Working Girl

In the past few weeks, it feels like I have been working harder than I did during labor. The summer is almost over and with it, the pressures of making sure I’m prepared for my foray back into the classroom are mounting. I am almost to the point where I have to give up my leisure reading, which in itself has become a daunting future project, thanks to my illustrious former dean. How, you ask? Well, let’s see, in my Declutter My Life Saga, Part II (which I will blog about later), I decided that I was going to get rid of all the romance paperbacks I accumulated during the past year that my dean donated to me. So I picked up one, only to find out that it was part of a series. Now, most of the romantic novels that are series are wonderful enough to stand on their own, but ever since reading Julia Quinn’s stories about the Bridgertons, it’s been so much more fun to read them in sequence. What started out as merely fun has now turned into some sort of obsession with order. I feel like I’m missing something if I don’t start with number one.

My former dean cared nothing about that. This is evidenced by the fact that EVERY SINGLE BOOK she gave me is PART OF A SERIES! As a result, I have #1 and #3 in one series, but #3, #4, #5 in the next; one series actually has just the 8th of 10!

So what did I do? I went to the individual websites of each of these authors and printed the pages of what I have and what I’m missing. In essence, what started off as a simple leisure project has turned into work!

I fully intend to email my former dean for these titles before I submit to Amazon, since she buys according to what author she likes. Okay, I may be partially truthful in that because if she takes too long, it’s off to the Marketplace for me; luckily, I can find paperback romance novels for as low as a penny (for more on my Amazon habit, see my “Addicted to Amazon” blog. (On a side note, I love that I have learned how to hyperlink items!) I definitely think Amazon should be paying for services since I am always touring their greatness to everyone.

In addition to my own self-imposed work, I have been working diligently trying to get a vehicle. My mate seems to think that I’ve been lollygagging in this area and being completely casual, but it’s been the opposite: I have gone into freaking RESEARCH OVERLOAD scouring the internet for vehicles with Carmax, Cars.com, Autotrader, Enterprise, United Buying Service, not to mention all the local dealerships form Ourisman to Eastern’s, where your job’s your credit (every time I say that, their stupid jingle pops into my head). Oh, and don’t forget the outside research you have to do on a car: the free Carfax report (if the dealer provides it), the Kelly Blue Book value to make sure you’re not getting ripped off, and the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety to make sure that you’re not basically in a piece of aluminum foil with wheels. Add to this bit of work that the credit union with whom I have an account is DRAGGING their butts like a dog with worms across a carpet. It’s been a MONTH since my collision. A colleague of mine got into an accident a week after I did and got her new car last week! All this is extremely poor timing because I’m coming up on two consecutive weekends that I am supposed to be traveling to my hometown: the 1st is for my 20-year reunion, which I have been looking forward to since last year, and the second is for my mother’s and godson’s birthday next week. I will say that in all this GEICO has been stellar and at the risk of sounding like a walking advertisement, I will encourage anyone looking for new insurance to try them.

Unfortunately, this vehicle is taking so much of my time and attention that I am finding it difficult to concentrate on the other tasks at hand, and these tasks are two monumental items. The first is seeing to my son’s formal dedication. Now, in my head when I found out about the existence of my son, I already betrothed him back to God, much the way Hannah did in I Samuel 1:21-28 (see, there goes that hyperlinking again!). But I want to do it with a pastor’s official blessing. That pastor happens to be my uncle and the dedication will be at our home, with a dinner afterward. But I have yet to send out the email invitations, or even draw up a sketchy guestlist.

The other event is my own impending nuptials. I decided to take the leap of faith and jump of the broom. More to the point, he asked and instead of my usual “not just yet” answer, I said okay. At first, to me it was only semi-official because all we did was discuss the ring; there is not currently one on my finger. What made it real is going to premarital counseling. I won’t go into great details about it right now because that is a whole other blog all to itself, but just know it’s coming soon.

On top of all this, there is my actual job. We’re doing restructuring of items, norms, and attitudes. So things are happening at a fast clip. Add to that the fact that this week, I’m subbing a class for a colleague for two and a half hours three nights this week, and you’ll see that I’ve had a pretty full agenda. I don’t talk to anyone or hang out with anyone or have the time, energy or resources to otherwise let of some steam because I am budgeting to the very last penny to free up resources. That’s why this weekend is so important; I get a chance to just BE, with the added benefit of hanging out with chicks I haven’t seen in years. By the way, 48 hours before I get to do just that.