Archive for August, 2007

Don’t worry, I only have about a billion things on my mind, so I’m sure this entry will seem extremely well thought-out.

I had two interview at Starbucks this week. They were interesting, for lack of both a better word or sentiment. I’ve been spoiled by a) avoiding being employed by a corporation and b) working in the south. Nobody at Starbucks seems very friendly, of course this is likely because they are dealing a legal drug and serving people who desperately need a fix may not always be pleasant. Should be awesome! Today they called to offer me a job and I told them I’d get back to them. I think I’m going to accept it. I mean I will be getting FREE drinks while I’m working. FREE DRINKS means all the cinnamon dolce lattes I can handle, oh goodness that’s a LOT of caffeine.

For those sympathetic readers, my toe is getting better…I think. As I was telling Cecilia today, I’ve been trying to rehabilitate it (go ahead and laugh) but that didn’t work out so well because it hurts. And while I thought people would be interested to see the progressively changing colors of my toe, it’s been met with quite a lot of dismay so I shall refrain from posting pictures here. Gagging is not good for computers.

There are barely words to describe what this week has been. Without going into detail, the family I work for has hit another HUGE, avoidable speed-bump on the road to being a functioning family. It is a heartbreaking situation. Yet this has been one of the best weeks I’ve ever worked and not because it was a mere 3-day workweek for me. Alex, the older boy, and I have had so much fun this week that I had a hard time remembering that this is a job I get paid for. Of course I never know how long these high points last, but it’s not really about how long it’s going to last. Alex has started to be embarassed about the fact that he’s 14 and has a nanny (I was wondering when that would kick in) so we pretend we are brother and sister. He started his first real job today as a bagger at the local grocery store and his pride over this event is pretty cute. For instance, he has worn his “work” polo everyday since he received it even though he didn’t HAVE to wear it until today. He has asked me countless questions over proper bagging procedure and he even practiced bagging yesterday after we’d done a little grocery shopping. GAH this is so much better than defiant, I KNOW IT ALL teenage-ness!

Okay I’ve held your attention (or not held it) long enough!

LOVE!

ps I accepted the job just now!

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I have been a nanny for a year as of this weekend, although the official anniversary date is tomorrow. Can you believe it? I hardly can. I’ve been thinking and mulling over what I would say about the past year for a while now. It’s a tad difficult to sum up a year of psuedo-parenthood. I feel as if this year has been an extension of college in that I haven’t faced the total responsibilities of being an adult but also have learned so much and gained “life experience”.
This is what I know:

Being a nanny is not for the weak of heart or those lacking in patience. Dishes never end and some days it feels like all you do is rinse dishes, put them in the dishwasher and take clean dishes out of the dishwasher, I know this is in preparation for true motherhood. Kids remember EVERYTHING, down to the exact wording, especially if you made a promise, practice saying, “we’ll see” as it will provide an out for you. Sometimes raising children feels like fighting gravity, incredibly hard and seemingly pointless. I CAN confront people, even after 22 years of avoiding it. Living at your job is neat in that there is no commute and if you forgot something at “home” you can easily retrieve it. Living at your job is hard in that sometimes you feel like you’re going to go crazy because you haven’t left work/home in several days and boys are SO loud, especially when you are trying to sleep in (on the weekends of course). Having a bedroom with no windows is a two-edged sword my friends. People stare at you in the grocery store if they think you are the 23-year-old mother of either a 13-year-old or 8-year-old or both. People drive like maniacs in DC. The Sound of Music, Mary Poppins and Nanny Diaries cannot prepare you for what nannying really is, believe it or not, I have not brought music back into the lives of these children nor escaped with them into a sidewalk drawing nor been treated like a personal assistant. Teenagers Know Everything. The metro will eat you if you are in the doorway of a car and the door closes. Sometimes you just have to know that you are making a difference, pray that it’s a good one and do the best you can.

That’s all I got.

LOVE!

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Okay currently posting from Cecilia’s office just to tell you that after I posted the last post, there was a disturbance at the library.  This man started yelling at a librarian, it was quite intense!  Then, the cops showed up and there was a car chase, albeit at 20 mph, but librarian-attacker wouldn’t pull over.  This week just keeps getting stranger and stranger I tell you.

You know what’s fun?  Pulling pranks on Cecilia’s co-workers!  hehe

LOVE!

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In continuing with the theme of “my life is surrealtastic”, I’ve just started my application to medical school!  AHHH!  I think I’ve done well so far, I’m totally going to astound the powers that be with my ability to fill out biographical information!  I haven’t even gotten to the hard stuff yet.  Right before I arrived at the library (my current location) I handed in an application to work part-time at Starbucks, also a very surreal move.  They totally made me a free drink after I gave them the application too, awesome!  I’ll fill you in on more of the medical school application and Starbucks job when I have more than 5 minutes left on a computer.  That will happen tonight as I will be at the TH with Squitchey and the non-discriminating internet there. 

I had this wonderful, hilarious (if I do say so) post about my GLORIOUS bath yesterday (remember when I mentioned I would be taking a bath in the HUGE tub here in Casa de Whiney but the internet ate it right as I was posting, gah.  I’m sorry that your lives will be just a little bit sadder because you couldn’t experience that.  I will do my best to make it up to you my dears!

Okay seriously running out of time!

LOVE!

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Okay so remember when I said my life was starting to feel really surreal? You know…yesterday? Well things have gotten even surreal-er (it’s word because I say so!). What I failed to mention, for lack of the ability to post pictures, is that I think I’ve either broken or badly sprained my right big toe. Here’s the story; Monday I made this AMAZING sandwich-wrap for lunch. I was quite excited about it. I was headed downstairs to enjoy said wrap with some Wheat Thin chips. Honestly, my eyes were on my wrap as I walked down the stairs. When I got to the bottom, I thought there was another stair but I was, in fact, on the floor. So I take a step and somehow my toes curl underneath my foot as I go DOWN! I have NEVER felt such pain, OH MY! Because I have my priorities straight, I made sure the beloved wrap did not touch the floor and realizing it had not I then turned my attention to MY POOR TOE. I was actually really proud of myself because I didn’t yell a single expletive or even a derivative of an expletive (Darn, Blast or Wretch). So I laid on the floor until my toe stopped hurting, gently caressing and apologizing to poor big toe (yes I am totally serious). Thankfully it has been an entertaining endeavor because everyday my toe is a different color (I promise to post pictures as soon as I can)!

In other news, my identity has been sort-of stolen, woo hoo! Someone from Nigeria charged something to my debit card, so I’ve been spending all afternoon straightening THAT out, gah. Fools.

And lastly, MY BROTHER IS COMING for Thanksgiving, WAHOO! I’m so excited, DC will never be the same!

LOVE!

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Don’t despair, I haven’t forgotten or neglected you dear xanga. Once again I shall lay all the blame on the internet here at Casa de Whiney.

Okay, the days since my last entry have been surreal. This past weekend was so strange that I have to remind myself that it was real and actually happened, much like I do about that one French double blind date I went on. It doesn’t help that I’ve been experiencing very realistic dreams, confusing me even further! Last night I dreamt that I watched a shark attack someone, yep just as lovely as it sounds. Okay so I’m pretty sure that was actually a dream and didn’t happen to me in real life. Let’s see, Friday night I went out with C and two of her co-workers. Details aside, it was really weird. Saturday night C and I went to a “yacht club” party which was really fun. We dressed preppy-ish, bequeathed ourselves with new names (me=Muffy C=Bitsy) and talked as yacht clubby as we could. Somewhere in the course of the evening I decided I didn’t want to wear my belt anymore. I was NOT drinking and don’t you dare think that I am in the habit of taking clothes off at parties. You know I’m not like that. So don’t worry if you’re reading this Dad. I put the belt on the shelf in the bathroom but kept thinking, “now don’t you forget that.” What did I do? Forgot it. Seriously? Yeah, it’s really fun to explain that to people, gah. I am currentlly pulling overtime nanny-duty because my boss is out of town. It hasn’t been too bad except today I took Alex and his friend to Arlington to return the SCUBA gear we rented. I even stopped at Starbucks on the way to treat them (and me), because I’m so nice and such a superb nanny. Okay, so what I haven’t mentioned to you before is that my boss has this RIDICULOUS cd that is part folk/part country and sounds like it was made in someone’s basement. Apparently the artist is some guy my boss met while in the Shenandoah Valley or something. Needless to say I can’t really stand this cd, at all, ever, please make it STOP. The boys have definitely picked up on how much this cd annoys me. So here I am, driving down the Beltway with this amature cd playing very loudly while Alex and his friend “play” the SCUBA tanks along with the beat of the song. And this is when I think to myself, “this is my life”.  So what do I do? Hide the cd once we get to the SCUBA store, I’m so crafty.

The best part is that the boys actually PREFER this cd to the Led Zeppelin playing in my car. Today Alex actually asked, “Who is Led Zeppelin?” before promptly starting singing along to a new rap song which includes a melody that strongly resembles the beginning of D’yer Mak’er.

Yep, this is my life.

LOVE!

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What a day! What a weekend! What a week! Hard to believe I’ve been back a mere week, seems like a month. I’ve started and re-starting entries concerning how challenging this week with the boys, but I couldn’t find the right words and didn’t want to be such a downer. Let’s just say that despite the fact that I only spent a total of 10 hours with the boys last week, it was Incredibly Hard. When does school start? NOT soon enough.

So this weekend was a wonderful break. This weekend the family will be gone and I’ve already laid claim on the big tub because it came to my realization that I’ve never had a bath in a big tub before. Some may say I’ve never really lived because I’ve yet to have a big tub bath and I would agree with them. I’m quite excited. The family will ALSO be gone over Labor Day weekend, for 5 days. In case you didn’t catch that, I’ll have a 5 DAY weekend! 5 whole days to myself, just me and that big tub, mmmmm. I intended this paragraph to be about our adventure in DC but apparently I can’t get over the big tub.

We had a DC escapade. We intended this escapade to be yesterday but after driving for 2 hours without finding a parking spot we gave up. DC - 1 M&C - 0 While we were home we plotted another attempt at our escapade. Today we went in early and kicked DC in the butt, muhahah! DC-1 M&C-1 take that! We took pictures in the sculpture gardens on the mall, we saw the Bill of Rights, Declaration of Independence and Constitution at the National Archives and finally headed to the National Portrait Gallery. It was all so wonderful, yet very hot and humid. I took lots of pictures but can’t upload them because I left the connector-doodad at home in Lansing. As soon as I get it, I promise to share the pictures with all of you, but again don’t hold your breath.

LOVE!

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I’m still here.  As I’m sure none have you forgotten, probably because I won’t let you, the internet here at Casa de Whiney hates me.  I even tried going to Panera today to post but xanga is blocked there too.  Poor xanga, finding discrimination wherever you turn.

As I haven’t been able to post in what feels like ages, I’ve been thinking a LOT about what I’ll next write about.  It’s always hard because I fear that long entries will lose my precious few readers for good, but I have SO much to say!  Of course now I couldn’t gather my thoughts into a lovely xanga post if my life depended on it.

First of all, I’m back!  And I’m actually glad, though I miss my summer vacation something fierce.  It was so good to see the boys again and odd to think that I missed 5 whole weeks of their lives.  I found Alex taller and with a deeper voice than I had left him with and Loren to be acting more like a teenager than ever, despite the fact that his actual age is 8.  We’ve gotten back into the swing of things quite nicely, especially nicely because they’ve had hockey camp all day (9-5) every day this week.  Yesterday I went into the locker room to hustle them along because I wanted to get out of there EARLY due to the horrendous traffic we inch through on the way home, and was almost knocked over by what smelled like sweaty socks.  I made some over-enthusiastic comment about it and Loren said to me; “that is the stench of MANLINESS” and then I peed my pants from laughing so hard.

I’ve been pretty emotional of late and it’s wearing me out, I feel as if I can be honest with you.  Yesterday I watched a documentary by the name of “Paper Clips” and cried through the whole thing.  Today C and I saw “Becoming Jane” and I cried through the whole thing.  I’ve been angsting over a certain young man (again with the honesty!) since I got back, and there is nothing so exhausting as thinking about things you’re not supposed to be thinking about and promised you would STOP thinking about, I mean STOP it, but you just can’t help it and then you are thinking about how you SAID you would stop but you aren’t and now you are at square one.  See? See how tiring that was?  and you were just reading it, I’m living it. 

But I keep coming back to Pastor Shea’s message two weekends ago about loving those who are hard to love, those who drive us absolutely crazy, those you make us think the most tiring thoughts.  Then I think about what God has shown me about being right, especially over the small things.  It is not the end-all-be-all we make it out to be, that being right is not worth losing important things, as good as it may feel to be certain you are right, it’s an empty-good and I much prefer the full-goods.  I honestly think the “turning the other cheek” lesson is one of the hardest I’m constantly learning.  But oh has it made life better!

Well I hope this post was worth waiting for.  If not, keep coming back, I’m bound to have a good one sometime.

LOVE

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Well I hope all of you weren’t holding your breath waiting to see if we had made the first half of our journey safely. I’m truly sorry if you were. We made it safely! Though not without a few very silent (you should know the Riester girls are only silent when very scare) patches. Patch #1, waiting to cross a very long bridge undergoing construction while huge semis come across and shake the bridge. We hate bridges, and recent events hasn’t exactly mitigated that feelings. Patch #2, a CRAZY thunderstorm in Kentucky (you’re dead to me Kentucky!) that included random lightning bolts touching down a little too closely to the highway, no good. Finally we pulled into the ‘Bama Riesters driveway and it was glorious to get out of the car. I was definitely starting to believe that I was developing blood clots in my legs from sitting there so long.

Yesterday there was MUCH shopping to be had. It was one of the funner (it’s a word because I say so!) shopping experiences I’ve had. I’d say it was the best if I had a neverending supply of money, but alas, I do not. After shopping and Starbucks we headed to the golf course. C is looking to improve her game, and it was a good way to spend the day with Aunt Kathleen. When we actually got to the course it was rather late in the afternoon and had just finished raining. It was hot and humid as all get-out, but we pressed on. It started to cool off and oh! how it felt just like Germany, there was fog lifting off the course and the sun was setting. It’s really hard to explain what feels like Germany, but I will say it’s quite wonderful when it happens. I have been along for the ride while we are visiting here, trying to just be agreeable, but I must say I was thrilled when the prospect of golfing came up because that would mean I’d get to drive the golf cart. Yes, I do have the mentality of a 12-year-old boy, why do you ask? I totally mastered the art of driving the cart from the passenger side too, I’m so awesome. Needless to say that was WAY too much fun for me. OH and Aunt Kathleen let this other girl she invited and me hit the ball a few times and I quite liked it. I need to take up this golfing business, it’s in my blood, plus, you know, I’d get to drive a cart.

PICTURE TIME!

just one for now, lovingly named The Point At Which We Peed Our Pants (please disregard the messyness of my windshield and FOCUS! people)

I promise to let you know when we’ve safely reached D.C., but please do not hold your breath.

LOVE!

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