Days Off?
Sometimes I feel like I screw myself over when I take a couple of days off because I come back to work and have SO MUCH to do! I suppose that’s the price I pay for some rest and relaxation. I went down to Indiana over the weekend and while I didn’t exactly spend much time relaxing or resting but I did get to see lots of wonderful people and that’s what matters the most. I came back to Chicago Monday night and took off Tuesday as well so I could have a day to do ACTUAL resting and so I thought I had my life all planned out.
Truth.
HA! Until I had to schedule that damned crown for my tooth! Which meant I was in the dentist’s office at 8am on my lovely day off and then got to spend two hours having a back molar drilled on by Satan and her apprentice. They gave me an extra strong ibuprofen and a VICODIN, not to mention three shots of Novocaine and I was still miserable. I even had on noise cancelling headphones tuned to my favorite podcast but that didn’t really help. I had to stop them a couple of times to avoid crying but in the end we got through it – until I go back in a couple of weeks to get the actual stupid crown put on instead of this replacement. So then I went home and slept for like four hours – not a super fun day off. But at least the hardest part is over! Until I get the bill, that is.
I think I need a vacation from my vacation.
One other thought – now that I have a crown, can I be considered a queen? You bet your ass I can.
Tough Technology
I’ve been wearing one of those step-tracker/personal trainer doohickeys since the end of last year and I have to admit, I’m a little addicted. I personally sport the Jawbone, which I think it more stylish than the Fit-Bit while doing basically the same thing. This contraption counts my steps and tracks my sleep, which is basically all I wanted it to do and it does come in pretty handy. It’ll track my calories too but I mostly like to see how far I walk and how much I sleep I get because it entertains and motivates me. Case in point: I’ve hit or exceeded my 10,000 steps every day this year! My sleep, on the other hand, isn’t as strong. And the Jawbone notices these things – then completely calls me out on it, which I guess is the whole reason I got it.
Word.
I worked an overnight at the Museum on Friday evening and I racked up over 17,000 steps by the end of the day (meaning midnight Friday night). But wait, there’s more! Since part of my job during these overnights involves making rounds through all of the exhibits to ensure kids and parents are eventually going to sleep, I keep busy long after midnight. As you can see from this screenshot, I walked over half of my daily goal in steps between midnight and 2am! And my whopping 2.5 hours of sleep was about average for the overnights, so there was no surprise there. But I did think it was funny to have my phone app lecturing me like my mom. It even told me to take a nap! Which I didn’t do. I’m a grown-ass woman who can sleep when I want and no pocket computer or fancy bracelet is going to make me do differently!
But really, I’m pretty tired this week and a nap sounds great. Is this what people mean about technology becoming smarter than us and taking over? Because if AI has a half of the discipline that my damn Jawbone seems to think I should have, we’re all screwed.
Pop a Cap in My Tooth
I hate the dentist. I’m pretty sure I’ve announced that here before but I really hate the dentist. Actually I don’t mind my dentist so much as my dental hygienist, who I’m fairly certain is a sadist with a penchant for torture. I had a routine cleaning this week and the entire time (read: one hour) I was in a chair getting my teeth cleaned and abused, all I could think about was how much I hate that entire process. And I don’t even have bad teeth! I brush and floss regularly and haven’t had a cavity in years. The only way I was able to console myself during that entire miserable time spent in a chair was by reciting a mantra that it would be another six months before I had to go back. Six more months, six more months…I also thought of the horrors other people have had to live through and called myself a baby for not being able to handle two hours of pain once a year. I almost got to the point of biting off the hygienist’s fingers when it was finally over and I breathed a sigh of relief, knowing it would be quite a while before I went back.
Oh my god why did I google this?!
Until the dentist came in. She’s on my shit list now too. I had complained of some mild sensitivity in one spot and it’s been bothering me for about a month now. I figured it had been so long since I had a cavity that I was about due for another but no. When my dentist came by and inspected me, she discovered one of my freaking molars has a huge crack in it. She verified it by poking and prodding and blowing cold air into it and that was just fantastic. She even took a picture and uploaded it to her computer while I watched – yeah, it was pretty obvious and I guess I can’t be too mad at her since it’s not like she made it up. I’m not exactly sure how it happened (at least, that’s what I told her…I think I may have done this by opening a bottle with my mouth a while ago. Oops. Won’t be doing that again) and now I get to go back and sit in that loathsome chair and have a crown put on. I am not thrilled. They’re going to shave down the tooth in question and make a mold for the crown, then give me a fake one until the real one comes in (requiring me to go back yet again for another torturous process). This all sounds horribly awful, if you ask me, but apparently it’s necessary. Either that or get my tooth removed and don’t think I didn’t consider that. And guess what else – crowns aren’t cheap! I’m going for the basic one too, not the fancy gold one that I was offered in semi-jest (though I wonder what her reaction would have been if I had gotten really excited about that). Even the standard one is going to cost me nearly twice what my wedding dress did! I mean, I got that on clearance but still. I’d rather buy a dress than a crown for my tooth. Or any other article of clothing. Or just about anything other than a crown, like a suitcase full of spiders.
Have I mentioned that I hate the dentist?
But I’m going to suck it up and tough it out and bitch and complain the whole time. And never open a bottle with my teeth again. However, I can’t make any promises about biting the fingers that will soon invade my mouth to shave off my damn tooth.
Book Club Baby Shower!
Just in time to be a month late, I remembered I’d forgotten to post about our last book club meeting. Make sense? Thought so.
Our book club has been getting together for like seven years now and we’ve all grown pretty close. So when one of our members announced a pregnancy, we got all giddy and super excited. This particular member offered to host our last meeting at her house in the (almost) burbs and we managed to surprise her with a baby shower in her very own home! A home, by the way, that made me green with envy. After having spent the last five years in a one-bedroom apartment and sharing a single closet with Scott, walking through her four-bedroom domicile was like walking through a dream full of everything I’ve always wanted and nothing I could ever afford. Suffice to say – she’s got a nice place.
And we decorated it super fast! Well, a couple of us decorated it while the others got her to give us a tour. We totally stretched that out too, asking all sorts of questions about original woodwork and television screen placement. But our ruse worked and when we made our way downstairs, she was definitely surprised! And even a little teary-eyed, which we’ll just attribute to hormones and being surrounded by wonderful women.
We didn’t do anything like this nor did we bring baby books because we clearly suck at this shower thing. But we tried!
So we sat around and watched her open gifts while eating a ton of food and drinking wine that the pregnant lady can’t have right now. She was happy regardless though and I’m pretty sure she liked all of her gifts. As for the actual book club part of this party, we all read a book. But we all read different books because when we chose in January we were all exhausted from the holidays and couldn’t be bothered to be specific. We all read “romantic” books since we were meeting in February and I chose to re-read Great Expectations, which I read forever ago but forgot all about. And I really liked it! Miss Havisham is a great character and Pip is someone I love to hate. It also made me want to watch the movie starring Ethan Hawke but I haven’t gotten around to that yet.
The other girls read other books but since it’s been a month I’ve forgotten all about those. I do remember having fun though and unfortunately I won’t be able to attend the next get-together since I’ll be out of town. But soon enough we’ll all be together again celebrating our newest book club member and reading her nursery books so we can look forward to that!
Civic Duty
I don’t know why anyone wouldn’t vote, at least in the city of Chicago. They make it so damn easy for you! There are numerous early voting locations which you can use for weeks leading up to Election Day and in this week in particular the one in the loop is open until 7pm. I went on my lunch break yesterday and it took me a whopping, grand total of like five minutes. I think it took longer to fill out my address on the information form than it did to actually vote!
So what are you waiting for? Seriously, if you don’t vote you don’t get to bitch and moan about what happens next. So get out there and make a difference!
Just don’t vote for Trump. Please.
Wait, that’s not fair. You should be able to vote for whoever you want to – that’s the point, after all. But if you’re a Trump supporter, I’m going to think you’re a word also a word that rhymes with Trump and begins with the letters ‘ch’. Just sayin’.
Warning: Warriors Ahead
The newest traveling exhibit at The Field Museum – China’s First Emperor and His Terracotta Warriors – is incredible. I was lucky enough to be trained in it over the weekend and I got a behind the scenes tour, since the actual exhibit doesn’t open until later this week. In case you don’t know the First Emperor (Qin Shi Huang) or his Terracotta warriors from a hole in the ground, I’ll give you a little background.
Speaking of holes in the ground, that’s where everything on display was found. Yup. A farmer digging a well in the 1970’s stumbled across a terracotta figure sticking out of the ground and researches went on to excavate nearly 8,000 figures. The First Emperor of China (who declared himself the First Emperor because he felt he was closer to God than a mere Duke or King) decided he wanted to be a ruler of both the earth and the cosmos and as such, he would need an entire city to rule in the afterlife. So he had (literally) tons of figures created to be buried in a huge 22-acre complex alongside his tomb. Everything from city officials to soldiers to horses and stableboys were carved – even a few acrobats, because obviously the afterlife would need some entertainment!
When this discovery was made, archaeologists quickly realized that every single figure was damaged in some way as either looters or nature itself have a way of destroying things. A lot of this stuff has been fully excavated though and the Field is lucky enough to have entire figures on display for this exhibit. We even have that famed acrobat, though he happens to be missing his head. Pretty much everything else is in solid shape though and the way the exhibit is designed, you feel as though you’re actually walking through the city that the Emperor created. It’s amazing and fascinating and just plain cool.
Something else amazing, fascinating and cool is the fact that the Emperor is still buried in this huge complex – and the tomb has allegedly never been opened. There’s no plan to open it either because scientists agree that there’s simply no way to guarantee they can preserve whatever they find inside. So until technology catches up a bit, everything that’s buried in the mound will remain a mystery.
But if you want to see what was dug up nearby, head to the museum between now and the end of the year. You may even see me there!
Public Freaking
I’m doing some really cool things with my office and I’m currently working on a two-year long project that I’m very excited about! Basically, our firm is partnering with a nonprofit to help fund some of their needs and wants through activities that will involve my other coworkers. We’ll be taking days off of work to go volunteer for this organization and it’s a partnership that will make a huge difference, in both the short and long term. I’m the person acting as a liaison between our firm and the nonprofit and tomorrow afternoon I’ll be presenting a PowerPoint (that I created) to over 100 coworkers. Am I nervous? Nah.
I’m terrified.
Oh god.
No, just kidding. I mean yes, I’m very nervous and trying to stop myself just short of the terrified threshold but I’m also pretty excited. I’m honored to have been asked to work alongside this nonprofit and I think everything we’re doing is incredible so I’m also proud to be a part of it. But the thought of getting up in front of so many people (many of whom I’ve never even met) is pretty scary. You may think I’d be used to it after all of the stuff I do with kids and the general public at The Field Museum but you’d be wrong. That’s just…different somehow. I kind of slip into teaching mode when I do that and I’d rather not act like a kindergarden teacher to my colleagues, you know? I’ve been practicing my speech in front of the mirror (and who am I kidding – at my desk, on the train, on the elliptical, etc) and I even had a dream about it last night. So while I’m excited and all that jazz – I’ll also be really glad when my presentation is over and I can eat the free lunch we’ll be providing. Because if I eat it before I present, I know I’ll get spinach in my teeth or something. Obviously. And I’m going to need to be showing off my pearly whites because the harder I smile, the less likely it is that I’ll throw up and pass out!
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