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Project Me: Surprise Someone by Paying for their Order

9 Aug

I finally completed another one of my “Project Me” tasks – yay, me!

On Monday morning I was super tired (as usual) as I headed to the awesomeness that is the local drive thru Starbucks.*

A female police officer in her cruiser pulled into line behind me. I wasn’t speeding or doing anything wrong, so I didn’t get that little jolt of “oh crap” that I normally would. However, I had just come off a bit of a Girl Power weekend at BlogHer and was super happy to see a cool lady cop.

I thought that it would be nice to give her a happy start to her morning and decided to be sneaky and pay for her order.

I asked the drive thru barista to add the next order to my card and totally got all jittery (and no, I didn’t have any caffeine yet) that I was going to be caught. I asked her to tell the police officer “Thank you and have a great day” and quickly (but legally, of course) sped out of there before she turned the corner and could ID my truck.

Yeah, I know it was silly. But the whole point was to anonymously surprise someone with a good deed. Not for her to see me driving away and wave when we get stuck at a stop light. Awkward!

Anyways, as I drove away I had a big old cheesy grin on my face imagining her surprise and happiness at the little gift.

That $5 action made me feel so good all day long and hopefully it made her day too. Definitely money well spent!

So I challenge you to do the same.

Sometime this week when you’re at a toll booth or drive through, pay for the person behind you. I promise you will make someone’s day and most likely your own day too.

It you think about it, click back over here afterwards and leave me a note telling me about your good deed!

*On the subject of yummy food that you can buy without leaving your car, why aren’t there more healthy options? I would love to be able to drive through for Panera or Jimmy Johns and get my food without having to wake up/carry my baby into the restaurant!

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Visiting Chicago with a Baby

30 Jul And this is where Jack usually ended up.

I did it – I survived my Chicago trip.

For a minute there, I wasn’t sure if I was going to make it!

As I previously wrote in 2 Goofballs & a Baby…on a Plane , I had the opportunity to go to Chicago for a week-long work conference. I was looking forward to the conference – since I’m new to the world of higher education it is really good for me to meet new contacts and learn as much as possible.

Yes, Jack is wearing his “Born in the USA” onesie — I thought it might get us through security faster…

I was also looking forward to the challenge of traveling with my 5 month old baby. He’s a pretty laid back little kid, so I was curious how he’d act both on the plane and in an unfamiliar place.

Looking back on my plan of attack, I did really well. I was super prepared and had pretty much the perfect amount of everything for baby care. I even ended up with extra diapers and outfits because he didn’t pee all over them like I expected.*

Our plan of totally hogging a row of the plane worked out really well (on our departing flight). We boarded between Group A and Group B, so when we got on I went all the way to the back of the plane and we took over the row in front of the bathroom. As expected, nobody wanted to sit by a baby so we were able to keep the space to ourselves!

Since it would be super boring for me to do a play-by-play of the entire trip, here’s the best and worst of it all:

This is Lindsay and Jack showing you how hot it is outside. Well, Lindsay is making a “Chicago is hot” face, but I think Jack is just staring at her boobs.

People Suck
Reason #1: Chicago is pretty crowded and it was super hot the week that we were there too. So I’m sure that everyone wasn’t exactly in the best mood as they were traipsing along on the sidewalk. However, when you’ve got a baby in a stroller you’re pretty limited as to where you can walk since you need to get that thing up the curb’s ramp on either side of the road.

So you can just imagine my fury when I was repetitively knocked into and pushed around! It got to the point that I would just yell out “GOING FOR THE RAMP” when in a crowd of people so that I wouldn’t have to pop a wheelie to get up the curb. Probably annoying to everyone around me, but whatever, it totally worked.

Reason #2: On our return flight we were so ready to just get on the shuttle and get home. When the first shuttle to our lot filled, the representative pointed us towards another shuttle that was pulling up to the curb. So, the entire group that was left trudged over to the new shuttle. While standing in line, a lady shoved my baby (in his carseat) aside so that she could get on with her group. Yeah, she SHOVED my baby. However, at this point I was so tired that I didn’t feel like opening a can of whoopass {I know, totally out of character for me!}. I ended up sitting next to her on the ride to our car and pretty much forgetting about it once we got off to go home.**

Waiting in line to get on our “standby” flight. Which was also the time that Jack decided he NEEDED his bottle.

People Rock
Reason #1:Throughout the entire week we ran into truly nice people. The hotel staff was phenomenal, I met lots of great people at my conference and even waiters/waitresses were super accommodating for Jack. I was so incredibly pleasantly surprised by how “small town” it felt to be in such a large city.

Reason #2: Our return flight was delayed by a couple hours, which would have us arriving home around 2:00 am. Yeah, not so great with a baby. We chanced it and arrived at the airport early to see if they could switch us onto an earlier flight and the awesome people of Southwest Airlines hooked us up. We were able to fly out around 7:00 pm and Jack and I got home around 11.

Shit Happens {Literally}
I stuck with my plan to change Jack’s diaper right before we boarded the plane. However, within about 15 minutes, Jack decided that it would be a wonderful time to drop a number two. Awesome. Of course, the bathroom with the changing table is located in the very front of the plane (and we were all the way at the back), but it was surprisingly not that terrible to use.

Fast forward a few days…Jack has not pooped the entire trip. UNTIL the plane takes off for our return journey. Yup, within about 5 minutes Jack decides to stink up our entire row and we had to sit there forever until the seatbelt light went off (actually I got up before the light went off and was instructed to sit back down, oopsie). I guess that just goes to show you, you can’t really plan with a kid!

Teething Bites
Remember how I told you that Jack was a laid back baby? Yeah, well not so much when he’s teething. Which he started on Tuesday. I got a frantic “he won’t stop screaming” text from Lindsay about 2 hours before my classes ended. So, we scooped Jack up and ran to Walgreens where we loaded up on Infant Advil, Baby Orajel and Teething Tablets. The poor guy was screaming his head off in pain, but stopped the exact instant I touched his gums with the Orajel. Thank god for medicine!

Between the Orajel and Advil, most of Jack’s pain was kept under control. However, one evening the ache came on really strong and fast and he had a baby freakout while waiting for the medicine to work. Thankfully once the medicine kicked in he went down for an early bedtime and we were able to get takeout to enjoy in our room while watching True Blood.

Week O’ Fun
Even with the conference, the extreme heat and Jack’s teething, we were still able to have lots of fun. We ate some incredibly delicious food (favorites were tapas and an amazing sushi place), saw some sights (loved the Navy Pier at night!), had lots of yummy drinks and did a good bit of shopping too! It was lots of fun, but also super exhausting which is why I totally crashed the entire weekend that I was home.

So, when I say I survived the trip – I truly feel like I deserve some sort of medal for getting through it! Thank goodness I had Lindsay there with me, otherwise there is absolutely no way I would have gotten back home in one piece.

I can’t believe that in only a few days I need to pack up and leave again. But this time it will be just me going to NYC for the BlogHer conference. Just ME! This will be my first time away without my baby and I’m almost indecently excited to sprawl out across the bed in my hotel room and only worry about myself for a couple days!

Here’s some more pictures from our trip:

At some fancy sushi restaurant called Friendly Sushi which had the BEST sushi I’ve had EVER. As you can tell, even Jack wants a piece!

This is how I keep Lindsay happy!

Jack loves his lion souvenir! And you would not believe how many times it took for me to type “souvenir” for spellcheck to figure out what the heck I was trying to say.

The hotel provided us with a crib for a midget. It took Jack about 1.82 minutes to scooch himself to the top of the crib and get his head squished at the end.

And this is where Jack usually ended up.

Bubba Gump…YUM!

Apparently my drink took too long to come and I decided to eat the bucket?

*If you don’t have kids, you’re wondering how on earth a baby pees all over their outfit. I know, I totally thought the same thing. I mean, they ARE in a diaper, right?! Anyways, now that I actually have a little rugrat of my own, I realize that they are magical beings that can somehow pee OUT THE SIDE of a diaper with no warning at all!

**This happened on Friday night. On Sunday morning I went to the Tot Swap and the moment I walked in the door a lady came over to me. The SAME LADY from the shuttle. She said that she really wanted to apologize for shoving in front of me in line to get on the shuttle. She was trying to stay with her group, but that was no excuse for her to get in front of me. She said that she realized that she “acted like a total bitch” and felt guilty all weekend long. I was absolutely flabbergasted, what are the chances that she’d run into me again?!

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Shake Your Tail Feather

2 Jul

I’d like to take a moment to profess my love for the website, Etsy. If you haven’t checked it out before, take a minute and click over there. Be warned though – a minute isn’t nearly enough, I have lost hours due to that website!

Anyways, I was clicking around on Etsy a couple weeks ago looking for pretty jewelry for Mother’s Day (my hubby decided to gift me with the ability to pick out whatever I’d like, instead of buying something for me that I might not love*). Somehow, my clicking went from jewelry to hair feathers – yeah, I have no idea how that happened either.

Now, let me preface this with saying – YES, I know that hair feathers were cool LAST summer. My friend got one then, which I totally coveted (not in a creepy ’I want to skin your head’ way, more in a ‘I wish I was cool like you’ kind of thing). However, before I could make up my mind what color feathers I would want in my hair…the fad totally blew up with EVERYONE wearing feathers. When a fad reaches the middle school set, it is time for me to re-evaluate whether I need to participate.

It’s been a year though, so I think enough time has passed for me to revisit the idea.

Anyway, when I came across the hair feathers on etsy I decided that I NEEDED them. I don’t care if I’m in my {gulp} mid-thirties, in my imagination I’m still that 20 year old with purple streaks dyed in her hair.** I clicked around a bit to decide which seller to go with and which feather’s I liked best and ended up with some from Hair and Craft Feathers.

I ordered my feathers and they came a few days later – YAY! Now, I’m not going to post a tutorial, because you can find them all over the internet. I didn’t use any special hair threading tools (even though they do look really cool and easy to use). I just twisted a chunk of my hair and slipped it through the silicone lined bead. Shoved the feathers in and squished it shut with my pliers.

I put my main bundle of feathers just under my top layer of my hair so that they’d peek through when I have my hair down. Ashley sent me some extra feathers as an added treat, so I put them underneath my hair so that they’d show up as a blue streak when I put my hair in a ponytail. My husband teased me that I think I’m an 18 year old, but I don’t care – I kind of love them.

I’ve decided to count this as fulfilling one of my Project Me tasks, Dye a Streak in My Hair. I know it’s not pink or purple (the teal and blue were too hard to resist), and it’s not actual dyed hair… but I think this counts. This is actually better than dyed hair, because hair always fades so quickly and these should stay bright for a long time. Also, if I get any complaints at work I can easily take the feathers out.

I wouldn’t really call this one of my most exciting posts, or even the most exciting thing I’ve done to my head – but having blue in my hair totally makes me happy!

*AKA put it in my jewelry box and pretend that I totally love it but actually never wear it unless he asks about it.

** Oh yeah I did. Most of college was spent dying my hair weird colors – green streaks, pink streaks, half yellow blond/half purple red, you name it. My favorite was when most of my hair was its natural brownish color and I had purple streaks throughout.

Project Me Progress: Purging is Fun!

4 Oct

My internal countdown clock seems like it is going quicker and quicker. It’s like the days are speeding by and we only have 2 ½ weeks until our big moving day.

I’m a pretty organized person, but it is simply shocking the kind of crap you accumulate in almost a decade of living in the same house. So, I figured that this was the perfect time to attack one of the tasks on my Project Me list: Get Rid of 50 Things that I Don’t Need.

When the contract came in on our house, we had exactly 6 weekends to work with before our moving weekend (October 22 – 23rd). As I previously mentioned in a post, since I’m losing my job we can’t buy a new house to move into at the moment. However, we totally lucked out because my parents have a rental property that is going to be vacant the week before we need to move in to it. Ironically, the rent is exactly the same as our current mortgage and the space is almost identical to what we currently have. We can stay there until I find a new position and then we can resume the search for our dream house.

The one drawback of the rental house is the lack of storage space. The closets are quite tiny and there is no basement or other storage area. In order to live as clutter-free as possible, we decided to pack up only the essentials for the rental house. All off-season stuff and non-essentials will be stored in my parent’s basement until we do our final move.

I’m not a big clutter person anyway, so I used this opportunity to keep from being like that scary lady in the Labyrinth.

Instead of just taking everything in a room, throwing it into boxes and dragging it to the new place, I’ve made things a bit more difficult.

Everything in our current house has been reviewed and put into one of the following categories:

  1. Pack away at my parent’s house (off season clothes, books, decorating items, board games, extra furniture, etc.)
  2. Pack away for the rental house (everything we really need to live at the new place, along with our furniture that will fit)
  3. Sell – on craigslist or at a yardsale
  4. Donate to goodwill
  5. Trash

As of this past weekend, we’ve taken 4 truckloads and 1 SUV load of stuff to my parent’s house for storage. Yes, this is stuff that we can currently live without, but will need in our final home. Honestly, it’s still a lot of stuff. So it’s possible that when we finally do unpack it a bunch more stuff will be sold or donated.

Everything left in our house right now is going with us to the rental house. Some of it is boxed up, but most of it is in use for the next couple weeks. We have a bunch of empty boxes standing by for the day stuff gets thrown in and transferred to the new place.

We sold a couch, chair, two bookcases, a futon and a TV on craigslist. A bunch of people got awesome deals on furniture that they needed and we got money to put into our “buying stuff for the new house” fund. (6 items)

We tried to have a yardsale this past Sunday, but due to the weather being cold and rainy it was pretty unsuccessful. According to the rules in our house, anything put out for a yardsale is not allowed back in. I did bend the rules a teeny bit this time and rescued about 5 items. The rest (which filled up the back of my SUV) went straight to Goodwill. (30 items)

At the end of each season, I do what I call my “closet switchover” where pack away everything from the previous season and bring out stuff for the next. This year, when I packed away all my spring/summer stuff and brought out my cooler weather clothes I was brutal when deciding what to get rid of. Two big boxes of clothes were donated to Goodwill from me alone. My husband added another large bag when he went through his own clothes. (30ish items)

So, it looks like we’ve gotten rid of almost 70 items without even counting stuff that went straight to the trashcan. YAY, goal completed!

Not only does it feel wonderful to get rid of clutter we don’t need, it’s always nice to donate to our local Goodwill. The organization channels 84% of their revenues into job training programs that benefit hundreds of thousands of people each year. Also, as an added benefit we can claim tax donations for our contributions.

I’m feeling pretty great now – I completed a “Project Me” task, we gave a ton of stuff to a local nonprofit, we packed up 4 ½ truckloads and moved it out of our house, AND we have some money to buy things for our new place!

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