The Child Inside

It's still there - I'm still part child. This year I celebrated yet another anniversary of my 39th birthday, but I haven't completely grown up yet. I still want to know what my Christmas presents are before Christmas. I want to be invited to all of the parties and I'm sad and feeling left out when I am not. I hate to lose. I love to win. I get scared of new things, noises in the night and the unknown. I've learned to mask these things - but they are there. I didn't get invited to this one Christmas party this year and I am really disappointed and hurt. It's a business thing. I have to think that the reason I was not invited is that I am not a client of the host. I can understand that - but it still hurts. It's always a fun party and a bunch of my friends go. I've never been a client of this guy and he always invites me - so why not this year. I wonder too - I have a chance to become a kind of important person in our professional world next year - and I wonder - will I get invited then? Then will I be mad because I clearly got invited more because I'm now kind of important and they want to be able to say I was there? That would hurt too.

Being an adult is not so bad. I've got a lot going on at work right now - and will continue to have a lot going on right up through mid-April. It's stressful. I'm doing double duty - my job and my boss's. The new boss starts in about 6 weeks - but that's right when budget starts and that goes on until April. Sometimes I feel like there just aren't enough hours in the day, days in the week to do it all - and I worry that there are things that maybe I should be doing, but I'm not aware of them and how do I address that because I really want to be doing a good job at this. Especially now that I'm getting paid extra to do it. Not a lot extra, so I don't feel like I have to actually do all aspects of both jobs to earn the dollars - but still, I want to do a good job. Monday, at one point, I thought my head might explode. I just needed to quiet - nothing running through my brain for a few minutes to stop it - kind of like taking boiling water off the burner for a bit. Anyway - I can handle it - and it's good to know that I can - but I'll be glad when the end of April rolls around. I think I need to plan for a little time off then. That's when the child inside can go play!

Let me rest!

When I first typed that - I typed "Let me reset!" I think maybe that was appropriate. I'm so tired right now. I've been doing my job plus my boss's. Last night that meant being at a meeting until 11:24. PM that is. I have to be here again tonight for my own job and I fear it being almost as late. I have a 7 am train in the morning. That doesn't sound too bad - except that means I have to be out of the house by 6:30 to get there, go upstairs and get my ticket and get back downstairs with sufficient cushion to ease my over anxious mind. Hopefully I can sleep on the train.

So - my dog thinks he's smart.

Yes indeed. In fact, I think he thinks he's smarter than me. See - he's not allowed up on our bed, but he goes up there when he thinks we are not looking - like when I'm taking a shower in the morning. Then when he hears me finishing up in the bathroom, he jumps down onto his bed and lays down. He thinks he has me fooled. He has no idea that I hear him jump down or that I can feel the warm spot where his little body had been curled up. It reminds me of my family's first dog - Charlie. Charlie used to crawl under my parents' bed (he was a mini-poodle) when he heard my father going down to bed. If Dad didn't make him come out, he would wait until after my dad got into bed, then he would come out and jump up into the bed. Silly doggies. It is so cute that they think they've outsmarted us.

GO UCONN!

UConn Husky,symbol of might to the foe.Fight, fight Connecticut, it's victr'y, Let's goConnecticut U Conn Husky,victr'y again for the White and BlueSo go, go, go Connecticut,Connecticut U. Fight!C-O-N-N-E-C-T-I C-U-T. Connecticut,Connecticut Husky, Connecticut Husky,Connecticut C-O-N-N-U. Fight! (repeat)

Had to post that. I need to learn the words! One more regular season game against West Virginia. If UCONN wins that game, they win the Big East. Okay - it's a long shot - but wow! They could win the Big East. They should be going to a good bowl game regardless. We'll be going with them.

My dog lifted his leg to pee!

Not noteworthy you think? Well then, clearly you do not have a boy dog who is expected to be among the manliest of manly dogs who used to squat like a girlie dog. He's not doing it all the time, but more and more, he is not just sniffing at trees and squatting in the grass, he is lifting his leg and peeing! WOOHOO! He even lifted at the traditional doggie target of a hydrant on Wednesday. I was so excited - I called A to let him know!

I wish I could speak Dog...and other thoughts from the weekend

I really do wish I could speak Dog. I know that our dog understands some English words - like sit, down, off, eat, kisses. He doesn't understand them necessarily in the context of sentences - but say something like "eat" and boy does he understand! When A is home, he gets the dog's dinner for him. The other night, I got up from dinner first and headed upstairs to do something. I came down a bit later and A was rubbing Boomer's belly. He then pretended to eat Boomer's feet. I said "Watch out, Daddy's going to eat your feet." Well - Boomer bounded up and looked at me all happy. Turns out Daddy forgot to feed Boomer. He knew that word - and he was ready. I wish I could ask him why he does stuff - like walk through leaf piles. I also wish I could understand why a yappy little dog can set him off, but not the big dogs. I also would like to talk to those yappy little dogs and say "Do you really think you can take the BoomDoggie? I don't think so!" I can talk to the owners of the little yappy dogs. I should. I would like to ask them - why is it that you can't train your dog to be nice? People with little yappy dogs think it's so cute when they get all barky and growly at a big dog. Yeah - real cute. Problem is - my dog doesn't recognize that Fluffy is so small he's a too chomp lunch. My dog hears "I'm tough, I'm coming to get you big guy" and he growls back.
This was not a good sports weekend for my boys in blue - UCONN and the Giants. Both lost - very sad. Next weekend is the last home game for UCONN. It's a noontime start - so we'll be doing a breakfast tailgate. They should win - they had better!
I got a lot done this weekend. The new closet doors are painted. The trim in the bathroom is painted. I had made myself a list. I got everything on it done except for doing laundry. I did not do a speck of laundry. How stupid was that? I could have dumped a load in while doing other stuff. Oh well - guess I'll do it tonight.
I have to talk to the elected boss about some kind of compensation for filling in for the appointed boss. I would love it if they gave me a bonus. That might mean we could replace a bunch of windows in the spring.
Okay - will sign off now. I plan to spend the rest of my lunch hour determining if we should stay with our current bank - Bank of America or switch and maybe move my IRA from Morgan Stanley at the same time. Fun stuff - not really, but it is right up my alley.

Election Day

This time tomorrow, I may have a new boss. I hope not. This is not the area in which I like to see change. The challenger is nice enough and if he wins, I'll have no problem working with him. But - the incumbent is already broken in. We know what we have with her. We know how she works, her strengths, weaknesses, hot buttons, etc. If the challenger comes in, we have to learn all that stuff with him. You also never really know if the new boss will truly be a leader or if you'll be propping him or her up. The thing we always have to remember is that we work for the Town, not the politician. If the politician is a weak administrator, then we do what is necessary to get things done. Making sure that the Town continues to function and function well.

And That's Another UCONN Great Win!

My title is a little take-off on something that UCONN football fans do - kind of cheesy - but it's our thing. So - whenever UCONN makes a first down - the announcer says "And that's another UCONN..." and the crowd says "First Down". Yeah - cheesy, corny, whatever. WE BEAT RUTGERS! Okay - there can be no let down next week against Cincinatti or the following week against Syracuse. Then - Thanksgiving Day weekend - if we beat Cincy and Syracuse - we'll be playing West Virginia for the Big East Title. Realistically, we should be able to win the next two, but I doubt we can beat West Virginia. It has been an awesome season so far though.

Untitled

I can't think of a good title for this post. Maybe it will come to me. Jeopardy just finished. I watch it regularly. So often I see the answers and I could run through the categories and win a ton of money. I don't do too well with the literature stuff. I would have bombed on today's Final Jeopardy. I really think I would do well on average. It really is all in the luck of the draw - which categories show up on your day. I took the test online once. That thing is freakin' hard! I don't quite get how some of these people pass it and then do so horribly on the show. Really. I would do so much better. I need to get on Jeopardy. I would totally rock at Wheel of Fortune too. I don't watch that one as much - but I'm good at it. And I would never buy a vowel. Total waste of money if you ask me.