Category Archives: My Life

Working from home

As today continues our snowy, icy, bitterly cold winter, it seems like a perfect day to celebrate working from home.  While working from home means no snow days, it also means I [almost] never have to navigate icy, snow-covered streets (by foot, bus, or car) to get to an office, which is huge.*

My jury duty stint a few weeks ago, with two mornings where I had to dress, pack a lunch, leave the house, and arrive somewhere at a specific time were brutal (especially the 8am arrival time on a Monday).

Six months into my part-time, work-from-home job, I’m pretty happy with the arrangement.  Sure, I miss some of the socialization with coworkers that I had in past office jobs, but there are a lot of perks to working from home.

Top 5 things I love about working from home

  1. No commute.*  Zip. Zero. Zilch. Nada. Nothing.
  2. No dress code.  Sure, I could put on “work” clothes every day, but why?
  3. Access to a full kitchen for snacks and lunch.
  4. Ability to integrate around-the-house work.  Need to toss in a load of laundry?  No problem.  Even on really busy paid-work days, I can usually find five or ten minutes here and there to attend to household tasks.
  5. Ability to integrate exercise — sure, you could whip out your yoga mat in the office, but if you’re in a cube or other “open” office layout (which seems to be the norm these days), that feels a bit awkward.

An average workday

There is not really an “average” workday, as the workload varies a good bit.  Most weeks I put in about 20 hours over four days (M,T,W,F).  I start working around 8:30am, after I drop Sir off at childcare, and try to wrap up by 4:00pm, so I can have a good start on dinner before I retrieve Sir.

On days where I have less paid-work, I usually fill the time with housework and/or errands.   Either way, there is not much sitting around, and I usually feel rushed in that last hour, frantically trying to make dinner while tying up loose ends with paid-work and housework.

Number 4 on the list is kind-of a blessing and a curse.  Since I can get a lot done during the day, it means that Matthew and I can just relax in the evenings, after G’s in bed, which is very nice.  On the other hand, it creates an imbalance in our marriage, where I am the one doing most of the housework.  This arrangement makes sense, practically speaking, but we’re examining it and trying to balance things out a bit.

Number 5 on the list is still tricky unless I plan for it, which I’m trying to do more of with some exercises for my back.

I almost included ease of taking a nap in the list, but, honestly, unless it’s a really slow work-week, I’m actually better at napping when Sir is also home and napping.

If you currently work from home, what is your favorite thing about working from home?  If your work in an office, what do you think you would most enjoy about working from home?

*I do have a short (half-block) walking commute to Gabriel’s childcare, but even in not-so-great weather, getting out for that little walk twice a day is good for me.  Since it’s an in-home childcare, and I can get Gabriel there in almost any weather condition, he also has no snow days, a fact for which I am truly grateful, especially this winter.  Mama needs her childcare.

Decisions, decisions

Before last Friday, I had gone almost four years since my last professional hair cut!  Over those four years, I saved a lot of money by trimming my own hair (with a pair of professional-grade hair shears).  But I was ready for a change, so, after getting some recommendations, I visited Erinn at Bouffant Daddy in Maplewood, with the intention of chin length or shorter.

After talking with Erinn, we decided to start with a chin-length bob.

ShortHairSelfie

I like it, but I’m still tempted to go shorter.  In some ways, this is an awkward length — too short to really pull back, but long enough that it takes a decent while to air dry (I don’t get along too well with blow dryers).  Shorter might play nicer with bike helmets and sun hats, too.

It also doesn’t feel completely different, or “new,” since it’s similar to a cut I had at the end of high school / beginning of college (minus some excessive Sun-In highlights). On the one hand, I could live with this cut for awhile, and just go shorter in a few months.  On the other hand, I have seven days from the date of the initial hair cut to change my mind and get a different cut for no charge.  The clock on that is ticking.

Bike Seat
The clock is also ticking, somewhat, on a child bike seat color decision.  Unfortunately, the Yepp Maxi seat I bought on EBay is the ‘standard’ model, which doesn’t play nicely with the Edgerunner rack.  Instead, we need the ‘Easyfit’ model.  (Since I can’t return the EBay purchase, I’m hoping I’ll be able to resell that seat . . . . )

I am not finding any used Easyfit seats, so we’re planning to order directly from Xtracycle (apparently what I should have done in the first place!) . . . which means we have color options.

AllSeats

We’ve narrowed it down to these four (orange, lime, blue, and silver), but it still feels like too many types of cereal to choose from at the grocery store.

Matthew’s leaning toward the lime, which would look like this with our blue bike . . .

BlueBikeGreenSeat

The ‘silver’ seat (which mostly looks gray to me) was not on our original list, but I found this photo of the silver seat with the blue bike, and I like the look.

Edgerunner_hooptie_large

Lime or orange seem like they would have some visibility advantages, though.  Gah, decisions!

Ready for that longtail
At any rate, it will be nice to have the cargo capacity of the longtail.  My decision to buy not one, but two furnace filters at the store today (they were on sale!), seemed great until I reached my bike and realized the diagonal of my milk crate is the perfect size for ONE filter.

I managed to rig up something that worked well enough for the short ride home . . . 0224141450-00

. . . but it was not the most secure set-up, so I stuck to smaller streets than I might have otherwise.  I made it home with everything (two furnace filters, a fire extinguisher, and a half-gallon of milk) on board and intact, but it would have been much easier on a longtail!

Photo Credits
1. http://www.amazon.com/Yepp-GMG-Maxi-Easyfit-Blue/dp/B004PYEAZS
2. http://www.splendidcycles.com/-/wp-content/uploads/2013/07/EdgeRunner-003aw.jpg
3. http://www.motoredbikes.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=48488&d=1367821550

Catching my breath

Last week was a bit of a bear.  A jury summons coincided with a couple of big deadlines at work.  I managed to complete most of the work tasks over the [previous] weekend — which was good, but also left me rather drained at the beginning of the week.

I cooled my heels for two days in the jury gathering room, part of this debacle; they had far more jurors than expected, leading to some interesting times on Monday morning.  They never called my number, and I was released late on Tuesday afternoon.

Instead of spending Wednesday addressing my growing paid-work and housework lists, I was home with sick Sir.  Thank goodness he’s not sick much (knock on wood), because he transforms from a sometimes-challenging, but usually pretty easygoing and low-key kid to an ab. so. lute. bear when he’s sick.  From Wednesday through Friday, it felt like we just moved from one meltdown to another, with some snotty-nose-wiping in between.

His antics had me alternating from annoyance to unable to suppress my laughter at the absurdity.  On Thursday, I told him we had time to listen to two songs before his nap.  After the second song, he started requesting the third track on the CD, “Jimmy Cracked Corn.”  I told him we would listen to that after nap; he disagreed and collapsed to his knees, sobbing “Jimmy Cra Cor” over and over again, while bouncing up and down with snot and tears streaming down his face.  I was torn between trying to comfort him (and get him down for an obviously much-needed nap) and getting out the video camera (I chose the former).

Earlier that morning, he had a breakdown when Matthew left for work.  Gabriel didn’t get to the window in time to blow him a kiss, and that was all it took.  It started out sweet that he really wanted to blow Daddy a kiss, but after several minutes of inconsolable crying, the sweetness lost it shine, replaced by eye rolling and mutters of, “Good Lord, child!”

There were some okay moments, too, but by the time my MIL arrived to pick him up late Friday afternoon, I was beyond exhausted (turns out I was getting sick, too) and close to the end of my rope.  Gabriel had Baba time for the next 24-hours, and we managed to salvage Valentine’s Day and transition to a fairly nice, if low-key and still sick, weekend.

I’m looking forward to a more normal week and returned health for all of us!

One-third-life crisis

What happens when you’re too young for a mid-life crisis but too old for a quarter-life crisis?

Though Wikipedia defines quarter-life crisis as a period “ranging from the late teens to the early thirties,” that seems a bit of a stretch.  Once you reach thirty, it would only really be a quarter-life crisis if you planned on living until 120.  I don’t.

Quarter-life crisis sounds like the just-graduated from college, can’t find a job, moving back in with the parents kind-of thing.  This is not that.

My mid-20s were actually okay, if rather by the book.  Graduated from college; went to grad school and added some letters after my name; was employed full-time; got married; had a baby.  Check, check, check.   I have a lot to be grateful for, and yet . . . .

I’m pretty sure I’m too young for a mid-life crisis (though my ailing body might disagree), but I’m definitely feeling some serious ennui.  “One-third-life crisis” lacks the ring of the other two terms, but it fits better than anything else I can think of.

Employment
Not sure I should even get started on this one.  Suffice it to say that what seemed like a fulfilling field with good job prospects back in 2004/05 is not so much.  Add having a spouse in the same field, and you’ve got double trouble.

That path to an M.D. that seemed so long and life-sucking in college?  Ha!  At this point in my life, if I’d gone with my original medical school plan, I would have finished med school, finished my residency, and been a full-fledged doctor.  Oh, hindsight!

We’re tossing around the idea of one of us going back to school for something with more job security (and higher compensation).  Two career contenders are physician assistant and optometrist.  Both would involve significant time and money for schooling, which is hard to consider at this stage of life, with a young child, other life interests and financial obligations, etc.

A less-drastic step that might lead to better job prospects in the public health field would be one of us going back for additional coursework in biostatistics.

However, none of that sounds as interesting (or as unrealistic) as my current [one-third-life crisis] goal . . . .

Being Pink (the singer, not the color)
Last week, I wasted a significant amount of time on my newfound obsession with Pink.  While I didn’t actually watch the Grammy Awards, I saw the video of her performance (which included aerial acrobatics and some very athletic dance moves).  This led me to seek out other videos, as well as general information about Pink and her career.  You know, typical internet stalker stuff.  My research led to two conclusions: 1)Pink is awesome, and 2) I want to be her.  No, really.

Pink is actually a few years older than me, so, theoretically, I have a bit of time to get my [nonexistent] singing / performance career to where hers is now, though it turns out her acrobatic dance moves didn’t come from nowhere; she was a pretty serious gymnast when she was a kid.  (I think I did gymnastics for about a year — does that count?)  On the other hand, she apparently trained for the aerial acrobatic portion of her 2010 tour in 6 weeks, with an additional 3 weeks of training for her 2013 tour.  If I had 9 weeks to do nothing but develop my skills with professional trainers, who knows?

But in reality . . .
. . . I’m probably just going to chop off a bunch of my hair and try to figure out whether or not I’m going to P-A school.  Oh, and maybe buy a house.

————–

Anyone with me in this one-third-life crisis boat?  Or been there recently?  What are you struggling with and/or what changes do you want to make?

I’m melting, melting

Okay, not melting exactly (it’s WAY too cold for melting), but I do feel like I’m falling apart.  Over the past year, I’ve accumulated a number of small-ish health issues: psoriasis, nail fungus, and back pain.  None of them are huge, but they are nagging things that won’t go away, no matter how much I ignore them.

Psoriasis
About this time last year, something funky started happening to the fingers on my right hand: itchy, red, very sensitive patches that eventually became swollen.  After a couple of months, when my half-hearted efforts to treat my [self-diagnosed] leprosy failed, I made it to the dermatologist, who, after a very cursory glance, proclaimed that I had eczema, not leprosy, and sent me on my way with a prescription for a topical steroid.

I never really used much of the huge tube of steroid cream, but my symptoms cleared soon after the doctor visit, largely due to the changing seasons (less cold, dry air) and possibly to some improvements in my mental state.  (Eczema and psoriasis are similar in that they are exacerbated by stress, anxiety, etc.)

It’s baaaaaaaacckk!  All good things must come to an end, and with the return of cold, dry winter air came the return of my skin condition.  With a new twist.  After a few weeks of the standard irritated skin on my fingers, I started noticing joint pain in the affected areas.  Matthew already suspected that my skin condition was psoriasis, not eczema, and this new symptom seems to confirm his suspicion.

Not only do I have psoriasis, I have a fun and relatively unusual manifestation — psoriatic arthritis — lucky me!  The joint pain is not constant; some days, I don’t notice this aspect at all, but there have been a couple of pretty bad periods, where I had to turn vegetable chopping duties over to Matthew because it hurt to hold the knife.

Anyway, since treatment of psoriasis and eczema is relatively similar, I’m working on using up that huge tube of steroid cream; applying fancy, expensive petroleum jelly (i.e., Aquaphor) every couple of hours; trying to work on some of the stress reduction stuff; and hoping the spring arrives soon.

Nail fungus
I’d never, ever had nail fungus.  Then, last February, I redeemed a pedicure gift card.  (Note that this was the second, or maybe third, pedicure I’ve ever gotten in my life.  It was likely also the last.)  A few weeks later I noticed an odd spot on the nail of my big toe.

I waited around a bit, hoping that it was a bruise under the nail and would just grow out, but after a couple of months, it became clear that the nail salon had given me a special gift — nail fungus!

Treatment options seem pretty limited, since I’m staying away from the oral anti-fungals.  This leaves topical anti-fungals, [very expensive] laser treatment, or alternate topical remedies.  For now, I’m applying Vick’s VapoRub twice a day, after soaking the toe in warm water (hoping this makes the nail more porous / the treatment more effective).  Like topical prescription anti-fungals, there’s a good chance I’ll have to keep this up daily FOR A YEAR.  Then, maybe, if I’m lucky, my nail will be healthy again.

Ongoing back pain
From October through December, I invested a significant amount of time and money in physical therapy for my back.  I felt like things were headed in the right direction, but I reached a point where I felt like I wasn’t making any more progress.

According to the therapist, the two rotated vertebrae were back in their proper places, and staying there, but I continued to have point pain whenever I pressed on one of the vertebrae.  This didn’t seem to be going away or getting better, and some of the PT exercises seemed to exacerbate it.

I checked myself out of physical therapy, hoping that my spine just needed a bit more time to get used to things being back in their proper places (after all, things had been out of whack for three months before I sought treatment).  But those hopes seem unfounded.

What to do?  More physical therapy (with a different therapist)?  Chiropractic?  (Was going to try chiropractic initially, but had a hard time getting a good provider recommendation.)  I also have not had any imaging done on the area, so I’m wondering about an MRI so we can see what’s really going on in there.

I’m not sure of my next step, but I probably need to do something.  The pain is limiting my physical activity (most activities don’t hurt while I’m doing them, but they lead to increased pain later, so I’ve been avoiding quite a few strengthening exercises) and making me feel old and grumpy.