Five Things That Happened This Week

I started this series about 3 weeks ago with high hopes, but then was so busy that i didn't have time to continue it.  It's a shame, because we've been doing some really interesting things.  It irritates me that i'm not going in chronological order, but i'm going to write about this week now and hope to come back to the other weeks later.

1.  February 6 was Superbowl Sunday!  Also it was the BabyGirl's 10 month birthday.  Tripp and Laura very graciously invited us out to Laura's parents' house in The Suburbs.  We had such a great time!  It was so restorative to get out of the city and be in a real house.  The BabyGirl had tons of room to crawl around.  She pretty much made lap after lap around the living room\kitchen.  Laura's parents were the perfect hosts.  There was a very fancy cheese plate, and man do i love fancy cheese.  When i go to Dominick's, which isn't very often, i always make a trip to the cheese case to drool over the expensive cheeses.  If i had an unlimited budget, i think i would spend it all on nice cheeses.  Some women have a thing for shoes, some women like mani\pedi's.  I like cheese.  And this cheese was very, very good.

2.  I started exercising!  This was a huge milestone for me.  You see, i LOVE working out.  In my pre-mommy life i would go to the gym on my days off work and be there for hours.  I haven't been able to work out since birthing the BabyGirl due to a combination of physical problems, doctor's orders, and lack of time.  This week i decided to go for it.  It was an impulsive move on my part.  I took the BabyGirl with me down to the creepy basement where the dilapidated second-hand treadmill and elliptical are.  It was very experimental because i wasn't sure how it would work having her there with me.  I'll tell ya, it didn't work.  At all.  It's amazing how you think and environment is safe, and then a baby finds all sorts of stuff you never would have noticed.  I expected it to be a challenge keeping her away from the belt of the treadmill, and it was.  My workout was an involuntary interval training.  I ran for a minute or two, then jumped off the treadmill to move the BabyGirl away from some dangerous thing she was doing.  Then i ran for another minute, and had to intervene again.  Another problem was that there are two ways of getting to the creepy basement: down the Spiralling Stairs of Doom or across the Slippery Patch of Ice.  Since i had forgotten about the Slippery Patch of Ice, that was the path we took on the way there.  But coming back from the other end of it, i couldn't make it across.  There was no foothold to get started.  I reasoned that falling from 5 feet off the ground was better than falling from 3 stories off the ground, but we just couldn't do it.  So we had to take the Spiralling Stairs of Doom.  Those stairs scare the heck out of me, and they are worse in the winter because they creak and moan.  I had a big panic attack on level 2 of 3, but fortunately we made it.  And neither one of us is a quadriplegic.

3.  Human Resources came to my department to conduct a group therapy session about our boss.  Back in May, the staff filled out a Press-Ganey survey about management, and the results weren't favorable.  Managers across the whole organization scored poorly, and my boss' numbers were even worse than the institutional average.  So this poor HR girl was assigned to come investigate.  The session wasn't conducted well, so it ended up being a double frustration.  The experience of sharing our frustrations was frustrating (ha, go figure).

4.  I had two social events.  The first was Friday night.  I went to a coffee shop to listen to a friend play music.  The Professor stayed home with the BabyGirl, which was a huge gift to me.  I had a great time.  I love this friend's music, and it was a nice end to a frustrating work day.  The second event was Crafternoon.  A few of us hung out at Laura's house to work on projects.  I worked on the aforementioned Non-Removable Crib Sheets.  Emily was planning to gold leaf a vase, but right before she came over the dropped the vase and it shattered into a million pieces.  Very tragic.  Instead, she served as Project Support and Baby Overseer.  Laura started a bolster pillow, with lots of help from Emily.  Clair made an adorable decorative pillow.  It was a wonderful afternoon and i had a lot of fun!  Thanks craft friends!

5.  The Professor and I went on a romantic Valentine's Date.  Blake and Emily babysat for us (thanks Blake and Emily!).  We went to dinner at Acre and dessert at George's.  It was very enjoyable and we caught up on each other's stories.