A Few Random Things So You Don't Think I've Given Up Altogether

Hi Kids! Miss me?
Sorry... I've been busy getting promoted to AVP (that's Associate Vice President for those of you not acronym-savvy) of Risk Management at my more-awesome-every-day job. My title can best be described as "VP in charge of whatever my boss tells me to do." Which is to say, it's still a bit undefined. But hey! It came with a pay raise, a bonus, and a space inside the parking garage, so it must be important.

Kidlet turned 3 last month. It seems pretty impossible, but I am assured (mostly by her) that it's true. She is now officially potty-trained, so we get the daycare discount and I can let my membership at BJ's lapse now that it won't be necessary to spend the equivalent of the GDP of a small nation on diapers or Pull Ups anymore. Three seems to carry some awesome type of attitude that I was not prepared for. I don't recall being so disgusted with my parents until I was at least 14 years old. How it is that my child could have perfected the eye roll and dramatic sigh so early in her life is perplexing to me. Yeesh!

I've lost 74 pounds since my surgery. Not one single item of clothing that I owned in January is left in my closet. Even my "skinny clothes" are gone. My fall wardrobe is a size 12, which is something like a miracle. I will need some follow-up plastic surgery on my arms and belly, and I estimate that will eliminate another 20 pounds or so. I am still losing pounds, but at a very slow rate, and the general rule is that it takes a year for the weight loss to completely stabilize, so I anticipate I'll lose another 10 or so by next January. After that, the task will be to keep it stable for a few more months, and then I can start to think about follow-up surgery.

I hate to say that's it for now, but it is. Kidlet is at my parents house, LT is at work, and that means I have a Saturday ALL TO MYSELF, and I'm not going to waste it sitting in front of my computer. See ya on the flipside!

Some Travel Required

I'm just about all packed for my first, ever, last-minute-notice bidniss trip. Boss Lady called me Friday night as I was driving home from work to ask me if I could please fly to LA with her on Tuesday morning at the butt-crack of dawn to do a Due Diligence audit on a company we're acquiring. Um... sure? Boss Lady's boss was supposed to go, but she has to go to Omaha instead and suggested that Boss Lady see if I could take her place. Sure. I can totally take the place of a senior VP with 20 years of industry experience. No problem.

*PANIC*

Bad Blogger! Bad!

I know I've been not so much with the posting lately, and for that I am sorry. As it turns out, going to a job every day that I actually like keeps me pretty busy doing... uh, work. Therefore, a lot less time to blog. Also, those other people that live in my house are so demanding of my time! They want to, like, talk to me and go places with me and stuff.

I've now surpassed the halfway mark of my weight loss goal. I'm down 55 pounds as of this morning, and I've gone from wearing size 20 pants to size 14. Every day is shocking and amazing when I look at what has been accomplished in such a short amount of time. The outside of me is certainly dramatically different (I haven't weighed less than 200 pounds since high school), but I also just feel so much better.

I can not count the many different kinds of awesome this new job of mine is. I love my boss, and I love her boss, and they both love me, and I feel really good about the work I'm doing and how well I've been able to do it. I was able to understand and pick up and just do this job way faster than I ever would have anticipated, and I don't even mind having to wear pantyhose and high heels and makeup every day (I actually kinda like it). It's done wonders for my self-esteem, and it makes me happy. I help people who need help without having to be immersed in the negative, hectic, stressful, unhealthy environment that most nursing is done in. I walk a fine line between what is good for the Insured and what is good for the company, but I take comfort in knowing that my judgment will always be backed up by my boss, and that insurance policy contracts are binding legal documents.

It's been a pretty busy couple of months around the Suburban Lesbian household. Kidlet is growing like a weed and becoming more and more of an actual person every day, which alternately delights me and freaks me out. LT and I are busy trying to get our house ready to put it on the market. My grandparents' estate has finally been settled, and we are in the process of buying a house lot from the town (the town bought the land from the Estate, and now we need to buy it back... it's so complicated and stupid because of my mother's psycho, mean siblings, but ultimately we will all get what we deserve, so... MOVING ON!). The garden is crazy blooming and gorgeous, so LT is freaking out about actually selling the house, but I keep reminding her that it will be worthwhile in the end if she will JUST CHILL and she can TAKE the goddamn rose bushes with us if they are so important OH MY GOD!

Ahem.

My dear brother sent his Top Chef audition video in 2 weeks ago, and we are now all waiting with bated breath for a decision, which should be coming sometime in the next 2 weeks. He was a finalist for last season and was invited by the production team to submit a new video for the upcoming season, so we are all very hopeful. Fingers crossed, internet!

I'm off now for a board meeting. My colleagues and I are meeting the investors for the first time, and we're all atwitter. And also highly anxious. I'll tell you all about it if I ever manage to post again. Just kidding... it may take me another month to formulate some coherent sentences, but I love my reader(s) too much to abandon you outright.

*Kisses!*

What's Been Going On Around Here

It's been a relatively busy few weeks in the Suburban Lesbian household.

LT has been working wonky hours splitting her time between a few local hospitals. She worked 2 day shifts and 2 night shifts last week, then her Friday day shift got canceled. She gets well-compensated for this kind of craziness, but I don't envy her schedule one bit.

Another awesome thing about my job: we (the case managers) were all allowed to leave work at noon yesterday because (quoth the CEO): "It's a gorgeous day. You've all been working really hard. Go have fun." Mmmokay!

Kidlet is finally finishing up her latest respiratory badness. She did the febrile barking seal thing for a few days, but she's on the mend now. In retrospect, her sickness might at least partly explain her evilness the week prior. Maybe LT and I really are Mean Mommies...

Tomorrow is my cousin Julie's wedding shower. She's been engaged for so long that I was starting to think that she had gotten married already and I just wasn't invited to the wedding. Since kidlet is feeling better, I'm bringing her with me, but LT has a prior commitment, so she won't be joining us. She's devastated, as you can imagine. We dykes love ourselves a nice wedding shower...

We're seriously considering putting the house back on the market. The house next door is back on, and we think it's under agreement, which we see as a very good sign. Unfortunately, LT has already started her Spring ritual of completely rearranging the entire yard, so we can't do anything just yet. We'll take a couple of months to get things all prettified and then call the realtor. Cross yer fingers!

In case you weren't already aware, Spring has finally, officially arrived here in Metro South, MA. There are green buds everywhere, the hyacinth and daffodils are up, and the hosta are getting ready to make an appearance. Also, I'm seriously thinking about getting off my ass and dragging LT out for a bike ride with me. Right after she finishes transplanting the back yard to the the side yard and moving the hydrangeas to where the rhododendron used to be...

The Psychotic Two's (or, LT and I are Mean! Mommies!)

Kidlet has been acting like an absolute lunatic lately. By lunatic I mean she's acting like a 2-year-old, and I really wish she'd cut it out because I don't like her very much right now.

She's basically just plain crazy. She makes demands, expects them to be met immediately, and then freaks out when they aren't (LT and I do not respond to any statement that begins with "Give me" or "I want". We're really Mean Mommies like that...). The freakouts always involve ear-splitting crying, as well as throwing oneself on the floor, throwing objects, and just generally acting like a big turd. Lately, most of this behavior has been inspired by us suggesting that she might want to sit on the potty, or come to the table for dinner, or get ready for bed. Forget about even suggesting that she actually go to bed. We are so unreasonable and demanding, LT and I.

By the time I made it home from work last night, Kidlet was starting to show signs of getting over her damn self, and LT told me she had willingly gone upstairs to sit on the potty, so I'm taking that as a hopeful sign.

I woke up this morning from a particularly restful night's sleep to find kidlet sound asleep beside me, looking all adorable and snuggly. LT was in the shower, and when she emerged she told me kidlet had been in and out of our room approximately 56 times until she finally relented and let her get in bed with us at 3:00. She didn't seem sick or freaked out and didn't offer any explanation. Each time LT woke up, she just whispered "Hi Mommy" and then allowed LT to lead her back to her room and tuck her in. By the time I had finished showering and had gotten dressed she was starting to wake up and was almost (dare I say?) cheerful. She didn't even freak out when she realized we had left her breakfast at home on the counter. I'm a little scared I might be paying for this momentary lapse back into "sweet kid" mode, but for now I'm just grateful that we didn't start the day with tears.

For the First Time in My Career, I Don't Wish I Had Just Gone to Law School Like My Dad Said

I LOVE my new job. Love, love, lovelovelovelovelove LOVE it! Way. Big. Lots.

These are just some of the reasons why:
1. They pay me a lot of money.
2. There are no admissions, transfers or discharges to be facilitated, confused old folks to chase down, meds to give, dressings to change, IVs to hang, crazy families to call Security about, imminent cardiac arrest (mine or anyone else's...), report to give, CNAs to manage, and there is no blood, sputum, poop, or emesis to be found.
3. Company retreat in Bermuda.
4. Working technology (hardware and software), plentiful office supplies, new, matching (not fourth-hand, broken and/or fugly) furniture, and a fully stocked fridge in the break room.
5. No one has called me a bitch.
6. The CEO, the CFO, and my boss all make it a point to stop by my space, say hello, and inquire about how my day is going and whether or not they can help me with anything.
7. Cool, eclectic, fun, completely fucking brilliant minds everywhere.
8. One hour paid lunch breaks. The ability to actually stop working so that I can take care of my own personal physical needs (I know! It's so crazy that it might just work!).
9. See 1 and 2, above.

There's a wicked learning curve, but I'm picking things up really quickly, and I understand the concepts and the process in a totally intuitive way. I love that I'm on the ground floor of a startup company that has unlimited growth potential. I love knowing that I was hand-picked out of 150 applicants for my job. I love that the expectations are high, that the work is challenging, and that performance is rewarded generously. I love that I have the support of a management team that is composed of the most brilliant minds in the industry, and that each of them has a stake in my own personal success or failure.

Law school is expensive. Nursing school was cheap. Sallie Mae owns my ass now, but my new job will pay the ransom pretty quick.

Vacation, All I Ever Wanted

It's been a very productive week here in suburbia. I've had a lot of spare time on my hands, and have mostly put it to good use.

For example...
My new workspace, let me show you it:
For quite some time now (uh... 2 and a half years...) my desk, etc. has lived in the room that used to be my office but is now Kidlet's bedroom. Now my desk lives in what was the cluttered/wasted space on one end of the living room. The result is that kidlet has her bedroom all to herself, and I can work without being isolated from her and LT. Also, having my workspace so centrally located motivates me to keep it neat and organized. As an added bonus, the window looks out to the front yard, and I can watch the birds at the feeder. Even better than all that is that kidlet can nap without me bothering her (flashbulb notwithstanding, of course...)

(Aaaaw... in't she cute?...)

I've accomplished a few other things, too. Namely:
-Sorted through my clothes and donated everything that is too big for me (read: just about every piece of clothing in my closet).
-Purchased four new outfits for work, complete with shoes, for less than $300 (I *heart* Old Navy and H&M!).
-Planted all the seeds for this year's herb garden.
-Made several pieces to show to a local jewelry consigner

(For Example...)

And...

-Made a pot of most excellent beef stew.
-Scrubbed every surface in the kitchen until my arms ached.
-In a grand testament to my gracelessness, managed to fall down all 13 of my stairs (without hitting my head once on the way down-- that takes talent!).
-Purchased, wrapped, and shipped a shamefully belated wedding gift (hi Gretchen!).
-Sorted through kidlet's toys and disposed of the ones she's outgrown without her even knowing about it.
-Finished 2 Subversive Cross Stitch projects I had started before Christmas.

Still left on the To Do list:
-Practice walking in new high heel shoes (see above: gracelessness, my).
-Call my new boss to find out what time I need to be at my new job on Monday.
-Iron all my new clothes.
-Upload and edit a whole mess of video footage of kidlet being cute.

I'll catch y'all next week...