Interesting Title Here

It's the week before vacation week, a.k.a. the Longest Week Of the Year, and I'm feeling it! Lots to do at work, and more interestingly, lots to do for my second "job" for the marching band. Unfortunately, a couple of those tasks are phone calls and require me to ASK PEOPLE for things, which isn't ever fun. I could never be in sales, ever. 

First is to set up a party, which naturally falls to the Events coordinators. I'm less worried about that call, except that the first time I tried it this morning, I was holding-slash-being transferred, and I heard someone pick up the line and then hang up before saying hello! Ugh. I gave them 10 minutes and then called back, only to go to Voicemail. So that creates an additional task: Follow up. 

The second call is infinitely more daunting -- it's asking for a Large-Dollar-Amount Sponsorship from a restaurant, so that we can then order food for the band from them. That will require all of my Girl Scout Cookie Sales skills, for sure. On the plus side, all they can say is, "No thanks, we're not interested." But on the minus side, then I have to call someone ELSE. 

Well. I'm trying to have a good attitude about the whole thing in order to keep from letting it stress me out. "This is just for fun!" and "I totally wanted this job!" and "I'm just a PARENT, if I do a mediocre job no one can fault me!" and also a bit of, "Come on, ANYONE can do this and I am a SMART PERSON, so it is no big deal." These are the cheerleader-y things I tell myself. It's all oooohhhhh-kaaaaayyyyyyy. Breathe.

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Next week while we're at the beach, I think I am going to take a 100% social media break. I'm sure I've done it before, and definitely want to again. I find, so often, that I am seeing the same posts again and again. There's nothing NEW. Even if it IS new, it's not that interesting, and certainly not critical to my life. And of course it makes me feel deflated and unfocused and bleh, if I allow myself to think about how I feel as I scroll along. Gross.

Social media is so complicated, isn't it? I'm not one to post every day -- far from it. I figure that's the best way to get yourself unfollowed, so I try to keep it pretty sparse. I post pics of the holidays, the special events, the kids' milestones. On one hand, I do want to share and celebrate our life with our friends ("friends") -- but on the other hand, I don't want to exploit my kids, one, or be too braggy, either. (I HATE braggy on social media.) Or think that other people CARE if, say, Kate and I wore matching shirts or something. I mean, it's silly, right? I definitely will not show you my painted toenails facing the ocean. 

And now that my kids are both also ON Instagram, I can't tag them without their permission, and don't want to embarrass them (further). I can't figure out the balance there. I could share photos of inanimate objects (books, my coffee cup, my garden), maybe the occasional selfie, but I don't have a "persona" or a "theme"... I do like the idea of capturing small moments and remembering them, but when I'm 90 will I want to see coffee cups? I just don't know. 

Anyway, I need a break from it. So instead of picking up my phone for Faceblech or Twitter or IG, I'll pick it up to TAKE PHOTOS of my family. I will pick up books instead. I will pick up playing cards or the newspaper. Or I will take a nap! Go for a walk. Visit a cousin in the condo across the parking lot. 

This is the plan! 

47 in '21

I definitely should have taken today off work - my birthday. Because it isn't even 9:00 am and I'm dealing with 3 ANNOYING work situations already, and have a meeting scheduled to start shortly. BOTHER.

This is a mistake I won't repeat! Grown adults should always take PTO for their birthdays!

If I had my druthers, I'd be drinking my 2nd cup of coffee on the porch, and finishing my book. (It's a good one!) 

Instead, I will power through this stuff, and then go to Starbucks for my FREE birthday drink (at Kate's urging, of course, so she can have a drink, too), and then probably work on my grocery list and menus for the next week. Don't worry, I find that a fun task. The kids leave for camp on Sunday, so there's gonna be some SPICY FOOD on the list while they're gone! (Do you think about spicy food, and how our taste buds diminish as we age, so we like spicy food more when we're older, as much as I do? I think about it a lot.)

Swift subject change: I just had to do something unpleasant (on my birthday!). I have a friend from college, my "big sister" in the sorority, actually, who is doing a MLM jewelry business. She's been leaving me not only text messages in Facebook Messenger, but also voice memos, so it feels more personal, asking if I want to host parties or buy X for just $10, or whatever. I've been ignoring them for the most part. I did buy some jewelry from her a few months ago, because I was looking for something hypo-allergenic and that's what she sells, but... some of it turned out not to be exactly what I was looking for, and it's not cheap. It was fine, I'm not mad about that, and happy to support her once. Anyway, she had left me a salesy message yesterday (which I ignored), and then this morning sent a Happy Birthday. Argh. I couldn't ignore that, so I had to say thank you, and also "I'm sorry I haven't responded to your other messages. I'm guess I'm not that interested....? Don't want to hurt feelings and I wish you well in the business but I don't want to host parties or anything." Ugh. Makes me feel terrible to write it but please STAHHHHP. (Is it too mean? I'm having Send-button regret! Ack.)

The weird thing is, she's a lawyer. Her husband is a successful real estate agent. It isn't like she depends on this money (I don't think). I just wish she wasn't' so pushy. (She always was kind-of a big personality, though, it fits her.) 

ANYWAY: Fun spicy menu options, let's go! 

Nearly every year they've gone to camp, I've made one of our faves that we used to eat regularly Before Kids: Shrimp Durango. It's super good, but I might need a break from even our once-a-year tradition of eating it. Other options I might try....

Chipotle Shrimp and Rice Bowl -- wow, that looks good. With some guacamole on the side....? Heaven.

Baked Buffalo Wings -- YUM. Definitely a favorite of mine and Shawn's, and I could even make homemade Ranch to dip them in (and bleu cheese for me). Better if I can make them without full-fat butter, and not fried... Or maybe we'll just go to Taco Mac. 

Fish Tacos -- I don't have a good recipe although this one does look good. Usually I use fish sticks, which we keep in the freezer, and make a jalepeno tartar sauce by mixing mayo, diced pickled jalepenos and some of their juice, garlic, garlic salt, and lemon juice. It's always a trial and error recipe but when I get it right, it's excellent.

Sweet Pork Enchiladas - I have a can of green enchilada sauce just waiting to be used... this would be slightly different from the usual enchiladas... but only slightly. It's a maybe.

The dinner-planning funk has been verrrrrrry apparent this last couple of weeks at my house, so it's nice to think about different things to try. Allrecipes.com is so old-school, isn't it? One of the first websites I remember subscribing to, in 2000, probably. 

I might rather eat out all 5 days they are gone, though. We shall see! 

Happy birthday to me! Forty-seven, my goodness.