Productivity in 2016

It's 1:15 P.M. Since I got to work this morning I have sent one email. It was 23 words long including the greeting. I have also put one layer of nail polish on one spot where some of it smudged last night before drying. I will have to add a couple layers of glitter polish before heading home.

Christmas Cookies

I am 3 weeks and 2 days past my tonsillectomy. Over the holidays, my mom froze an assortment of Christmas cookies for me to enjoy once I could eat real food. I've been eating hard foods for about 5 days now. Today I brought so many cookies to work that I actually put them in my desk drawer so my boss wouldn't think they were for everybody.

How I Found My Foster Dog

Sorry everyone, I realized how boring and chore-like it is to write about everything I do. This is probably because what makes me interesting (I think) is not what I do but how I feel, and of course how I express those feelings. So I'll try to focus more on that and hopefully will post more regularly as I shoot pictures.

So as many of the people who actually know me are aware, I photograph new dogs and adoption events for Duffy's Friends, an animal rescue in Rochester, NY. It's an important job, because these pictures are used on Duffy's PetFinder page and are almost always the first impression potential adopters will have of these animals. For every person that is underwhelmed by their photos, a dog loses a potential forever home.

Three weeks ago, I was asked by the founder and head of the organization to take last-minute pictures of a Shih-Poo named Max who had been adopted from Duffy's three years ago, but was unexpectedly returned. I told her that would be no problem, and had them done within the hour.

She then sent me another email that evening asking me to house Max, since they had no available foster homes at such short notice. I was hesitant to say yes because my mom was insistent that there would be no dogs allowed in the house, but I went and got him anyways.

How could I resist?

Here are the initial pictures I took of the little guy on his last first day as an orphan.

Being a babysitter

Sometimes I wonder if babysitting is really worth it. It takes up prime free time – typical date nights and pretty much every weekend. The kids ride their bikes into my car, talk my ears off, and can cause me so much stress that I could so easily avoid. Yet even when I'm feeling lame for missing total rage nights with my friends, I can't help but love (some of) the moments and laughs I share with them.

I've followed up with some examples:

1. The time Michael (6) told me he would get me a boob job.

It started when Michael and I were laying on the ground after a wrestling match that sent him flying into the wall.

       Michael: "I'm gonna buy you new boobs!"
       Me: "No, you're not."
       Michael: "Why not?"
       Me: "'Cause they're too expensive."
       Michael: "How much?"
       Me: "More than $5,000"
       Michael: "Oh. Well I'll just sit on them and make them worse!" And he jumps on my chest.

It's the thought that counts, right? Plus, I am sort of to blame for turning him into a downright punk...

2. The time Anderson learned how to say "Mom" and left his mom's side to chase after me screaming, "Mom!!" as I walked to my car. And the time he grabbed my chest and said "milk," but I'm pretty sure that only happened because he's drunk literally all of the time.

3.  When I watched Ireland (4), her cousin (5), and her neighbor(4) for a night , and Ireland and her cousin ganged up on the neighbor the whole time. I wasn't sure how to handle it, because I knew it was better her than me – I just wanted the cool girls to like me. And they did!!

4. When Michael asked me how many times I've gotten the D word, and I asked him what the hell he was talking about. As we all know, 8 years old is NOT old enough to be asking girls about getting "the D". Thankfully, the kid responds in a whisper, "you know... drunk. How many times have you gotten it?"
OHHHH ha. I told him 10 but it was very bad each time and he should never get the D word. But that didn't stop him and his 4 year old sister from chanting "I wanna get the D word" for the next 6 hours.

There are so many other times I've had with these families that I would love to relive or at least tell everyone about, just not right now. I'm beat from working at the office today, before heading straight to babysit the little twin monsters next door.

But to me, this is what being a great nanny and babysitter has always been about — unplugging the baby monitor, kick-starting the Keurig, and just trying to stay awake long enough to enjoy their HBO on Demand.

And I should have known I would be great. It's basically practice for being a mom, and I grew up learning from the best.

Happy Friday!

Second Full Day in Matunuck

I love being with Marcus, but only with Marcus. 

By that I mean, not with his family. 

My first full day in Matunuck

Friday morning, we woke up to Mark cooking an amazingly delicious breakfast, then took off so Marcus could show me around Rhode Island before we hit the public beach. 

Point Judith Lighthouse

Something about the public beach was just so much more interesting than the private beach right behind our rental house. 

Narragansett Bay from Narragansett Town Beach, RI.

Our time at the beach ended with an hour long search for my flip flop. Helicopter search crews were contacted for help. I will no longer be asking Marcus to carry my flip flops or anything I care about.

My first night in Matunuck

Hey everyone! When I first decided to start blogging—like two weeks ago or whatever—I thought I would be the best at it due to a vast amount of free time.  Yet lately I've been so busy! Not with work or any responsibilities or anything, I've just been occupied while trying out the cottage life in Sodus Point, NY, attending a wedding in Matunuck, RI, and visiting my Aunt Nancy and cousin Alexis in Charlton, MA. 

Driving straight from work to Matunuck for the wedding (with like 2 days notice and motion sickness) was a total effin' drag. I have an inability to not stuff my face during any road trip while I'm not driving, as well as an inability to do nothing for 7 straight hours, so I was bound to go temporarily fat and insane. 

Now, I doubt I am the only one who prefers to sing along to music while driving for extending periods of time, and luckily the driver forgot their AUX cable (sarcasm), so my grunge, teeny bopper, typically 90's, and "Now That's What I Call Music" filled Hello Kitty travel CD case came in real handy. But each CD has a max of 6 songs that I can actually sing along to, so we ran out of music a lot sooner than I would have preferred, especially after driving through the mountains where no decent radio stations exist. 

I did take a few snapshots on the way, though! 

The view across from a rest stop we'd stopped at

Still getting there...

The Braga Bridge

Marcus's face cause I liked it

Surf shop as we got into Matunuck

Our first night there, we went to a get-together at the bride and groom's house. We got there about 3 hours after it started, so the food was put away and everyone was leaving, but we still made it. Most of the people who had been there ended up at the Ocean Mist, a cool little bar where Oshun Roots, a reggae band, was performing. They were decent, the drinks were weak, and I enjoyed every bit of the conversations I had with a great group of people. We left after a bit with Marcus's family to go home and finally get some rest. Except resting was sort of difficult, since the crashing of waves outside our windows kept us up until the birds started chirping very, very loudly.