Biting my tongue—not so much.

My job fits me almost perfectly. I like the creativity involved and the autonomy and how great my boss is at saying, "Jennifer, I trust your judgment. Do what you think is best." I like that I get to do things that I'm good at and enjoy, especially our Web site and recruiting. And my boss is great at making me feel good about a job well done. He sent me a message just a few weeks ago saying "... As always your work products are exemplary and you have made my day. " (I'm big on the outside validation in case any of you are unaware of that.) But, it can be a lonely job at times, which is the one thing I would change. At least I thought that until a few days ago when I actually had to work with other people. It's so much easier to come up with the idea and work with the designer or faculty member I need to to make it happen. When I have to work with other staff, it's a disaster. Well, I'm much better at faking it now than I used to be, but it still isn't a smooth process. If I were a dog up for adoption, the sign on my pen would say, "loving and loyal, good with children, does not play well with others." There seems to be a mean side of me that is not so good with having tolerance. (A designer who I'm still good friends with once called me a pitt bull.) I don't tell my designers how to design, I don't tell my Web guy what technology he should be using for programming, and I expect undergraduate advisors not to tell me how to create an undergraduate newsletter and program brochure. Jeeze, that's the simple stuff. Humph. (I feel better now. Thanks for letting me vent.)

Reeling it in

My house is a disaster. As of Monday, it is making me crazy. The food crumbs in the living room, the hair on the bathroom floor, the overflowing laundry in the kids' bathroom. And, my mom is coming to visit on Saturday. Here's where I get to take a deep breath and remind myself that the housekeepers are coming tomorrow. I think you know you've made it in the world when you can afford to have someone else clean the corners. It's such a wonderful luxury. Carter commented the other day that he liked it that I don't get so frantic before my mom's visits anymore. Well, I have the housekeepers to thank for that. I don't have to vacuum, mop, and scrub. I do have to do the laundry. I'm not completely spoiled.

Though that reminds me that I'm running out of white socks because I've exercised so many times this week. Yep, I've exercised every day this week so far. OK, it's only Wednesday, but still, that's something. I even fit into my "test skirt." It hugs every curve, but it's silk, so it looks good hugging every curve. Yea for me. Now, I've just got to stick with that project and get moving on the other one: remember--simplify and organize. Jillian has volunteered to get me organized. This is a woman who is remodeling a new house and moving to a new city in like, I don't know, five weeks or something. OK, crazy person. I wish I had half her energy!

Well, on to the business of the day: drink caffeine, work my way down the to do list.

What's in a name?

So why cornflower blue. "Corn" for my silliness; "flower" for my girliness; and "blue" for serenity. I came up with some cool names by combining all four of our birthstones: diamond, aquamarine, and peridot (I'm the unlucky one who has peridot). I particularly liked diaquadot (pronouncing the "t"), but I like the simplicity (and the non-science-fiction-sound) of cornflower blue.

Hawthorne's school has a word of the month: responsibility, compassion... My word for this spring and summer is "simplicity." I'm trying to figure out how to live a simpler life. It's hard for me to do in the girly realm. I like getting lots of magazines and having three shampoos, 15 lipsticks, and a closet full of clothes to choose from. Variety is fun. It complicates things though. So, I'm working on it. Some things will become at least "simpler" if not "simple." My biggy is getting organized so that at least I'm not tracking ten things in my head at once. I'm not very good at doing that anymore. I'm always telling myself, "Oh, I don't need to write that down. How could I forget *that,* and then I promptly forget it. And when trying to recall it, telling myself that it's very obvious because I didn't think I'd forget it really doesn't help me any.

I bought a new calendar today. I like clean slates. Having a new calendar is almost as much fun as buying new school supplies. I also bought colored pens to use on my new calendar. (Variety gets me every time.) It's all part of the getting organized plan. New address book too--so no one change your address and mess up my pretty book.

I did aerobics with the diamond set today. (I dressed cute--even had new shoes--and put on lip gloss. It helped a little.) I have to give it to them, they look good, except that there was something about the one in front of me today that looked weird. It took me a while to figure out what it was: she had large boobs, but every bone in her chest was visible. Those things just don't go together. It looked very unnatural--because it was--and it didn't seem like she was capturing the look she was going for. It's crazy the things we do to try to look good as we get older. My nightly routine includes at least four different lotions--two for my body and two for my face. See the difficulty in simplifying. I think people who have simple "beauty routines" don't have sensitive skin and flat hair. I could get away with one lotion on my body, but I don't want to use the expensive stuff I use for my eczema for the rest of my body. So maybe it takes money in addition to glowing skin and full hair in order to have a simple routine. With my genes, it just isn't going to happen.

Off to eat my chocolate- and potato chip-free afternoon snack. I'm doing a pretty good job on my diet--but only because I count all this weekend's desserts, donuts... as part of my diet. : )

Change of scenery.

I've relocated. There were people visiting me that I didn't want to know me as well as they would know me from reading my blog. So here we are. If you need some history, you can read about me on the old blog. Picture coming soon.