Driving

If you drive past a school district office and see a car there really late at night, it's probably the CBO. There are two times of the year my job is hugely huge - and this is one of them. Year end is almost as exhausting and challenging as budget. June, July and August are the months that kill CBOs. Seriously. It's never-ending. But I know it will end - 'cuz it will. And soon, we'll be heading into the Thanksgiving and Christmas holidays. And I have a week off scheduled in October - traveling to my sister's wedding and then a week at home to piddle around. So some 'rest and relaxation' will be here shortly. I'm living for that.

I don't mind the work. 12-14 hour days? Bring them on! The work is great. I'm busy, and learning. It's just the exhaustion - and I know you're thinking 'well quit working so much'. No, it's not the work...or the number of hours. It's the lack of sleep in general. I barely sleep 4 hours/night. It's hard to do long days on that few of hours of decent sleep. A three day weekend is coming and though I'll be working much of it, I will sleep in 3 days and that always helps. It's that early morning wakening - should I just get up? Try to sleep an hour or so more and risk waking up feeling horrible 'cuz I might get into a good sleep and then have to wake up? Crazy....and it keeps me awake all night, once I wake up. Every single night. I'd get up and work but the finance system is down from 9PM until 5AM every night - so I can't do too much, at least not related to budget things.

The new car is fun - and I'm learning to drive a hybrid. Trying to lessen my 'lead foot' - which I swear I don't have and J. swears I do. I guess since I'm so far averaging only 27.2 MPG while J. averages 36 MPG is evidence enough. Personally, I think it's 'cuz J. drives like a little old lady out for a Sunday drive in her 1990 Cadillac Seville. Soooo s..l..o..w..l..y. (Love you, sweets!). But hybrid driving is learning to keep the gauge in the 'green' zone - meaning I'm using battery (electric) power on it's own. It's hard but do-able. We've only taken one freeway drive - we went to Manteca for dinner on Saturday evening. J. gets great mileage on the freeway - which is the opposite of what they say about Hybrids. They say in town driving is where the high mileage comes in - but for J., his tank average actually decreases after weekends in town. He's got the 'keeping it in the green' down to a science. I have a lot to learn.

H. got his braces off today - he looks great. $5K worth of great, I hope! I booked B.'s senior portrait for this Saturday - and booked a family portrait in a couple weeks at the same studio. We haven't had one in forever - we have a portrait taken at Disneyland at Christmas, 2005 - but that's the most recent and somehow, for me, it doesn't count. So we're getting a 'casual' family portrait taken. We're all wearing jeans and white (and black) t-shirts. They'll take pics of us in both and we'll pick what we like best.

They are surviving school and the trend is continuing - they come home, have a snack and hit the books. B. has been getting 16-20 hours/week at his job, which is great. He's enjoying the $$ and not having too much trouble (so far) juggling both school and work. And social life....going to the gym...music lessons...band rehearsals (garage band, not school band - he's not in any music classes this year. Long story. A novel, practically. I'll spare you.)

We are watching the Democratic National Convention 'cuz that's what we do - all politics, all the time in this house. If it's not politics, it's talking heads talking about politics. Last night, I got a bit snippy when J. had a talking head segment on his computer AND talking heads on TV. I said 'one or the other. Not both'. I can't handle stereo discussions on different topics AT THE SAME TIME. He moved to the living room.

I'm moving upstairs. Time for sleep. I've only been home about an hour but it's approaching 9PM and the sooner I get to sleep, the more likely I can try to go back to sleep when I wake up at 1 or 2.