jazzhands

Sep 19 2014

Mod Podge: Initial Thoughts

As per usual, I learn I don’t have the patience for crafts with a lot of steps.

Glue in particular seems to be difficult for me as it is messy.

Also maybe not the smartest idea to try out this craft for the first time with a project involving old vintage labels from a producer Adam works with and loves and who sent a lot of old, fancy labels which aren’t made any more and are probably pretty rare. So, yeah, I just went ahead and covered those with some glue.

I’ll post the “after” pictures as soon as this project is dry and also after I’ve scraped some sticky mod podge off my table.

Tagged DIY

Sep 12 2014

Last day

Dear Colleagues, I hereby bequeath to you…

My disco ball. It’s hanging from those pipes by fishing wire that I asked the super to hang for me and I sincerely hope it doesn’t fall because that thing is pretty heavy.
My calculator that I decorated with glitter glue one morning when we had no internet connection.
My little red fan that I stole from Steve Shatz’s desk when he left.
My ultra quiet (sort of) keyboard with the letters A, D,L, C, N, and M rubbed off.
Business cards from conferences from 2009 – 2014.
Magnetic Buckyballs that I can’t take home because they are a choking hazard and I live with a baby who eats everything.
Dry erase 2015 calendar (full disclosure – this is tough to “erase” but there’s only a few months left in the year anyway.)
2 containers of oikos lowfat yogurt in the fridge (might be one container by the end of the day because I might get hungry) It’s delicious, low fat and a great source of protein and calcium!

Sep 10 2014

1 Comment

lists

food for thought

Unsalted pretzels. What is the point?
Why won’t my kids eat bananas? Banana is the first food that my baby who loves to eat more than he loves anything has ever refused.
Why won’t my kid eat noodles? I mean I seriously spend a good amount of time thinking to myself “what could I eat that would trick my brain into thinking I’m eating delicious noodles which are devoid of any nutritional content but provide a comforting carbo-loaded delivery for cheese?” Oh and speaking of cheese…
Why won’t this same kid eat cheese? Kids love string cheese right? WRONG apparently.
Pumpkin lattes. I want to love you but it turns out I actually do not love you at all (don’t worry regular, vanilla and chai lattes…I still love you guys!)
Is frozen yogurt acceptable as an entree? What if there’s fruit on/with it?

Sep 07 2014

1 Comment

working 9-5

What comes next

Here’s the Thing. After 5 and a half years, I will be leaving my job at the end of this week.

I won’t say much about the why. The reasons are numbered and complicated and maybe not important anyway.

I’ll only say that after coming back to work from my maternity leave after Nathan was born, it just became more and more clear that some things in my life weren’t working any more and that I had to change them. I had this sense of “this is our family and now REAL LIFE can begin” and I knew that the job part of the life wasn’t working any more. A bunch more stuff was also not working (I really REALLY need to clean out that hall closet) but in terms of logistics and immediate impact, the job change was the biggest thing.

We went on vacation and I thought about things some more. I talked with Adam some more. I thought some more after that. And talked more. Tossed in my sleep (though the restlessness of a baby who didn’t sleep well on vacation may have been partly to blame there too), made lists, argued with myself, made some more lists and did some more talking.

When I came back from vacation I had made the decision to leave. For a lot of reasons, some really good and valid reasons, and some crazy, I felt really nervous about this decision and waffled back and forth about it for the few days before I got back to the office. But as the train that morning approached Grand Central, I grew more and more sure that I had to do this. And as I walked toward the door I felt even more sure. And as I walked into the office and felt the tension and stress immediately fill me up to the brim, to the verge of tears before I even turned on my computer, even though I’d already cleared out some emails and taken care of some urgent issues before I was back from vacation, then I knew what I had to do.

As soon as I spoke to my boss and made the decision a real THING and said “no I’m not going to change my mind” I knew that it was true. I was not going to change my mind or regret this at all. And while in the weeks that have passed (I gave an absurd amount of notice) I have often felt ridiculous, panicked, nervous, unsure, crazy, elated, manic, overwhelmed and flat out afraid, what I have not felt once was a change of mind. In fact, rarely in my life have I been so absolutely sure that I am going in the right direction.

I am wrapping things up. I’ve handed off projects and accounts. I have taken home Naomi’s art projects which decorated my space, have taken home the extra shoes I had hidden under my desk, have cleaned my desk of the lipglosses, stray soy sauce packets, band aids, loose paper clips and assorted flotsam that you some how accumulate in that top desk drawer (is that an unwrapped piece of gum? a broken hairclip? a loose advil tablet?) I’m ready to forget all these passwords for all these platforms, emails, systems that I’ve kept in my brain for more than 5 years. Who knows what I will be able to fill that space in my brain with?

Time to see what comes next.

Sep 05 2014

1 Comment

Health, say yes to jazz hands, WW

Yay for me.

I hadn’t specifically planned to be fat, and some of you are going to be all “Hey you’re not fat!” or whatever people say when you go “hey I’m getting fat.” I don’t mean it to be mean to myself and I certainly don’t mean it to get you to say to me “Hey you’re not fat” or something that means “you are fat but still lovely” like “You’re so pretty!” or “That dress is amazing!” or whatever.

But one of the many things in my life I have decided I need to change is my weight. Or maybe I am supposed to reframe this as “my health.” Yes yes it’s about health and setting a good example and being a role model and teaching my kids (and myself) about having better body image issues and all of that but I’ll just be honest and say in addition to all of that I just decided I don’t want to be fat. I don’t want to feel fat and old. Feeling fat and old is making me feel shitty in a lot of other areas in my life and I want to change that. So.

One of the things I have done (but still…not The Thing. God I’m being so annoying) is to join Weight Watchers.

Initially I thought I wouldn’t tell anyone. Because I don’t want people to judge everything I eat, drink, do, don’t do, don’t eat, whatever. But now I’m just putting it out there as this thing I am doing to improve myself. No explanations due (though I guess I just gave one to you guys), no details. Hey here’s this thing I’m doing for myself.

To be honest, I’m not sure I love it. Meetings are cheesy bordering on highly annoying. I’m not really into the idea of counting the points of the stuff I’m eating for the rest of my life. But there’s a group that meets near my office and there are 2 women (hey are you ladies reading this?? AWESOME! High Five! Wasn’t Maggie a riot today??) who go with me and the leader, Maggie, is just great. Even if I’m not sure this will work for me, or if I’ll be able to continue forever, I know that it’s making me feel pretty good RIGHT NOW. I saw a problem. I said “I’m not happy with this particular thing.” And I am doing something to change that thing.

Yay for me.

Sep 05 2014

1 Comment

Uncategorized

This is not the thing

So don’t get excited.

But I wanted to share that I just bought this:

I’m pretty sure I’ve crossed some sort of line that I can’t turn back from but whatever. I’m going to decoupage the hell out of some stuff and I think it’s going to be awesome.

UPDATE: I have just learned that there is a thing called SPARKLE MOD PODGE. I am buying that too and I’m pretty sure my life will never be the same.

Sep 04 2014

1 Comment

lists, mommy blogging

So….a couple of things happened

I’m not going to write yet about this Thing I’m standing on the edge of. Let’s keep some suspense here. I’ll talk about the Thing soon, I swear. But since I’ve last posted which was approximately a million years ago, some things have happened that you might be interested in reading about. So to catch you up on the past couple of years here are just a few (or 19) things you should know:

I got pregnant. But it didn’t stick.
I got pregnant again. This time it stuck.
I got fat and cranky and Naomi had an amazing time deciding what to name this baby.
She found out it would be a brother and said “No problem. The next baby will just be a sister.”
I had a baby.
We named him Nathan.
He was very different from his sister from the very start mostly in how much he loved to nurse. And nurse. And nurse some more.
I felt so awesome that we were doing so great at this nursing thing!
Then he tasted cereal and was all “THIS IS AWESOME! I will no longer work so hard to obtain nourishment and you will bring it to my face with a spoon or a bottle you crazy people!” So that was it for the nursing. But we had a pretty good run.
Naomi grew. She grew a bunch and turned into this little amazing and also totally crazy person.
She made up a nickname for me which is “Crazy Mama-roo” and it’s possibly the best name anyone has called me ever.
She finally got some hair and we cut her some serious bangs and now she looks like Matilda and that’s just the cutest.
She doesn’t have powers like Matilda though and for that I’m pretty grateful because come on, I have enough to deal with over here.
We potty trained a kid. This was a BIG DEAL as pretty much the first thing I thought when I found out I was pregnant was “whoa I’m going to have to potty train a kid someday.”
In case you’re curious, potty training involved a lot of cleaning of the floors which was a lot like when we had to train a puppy.
Adam and I decided we should watch Modern Family, but never had time so all the episodes just filled up our DVR until we gave up.
Adam and I decided we should watch Downton Abbey but gave up after one episode (I was SO TIRED AND PREGNANT! I couldn’t stay awake I’M SORRY I know you’re all going to be so annoyed.)
Adam and I decided to watch Lost and now we are almost to the end of season 5 and WHAT THE HELL this show is insane and I have no idea what’s going on and I think it’s giving me nightmares.
So in conclusion – two pregnancies, one baby, one big sister (who still tells me that “the next baby will be a sister”) who is potty trained, can spell her own name, has a super cute haircut (and glasses! I forgot to tell you about the glasses!)

And now here we are. September 2014. About to embark on a great new adventure (boy I’m making this Thing seem way more exciting than it is. You guys are going to be totally disappointed.)

Sep 04 2014

4 Comments

say yes to jazz hands

On the brink

You guys, I’m standing at the edge of a really big, really scary cliff and I am totally going to jump and I’m super excited and the best part is how I’m going to take all of you (haha no one reads this! so it’s just me! But that’s also awesome!) with me so stay tuned.

Oct 26 2012

Moving day at the office

I hate moving even though there are some great things about it. I like taking stock of what you have and starting with a clean slate, but I hate the process and how unorganized and lost you sort of feel in the middle.

I have been terrible at keeping up this blog, I know. I’m using Moving Day to take stock of a bunch of stuff at the office and out of it and will come back next week with a lot more to say.

Jun 14 2012

3 Comments

style?

The Dress

I did it last night.

I said goodby to The Dress. It’s in the “donate” pile right now ready to be dropped off at Goodwill this weekend.

You know The Dress. It looked awesome and made you feel 100% amazing. You wore it to every party that mattered and sometimes when you were wearing it out, you’d get free drinks for a couple of rounds. And then one day it just didn’t fit anymore but it’s been hanging in your closet because you definitely know that someday it’s going to fit again. Never mind that if it did, it would be hopelessly out of style. Besides, your bra straps were always a little visible in The Dress and your bra straps just aren’t that cute anymore. Oh hell, they were never cute. Who are you kidding.

Anyway, The Dress is gone. You should get rid of yours too. Then we can go have lunch and go shopping for a new The Dress. One that you can wear with an actual bra, and that fits you perfectly RIGHT NOW because seriously…if someone calls you up and asks you to go for cocktails, shouldn’t you have that dress ready??

just some stuff I was thinking about