A Note About 9/11

I know this is two weeks late but I never posted my thoughts or where I was when this horrible thing happened 5 years ago.

I was driving to work like so many people were and I heard it on NPR. First I heard that one plane had hit the World Trade Center but that was all anyone knew at the time. By the time I parked and went into work I heard that a second plane had hit and then I knew that it wasn't an accident.

Something that I always remember about that time was how so many of my co-workers said that they were going to think more about life-work balance. Two of the women I worked with at the time started making a conscious effort to stop and take a lunch. A year later I reminded one of the girls of that when she was working like crazy one day. She just laughed.

One really did take it to the next level and when her husband was offered a transfer to another country there was no question about her going with him. She took a leave of absence from our company and she's really enjoyed the time this has allowed her with her daughter.

The thing is most of us did feel that way when that horrible day happened. We thanked God for being alive and we promised that we would spend more time paying attention to the important things in life. I was reminded of that when I was listening to some of the people who lost loved ones that day, on NPR this year.

The question is, did we stick to that promise to have more of a life-work balance? I think about that especially now that I’ve been so swamped with the kids and school and such. It’s almost 9:30 at night and I need to get the kids to go to sleep, I still need to wash a load of laundry and I need to take a shower. After that I need to pack Seth’s lunch. I forgot to buy bread so Miranda’s going to have to buy lunch again so I don’t have to make her lunch but I do need to pack her a snack for the afternoon.

I long for a job that would allow me more quality of life. I dream of a day when I’m a published writer. I don’t know that I’ll ever have it, but it’s nice to dream, isn’t it?

Hello From Miami

Hello readers everywhere. Sorry I haven't posted in so long. I had a crazy busy weekend with a wedding reception on Friday, Hispanic Chamber gala on Saturday and then preparing for this trip. This consisted of doing all the laundry so the kids could have clean clothes for school while I came here, doing some grocery shopping, and writing out all the reminders for my sister and Rey.

Wouldn't you know it though, Rey had a guy call in sick this week and his boss is out of town, so he is swamped at work. THEN right as I'm about to leave to the airport Rey calls to tell me that Miranda threw up at school and he has to go pick her up. He took her to work for a little while then took her to the old babysitter who is still our back-up. Amazing! This would have to happen the day I'm leaving, right?

I arrived in Miami this late afternoon, early evening for an AHAA conference. AHAA stands for Association of Hispanic Ad Agencies. I arrived just in time to freshen up for the evening welcome reception and then dinner with one of the ad agencies with whom we do business. It actually ended up being a bonus round because another agency rep joined us so I had dinner with two reps from my agencies in one sitting. It was really interesting hearing how these ladies got into the business.

Tomorrow is a full day of the conference, a short 3 hour break and then an evening reception. Thursday it's another full morning and I go to the airport after lunch to catch my flight home.

So a short trip but I hope to get some writing in while I'm here. I know! Miami is supposed to be this really cool party place but I'm just here for the conference and some time to write. No partying for this old viejita!

The Evening WAS going so well...

I left work 10 min too late and I was rushing to get to both kids. I picked up Seth first and I received some great news. Seth was "invited" to the potty today and he accepted. He "attended" to the potty. he he This is all Montessori lingo! In our language he peed in the potty.

The great news about this is that last night at the Open House the teachers told me that he'd been invited before but he declined. So today's news was great! Last night I was also educated about the "Montessori" way while reading the handbook and learned that my, "SAY GOODBYE!" across the room when I leave are considered "inappropriate." We are only to use soft voices and we are only to speak to people who are within arms length of us. It cracked me up! I guess Montessori isn't for loud people like me but at the same time this is good for Seth.

Okay, so I rush to pick up Miranda and my husband calls and says he's on his way there too. We are both pretty close to her so we decide to race to see who will get there first. When I was just a few blocks away Seth unbuckles his seatbelt. Argh! I had to pull off the road and put it back on so I lost. Rey got to her first.

Since I was already on that side of town and near Kroger I decided to go grocery shopping. I told Rey to meet me over at the Kroger parking lot so I could get Miranda. He had to go to play basketball. SO we went grocery shopping and I'm thinking, "OK great I'm getting this out of the way." I saw one of those great rotisserie chickens and it looked really good for dinner. I bought a mesquite flavored one and brought it home.

Of course when I got home Miranda's asleep and Seth is crying for milk. I get them both off and settled. I went back out and got all the groceries. After everything was put up I was looking forward to eating my succulent rotisserie mesquite chicken.

I warmed up some spinach and went to cutting a leg off the chicken, my favorite part. That's when I saw it! The baked dead black fly sitting on my now not-so-wonderful chicken. I was so disappointed!

I put the chicken back in the container, careful not to bother the fly, and threw away the part of the spinach the chicken touched. I called Kroger and told them what happened. I'll have to stop in tomorrow when I drop off Miranda at school. Then I went to find something else to eat for dinner... the evening WAS going so well. The night is still young. Let's see how the rest goes.

New Theme?

I guess the unofficial theme of this blog is about me, a mother, wife and ad woman, trying to make it as a writer. These days I've blogged so much about the challenges as a working mom that I've started to wonder if that should be my official theme. Like I can give myself a subheading under "Shoegirl Corner." Something like, "The rants and raves of a mad mama!" By mad I mean crazy!

Today I got out of work and rushed to pick up Seth, then Miranda, then to Walgreens to pick up all of our prescriptions that I dropped off this morning. While in line my SUV's A/C decided to say goodbye. From there I rushed to the old sitter's house. She agreed to keep them and visit with them while I went to Seth's Open House. She is such a wonderful woman! She bathed them and fed Seth while they were there!

After dropping off the kids with her I rushed to switch cars with Rey. He's going to have to take the SUV into the shop tomorrow. I'm done with it. I told Rey I seriously want to buy a new car in the next week. We are thinking of a Scion. They are really good on gas.

I got out of Open House and picked up something for dinner then raced to pick the kids up. Rey worked late but was already home by now. We ate dinner hurriedly so we could start on Miranda's homework. Rey was a sweetheart and helped a lot! We got them to bed late but it was an unusually busy night, don't you agree?

Comments

Hey! Where did all the comments go? I haven't received one single comment in like 10 days!