Yesterday morning, I got paid. Yesterday morning, Bobby paid off one of the credit cards.
Two credit cards down, two to go.
We're pretty much rockstars.
The past couple of days have been really interesting with hotline calls at the shelter. I work at a domestic violence shelter for women and children fleeing abuse. In an abusive situation, the batterer is deemed dangerous, and when a woman decides to flee her batterer, it becomes the most dangerous time of the process. The batterer may decide to retaliate, so keeping the location of the shelter confidential is extremely important. To me, this is common sense. Perhaps that's because I've had a year and a half of shelter experience, but I'm pretty sure I made that assumption prior to working at a DV shelter.
Imagine my surprise when on Thursday and Friday, I received the following phone calls:
Me: Center for Women and Children.
Lady: Hi, where are you located?
Me: Excuse me?
Lady: Where are you located?
Me: Why are you asking?
Lady: Well, I'm a Young Women's leader, and we just made a large batch of cookies that we want to donate! So we need to know where you're located so we can bring them to you!
Me: (Dumbfounded) We're a domestic violence shelter. For the safety of our clients, we keep the location of the shelter confidential.
Lady: We just want to bring you cookies.
Me: We don't do things like that.
*Click*
The next day.
Me: Center for Women and Children.
Guy: Where are you located?
Me: Why are you asking?
Guy: Well, uh, um, I have a friend, she's uh, staying there, and I know you guys are located in Provo, and so, uh, I was just wondering where you guys were specifically.
Me: (Thinking- really? Does my voice just scream Stupid?) We're a domestic violence shelter for women and children fleeing domestic violence. Not only can I neither confirm or deny whether your friend is actually staying here, but I cannot reveal the location of the shelter for the safety of the women and children staying here.
Guy: Oh, oh. Okay. Yeah, I was just curious, since my friend is staying there. Yeah. Just curious.
*click*
Really, people? Can I have the location of where YOU are, so at the end of a bad day, I can come over and do the non-violent equivalent of throwing bricks at your head?
Kthanksbye.
Saturday, January 24, 2009
Thursday, January 22, 2009
You know the drill by now.
http://www.tmi2day.com/2009/01/22/growing-up-gifted/
Comment. Make my editor smile.
Bobby missed a final last semester. He called me devastated, on the verge of tears, as he had just learned that a final BYU's website said was a testing center final was actually a scheduled sit-down-in-class final. It was with a professor that I had a couple semesters prior, and he was one of the few professors that I felt genuinely embodied teaching at a church school. He's a stake president, and when you find that out, you aren't surprised at all (See: President Elliot-like). So I sent a little email explaining the situation and asked if there was anything Bobby could do to make up for it. He let him take a take home final, which was pretty amazing.
So I decided I'd make him cookies. All winter break went by and I didn't get it done. Then, on Sunday, I made some strawberry thumbprint cookies and a put a plate out, wrapped in syran wrap, for Bobby to take to campus to leave in this professor's office. He came home from class for his two hour break with the intent of picking up the cookies, and what did he find?
Syran wrap chewed through, and all but three cookies missing.
Rest assured, Chuck had the diarrhea the rest of the day.
Comment. Make my editor smile.
Bobby missed a final last semester. He called me devastated, on the verge of tears, as he had just learned that a final BYU's website said was a testing center final was actually a scheduled sit-down-in-class final. It was with a professor that I had a couple semesters prior, and he was one of the few professors that I felt genuinely embodied teaching at a church school. He's a stake president, and when you find that out, you aren't surprised at all (See: President Elliot-like). So I sent a little email explaining the situation and asked if there was anything Bobby could do to make up for it. He let him take a take home final, which was pretty amazing.
So I decided I'd make him cookies. All winter break went by and I didn't get it done. Then, on Sunday, I made some strawberry thumbprint cookies and a put a plate out, wrapped in syran wrap, for Bobby to take to campus to leave in this professor's office. He came home from class for his two hour break with the intent of picking up the cookies, and what did he find?
Syran wrap chewed through, and all but three cookies missing.
Rest assured, Chuck had the diarrhea the rest of the day.
Wednesday, January 21, 2009
I have a secret! And I'm NOT telling you in this blog.
Okay, so it's a little difficult to not comment at all about what happened yesterday. In spite of having half of our staff gone, leaving Suelen and myself to tackle phones, clients, and finding out fifteen minutes prior that a tour of funders would occur, it was hard to not feel hopeful and giddy about the speeches and parades and the four years to come. Obama's speech was magnificent. Reading it just made me so fired up for what I do every day, and I'm actually not as ashamed of my country at the moment (though the cynic still lives, don't kid yourself).
Bobby's new bike came in yesterday (yes, another one), so he's like a kid in a candy store. It's not quite put together yet, but it's pretty. A pink headset will do that to any bike, really. He's started riding almost every day again, which was met with a stern lecture from a friend of his, because apparently the pollution is really bad in the valley right now. It's hard to not giggle when people say things like that, because I can't help but think about all the times I was walking across KU's campus and always managed to get stuck behind someone smoking. The air can't be THAT bad, so I'll take my chances with being outside.
The no meat thing is still going strong. I don't even miss it, which is weird, but could have something to do with imagining the crying baby animal every time I see a hamburger. In a weird way, I think Peli senses my vegetarian habits and is pleased with it, because she has been especially snorgly lately. Maybe she was concerned for a while that I was going to eat her someday.
This past Christmas, we started our tradition of baking a birthday cake and giving something to Jesus for His birthday. I'd talked about doing it the first year we were married, but we were travelling all day on Christmas that we didn't have a chance to do it. I decided to give Jesus the gift of reading my scriptures every day (something I'd been seriously slacking on), and let me tell you- it's like prozac on paper! I just have felt so much happier these days, and there has been less contention and stress in our home, and that's really the only change that has been made. It's not a ton of reading-- usually half a chapter to a whole chapter a day-- but even just a little connection to my higher power in addition to my daily prayers has really boosted my sense of security. The church is very true, friends, even if some of the people in it are a little crazy sometimes (myself included).
On that Molly Mormon note, I've decided to learn how to scrapbook. Over Christmas we were at my Aunt Carolynn's house and her chitluns pulled out all the scrapbooks that she had made for them each year, and you could tell it meant so much to them. Heck, I would've loved something like that, simply because it would be a token of my mother's love for me (her love language isn't really that sort of gift giving, unfortunately). So I'm going to get all sorts of skilled so I'm not learning through my first child's scrapbooks so he/she won't use them as evidence that I don't love him/her as much when he/she's a teenager. Think ahead, says the former girl scout in me (that and "buy cookies"). So any tips anyone could provide would be wonderfully appreciated.
Off to work!
Bobby's new bike came in yesterday (yes, another one), so he's like a kid in a candy store. It's not quite put together yet, but it's pretty. A pink headset will do that to any bike, really. He's started riding almost every day again, which was met with a stern lecture from a friend of his, because apparently the pollution is really bad in the valley right now. It's hard to not giggle when people say things like that, because I can't help but think about all the times I was walking across KU's campus and always managed to get stuck behind someone smoking. The air can't be THAT bad, so I'll take my chances with being outside.
The no meat thing is still going strong. I don't even miss it, which is weird, but could have something to do with imagining the crying baby animal every time I see a hamburger. In a weird way, I think Peli senses my vegetarian habits and is pleased with it, because she has been especially snorgly lately. Maybe she was concerned for a while that I was going to eat her someday.
This past Christmas, we started our tradition of baking a birthday cake and giving something to Jesus for His birthday. I'd talked about doing it the first year we were married, but we were travelling all day on Christmas that we didn't have a chance to do it. I decided to give Jesus the gift of reading my scriptures every day (something I'd been seriously slacking on), and let me tell you- it's like prozac on paper! I just have felt so much happier these days, and there has been less contention and stress in our home, and that's really the only change that has been made. It's not a ton of reading-- usually half a chapter to a whole chapter a day-- but even just a little connection to my higher power in addition to my daily prayers has really boosted my sense of security. The church is very true, friends, even if some of the people in it are a little crazy sometimes (myself included).
On that Molly Mormon note, I've decided to learn how to scrapbook. Over Christmas we were at my Aunt Carolynn's house and her chitluns pulled out all the scrapbooks that she had made for them each year, and you could tell it meant so much to them. Heck, I would've loved something like that, simply because it would be a token of my mother's love for me (her love language isn't really that sort of gift giving, unfortunately). So I'm going to get all sorts of skilled so I'm not learning through my first child's scrapbooks so he/she won't use them as evidence that I don't love him/her as much when he/she's a teenager. Think ahead, says the former girl scout in me (that and "buy cookies"). So any tips anyone could provide would be wonderfully appreciated.
Off to work!
Friday, January 9, 2009
Thursday, January 8, 2009
Saturday, January 3, 2009
50% has always been failing.
I have a tendency to not do things halfway. "All out or bust" should be tattooed on someplace appropriate, because I get a little obsessive. Someday there will be a diagnosis for this (and for those of you who think you're little therapists already, OCD does not cover what I experience. Trust me. I was medicated for OCD, and this didn't go away) and I'll pop some pills to help me relax a little bit.
Until then, I keep chugging away.
Fortunately, my recent obsessions fit in with my new years resolutions.
What are they, you ask? Well, fortunately for you lucky folks, I'm going to share them with you.
1. Get out of debt.
Since being married, my loving husband introduced me to "credit cards" and "0% interest!" What these actually translated to? "Denial" and "trouble." We've never been in a bad situation, but feeling like I owe something isn't an experience I've grown up with, and it's uncomfortable. Enter obsession. I checked out a couple of books by Dave Ramsey (currently absorbed in Total Money Makeover) and I pretty much have his entire website memorized. He's not a get-rich-quick kind of guy. He's invested in principles that will make you financially secure in the long haul, and I'm quite excited to have paid off my credit card as of today. Now all we have left is the three Bobby has, and we're hoping to snowball those away. Then we can tackle student loans. It'll be an exciting year in that sense, but it also means we're going to become very boring. We set up a very strict eating out budget (see: $0) and have very little set aside for entertainment. We'll have to get creative with our fun, and I'm okay with that. We do it now so we can have more (stress-free) fun later.
2. Save animals.
I get emails from the Humane Society of the United States because I am quite fond of furry little creatures. When I got this video, I think it was really meant as a "HURRAY! Look at what we've done! Give us money so we can do even more." Instead, I saw it and one part in particular stuck out to me-- the cow. When that poor cow can't even get up, I almost started crying. Poor cow! Then I thought about it. That cow went through all that pain and maltreatment so I could have a hamburger. Since then, I've become obsessed. I've read into animals and livestock and slaughter houses, and I realize how biased a lot of my resources are. They aren't shy about it. But even if there's a sliver of truth, is having a piece of bacon worth killing an animal that is just as intelligent as a three year old human? So I gave up meat. Just like that. While at Christmas with Bobby's family, his mom made meatballs for Christmas dinner and was devestated when she heard about my plan. I told her it was more "avoiding" meat than anything, so I'd eat the meatballs. I nearly cried when I melodramatically envisioned the little baby cow saying goodbye to its mama for the very last time.
(Side note: I recognize that I project a lot of what I view an ideal family onto animals, mostly because growing up, my pets showed more affection and caring toward me than the humans in my family. I do not expect this of anyone else.)
3. Give up a new year's resolution.
I make that a goal because then if I mess up or get bored, I'm still 2/3 as far as resolutions go. If #3 is the one I give up on, then I haven't really given it up at all, which means... wait. That's confusing. Maybe you could think about it and get back to me.
Until then, I keep chugging away.
Fortunately, my recent obsessions fit in with my new years resolutions.
What are they, you ask? Well, fortunately for you lucky folks, I'm going to share them with you.
1. Get out of debt.
Since being married, my loving husband introduced me to "credit cards" and "0% interest!" What these actually translated to? "Denial" and "trouble." We've never been in a bad situation, but feeling like I owe something isn't an experience I've grown up with, and it's uncomfortable. Enter obsession. I checked out a couple of books by Dave Ramsey (currently absorbed in Total Money Makeover) and I pretty much have his entire website memorized. He's not a get-rich-quick kind of guy. He's invested in principles that will make you financially secure in the long haul, and I'm quite excited to have paid off my credit card as of today. Now all we have left is the three Bobby has, and we're hoping to snowball those away. Then we can tackle student loans. It'll be an exciting year in that sense, but it also means we're going to become very boring. We set up a very strict eating out budget (see: $0) and have very little set aside for entertainment. We'll have to get creative with our fun, and I'm okay with that. We do it now so we can have more (stress-free) fun later.
2. Save animals.
I get emails from the Humane Society of the United States because I am quite fond of furry little creatures. When I got this video, I think it was really meant as a "HURRAY! Look at what we've done! Give us money so we can do even more." Instead, I saw it and one part in particular stuck out to me-- the cow. When that poor cow can't even get up, I almost started crying. Poor cow! Then I thought about it. That cow went through all that pain and maltreatment so I could have a hamburger. Since then, I've become obsessed. I've read into animals and livestock and slaughter houses, and I realize how biased a lot of my resources are. They aren't shy about it. But even if there's a sliver of truth, is having a piece of bacon worth killing an animal that is just as intelligent as a three year old human? So I gave up meat. Just like that. While at Christmas with Bobby's family, his mom made meatballs for Christmas dinner and was devestated when she heard about my plan. I told her it was more "avoiding" meat than anything, so I'd eat the meatballs. I nearly cried when I melodramatically envisioned the little baby cow saying goodbye to its mama for the very last time.
(Side note: I recognize that I project a lot of what I view an ideal family onto animals, mostly because growing up, my pets showed more affection and caring toward me than the humans in my family. I do not expect this of anyone else.)
3. Give up a new year's resolution.
I make that a goal because then if I mess up or get bored, I'm still 2/3 as far as resolutions go. If #3 is the one I give up on, then I haven't really given it up at all, which means... wait. That's confusing. Maybe you could think about it and get back to me.
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