instant happy kelly

just add water, and lots of fruit and vegetables.

After a week of eating craptastically with my parents, Tim and I had big salads for dinner last night and tonight, with fruit for dessert. Plus my fruit smoothies. And a lot of water.

I feel MUCH better physically, less weighted down by all that sugar.

:)

a week with the fam

It was a good but LOOOOOONG week.

It is so hard to watch my parents getting older, knowing they aren't taking good care of themselves. They both eat so badly. So much sugar. Not a lot of the good things, fruits, veggies, fresh things. Their travel snacks consisted of candy and more candy and then more candy. When we were out on a trip to the coast, my dad kept talking about how much he wished he had brought his malted milk balls and mounds. EAT REAL FOOD!!!! All that sugar is so bad for you.

They are both overweight. They don't exercise really. They were both tired after the small amount of walking around we did on the coast day. They both have a growing list of health problems that is only going to continue growing because they aren't taking care of themselves.

And my mother...just DOES NOT stop talking. Ever. I think she is afraid of silence. And she just repeats herself over and over. I don't know if she is aware that she is doing it, or if she thinks she makes a better point if she says it four times in a row. And the baby talk. GAAAAAA. stop with the baby talk. Pleaseplease? No wonder my dad tunes her out so much of the time.

By the end of the week, I was so tired of the constant talking, eating like crap, etc. And watching them continue to spend money they really shouldn't be spending.

Sigh. For the first time, they both looked really old to me. And it scares me for their future. And I can't do anything about it. So I just tried to love them as much as I could and try not to get too irritated with them while they were here.

preparing for the invasion

My parents come in tomorrow for a week, and I am mostly looking forward to seeing them. I am excited to show them more of Portland, take them out to the coast and show them why I love living here. I'm taking off three and a half days from work to show them around and visit with them.

But...a week of my parents, a week of my mother, is a long time. We usually have a hard time finding stuff to talk about after an afternoon with them. Granted, we've been getting along better and having more normal conversations, but that is for just a few hours per week.

I was trying to menu plan for the week and it was so difficult. My mother is such a picky eater of bland things. I honestly don't know how she isn't sick to death of what she eats since she really doesn't eat all that much. I had to buy stuff I pretty much never buy, sugar cereal, orange juice, cookies, just junk I don't usually have in the house. And I feel like there is very little food in the food I bought. Sigh.

We spent today cleaning and doing laundry and buying stuff for the house. Staining our coffee table, making sure the place looks great. All that jazz.

Stay tuned for updates on how the week is going...here's hoping for minimal drama!

happy puppy!

Very typical happy Myra. Rolling around on the rug, playing with baby.

yelled at my girl this morning

She's been chewing on the baseboard near the front door, but we never actually catch her doing it, so we can't tell her not to do it.

She got up this morning and I heard a crunching that didn't sound like any of her toys. I ran out there and yelled loudly at her and thwacked her nose and dragged her away from that rug. I never yell at her, she made herself very small.

She immediately came back into the bedroom and was very sweet and apologetic to me. She wouldn't leave my side for the rest of the morning. I think she got the point. And I think the fact that it was me who caught her and yelled at her will have more of an impact. She's used to Tim yelling at her or disciplining her.

But poor little girl. I told her we are still friends and I still love her :)

friends come and go

Have "lost" several of my new Portland friends, specifically Tawny and Amy. But, I am becoming friends with Lisa from work, and Toni's friend Celena. They both fit my new friend criteria of not being downers and not needing me to fix their lives, whereas Tawny fit into both of those.

They are much more fun to hang out with. It's amazing what a difference attitude can make.

not feeling so curious...

I called Curiosity today to make sure they had received my resume, and maybe get an idea if they meant to call me wink wink.

The girl said they had already started doing mini interviews and were going to decide who they wanted in for real interviews this week. She said if I hadn't heard, then that probably meant I wasn't one of the ones getting called in for an interview.

But...then she said that I was in the first tier of candidates they considered and if things didn't work out with the others, they would look at the resumes again. I feel like she wouldn't have said that if it wasn't true.

I'm kind of cool with that. Mostly. They had said they wanted 3-5 years MINIMUM as a senior writer, and at most, I have two. But I read that as they liked my cover letter, and liked my work samples, but had a lot of people with more experience apply, and that is cool.

It also means that if they are serious about the type of person they want in there, they might call me anyway. That's not to sound egotistical, but I know marketing types. And not a lot of senior writers necessarily fit what they seem to be looking for (playful, interested in helping to develop kid/adult creativity through play and learning, interested in creating more "personal marketing," and not stuff tailored for mass audiences).

I won't hold my breath for it, but I'm at least flattered they considered me a first tier candidate, because I am clearly up against much senior writers.

end of the opening!

The end of the opening events! The public open house for the new hospital was today, so no more days spent running around the hospital, making signs, working on a sunday (although today wasn't too bad). Even though I feel fine, I already wrote to Trish and Danielle that I am taking a sick day tomorrow. Really, it is more of a mental health day, because I don't think I am quite ready to see them all again.

So, is it a good thing or a bad thing that work will return to relative normalcy? Don't know....

at the end of a pisser day

at the end of a long week, the sun came out over the river and we watched Tall Ships sail at sunset as we walked along the river, and I felt good again. Sometimes it really is the simple things that are the most important and that help the most.

sometimes it's a bitch

sometimes it's a breeze, sometimes the picture just ain't what it seems.

Today would fall under the "sometimes it's a bitch" category. Fecking work. Bah.

But it is Friday. I have tonight and tomorrow to play and rest and be with the boy and the wonderpup.

Things will get better :)

something about Wednesdays....

Work always seems to come crashing down on Wednesdays. Yesterday, Kathleen was outlining how frustrated she is with Trish, because Trish won't meet with her and Kathryn to go over the marketing plans for all their service lines, and won't tell them how much money they have in the budget.

Then, we find out the logo is imploding as usual. Sat in on a meeting with Kathleen, Kathryn, Michele and Trish, reviewing the logo and such. Michele kept repeating "What if we all just gave our resignations at once?" till I wanted to hit her. Kathleen and Kathryn started talking about how nothing is moving forward and they are really frustrated and their service line directors are getting mad because they were made promises and nothing is coming to fruition.

And this is just what I was there for. I was actually out of the office almost all day yesterday, thank Dog. I was doing a lot of set up in the new hospital building for the employee events that start today. My day wasn't all that stressful, but man oh man, did I do a LOT of walking. No exaggeration, I think I walked six miles. Just going from my building to the new hospital is about half a mile, did that about six times, then I walked every floor of the hospital two or three times. The hospital is HUGE. I walked almost non stop from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m.

I came home exhausted and fell over just after 8. I would still rather have had my day yesterday than stay in the office and listen to all of them complain.