1/26/07

A Total Lifestyle Change

Fabulous news! Brian got a job. This is earlier than we planned, but it's one of those things that came up, he interviewed just for the heck of it (he even told me he was just doing it for the practice, LOL), and he got it, so we've got to take it. He just called me that he was able to negotiate an extra two grand a year, and get the 7-4 shift that he wanted, and we thought was unavailable. This will help our situation somewhat with daycare/preschool for the boys.

So now we are searching for daycare for Jack. This will probably be the biggest change. I really think he's going to like the social aspects of it. We had planned on enrolling him in Miles' preschool this Summer or Fall, and still will, but in the mean time we have to find a place for him and fast. The company wants him to start a week from Monday, if we can find the daycare. Ack! So I'm kind of nervous about that.

This is going to just totally change our lifestyle. Currently, I have it pretty good. Since I work and he's the stay-at-home parent, he gets Miles ready in the morning, cooks dinner, and does the majority of the house cleaning and shopping. Now we're going to have split that. He'll work 7-4 and will pick up the kids and most likely fix dinner. I'll have to get both kids in the morning and drop them off and will probably work 8:30-5:30. I'm going to have get up extra early to get them ready in addition to myself. Plus, if I want to continue exercising in the morning, I'll REALLY have to get up early. And I am SO not a morning person.

We'll have to split the cleaning and shopping. I really want to hire someone to come in once every one or two weeks to do major stuff. I figure we'll have all this extra money we're not used to, so we may as well spend it on something that gives us more time together, which will seriously be cut short. I'll also have to figure out a routine where maybe we do a couple of housework things each evening, so that we don't have to spend the entire weekend cleaning. We'll have to be better about planning shopping trips, so that we don't have to run to the store so often. We'll probably join Costco too to get stuff in bulk.

The best thing about this is that we'll have more money! We'll almost double our income. It's going to be so wonderful to have cash again. I am DAMN excited about that.

So, I'm excited and nervous. This is going to effect so many things, in good and bad ways. Hopefully mostly good.

To celebrate we're getting a sitter Saturday night and going out for a fancy dinner: a Brazilian place that my coworker's say has the best food in town and makes a mean mojito. I can't wait!
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Recent Reads:

"But Enough About Me: A Jersey Girl's Unlikely Adventures Among the Absurdly Famous" by Jancee Dunn: This is a memoir in the form of a collection of essays by a former (maybe current) Rolling Stone writer. It was very entertaining. She wrote about interviewing various uber-celebrities from Bono to Madonna to Dolly Parton. She also wrote about growing up in sheltered NJ and transitioning to a "hip" New York Rolling Store writer, something she never felt quite comfortable with. A fun addition to the book are her scattered "hints" about how to interview a celebrity. She's a funny writer, and I laughed out loud a few times.

"Everything I'm Cracked Up to Be: A Rock & Roll Fairy Tale" by Jen Trynin: Funny how I get these little mini-themes in my reading. Apparently this one was rock and roll memoirs. This is the story of a woman who rocketed to indie/pop fame-dom only to suddenly lose popularity and her record tale. This book got great reviews and some of it I really liked: particularly the stories of being on the road. But a big portion of the book was minutiae about the dealings with the record companies and executives who were involved in the bidding war for her. And, OMG, she never let you forget about the fact that she sparked one of the biggest bidding wars of her time. And she whined too damn much about how hard everything was. And constantly talked about how little she knew about popular music artists. Whatever. So some of the book was really good and some was really annoying. I skimmed a fair portion of it.

"Tabloid Love: Looking for Mr. Right in All the Wrong Places" by Bridgett Harrison: London girl moves to NYC and becomes a writer for the NY Post. Girl gets "Sex and the City" type column, writing about being 30 and dating in the big city. But girl yearns for her editor boss. Girl gets boss. Can she keep him? Sounds like the ultimate cliche in chick lit, right? But get this: it's a memoir! One big difference between this and chick lit: I'm not quite done with this book, but I'm not sure it's going to have the usual chick lit happy ending. I guess we'll see. It's a light, easy read and I'm really enjoying it.

"The Book Thief" by Markus Zusak: I'm listening to this one on CD (and BTW the reader is fabulous). This is a book about a girl growing up as a foster child in Nazi Germany. It's narrated by Death and tells of her and foster family's trials and tribulations as they hide a young Jewish man in their basement. She loves reading, and you can tell from the title how she gets her books. It focuses on her relationship with her foster parents, including her absolutely lovely "Papa," the Jew, and her best friend, a young boy who is madly in love with her. I had no idea until I was well into it and totally in love that this is considered a "young adult" book. I think that's a dumb move. It was originally published as an adult novel in Australia, and I think that labeling it as YA will turn potential readers off here. I know I wouldn't have picked it up, if I'd known. It's about a young girl, but it really is material that adults will enjoy. In addition, it's about very sensitive subjects that I think would be a bit difficult for young readers and the characters swear constantly (in German). The writer has the most beautiful way with words; he's an absolute master of simile and metaphor. I've got 3 CDS to go, but I suspect I will be bawling at the end of this one. Go get it, now!