Baby in a Bandshell

This week? It's been hell (sorry, mom, no other way to explain it). 

14 hour days, emails at all hours, phone calls, people arguing, you name it, I experienced it this week. The good news is that this is the worst week of the whole year for me. Things can only get better from here on out (albeit slowly).

Another good thing? This kid. 

He's the only thing that can pull me out of my bah humbug funk. 

So yesterday, after a particularly grueling day filled with Excel and Outlook, I scooped him up in my arms at precisely 4:01PM, left the work iPad at home, and went for an afternoon picnic. 

It was beautiful outside. We may not have a yard yet, but we have a huge park next door, and that's just fine by his standards. Because this park? It has a bandshell, y'all. That's like baby playground jackpot (not to be confused with the actual playground that is also at the park - that's old news for him). 

Somehow, he learned how to crawl up stairs. And before I knew it, he was off exploring. (Check out the vid on my IG account to see why he prefers crawling on concrete to grass. Crazy kid.)

But, umm, he apparently knows how to climb *down* stairs too. ::: Heart. Attack. :::

There are obvs no pictures of that because, hello, he could have cracked his head open on the concrete and died (enter: new mom paranoia). But letmetellyou, he did not need my hand under his chest to do it. He can climb down a step all by himself, much to my dismay. 

He may be fearless, and he may be growing up faster than I can handle (send tissues), but he will sometimes still fall asleep in my arms. 

And that alone made this whole week of stress just melt away. 

Changing titles

When you get married, there are a whole mess of things that you have to change your "title" on...from banks, to bills, to your Social Security card, you name it.

Today I had to change a different sort of title - my car title. I purchased my car out of a lease a few weeks before the wedding, which means that all the paperwork was in my "old" name and address. I had a feeling that this would end up being a huge hassle, so I conveniently found excuses to not go to the DMV to complete the paperwork for the past 3+ months.

Apparently my lienholder didn't agree with my approach.

At first I just received a nice little reminder letter once a month saying that she hasn't seen the paperwork. Recently, I have been getting a letter a week. Soooo I figured it was time to do something about that.

Attempt 1
Last week, I used my lunch break to make the trek to the lovely Schaumburg DMV. Practically before the words, "change my title" came out of my mouth, they were already informing me that they do not process title changes at their location. A piece of paper was shoved towards me with the three "closest" locations: downtown, South Elgin, and Lombard.

I can't tell you how annoying it is to use your lunch break to go to the DMV for nothing.

I then had to get approval from my supervisor to work from home on Monday so I could take care of it at the "closest" location, which is somewhat close to my house.


Enter: my blonde moment.

Attempt 2
As I was blissfully working from home on Monday morning, I decided to look up directions to the DMV so I could go before the lunch rush. As the page loads, I see this:I then have to explain to my supervisor that I am incredibly stupid and didn't think to check the hours of the DMV. But, seriously? Closed on Mondays?


Attempt 3
So here we are, Tuesday. I (again) decide to leave early to beat the lunch crowd. I didn't. Apparently a lot of people don't have to work at 10AM on a Tuesday.

I stand in the first line. I am given a form to fill out. I mess it up. I fill out a new form.

I stand in the second line for 20 minutes. I finally get to an auditor, and explain the situation. She looks thoroughly confused. She spends the next 30 minutes filling out a form on the computer that she claims is in a "new system," thereby justifying the fact that she has called over 4 people to help. The other people in the line look at me, annoyed, because my one case has just taken up all of the auditors. She informs me that I need a new sticker as well, and sets me up so I don't have to mail anything in and the sticker is given to me when I go to pay (Pay?). As I leave her station, she says to me, "thanks for not cussing me out, babydoll!"

I stand in the third line. A cashier calls me over, and at this point I have a huge stack of papers and I don't even know what is what anymore. He proceeds to tell me that someone should never lease a car (I can't tell you how many times I have heard this). I proceed to tell him that I wholeheartedly agree, but for G-knows-what-reason, 5 years ago I could only get approval to lease, not to buy. He tells me my total is $144 plus $3.02 credit card fee. Apparently it costs money ($65) to transfer a car title. Jerks.

As I victoriously exit the DMV , surprised that I was actually able to accomplish this task without any problems, I look at the paperwork in my hand. According to the new records that were typed up during my wait in line 2, Honda Finance is now located at my previous address 2 moves ago, and not in Dallas.

I don't even care anymore. I'm sure I'll hear about it from some agency if it becomes a problem.

Birthday Celebration, Part 2: Streamers!

When I walked into work on Friday (my actual birthday), I was greeted by a beautifully decorated cube and an awesome present from Barber. As more people trickled in, tons of food started showing up. I would have gotten a picture of that too if I wasn't so busy stuffing my face with it!

The rest of the day was filled with people coming into my cube blowing streamer curls in my face (mostly Andrea and Barber). I have a video of it somewhere, but since my computer was eaten by some random virus, I'm not surprised that I can't find it.

I work with the best people ever.

WoW, we are nerds

Recently, one of my team members had a birthday, so we bought him some World of Warcraft (WoW) Mt. Dew. There were two flavors - a red one and a blue one - apparently representing each "side" you can be a part of in WoW.

Despite the fact that they were WoW-themed, they seemed to have some pretty interesting flavors, so we decided to hold a taste-test to determine which flavor was better.

Laura poured the red one, and the sampling began.

It was supposed to taste like a citrus-like cherry flavor, and it was pretty darn good (albeit a bit sweet).

Next came the blue one. Andrea poured the samples...

Some comments were made about night elves...

...and the tasting came to a close. The clear winner?

A case of the Mondays...on Wednesday

Yesterday morning, I had a bit of a...mishap. I'll refer you to my Q conversation with Amy since I am too lazy to actually write out the whole story.

Amanda(1:46:46 PM): this morning i spilled my coffee allllllll over my desk, clothes, chair, and floor
Amy(1:46:49 PM): omghahahaha
Amy(1:46:51 PM): nice
Amanda(1:47:13 PM): i totally smell like a walking starbucks
Amy(1:48:25 PM): how did you spill it
Amy(1:48:29 PM): is it a funny story
Amanda(1:49:31 PM): well, the parts directly thereafter are pretty funny
Amanda(1:50:03 PM): i spilled it because i didn't realize i had placed the cup in front of the mouse, and i went to move the mouse
Amy(1:50:14 PM): haah sploosh!
Amanda(1:50:17 PM): all of the sudden it tips over
Amanda(1:50:23 PM): and the lid stays on for a second
Amanda(1:50:27 PM): and i am frozen in shock
Amanda(1:50:42 PM): then the lid POPS off, flying across my desk
Amanda(1:51:01 PM): and you hear the telltale, 'gloop, gloop, gloop' of liquid
Amy(1:51:07 PM): hahaha
Amy(1:51:13 PM): at least it didnt spill into your keyboard
Amanda(1:51:20 PM): i scream, "SH*T!!"
Amanda(1:51:33 PM): barber starts laughing uncontrollably
Amanda(1:51:52 PM): paul shot up in his cube and says, "Oh no! i'll go get paper towels!"
Amanda(1:52:11 PM): i am still frozen in shock with my hands half raised to grab the cup
Amanda(1:52:28 PM): i finally get the cup and turn it right-side up
Amanda(1:52:52 PM): then i notice that it spilled all over my pants and it's freaking HOT
Amanda(1:53:03 PM): so i scream, "D IT OUCH!!!!!"
Amanda(1:53:12 PM): and jump up from my chair
Amanda(1:53:29 PM): then i notice that it had seeped under my laptop
Amanda(1:53:51 PM): at the same time that a sea of napkins is falling from the heavens
Amanda(1:54:03 PM): (tim had thrown them over the cube wall)
Amanda(1:54:32 PM): so i start to mop that up, when i notice that it was all over my keyboard and had soaked the mouse pad
Amanda(1:54:53 PM): so i drop the laptop and grab the mouse, throw it towards the monitor
Amanda(1:55:01 PM): turn the keyboard upside down
Amanda(1:55:12 PM): then paul gets back with paper towels
Amanda(1:55:19 PM): and i mop up the rest
Amanda(1:55:35 PM): now i have a huge coffee stain on the floor of my cube, and on the chair
Amanda(1:55:42 PM): and the entire cube smells like coffee
Amanda(1:55:47 PM): THE END

And for your viewing pleasure, a picture of the stain left behind by my "mishap."

Cut!

The pictures for this post started out as a simple documentation of Laura attempting to cut our sub sandwich that we were splitting in half with a plastic fork and the paper wrapper still on.

She was cutting and cutting, clearly getting nowhere with the flimsy little knife.


So she decided to unwrap the sandwich, only to discover...


It was already cut! I almost spit out my strawberry Italian ice.

When did this happen?

I noticed this morning that I have gotten coffee every morning for awhile now.



But when did this happen? I always told myself that I would never drink coffee on a daily basis to avoid becoming one of those people who have to have 3 coffee breaks per day. At one point in time, I stopped drinking coffee completely, and when I finally did have coffee again, I thought my heart would jump out of my chest.
So how did I become a daily coffee addict (sans weekends) without even realizing it? Then I remembered - the wedding.
The last few months of wedding planning were insane. On top of that, I was moving out of my home of 5 years. I was burning the candle at both ends...and coffee kept me going.
Now the challenge is to stop. Maybe tomorrow? Or not, since we have yogalates at 9:30. Maybe Saturday...