The Communications Doctor

My mom called me this morning to inform me that she signed me up for a women’s health workshop which was scheduled to start within 2 hours. (Thankfully I remembered her mentioning it a week ago and had that little feeling inside that I was going to it whether I wanted to or not.) The workshop was located at the new Inn at Virginia Tech and Skelton Conference Center and consisted of lunch, many pamphlets on women’s health and a speaker who spoke about stress and how to deal with it.

I try to keep positive about the whole situation but figure that if I don’t get anything out of the workshop I will think of it as an opportunity for a free lunch and to be with my mom and sister (who, btw, also got trapped into going). After lunch the speaker was introduced and we all listened intently on how we could reduce the stress in our lives.

Susanne Gaddis, Ph.D. (aka The Communications Doctor) merrily greeted us, then out of nowhere she started to sing. That’s right, sing. She sang that very familiar tune, If You’re Happy and You Know It. I thought I was going to drop to the floor laughing. Was she serious? Oh yes, she was, and we even had to clap our hands, stop our feet, then wag our “tails”. Man oh man I was for sure my mom just wasted several dollars for some nut case to sing some silly songs to us. Anyhow, she finishes her singing parade then gets into her speech. As it turns out, she had some really good ideas and tools on how to deal with stress.

I don’t really want to blog about her entire speech, so I will just list some things that I got out of it:

*On average, people can speak about 100 to 150 words a minute
*On average, people can think about 1,000 to 3,000 words a minute
*Of the words we think, about 70% to 90% of the words are negative or are of no worth (wow!)
*Negative thoughts are sources of stress (kinda obvious, right?)
*If a person wants to be perceived as a “positive” person, then they need to say 2.9 positive words for every negative word said
*The ratio has to be 5 to 1 at home with family
*If the ratio is 13 to 1, then you are considered “too positive” (this is possible! they are the annoying people who seem to be happy 24/7, no matter what)
*One tool to help reduce stress is to write down 3 positive things that happened during the day and why they happened. (she claims that this will reduce stress just as good as, if not better than, the prescription drug prozac……hmmmm, I am curious about this one)
*Stress journals are good for helping one understand the different types and levels of stress that can be tolerated
*Exercise (even stretching) helps reduce stress
*People have to recognize that their bodies are machines and that if they don’t take care of them, then they will shut down (this one hit home for me, unfortunately during a football game…lol!! thanks Kevin and Pat for listening and lending a shoulder)

Overall I really did enjoy what Susanne had to say and glad that my mom made me attend. I would even recommend her to come to my company and give some tips and pointers to our employees on how to deal with stress.

Back to Work

My maternity leave officially ended this past Wednesday as I returned back to work at Webmail.us. I can honestly say that I am happy to be back! I was even able to get to work all three days this week before 8am. (This is a personal accomplishment because during my pregnancy I couldn’t even get out of bed before 8am.) The routine that Kevin and I have been doing consists of the following:

The baby, Drew, goes to bed around 9pm. I usually lay down with our oldest child Jordan in her bed at least by 9:30pm. Kevin stays up and works for a couple of hours and wakes me up (if I haven’t done so already) to go to our room. Drew then wakes up around 2 or 2:30 at which point he gets a diaper change and 4 oz of formula. It takes about 20-30 mins for him to finish eating and get a good burp after which I put him back in his crib. So about 3:00am I am crawling back to my bed. At 5:30 I wake up for the day and start getting all of Drew’s daycare stuff ready. At 5:45 I wake him up for another diaper change and bottle. When he finishes, I put him in his car seat and let him fall back asleep while I get ready for work. Around 7:15 I take him to daycare and get to work by like 7:50am. I work until about 5pm and then pick up both the baby and Jordan. I am pretty tired by the time I get home.

On Wednesday, I made Kevin run with me for about 30 mins. He’s such the trooper! But we were totally exhausted by the time we got home. I was so tired that I feel asleep shortly after dinner with Drew asleep on my chest. Around 9pm Jordan comes out of her room and wakes me up. I couldn’t believe 2 hours had passed and that I didn’t even realize it. When she tried to lay on me I asked her, “Jordan, where is your daddy?” to which responds, “Well, he’s sleeping in my bed.” Apparently he was exhausted too, and who knows how long Jordan was up and about on her own. She has always been the independent type…..

But as for work, like I said I am really excited to be back. We had a lot of things happen in October that I felt like I wasn’t really a part of since I was not physically at work and plenty of things to look forward to that I will be a part of. I was glad that on my first day back I was able to help out with the November billing cycle, which was one of my major responsibilities prior to leaving. It was great telling my coworker that did the billing while I was out to hand over the reigns because I was taking over. And it was even better to know that I hadn’t missed a beat. ;-)

An End to a Tragic Story?

As most of you know, my dad was scammed this past weekend at the Tech game. He traveled all the way down from Ohio to not only celebrate my birthday but to go the Tech vs. Miami game. Of course I tell him that tickets are scarce and if he did find any they were going to be outrageous in price. He thought what the heck, if he didn't find any he would just tailgate with us and then go downtown to watch the game. Well at some point after the Walk, he ran into this dude who was selling tickets. The guy wanted $250 for each ticket. Dad told him that he needed two tickets and that he would give him $200 for both. The scammer happily agreed. So my dad comes back and says that he got two tickets to the game for only $200. I couldn't believe he actually found some (relatively) cheap. And boy was my 8 year old sister excited! She couldn't believe that she was going to a football game for the first time. I take a look at the tickets and was like, cool deal!

We (the section 20 folks) finally get to our seats and I get a message from my dad. He told me that he had fake tickets and that he and my little sister were escorted out of the game. Once again I couldn't believe it. How could this happen? I was completely shocked. I mean, I have heard of fake tickets being sold at previous Tech games (a couple of years ago), but I never would have thought that would happen to someone I know, much less someone I was related to. The entire story (including how my dad got home) is too crappy to spend the time to blog about. If anyone is really interested on how the drama played out then send me an email and I will fill you in.

So anyhow, my dad more less gets over the whole thing. The money wasn't an issue. A bummer yes, but no big deal. As an avid craps player, he's used to seeing that kind of money come and go in a blink of an eye. He was just upset that my little sister wasn't going to her first football game. BTW, we have been telling her for the past 3 years that she can go to a football game "next year". Unfortunately for her I guess it's still true.

The Roanoke Times printed an article today that may bring closure to the situation. I hope this is the same guy that sold my dad his tickets. When I called my dad to tell him about it he was happy that someone got caught. It's not like my dad was the only victim. He was 1 out of like 200 to 300 according to the article. From the description of the tickets involved it sounds like it might be the same guy, or at least from the same ring of culprits.

Thank god we set the record for the longest tailgate, because if I had not got in those extra few laughs then it would have been absolutely the worst birthday I have ever experienced!!

Has to be a record

If there was a record for the longest tailgate for a football game, then I do believe that I experienced it this past Saturday. I did not show up for the very beginning (which was rumored to have begun around 10am) but some of us (you know who you are!!) managed to hang until the wee hours of the morning. I was looking at the pictures I took throughout the night and the last one I have is time-stamped for 4:44 am. Is that possible? I mean, what makes us want to just sit out in the cold all night?

Let’s see:
*we have a wood burner so it never really got that cold
*we can’t leave the tailgate on a bad note (i.e. losing to Miami), party up!
*you never know when you will hear manly voices from someone dressed like a woman
*you get to say hello to the dump truck drivers who are emptying the tailgating lot
*you get to remove your friend from the dump truck and try to convice that he doesn't really need to ride the dump truck like he’s a garbage man
*some random girl stays at the tailgate (all night) because we look like fun people
*you get to hear your friend trying to convince a girl to make a two-hour drive at 4am
*you pack up the keg only to have someone screaming at you to re-tap it 5 minutes later
*getting a chick’s phone number and immediately dialing it to make sure she didn’t lie to you
*getting many phone calls from your friend’s protective sister
*witnessing the purchase of 3 cigarettes for $20
*speaking to your friend’s mother and having no clue what she is saying
*listening to “celtic rock” music then asking for a new DJ
*apparently being in the port-a-potty for 20 minutes at a time is OK.
*you get to hear pick up lines like, “So, do you text?”
*watching the bicycle police ride by your tailgate at 2am
*you spend hours (ok maybe only 5 minutes) convincing your friends that walking home is a bad idea….especially when it’s at least 2 or 3 miles away.
*you get to play cornhole with people from Tennessee who actually know about the game
*OH! you get to have birthday cake!! (Well, if it is in fact your birthday.)
*you get to guard the wood burner from people who want to dance it, or fart in it, you know all the normal things people do around fires
*you get to tackle boys and injure their wrists
*did anyone know that cornhole boards can double as comfy loungers??
*eating an insane amount of bar-b-q chips that you find left over from the tailgate
*you get to witness how fast a tailgate can be brought down by very few people
*you get to witness how everything from the tailgate will fit in the bed of a truck
*then you get to wonder how everything will stay in the truck once it is in there (hopefully it did)

More Red Sox Drama

It seems like Red Sox fans can never catch a break! I am only a Red Sox fan by default (through my husband) but I still keep up with some of the drama. Who knew that a GM could be soooo cute??? Isn't there a minimum age requirement of like 60?

True Collectors Get Screwed

As most girls are these days, I am a big fan of Sex and the City. I don't know what it is about the show, but it's like I can't get enough.....almost like an addiction. Last Christmas I received seasons 1-5 on DVD from my father-in-law. I have watched the whole entire set while on maternity leave and just had to buy season 6 yesterday. (Sorry Kev, I know....supposed to be saving the $$, but I couldn't wait until Christmas!!) So I buy season 6 which is actually in two parts. Well today I am watching The Early Show on CBS and found out that there is now a Collector's Edition!! It's supposed to have all this great stuff on it, bonus footage, alternate endings, photos, etc. What are you supposed to do with all the other DVD's?? I guess I could put them up on Ebay so that I can afford the "Collector's Edition". And why do they always do that? You spend the money to get the DVD and then they come out with the "Collector's Edition". That's so unfair! It encourages the collectors to hold off on buying their favorite movie so that they can truly enjoy something created just for them. It happened to us with Pulp Fiction too....and I am just waiting for the same thing to happen with the Harry Potter series. (BTW....Goblet of Fire comes out November 18th!!! Any takers??)