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 A few weekends ago, my husband and I decided to get in one final ski-trip. Along with my parents, we went up to a friend’s condo in Stratton, VT. We packed the car – pack and play, stroller, diapers, food, toys, clothes, ski clothes, ski gear and the baby and started the 4 1/2 hour drive on a Friday night around 7:00. It started off nice and relaxing and then about half way through I started to have a panic attack. I started to think about all the things I should be doing this weekend like cleaning, food shopping, shopping for upcoming birthday gifts, etc. While I was looking forward to getting away for a weekend, I was also stressing about how much I needed to do.
I realized I still had about three hours in the car and that I could actually be productive and start crossing things off my list. I bought two birthday gifts right from my iphone and I even did all of my food shopping right from my iphone. I recently started using Peapod, Stop & Shop’s online grocery shopping and delivery service.
It’s amazing. It takes me about 15-30 minutes to do my shopping from my computer, ipad, or even my iphone. I select a delivery date and time. You have to get in by 12:00 noon the day before for morning/afternoon delivery and by 12:00 midnight the night before for evening delivery. Sometimes weekends book up a little faster but usually you need no more than 2 days in advance. The standard delivery window period is 2 hours but you can save $1.00 by selecting a 3.5 hour delivery window. Your groceries (including fresh fruits, produce, and meats) are delivered straight to your door and the delivery person even brings them right into the kitchen. For a $6 fee I find this service well worth it. With a 15 month old baby every trip (like our trip to VT) becomes a project so having this convience is great. Also, I believe that I save money. I buy what I need and not what I happen to see and buy out of impulse.
After finishing my gift and food shopping. I sat back and relaxed for the rest of the car ride and thought about the great skiing I’d get to do for the weekend.
P.S. If you are interested in trying out Peapod use this link for a special friends-only deal – http://peapod.tellapal.com/a/clk/dpzGh
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 I use to have a roommate back in college who used the shower as a stress reliever. When she got angry or upset she would take a shower and calm down.
I use to find that the shower was a great place to think. I would come up with some of my most brilliant (at least I always thought they were brilliant) ideas.
However, after having a baby, the shower now serves a different purpose. It’s true that most of the time the only purpose it serves is to get clean. These days, I usually have about 5 minutes to get in, get clean and get out.
However, every once in a while I get to enjoy a nice, long relaxing shower. Either my husband will be with the baby or the baby will be sleeping and I get that opportunity to take a shower and do nothing but relax. I take my time and just let my thoughts drift away.
It’s a great time for me to unwind, relax, re-energize, and sometimes still come up with brilliant ideas. It’s interesting to me that the shower serves a lot more purpose than one would expect. I keep trying to convince my husband that we should take it one step further and get a steam shower or better yet a hot tub.
Now if I had a steam shower and/or a hot tub, can you imagine what I could accomplish?
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 Last week I celebrated my birthday. It was a great day and a lot of people helped to make it extra special. In addition to all the gifts from my family and my closest friends, I also received 128 Facebook messages. That’s right 128. WOW.
I have to be honest, I felt very loved and very popular. It reminded me of being in Junior High. Not sure if this was tradition everywhere, but in my Junior High School, it was customary that on your birthday your friends would decorate your locker and give you balloons to carry around throughout the day.
While it was a really nice way to stand out on your birthday and it made you feel really special (yes I was born in March so I’m an Aries and I never mind extra attention), it was also nerve wracking.
The entire morning on the way to school, I thought, what if everyone forgot, what if no one cares about me enough, what if my friends got sick, what if I don’t have a decorated locker? Not having a decorated locker would have been tragic!
Today it seems like your Facebook wall has become your Junior High Locker and this year, thankfully tragedy was averted, I felt especially popular.
Another thing that all the Facebook attention did, was remind me of how different we communicate today. I also got a birthday email from a client. He asked me if it was the only email I got and actually, it was. I thought about how just three years ago, I would have gotten tons of emails, however today, no one sends emails. They post a greeting on your wall.
I know it is crazy, but is it safe to say that emails are on their way to becoming old fashioned? I wonder. I also wonder how many Facebook birthday greetings I will get next year….
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I went to Mexico on vacation for five days. One of my closest friends got married on the west coast of Mexico. It was great. I came back feeling relaxed and refreshed.
However, as I write this (about two weeks since I got back) I am feeling overwhelmed, stressed and like I need another vacation!
Let me share with you a run down of the events that have lead up to this:
- We had a major IT issue at the office while I was away and I have been working on it ever since I returned.
- I developed a cold and then passed it on to my one year old (next time I fly I need to remember Airborne)
- Two close friends of mine were in a serious car accident. Thankfully they both survived but they are both still battling in the hospital.
- We’ve been looking for a new LI office for HJMT. Decision time is getting very close.
- My MacBook broke and I’ve been working mostly off my iPad while I wait for my new one to come in.
So now I sit in our NYC office writing this blog (from my iPad) and take a minute to remember my vacation – sitting on the beach, hanging by the pool, drinking Margaritas, eating fresh fish tacos, and spending time with great friends and my husband.
As I remember this I also remember the feeling I had on our way home. Believe it or not, I was not sad that the trip was ending. I was excited to return to the daily grind. I have an amazing family, the cutest 1 year old son, a terrific husband, great parents, an grandmother (who just turned 80), awesome friends, an inspiring job that I love so much, the best boss and co-workers, a beautiful home, etc, etc.
The bottom line is that even though life tends to throw us things (see list above if you forgot) we have to try and concentrate on the good things in life and remember that each challenge (big or small) just makes us stronger. And now i am feeling more relaxed. Even though I still wouldn’t mind another vacation 
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If you know me, you probably know I am an organized person.
I’m usually the person in the office that people ask to find something and I’m the person who puts all of my son’s toys back in their exact place before I can go to sleep at night.
I have always found this to be a useful quality. Don’t get me wrong, sometimes it is a pain and I wish I could just leave it all a mess, but the truth I can never just walk away.
However, lately with my new A2A plan (see last week’s blog if you have no idea what I am talking about,) I’m starting to feel unorganized. I am losing complete control over my calendar. I am trying to schedule 10-14 meetings a week, which I now realize is a scheduling nightmare. I usually reach out to someone by phone or email to set up a meeting. I give them some dates and in most cases it takes them a few days to get back to me. The problem is by then, I usually have booked something else and now can’t put them in when they want. So I go back to them and the cycle starts all over again.
On top of that, there are constant cancellations, time adjustments, and rescheduling requests. For instance last Friday I had 5 meetings set in NYC. I was really excited for a jammed pack productive day, however, in the end I only had 2 meetings – three had to cancel or reschedule. Now I have random meetings throughout the next few weeks in NYC and need to try to fill up all the extra days.
It’s tough and it’s one of those things that could make me walk away from this goal. However, I know I need to battle on through. I believe that once I keep doing this I’ll eventually find a routine and everything (including appointments) will start to fall into place. Or at least I hope. I am getting tired of nightmares involving Outlook Express
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