August 31, 2013 1:04 pm

Under the Wire

Sneaking in here on the last day of August to say AAAIIIEEE! Really? LAST DAY OF AUGUST?

Daniel and I had our 10-year high school reunion last weekend, and I’m glad we went. I got to chat with a friend of mine from the eighth grade and it was honestly really great catching up with him. We laughed about the one and only time most of us had played spin-the-bottle and how so many of us had our first kisses then, and the giant box of handwritten notes I had in my bedroom that now lives in my parents basement. (I should pick that box up sometime and go through them.)

At the reunion, I learned from a former co-worker (at the job I got laid off from in June) that he had no idea where I went. Like, I was at work one week and I wasn’t the next and nobody told him what happened, and he thought maybe I was on vacation but then I never came back. He was SHOCKED to hear I’d been laid off. Communication! It is important.

My new job – receptionist at an apartment complex for the elderly – continues to go well. I tell people that working there is kind of like having 30 extra grandparents, which is honestly pretty great.

One guy, E, told me a story about how when E was being shipped off in World War II, his father gave him a coin and said “As long as you have this, it’ll keep you safe.” He kept it with him all through the war and he’s had it with him ever since. He showed me the coin – the date on it was 1886 and it was rubbed almost completely smooth. He said he lost it once, for about a year, and then someone returned it to him and that’s the only time it’s ever been out of his possession. And he’s in his 90s!

I’m still getting the hang of Accounts Receivable and Accounts Payable stuff but it’s coming along. I don’t panic when the phone rings anymore, and for someone with phone anxiety that is really something. I can usually answer questions correctly now so that probably has something to do with it.

Wesley is doing well; he’ll be three and a half at the end of September. He loves riding his little balance bike and asks for “a Wesley-sized bike with pedals” all the time, so we’re thinking maybe Santa will come through with one this year. Somehow he became obsessed with Mickey Mouse? So he has a Mickey shirt and Mickey pajamas and loves to read Mickey books.

Oh! A couple of weeks ago I was hanging up clothes in our bedroom and I stepped on something sharp as I was turning the corner around our bed. It looked like a tiny rock, but it stayed stuck in my foot and I couldn’t tell what exactly it was, and it bled more than I expected. I consulted Twitter and my mom and they all urged me to get it checked out. We have terrible health insurance that covers practically nothing so I was hesitant, but after a day of limping around on it I decided to go to the doctor. Urgent Care patched me up for TWENTY DOLLARS when I thought it was easily going to be over two hundred, and said it was a tiny slate chip, like from a piece of slate tile. I have no idea how a chip of slate got into our bedroom, but hey! I am now rock-free and nearly completely healed.

I took the last part of July and apparently the whole month of August off of running. It is just too dang hot and I am only able to run in the evenings when it’s the worst. I need to get back into it though, now that it is cooling off a little more at night. Plus we kind of fell off the Paleo wagon a little bit too (cheese-and-cracker snacks in the evenings! ugh!) so I’d like to climb back on that wagon again. Seriously, even just pretending like I eat Paleo has forced me to eat so much more protein and veggies versus cold cereal and pasta.

I can’t decide where I should start out running-wise though, now that I’ve taken a month off. Should I start somewhere in the middle of C25K and work back up to 2 mile runs? Or just use my Nike+ app and start running and see how long I can go before I feel like dying?

Anyway, that’s what’s been going on with me. How have you all been?

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4 Comments

  • Melissa says:

    I have to admit I’ve kind of fallen off the Paleo bandwagon as well. Our heads have been spinning with the whole purchasing a house thing so I haven’t had time to slave in the kitchen. After gaining 5 pounds back, I forced myself to get back on track this past week and have been doing pretty well aside from a few cheats. I felt like complete crap during the time I wasn’t eating Paleo and don’t want to go back there again! Now if only it wasn’t so hot so I could do some exercise…

    Wesley really impresses me with his bike skills! Andrew has a trike, but won’t have anything to do with it, ESPECIALLY if we encourage him. He gets so embarrassed with anything new.

  • Audrey says:

    Keto or Paleo is very, very tough. It requires so much extra planning. There are so many ready-to-eat foods out there full of sugars. My husband and I were just lamenting that last night.

  • Cristina says:

    Your new job – is it an assisted living community? Have you witnessed any families bringing their elderly family members there to live and it not going so well? I’m curious because we will moving my grandpa into assisted living very soon.

    I’m glad your foot is okay because I only saw part of the tweets, and I was like, “Gahh what is happening?!” Good to hear everything worked out!

    • Meggan says:

      It’s not technically assisted living because we don’t handle any medical stuff at all. We provide meals and a 24hr emergency call system but don’t handle pills or bathing or those kinds of things – independent nurses come in and do that for the residents if they need it.

      So far, the new residents seem to adjust pretty well; a couple people have been really confused at first but they are getting better. Haven’t had any admissions “not go well” while I’ve been there, but I’ve also only been there since mid-July.

      I hope everything goes well for your grandpa! It’s a difficult adjustment, for sure. A lot of our residents have lived in the same house for 60+ years so it’s hard to adjust to a whole new place, but most of them come around pretty quickly once they realize how good the food is and all the activities we offer. Hopefully your grandpa is the same! Best of luck to you (and your family)!