Cattywampus

Cattywampus is a great word. The first time I heard it was in the description of a young horse that was trying to figure out how to carry itself. If you've ever ridden a two-year-old that's trying to figure out how to balance itself and your weight while loping, you get why it's such an apt description. The horse is trying to figure out where it's feet are and appears to be having some issues staying upright, so you just try to stay out of its way and keep one leg on either side of the horse.

Cattywampus is the best way to describe our lives right now. We have completely lost our groove. Our previous lifestyle involved waking up somewhere between 8 and 9, me doing most of the house and animal chores while fitting in my freelance work, and more spare time than we could shake a stick at. We had lunch together everyday, and generally spent our weekends in blissful nothingness. It was really not a bad gig.

Things are a little crazy around the Beck house these days... we knew it was going to be a change for me to start working full time again, but I don't think we had any idea how to prepare for it. Now, we have to get up much earlier to do animal chores, we pay someone to walk Marty for us and weekends are spent either running errands or blankly staring at the TV. My new job already involves some working from home after hours as well as business travel. It's definitely a shift from being a freelancer/stay at home pet owner.

For extra stress, we're in the midst of house buying! We fell in love with a house last week, and now we're working on an offer. We keep telling ourselves that life will slow down soon, but I'm wonder if maybe that's just a cosmic joke? More updates soon, but for now, we're pretty slammed being cattywampus.

If this is the Calm Before the Storm, We're in Trouble

It's the day before I start my new job, and I'm feeling pretty stressed out. I expected yesterday and today to be fairly relaxing days, with lots of house cleaning and lounging on the couch. No such luck -- yesterday was spent wrapping up a freelance project, meeting with a bank to discuss mortgages, several hours worth of errands, and finally some chill time before book club. Thus far today, I worked on a V21 volunteer schedule, met with a pet sitter who's going to help us out with Marty (forgot she was coming, oops), and did some random house chores. Later today, I'll pick Ak up from work so we can go visit with another bank, then I have to pick up my clothes from the tailor and swing by the pet store. Today's tasks are compounded by having a baby kitten shadow who's torn between his deep love for me and his discovery of a new plug under the TV that is apparently lots of fun to bat. That's definitely a perk of going back to an office -- a cat-free work space. Have you ever tried to type while a cat chases the words on the screen? It's exciting.

I think most of my stress is stemming from the sheer volume of tasks I see before and around me. I feel like it's the day before vacation, and I'm frantically rushing to get everything done. I grant that this line of thinking is fundamentally flawed. Yes, going to the pet store and the grocery store on my days off is a good thing to do because that's one less thing I have to worry about this week. However, those things are going to need to be done again... and again... until, well, pretty much forever. And if there're things I don't get to before I start work, then I'll just get to them over the weekend. There's definitely a mindset change that needs to happen here.

Another stresser -- house hunting and all the fun that goes along with that (see above conversations with mortgage lenders). We had a really successful outing last weekend and found several houses we were interested in. We're heading out again this weekend, and the tentative plan is to pick our finalists after that and start narrowing down to THE house. This is all very exciting; we've seen some houses that we would love to live in. But picking a house and finding a lender and all the other bazillion processual tasks associated with this is definitely stressful.

I have a feeling things will be a lot better next week and even better the week after that. Until then, there's yoga and red wine!

Careful Kids, This Could Happen to You

Do you think maybe I've read so many Marian Keyes and Sophie Kinsella books lately that I actually turned into one of their characters? Kinda like when you're little and making nasty faces and someone says your face is going to freeze like that?

Less than two weeks ago, I was just getting into the swing of 2009. I was stoked to not be a student and had finally decided to embrace that I had a job as a freelance writer. When people asked how my job search was going, I told them that I wasn't looking, which was an honest answer. I had just finished my third chick lit read in a row and was pondering the recurring message of a simple life. All the books were about a girl who thought her life would be complete if she just pulled off one more business achievement, only to find that true happiness (and true love, of course, this is chick lit) was often found in the most quaint of places. Now, this was a message I could get behind. I was working, contributing to the household and feeling the fuzzy glow of entrepreneurial success. I was also sleeping late, working in my PJs, being a stay-at-home pet mom, and taking frequent breaks during the day to have coffee with the girls or walk my dog. All in all, not bad.

Then, last Wednesday, I stumbled upon a job opening and sent in a resume on a whim. That night I was called for a phone interview and a few days later spent an entire morning in their office interviewing. Two days later, another interview, and the following morning a job offer, which I accepted this morning. In less than two weeks, I will begin my new job as a Senior Writer and Public Relations Account Executive at a Raleigh-based agency. Um, wow, how did that happen??

In true Rory Gilmore fashion, let's do a pro-con list:

Pro
1. We have just become DINKs (dual income, no kids). This doesn't elevate us to wealthy, but we've certainly achieved comfortable. And since I haven't been there in a long time, I'll take it.
2. New business-woman clothes!!! (Getting the Keyes/Kinsella character connection more now?)
3. This isn't an entry-level position. It even comes with an intern!
4. A job. A career. A reason to leave the house every morning. A company that will accept what I have to offer them and has something to offer me in return. That feels like coming home and makes me want to cry, in the best of ways. I had no idea how much I'd missed that.

Con
1. Man, I'm going to miss my boys. Sure, they drive me nuts sometimes, but I like being with them all the time, laughing at them when they do stupid things and knowing the right time to pick up baby Ben for a hug. I grant that it is rather challenging to get anything done during kitty hyper time.
2. Losing the flexibility and autonomy that comes with working from home will be difficult. I trust that this agency will be less rigid than places I've worked in the past, but I still doubt they'll be cool with mid-morning yoga and People's Court at 4.
3. We've gotten pretty spoiled around here what with me staying at home. Right now, we eat home-cooked meals almost every night and have as much hang out time in the evenings and on weekends as we want. Things are going to get busier, that's for sure.
4. House hunting just got a lot more complicated too. If we move to Durham to be closer to our friends and church as we'd originally planned, we'll both have longer commutes and probably be forced to eat out everyday and pay someone to let the dog out. If we stay in Cary or move to Raleigh, we have to find a new community group and perhaps switch back to the Raleigh church. Sacrifices either way.
5. No use of my Master's degree in sight. Course at the moment I'm still so disgruntled that it's hard to call that a con.

So I guess it's good that we didn't make the decision to accept the job the Rory Gilmore way, as the cons appear to outweigh the pros. I think I probably rolled several pros into one for pro #4 though. This is definitely a weird de ja vu moment for me, what with going back to the same line of work I left to go to school, in the same building even, just one floor up. I anticipate many awkward elevator moments in my future.

Anyway, as Dylan says, "You'd better start swimming or you'll sink like a stone, for the times they are a changing!" I've still got a solid week and a half of freedom, so until then, it's hamster suits and People's Court breaks for me.

The Sick Girl Speaks

After a very long couple of days, I have finally made my way back to the land of the living! Despite the unpleasantness of being sick, it did make me realize several things.
1. My cats are really nice to me when I'm sick.
2. My husband will make soup for me if I cough a couple of times, make the "it's hard to talk because my throat hurts" gesture and give him sad eyes.
3. Lindsay Lohan was really cute before she went skanky.

As of Wednesday, I'm off the couch and back in business. Good timing too, as this is a busy time of year for Purple Pony Communications. Last week I made a few investments in the business. I registered a domain name (www.purpleponycommunications.com). It's not a very informative web site yet, but this does allow me to have an official business email, which I'm pretty stoked about. And having committed to an email address, I also committed to new business cards. I have had several opportunities to network in the last few weeks, which is also very exciting. There seems to be quite a demand for what I do. For those of you who don't know what it is I do, I'm a freelance writer, focusing on marketing and public relations writing. Some of the conversations I've had recently involve work in the education field, which I'd be all for, seeing as though I have a Master's in that field and all!

Speaking of my Master's, it just occurred to me a few days ago that I needed special attire to make the trip across the stage! Apparently the whole point of being hooded is having a hood with which to be hooded. Oops. Fortunately, I called the bookstore yesterday and after a very confusing conversation (I asked the sales girl if gowns were on sale -- she thought I was trying to get one cheap, but I really just wanted the option of bringing one home), I learned that my slacker ways had not in fact managed to get me out of graduation. This morning I headed over to campus, paid to park, then paid $70 for my graduation finery. Yowza. Now, I think I need new shoes to go with my fancy new gown, and probably a new dress to match the new shoes.

You're probably wondering what it is that I'm going to do with my new shiny Master's degree. Well, in addition to hanging it on the wall and throwing darts at and adding it to my resume to make me look cooler, I am now a professional pet sitter with Fetch! (The exclamation point is part of their title. The grammar nazi in me wants you to know that I know the proper use of exclamation points.) I got my first client this week -- a little pug that I'll be taking on walks three times a week starting in January. The transition has been a bit rocky, but I think I'm settling in to my new role as an entrepreneur and housewife. There are days when I think I would feel more significant if I left the house to go to work and could give a more concise answer when people ask what I do. But I know me, and I know I'd be bored to tears with the same old routine everyday. Plus this way I get to take off on Monday mornings to do yoga. All in all, I'd have to say my current lot in life is not bad.

Fun things on tap for the next few days: two Christmas parties, church in the new Durham facility, and after many failed attempts, a screening of High School Musical 3! Stay tuned!