What I did during the Government Shutdown, Day 10

What I Did during the Government Shutdown, Day 9

Day Nine, Tuesday, October 9, 2013.

Disclaimer:  The thoughts and feelings expressed in this post are solely the author's and do not represent the official position of any government agency.

Wow. Nine days.

Last night, I wrote a grocery list and determined to use coupons when I went shopping today. Oh, I do save coupons. But I hate them. They're manipulative. They make you think you need things that you don't really need because you have a coupon. But judicious use of coupons can be helpful, especially to a family who has had a temporary stoppage of income. 

So it's grocery day today. 

You know, you'd think that I would be really great about cooking elaborate, delicious meals during the furlough, but I'm not. We've been pretty bad about getting meals on the table since the furlough started. Personally, it depresses me to cook because it is a reminder that I'm not coming home from the office to quickly get the meal on the table by 6:30.  Weird, huh?  But we all have a routine and our routines comfort us in big and small ways. Taking the eight hour work day away has really bummed my food prepping drive, screwed up the routine. But I am resolved to do better. I'm writing out menus for the next few days, just as if I were working, and I'm going to cook meals, bring some normalcy back. (Because, while yogurt and grapes and milk are certainly healthy choices, it's probably not the best thing to feed your kid for dinner every night.)

I haven't been keeping my food diary either. Just can't be bothered. But I need to pick it up again. 

I went running this morning. (C25K Week 5, Day 1, 2.30 miles.) Knee was pretty okay, two days after being chased by that boxer, so that's good. 

Practiced guitar a couple of times.

Did laundry.

Watched some Coursera lectures on What a Plant Knows.

Random thought:  When the hell did I get too old to know who, e.g., Adam Lambert is?  I saw his name and face on a billboard. Why?  Why isn't he Simon LeBon?  Or David Lee Roth?  Or David Bowie?  Or David Gahan? (So many Davids!)  Maybe he is this generation's one-of-those-guys and I just don't know it.  Who is this person?  I'm old.

I did my first job search today, as is required by the state unemployment agency.  There's a pretty well known local law firm looking for lots of lawyers, none of them in my practice area.  I suppose I could re-tool and become a corporate lawyer if I had to, but like everyone else who looks for a job, I would rather it be in my practice area.  And, anyway, they wouldn't hire me.  I'm too old, not pliable.  They want a young pup, not a middle-aged momma, for those jobs.

Picked up medicine for my cat. (He's obsessively licking a spot on his belly, and has created a scabby sore.  Ick.)

Did my 15 minutes of BB time.

I found out from a friend today that the courts are remaining open past next week, but without pay. This sucks for the skeleton crew manning the fort at my agency and many other agencies that regularly appear before federal courts.  I feel truly bad for them.  One lawyer, six judges.  Not good odds.  You want to know what's cruel, Harry Reid?  That is cruel.  That is.

Went to guitar lesson.  (I played great!  Lots of practice has paid off.  If only they'd give me 30 minutes a day at the office to do that . . . of course, where would I keep my amp?)

Cooked a healthy dinner. 

After dinner, we went outside and looked at stars with the iPad app, Sky Guide, which is a very cool astronomy app.  The Boy saw Vega, Antares, Venus, and the Moon.  When he's old enough, we'd like to get a real telescope, but this app is plenty fine for now, good family fun.  (And great fun for grown ups all by themselves.  I love trying to find space junk amongst the stars -- that's an in-app purchase to see satellites and space debris, but worth your pennies.)

And then we did all the things we usually do at the end of the day.

The end, day nine.

What I did during the Government Shutdown, Day 8

Tuesday, October 8, 2013, Day Eight

Disclaimer:  The thoughts and feelings expressed in this post are solely the author's and do not represent the official position of any government agency.

Are you as bored with this as I am?  Judging by the traffic stats on my blog, I'm guessing that you are.

And who can blame you?  It's frustrating and enervating. 

Harry Reid may call it a "paid vacation" (but not yet, apparently), but on a vacation you don't have to check in every day, you don't have to worry whether you'll be paid or not, you know how long it will last, and you know whether you'll be working tomorrow or not. So it's something less than a vacation, Mr. Reid, thanks. I'd rather be working than wondering whether you'll allow me to work tomorrow or not. 

Anyway, The Boy woke up at 3 a.m.  Said he had a bad dream. I took him into our bed. Woke up again at 6:45 with a head-butt (accidental, I think) and the phrases, "I want water. I want milk.  I want to wake up!"  I told him that "please" would go a long way toward obtaining those things.  When I turned on the light, The Boy started moaning, "The liiight!  The lightie!" and holding his eyes. The Working Dad says he was awakened by being kicked in the back.  He's a regular little angel in the morning, our boy. 

BUT. He was easy to get dressed and off to school, so that's good. 

Today, in addition to taking my car in for an alignment, The Working Dad and I had a little date day that involved a meal and a museum and other fun stuff we like to do.

Yet, we find we're suffering ennui.....  We're a bit depressed. We'd like to know when we are going back to work, and on what terms.  It was fun hanging out with my husband, but the shutdown cast a pall on the day.

The latest news is that the House Republicans have come up with a committee idea, attached to which is a plan to pay those "essential" workers on a current basis. Is it possible that they might pass such a measure and then keep the government "shutdown" long term, perhaps rotating us in and out of the "essential" roles so we receive maybe 1/3 pay and operate in permanent shut down mode?  Yes, I am, in fact, paranoid. As I said in an earlier post, I don't trust these guys one bit.  I do feel like we government workers are constantly being thrown under the bus or offered up as political sacrifices, though. It gets old.

So.....  I did some laundry, checked the BB, practiced guitar.

I did not go running. Turns out that I did twist my knee trying to get away from that boxer.

Bummer.

Oh, I saw this butterfly. Pretty.

What I did during the Government Shutdown, Day 7

Day Seven, Monday, October 7, 2013.

Disclaimer:  The thoughts and feelings expressed in this post are solely the author's and do not represent the official position of any government agency.

So. One full week.

The whole family slept all the way until 7:40 this morning. Wow, we needed it. Did I mention yesterday that The Boy didn't have a nap?  Well, he didn't. So:  manic boy and zombified parents by the end of the day. Glad -- SO glad -- we all slept soundly. 

The Boy didn't want to go to school this morning. He told me he wanted to go to another pumpkin patch instead. Awwww. 

So, we took the guy to school, had breakfast, and we did, in fact, scout out another pumpkin patch.  I figure we can hit a different one every weekend between now and Halloween.

We took my car for an oil change.

I did 8 of my 15 minutes of BB time around 11 a.m.  (And the other around 5 p.m.)  The return of the daily BB check has meant the return of my anxiety about the shutdown.  I'm nervous again, for no good reason, and with no good outlet.

But perhaps I'm also nervous again because I've been reading the news again, after the weekend break.  I've seen in the news and in my Facebook feed people becoming frustrated with the shutdown, upset that some government services are not available, services that maybe they didn't even necessarily associate with the government until they were gone.  I occasionally find the frustration ironic because it sometimes comes from the very people who generally complain about the government being too big.

And there's always a debate in this country about the size of the government.  But the fact is, friends, that, while we can debate about the fringes, we do all need a functioning federal government.  It keeps our food safe; it helps us find our kids if they're kidnapped; it tracks disease outbreaks; it figures out why planes crashes happened; it does important medical research; it supports our farmers; it cleans up toxic waste sites; it finds and prosecutes murders; it pursues people like Bernie Madoff who steal innocent people's money through fraudulent investment schemes; it cares for our military veterans; it tracks down terrorists before they can hurt us.  All these things it cannot do (or it cannot do as well) during this government shutdown.  I am concerned that we are one pandemic, one hurricane, one terrorist attack away from serious calamity.  Government of the people, by the people, and for the people cannot be for the people if it is not funded.

Anyway, off my soapbox . . . .

I mentioned the Khan Academy a few days ago. Since then, I've been doing math drills on The Khan Academy website to brush up my math skills, when I have a few minutes to spare.  It's a good way to pass the time. And it's fun!  (No, really, it is!)

So I laid on the sofa with my iPad and did some math this afternoon. The hardest part of remembering how to do geometry is remembering what all the hieroglyphics that go with it mean. But somehow, magically, I remembered (in connection with some not-geometry mathematics drills I was doing) that this -- |x| -- means the absolute value of x. Strange thing, memory.

So, the rest of the day, what did I do:  went running.  I started week 6, day 1 of the ZenLabs C25K program, but ended up quitting mid-way through, as I have the other 50,000 times I've tried this program. My opinion remains the same:  they ramp up the distance too quickly starting at week 6 (really, week 5.5). I think they do this because they're trying to squeeze the program into 10 weeks. They should lower everyone's expectations, stretch it out over more weeks, and have a slower progression to longer intervals. People would have more success, I think. It's called couch to 5K, not moderately fit to 5K. Anyway, so I'll drop back and do week 5 over again, slow myself down.

Also, some guy's unleashed boxer ran at me and think I twisted my knee trying to get away from it, so I may not be running at all tomorrow anyway.

Practiced guitar.

Did some sewing.

Picked The Boy up from school. 

Had dinner.

I checked the news to see if I need to dress for work in the morning.  Looks like I don't.

And, as I suspected, the back pay bill has been slowed in the Senate, leaving federal workers with uncertainty.  There are some of us who will be okay without paychecks for a few weeks. There are others of us who work paycheck to paycheck. It's unfortunate that they are/we are being used as political ping pongs. But it's been happening for three years -- we've not seen a COLA in three years on account of politics. Why would now be any different?

(And I will note that this did not happen during the prior administration.  I'm not pointing fingers, just noting that federal workers did get COLAs, were not furloughed, and the government did not shut down during the last President's tenure and under a different make up of the Congress.  Apply what analysis you will to that information.)

Night-night, friends and neighbors.

What I did during the Government Shutdown, Day 6

Day Six, Sunday, October 6, 2013

Disclaimer:  The thoughts and feelings expressed in this post are solely the author's and do not represent the official position of any government agency.

2:23 a.m. -- Awakened by screaming boy.  He was either scared by a nightmare or cold. Not sure which. Brought him into our bed. 

2:30 to approx, 3:30 a.m. -- Consistently responded, "It's time for sleepies," when small person beside me said, "Mommy?"

7:00 a.m. -- Woke up with small person's feet on my neck. Hubby was just getting up; said he was forced off the bed by small person. 

7:30 a.m. -- Adjourned to living room for cuddles on the sofa with boy, watched Mr. Rogers rerun, and drank delicious peppermint mocha made by husband.  He has a future as a barista if this shutdown goes on too long.

Entertained idea of going to church, but opted to go to La Madeleine instead, like heathens.

And, pretty much, had a fun day of play with the guys....  Oh, I went to a sorority alumnae play date in the afternoon. The day was sunny, cool, and perfect for a playground.

And, of course, I checked the news to see if there was any progress...Senate won't vote on the pay measure until at least Monday afternoon. And then, there's still the question of actually funding the government, which seems nowhere near a resolution.  Sigh. 

And so the sun sets on the end of the sixth day. 

What I did during the Government Shutdown, Day 5

Day 5, Saturday, October 5, 2013. 

Disclaimer:  The thoughts and feelings expressed in this post are solely the author's and do not represent the official position of any government agency.

I'm starting to understand what it must be like to be a reporter during the 24-hour news cycle. You've got to put out the content, but the truth is that there's not much new to say.  So you find yourself saying the same thing over and over again in less and less interesting ways. 

But today is Saturday, and that's usually a fun day for the family, shutdown or no.

You know our morning routine by now:  So, we did that. 

I went for a run before the guys got up. While running, I listened to a great 80's new wave/post punk playlist on MOG. (Vienna by Ultravox is a great song, isn't it?)  I scared two rabbits, separately, as I ran slowly past them. They scared me back. You'd think I would have been ready for the second one after the first, but you'd be wrong about that.  (Oh:  C25K, week 5, day 3, 2.26 miles - 5 min warm up, 20 min run, 5 min cool down.)

As I sat in my living room floor tapping out that last bit on my iPhone, a military helicopter flew over our house, fast and pretty low. That was unsettling. 

(I know I've done a lot of navel gazing, in this series of blog posts, and muled about how angry I am at Congress. But I do worry about national security during this shutdown. We're not doing the kind of intelligence gathering that we normally do because of the furlough. What if a terrorist plot slips through this giant crack of a government shutdown and something truly unthinkable happens?  Shudder.)

I also met with the personal trainer for 30 minutes at 8:30 this morning.  Yes, the trainer who was the impetus of the cartwheeling incident. I've got five more paid session with her (well, four, now), so I need to use them up. We're mainly doing abs and arms.  No acrobatics.

I should have waited to go running.  The temperature dropped 13 degrees between the time I entered the gym to meet with the trainer and the time I left the gym.  Nice, cool fall weather.

So, I came home, showered, and got dressed in normal clothes. It's the first day since Tuesday that I have fixed my hair, put on make-up, or put on any jewelry other than my wedding band. I don't wear that much make up anyway, and my hair's not at all complicated to style, but it was still nice to get fixed up a bit.

I took a break from furlough blogging to write a quick post about Mom Jeans.

Mid-morning, a friend texted to let us know that the bill that would allow back-pay to furloughed federal workers passed the House 407 to 0. Amazing. I really didn't think they cared about or valued us.  I was wrong.  I am glad I was wrong.  We'll see if it passes the Senate tomorrow, and whether the President signs it.

Late, morning, we all went to toddler music class. The Boy sings the songs from class around the house quite often, and seems to like them. But in class, he seems less engaged, sometimes unruly. All the other kids in the class are girls. I'm starting to wonder (by which I mean "believe") that it's a "boy thing," not a behavior or interest thing.  He's just very wiggly and physical...his classmates, not so much.  I feel like I'm getting a taste of what real school will be like four our guy. I am preparing myself for the parent/teacher conferences about how our smart, energetic little boy won't sit still and face forward for eight hours a day. I know lots of creative, smart, dedicated teachers, most of them are friends from college. I hope that he gets teachers like them, and not a staid, old nag that doesn't understand kinetic little boys.

After music class, we had lunch at Rudy's BBQ.  Yum!

And then we came home for nap time, which we call "rest time" because The Big Boy says he doesn't take naps anymore.  I hear what you're thinking, they start to reject naps at a certain age.  Not my boy, not yet.  What he rejects is the word "nap," not the concept of afternoon sleeping.  He consistently has a 2 to 3 hour "rest" every afternoon, and without it, he becomes manic-crazy-cranky boy. (Also, without it, his parents become exhausted, desperate zombies.  It's a freakshow around here without "rest time.") 

During nap time, I also napped a bit (as did The Working Dad), and I folded some laundry (for there is always laundry).

And after nap, we went to the Pumpkin Patch and had fall fun!

I barely thought about the shutdown at all today, apart from reading about the back-pay bill and writing this blog post (of course), that is

.  As I'd hoped, it was a pretty normal Saturday.  Hope yours was pretty normal too. 

Mom Jeans, the Revenge!

We interrupt this Shutdown Diary to bring you breaking news about Mom Jeans. 

Please stay tuned for your regularly scheduled update of the minutiae of The Working Mom's furlough days later this evening.

Okay, they're not really on the attack or anything, but since I've done two posts about Mom Jeans, it seems like the next title should be something dramatic.  Usually, in the third follow up movie, the main thingy, whatever it is, usually gets its revenge.  Anyway.

Mom Jeans.

So I've told you about NYDJ and about Eddie Bauer Curvy Boot Cut Stay Shape Jeans. Now, I have one more to tell you about.

Shortly after I wrote my post about the EB Stay Shape Jeans (which I love, and which are swiftly becoming my favorite jeans -- they hug the curves perfectly and no muffin top), another friend wrote me an e-mail to tell me about some Levi's for the mom bod.

Levi's, y'all!

Everyone's cool who wears Levi's, right?  (Or was that just true in my small East Texas hometown in the 80's?  And maybe not even then.)

Anyway, this friend really likes them, and so, I had to get some to try for myself.  (Lucky for me we had a buy-one-get-one half off coupon code for levis.com and hubby needed some new 505s.)

Ladies, I give you the Levi's 512 Perfectly Slimming Boot Cut and Straight Jeans.  At $44 a pair, they're even cheaper than the EB Stay Shape Jeans.  I got the straight jeans, since I'd gotten the boot cut of the EB Stay Shape Jeans.  I would recommend purchasing them in whatever your true size is and then go from there.  (Some of the reviews on the website suggest going a size down, but I don't do it with the other "mom jeans," and am glad that I don't do it.)

The Levi's 512s are very comfortable and they do what they say -- hug the curves, minimize the belly, minimize the muffin top -- and they're pretty fashionable.  The down side (for me, anyway) is that hubby says my posterior looks better in the EB Stay Shape Jeans.  But I'm still keeping the Levi's.  I mean, everyone can use a comfortable pair of jeans, even if they're not the most flattering jeans for your hiney.  And the price (especially with the coupon) really can't be beat.