Strange Day

Today has just been odd and not in a very good way.  It's one of those days where all I can do is focus on my happy, healthy child.

Here (in no particular order) are some of the odd things that happened today:

• Misfit shenanigans - not the fun kind (like when they dress up like bunnies and bowl).  I hate it when misfits do things that lead to uncomfortable discussions. Nonetheless, Buttin and I will have an uncomfortable discussion with a misfit tomorrow.
• We have a competitor talking badly about us - telling lies.  Buttin is going to take a shower, put on some clean (semi-nice) clothes in the morning and go kick some ass.  Well, talk to our customer anyway.  
• One of the houses we really like has just gone down in price by another 8K.  It's the strangest thing, but I feel badly for these people.  My dad used to tell me that I didn't have the killer instinct (back when I swam competitively) and I'm starting to realize he was right.  I'm sure I have that instinct when it comes to protecting people who are close to me or our business, but I'm guessing I won't be adding "Real Estate Mogul" to my resume (maybe "cookie dough mogul").
• Speaking of not having the killer instinct (this is a bad transition), I hit a bicyclist last week (or rather, he hit me) while driving (slow moving accident, very near my house).  His bike was slightly damaged so I drove the man home (please Liz, don't tell me he could have been purposefully running into cars because he's a serial killer and you've seen something exactly like this on Criminal Minds) and we exchanged phone numbers.  I called my insurance company that night and gave them all the info - just in case.  Can you guess what has happened?  He's now claiming injuries and filing a claim. I talked to my insurance adjuster today and she said there is no way that I am at fault; however, we have to get everything together. 
• Molly doesn't seem to be doing very well.  I took her to the vet last week because she was having some obvious issues with her back right leg.  She's been on medication (for a ruptured ligament, a urinary track infection and auto-immune hemolytic anemia - which she had earlier this year), but today she was so bad that Buttin had to carry her into the house.  I tried to get her hind legs underneath her (by picking up her butt), but she'd shake and then fall right back to the ground.  I'm hoping this is just a not so great day for her, but that she'll be getting better soon.  I can't think of things any other way right now, not today. 

In some relatively OK news, I had a decent run with my group today.  We did the same workout as a few weeks ago and I felt good.

Cub and I kept Molly company outside this afternoon (because I couldn't help her in the house) and he only tried to pull her ear a couple of times.

No Christmas Stress

It looks like Molly is trying to tell me something in this picture. I think she's really saying, "get this stupid thing off my head . . . now.", but I'm going to pretend like she's saying, "don't be stressed at Christmastime, mommy."

There are just so many things left on my "to-do" list. For those women who already have children - I have no idea how you do it. I'm not even hosting Christmas at my house this year, but here's a list of all the things I have to accomplish in the next 48 hours:

• Try to find Buttin a good Christmas gift (I'm stressing because I haven't been able to find that one perfect gift & I usually- I'm so good at it - I think).
  
• Buy gift cards and some other various gifts for the few people still on my shopping list.
• Go to the grocery store to buy stuff for the two work parties we have tomorrow (installer Christmas breakfast and our Holiday party).
• Make food for the work holiday parties, set up parties, clean up after parties, etc. . .
• Get house ready for dear MIL and GMIL (even though they're the easiest house guests EVER).
• Wrap copious amount of gifts.
• Buy a few more stocking stuffers; and
• Various work tasks that must be done before I leave on Thursday (hopefully early).

I'm also trying to just enjoy our last Christmas before Lumpy arrives, but that's so much easier said than done. Next Christmas, I'll probably look back on Christmas 2009 and think - wow, I had it SO easy.

Today, I Will Try To Remember These Things

**Warning - possible sappy post to follow**

Sometimes (or frequently), I catch myself being negative or getting too stressed by the things that I cannot control. Today, I'm going to focus on some of the gems from my "Don't Stress The Small Stuff Calendar".

Today's (November 3rd) is perfect for me:

"Become aware of the tendency and to notice when you're focusing too much on the negative."

Here are some of my favorites from the past few months:

October 13th -

"Except for rare exceptions, we are all doing the very best we know how."

September 20th -

"As we become less judgmental and we accept that everything is how it was meant to be, we become less critical of ourselves and others, and therefore more happy."

August 1st -

"As your mind is focused in a more positive direction, and as you're looking for the gifts of your day instead of the hassles, you'll begin to notice aspects of your work life that may have been invisible to you."

April 28th (this one is probably my favorite) -

"If you could eliminate all defensiveness from your personality, you would not only have the best relationship in town but, in fact, you'd become the most loving and adorable person on the planet."

Today, I'm going to try to remember that it is more important to love than to be loved - that it is better to be compassionate than it is to be correct - and that I have all I'll ever need in my husband, my friends, my family and Lumpy.

The Soundtrack Of Your Life

Earlier this week we went to the Willie Nelson, John Mellencamp & Bob Dylan concert at the Dell Diamond.

While at the show, I realized that I really should listen to more music. I think all the pod casts and talk radio I listen to only ads to my stress. This morning, I ran a fast 4 miles (by fast I mean that I can run one mile a little faster than in takes one batch of cookies to bake) and listened to music instead of the usual talk radio pod casts. I forget how fun music can be while running. My current favorite running song is Help I'm Alive - Metric. I call it the zombie hammer song.

I'm not very musical inclined and not really drawn to music - I much prefer TV, books or cookie dough, but there have been many times while listening to a song, that it feels as though the song becomes part of the soundtrack to the movie of my life (cheesy, I know).

When it comes to music, Buttin is the expert. He can listen to a song and think of a perfect place for the song in a movie scene he's creating in his mind. He even once (and he'll hate that I'm mentioning this) said that this new song he heard would be perfect for So You Think You Can Dance - isn't he cute? Music is not only the soundtrack to his life - it's often the exposition, theme, action and denouement (I love that word).

I really enjoy taking road trips with Buttin. We just put the ipod on random and he's got a story for pretty much every song, especially the older ones.

This brings me back to the concert a couple of nights ago.

If I could pick only one musician to tell the story of Buttin's life - it would be John Mellencamp. (As a side note, I still think he needs a middle name - I miss Cougar.) During the concert, Mellencamp started to play Small Town. I started tearing up just a little thinking about Buttin and his friends and family and their small town. I turned around and Buttin had a couple little tears in his eyes too.

I don't know if I could pick one musician to tell the story of my life. My story would most likely be told by a cartoon or the back of a cookie dough wrapper.

Now Accepting Paying Customers

One of the most surprising thing I've learned being a small business owner is that there are other businesses that order things and then don't pay. Call me naive, but this is not only surprising - but shocking. How can people do business honestly by not paying for things they've ordered? It's a vicious cycle - our customers' dishonesty problem, then becomes our problem - because as charming as I am, our suppliers don't let us have things for free and our misfits don't work for free (also shocking - I know).

So far we've had seven customers file for bankruptcy. (These are the types of things that really stress me out, but obviously I have absolutely no control over them.) This morning, we received yet another notification of filing.

Never having had any experience with bankruptcy, I didn't fully understand that businesses can file for bankruptcy even though they owe you crap loads of money & are still collecting crap loads of money from their customers (in the case of apartments, from their residents). I'm sorry, but if you're collecting $1500 in rent per month from every tenant - certainly you have the money to pay us!

In order to combat future non-paying customers - I've created this new wonderful advertisement. These materials are probably a little better than we have in stock, but I think it gets my point across:

Take A Deep Breath

My "Don't Sweat The Small Stuff" desk calendar mocks me on a daily basis . I don't think it's ever had a care in the world. Although, I do like to imagine that it has feelings and concerns - like on the days when I forget to tear off the old page and look at what is written on the new day - I think my calendar feels sad and abandoned. Strange calendar, stranger me.

This week has been a rough one - what will all the misfit shenanigans, the bird murder guilt and all the speculation about what will happen to Michael Jackson's motherless child, Blanket - it's enough to make anyone forget all the hopeful words of the DSTSS calendar.

Here is a list of all the things I will try not to sweat next week:

• I will try not to let it get to me when someone takes something from me that is not monetarily or sentimentally valuable.
• I will try to understand that money deposited in the bank is there no matter if I have the deposit slip or not.
  
• I will not curse at Quick Books, because Quick Books will always be a pain in my ass.
  
• I will try not to expect people to read my mind.
• I will try to remember that no matter what happens - I will always have Buttin, my family and friends, and will always be the proud owner of the most disgusting dog ever birthed (Cartman decided to throw up in bed last night and then spend 30 minutes reverse sneezing while I was trying to sleep).
  

For now, I'm going to just take a deep breath and get ready for Harry Potter.

Sweating the Small Stuff

Last Christmas my dear mother gave me one of those little "Don't Sweat The Small Stuff" inspirational calendars. I find most of the daily thoughts to be helpful ("Whatever you practice most is what you will become.") and occasionally I will even pin one to my office wall. However, I find the whole idea of not sweating the small stuff to be much easier said than done.

Most of the things that get to me are ridiculously insignificant (like people who take advantage of free food), and I tend to get overly sensitive and defensive at the smallest things. Whenever I'm feeling particularly crabby, my husband always know the right thing to say to put everything into perspective. I also think that the world has a way of slapping you in the face with perspective (like when you're feeling sorry for yourself and then you see someone obviously less fortunate with a smile on their face). Well, I had something like this happen to me yesterday evening.

As I was driving home last night, not feeling particularly sorry for myself, but stressing none the less (it's the end of the month, which means lots of business bills) I heard a story on NPR (my dad is so proud, but wishes I would also watch Fox news - yuckola). All the stories last night had something to do with Bernie Madoff (I think what he did is tantamount to mass murder), and this story in particular was about a man named Willard Foxton. He is the 28-year-old son of a British war veteran who committed suicide after loosing everything to the Madoff swindle. In order to avenge his father's death, Willard came to the US to make a documentary ("The Madoff Hustle") about how Bernie Madoff got away with everything for so long and to interview other victims. While his story is inspiring and certainly puts my air conditioning problem into perspective (even though it is 105 and our AC barely works), it was actually the brief story he told about a man in California (another BM victim . . .I don't think it's a coincidence that his initials mean the same thing as poop) he interviewed for the documentary.

I don't remember many of the details, but this California man is 90 something years old. His family lost everything in the Great Depression and he and his wife have now lost everything again in the BM Ponzi scheme. For the past 20 or 30 years - he was enjoying retirement, but has now come out of retirement to work at a grocery store for $10/hour. Before he retired, this man owned a small business (I believe) and was the very definition of a self-made, salt of the Earth kind of man. When Mr. Foxton asked him how he felt about having to go back to work after loosing all his savings - he just stated plainly that he remembers having nothing before and that at the end of the week his $10/hour starts to add up. He also said (and this is the best part) that he doesn't plan to work at the grocery store forever - his goal is to save $10,000 and then start a new business!

It kind of puts everything into perspective, doesn't it? If this 90 year old man can be this positive after everything that he's been through, certainly anything in my life (including paying the bills and having an only semi-functional air conditioning) is a breeze and unworthy of my sweat!