Just Heather

I knew as soon as I was given 2 extra days to prepare that I wouldn’t use them. Now here I am with 2 days left and no closer to being ready than I was on Monday. While hubby may have been able to cross a few items off his list, mine seems to be growing like the Chinese population. “That’s my list — every Chinese person in the world.”

  • clip and sort coupons
  • organize pantry—in case they actually want to watch me put groceries away too
  • organize fridge and freezer—in case I buy cold stuff
  • put away lingering Christmas decorations (shutup.)
  • organize desk and office
  • move fridge to clean orange juice monster spilled today
  • find fabric to cover valance we’re making in the kitchen
  • deliver remaining Girl Scout cookies—both so I can get paid and to get them out of my dining room
  • sweep, mop, vacuum, and clean bathrooms convince hubby that Merry Maids would be cost effective
  • iron new outfit
  • try on new outfit again to make sure it compensates for the camera’s extra 10 pounds
  • decide what to serve for lunch
  • find out what time zone 10 a.m. means
  • have last minute freak-out preparation session with my personal, marketing consultant
  • enjoy my pre-birthday celebration with family

I’m meeting Rachael for dinner again tonight! Yay! She just told me I have to pick the place. Apparently we don’t know each other that well just yet. I am so indecisive about things like that. I’ve already picked 3 different places in the hour since I got her email.

It doesn’t help that I’m a picky eater. So you know the 3 I picked are virtually the same anyway. I have come to one decision—they must sell Coke. Not Pepsi. Coke. I don’t like fountain Pepsi so I end up drinking Mountain Dew. By the gallon. Not a good thing this week with my mind already racing.

I didn’t get to sleep last night until after 3. I just couldn’t shut it down. There’s so much to do before Friday and I’m so nervous. So to compensate, I’m pretty much doing nothing. Okay, that’s not true. I am raising my Literati rating pretty decently.

I have been sitting on something wonderfully exciting—and nerve-wrackingly terrifying—for 4 days now. I was going to wait, let it settle awhile, and share my news once the details were hammered out. I’m just not a patient person. So here it is:

I got a haircut!

And new clothes!

And while both of those are big in my world, not exactly what most would consider news. They were, however, required because of my news. So, are you sitting down? Ready?

Really?

I’m being interviewed for CBS News this week! Not my local CBS affiliate. CBS. National. Television. Scared yet?

I run another website. At FeedIndy.com we teach people how to use coupons to save money on their groceries, create a shopping list of great deals each week, and encourage our members to use the savings and extra groceries to donate to local food banks.

A few months ago we got a tiny mention in a local newspaper. Tiny. As in off to the side of an article about someone else, it said “visit FeedIndy.com weekly.” That was it. A CBS producer read the article, checked out the site, and contacted me last week. He wanted to interview me for a story he is working on about internet coupons. I didn’t know what to do. I kind of freaked out. I didn’t respond.

Lucky for me one of my favorite bloggers is starting a media company. I decided to tap into his expertise. He is now officially my personal media consultant. After being coached via IM (is there any other way?), I emailed the producer, using Genuine’s words verbatim. He responded immediately to set up a phone interview for the very next day.

Armed with my notes from Genuine, I paced waiting for 2:00 to hit. The interview/conversation flowed smoothly. I had my message right in front of me and answered every question without hesitation. I didn’t even use “um” once! One of his questions was “What does your husband think of all this?” It was fun to tell him that not only does Spencer appreciate every penny I save on groceries, but he’s my webmaster and tech support. He designed my website and keeps it working for me. At the end of the phone call, he asked if he could bring a news crew to my home for an interview.

He also wants shots of me feeding my girls lunch. In addition to the home interview, he wants to follow me around on a shopping trip. I was pretty terrified the store would run one of their stupid “store brand week” ads, but the sales are plentiful and the savings will be impressive. This was all supposed to happen on Wednesday, but it looks like we’re rescheduling for Friday. The reporter had to leave town and he hasn’t heard back from the grocery store for approval.

I’m actually relieved. I was am being neurotic about the house. It will be on television, so I’m guessing the juice stains on the carpet and crayon on the walls should probably go. Plus my office is an absolute disaster—on a regular basis—and since he asked where I work I was afraid he’d want some goofy shots of me at my computer. Now I have a little more time to get things done.

Twenty bucks I’m still running around like an idiot on Thursday Night. They don’t call me the Procrastination Queen for nothing.

The Very Hungry Caterpillar
as read by Brenia Sokol

Hunry, hunry, hunry.
Hunry, hunry, hunry.
Hunry, hunry, hunry.
Hunry, hunry, hunry.
Duh en!

One of these days I’ll actually participate in ANBOW, but until then my Monday morning recaps will have to suffice. This one’s a doozy, so grab a cup of coffee and settle in. The weekend started like any other. If you hadn’t checked my calendar, you would never know a Super Family Fun Weekend was about to occur. We had our typical fast, cheap and easy Friday dinner, followed by my weekly sleep day. I get Saturdays; he gets Sundays.

As per our arrangement, Saturday starts with the kids waking me up and me kicking Spencer until he gets out of bed. Then I snuggle in for a few more hours of uninterrupted guilt-free extra sleep. This is the one day of the week I get to wake up, shower, and get ready without a tagalong. In fact, this is generally the one day a week I actually get to shower before naptime. While the sleeping in may not be all it’s cracked up to be, this is bliss!

After lunch, I run my weekly errands. This day was no exception. What made it so great was a serendipitous meeting with someone who works at the newspaper delivery station. I have been going through their old paper stacks for 6 months to get my weekly coupons. Last week, the station manager kicked me out, saying it was for employees only. The lady I met had spoken to me in the past, and even given me her extra Sunday papers. She told me on Sunday that she argued with him for 10 minutes after I left, and that she wanted to help. I typically pick up 15 papers each week. Some for my personal use, some for my sister, and some to get extra freebies for food banks. She is working out getting me way more than I could have ever collected in the newspaper bins.

After my errands, it was back home to prepare for the first phase of Super Family Fun Weekend—SuperCross 2005! This was my 5th SuperCross, and it started quite by accident. The first year my father-in-law was all excited because he was getting tickets for Valentine’s Day. He asked if we’d like to go. Spencer said sure, which made his dad very happy. A few weeks later, his wife calls me to make sure we really wanted to go before she bought tickets. I said if Spencer said we’d go I guess he wants to and double checked the calendar. Spencer’s sisters would babysit, so we were set.

Spencer had no idea what I was talking about when I told him we had tickets. No recollection whatsoever of the conversation. Since his dad was so excited about the opportunity to share this with us, we decided to go anyway. It was so cool! At least I thought so. Spencer? Not so much. He stays home with the girls now and his little sisters come along. There is just something so exciting about the buzz of all those motorcycles flying through the air. I look forward to it every year.

Ricky Carmichael is back from last year’s injury and kicking butt. As expected, he flew right passed the competition, including our Hoosier boy, Mike LaRocco.


And now, for your viewing pleasure, SuperCross 2005 pictures (click to bigify). And picture me right there in the middle!

To balance out the hick, I rounded out the weekend on Sunday with a Symphony Orchestra Concert. My Brownie troop finished up our Sounds of Music Try-It with the Family Fun Concert. The symphony opened with the Star Wars theme. I was still waiting for late Brownies, but rushed Stacia inside to hear it. After giving up on the ones who were now 40 minutes late, I joined the girls. Stacia leans over to me to whisper “They just played Star Wars! It sounded just like it!” We’re raising such geeks.

The orchestra went on to play some classics, like Beethoven and Pachelbel. The kids were invited onto the stage to hear the music from the orchestra’s point of view. I was concerned about the length of the concert (almost 2 hours), but by the time intermission came around the kids didn’t want to leave! Never fear, I came prepared with snacks—which could only be eaten out in the lobby! The second half of the concert was nice, but not near as interactive.

The orchestra had invited 2 local young musicians to play with them. These girls—one high school, one junior high— won an award and scholarship for their musical accomplishments. They were truly amazing, but did they really have to choose the 2 longest songs on the face of the earth?! After the concert, we stopped by the “musical petting zoo” so Stacia could try out a violin. I sure hope she chooses a different instrument. The hesitant, I-have-no-idea-what-I’m-doing sound of a new violinist is not something I’m prepared to tolerate.

I hope your weekend was a Super Fun as mine! Now, if you’ll excuse me, I need a nap.

Well, that went well. /sarcasm

It started when they arrived 20 minutes late. Par for the course with my brother, though. The chicken I cooked because it’s all she’ll eat spent an hour and 40 minutes when it only required an hour and 20. I was afraid it might be slightly dry. Not so much. It was bleeding! Yuck.

So we ordered pizza instead. They wanted pepperoni and peppers. I ordered pepperoni and peppers, but I got green when they wanted jalapeno. Oops. We ate the pizza anyway and played Scrabble. A game which our 7 year old won. Okay, so I helped a little.

Once the food arrived, it was actually pretty nice. We relaxed, played Scrabble, and talked without me grilling The Girlfriend—which I was seriously worried I might do. I made my favorite dessert and everyone seemed to enjoy it, if the scraping of plates was any indication.

I sent them away with a container of my finally cooked chicken so they can marvel at my culinary skills during lunch tomorrow. It could have ended there. It could have been nice. Instead we spent 5 minutes discussing porn. I’m thinking recommending a movie to my brother and his new girlfriend was probably not the best idea.

Since Christmas I have watched Gilmore Girls in its entirety. It’s such a great show—even hubby likes it. And I’m sure that’s not solely because Lauren Graham is hot.

In the last month I have noticed the soundtrack playing in my head. Not a Hey, you post-the-lyrics-to-pass-it-on sort of way. Just that the happy, bouncy song plays when my life is good and the dramatic, what-else-could-go-wrong music plays when things get tough.

It’s why I don’t have an iPod. That, and I’m skint (it’s British).

I have said several times recently—due to local events—that I really should start watching the news. Yet I still can’t bring myself to actually do it. It hasn’t affected me too badly so far. I get all caught up at PTO meetings fairly quickly. However, I might have seriously regretted it today if not for Stacia’s wicked cool teacher.

Today is the last day of triple coupons, which means I need to get my lazy butt in gear and pick up my free groceries. It is, afterall, my job. The plan was to clip coupons and take off after lunch, which is in about 5 minutes. Change of plans. Her teacher just called to let me know they were dismissing early due to the freezing rain. Stacia will be home in about an hour. And, now, so will I.