I really like this quote as it pertains to infertility - though I'm sure it can pertain to many different things...
"Were it possible for us to see further than our knowledge reaches, and yet a little way beyond the outworks of our divining, perhaps we would endure our sadnesses with greater confidence than our joys. For they are the moments when something new has entered into us, something unknown; our feelings grow mute in shy perplexity, everything in us withdraws, a stillness comes, and the new, which no one knows, stands in the midst of it and is silent."- Letters to a Young Poet by Rilke - found in the current book I'm reading, A Little Pregnant by Linda Carbone and Ed Decker
Finally, another book is finished... though I have to admit that I skimmed over certain sections that didn't pertain to my current situation (like secondary infertility or life after infertility). The book was A Few Good Eggs by Maureen Regan and Julie Vargo. It is certainly not one of my favorite books on infertility that I've read, and sometimes the authors annoyed me with their stories and how often they repeated the same story over and over again.
Bottom Line: It was a good book, but there are certainly better ones out there.
So the cable guy just came. It turns out the reason I wasn't getting a tv signal was that someone/something (I'm guessing the former) had unhooked the cable downstairs. I didn't even think of looking there because I hadn't unhooked anything downstairs. But that was the problem - however, it was still good that the guy came out.
Everything appeared to be o.k., but he was having problems with getting the DVR to work properly, but after a while, things appeared to be o.k. again. So he was getting in his van and getting ready to leave when I flagged him down because I wasn't able to get it to work - it finally worked after about 20 times hitting the "My DVR" button. I mentioned that I was having problems before where I thought my remote just needed new batteries and would change the batteries and things would appear o.k., but then it got worse again quicker than I would think the batteries would die. He said since I was having problems before and it seemed to act really strange when he was here that he would just swap out the DVR and the remote. So everything I had on there is lost and I need to set up the DVR again with all my shows. Luckily, the stuff I had on there probably can be recorded again - maybe - some of those HBO movies may be gone by now.
Anyway, so that was the problem with the tv and DVR. And last night, something broke on our toilet that we need to fix. Luckily, we can still flush but in order to do so, we need to take the lid off and pull up the lever thingy. So that's this weekend's project!
So...here I am at 33 years old. I never thought I would be where I am at this age - apparently, not everything goes according to plan.
Last night, I went to pick up Jon and we went off to dinner at Daniel's Broiler. We decided to splurge, for probably the last time in a long time due to IVF, and go to a fancy, schmancy place for dinner. I had thought we might just BBQ some steaks at home, but a coworker kept talking about this place because she was taking her husband there for his birthday. So I asked Jon if he wanted to go there, and it didn't take much for him say yes since he liked the last time he went there for a bachelor party.
Before we even get into the restaurant, Jon said he had a present for me. He pulled it out of his backpack and showed me a white box - a white box that held a white coffee cup with some little chocolates inside - the coffee cup said HHMI or something like that on it. Now, not that I don't like chocolate and him getting me a cup, but it wasn't exactly what I was expecting. :-D
So we go to the restaurant and get seated right away and the hostess asked us if we were celebrating anything, and I told her. She must have told the waiter because he said happy birthday to me when he came by. The food there was so yummy - the steak was really good and the mashed potatoes were really good. Later, the waiter (who was really friendly) came by with a dessert with a candle in it. It was a really nice dinner. I enjoyed it.
After dinner, we came back home (kitties were very excited because they could finally have their dinner) and Jon informed me that there was something in our kitty 'skyscraper'. It was the 2nd season of Lost!!! I don't know how those kitties did it, but that was certainly nice of them to get me that or were they hiding for themselves since it was in the house on their skyscraper? ;-D
Anyway, despite feeling a little on the depressed side yesterday, my birthday turned out very well.
Along with this t-shirt, I found another T-shirt I need.
It took me long enough, but I finally finished book #32 called Assassination Vacation by Sarah Vowell. I really enjoyed this book - learning about the assassinations of Lincoln, Garfield and McKinley in somewhat humorous form definitely kept me wanting read more. It was really interesting. I learned things about the assassins that I never knew, for example, the assassin of Garfield, Charles Guiteau once upon a time living in a commune that encouraged free love and for older men to sleep with teenage girls and for older women to sleep with teenage boys. This commune called the Oneida Community became the Oneida Ltd. that now makes dishes, etc. Unfortunately, for Guiteau, it seems he wasn't really liked.
I also learned more about the Presidents themselves, and of their children - an example here, Robert Todd Lincoln (Lincoln's son) just happened to be in the vicinity of where each of the Presidents mentioned above were shot.
Anyway, good book.
Just wanted to share this video - it's a video by a band called OK Go and the song is called "Here it Goes Again".
They also have this one too, but the one above is more entertaining.
So I've been listening to the Central Park CD of the Dave Matthews Band while driving to and from work, and there is one song on the 2nd CD that I absolutely love - it's called Dancing Nancies. It's been a favorite of mine for a long time now. The reason I bring it up is because on the live CD, he sings in one part "could I have been lost somewhere in Central Park?" and the crowd goes wild. When artists say where they are in a song or even during the banter in between songs, why do people feel the need to scream? It just seems silly to me - "Yay, they know where they're at. Woo!" or "Hey, that's where I'm at and they are too!" or "Woo - I love this place too!"
In case you're curious of the lyrics - here are the lyrics from the "Under the Table and Dreaming" CD and from the Central Park concert.
Another favorite DMB song of mine is "If I Had It All". Just felt like sharing. There are, of course, several other DMB songs that I really like, but these two are definitely in the top 5.
My 2nd boss has given her approval for me to go to a CLE on 10/13 on company time and money - it's a CLE on improving your writing skills and only 4 credits, but at least it's something. I'm also going to another CLE the next week on Corporations and the 1st Amendment. The latter one should be rather interesting...at least to me.
If you're looking for a really bad costume for Halloween this year, a blog I read pointed me here.
The weekend started off with a walk around Greenlake with Kelly on Friday night. It turns out that going at 7:30 wasn't the best plan as it got dark quickly and for some reason, the lights never come on anymore when it's dark.
On Saturday, Jon and I drove to the Gorge to see the Dave Matthews Band concert. We parked at the premiere parking place and were told to go one line in order to have early entry (that's a perk of premiere parking). Well, we sat in that line for an hour before I decided to ask the security guy if this was indeed the early entry line as we were told (I didn't see anyone else with the early entry tickets so I was just a little concerned), and it turns out it wasn't! I was so seriously pissed and at this time, I'm sure Jon wishes he wasn't there with me. We go to the other line and it is soooo long. By the time we got into the venue, there was no way we were going to get the seats I wanted. Had we been told the appropriate line to go to in the first place, we probably would have gotten the seats I wanted. Our seats weren't that bad or anything, but they could have been a lot better!
Anyway, the concert itself was great. I always enjoy a DMB concert (Jon didn't like the show that much). The opening act, O.A.R., was a lot of fun to listen to. I had never heard of them before until this concert, and I really enjoyed their music. I ended up buying one of their live CDs from iTunes, and I've been listening to it ever since. If you haven't heard of them, I'd describe them as similar to the Dave Matthews Band and similar to the Barenaked Ladies.
After the concert (it got out around midnight), we drove ourselves back home. Getting out of the parking lot was so incredibly fast - we got out of there in 10 minutes and onto I-90 in about 30. I've had it take 1 1/2 hours to get to I-90 before. We finally got home around 3 a.m. and quickly went to bed. I'm too old to stay up this late anymore!
Sunday - Jon and I were going to have a laid back day. We were going to do some chores like going to Costco for some stuff and cleaning the house a bit, but we really just wanted to relax and watch Veronica Mars for one day this weekend. Well, that wasn't in the cards, so to speak. There was a bit of miscommunication and Jon's family came up for a BBQ that was actually going to take place the next day. So we ended up having a BBQ on Sunday and Monday.
On Monday morning, Jon and Alyssa ran the half-marathon while I walked in the 4 mile race. Obviously, my race wasn't nearly as exhausting as theirs so I don't have any stories to tell like they did. It took me a little over an hour finish walking. I think I'd really like to try walking the half-marathon next time. We ran into a couple people that we knew from our food service days at UW - one of which, walked the half-marathon while the other one ran it. It seems pretty do-able. I just need to work myself up to walking that many miles at once. Anyone else want to do it with me?
After the race, we went back home to prepare for the BBQ I mentioned above. Jon's family came over again (minus Tanya), as did Paul & Allyson and Paul's mom, Ruth. Jon and Allyson performed for everyone. Even though I only walked 4 miles, after cleaning the house, getting things ready for the BBQ, and having very little sleep this weekend, I was entirely exhausted - though for some reason, I still can't get a good night's sleep even if I am that tired. I woke up like 3 times last night! UGH!
And here we are back at work and taking my lunch break - have I mentioned that I hate my job? The biggest part of it that I hate is having to rely on other people to get their job done before you can do your own job - and when something goes wrong (which it probably will - which is bad timing since we are about to start the IVF cycle), I will be the one that's blamed. I need a job that I feel like I am more in control of the situation - which will probably never happen.
Well, that about sums everything up.