Thursday, February 28, 2008

Not Stressing

There is this slightly odd thing happening to me this week. I am not stressed out! I should be, because I have a huge amount of homework to get done and my team, true to form, has not done anything that I asked of them yet. I am going to have to get some homework done while we are in DC anyway, but now I am going to have team stuff to do too.

I only have tonight to get the rest of the kitchen packed up (which is the last thing that can be packed up this early). Mom is coming over to help me, so that should be good, but Smug-Hub is buried under work right now, and is struggling to get everything done before we leave for DC, so he is no help at home.

Once we get back from DC on Monday afternoon, we have to get the final amount we need for closing from the lawyers, get a cashiers check for that amount, do the final walk-through on the new house and buy all the paint and supplies we need to get the new house ready. Tuesday we have to work until time to go to the closing, close on the house, back to work, then I have school until 10pm. Then we only have Wednesday and Thursday after work to paint and clean and finish packing. I decided to take 1/2 day off on Friday to finish everything up, but then the movers will be at the apartment to do the move at 8:30am on Saturday morning!!

All this sounds really stressful, doesn't it? But I am really not stressed out about it at all! I really don't think that we will have an issue getting everything done in time. I am really prepared most of the time and I already have a lot of the packing done. I figure that I will get done what I can get done tonight, go have a fun time in DC, come home and do what we can do! I will have most of the day Friday to finish everything up! Everything is going to be fine!

This is not really like my personality! I am normally very controlling and a bit high strung, so letting go and trusting that I can get it all done without obsessing about it is new! I think I like it!

Now, next week, the postings may be very different!! Who knows how long this new laid back Smug will last!! :)

Monday, February 25, 2008

Closing Early

Last night my husband and I were discussing the fact that we have been better at saving money than we thought we would be able to be. We were so proud of ourselves for setting goals and not only reaching them, but reaching them with weeks to spare. WEEKS TO SPARE??? What then are we waiting for?????

I called the mortgage company this morning and asked if there was any reason we could not close sooner rather than later. I know that the sellers are very anxious to get closed and we are very anxious to get moved out of the shit hole in which we currently dwell!

There did not seem to be an issue on her end so she called the realtor and the lawyers to see how soon they would be able to schedule the closing. New closing date??? March 4!!!!!!!!!!

We are going to be closing one week from tomorrow!!! We are going to be moving NEXT weekend!! I can hardly believe it!! I now have so much to do in a very short amount of time!! It is going to be fun though :)

We have very few things to do at the new house. We want to paint the master bedroom, the bathroom and the second bedroom (i.e. Baby's room). We want to patch some holes and do touch up painting in the rooms that currently have colors we like. We want to dust, vacuum and mop everything, and lastly, we want to clean the kitchen cabinets and clean the fridge. We are only going to have three evenings after work to get this done, so we have enlisted my family, some friends and some co-workers to pitch in and get it all done!

I am going home tonight to finish my homework and get some packing done! The rest of this week is going to be full of packing!!

On top of all this, Smug-Hub has business in Washington DC this weekend and I am going with him to do some museum hopping, so this weekend is going to be out for getting anything done! We leave Friday morning and get back Monday afternoon. We will do the final walk through Monday evening and then close Tuesday morning!!

I am so excited! I just think that this is going to be such a great new chapter of our lives!!

Wednesday, February 20, 2008

Jumper....So Bad

Smug-Hub and I went to see Jumper this weekend and it was sooooo baaaaddddd! The trailers don't really give you an idea about the movie and sometimes that is a good thing, you are surprised and don't have your hopes too high, but in this movie's case..... it was just bad.

The movie is only about an hour and 20 minutes long, it does not really seem to have a plot or a point. You can tell that things are happening, but these things are not really explained, the audience is just supposed to know already or something.

The acting was really bad too. I normally like both Samuel L. Jackson and Diane Lane, they both had small roles and they were really terrible. I have seen Rachel Bilson as a guest star on Chuck and really liked her, but she sucked in this (in all fairness, perhaps it was just that the character was such a sniveling, annoying, waste, but still). I thought that Hayden Smug-Hubtenson did a fine job in the Star Wars movies, but he too seemed way fake and did not inhabit his character.

The really sad part is that this had the potential to be a really good story. They could have developed it into a superhero type of movie, a really good love story, a story about a boy and his long lost mother, overcoming issues to make the world a better place, acceptance of people different than yourself, etc. The movie tried to touch on each of these topics, but moved quickly past them without much thought. It almost seemed like someone edited out all the details, everything except the action sequences or something.

I do not make movies, but I can't imagine how this movie went from the writing stage, filming stage, editing stage, post-production, etc. all the way to getting released without someone in the know stepping in and telling the makers how badly it sucked! I just have to think that it had to have been in the editing. It was just so bad!

Anyway, if you were thinking about watching it, save your money! Believe me, your time would be better spent watching paint dry, more exciting with more point too!!

Wednesday, February 13, 2008

Well, I think that Utenzi has somehow passed his sickness through the blog and now I am getting sick! Thanks a lot!! It all started really when Mom and I stood outside in 67 MPH winds for well over 3 hours on Sunday to see Hillary Clinton speak. After we finally got inside and started to warm up, she canceled and we had to head right back into the wind and walk home (about a 15 minute walk). Clinton canceled due to the really bad winds, the airport had closed. There were also 2 pretty major forest fires started by downed power lines, so it was a rough weekend!

We were supposed to go see Obama on Monday morning, but he was not able to make it either, the winds were just too bad. The news said that 75,000 people in the area were without power (ours stayed on, thank goodness) and some people just got power back today (Wednesday).

All day Monday my head hurt, and my eyes felt dry and tense. I thought it was just from being out in all that wind for so long. Tuesday afternoon the sore throat started, so I went home early and took some Airborne and swallowed some raw garlic. I went to sleep about 10, and woke up this morning feeling really bad. It hurt to breathe and swallow and I was pretty miserable until I had showered. I took some more garlic and Airborne and planned on staying at work only long enough to finish what really had to get done today.

My throat still hurts, but not near as badly as it did last night or this morning. I just took another dose of Airborne, but don't have any garlic here at the office. I am going to work through lunch so I can justify leaving early. I plan on resting the whole evening and not doing anything! I am hoping that I can ward this thing off before it really takes hold and I get completely sick. I would even be happy if I can just hold it off until tomorrow or Friday, since we have Monday off.

Back to the Obama/Clinton subject! I really wanted to see them speak, because I am so conflicted about who should be the next president. As a woman, I really want to like Hillary, but I just don't. There are some women who, when they get a position typically held by a man, they take on male characteristics and loses the ability to take women's issues on, because she fears that she will be criticized for not being as objective as a man. This is the problem, I want a woman in office who will take a hard look at women's issues and be a force for change in those areas. I don't think that Hillary will be that force. She is facing the same issue any woman would be facing. She is trying to break into a boy's club and having to lose some of her femininity to do it.

She is criticized for having emotions or showing too much skin. Have you ever heard these kinds of things talked about when it comes to the male candidates? I just think that she is in a lose/lose situation. If she wins the presidency, she will have to break new ground and take all the flack that will come with that. I am not sure that she can really effect changes that need to happen in our country while fighting to chart a new course in history. Our country is in need of some big changes and I don't think that she can do both. I feel almost like I am buying into the prejudice that says a woman isn't strong enough to be president, but it's not that. I don't even know what it is....

I don't know if it is the media or what, but people are still not seen as people. Obama is black or a Smug-Hubtian or whatever else may be controversial. Hillary is a woman, she might cry, she showed some cleavage. What about voting records? What about where these people stand on issues? Gay marriage? Taxes? Heath care? The economy? The war? I want to see these things reported on while I get ready for work in the morning. I wish that I could put into words, how I feel about everything. I know that I don't want another republican in the white house, Bush as royally messed up this country and our relationships with other countries. The US needs a fresh approach, but who?

I wish that I understood the whole election process. I don't understand how, if the people's vote makes a difference, how someone can win the popular vote but not win the election. I don't understand why some states are more important than others. I live in VA, and the candidate I liked, John Edwards, dropped out of the race before I had a chance to cast my vote! I don't think that is fair!! I think there should be one day of primary voting, like there is one day of voting of the president. Why does my state's opinion matter so much less than Iowa or California?

OK, I am just rambling - I think it is the pressing head cold that keeps rambling on and on. If anyone knows of a website that might explain (in VERY simple terms) the whole election process and why it makes/doesn't make sense I would love to hear about it!!

Wish me luck on my war with my sore throat!!

Friday, February 8, 2008

Oh Baby!

Well, it was thrown in my face all day. What you say? Babies! They have been everywhere all day! I went to get a hair cut and one of the girls there was showing off pictures of her new niece. Then a lady at work came to my office to show me pictures of her granddaughter. Every celebrity on the planet is pregnant and a few have already delivered. I dreamed last night that I did not know that I was pregnant until I was seven months along.

I am starting to go out of my mind with babies. I have been on the verge of crying at each one of these baby pictures and I know that people expect me to coo and say how cute they are, but I really want to yell "Get those out of my fucking face! Don't you know you are killing me?"

I think that Smug-Hub understands some of what I am going through, but he is going to force me/us to be logical and realistic about things, and part of me is very glad about that. The other part of me is ready to take his head off. My head and my heart are set squarely at odds on this one. My head knows that I need to get closer to finishing school and get my career lined up. My head knows that I am never going to be OK with daycare and that we have got to be ok without my working in an office full time. My heart really doesn't give a flying fuck!

I always thought that I knew what other women were talking about when they talked about their biological clocks, but this is not just about wanting to have a baby, this is physical need that increases everyday. This has become more pain than want or need. You know how if you slam your finger in the door, you yank until your finger comes free? This feeling is like that, except you can't free the finger and ease the pressure.

I have been trying to ease the pain by spending a lot of time working on plans for getting our finances in order, my body ready, etc. This really does not do anything to help, but it does keep the growing ache from killing me. Doing nothing would make it so much worse.

I don't think that I would be able to deal with it if someone else close to me got pregnant, like a cousin or Smug-Sister. Listening to the girl that sits at the cube outside my office talk non-stop is hard enough. People are asking me every day when Smug-Hub and I are going to start a family, I laugh and tell them "next month." This seems to shock them, "oh, really?" I laugh again and say "we have to get moved into the house first, then we will see." I try to laugh it all off and not let them know how much these comments hurt me. I want to scream at them, but I don't - they obviously have never felt like this or they would not be asking.

We did decide that I will be going off the pill at the end of this pack. That should help me feel more like I am doing something to get ready. I really need to work on getting in shape and eating better. I am so an emotional eater, and I seem to be emotional all the time these days. I have to get my head around the fact that I am going to be housing a little person inside my body for a while soon and I need to be healthy to do it.

Maybe if I can get into a workout routine and focus on the goal, it will help me stick to it and then my deepest desire can come into my life. I can feel her hanging around the fringe's of the world waiting to be my child!