Happy Spring, I guess.

So the question has been asked – where the heck am I? Why no postings?

Well, I am overwhelmed. Have been overwhelmed for several weeks now.

Short story – I took the official title for a job I’d been doing rather haphazardly for a few years anyway. It was on the horizon and we all knew it would be a big project, but not a lot was happening. I was kind of just keeping involved and keeping my finger on the pulse of it for a very long time. We knew it would get hopping at some point, but it was pretty well dormant and I was filling my time with other nice projects with nice start dates and nice end dates. Well, it’s as if someone out in the cosmos noticed that the job title (and yes, pay raise, thank you very much) became official and decided that not just one rather large, but two rather large projects should commence RIGHT NOW. And no baby steps, people – let’s just race right out of that starting gate.

I’m getting >100 emails a day. Work related. I have an average of 5 hours of meetings a day, many of which require travel time. Now, my history is as a worker bee, which is just the way I liked it. Now I am managing these projects. But it takes a while to get out of the worker bee mentality, and I am trying hard to make that transition. And I’m getting there. But right now, I am overwhelmed.

I still have my entire family, the two adult children, teenager, 5yr old, and us all under one bulging roof. M, who has been out of work since the holidays, finally has a job, albeit one that he probably won’t like and will probably not have in two months. But it’s a job and will get him off the couch for several hours a day, we’re hoping. DDD, who has a job and just closed “Play it Again, Sam” last weekend, and who we really rarely see anyway, between work, rehearsals, auditions and boyfriend, is perhaps changing jobs, and then perhaps finding an apartment. Nothing really solid there. BK is going to the first of his two proms on Saturday, after playing a hockey playoff game for which we pulled some strings so it could be played early in the day. We have a full day’s prom schedule on our refrigerator that he has to be mindful of (omg, have things changed since the dark ages of my proms.). He is also playing lacrosse this year on the high school team, after 3 years off. They’ve been having a couple of games a week lately, and yes, I go to every one I can. LK is just a typical 5 year old who wants to dance, do gymnastics, play floor hockey and still have lots of hours to play outside in the neighborhood while going to preschool for an entire day.

So, other things happening… DH has been trying to figure out driving arrangements since the classic ’69 Mustang is just too expensive for the teenager to maintain and we’re worried about reliability, and he (DH) was super envious of those people in the carpool lanes with their snooty little “environment friendly” stickers that lets them drive there – alone - without getting a ticket. So he bought himself some stickers last weekend. They are accompanied by a Honda Civic Hybrid, but that is totally beside the point. He has his stickers and that’s what’s important. So DH will commute daily in his stickers, and BK will drive the car DH has been driving, which puts a teenager behind the wheel of a BMW, which totally drives me crazy. I’ve always hated the “rich kid cars” the kids around here drive, and thought that DDD might want to buy her own car, leaving BK to drive the CRV she’s been driving. Much more appropriate, I thought. But safety is important, DH wants to keep the miles on the beemer down, and DDD’s not giving up the CRV anytime soon. So BK’s driving a rich kid car. Ugh.

Calgon take me away!
(Did you know this stuff still existed? It does!)

I did manage to take an hour to register LK for Kindergarten recently. It was a little strange walking into that office again. It’s been a few years!!! Here we go again!

LK and I will be taking a much needed week in Phoenix in May to spend some time with my dad, make sure he eats and takes his meds, etc. while his wife takes a much needed week in Tahoe with her girlfriends. I intend to go to the pool, zoo, read a book and have a very relaxing time there. I also intend to catch up with my internet friends! Yeah, my dad’s not the most lively conversationalist around and I may have to yell to be heard, but that’s a small price to pay.

I feel like I just wrote my Christmas letter, except with a whole lot more detail. and yes, I write Christmas letters, and I really and truly LIKE reading other peoples' letters. It's just so hard to stay in touch these days, I really look forward to those. But back on the subject, I will try to get some small things posted a little more frequently. Like maybe a prom picture.

And that's where I've been. sigh.