Ultranormal

  • Apparently all it takes to get things done quickly is to be able to make decisions quickly. Who knew? (Um, yea, Kevin and I dated for 5 weeks before getting engaged.)\
    A little more than 48 hours ago I was daydreaming about the fancy new carpet I had just ordered and how awesome it would be to finally get the basement back to organized. A day later, Kevin accepted a job offer in Georgia. Since then, I have:

    • sent Kevin off to chat about rails. (Seriously, SXSW is geek Spring Break, this conference sounds like geek Summer Camp.)
    • stressed a bunch about homes and schools and selling and buying and money and traveling and missing my husband and traumatizing my kids and being away from any family.
    • found the neighborhood in Savannah we want to move to (18 minutes from the beach! The BEACH! WHEEEEE!).
    • decided to rent out our house in Va, to weather the downturn a little until it rebounds some.
    • found a property management company, I think.
    • decided to rent a house in Savannah, so I can take my time finding the perfect house for us with in-law accommodations!!
    • canceled the fancy carpet in favor of cheaper carpet.
    • got estimates for some painting and small repairs.
    • decided to just go with the painter who came tonight, without taking a month to ponder all of the implications of this decision.
    • talked with my MIL for hours in which I’ve completely upended all of the decisions Kevin and I made (ha).
    • planned out how to stage the house, what to get rid of, what to offer to a tenant.
    • scheduled and canceled carpet people, cleaners, estimates.
    • rescheduled carpet people, cleaners, and painters.
    • obsessively checked my status on the freecycle group so I can start getting rid of the many things I don’t want to move down to Ga.
    • scrounged to find a specific paint can so I can get more of that color.
    • boxed up dvds, cds, and video games so the workmen can actually get to the area to do their thing.\
      Ugh, I’m tired. Kevin feels bad(ly?) that I am doing this without him. It’s fine though, at least for right now. 🙂 I won’t hesitate to remind him that diamonds are forever, heh, as is our love- woot woot. My other diamond inspired motto: As your love grows, so should your diamonds.

  • Building Rails and Standards Tribes in Savannah

    I was thinking this morning about moving to Savannah, since the new job’s down there, and what I wanted to do to find a tribe. I have several great non-geospecific tribes already, my W3C scattered around the globe, my SxSW tribe and then my AOL tribe also spread around the globe, but mostly local to Northern Virginia (this includes “escapees” at various startups and places around the area). But, I’ll be moving to a new city, and I like having a local tribe.\
    I went looking this morning before heading over to the conference, and there’s no Refresh Savannah or Ruby Users Group that I could find through Google. So… it looks like we need to start them! I’ve got the domain names registered. Who wants to help?

  • Home Improvement- Grrrrr.

    I just realized that the paint I need for the playroom, which is to be touched-up before the new carpet is installed, is buried behind a mound of stuff that was removed from the playroom so that the new carpet could be installed.

  • What Kevin didn’t say, part 1

    The job is in Savannah, Georgia!!

  • The Triangle Will Keep on Turning

    I made it to thirteen years at AOL. It started as a summer job way back in 1995 at the AOL call center in Tucson. I talked to AOL members who needed help. I was there for the summer of busy signals, and took more than two hundred and fifty phone calls in an eight hour shift (“Yes, it’s busy. No, it’s not your computer. If you’d like credit, I can transfer you to billing. Sorry!”).\
    I’ve built all kinds of web apps, worked with wickedly smart, fun, weird and great people. I’ve had better managers than I deserve and mentors I’ll never be able to repay or express to them how much they helped me.\
    I’ve written dozens of e-mails today to folks inside AOL and out, posted to twitter and to the ficlets blog. I’m emotionally raw at this point, because I’m going to miss working with everyone and seeing them every day. I’m not good with good-byes, and I’ve said enough for one day.\
    If the previous three paragraphs aren’t clear, after thirteen crazy years, I’m leaving AOL. Yep. Last Monday, I got an interesting e-mail from a recruiter asking me if I’d be interested in a VP of Development position at a small company. I said, sure, I’ll talk to them. Several dozen e-mails, a dozen or so phone calls and an offer later, I’m joining Music Intelligence Solutions on 6/9. I’m more excited and nervous than I’ve been since Jen and I packed up and moved to Northern Virginia nine years ago.\
    There are, of course, many more things to say, but I’m worn out.

  • Brian is a mini-me!

    I had a conference with Brian’s teacher today. My first one for him. The teacher, Miss Deborah, said that she thought he was special needs when she first met him, but a couple of days later she realized he wasn’t. She also said that he is needy, and cries if the slightest thing is wrong; he needs to do more than play with legos (which is what he always chooses to do during centers unless the teachers direct him somewhere else); he needs to work on saying, “I” instead of “me” when appropriate; and needs to be potty-trained. I am sure all of these issues are linked and are totally my fault. Whatever. She said that he is right where he should be in terms of knowledge- he knows the alphabet and can count. I don’t know what else he knows. She said when he is ready, he will read. He just recently started talking more and opening up. That is all.\
    Reason number 53 that I love the AOL Center: these evaluations are done three times a year over 30 different areas. For the record, Brian “always” dances during music time, is “always” open to culturally divergent ideas, and is “not yet” sight-reading.

  • Babies are the cutest thing ever

    So, we’re watching the end of Knocked Up and Kevin gets giddy and gooey about babies. I say, “Don’t go getting any ideas.” He is so happy though. I tear up, not wanting to fail him, “Ahh, you’re gonna make me cry.” [He thinks I am joking, but my sniffles are real!] And then he says the best thing ever, “No, we’re done. We have ours.” OMG, relief. But babies are totally the cutest thing ever and we’ll be sure to plaster slobbery kisses all over his brother’s baby that’s due this summer.

  • Slow Saturday

    Kevin and the boys are still getting over their various ailments, so we had a really laid back Saturday. Brian and I played “jump in the sky” where he would yell, “Jump in the sky,” and take a running leap at me. To me, it seemed more like we were reenacting the lifting scene from Dirty Dancing, even though he only got about an inch off of the floor. He was really excited to be jumping so high and it was really cute to see. Then he crashed at 5:30 pm and slept until 5:30 the next morning.\
    I cleaned up and organized the basement and am ready, really ready this time, to schedule the new carpet to be installed. YAY. I can’t wait. After that, I foresee much less clutter in places it doesn’t belong.\
    The kids have so many toys- darn birthdays and Christmas coming every year!- that I am tempted to just randomly pick up a toy bucket and send it off to Goodwill. But Brian actually plays with most of the toys still, so that seems mean. I try to rotate the toys, putting some in storage, but with the “reorganization” of the basement, he took advantage of my distracted state and ended up with all of the toys.\
    After the kids went to bed, Kevin and I attempted to have movie night. Transformers is the worst movie I’ve seen since… Cold Comfort Farm. Ugh. We eventually switched to Knocked Up, which we’d seen before. Most of the funny stuff wasn’t funny the second time around, but the sad and poignant moments were still sad and poignant. I try to give the kids ‘bubble’ moments at least once a day. That is my good parenting tip of the day.\
    Hmmmm. That was my Saturday, internet. How was yours?

  • Max has elephant man disease!

    Actually, impetigo. Which isn’t nearly as funny once I learned how to spell it. He also has strep throat. Kevin suggested I take Max to the doctor once Kev got a good look at the spreading breakouts on Max’s face. (That was me trying not to use confusing he’s and him’s. How did I do?) I just thought Max had a zit at first. Good thing Kevin’s around. Though it took us 2 or 3 days to arrange for Kevin to see Max’s face (that is how much Kevin has been working and how much Max has been sleeping).\
    After the dr’s appointment, we went to the store and bought lots of sickie food: Sprite (for the upset stomach), jello, popsicles, juice. I looked and looked but couldn’t find any kiddie valium to knock the kids out until the medicine works.\
    By the time Max goes back to school on Tuesday, he’ll have been out almost 2 weeks. With nothing to show for it! No awesome vacation or broken bone or surgery or the house burning down. Just sick. How boring is that?

  • Clarification

    Someone asked me today if my earlier post meant I was unhappy. The answer is a resounding no. But seriously, who in their right mind would choose to have kids knowing it is as mind-numbingly dull, exhausting, stressful, and a pain in the ass as it actually is? The only thing people say about having children is that “it’s the best thing ever!” or some lame ass variation. Hell no, it isn’t. It is constant worrying- about what they eat, what they see, what they know, what they don’t know, what they should stay away from, what they should embrace, what they need to learn, what they need to forget. OMG, the list goes on forever. Why would anybody do this to himself when he could be relaxing on the beach drinking fruity cocktails with little umbrellas in them? That’s what I am saying.