Do-Overs and High Fives- On my heels edition

It’s late here- I’ve got a sick pet rat to deal with and I’m beat- so without further ado here are this week’s Do-Overs and High Fives:

As predicted, last week’s crunch spilled over into this week.  The major breakdown was that I failed to do anything in the way of meal planning or grocery shopping over the weekend.  As a result- dinner was a scramble every dang night this week.  I didn’t even make it to the grocery store until Wednesday afternoon.  This. Is. Not. Good.   

Obviously nothing terrible happened- everyone got fed and we didn’t even resort to pizza.  

What I noticed was how stressed out I was about it.  Even when I did finally make it to the grocery store, I had no plan, so I bought a bunch of stuff- but it was still a scramble to turn it into dinner.   

That’s not an experience I’d like to repeat next week!

In addition to failing to plan my meals, this week, I didn’t do much at all in the way of strategizing my week.  As a result, I alternated between wandering aimlessly through my day, wondering what I should do next, and frantically doing whatever seemed like the next most urgent thing.  

I know I got some stuff done , though I couldn’t tell you what- but more importantly, I never felt that satisfied feeling that comes from knowing what needs to be done and doing it.  

I also missed my Tuesday night rehearsal because I wasn’t thinking ahead and forgot that my husband had a meeting that night.  I could have gotten a sitter- but we’d had a sitter monday night so we could both go to a meeting at school…  Again- not an earth shattering blunder- but a closer look at the calendar early in the week and we might have made some different decisions.  

Maybe it had something to do with being stressed about the meal situation, or with not getting done what I had hoped/planned/thought I should, but I found myself being really cranky with my son more evenings than I care to admit this week. 

 I had very little patience for the things that are ordinarily minor annoyances or even mildly amusing.  Goofing around at the dinner table was NOT amusing this week.  Violin practice was fair to middling because I just couldn’t deal with much frustration- his or mine!  

And the last item in the do-over file is that one of our sweet pet rats is sick.  When I brought my son and his friend home this afternoon, they got the rats out and my son said, “Kira, you look bored.”  I thought that was an odd thing to say, so when they put them back in the cage I took a look.  Well it didn’t take a rocket scientist (though perhaps it would take a Mom!) to know that something was going on with her and it was not good.  Her fur was fluffed up, her breathing was way too fast and obvious, and in very technical terms, she just didn’t look right.  

So one trip to the vet and $114 later… she’s sitting on my lap, with a diagnosis of ‘upper respiratory infections,’ having had sub-q fluids, a shot of some antibiotic, and a few cc’s of some super-nutrition via syringe they sent us home with.  We also have some antibiotics to give her starting tomorrow morning.  

I can’t say the vet was overly optimistic- but hopefully she wouldn’t have done all she did for a lost cause.  They want to see her again tomorrow- but I think I’m not gonna bother with that.  Either she’ll look better or she’ll look worse.  In either case, I think we’re doing what can be done and another office visit isn’t really gonna change things.  

With that… I move on to:

My son was sleeping over with a friend so my husband and I took the opportunity to indulge in an amazing dining experience.  I’d written an article about Erik Skokan, the chef and owner of the Black Cat restaurant here in Boulder.  He recently started a farm where he plans to grow much of the food that will be served at the restaurant.  After talking to him I couldn’t wait to eat there.  It was a magnificent experience.   

About two months ago I had to execute a painful procedure known as ‘restore’ on my computer.  For those who haven’t had to do such a thing- it basically means pressing a few buttons and your computer is ‘like new’ as in- like it came from the factory.  With all their annoying shit on it, and none of yours.  (OF COURSE you back up your hard drive before you do such a crazy thing!)

It’s taken me until now to really get things back to normal.  My documents weren’t exactly where I thought they should be, my bookmarks were saved, but not in my browser window, and stupid stuff like that.  Worst of all, itunes wouldn’t let me copy music I’d bought onto my ipod.  

Turns out this was a fairly easy fix- (had to reauthorize the computer)- but it took me this long to even have the brain power to get around to even trying to figure it out.  So- big happy dance that FACE is back on the pod!  

you can read about them here: http://www.dailycamera.com/news/2009/may/07/face-boulder-vocal-rock-band-a-cappella/

I realize that part of why I didn’t get a lot done this week is that I spent a lot of time in conversations with people.  Mostly friends I hadn’t connected with in a while.  So that was really good.  

This one’s kind of goofy- but it made me laugh…  For the May issue of the paper, I wrote about a sweetheart of a guy who worked for the Longmont PD for 32 years and recently retired from there to take a job as a Park Ranger with Boulder County.  Well, apparently a writer for the Boulder daily paper (who lives in Niwot) read the story and decided to do one of his own.  

All right- it’s way late here… I’m going to see if I can’t get a few more ccs of superfood into little Kira before I crash and burn.

Have a GREAT LOOONNNNGGG weekend!