I left the keys in the ignition last night, and not fully turned off. The car won't start this morning. Waiting for Geico's roadside assistance folks to come help. Great impression to make during my first week of work, no?

*sigh*

There are possibilities all around right now. The most promising is some freelancing work that O has lined up, which could turn into a long-term situation and/or even a partnership. Keep your fingers crossed on that!

I am also hopefully going to be taking on the job of volunteer editor for the church newsletter. I'll be meeting with the administrator on Sunday (unless she e-mails back and wants to get together outside of church some other time) to discuss it. Sure, it's volunteer, but it's experience and it looks good on the resume, and it'll be fun!

I also applied for a job I desperately want, last night. So please keep me in your thoughts in that regard as well!

This may or may not be the light at the end of the tunnel, but there is definitely plenty of hope and excitement in the air around here. :)

Wow am I tired. I hadn't been sleeping well for several nights in a row, but that's been better for the last two nights. Even still, I woke up this morning feeling like I could just roll over, close my eyes, and sleep for another several hours (and it was 9:00 at this point!). And actually, I'm the only one of the three of us who did sleep reasonably well last night. As such, it's a pretty low-key morning around here. Liam's watching an extra helping of Sesame Street this morning, while O and I hang out at our computers. We've both found a number of jobs to apply to today, though. Keep your fingers crossed for us, as we've each found at least one that is absolutely PERFECT.

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Next weekend we're going to Gainesville. There's an info session for the MBA program at University of Florida. I'm going to go to that, and we'll visit with our friends who live up there. And their new baby girl!

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Alright, off to deal with a StinkBug.

I deleted my other post because, well... this one is going to be a clarification of what led to that. The big thing here is this: I keep finding jobs that require qualifications I don't have. And when I find those, I think, "I wish I had X, Y, or Z." But ... getting X, Y, or Z takes too long to be practical, in a lot of cases. I'd been researching the HIM/HIT programs in the area, thinking it would at /most/ take me a year to complete, hopefully less. And that would open up new doors to me that my current qualifications do not. Unfortunately, it seems like that is likely to take at least a year and a half to two years. Plus I wouldn't qualify for in-state tuition rates until I was almost done with the program, if I started this term (which is, of course, looking less and less likely). So while it's not totally ruled out, it's going on the back-burner (with so many other options and half-options) because I can't justify the time and money expenditure for something I'm not truly passionate about.

The MBA is still a possibility, though I'm not sure if I'll be able to do it full-time. It may be a matter of "wait and see," which is hard right now because so much is up in the air. My big hesitation with the MBA is financial as well. It's even /more/ of a time and money commitment, so I'm hesitant to do it unless I'm REALLY sure it's what I want.

Part of me wonders if I'm just trying to find any excuse to go back to school. And if it's about /that/, rather than really, truly furthering my career ... then no, it doesn't make any sense.

It's also somewhat about control. I can't control the job market. I can't control how long it takes for O or myself to find gainful employment. Returning to school is something I /can/ do for myself, rather than being dependent upon so many outside factors. But again, that's not a good, solid reason, either. I know the MBA makes sense in a lot of ways, but it's very overwhelming, and I'm not sure whether or not I'm ready/willing to take it on at this juncture.

And part of me is afraid of getting stuck. I don't necessarily want to keep being "just" a SAHM anymore. If O finds work before I do, then I'm afraid of feeling trapped. Afraid of stagnating. Please don't read that as, "I don't want to spend time with my son." I do. I love him. But I need a change (ironic, considering the past two months).


... I think I'm having a mid-30s crisis. Where's my shiny new sports car? :P

Health:

On Friday at L's storytime, I started having random dizzy spells. I also had a random (they're usually cyclical migraines; this one was out of phase and less severe) headache that afternoon. The dizzies have continued ever since, making it impossible for me to drive to Massena or back over the weekend. I've made an appointment with my doctor for Thursday morning. In the meantime, I did a little research, and it sounds like it /could/ just be BPPV. But given that I have a family history of high blood pressure and diabetes (though my own personal history has been fine on both counts), I figure it's worth finding out for sure.

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Weekend:

We were in Massena from Saturday evening through Monday morning, visiting my dad. We left after lunch on Saturday so it would be close to naptime for Buggie. Got there around 6:something that evening and had a little time to spend with him before bedtime. Spent Sunday with him as well, and had a cookout with the family (my aunt and her boyfriend, one of my cousins and her husband and son). Got to eat Dairy Queen ice cream and Glazier hot dogs. L was very well-behaved (and energetic, OMG!) and charmed everyone, as he always does. :)

O and my dad went out together to play pool while L and I went back to the hotel room for L's nap. I can't even begin to tell you how much this means to me, that they are comfortable enough together to spend time without me. Even on a weekend when the Mets (my Dad's team) were playing the Red Sox (O's team, if he were to actually care about baseball).

And seeing my dad with his grandson? I don't have words for that, either. Pictures will have to suffice. (The older pics at that link were from a few days last week, but most of them are from the weekend.) Oh, and he was QUITE pleased with the Mets shirt I'd picked up at consignment for L. :)

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Other:
* L is a total book addict. He is constantly bringing us books to read to him. Unfortunately our downstairs book supply (the board books) gets very repetitive very quickly.

* I will be hopefully meeting someone this week to discuss employment possibilities with her local cloth diaper store.

* Tonight is my last non-dress rehearsal for this season of chorus. Next week we have dress rehearsals at the actual performance center, Tuesday and Thursday. I'm also thinking about not singing next season, but it depends on a number of factors. And even if I drop out for the season, I'll stay with my committees and the board.

Hopefully I can get to tonight's rehearsal, as I'm not sure I dare drive myself there.

* I also have two small-business (one website, one other) ideas floating around in my head that I need to figure out details for.

* I'm frustrated because I was doing really well with my new exercise initiative, and then I went away for 3 days, and am now unable to do much without making myself dizzy. I MAY be able to do some stepping on the Wii Fit, but my ST and yoga options are pretty much nil, and I don't dare go for a walk outside the house at all. :/

* My in-laws might host Christmas in FL this year. That would be pretty nifty, if a bit weird.

* Off to get things ready for naptime!

Happy belated Mother's Day, first of all!

Mine was lovely. I received a new camera to replace the one that spontaneously died a few months back. I am absolutely in love with it.

Saturday, I spent the afternoon shopping with Mom, while Oliver took Liam back to our motel room for naptime. Liam made out like a bandit this weekend - 4 t-shirts (including a Mets shirt to dress him in when we go visit my dad!), a plaid button-down, 2 sets of PJs, and a pair of pants. Oliver got a few coins to add to his collection. And I got a pair of shoes (but mine are brown).

Sunday, we went to my aunt, uncle & Gramma's house for the day. Good family day - had lunch, chased Liam around, played a game during his nap, took some pictures, and headed back home. Got home much later than anticipated, but Liam was still in bed almost on time.

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I really need to get back on the wagon in terms of diet and exercise. I haven't dared step on the scale or do a Body Test in a few weeks now, but this weekend was especially bad. We went out to dinner Friday night to celebrate O's citizenship. Then we were away over the weekend, so there were two more meals out on Saturday, and my aunt bought pie & ice cream for Sunday's dessert. Three different servings of ice cream in a 3 day period. Bad me. :P

Exercise-wise, I've just been lacking motivation. Part of it, I think, is that I'm bored with the Wii Fit exercises I was doing for tummy/arm stuff. But also it's just a matter of laziness and tiredness. If I don't sleep well for a few days, I have a hard time convincing myself to get off my butt and DO something. Especially if I wait until later in the day.

So I'm going to start walking every day that is feasible, and doing it in the morning around 9 or 10 - late enough that breakfast has digested, early enough to be back in time for Liam's lunch. Morning walks really help my energy levels for the whole rest of the day, so I just need to DO it. As for tummy/arm exercises, meh. I dunno what I want to do about that, but I'm definitely sick of being so floppy. And I know I've no one/nothing to blame but myself.

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Job interview is Thursday. I found out this morning that the pay grade for that level of job is between $9.50 to $11.50ish as a starting wage. If they're willing to hire me towards the higher level, I will probably take it. If it's towards the bottom, I won't. It wouldn't even make any sense, once you factor in paying for child care. I put on my application, though, that I was looking for at least $12-15, so if they aren't willing to at least come close to that, I'll sort of wonder why they called me in the first place.

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New batches of pictures on the family photo site. :)