I'm not laughing

Sometime last summer, some friends of K's (the ones we stayed with on the West Point visit) asked us and our friends Tom & Kris if we would like to go to the Army/Navy game this December. We all said yes. We booked our hotel rooms, and we started discussing our travel plans. Our West Point friends chose an expensive hotel, so Tom, Kris, K & I are actually sharing a room, rather than paying $200 a night per couple. And since Tom & Kris are on our way up to Philly (where the game is), we're all carpooling. I'm excited about it.

This morning, though, when I saw Kris's facebook status, I was a bit confused: "Kris thinks Tom should go to Hawaii instead of Army/Navy game in December."

I don't know if the status is an inside joke or if she's just teasing Tom about something (she did just say Tom should go), but I think it sucks. Kris is friends with K, me and the WP couple on there, so she had to have known we'd all see it.

I'm hoping it is just some kind of weird joke, but at the same time, I don't think it's funny. I guess K and the WP wife don't think so either, since the five comments on the status are all from us.

Also if this is a joke, then Kris and I suck at interpreting each other's humor online.

This news made my day

ER called me tonight. "I have a little bit of news for you," she said. She told me she'd dreamed last night that she told me, and I reacted the way I did when Rachel told me she had gotten married.

(Haven't blogged about that one yet. Rachel married a douchebag in a secret ceremony, which she told me about four days later. When I called her. More on that crap later.)

Anyway, I was pretty sure I could guess ER's news, but I kept quiet, just in case.

"I'm pregnant."

"EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!" I started tearing up. SO excited for her. It happened fast! She just told me in August that they were going to start trying. Her husband thought it would be fun to be able to tell everyone at Christmas. "You guys better get crackin'!" I told her.

She just got the official word from her doctor yesterday, and they told her she's five weeks along. Right now, they're putting the due date somewhere near July 20.

I'm so unbelievably excited. I can't wait to see ER in maternity clothes, to watch her belly grow, and to pick out tons and tons of gifts for her and the baby.

The only people they've told are ER's parents, her sister and BIL, and me. They want to tell her in-laws in person at Thanksgiving, and then her husband can start telling his friends (since he has to tell his parents first!). Not long after we got off the phone, I texted ER: "You guys are champs for being able to keep this quiet. I'm so excited I want to tell everyone, and I'm not even the one who's pregnant!"

I feel like I'm going to be an aunt!

I'll spend enough time in the kitchen NEXT week!

K is gone again. We didn't know about this trip until this morning.

Originally, he was supposed to go to Colorado this week for a conference. Then, a big Nor'easter hit last week, and a lot of the military bases in this area got closed both Thursday and Friday thanks to all the flooding. (Actually, a lot of EVERYTHING was closed Thursday and Friday.) The Colorado trip got cancelled, since there was no time to plan everything and get it approved.

K and I had talked about going to PA over the weekend since one of his friends would be in town. Once K was off Friday & I wasn't -- and since he was no longer supposed to be gone this week -- I told K to leave early and make it a guys' weekend. (Plus, it got me out of 14 hours in the car!)

And then this morning K's boss told him the trip is back on. Awesome. I told K to tell the boss he's on my shit list. (K had already told him.)

Now, I've got the night to myself, and it's crazy how much more time it feels like I have when it's just me. It's about the time K and I would usually reluctantly get up to get ready for the gym. What's funny is it always feels like no time at all since dinner, but tonight, I could've left 40 minutes ago. I've been lazy and trying to think of an excuse to not go.

I may have found it. I'm watching the Food Network and getting ideas for Thanksgiving dinner. We're staying at our house for the holidays this year. My brother will probably drive up, and K's work friend and his wife might be joining us if they don't head home for the holidays.

I've never cooked turkey, and I've never cooked real stuffing. This is going to be a big deal for me! Giada De Laurentiis just told us to not try any new recipes at the holidays, since you don't want that additional stress and have to worry about feeding it to your friends and family. Ha! Like I'm gonna be trying any of this crap on my own this week! If K's not here, I'm not cooking!

For the days when you need a pick-me-up

I saw a link to this site on PostSecret, and it's amazing!

http://1000awesomethings.com

Good thing I didn't read this article a year ago

Check out the needle-in-a-haystack trick these sanitation workers did. If I'd read this article last December, I'm not sure I wouldn't have tried for a little miracle myself!

Jury is back, and it's not good

I'm not a quitter. I don't want to be, anyway. But I hate this job.

There's nothing really bad about it, I guess. It's not unbearable. But I don't like it. My coworkers are OK, but the work itself? Not so good. I thought when I applied that this would be an admin/editing job. It's neither. It's entirely data entry. For a newspaper.

A newspaper.

I'm not a newspaper person. I struggled with that at my first job in Dallas. I felt like an outsider wandering the halls while everyone around me tried to figure out how to get people to subscribe to the paper again. I didn't subscribe, and I didn't want to.

The money isn't that good here. Not good enough to convince me to stay. But I can tough it out for the two months the job lasts, right?

Only there's so much memorization. So many special cases, and so many things that change on a regular basis. I've noticed myself zoning out when I get crazy code updates. I can't justify paying attention and committing these thigns to memory if I'm just going to be here for two months.

No matter what happens, I'm not in it for the long haul, so I've decided it's not worth the effort. It's nice earning a paycheck again (even if it is smaller than what it was 6 months ago). But is that enough reason to stay at a job that's not worth the effort?

For now, I've decided that my job search is not only back on, but it's in high gear. If I can find a job -- any job -- to take the place of this one, I can justify leaving to myself. But until then, I'll continue what I'm doing now: Thinking every five minutes about how much I'd like to just get up and never come back.

Restarting the counter

Until K and I moved to VA, the longest we'd been together consecutively was 20 days (his R&R last year). That all changed, though, just days before we moved out of our apartments in Dallas and Louisiana. Since June 24, we saw each other every single day ... until yesterday.

On Tuesday, K had to go to some sort of conference in Arlington. He left just after we met up for lunch.

I've been fine with him gone. It's been barely over 48 hours, so it's not like it's been that long.

But it's funny how you can get used to having someone around so much. He's on his way back home now. It'll be nice to have him back home, especially just in time for our weekly TV date (we love Flash Forward)!