Just Heather

Freaking real news. If I could relax and use the time to get more prepared it would be fine, but no. I have to be neurotic. And procrastinatey. So while I have now been rescheduled once again, I’m still not ready. As soon as I clean up one mess, I have to go clean up the mess she made while I was cleaning up the first mess. Lather, rinse, repeat.

I need a plan. I’m bad at plans. I’m super-disorganized. Just ask anyone. I’d love to say that I’m making progress, except I make it a policy to be honest. Yesterday, as soon as I found out they wouldn’t make it today, I promptly took a nap—which I desperately needed since I haven’t been able to sleep much this week.

When I woke up, you’d think I would have continued with the original plan of cleaning the kitchen and clipping my coupons. Nope. I took my little one for this:

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 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.

Things I have found in the laundry this week:

  • 3 new kids’ shirts stained beyond repair
  • a Brownie Girl Scout SWAP pin
  • a Daisy Girl Scout patch
  • a whole pizza roll
  • LEI jeans—a brand I have never worn—in a size I haven’t been for 10 years

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.

This has been a horrible week, and it’s all downhill from here. I get a stress headache every night, right about now. The only thing I consume before dinnertime each day is pure sugar because anything else would actually require me to sit down and eat. I stopped writing my to-do lists down because just looking at it on paper made me nauseous.

Still—go ahead and ask me to bake cookies. You know I won’t turn you down! I have this weird urge inside me to help. Plus, since my main occupation is Mom I feel like I have to volunteer for everything that’s lacking committee members. That’s why I’m Brownie Leader, Staff Appreciation Day committee, classroom party committee, and PTO member. I can’t seem to shut it off even for a second, and everybody knows this.

I don’t even volunteer any more. I just wait for people to call and say “we really need someone to _____, can you do it?” and then—since I’m an idiot—I say, “of course!” I’d make a list of all the crap I’ve committed myself to in the next two weeks, but I really don’t want an entire front page full of bullet points. Let’s just say it’s a lot and leave it at that.

Plus—somehow—it just occured to me that the legacy album I decided to do for hubby’s grandparents for Christmas was going to add to my workload. How did that knowledge elude me until now?

After an all-night drive, we arrived in Florida and promptly got lost. Well, not really. I kept saying, I’m pretty sure Orlando’s the other way. My brother kept saying, no this is the way I always go. When we got to Alamonte Springs, where my cousin—who my brother always visits—lives I knew we were definitely going the wrong way. So we had breakfast at McDonald’s and got back on the highway, headed toward Disney this time! Our hotel wasn’t quite ready, so after showering in the pool area we headed to Downtown Disney.

Day 1 Synopsis:

  • went to Disney Quest—against my better judgement
  • made a funny song called I Don’t Wanna Grow Up that fit hubby pefectly
  • did not purchase said song because little one pushed a bunch of buttons and deleted it (well, that and the fact that it was $12.99 for a cd of one single song!)
  • got bored at Disney Quest—as predicted
  • left Disney Quest to eat lunch at House of Blues
  • headed for Downtown Disney Marketplace
  • stopped at Lego Imagination Center
  • went to hotel to check-in
  • went to MGM Studios to see Fantasmic
  • FYI—Fantasmic is not so fantastic in the rain!
  • went back to hotel soaking wet
  • tucked little ones in bed to watch a bedtime story on tv (Toy Story 2)
  • hung out in my parents’ hotel room to finish Disney Scrapbook for signature collection

My mom had the brilliant idea of driving overnight since there were 6 of us to take shifts in 2 cars. It worked out really well the first time. Then we spent 4 days at Disney World. The trip back wasn’t quite so smooth. Here are some note-worthy (or not) tidbits from our road trips:

  • It’s called cruise control, Mom. Learn to use it!
  • Note to self: McDonald’s milkshakes suck big time. (and, yes, I actually wrote a note to myself. Shutup. I was tired.)
  • The word “FIREWORKS” looks exactly like “HOOTERS” when written in neon red lights. Or maybe driving all night was not such a wise idea.
  • My brother “drives like a retarded mule’s butt.” I don’t know what that means. Ask my hubby.
  • Combining Stackers and No-Doz on an empty stomach will cause you to heave—a lot—on the side of the interstate (just ask my dad!)
  • 72 ounces is a lot of Mountain Dew!
  • It is very hard to fall asleep after you’ve spent 5 hours guzzling Mountain Dew and popping handfuls of candy corn (but at least I wasn’t puking!)

Pictures (not of the puking episodes) coming after I’ve had some time to recover.