Apparently I'm a lover, not a fighter

I fully realized today that I don't want to be involved in any activities surrounding the RNC. Chris has been photographing various events related to the RNC including some of the raids that took place over the weekend and several of the protests near the Capital today. He gave me the opportunity to go with him, and I said no.

I realized today that I don't even want to observe the protesters and the police response. I don't want to be there when the shit goes down. All of it scares me. I kind of freaked out at Chris because one of the media guys that he was going around with today accidentally got hit with pepper spray. I got upset because Chris almost got hit with pepper spray. Since when did I become an over-protective mother?

Instead of viewing in person, I read about several of the things that happened today. Even though many of the protesters had good messages and were not breaking any laws, there were a few others that spoiled that message. What does a broken window or a slashed tire say? Does it say that the U.S. should stop the war in the Middle East, or does it say that there's a bunch of people acting like rebelious teenagers simply trying to get attention?

What I know is that even though I didn't have the courage to go to the Capital to observe, I know where I stand. The conclusion I take from this is that those people don't know how to articulate their anger and frustration and instead use destruction of property as a means to vent that anger. I wonder if it's working...

It's been a good day

I had a great day today. I first went to tour the Minnesota Visiting Nurse Agency in Minneapolis. I had been trying to find a non-profit whose mission I agreed with and that would accept hand-knit items, and I have definitely found it. The MVNA provides health care and health education to people throughout the metro area, and are focused on pediatrics and gereatrics. I was surprised to find out that they are the ones carrying out a program the City of Minneapolis is committed to involving the care and education for teen mothers preceeding the birth and two years afterwards. You will likely be hearing more about MVNA since I am going to be knitting and crocheting things for them in the future.

After that, I headed over to Northwest Eye Clinic to find out if I'm a candidate for LASIK surgery, and it turns out I am!!!! I'm actually going to have it done on Thursday next week and my aunts have graciously agreed to drive me there and pick me up, and my aunt and uncle have graciously allowed me to stay overnight at their place. I am so excited!!!! I realize that it may not get me to 20/20 vision, but I have high hopes. I have talked to many people who have had the procedure done and each one of them has been extremely happy with the results and don't regret it at all. It also helps that I trust the doctor performing the procedure since he was the one that diagnosed my contact exhaustion a couple of years ago when no one else could.

By this time next week, I will be walking around WITHOUT GLASSES!!!!!!

What's my next goal?

Has anyone else had the experience of just getting out of school and wondering what the hell their next step in life would be? This is something I've never experienced before: I'm not working towards a specific goal with a specific timeline. It has always been graduate. Then when I graduated and got a job, I'm asking myself, now what?

It's a weird feeling. I've made several short-term goals like paying my parents back for the money they lent me to go to Peru (thanks again!) and now saving for LASIK (assuming I'm a candidate), but those are both financial goals. I think after LASIK (again, if it happens), I'm going to start saving for a down payment. I really want to get a dog, but I can't justify having one in our apartment since we don't have a backyard with grass for it to play in. Oh, and there's the part in our lease that says no pets (even those half of the tenants have pets).

I have my hobbies, but I'm not really working towards anything in particular besides wanting to make myself a sweater eventually and to learn how to knit Fair Isle. I really don't have any major career plans at this point because in my department, there are really only three positions: financial analyst, budget coordinator, and budget director. There's a major time commitment increase between financial analyst and budget coordinator, not to mention the increased stress. I want to continue to enjoy my free time.

I'm officially a girl without a plan, mostly.

LASIK in my future?

I'm going to be going to a pre-appointment on Thursday morning to determine whether or not I'm a candidate for LASIK. If I am, I am going to get it done as soon as possible! I would really like to get it done before I start biking to work again when the temps get cooler. I would also love it because I would no longer have to wear glasses when I climb, when I swim, when I bike.

I admit that the potenital side effect of blindness is a bit scary, but I've talked to so many people of so many different ages that completely loved it that I feel pretty good about it. I'll let you all know what the doc says after Thursday's appointment!

Weekend Wrap-up

After barely scraping by at work (I felt like Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday should have been Friday, and guessing what: only one of those days was Friday), all I wanted to do was nothing this weekend. Well, we didn't do nothing, but it was a very good weekend.

Yesterday we hung out at the apartment doing paperwork (Chris) and knitting (me) and went to dinner with Chris's parents, Kim and Kim's friend Becca. It was a nice day. Then today, we went to the Minnesota Zoo. We wanted to see the bears! It was a very cool exhibit. I hadn't been to the Zoo for a very long time, so it was fun to see everything.

My favorite exhibit was the prairie dogs - yes, the prairie dogs. They were extremely amusing to watch and so damn cute. I know that farmers hate them, but I certainly don't! Chris will have some pictures up eventually of them. Very social animals, that's for sure.

In the meantime, you should check out his blog to see some random pictures of Pokey. And then check out some pictures that I took of our boating adventure. Granted, some of these pictures were not taken by me, but all of the ones of Chris and John were. Damn I'm good! haha

How do people with families do it?

After three days of mega overtime (like the 12 hours I put in yesterday alone) in preparation of the budget document, I felt complete burnout by 5:30 today. When I get the feeling like I'm going to kill someone, I usually decide that it's better to take a break than to involve the police. I got to the point where there was a distinct possibility that I was going to snap at co-workers over little things that don't matter.

I caught the 5:30 bus home, and was lucky enough to catch Chris before he headed down to his parents to take care of the dogs. All I really needed after feeling anxious and stressed was a hug from Chris, and I felt so much better!

I still had a lot of nervous energy though. And when I have that kind of nervous energy, all I can think of to do is organize. Seriously. Earlier in the week, I completely went through all of my old records and reorganized and got rid of things I didn't need anymore. A couple of nights ago, I decided to clean out a three-drawer storage unit for my knitting supplies. Tonight, I reorganized my book shelf. I'm unstoppable!

I really don't understand how people like my boss can work for 50-60 hours (guessitmate) per week and have two small children. I asked her about it one day and she said she frequently has to neglect her family. After just three days, I am very much looking forward to going back to having less immediate tasks and less responsibility. Maybe I'll change my mind about this after a few years, but I happen to love only having to work 40 hours. There's free time! I almost forgot what that was when I was in school...

Anyway, I'm hanging in there. Hopefully all of this will be over on Tuesday, fingers crossed.

Budget Season

While I used to complain about things being too slow at work, now I'm going to complain (but not really) that things are going too fast. All of us in the budget division are putting in lots of overtime this week, and we'll likely be working at least part of the weekend.

This budget season has been very different from others since we have the new budgeting system that we're trying to get used to and are trying to get information out of. It will (and has) made things easier already, but it has also caused us to be about 1 1/2 -2 weeks behind schedule and we apparently want to send the book to the publisher on Monday. Eek!

I will definitely make it through the week though, but there's no guarantees that I won't be complaining about parts of it, namely about the coordinator of all of this having major mood swings that makes one not want to ask any questions or get any clarifications. Makes for a very hostile work environment, that's for sure.

Wish me luck and don't feel bad if I don't call for a while Mom and Dad! We will talk soon!