Holy shit it's almost August!

So what's new with you? I can't believe the summer is almost over but will be happy to see the tourists go home. Traffic on the way to work has been a nightmare lately!

I was off work yesterday & am off today since I worked last weekend & will also be on this coming weekend. We are short 3 positions in my section of the agency which means more work for all of us, including having to work 2 weekends a month instead of the 1 I usually work. And if we were every fully staffed I wouldn't be working weekends at all since I am a supervisor. But I've been here for 6 months & we've not been fully staffed the entire time. Welcome to the wonderful world of community mental health. /sarcasm

Anywho, I do have an interview next week. It's for a research position at a hospital; much, much better commute! I'm so psyched but after the last time when I was beaten out for a job by someone who would work for free I'm trying not to get my hopes us too much.

Vid also has a smattering of interviews as usual; he goes for the gazillionth time to the career services place @ his old grad school next week. I try not to let the unemployment thing get in the way of our relationship but it's hard. He's so sensitive & whenever I have a bad day at work (which unfortunately are most days) I usually end up yelling at him for something miniscule & feel super bad after. The stress level is on high & I'm thinking of going on anti-depressants more & more each day. I'd just like to be a fly on the wall for one of his interviews so I can see what he does there that screws him out of a job. That may sound bad but it's been a full 8 months of no job as of Friday; he must be doing something wrong.

In other news my sister has moved back in. She says it is temporary. She & her boyfriend are still together but she finally had enough of living at his parents'. Yep, my parents now have both their adult children living at home. **hangs head in shame** Not only does she live here now but her dog does too. Thank God my parents have a big house. I love my family dearly but all 4 of us haven't lived under 1 roof in over a decade. Aaack!

Las Vegas = AWESOME!

Our honeymoon was GREAT! the Venetian was beautiful; by far the nicest hotel I've ever stayed in. Neither Vid nor I are gamblers (even if we could afford to be); we spent maybe 2 hours playing slots the whole 4 days we were there. We went to Hoover Dam & Red Rocks; we didn't have enough time to go to Grand Canyon but we did see it from the plane on our flight home. We'll definitely do it in person next time though! We rode the monorail up & down the Strip, walked around several hotels & just generally soaked in the Vegas atmosphere.

The one sucky thing was our flight got delayed about 3 hours on the way home due to shitty weather back on the east coast. They actually had an F1 tornado in RI just 1 town over from where we live; weird! So our 11:30pm arrival ended up being 2:30 am & I had to be at work for 7am. Let's just say thank God for Dunkin Donuts!

Here's the link for pictures of our trip.

So back to reality. :( Oh well. Vid is now at least working on a temporary basis part time for a Brown University prof doing math-type data analysis stuff; maybe she will "know someone" who can employ him permanently. He's working half the hours & making twice what I do full time; who said grad school isn't worth it? Hahaha!!! I'm still also semi-looking but not killing myself since we still don't know where in the world we (literally) may end up.

To be continued...

Just as I suspected...

The red dragon showed up yesterday afternoon. Perfect timing as I'm about to leave for Vegas in mere hours. I'm still kind of surprised I didn't have massive cramps, etc. beforehand; maybe there's a wee bit of residual BCP chemicals left in my system which helped with that. Next month could be a completely different story! See you when we get back. Viva Las Vegas!

Aunt Flo is still MIA

I peed on a stick this morning (POAS); a high-brow, digital one at that! And it said "not pregnant", which is a good thing. However, Aunt Flo is still MIA & I don't have any symptoms signaling her arrival. I know it's quite possible for my cycle to be screwy after being on BCPs for almost a decade but it's been ~5 weeks since my last period (33 days). As I said previously, knowing my luck I'll probably get it in Vegas. So I get to carry to following: tampons, condoms & a basal body temperature chart so if I do get it I can start charting for when hubby finally gets a permanent job (he has a well paying temp position at the moment; maybe this is a sign of good things to come?) & we can start trying to make a baby.

Weird & vivid dream

I had one 2 nights ago & it's been on my mind since. I kept trying to find a place to pee on an at-home pregnancy test since I couldn't do it at my parents' house without getting into trouble. And I really had to pee BADLY; it was an uncomfortable dream! And when I finally peed on it, it was positive, I started crying & woke up.

Vid & I have been living at my parents house since he got laid off in January so there is a bit of reality in the dream. But why would I be hiding a pee stick from my parents? It's not like I'd be some 16 year old kid knocked up; I'm married & 29 for God's sake! I was an adult in this dream, FYI.

Given our current economic situation they probably wouldn't be thrilled with the timing; I know I wouldn't be. We've pretty much planned all along to start trying around the end of this year, but this is (of course) so long as he is employed & we are therefore moved out of my parents' place.

I have memorable dreams fairly frequently, but they're usually repetitive; some I've had since early childhood. And I've never had a pregnancy scare dream, even back in the days when I was single & (kind of) living it up. I have had a dream where I was wearing a hospital gown, walking up and down the hospital halls with an IV pole in active labor. And instead of needing to pee badly in that dream, I felt pain; perhaps contractions? But that was several years ago & I haven't had it since. But I remember it like it was yesterday.

So what does the POAS dream mean? I did go off BCPs last month to give my body time to get itself "normalized" before we (hopefully) TTC this winter. But we've been using condoms (much to the hubby's dismay) since with no known issues. And since this is my first cycle off BCPs I have no idea when the Red Tide is coming.

I took my last active pill on 6/7/08. Should I be having a flow akin to that of Niagara Falls by now? It's been over 30 days since Aunt Flo's last visit. Which I didn't even realize til looking a the calendar just now.

No keeling-over cramps or (TMI) diarrhea yet, which were normal in my pre-BCPs days back in high school. But no boob tenderness or wanting to vomit, which if I were knocked up I would most likely be experiencing, right? I've never been preggers before, after all.

With my luck I'll get it on the fucking plane ride to Las Vegas for our belated honeymoon this weekend. That would be too perfect.

But I'm also slightly paranoid; should I POAS?

My husband + 3 beers = funny as heck.

Click here

I'm now a tour director

So we have custody of Vid's parents for the week; they came on Thursday 7/3 & will be here until next weekend. I'm taking Monday & Tuesday off from work to do touristy stuff with them & Vid will be in charge of entertaining them Wednesday through Friday.

We had a nice 4th of July; it was spent in Jamestown. First, we went to Beavertail where his parents got to stick their feet in the Atlantic Ocean & see the lighthouse. Anything that concerns water is a big hit with them. Then we went to a family friend's house for a clambake. The family friends actually have lived in Hawaii for the better part of 20 years but came back for a visit as they do every couple of years; they were here for our wedding, in fact. Their oldest daughter who is my age & was my first "best friend" was also there; she now lives in Connecticut, is married & has 3 kids of her own. I hadn't seen her since she was still single & not yet a mommy! It was great to catch up; she's only about 2 hours from my parents so we exchanged e-mails @ cell #s in the hopes of being able to do more catching up. It's kind of funny how when you get to be my age & are thinking about starting a family in the near future that a lot of your own friendship decisions are based on whether or not the folks you may hang out with are child friendly themselves or have kids you wouldn't mind having your kids be around.

Here we are at Beavertail:












Here's a photo of me & Chrissy with her youngest child:














Saturday we took them to their first American baseball game followed by fireworks. My dad had a great time explaining the fundamentals of the game to Vid's dad; India is a cricket playing nation. He was also intrigued by the ballpark snacks. I think the only food he didn't try were hot dogs because they're forbidden since they're made of beef!

Here's dad, Vid's parents & Vid (I was taking the photo, mom was sitting on the other side of me which is why she isn't in the photo).

His parents are also fascinated by the washer & dryer; I felt like a salesperson at Sears today giving them the specifications of how they operated as I was doing laundry. The dishwasher has also been a big hit as has the swimming pool.

We will probably head down to Newport either tomorrow or Tuesday & take in a mansion, walk the Cliff Walk & generally be tourists for a day. Every place I've taken them to so far they've collected numerous brochures as souvenirs; they truly are sponges soaking everything in which has been neat to see.