Something Moms today, I weigh in on last week's brouhaha with Miley Cyrus.

I'm most excited today about this: I finally cleared out enough tasks to be able to fire up my reader and catch up on blogs -- for the first time in over a month.

Tomorrow, I may feel stressed again. But for right now, things are good.

A New Day...

Yesterday's craziness is in the past. Today, I'm home, I'm focused and I'm HTML-ready.

So here is my game plan: It is now 8:35. From now until 9:00, I will update a couple of my blogs. As this is Megan's short day at school (as opposed to yesterday's reverse minimum day), I will then have until 1:00 to work uninterrupted on the LexieWear site.

All bets are off once I get the kid from school. A car is picking me up at 6:00 a.m. tomorrow for a little blogging junket on the East Coast (which you will be able to read about on SoCal Stuff). I have to take Megan grocery shopping (so she and the dad don't run out of supplies before my return on Friday night), I must do laundry, pack (which should be easy, as I overpacked for the state Democratic convention and never bothered to unpack), and pick up the dry cleaning I just dropped off. There's also the little matter of the rental I am driving while a new seat belt assembly is (hopefully!) installed on my car. I have a sinking feeling that I may not get to drive it home tonight, and it will have to remain at the mechanic until Saturday.

I'm hoping I'll still have time this afternoon to work on the website... and that I can finish laying out pages during my long flight tomorrow.

The one thing that can railroad this neat little plan? Twitter. I must not tweet too much today, which is difficult, because I have lately become an addict. I ask -- if you see me there today, remind me to get back to work, okay?

One more thing: The MOMocrats have been invited to a brief meeting with Barack Obama, and are asking for your input -- what should we ask him? Weigh in here (and make sure you check out the prize package we are offering the person with the best question!).

Curiouser and Curiouser

Today began with the news that it was a "reverse minimum" day at school. That means that Megan didn't have to be there until 10:00, which was great from the standpoint that she was tired after our whirlwind trip to the California State Democratic Convention...

... but really put a damper on my plan to get some work and a workout done before I headed out to "Spain" to meet her royal highness, Queen Erin Kotecki Vest (who wrote another kick-ass post today that should be read by everyone of the mommy blogging persuasion).

After our highly charged lunch, I headed back to the Valley, ran a couple of errands, and discovered that the seat belt in my beloved Volvo was locked. It... would... not... budge. After about 10 minutes of trying to move the stupid thing, I realized that I would be late for Megan's pickup, so I drove off -- very carefully.

Megan couldn't get the seatbelt working either (proof it wasn't just me!), so I dropped her off at gymnastics and went straight to the auto dealer (the same one I visited for the car's regular service last week). That's where I heard the words every driver dreads:

"I've only ever seen this happen once before." AND

"We don't even mess with trying to fix this. We need to put in a whole new assembly." AND

"We need to order the parts."

So now I'm driving a rental. (It's too bad I returned the one I used over the weekend for my drive to and from San Jose).

A big problem: I am leaving town again VERY EARLY on Wednesday morning. So if the car isn't done by tomorrow night, it will have to sit at the dealership until after I get back. (AARGH).

Anyway... I am supposed to update the website I maintain for my friend's clothing company, and figured I could do it during Megan's long workout at gym. But by the time I got there, all the seats were filled (and it's kind of hard to work on a laptop standing up). So I decided to go to a nearby Starbucks.

But as I hadn't been online ALL DAY... I had a ton of emails, Twitters, emails and Twitters to go through. And now, it's nearly 7:00 and I still haven't started on the web work.

Oh, and about an hour ago my sister called to tell me she was driving down to L.A. tonight. From Sacramento. And she needs to stay over at my house.

She'll be here around midnight.

Just another day in my life.

15 Years

Today is our wedding anniversary.

I wrote about that last year, here. It has old photos and everything.

We're celebrating by returning to the fabulous Montage resort. How we ended up celebrating in such extravagant fashion is long story, which I may tell you later. Or not. Right now, I'm thinking I may not be around for a few days.

But I am taking my computer anyway. I mean, we're driving, so it's not like I need to worry about taking too many carryons into the Honda Pilot. And knowing my camera bug of a husband, he will want some means of transferring his photos to Flickr, so we'll need the computer, right? And if I manage to sneak a litte blog post here or there while he's in the shower, there's no harm in that, don't you think?

(See you in a couple of days!!)

Odds and Ends

I'm awake today, so I should be able to write a coherent post.

Ha!

The phone keeps ringing, I keep getting distracted and now I have about 10 minutes to write before I need to get the kid from school (as Tuesdays are her short days).

So here is a brief update of what I've been up to:

1. Major celebrity sighting over the weekend: Posh Spice and her kids. I made a fool of myself pretending not to gawk at her over the shoulder of my friend Sue, with whom I was chatting. I learned later that Posh was very sweet, and posed for pictures for anyone who asked. I hadn't had my camera there anyway, so I did not miss getting a photo with a bona fide tabloid celebrity for my blog.

2. More TechTardia: So instead of Posh, I give you a shot of my husband with his enormous stupid universal remotes. That is right - he didn't think we had enough remote control units. He and my daughter HAD to have one of these big babies, and when he saw one for sale for $10, he picked it up. When he found out it didn't work as well as he liked, he decided to get a second one for $20. This one is still inadequate (can't control the DVR), so I just find it irritating.

While hubby was buying his toy, I picked up a Blackberry Pearl. Yes, I already had a used Blackberry 8800 that my husband gave me just before Christmas - but about a month after I got it (and got used to having my email on my phone), the trackball died on me. I was able to use it still, but with great difficulty. Then on Friday, the trackball went haywire and I had no control over it at all.

I really wanted to hold out for a Curve, but considering that we hadn't budgeted for another new phone at this time, I didn't want to spend the extra $150 for that. So now, I'm getting used to typing on the Pearl. At least, the trackball works the way it's supposed to!

The one problem I am having is that I was unable to import my calendar data from the 8800 to the new phone, so I am fearful that I am missing appointments. Also, while my contact data was saved to the SIM, no matter how many times I've tried to transfer it to the new phone, it doesn't work. I am also unable to save new contacts to the new phone. I still have not installed the Pearl's software to my computer, so there may be an answer there. But if any of you has any experience moving data from one Blackberry to another and can offer me some tips, I'd really appreciate it.

FINALLY: We had a Mom's Movie Club meeting on Friday (that I will post about later) -- and I have new posts up at my other hangouts:

"Too Old to Twitter, Too Young to Die" at the 50-Something Moms Blog...

"The SNL Effect on the Clinton-Obama Race" over at the MOMocrats.

Spring Forward Sucks

Welcome to my annual complaint about Daylight Savings Time.

I only kvetch about it once a year, the week we lose an hour. For some reason, gaining an additional hour in October doesn't bother me. (I mean, what's wrong with looking at the clock and discovering it's actually EARLIER than you thought? Fall Back Sunday is my favorite day of the whole year!)

But losing that hour again in Spring is nasty, for the entire family. It was tough last night, when 6:00 rolled around and I needed to start cooking dinner, and no one was hungry... Forcing my daughter to go to bed at her normal time was just as bad, since she wasn't close to feeling sleepy, and forcing her back to bed every time she got up again to tell me about it...

... and then, there was this morning, when neither one of us was able to wake up fully. We started the day feeling off, because we had to hit the ground running.

"They should make Daylight Savings Time a three-day weekend," my daughter moaned.

She makes a very good point. I wonder if anyone has done a study on productivity levels on DST Monday. I bet giving everyone the day off would be better in the long run.

We were only 10 minutes late leaving for school, and it was only through a miracle of traffic and timing that I got her to the gate just as the bell had rung.

But that was just school. I'm afraid I'm doomed to spend the rest of the day feeling less than sharp. I realize that's kind of typical for Mondays, but losing that little hour just compounds it.

So now I'm mainlining caffeine and trying to catch up on all the work I didn't finish last week. It doesn't help that I went into auto-pilot mode this morning: after dropping Megan off at school, I pointed my car over to the weight loss clinic for my usual weigh in, and then automatically went to the gym.

Midway through my workout, I remembered that I'd changed my weekly appointment with the trainer. I have to be back there today at 1:00.

It took me another five minutes to decide to cut short my elliptical time and walk to the Starbucks next to the gym. As it is, I was moving less enthusiastically than usual. The spirit was willing, but my body would like nothing better than to go back to sleep.

I guess I shouldn't fight it. If I make myself tired enough today, I might feel sleepy earlier in the evening and catch up with the time change sooner.

If only I can do the same for my kid.

Gone Fishin'

No, not really.

I'm getting a manicure. But that sounds so...

...SoCal.

This is kind of a big deal for me, because after four years, I'm having them remove the fake acrylic nails I've worn since I had to attend my husband's work Christmas party and I was despairing that there was NOTHING I could do to look nice.

I concluded that in the absence of being able to wear something glamorous (because that's hard to find in size 14 Petite), I could at least show up with pretty hands.

Now, I don't need the nails so much. I am feeling pretty damned good about getting rid of all those size 14's and replacing them with 2's.

I also am tired of the fact that the "nail technicians" NEVER listen to me when I tell them I don't like square-shaped nails (makes it impossible to use them to pry things). And the style now is to keep them short and natural -- which means I won't have to grow them and get upset that they break all the time.

So this is a big deal. And it's gonna keep me busy for the next 90 minutes -- after which, I need to go to the gym.

New lifestyle. New routines. Not bad.

See ya tomorrow!

In Over My Head

If you read yesterday's post, you would be forgiven for thinking today's title refers to my little 15-Minute post experiment. Sheesh. All I can say is that I think I was preoccupied with the specter of that dental appointment, and I never got to the point that I intended to make...

...which is that this week, I'm feeling that same old fear I've always had -- that people will see through me, think I'm a fraud or a total asshat.

In the fall, I volunteered to run for the parent board of directors' at my daughter's gym (which is a non-profit). The other members of the board -- in their real-world, non-parent lives -- have some high powered experience as business executives, attorneys, bankers. And me? Aside from some entertainment industry experience from 20 years ago (which never got any closer to an executive's suite than the secretary's desk outside) and a few years as a meeting planner -- consists of what you see right here. DIY web stuff and blogging.

I had thought that I could use that experience to do something about the gym's dreadful website and improve communication with team parents, but I've hit several roadblocks on the former, and all I've accomplished on the latter is to establish a little networking site for the parents on Ning. (And I've sadly neglected that -- it needs to be nourished to make it viable for everyone).

Tuesday night's board meeting was an interesting one (to put it mildly). There were issues that had to be dealt with. But I really couldn't contribute much wisdom or experience to the situation at hand. As the title says, I'm in over my head. And I hope the other board members don't notice.

I'm feeling that way a lot lately, and I have to remind myself that I DO have experience to bring to the table, even if it's not traditional. I've been asked to send a bio to one of the new collaborative sites I'm
contributing to now, and as I tick off my past lives ("radio producer," "interviewer of rock stars," "music video programmer," "WGA Member") I remember why I once thought of naming this blog "I USED to be Interesting."

I just wish I was interesting NOW.

A Day in the Life

You Stay at Home Moms... What the heck do you DO all day?

Yesterday began as Mondays usually do: running late for school.

I dropped Megan off, drove to the diet clinic for my daily weigh in (today is the last official day on the program - tomorrow I begin "Lifetime Maintenance"), drove to the gym. I'm still supposed to spend one day a week eating nothing but their product (which I usually refer to as "glop"). Mondays are usually that day. After gym, I pulled out a "protein bar" and gobbled it in the car, on my way to my next stop.

And here's where yesterday veered off from my usual routine Mondays: I had an appointment to meet with my friends from LexieWear. As I mentioned before, I have bartered web work for them in exchange for new clothes. They had some data entry for me to do and I had an order to pick up.

Fortunately, the data entry was something I could do at home. And as that's something that doesn't require a lot of mind work, I decided to postpone it until the evening, when my brain is no longer functional for more complicated activities -- like blogging. So I hightailed it out of there, ran some more errands and pulled into my current favorite Starbucks (the one close to Megan's new school, as opposed to the one near her old one). It was lunchtime. I pulled out another protein bar.

I spent the next two hours writing yesterday's two-part post on this blog and SoCal Stuff. At 2:00, I grabbed my things, got back in the car and drove past my daughter's school.

The kid usually gets out of school feeling ravenous, even though I pack her a pretty big lunch. And since Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays are training days for her, she needs a protein snack before she begins four hours of intensive gymnastics conditioning. We usually stop and get a turkey sandwich on our way to the gym, but I had been asked to help out in the gym snack bar yesterday afternoon, and wanted to get there as soon as possible -- so I went to Subway first and got Megan her sandwich...

...only to discover that someone else had already opened the snack bar. (They finally got someone to handle Mondays on a permanent basis - hooray!) This was good news, because there was a meeting of the gym's board of directors at 6:00, and I would have had to close the bar early.

So I hung around the gym until the meeting -- which did not conclude until after 9:00 p.m.

I had been out of the house since 7:30 a.m.

And in that time, I got a TON of email.

I answered back as many as comfortable on ye old Blackberry (I LOVE that thing)... but I have spent all THIS morning finishing that task. I even skipped the gym -- because I have a dentist's appointment in an hour.