Life Updates of a Larger Magnitude

I'm feeling like waxing poetic about parenting.  Are you ready for it? I don't even know where to start.  All non-parents have heard the same "Just you wait!" warnings - your relationship with sleep changes, your appreciation for silence skyrockets, your selfishness decreases by default, your conversations about poop happen way too often.  To all the people spewing that - shhhhhhhh.  Think about what you are trying to accomplish.  Making your single and/or kidless friends feel better about their lives?  I don't think they need it.  Making your pregnant friends even more freaked out than they already are?  They really don't need it!  Or maybe you're miserable with your life decision and just want to whine.  People really don't want to hear that. :)  The only time it's acceptable is when you are having a bad day, surrounded by people in the same situation, and drinking wine.  Because then you're bonding. :P I love my kids ...

Quicken, I hate you.  Why would you let me delete a reconciled transaction from 3 years ago without a warning?  Why would my opening balance for an account that usually has $400 in suddenly shoot up $16,000?!?!  Windows 8, I hate you.  Why would you have such a damn touchy mousepad that randomly clicks on things like a 3 year old $60 transaction and somehow delete it?  Because of that, I also blame you for the $16,000 error.  I can't prove that you did it, but I just *know it* in my gut. You are both on my shit list today.  Better shape up before I toss you both into the swimming pool. MOTHERTRUCKER! DAMN YOU MOUSEPAD!  I DID NOT WANT TO BLINDLY ACCEPT ALL 600 UNVIEWED TRANSACTIONS!  ARGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH! I guess you called my bluff.  I hate you even more now.

Since I quit my 9-5, my quality of life has absolutely sky-rocketed.  I *am* still on a Christmas/New Year's high, so take this with a grain of salt, but I love life.  I work a few hours each day, but actually find that I have to reign in the tendency to work more.  I just love what I'm doing. I wake up each morning excited for the day ahead.  I pick up Brynna from school and we hang out.  We walk to get Lillian.  We make dinner and Matt picks up Eve and spend the evening puttering around the house.  Last weekend, I planned all the meals for the week and bought groceries - no more worrying about if I have food in the house.  I've cleaned.  I've started exercising every day because I HAVE TIME.  I've read 2 books.  PEOPLE!  THIS IS AMAZING!  I may not be making a ton of money anymore but for the moment I'm realizing that the things I really need to be happy don't require a ton of money.  Crazy.  And wonderful.

First, I have 2 New Year's Resolutions.  I don't normally nominate 1 specific day to resolve new life tactics; I like to leave that option open for the whole year.  Still, I'm feeling inspired by all the people who are flooding gyms right now.  My first one is to be a nicer person to those near and dear to me.  My second one is to get places on time, which actually entails trying to get places 30 minutes early, which subsequently means that I need to start preparing my posse about 2 hours in advance of travel.  It's pretty monumental. The real reason for putting my thoughts on paper is that I've been considering what a gift the past few years have been from a purely personal standpoint.  The gift of my thirties has been some semblance of peace with who I am.  I am bossy.  Believe it or not, this has caused me serious angst in the past.  It still causes me angst, but on a more lower, less frequent level.  I don't want to be pu...

Leaving NOR has forced me to send out follow up contact information to my awesome coworkers.  Since I didn't want their goodbye emails to contain things like, "'Yell O Pippi!', why did you choose that?" or incorrectly put a "w" in my email and not be able to reach me, I distributed my beka.shea email address.  But I never check that email, so I bit the bullet and figured out how to forward it to Gmail.  And then I thought, "Self, you should do this across the board."  So, if you have any of these addresses for me: beka@alum.wpi.edu yellopippi@yahoo.com yellopippi@hotmail.com beka.shea@yahoo.com or beka@fowler-re.com They will all come to my yellopippi gmail account.  It feels GOOD!  It feels overwhelming.  Now I'm going to have to actually start unsubscribing from 18 years worth of newsletters and mailing lists. I'm dreading that...

I just quit my job.  My very challenging, mostly rewarding but sometimes incredibly stressful, well paying job.  I am high on excitement.  I am scared to death.  I'm not usually one to swear in these forums, but this qualifies.  Oh shitburgers. The adrenaline is too much to coherently reason it out, but I want to try to FLY!  We're starting a house-flipping gig, and I want to devote my time to that.  And I also want to devote more time to my family - I'm not cut out to be a stay at home mom, but I also don't want to be an Executive mom right now either.  And I don't want to be a crappy hourly minimum wage worker just so that I can cut back my hours.  So I'm starting my own deal, and I hope I hope I hope it pans out.  And if it doesn't, hopefully Corporate America will find me another seat at some table. :P I DID IT!  I'M FREE (I'm terrified). Convo with my boss: Me: "If it makes you feel any better, the reality of the situat...

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