Thursday, February 23, 2012

Feb 23, 2012

Finally Ira's back in town.  it's been a rough couple of days, especially trying to take care of sema at night time.  The first night he did great, and it wasn't too much of a big deal, but the second night he woke up a couple times, making the next day really, really rough.  it was really nice to have her come down the stairs this morning, especially since i haven't seen her in a long time, and it was really refreshing to have someone else in the house. 

only downside is now we're kicking it in high gear for the next couple days.  for example, we've gotta use today to go grocery shopping so that we can make it out to the poconos as easily as possible on friday night.  we've got class friday night, and we're leaving immediately afterwards.  and considering that she just got back, and we've got to prepare for class etc. the next couple days are going to be insane.  thank god that i rescheduled the dentist appointment.  that was originally scheduled for today, and that was going to cause a huge problem. 

I talked to my mom yesterday, who tole me that Rob was pissed off that I wasn't happy enough for him, and that i kind of "slapped" him for telling everyone so early.  i was furious.  I yelled and screamed on the phone with my mom,.  this after i called rob last night and left him a really nice message, thinking he just was too busy or something.  So then Rob called back, and I didn't pick up cause i was pissed at him.  He left a message that gave no indication at all that he was pissed.  So now i'm thinking mom just blew things out of proportion, again.  teaches me a lesson to try and go to the source before making any rash judgements. 

Wednesday, February 15, 2012

Feb 15, 2012

I had my compensation discussion yesterday - i'll be getting a 3k raise and $500 extra on top of my target bonus.  I'm all around pretty pleased, especially since i had expected much less.  This should translate to just over $160/month, which is no where near what I had thought would be needed for a second kid (which we were thinking of trying for in the upcoming winter) but will definitely help pay down some debts and add to our buffer.

On the topic of money, thankfully, we've both agreed to use the majority of the bonus to pay down credit card debt and allow us a bit of a buffer, especially since we've got a grand total of $250 in our savings account.  This first year of sema's life has been rough in terms of money, considering we had close to $8000 in savings that we blew through paying for our stupid cars and the incredibly expensive nanny situation that Ira's been so adamant on enforcing.  Luckily, we've given the final day on our babysitter, May 1, as of which date, he'll go do daycare. 

I'd like for my mom to come down for a week to spend with him, mostly to get her off our backs and appease her a bit.  I know she's chomping at the bit a little to spend some time with him, but on of my major hesitations with her is that she likely won't listen to what we want and will pretty much do her own thing.  It's really unfortunate because she MIGHT listen, especially if I were to voice my concerns, but it's creating a pretty big trust gap. 

Also, in regards to my family, it's pretty amazing that Rob and Julie haven't remembered in the least about Sema's birthday, and every time we talk it's about how they're doing, even in the most silly details.  Rob will talk about how sad he is that he can't go with his buddies climbing mountains, or hiking, or how Julie is bored with her work, or whatever it is, and they really don't seem to care much about anything that's going on in our lives.  it seems selfish to complain about, but in all honesty, it's hard to carry on a one-sided relationship.  We've found the same sort of situation with my pocono's family, and anya and john, and a few other people that we're just tired of listening to them complain without much two way interaction.

i just don't seem to have much patience or time for that kind of relationship.

after the whole vanguard thing, i'm a little discouraged to look for jobs.  this is a ridiculous emotion, especially considering it has given me a lot of interview experience, and my discouraged feeling is pretty unwarranted, but because i was so head over heels in love with the job and company and was so convinced i was getting it, it's tough to get back on my feet about the whole thing.  i think, however, that it's given me a better idea about what I want to do, and i've started looking for jobs that are similar in scope to the vanguard one.  There's one at comcast that seems interesting - i've just got to write an amazing cover letter for it.  But cover letters are something i dread. 

Tuesday, February 14, 2012

Feb 14, 2012

I think the best thing about this blog is it's almost entirely by the seat of my pants.  One thing I really hated about Smells like Borscht was that I had to have some grand idea that would force me to write something profound every single day, which, as you could imagine, gets kind of exhausting.

Sema woke up at 5 this morning, and I'm tired.  seems like he's sleeping less and less soundly.  There was already a period of time when he would sleep pretty consistently through the night.  obviously, however, that's over with.  The nice part is that I think we're pretty much done with him crying like a crazy person when we're putting him down.  he falls asleep pretty much perfectly.  we'll see how that works out when we move him into the new room.

today's valentine's day, and i'm a bit embarassed to say that i've nothing too amazing to show for it.  I've got flowers arranged, and i'll give ira some cheesy coupons, but aside from that, i've got nothing.  I imagine we'll probably have a nice dinner together, maybe open a bottle of wine.  if it's not too cold, maybe we'll go for a walk too.  it's been a while since sema's been to the playground, and he can walk now too, so might be good for him.  again, if it's not too cold.

I started working out again yesterday.  only elliptical so far, but with time, i hope to lose a bit of weight and get back to lifting.  it's tough though with so little time. 

Monday, February 13, 2012

Feb 13, 2012

hopefully, this will allow me to keep some sanity through the majority of what's going on.  I don't plan on publishing/advertising this in any way, so at least there will be some sort of anonymity, which, in contrast to Smells like Borscht, makes this a little more freeing.  However, I entirely expect that posting here will be infrequent at best, but in all honesty, that's fine.  I'm incredibly busy, and need some kind of grounding rod.

Ira's headed out in a week, and this week will mostly be the first week back into the exercising routine.  This is both exciting and dreadful at the same time, as we're also starting to get swamped with the upcoming weekend HR class that we've signed up for.  There is a relatively significant amount of reading due, along with some silly "reaction" paper which, on top of the SGM class we're taking, is going to be a lot.

The nice thing is that Sema is a little bit more autonomous, and can stand short periods of separation so we can get some chores done, unlike before when one person had to be entirely dedicated to him at all times.  He's walking pretty well, and is beginning to blabber in that way that babies do where the parents have to act as interpreters.  He's already able to say "Spacibo" and dog, and car, and a coupld animal sounds (mostly in russian).  He's also sleeping pretty fully through the night which is a huge relief.

We're presently in a philosophical debate whether or not to put him in his own room.  Since he's almost 13 months now, I think reason is winning out, and Ira will eventually be forced to give in.  We've already moved all the furniture, but it seems she's stalling by now insisting that we paint.  Little does she know that the second I have some free time, i'll be in there painting like Michelangelo to get this thing done with.  He woke up again this morning because i stepped on the floor wrong.  Quickly getting sick of it.

Also quickly getting sick of work - almost nothing is interesting or challenging, and i'm really looking to find something else.  the interview at vanguard was almost a complete disappointment, since I was almost certain I would get the job.  the only positive to that is that I will now be getting the entire portion of my bonus, and will apply the vast majority of it to credit cards, thus seriously dropping our balances.

This week i'll also hear about what the money situation will be at SIG, which will likely be not amazing.  as long as there's at least some minor increase in salary, maybe 2-3k/year (excluding bonus) i'll be at least slightly happy, since i'll be popped over the 50k mark finally.  unfortunately, i've calculated that we're gonna need my salary to be at 65k in order to have the second kid comfortably.  without the vanguard prospects, it seems like that's less likely.  We were originally planning on starting for the second one this upcoming winter, as it would put the kid's birthday sometime in mid summer next year, allowing for Ira to be a bit more comfortable that it was with Sema's birth.  Though if it were a personal decision, i would greatly prefer cold to heat.