43 thoughts on “Tuesday Open Thread”

  1. Countdown to grandma leaving…t minus 2 days. I think I’m ready. My mom is super helpful but she’s also a person who holds a lot of stress and she has trouble sleeping. The stress is rubbing off on me…I’m constantly worried that she’s not getting enough rest. I think this will be hard but I’m tired of worrying about being on my own and ready to just get on with it.

        • We are almost all moved in and will start staying there tomorrow night.

          Maternity leave is 12-ish weeks…I’m flex/casual so I don’t get any maternity pay, and i have no vacation. so I can go back whenever I want but I’m just not getting compensated for any of it. So that’s ok. But we were down staffing a lot right before I left. On one hand I hope I have a job waiting for me but on the other hand i am so overwhelmed that the idea of being laid off and just making do on dh’s salary plus my freelance stuff is equally appealing.

          • Hugs bb. I hope that as you get closer to potentially going back to work you get a sense of clarity around what you want and what is best for you and your family right now. Perhaps some great shift with the boss you like will open up?

  2. So apparently Michael Bloomberg encouraged Hillary to run for mayor of NYC when his term is up. I think that would be a great idea but so far apparently she said no. I guess we’ll see…

      • I said to DH (who is from NYC), “It would be an easier campaign,” (vs running for president), and he said, “But a harder job.”

        I felt that the NYC mayor would be unlikely to nuke New Jersey but I guess you never know.

      • I don’t think that’s necessarily bad? If you want to continue to serve in government. Remember we used to have Presidents who returned to the Senate after their terms. Step up or down, it might be the right move.

  3. Having a bad hair day. I’ve had the same stylist for 8 years and she normally has done a great job, but lately she’s having trouble with my color. I have bright red roots and brown everything else, instead of auburn all over. I am going back for her to fix it, but I’m getting tired of the extra time going back there for repairs. Has she gotten bad at coloring, switched products or something, or is my hair changing somehow? Has anyone else had changes in their hair coloring due to age or hormones or ???

    • Mine got so orange when I bleached it during this pregnancy. And it’s so straight after kids…I used to have curly hair like you! Now it’s just thick and poofy. I’m going to try overall color and, if I can someday afford it, a Brazilian blowout (lasts 14 weeks). I would ask if she has switched products tho. And if not, maybe you need to cheat on her once and see if another stylist gets better results?

    • I haven’t started coloring my hair yet… Although given the amount of grey I don’t know how much longer I’ll hold out!

      My Mom has had issues with a color just not being as effective after a few uses. So she’s rotated around with a few different “tweaks” so that it holds better. I have no idea if this occurs frequently – or if it’s just in Mom’s head :-)

  4. I ordered snarkymom’s book today!!

    I’m having a “in a funk” day – the weather’s gross, things for the class I’m teaching next term are a pia, and I got thrown by a colleague’s nasty competitive comments. So I thought her book on effective teaching and student engagement might be uplifting – even if I’m looking at it for college classrooms. And it was just cool to say I ordered a friend’s book :-)

    Now I’m going to eat some pumpkin chocolate chip bread. Hopefully a little shopping and a little chocolate will put me in a better mood!

  5. Happy Tuesday everyone. For those of you who wanted an update about the “reunion” this weekend in LA it was fantastic. (Weekend gathering at a high school friend’s house – I am from Iowa originally but this friend moved to LA not far from where I live in San Diego. Another “friend” was flying in from Iowa – a sort of X from high shcool days which has kind of developed into a romance – as I wrote before I know it is so freaking cliche for the separated 40 something ) It is such a strange situation because it feels totally new and old at the same time. We will see what happens. It definitely will be long distance for a long time since we both share custody of kids, but in a strange way that works for us right now. So that is that.

    And now I REALLY want pumpkin chocolate chip bread. Badly.

      • That’s funny you said that because when we were all out for brunch on Sunday he told us he had a screen play idea. Then he starts explaining that it would be a sort of “Nick Sparks” story about our romance. Just when I think that is a really unusually cheesy thing for him he adds, “and then in the end it turns out Lauren is still bitter from high school and she kills me.” I thought I was going to pee my pants we were all laughing so hard. (He did kind of break my heart in high school when he choose the dumb cheerleader over me.) This led to a long hilarious conversation where we tried to plan the perfect murder.

        • I love that story – I can envision you all at breakfast having that conversation! Did you discuss who you would cast as each of you?

          Hope you find some pumpkin bread – mine helped :)

  6. So, in case anyone else ever has a mouse crawl in their engine and stink up the joint, the place they go is the cavity under your windshield wipers. This area is called the cowl. You can open the hood, lift it up and spray under there with a hose to clean it out. That is what I did to mine and now it is better.

    News you may or may not at some point be able to use.

  7. New Orleans is beautiful. I’m exhausted. We’re leading a conference, so no chance for much playing. But we did have beignets and coffee (or hot chocolate, in my case) this morning. Yum.

  8. Ugh…..insomnia. Up at 4 am, but hopeful I’d fall back to sleep. But now I’m on the couch, with iPad, having totally given up on sleep. S’gonna be a long day.

    • Wishing you both enough energy to get through the day. I was up from 4:45 to 5:30, but didn’t have the ipdad handy in the nursing chair. I’ll try to remember to put it next to the chair tonight, just in case there are people up to talk to! I hope you can sleep, though!

Leave a Reply