Thursday, June 30, 2011

Commuter Chronicles

For a little background....

The LIRR isn't like the subway. The seats are comfier. The general population is nicer, cleaner, a bit more well behaved. But even the LIRR is not immune to wierdos. Today's wierdo: the sock guy. 
It is a pet peeve of mine that people sometimes put their feet up on the seat opposite them. Like, "for real?! I don't want to get your shoe dirt on the back of my pant leg because you feel like lounging. Guess what d-bag...we ALL would love to get comfy and put our feet up, but it's common courtesy to keep the seats clean of whatever we possibly can, including shoe dirt."
Well, sock guy actually managed to abide by the "no shoe dirt" rule, albeit a bit confused in his interpretation of it.
I do not lie that shoe guy proceeds to sit in one of 4 seats (2 seats facing opposite two more) where two woman are already sitting. He kicks his shoes off, plops his feet up on the seat next to one of the woman and off to sleep he goes. Yes, just a-chillin' on the LIdoubleR with his shoes off, feet up on the seat, gettin' all comfy and sheeeeiiit.
These poor woman. They just pretended like nothing was going on. Frankly, they are better people than I. That sheeeiiit would not fly with me. It was bothering me just looking at it.
My train buddies and I (yes, I have "train buddies") couldn't help but run right over to those poor women when sock guy got off at his stop, and tell them how sorry we felt for them and rehash just how rude sock guy was.
Here's the kicker: sock guy is also smelly feet guy. Like, really really smelly feet guy. 
Poor women.

If I were to ever see sock/smelly feet guy again, I'm may or may not be stealing his shoes while he's resting his smelly feet.

Friday, June 24, 2011

Fill in the Blank Friday

If you'd like to join in, head on over to Lauren's place, The Little Things We Do.
Good stuff, I tell ya.

1.   The last thing I ate was       Reeses Peanut Butter Puffs. They are addictive. Usually they're a snack for me, but my stomach was grumbling when I was leaving, and they were the closest thing to breakfast I could grab.
2.  The next thing I'd like to eat is    Pancakes! The ones at work are delish, but sooooo bad for me. So I'm having oatmeal, egg whites and chicken-apple sausage. Not too shabby (considering I already had my puffs).


3.  The best things     are the "little" things.
 
4.  Something that makes me supremely and utterly happy is  walking into the Goose's room first thing in the morning. The smile and excitement on his face alone is worth living for.

5.  Sports are     fun in person, boring on TV (most of the time). The only sports worth watching on TV are football and rugby (and we don't get a lot of that)
6.  I miss      snippets of my teenage/younger 20's life.  They were some of the craziest, funnest times and I wouldn't mind reliving a few days/nights.

7.  Right now I am       wishing I was home, with the boys.

Thursday, June 23, 2011

Owe Pics...still

I believe that I warned you from the get-go that I'm terribly slow to upload my pics. You would think I wouldn't be, given that I love taking them. To be honest, I think I'm a little frustrated that I don't know how to edit my pics just yet (I'm trying to find a photoshop class that fits into my current schedule/price range, oh and the $$ to dish out on the program), so there they stay...in memory card limbo.
I am saying it right now: Within the next three days, I WILL get the pics onto my computer, and I will update you on all of the going-ons I've been talking with you about. Such as:

  1. The curtains that are up! Yes, I bought 15.5 yards of this fabric, cut, fake-no-sewed 'em and the hubs hung them. They look amazeballs and I've gotten so many compliments. I made them during the homestretch of preparing for the Goose's baptism, I should add. But I won't add how Goose's fabric isn't the color I expected, so it's still only that - fabric. More to come...
  2. The Goose's baptism...including a breakdown of all the details and some pictures from the day.
  3. An update on these plates...
Also, hope to babble more about nonsense such as the ridiculous fact that I'm starting to think of ideas for the Goose's 1st birthday. Don't know what makes it more ridiculous, that I'm starting to think about it when he's only 8.5 months old, or that HE'S 8.5 MONTHS OLD!!!!!

In the meantime, I feel like pictures have been lacking around here again, so here's some things I'm digging right now:

If I Stay by Gayle Forman

Where She Went by Gayle Forman
it's a "sequel" to If I Stay. Highly, highly recommend both.

Tegu Magnetic Blocks, though I can't justify the price just yet

That's all for now. Hopefully I'll be bombarding you with posts soon.



Friday, June 17, 2011

Fill in the Blank Friday

Let's just choose to ignore the fact that I haven't updated you on anything Goose's-baptism related. I haven't downloaded the pics onto my computer (the very few that I took) and I'm, for lack of a better word, lazy. So I'm doing this here survey and linking up to Lauren's Fill in the Blank Friday, found here.

My first survey...ooohhhh...


1.   The last movie I saw was       Just Go With It. Anniston and Sandler. Not horrible, not great. Would have been much better with improved editing. Timing is a little wierd and drawn out, and short in others.

2.  I want to    win the lottery. I suppose I should get in line.

3.  Surprises are     rare in my life. I'm not nosey, I just happen to figure everything out. The only surprise in my life was my engagement - and it was pretty much the greatest thing ever.

4.  The best accessory is   smile. Cheesy and oversaid, but so true. 

5.  My favorite warm drink is     hot chocolate. It's the only one I drink. yes, i don't drink coffee or tea. I'm wierd.

6.  My favorite cold drink is       water. Let's not get into alchohol, k?

7.  Currently loving       the storm going on right now. It's ridonkulous. It felt like the storm was in our house it was so loud. LOVE summer storms.


Have a good weekend and lots of love to the fathers out there, including all the ones in my life. 

Friday, June 10, 2011

It's about damn time, Mom...

The Goose is 8 months old. When you’re pregnant or first have a baby, people tell you over and over again to enjoy every second because it all goes too fast. And, if you’re anything like me, you think to yourself, “Yeah, sure. Like it could go any faster than it already does”. But then you actually have a baby. And time really does go faster. And then you understand why those people were trying to warn you. And then you become one of those people. And the cycle continues.

So imagine my surprise when I realized that 6 months had gone by and I had done absolutely nada to fulfill my duties as a Catholic-school-raised-girl-now-responsible-for-raising-a-good-Catholic-boy-Mama (too many dashes?). I couldn’t believe I let all of these months go by without even starting to plan the Goose’s baptism* . Fast forward to tomorrow – Goose’s big day. He’ll be just over 8 months. (Yeahhhh, that’s a tad bit later than normal for a baptism - typically a baby is anywhere from mere weeks, up to about 5 months…although we can’t be the only ones. I found a shitton more christening outfits in the 18-24 month size than I thought I would). Hence, the title of this post.

If I were a good blogger, I would have been keeping you up to speed on all of my plans up until now – the outfit (2, found online here and here), the Godparents (my brother – Uncle P; M’s sister - Aunt J), the church (right around the corner, where we got married), and all the pre- (DIY invitations) and after- (décor, favors, location) party deets. But I’m not a good blogger, so the best I can do is make a promise to give you more info after the day, sometime next week hopefully. Even better, I hope to get to use my camera and take some good photos, but no promises (I’m the mama, so holding a camera during the ceremony and such is kind of a no-no, plus I’ll be running around).

Fingers crossed for good weather!


For those not familiar with Catholic ceremonies/customs here is the legit description of a Baptism. For those who are happy enough with my half assed (but to the point) explanation, keep reading. Generally, a Baptism is a ceremony where a baby is dressed in white, has water poured over his/her head, prayers are said, blessings are made, and a Godfather and Godmother are chosen. Godparents are chosen to “guide” your children spiritually and morally. The water over the head is to “cleanse/rid” the baby of their original sin, which they are born with.
Oh, and there’s usually a party afterwards.
I’m thinking the Catholic Church would disapprove of my definition, but my other thinking is that they’re not checking out the blogs too much, so I’m safe.

Monday, June 6, 2011

Commuter Chronicles, Kick-off

Commuter Chronicles post numero uno.

I’ve seen this woman before and she seems like an old, bitchier version of a negative Nancy. And to be truly judgmental, I will add that she’s got a -40 in the looks department (we’re talking a perm-mullet, people). Today’s topic of discussion: A very heated argument with her significant other. What truly makes this encounter ridiculous is probably more about the volume of her voice than the story. She was essentially scream-talking (every commuter’s nightmare). The whole train car was in for the ride, and we couldn’t do a damn thing about it.

Her man must have something going on at work, because she’s done absolutely nothing to piss him off. I mean, it’s not like she cheated on him, or stopped having sex with him. How dare he come home and close the basement door. Doesn’t he know how hot it gets down there when she’s doing laundry? Of course he needed to be screamed at and told he’s a selfish dick for doing such a thing. He needs to pull the stick out of his ass and then apologize. The nerve of him, thinking that asking her to a Broadway show the next day is an apology. If he wants to play these games, then GAME ON. She’s so sick and tired of him being such an ass to her. These issues have been going on forever and she’s not going to stand for it any.more.

Repeat over, and over, and over again. Anger and volume increasing with each repetition.

…it’s not even 8:30am…

Commuter Chronicles

I work in NYC. Our beach town is about 30-40 miles outside of it. That leaves me with about an hour and half commute each way of my trip. Total of almost 3 hours every.damn.day. Fun stuff.
Here’s the breakdown:
-I drive to the train station (15 minutes, including parking and some cushion time for morons in cars).
-Long Island Railroad aka L-I-double-R, if you’re cool, takes about 50 minutes…on a good day. Let’s not talk about the bad days, k?
-Transfer to the subway (the A train to be exact). Only for two stops, but on any given day there can be a multitude of excuses as to why my train isn’t on time or actually moving once I’m on it, so that can range anywhere from 5 minutes to 30. Generally, it’s about 10-15 mins.

If all of that doesn’t sound glorious enough for you, then myGAWD, are you in for a treat. Even if you’re not a frequenter of any type of NY mass transit, but especially if you are, then you’re gonna abso-effin-lutely luff to hear the crazy encounters of my daily commute. For those of you not familiar, it’s basically one big shit-show circus of hilarity. Some days are better or worse than others, but no matter the circumstance, it makes for one heck of a story.

Commuter Chronicles will be an ongoing series because there's not even the slightest chance I could make this ish up if I tried, and I feel that the hilarity must be shared and appreciated with all. Enjoy!

Friday, June 3, 2011

The Goose

Thus far, I’ve managed to keep this blog full of my words, but mostly lacking in eye candy. Today, just the opposite. I present to you The Goose (and not just the back of his head).
*I think these pics absolutely rock, but remember that I’m a photography beginner and have absolutely no post-processing knowledge except for the step of actually putting them on my computer (and most of the time I even suck at that). No judging just yet.


clapping hands


doing his "Hulk" voice





kid loves a good laundry basket

that my friends, is poop face



"can you just look away while I try to bust out? Kthanksbai"



Thursday, June 2, 2011

Changes are a-comin...

Next week marks my first week as a part time employee.

It's majorly weird to even say type that.
I've been working full time for nearly half my life (minus or in addition to schooling). I was officially "on the books" at my first job when I was only 14, as a summer lifeguard. I have worked (or interned) every summer thereafter, up until I got a "real" job. I scored my first real job only a month or two out of college (which I graduated from early, pat on the back). I've taken a week or two of transition in between job changes, and had an unfortunate 6 month stint on unemployment, but overall...I've worked my arse off for as long as I can remember.

And then there was the Goose.

One of my all time favorites!
And everything changed.

My job isn't what I pictured myself doing, to say the least. Nor is it what I studied in school. I just kind of landed here. But it's a great job with GREAT pay, great perks and genuinely awesome people to work with, including my boss. I took this particular job mostly as a way to move on up into things that interested me more within this company. But I just kind of stayed, and mostly didn't hate it. And so I was settled.
And then we found out we were knocked up, and no sooner did the question come - "Who's going to stay home with the baby?"
It's funny. On a subconcious level, I never imagined I wouldn't stay home with my children, even though all I've ever known and trained for was the fact that I'd be working until I could retire (or die, whichever comes first by the time I get there). But as this little soul was growing inside of me, my heart just about broke in half at the thought of not being there to watch him or her grow up each and every day. And I realized that there was no way in h-e-doublehockeysticks I could or would be able to work at my job, away from my baby every damn day, without wanting to absolutely lose my mind. So we worked it out. And by this, I mean M and I had an idea of what we wanted to do, and before I could go to my boss to ask, he offered. He's nothing short of a real life Santa Claus. So here's the current schedule:
I take off one day a week and make up those hours on my other 4 workdays, and get to keep my salary. Cha-ching! On my 4 workdays, the Goose is watched either by M, my mom (aka JoNanna) or M’s mom (aka Meema).
This is our “as good as it gets” schedule and it was working, for a while. But every day that passes is just another day that I wish I were somewhere else. Add to that, M is home most of the time and is finding himself just as unhappy as me. We’ve started resenting each other, and our relationship is suffering. Having the Goose made me realize that I never really liked my job, I just tolerated it (cue this song, true story).
So push came to shove (just about literally) and we made the decision to have me home for as much as we think our wallets can tolerate.
That’s 3 days a week at 60% pay. While it’s only one less day than my current situation, the deal breaker was that I’d no longer be making up those hours. Right now, I’m leaving my house before 7 in the morning, and not getting home until after 8 most nights. With my new schedule, I’ll be home the two days, plus I can leave almost a whole hour later, and get home before 6:30.

I know it’s not going to be easy taking this financial hit, but we can handle it. We have to.
I mostly worry that it won’t be enough…

Oh, and I suppose I should mention that I’m also going to start pursuing a new career. No biggie. I’ve always wished I had studied photography, or even made it a hobby. But I never did. Until now. I’ve been reading and researching for a while. Then I bought a camera. I’ve been self teaching and I love it. But sooner than later I want to take classes/ workshops. I want to just overload myself and throw myself into this passion (or as much as my schedule will allow).

I know I didn’t really wrap this up gracefully, but that's about all my brain can handle for right now. Hopefully I'll have some of my latest pictures to share...so you can judge me and my talent (or lack thereof).