Jersey City, Week 2

Jersey City has a feral cat problem. Cats are everywhere. The alleyways all smell like cat piss - which makes for an unpleasant walking environment. And if its a muggy evening and you have your alley-facing windows open, guess what your house smells like? Did I mention how much I hate cats?

Ladybug and I met up with a group of other stay-at-home and work-at-home moms. Consider it attempt #1 at making new friends. We had a good time and enjoyed the company. I am now officially a member of this group. Let's call them the Stepford Wives. Noone was pretentious or flighty. Everyone has a college degree and most of us are just taking brief vacations from the working world to cater to our bambinos, or working from home offices.

I'm still trying to get adjusted to things, but I finally had a normal day. Got up (a little later than normal because ladybug slept in), spent some time with ladybug, worked for a couple of hours, then capped it off with a nice long nap-inducing walk.

I spend most of my days grumbling about how noisy it is on the block. Why, oh why must they cram so many houses on one block on the East Coast. I miss my southern sprawl.

I stepped on the scale yesterday to weigh the baby (I weigh myself, then weigh myself holding the baby and do the math). Was very pleasantly surprised to find myself back down to my ideal weight!!! Yay! I guess the magic formula for post-natal weight loss is:

(b)(dw)
--------- = weight loss
x

(where b=breastfeeding, dw= daily walks and x=living w/o a fridge b/c the store botched the delivery date)

Jeez, I must miss the classroom because I just derived a formula...for fun.

Superhubby is off to Vegas for work all next week so I'll be single-momming it. Because moving across the country and still unpacking boxes and living in a new place is not stressful enough.

Well, I'm off to Google Reader to mark all as read and start fresh tomorrow catch up on some blogs I follow.

My how times change

As I was unloading the backseat of all my work and Kennedy's daycare stuff, it occured to me how different my backseat and storage space is.

Not too long ago, I had the following in my trunk:
*a fully stocked overnight bag(because one never knows what the night has in store
*a couple of bottles of water, (sooo refreshing after 4 hours of dancing in the club)
*a swimsuit in the summer (impromptu pool parties and trips to the lake/beach are a drag without a swimsuit on hand)

Now, my trunk carries:
*a fully stocked emergency diaper bag
*a stroller
*reusable shopping bags
*a blanket (impromptu picnics and trips to the park are a drag without a blanket)

Wow. What a difference a couple of years makes.

Tids and Bits

The other day, I found one of hubby's new-ish shirts in the trash. I pulled it out and gave it a thorough once-over. I didn't see anything wrong with it, so I asked him why it was in the trash. Hubby's response was "A button came off." My husband lost a button on his shirt, so he thought the shirt was somehow ruined. I offered to sew a new button on and he was absolutely amazed that I knew how to sew a button on a shirt. Apparently, that's a skill that only serious designers and seamstresses have.

Bizarre.

Meanwhile, while he was throwing away buttons on shirts, I made this memo board to replace the vision board that was up in the baby's nursery:



It was my first attempt at such a memory board and I think it came out perfectly! Also, you might notice that there are 5 buttons sewn into this memory board.

Rants and Vents

We are hosting a transfer fair here at my beloved community college today. Bank of America sets up a solicitation table in our cafeteria every Tuesday. They were there today, smack-dab in the middle of the college tables taking advantage of the unusually high volume of student traffic.

As I ate my lunch, I grew increasingly frustrated watching them hawk their credit cards to students with promises of frequent flier miles and 0.1% cash bonuses. They downplayed fees and associated costs and encouraged students to "Just apply! You can always reject the card if you get it!"

B of A has already had their hand out for my hard-earned TARP tax bucks and I really don't appreciate that they still do business in a culture of risky lending practices. I was upset that they were pressuring students into these high rate credit cards when so many are already struggling financially.

I'm pissed that they get the bail-out when use regular folk could do such a better, wiser job of managing that money. Our students are at this community college most likely because they can't quite afford 4 years of university. Why not bail them out? Reimburse their tuition and books. Give them money to invest in themselves and then a bit more to reinvest in the economy. Not to these stupid banks who haven't learned a damn thing from the credit crisis.

In other disappointing news, I listened to an academic advisor dispell the lies the Army Reserve told one of her students. This student was born and raised in the US, but speaks English as a second language. The recruiter told her that she could join the reserves and only have to serve one weekend a month. They failed to mention that that one weekend a month was the minimum committment; and that, recently, reserve groups are being deployed for 14 to 20 month assignments in Iraq and Afghanistan. They told her that after 2 years in the reserves, they would pay for medical school, but failed to mention the part of the contract that required a re-payment of medical field work in an active zone after medical school completion. I listened as this student cried because she thought she had found the answers to her family's financial problems and a way to serve her country, get an education and stay close to home.

What is it the deception. Is this the new American way?

I have a confession to make...

I cry during sporting events.

There. I said it.

Game-winning hail marys, the puck in the net in the last second of overtime, photo-finishes on an outdoor track, you name it! Normally, I can keep this little problem in check (I don't think my hubby has ever 'caught' me crying). I usually find some excuse to leave the room. The pregnancy has kicked my hormones into overdrive and now I can be reduced to sobs instantly. I'm lucky if I can manage to hold it to a few trickles of tears.

Why am I writing about this? Because Super Bowl Sunday is coming up and I that's a tough gig for me. The National Anthem always induces tears (well, if its well sung). And watching the winner celebrate with their teammates and families is a beautiful thing. I barely made it through the Winter X Games last night. How in the heck am I gonna outlast the Super Bowl?

Can you help me, please?

Okay, I have always been extremely terrible at naming things. I can be stumped for hours at a time simply creating a username. My Barbies all kept whatever name was printed on the box. I have named two dogs. The last one, I started thinking of names in the early 90s so I would be ready with a good name if/when I ever finally got a dog. It took me two weeks to name this blog.

So, with that said, I need your help picking out a name. No, not a name for baby. We have a list of those (another example of me starting years in advance). My fantastic, amazing, super great friend is throwing me an online shower - complete with pre- and post-baby blog, photos, games, etc. She called me two weeks ago and asked me to pick out a name for the URL. Two weeks ago. And today, I got nothing.

Any ideas?

Contender for Husband of the Year

I woke up yesterday morning to 2 tickets to the Seahawks/49ers game on my pillow.

Sure, they lost. But at least I was there to see it - live and in person.

Can your husband top that?

My Meez

My meez (see the picture at left) is really a lot like me. She has a really small waist and a HUGE rump (just like me!), and she's cheap as hell - I only outfit her in the FREE stuff. So, see, even a meez can dress well on a budget. She's also eating a hotdog and watching fireworks over a large lake. Yep, this meez is all Karla.

Happy Fourth of July, everybody! America is awesome!

Wanted: Random Items

I stumbled upon a link for a very cute website called the Something Store. You pay $10 and they will send you a random gift item from their inventory. Sounds bizarre, right? Well, I'm a sucker for surprises, so I purchased a random gift. I'm looking forward to whatever wonderfulness will show up on my doorstep in a few days.

Browse the website: they have some recently shipped "somethings" there for you to peruse.

http://www.somethingstore.com