Argh!

C is a musician, a bassist more specifically. He plays jazz, usually, but can play other genres if he so desires. Anyway, he was in the process of working with a local singer in trying to get a small group together for gigs, probably by next summer. If this were to work out, 10 gigs a month would replace my income and I could stay at home part time, and cut back my hours at work to half time(ish). Well, it turns out the singer isn't going to be able to do it after all. On top of it, we have no money. What else is new, right? Yeah...so we're going to try everything we can to get some money to make it through this month, but that's what we do every month. I am going to sell (hopefully) my MK inventory to another MK consultant, which will help somewhat, and we're going to sell our entertainment center. Between all this, somehow, we are going to pay our mortgage. Hmm. Not sure how that's working out, but I guess we'll manage. We are very fortunate that our mortgage is financed through/by my grandmother, since we bought the house from her, so payments are more flexible than they would be with a bank. I am just really frustrated and stressed about all this right now. But hey, at least my meds are working so I'm not fighting off a panic attack as well.

I'm also really not so thrilled with my job anymore. I mean, the people are okay but I don't really have any friends here. Well, I have one friend. I really don't have many friends in general, at least not that I see on any sort of regular basis (like more than once or twice a year...). It's really hard to have friends and do stuff with them when you live far away from them, when you are the only one with a kid, and when most things friends do cost money (i.e. shopping, dining out, meeting for coffee, etc). But I digress. My job is really not very interesting. I process samples that come from people's lungs, one way or another. I listen to the other people in the lab bitch about things that I have no interest in, or make plans with each other for the weekend, or whathaveyou. I feel isolated. I know they aren't doing it on purpose, but my part of the lab is naturally isolated; I work on human samples, and with our research clinic, and the rest of the lab does not. They have other projects and collaborators, and they have a different boss than I do. So there's sort of a natural division there, and I know that nobody is consciously pushing me to the periphery, but I really does feel that way. I miss my grad school lab, we all got along great and had a blast together. Of course, I don't miss anything else about Seattle, but that was a big thing. I am now in such a quandry, because I need the money from my job, and I need something close to my house (which my current job is not especially, but it is the closest job in molecular biology that I could get), and we need insurance, but I am not happy at my job. I could get a higher paying job elsewhere (maybe) but it would mean spending 2 hours a day commuting instead of 1.5 hours a day. I want to teach, but that requires getting certified, which requires classes that cost money (though my work reimburses up to $2000 a year for full time employees to further education) and I don't want to teach while I am actively having children because I've heard maternity leave is a pain, and pumping is near impossible to manage while teaching. *sigh*

In happier news, J started crawling yesterday! I was at work and missed it, of course, but I will see it soon.

My dog climbs trees

One of our dogs is a basenji-whippet-lab mix (best we can tell, we figure one parent was a basenji and the other was a whippet-lab mix). She is gorgeous, and actually her nickname is Pretty Girl. I think she actually thinks that's her name, but she responds to Athena too, so maybe she just accepts her nickname. Anyway, as the shelter we got her from put it, she is "not small animal safe" in the least. She spends a good portion of her day looking out the window for bunnies and squirrels and cats that would be good to eat.

When we take her to the dog park, she invariably finds a tree to climb. Yes, that's right, a tree. She is very good at climbing up, usually between 2 and 6 feet off the ground, usually after a squirrel. However, the getting down part is not so easy for her. It generally ends with her either jumping gracefully or falling ungracefully out of the tree. As C put it, he never thought he'd have to tell his dog to get out of that tree.

Here is a picture of our Athena, testing out the boppy.
Here's one of both dogs, trying to fit in the same kennel (it is the hound's kennel). The "hound" is MacGuyver, he's a 3/4 beagle 1/4 basset hound mix. His nickname is "hound."

Podcasts that I love

I have subscribed to a number of podcasts for a few years now, and I thought I would share some of my favorites. I am currently listening to Pseudopod, one about a bunch of evil leprechauns. Highly entertaining. Pseudopod is a horror podcast, featuring short horror stories of all sorts. You can find it at pseudopod.org.

I also really really enjoy Escape Pod, the science fiction short story podcast (escapepod.org). Interestingly, Escape Pod is the "mother" podcast of Pseudopod and PodCastle, a fantasy short story podcast (which is at podcastle.org). I've only listened to one PodCastle, but it was pretty enjoyable.


I find that podcasts of this nature are far more interesting than listening to the radio during my commute to and from work each day, as well as during the day when my experiments are dragging along...

What to do...

C left for Wyoming to go hunting today. He's going with my dad, brothers, and one of my dad's friends. Last year he had a great time, lots of fun just being with the guys. He absolutely deserves his break from being a stay at home dad, and his job that he hates. I am just going to miss him because he won't be back for a week. J and I will have fun though, it hasn't been just the two of us together so much since I was on maternity leave! Well, actually even then C was around, so it hasn't just been J and me since last September when I was pregnant.

This should be fun! I will have the whole house to myself (well, with J and the dogs, of course). I am going to finish the new floor in the master bathroom, get the whole house cleaned, play with J, go on walks...and I don't know what all else. Wish me luck!

Things I'd rather have than a head cold...

I hate being sick. My whole family is sick. Poor little J kept me up all night (ok, every couple hours, for a half hour at a time, all night) because every time his nose would fill with snot he'd start crying. So now I am exhausted and my sinuses feel like they are full of cotton, and my head is all fuzzy, and my nose can't seem to decide if it would rather run or be stuffy. On the "up" side, I have paid sick days. C is worst off, he's got a horrible fever and the head cold. J is currently in his room, in his bouncy seat, taking a nap. He spent all night in his bouncy seat, since sleeping upright meant he woke up every 2 hours instead of every 45 minutes. Of all the colds to get, I hate having a stuffy/runny nose/head cold worst, because my nose gets all red and I produce more snot than should be legal. I produce copius amounts of snot anyway, when I get sick it just gets worse.

These are some of the things I'd rather have than a head cold:
cough, sore throat, and fever
laryngitis
the flu
stomach flu (because at least you'll lose weight, and it doesn't last as long as morning sickness)
horrendous menstrual cramps
a migraine
a broken finger or toe
a sprained joint
a regular headache
mono


Here are some of the things I'd prefer a head cold to:
Ebola
HIV/AIDS
morning sickness
diabetes (gestational or otherwise)
broken legs
flesh eating bacteria
abscessed tooth
hepatitis
cancer

Now, off to take a nap for me.