California Scheming

Dear Ally Lou,

We so wish we could be there with you to celebrate your 5th birthday! We love you and miss you! Have lots of fun today!

Love,

Aunt Balissa, Uncle Shawn, & Pinto Bean

Heather’s St. Patrick’s Day Party

Me and my bonnie lasses

Ummm….I may have had too much to drink…

Yep, that’s Steph humping me…

…the night got a little out of control…

I will neither confirm nor deny that I pulled the shelf above Heather’s toilet off the wall. And I may or may not have tripped (aka drunkenly hurled myself across the room) and fallen on my head. Also, some people are saying that when Stephanie and I were wrestling (yes, wrestling) that she hit her head on Heather’s TV. I really can’t say if any of that’s true. It’s all just speculation at this point.

Happy St. Patrick’s Day!!!!!

You’d be hard-pressed to find someone who’s worse at small talk than me. I just can’t do it. I’ve got nothing….seriously. It’s excruciating for me AND whomever I’m talking to. I find it so damn boring and I just can’t bring myself to torture others with social niceties and minutia about my life. Instead, I usually just listen, smile, and nod… and then try to escape from the conversation. Not very smooth.

I’ve got to pull it together and improve on this because I find that, at work and now that I’m married, I have to engage in this horrible activity pretty frequently. Shawn is great at it. He could make conversation with anyone at any time and he manages to seem genuinely interested in whatever they have to say.

Part of the problem is that I have an exceptionally short attention span, so if you don’t hook me with something hilarious and/or interesting right off the bat, I snooze out on the conversation. Also, I’m the worst actress in the world, so you will quickly note the glassy eyes and the yawning when I’m done with the conversation. PLUS, when it’s my turn to respond, I usually panic, laugh nervously, and flee the scene. I’m a train-wreck.

Ha, I just looked on Amazon and found this: The Fine Art of Small Talk: How to Start a Conversation, Keep It Going, Build Networking Skills — and Leave a Positive Impression! by Debra Fine

I’m not above resorting to this. I’m really not.   

Have you noticed that I barely post anymore? And that when I do post it’s very little writing and mostly pictures? It was so much easier to blog when I was home with the baby. He’d lie down for a nap and I’d use the time to write something. Now that I’m back at work, it’s so much harder to find the time and my life is so monotonous that I feel like I don’t have anything interesting to write about.

I’m hoping that when the job switches over to part-time I’ll feel like I have some free time again. For now, when I’m not at work, I’m trying to get in some quality Noah-time…or I’m sleeping.

Have I mentioned how much I LOVED maternity leave??? I was so productive – I’d go for walks, spend quality time with the baby, the house was clean, I’d write, use the elliptical machine, read tons of books, hang with the girls, etc. Now I’m back to my working self, which means I work, eat, watch movies, and sleep. Boring!!!

But thems the breaks, I suppose. I’ve gotta come up with a get-rich-quick scheme!