April 29, 2009
Easter goodies
As I mentioned before, I have some fun stories to share from the past few weeks…
On Easter, my uncle brought S a very special bottle of Irish whisky. And S promptly hid it for later so that he wouldn’t have to share. 😉
Later in the day, we convinced him to bring it out…but the bottle had other ideas.
This is S and my dad determining which law of physics will enable them to be drinking whiskey in the next five minutes…they’re often partners in crime.
One of my favorite stories of the two of them is from the first New Year’s Eve after I had met S. My dad decided that S’s Budweiser taste needed a little culture, and so set out to indocrinate him to the taste of scotch. That particular night, my dad poured two scotches, and tried to convince S to try it. After S refused, Dad drank his and then S’s…couldn’t let it go to waste! A little while later, Dad tried again, and again ended up drinking both! The night pretty much progressed from there, until around 11:30 when my mom found my dad asleep on the bathroom rug. LOL!
Here’s Dad again, after they got it open…entirely too proud of himself. 😉
And this is the rest of the family (and yes, we realize that everyone is wearing blue). 😉 Look, Dad couldn’t even wait for the toast! LOL. All in all, it was a great afternoon and a very happy Easter. 🙂
April 27, 2009
Oh, what a beautiful morning!
I’m back, finally! S’s family was visiting from Ireland around Easter, and stayed with us for almost two weeks. My house and I have just finally recovered enough that I can get back to blogging! More stories to come later…
It was a BEAUTIFUL weekend here in Boston and we definitely took advantage of it. On Saturday, I babysat and S started digging in the backyard for what he hopes will eventually become a koi pond. Saturday afternoon was spent drinking vodka-lemonades in the backyard with S and his brother. 🙂 Sunday, we got up early and went down to the local boathouse, rented an aluminum fishing boat and went out on the river with S’s brother, nephew…and Bailey. We decided that we needed to get her a life jacket – which seriously, was the funniest sight I’ve seen in a long time – well, at least since we put her in a seatbelt for the first time! ;-P
After a few hours with no luck, we headed home to relax in the backyard. S relaxed for approximately 10.5 minutes before he was up again, suggesting a bike ride. We rode over to my parents’ house across town (2 miles, to be exact), with Bailey on the leash beside us. S helped my dad rake and then we headed back. After we finally got home, we got all three of us showered and then passed out in front of the T.V. We actually had to keep poking Bailey to make sure she was alive. LOL! All in all, it was a great weekend, and a wonderful taste of the summer to come.
April 15, 2009
Now what?
Wow…I’m in shock. I got some interesting news from my HR department this morning, and I don’t think it has hit me quite yet. I’m still more surprised than upset.
To back up a bit…my company was sold last year, and as of June 2008, we became part of a larger publisher, that itself had been sold off from an even larger multi-faceted corporation. I went from having full infertility coverage (a law in Massachusetts) to a $5,000 lifetime maximum for infertility treatments (that they got away with because of some loophole for “self-pay” companies) – which, you all know, lasts all of five minutes. At the time, I was right in the middle of our last IVF cycle, and couldn’t believe what was happening. I tried to talk to HR to see if there was anything they could do, but no luck. We ended up paying for part of the cycle ourselves, and have been on a “break” until this July, because HR practically promised that when our new company changed the benefit plan for the next fiscal year, that the infertility coverage would change (for the better) as well.
Recently, I sent a note to HR asking if the benefit plan had yet been determined, for two reasons. If not, I wanted to submit a letter to Corporate expressing my concerns and providing some statistics about the IF community – basically trying to make my case. If they had already decided on the benefits, I wanted to know as soon as possible whether my treatments would be covered, so that I could start planning!
Here is the response that I got:
I did reach out to Corporate HR…to inquire about the new medical plan and infertility benefits that are part of that plan. I wish I had a better update for you, but I learned that the infertility coverage with the new health plan will not be much different than the current plan’s offering. I’d relayed your questions and feedback about the infertility coverage last summer/fall, but if you’d like to write a letter to personally express your concerns regarding this, please feel free to do so.
The end.
She may as well have said “nope, tough luck…sucks to be you”! So I’ve now wasted 6+ months waiting for benefits coverage, that will NEVER happen!!! I like what I do, but really do not like the company – and this is a perfect example of why. Now I have to decide whether I stay here and suck it up, take MORE of a break until we’ve saved up for another round of IVF, try to find a different job at a company with better insurance coverage, or move on to plan B.
Last fall I started pursuing a teaching license, but when the economy went downhill, I got scared to leave my job to start at the entry level in another industry. We would have had to assume the responsibility for all of our benefits through S’s company, AND start paying for the master’s degree that I’d need for a permanent teaching license. In MA, I can teach with a temporary license while going to school, as long as I passed the licensing test (which I did). I really think that, long term, teaching will be a better fit once we have a baby, but it’s terrifying to think of having to start over, while paying for IF treatments on our own.
Although, it’s equally terrifying to think of staying at this company, overworked and overstressed, with an hour and forty-five minute commute (each way), for no reason other than a paycheck (which I spend a good chunk of on my f-ing commute!). Ugh, I just don’t know where I go from here…
April 14, 2009
You know it’s bad when…
Not only did I treat myself to a Diet Coke after lunch (because I was about to fall asleep at my desk!), but I also found a random brownie – one brownie – on a plate in the kitchen, and yes…I ate it! No idea how long it had been there, or whether it belonged to someone else…as my grandmother would say, my soul needed that brownie! 😛
I’m trying to get back on track after Easter, but it’s definitely not working… So much for my no-sugar diet!
April 13, 2009
Foreign object
Funny story to tell you… This actually happened a week ago, but I just got the green light to share (…for such an outgoing person, S is remarkably private).
Last Saturday, S and his brother were repairing a rock wall in our yard and towards the end of the project started to get a bit giddy. Cement ended up flying everywhere, and in the midst of it all, S felt a bit of cement hit his eye. It didn’t hurt, so S assumed that it had hit his eyelid and didn’t think anything of it. (He didn’t even tell either of us that it had happened.)
That night, I went to bed and S stayed up late to watch Braveheart. When I woke up the next morning around 6:30 – my usual time to feed the dog, etc. – I noticed that S wasn’t in bed next to me. That was not usual – Sundays are S’s day to sleep in, and it usually takes a bomb and the bribe of breakfast in bed to even get him to open his eyes. 😉 S finally comes in to the bedroom and asks me to look at his eye and see if I can see anything in it. Finally, the story comes out.
Apparently when he came to bed the night before, he got a searing pain in his right eye whenever he closed his eyes. This is the best part though – instead of waking me up and telling me he was in pain – he remembered the cement incident and decided that in case he was going to go blind, he’d take an extra look at me and give me an extra kiss, and then just went to bed anyways!! I don’t think I’ll ever understand men…
So then we spent Sunday morning arguing about whether or not S needed to go to the ER, which culminated in him trying to put on my pink and white sneakers, and sheepishly muttering, “Wow, S, that really doesn’t help your cause.” LOL!
Once we got there, the ER doctor confirmed that there was a “foreign object” in S’s eye. He stepped out for a moment, and S asks me “why doesn’t he call it a native object? I got it in our yard…” I burst into laughter and then had to explain that no, he didn’t call it a foreign object because S is from Ireland, that if it doesn’t belong in your eye or body, etc. that it’s called “foreign.” S has a great sense of humor and was able to laugh at himself, which definitely cut the tension before what happened next.
After trying unsuccessfully to remove it using a cotton swab, the doctor leaned out the door and called to a nurse, asking for the “eye drill.” S’s eyes bugged out of his head and all I could think was, “Love you honey, but better you than me!” The eye drill ended up being a little tool that looked like a cross between a penlight and a vibrating toothbrush, but with big ‘ole needle on the end of it! Thank god S’s eye was numbed, he didn’t even feel the “foreign object” being removed.
We were discharged with some drops and cream and told to follow up if it still bothered him. S was thrilled, not because his eye felt better (which it did), but because they didn’t send him home with an eye patch to wear. LOL!! Although he is under strict instructions to wear goggles during ALL projects from now on… 😉
April 10, 2009
Friday book club
Just finished Gods Behaving Badly by Marie Phillips – SO cute. It’s a satirical fiction based on Greek mythology but completely farcical…it’s full of humor, but also has a lovely plot-line that makes you feel like yes, the power of good still does triumph.
From the publisher – “Yes, the twelve Greek gods of Olympus are alive and well in the twenty-first century, but they are crammed together in a London town house – and are none too happy about it. Even more disturbing, their powers are waning.”
I’d definitely recommend it! 🙂
April 9, 2009
The man-handle
We’ve recently started a new program at work – HR has negotiated an agreement with a local yoga studio to provide classes in the office, at a discount. I signed up, along with one of my coworkers, and we’ve been doing it for the past few weeks, every Wednesday at noon. The first few weeks were what you expect from a yoga class – calm, peaceful, and a lot of stretching. Then, this Wednesday, we got a new instructor.
He was a total riot, cracking jokes the whole time, and distracting us enough that we didn’t realize that we were actually working, and HARD. All was well until we started doing back-bends… Mr. Comic-Yogi begins by explaining that back bends shouldn’t actually put all of the pressure in the back, and tells us to sit and watch him for a minute.
So he lays down on his back, bends his knees and asks “What’s the highest point on my body?” “Your knees…” Right.
Then he lifts his hips off the floor (just a bit, not high) – “And now?” “Still knees…” Yes.
Next he pushes into a back bend with his belly in the air, and all together the class says “Stomach.”
Then he says “Now if I shift my weight towards my hands, now what’s the highest point?” “Your chest?…” Yes, chest and shoulders.
“Now, if I shift my weight towards my feet, what’s the highest point?”
I’ll leave to your imagination what was the highest part at that point…! The room went dead, everyone refused to state the obvious. Seriously, I know we’re all adults, but that was almost more than any of us could stand. I think he finally realized what he had done and quickly says “Yup, my hips – now you try!” LOL!!
Priceless.
April 7, 2009
Blogging
When I started this blog, it was with two main goals. The first was a need to get the thoughts and feelings out of my head and into some form of journal, and the second was an attempt to start writing more regularly, even if it was just a few lines of a blog posting every day. I also felt like it would be nice to join the huge online IF community, in some form other than lurking. 😉 I didn’t tell many people at first, partly because I didn’t know whether I’d be able to keep up with it, and partly because I questioned whether anything I had to say would be interesting enough for anyone else to want to read it!
So clearly I haven’t been able to keep up with it as much as I’d like – i.e. my last blog post was a week ago – but I’m still really trying to make a go of it. My excuse is that I really try to be fully wherever I am (so when I’m home, I try to stay off the computer and hang out with S, and when I’m at work, I try to keep the web surfing to a minimum ;-)), but these lofty goals are really hampering my blogging! I guess all I can do is my best, which is to jump right back on the wagon when I fall off. So here I am.
I still don’t know whether I’m saying anything unique or interesting, but I appreciate all of you that are following my ramblings nonetheless! I have to tell you what a rush it was to receive my first comment from someone in the blogosphere (someone I didn’t know In-Real-Life). And that’s not to ignore my wonderful IRL friends who encouraged me to see this through, and who read and comment on my posts regularly. Thanks guys, mwah! 🙂 I know that there is such a wonderful community of people out there, many of whom have had the same feelings and experiences, and I look forward to reading your blogs and hearing your stories! I hope that this blog resonates with others – if so, I’d love to hear from you. Thanks for stopping by! 🙂
Life by the Day 