Almost five years old

Wow.
My blog is almost 5 years old.

How is that possible?
I've been blogging since September 2005.

Crazy.

And it's been brought to my attention lately (by several, um, "sources") that I don't blog enough anymore.

Yeah. I know this.

I miss my blog.
I miss blogging on any kind of 'regular' basis.
I hate to say it, but my blog suffers from irregularity.

I wonder if there's a 'cure' for that?

I have no REAL good excuse for not blogging more.
I mean...I always have something to say.
I just lack the time in which to say it.

I suppose I could stay up until midnight every few days and catch up on blogging...but that might make me somewhat cranky. :)

I am going to do better at blogging.
Promise.

I miss my blog.
And, if anyone is still out there reading it....

Thank you for sticking around.

A love note to Twitter

My darling Twitter,

Oh how I love thee.

We've been seeing each other since February 22, 2008, (that's 2 years, 5 months, 3 weeks, 6 days, 10 hours, 28 minutes and 53 seconds as of RIGHT NOW if you're really keeping track).

At first, I wasn't sure if I really liked you. I mean, you were cute and friendly and seemed to have a good purpose. But I just wasn't sure if you were meant for me. I had a long-standing, serious love affair with another social networking site (ah-hem, Facebook) and we were quite serious.

But I gave you a chance.
We flirted for a while.
I tweeted, some people responded.
It was OK fun.

And then last year something happened.

You introduced to me an amazing, incredible, funny, charming, engaging, magical group of people. (Yes, that would be you, my Disney friends....but you probably knew that.)

And suddenly....just like THAT...BAM!...I was smitten with you.

Head over heels in looooooooove.

And today we celebrate a milestone of sorts in our 'relationship' .... because today I hit 13,000 tweets. A friend called it "tweeterific" and I think that is the perfect sentiment for it.

So Twitter....you are absolutely tweeterific.
And I am so happy we met.
Thanks for the memories we've made so far.

Here's to the next 13,000 tweets.
(I'm guessing I'll hit at least 20,000 tweets by the end of this year.)

Love,
me

Sometimes you just have one of those days

So, on my way to work this morning I witnessed a three-car accident.

I was one lane over and one car back from the third car involved in the crash. I'm not sure exactly what happened, but all of a sudden I heard screeching of brakes, crunching metal and shattering glass. No, more like exploding glass. And then nothing.

There was a red car smashed into the front of a Mercedes SUV and then another silver car sitting next to the red car.

Suddenly everyone not involved in the accident seemed to be dialing 9-1-1 ... we all had phones to our ears as I looked around.

I still don't know what happened -- but a coworker who drove past minutes later said at least 2 of the people were out of their cars ... so that's a good sign.

Suffice it to say .... witnessing the wreck was not the most stressful part of my day.

Oh no....that came much later.

Without going into much detail, let's just say that I'm in communications and we had a 'situation' at work today and I was the person who had to be interviewed by the local media.

My boss and I spent several hours coming up with good 'talking points' ... which was very beneficial since I've only been on the job for 3 1/2 weeks. I really didn't want to screw this up.

I saw one of the news stories tonight.
I think I looked like a dork...but my sister said it was good. (She's biased).

Overall, I am just happy that today is almost over.

I'm channeling my inner Scarlett O'Hara right now .... tomorrow is another day.

Life in the fast lane....or not

You know that show "It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia"?
Well, I am beginning to think there needs to be a "sister" show called "It's Always Raining in Cincinnati".

Seriously.

Every single time I have to drive to or through Cincinnati (which is not that often) it is raining. And I'm not talking about light showers. Oh no. I mean like a total deluge-raining-cats-and-dogs-and-farm-machinery kind of rain. I mean rain so hard you can't see the end of your car.

And, there is always construction of some sort where it's raining.

Not a good combination.

Why am I mentioning this?

Well....

Today I had to drive to our 'administrative' office in Cincinnati. The drive down was OK - if you don't count the drive through downtown Dayton (the city where road construction never ends) and the 45 minutes of construction AFTER leaving Dayton. Sure, it was just fine. [insert sarcasm here, please]

However, upon leaving Cincinnati ....

As I drove down the ramp to 275 a giant bolt of lightning came straight out of the clouds right in front of me. (Sure, it was probably a few miles away, but it seemed MUCH closer). I'm certain was a sign of some sort. And not a good one.

Then, as I merged into the speeding traffic on I-75 the pouring rain started.

POURING. RAIN.

I could not see the car in front of me - other than the brake lights as the driver (wisely) slowed to 50 mph.

I kept repeating "please stop raining. please stop raining. please stop raining."
And, it did.

But then came the construction. Almost an hour of white-knuckle-55-mph-trucks-speeding-past-me-oh-my-gosh-get-me-off-this-road construction.

I was nearly in tears by the time I was north of Dayton city limits.

And then...the sun came out and the trucks disappeared and I was finally able to relax.

Because, it's always sunny in northwest Ohio.

And for the record...I don't mind road trips -- provided I'm not the person driving.
Also, I hold no ill will toward the cities of Dayton or Cincinnati. I just don't like driving there.

This is how I feel right now....

Um yeah.
So, life is a bit crazy lately.

The job is keeping me busy.
I feel stretched in a million different directions every night when I get home.

No, I'm not asking for sympathy.
I'm not complaining about having a job.
I'm just trying to figure out how in the hell I'm supposed to balance it all and not lose my mind.

I have this horrible sense of mommy guilt -- on Monday through Friday I literally see my kids for about 30 minutes in the morning before shipping them off to daycare for the entire day. And then I get home from work at 6 p.m., cook dinner, eat dinner, bathe the kids and then it's bedtime. (For them, not me.)

I miss them every day when I'm work. I try to not think about it too much - I know they are making friends at daycare and Olivia starts first grade in a month and that will be a whole new adventure for her.

However, I will admit, every single day I think how wonderful it would be if I could stay home with them.

But I can't.
I need to work.
Our family budget requires that I work.
And I KNOW that I am lucky to even have a job in this economy.

I just wish that I could clone myself at times so that one of me could work and earn a paycheck and the other me could stay home with the kids.

And yes, I know that I'm not the first mommy to feel this way.
I just needed to get this down on 'paper' and get it all out.

I know that I'm in a 'transition' period...adjusting to the new job and all the changes that come along with it.

I will figure it out.
I hope.