HAPPY HALLOWEEN! Really not much to report on our Halloween happenings - I have my candy ready for tonight but that is about it from here other than my Halloween socks! Maybe I'll get Steven in the banana costume to hand out candy - but I'm not holding my breath on that one! I'm catching up on things here at work - slowly but surely. Until I leave again this weekend for a council meeting in Chicago. Oh well :)
That is what is happening outside at the moment. Its pretty rainy and the wind is really strong. Sounds like what life has been around here for the past week. Finally some time off - but really is it time off when I have a pile of house work to do? This is Steven's last Saturday morning to work - his schedule changes and he works a normal week like the rest of us (wait - I have far from a normal week!) and will be Mon to Fri. Today I have to bake a cake for our neighbor whose husband has organized a surprise 50th birthday party. That means I have to go out of the house for supplies. Not an exciting prospect. Plus yesterday the check engine light went on in the car!
This has been the craziest week around here! I got back Sat night and basically on Monday have been running around like a chicken with her head cut off! We have a new staff member in town this week that I am training, on top of my regular work. This is a busy time of year with initiation paperwork and fees and it is all on a deadline. I've really not had two minutes alone all week. Then next week I have a large report to finish for a meeting next weekend in Chicago. The month of November was not a fun one for me and now I'm almost in it and not looking forward to it! Through a few trips in the mix and its almost unbearable! I'm sure it will all get done - but that means fewer updates on the blog :(
So I've been trying to get the magazine off my desk and to the printer for about a month now. I finally got it all together and off to them today. Now I have to turn around and figure out what to do for the next issue! Guess it never ends. Plus next week our new staff member is coming in and I have to train her. It's been a couple years since I trained anyone so I'm going to have to refresh my memory. But I leave for Indiana tomorrow and won't have much time to pull it together. Guess I'll be taking work with me. Oh well! On top of all that my car is at Nissan to have the passenger side seat belt fixed. Luckily seat belts are under warrenty from Nissan for the life of the car so I shouldn't have to pay for it to be fixed but I might have to leave my car for a few days which doesn't matter since I'm going away anyway - just means I have to take CT limo to the airport in the morning and sit for a while since I'll get there three hours early!
So I volunteered to be on the board of the local volunteer center and so far I've not been really impressed yet. I've only gone to two meetings, one of which where I was appointed secretary. Then there have been a variety of other things going on that I have been asked to do - mostly fundraisers. I knew when I joined that fundraising would be a huge part of the deal, but I explained that I work in a small office, am relatively new to the area and so don't have the contacts that they might be expecting. So far I've been frustrated with how the entire thing is being run. Meetings are not as organized as I'd like them and we are being asked to do a whole lot of things that I have to say no to. For instance, there is a breakfast where board members were asked to host a table for $150 and invite people to pay $25 each for tickets. Another fundraiser. I just can't swing that right now, but $25 - sure I could do that. I've said it multiple times but nothing has happened. Then this week we got an email about hoilday wrapping at the mall - yet another fundraiser - where they are asking board members to do four 3 hour shifts. Most of the shifts are during the week during the day - not ideal. I emailed what I could do and apparently those were mostly taken so I was told to pick others. I've never met the woman doing this and just communicated over email. There is no way I can take off from work for 3 hours here and there - I know it will be quiet but I will have stuff to do. And we are probably going to MA later in the week so I can't do the last days before Christmas. Anway - I told them I what I could do and if any evening shifts open up I'll gladly do them but that's it. There is a meeting on Tuesday night and I'll see how that goes, but I feel like I've been asked to join something that is not organized and that I can't contribute much to. That's the source of my frustration and its tough because a friend of mine is the chair of the board and asked me to do it while the woman who runs the volunteer center is connected with my boss and my neighbor's Jewish women's group. Sometimes I think I'd be better off just volunteering with work type committees and associations but I wanted to do something in the area to meet more people.
There hasn't been much to update on this week - I feel overwhelmed with getting work done and then not accomplishing anything else. The house is a wreck - well for me its a wreck - and I haven't gotten our winter clothes out of the attic yet. We need to do that soon since it was 32 degrees this morning! Steven really doesn't have winter clothes - he's already switched to jeans and his sweaters stay in the closest all year long. Maybe tomorrow I'll get to it. But we have leaves to rake. I'd probably rather be outside doing that as long as its not too cool out. I finally got most of the sorority magazine done - I am about a week behind where I want to be with it. I have to have it done by Wednesday because I'm out of town Thurs and Friday and the week after our new staff member is coming into town so I can train her before she starts visiting chapters. So Wed is my drop dead day. We'll see if I make it...
So you see those infomercials on TV about how celebrities use Proactive and their skin clears up. Well I figured why not give it a try - I could use clearer skin. We got home from after the weekend and my 30 day trial package had arrived. I've only used it three times and I am about to retun it. At first yesterday I thought I was just red because we were out in the sun this weekend. But as the day went on I got redder and redder. It just reacted wrong with my skin. I didn't use it this morning but my face is still slightly red and my skin is so itchy. The stuff had benzoil perxiode in it - which I have always had a bad reaction to so I don't know why I thought this time would be any different! Oh well - going back to good old soap and water for a while until my face calms down...
I hate the fact that there always seems to be something to fix - whether it is with the car or truck or on the house. Last week it was the brake line on the truck, this week it was the battery. The windows are still sitting in my basement - some are painted others are still in the boxes, and the laundry is piled up everywhere. We just can't seem to get on top of anything. Guess that is what happens when you work full time. I wish that we could just get eveything done. Just not enough time to do it all. We are taking an extra long weekend to go to NH for Columbus Day which I can't wait for. Bright and early tomorrow we are getting up and leaving and it should be a great weekend. The leaves are at peak color up there and the weather is supposed to be great all weekend. Well - at least that is what the weather man said here this morning. I'm behind on getting the sorority magazine done and plan to finish as much as I can today. But of course while I am gone more stuff will come in that I have to add. That's the way it always goes. It is supposed to be out by Thanksgiving... which reminds me I have to go spend some more time working on mailing lists... it never ends... no wonder why I can't get anything done at home!
So I had yesterday off which made for a good long weekend. Because I work for a Jewish organization, I get the high holidays off. Yesterday was Yom Kippur. Because of that I don't typically get Columbus Day off but Steven and I both took time off and we are finally going to NH for the weekend. We didn't get up there all summer so I am looking forward to this visit. We leave on Friday morning and took Monday off as well. I love fall - but I am also hating fall - that is the time of year that the oil bill is due - nothing like spending a few thousand dollars up front for heat for the winter. Who hoo! Yea - not that thrilled with that one. But it has to be done. Not much else going on here - Steven is off today fishing. Lucky him :) But I can't complain with a three day week :)
