WHEN: January 29-30, 2011
WHERE: The Lowcountry
How was your weekend? Wacky? Warm? Wonderful? Any other w-words you would use to describe your weekend? OK, so the string of adjectives I used for this post may be a bit cheesy but they do describe the weekend Stacie and I have just had.
I know I have been largely absent from the blogosphere for the past month, for several reasons, but I'm not focused on covering the past month. My agenda has been inconsistent and at times chaotic, as I'm sure is often the case in your own life. Blogging, though often times tempting to "waste" my time on, just needs to take a backseat to life sometimes. Since starting this blog, I have struggled almost daily with prioritizing my time when it comes to blogging. It is fun to blog, I enjoy it for the most part, and I do it in large part to keep our families up to date with their children's/sibling's lives that we are living so far away from them. Nevertheless, it can become time-consuming and other things I need (not want) to do require my attention.
I make this big stink over time management when it comes to blogging and we don't even have kids yet! I really don't understand the huge popularity of blogs with younger mothers. That demographic seems to dominate the blogosphere today and I really don't know how so many moms of young children find the time or energy to blog. I guess because moms are amazing! Who knows what will become of Time & Space once its author becomes a young father.
So, I write today not to account for the days missed blogging but in a manner that is unapologetic for the things I have made time for in life that are more important. Besides, enough happened this weekend to cover in this post.
I suppose the biggest thing that happened this weekend was that Time & Space turned 1 year old on Sunday!! Now, if I can purposely ignore the first birthday of a blog about time, I think that goes to show I am beating my battle with time management when it comes to my blog.
- I have about 5 posts, at varying states of completion, sitting in my queue that I have created over the past month, none of which I have published and none that likely will be.
- I spent a lot of time Friday night toying with HTML code and trying to find a new layout theme and gadgets for a new year of my blog.
- I had a post all planned out for my blog's first birthday that never got written.
So, what about this weekend? Sorry, but one more side (yet related) note before that :)
After my failed attempts of redesigning my blog, I woke Stace up from her usual 3-hour Friday night nap, then we went to bed around midnight. If there is another area besides time management that I struggle with that most couples without children don't, it's SLEEP! I have had varying levels of sleep issues since puberty. I don't know how common it is for "sleep disorders" to affect teenagers going through puberty, but sleep was an issue for me. I don't recall many issues past puberty, through high school or college, but even since I was a kid it has always taken me a considerable amount of time to fall asleep. I was always the last to fall asleep at sleep-overs, retreats, etc. and I have always been a very light sleeper. Thankfully, I escaped the insomnia-inducing environment of a college dorm by living with my parents through college and with my wife during grad school. But almost since the day I started my 40-hour work week routine a year and a half ago, my sleeping issues have gradually worsened. They were on full display this weekend...
I woke up at 4am on the nose Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday morning of last week, unplanned and completely against my will, and never really fell back asleep. Waking up during the night is inevitable with me anymore and I haven't had a night's sleep without waking up for the past several weeks. It's not a matter of if but how many times, for how long, and is it close enough to my alarm that I can just stay up and get an early start to the morning. But last week's string of "insomnia" was particularly rough. I was entering the weekend with a considerable lack of sleep. Wacky.
Meanwhile, Stace has been sick with a number of respiratory and sinus issues for the past week and a half...illnesses that have not been what I'd consider conducive to sleeping. Saturday morning I was awoken at 7 to her ceaseless coughing, that over the past week has led me to exhibit more bitterness than compassion. After 30 minutes of her coughing, I threw off the sheets and unlovingly said something like "Well, we're obviously not falling back asleep", and I walked away to start another sleep-deprived day. More wacky.
The morning was somewhat productive at least and by 10:30 we were out the door to go on a rare "date". Since it's winter and we tend to be home bodies and most of the destinations we'd consider a date are a considerable drive, this was a 'date' by our standards. The day was sunny and warm and we were together. We drove to one of the nicer parts of towns, Mt. Pleasant town center, which is at least a half an hour drive even in the quiet traffic of a Saturday morning. There are several blocks of outdoor stores and restaurants and it's a good compromise for spending some time outside while shopping. We ate lunch there and after a couple hours of shopping we left with 5 bottles of hand soap from Bath & Body Works and a men's fleece jacket (for Stace). Wacky, yet wonderful.
Shopping at Mt. Pleasant town center on Saturday
After our contributions to boost the struggling economy, we headed towards the beach. Sure, most of our time since we've lived here has been over the fall and winter, but this was Stacie's first time to the beach in South Carolina. Ever! And it was only my third. Quite sad if I say so myself. We drove to Breach Inlet on Sullivan's Island and I convinced Stace to throw the football with me. Although it was in the mid-60s at our house, right on the beach - with the cold water and strong, brisk wind - the wind chill dropped into the low-40s. Good thing Stace got that men's jacket! Perhaps it was her compensation for taking me shopping earlier, but she played catch with me for 20 minutes in the cold and never complained then let me take a few pictures while she waited in the car. Wonderful.
Take note, Rodgers
I don't care what the play is or who it involves, no one will look better with a football during the Superbowl than this!
A good day for kitesurfing but not for playing catch
Our original plans would have sent us back home after we left the beach but that was not accounting for what happened before we had even left the house Saturday morning. We stopped by our mailbox as we were leaving Saturday morning (to pick up Friday's mail) and to our surprise we had received a gift in the mail a week early. I had redeemed our rewards through CapitalOne the week before and chose two $100 gift cards to Best Buy to put towards buying a new TV. We have been in the market for a new TV and I have actively been looking online and in ads since Black Friday. We had hoped to get something before the Superbowl but were not going to rush into such a big purchase. If we got the gift cards in time and we found something we both agreed on for a reasonable price, we would act. And then there were the gift cards, in our mailbox - half of the puzzle solved (and a week early). Wonderful!
That trip to our mailbox in the morning led us on a trip to Best Buy after we left the beach. We got to Best Buy shortly after 5. During a stop to Best Buy two weekends prior, two TVs had caught my eye that were on sale. Surprisingly, one of these TVs was still on sale Saturday night. As new ads begin Sunday morning at Best Buy, I was now presented with the decision on whether to act on these sales that may end the following morning or wait and see if a better sale came in Sunday's ad. I gave Stace full privilege on weighing in on any decisions and offered my suggestions between two TVs I favored, as objectively as I could. We then spent the next 3 (yes, three) hours carefully comparing and considering both models until we made a decision (and by "we" I mean Stace patiently waited in the theater recliner they had setup while I paced back and forth and asked the salesman questions). Stace was sick of our old TV (a 20-inch tube-TV I bought 8 years ago at the grocery store I worked at) and really wanted a big screen TV in time to watch her Packers play in Superbowl 45. This was the only way I was able to keep her in Best Buy for 3 hours without her going mad. Even with her cough worsening again and her growing tired of our prolonged stay at an electronics store, she graciously accepted the importance of spending the time on an important (expensive) decision. My wife...wonderful.
Our 20-inch ($99) TV in my room in 2003
After all the contemplations and comparisons, we picked our winner and they had it in stock. It was $300 off the original price and we had $350 in gift cards. Wonderful. After 3 hours of debating and only after the salesman brought the box out on the floor to the register did it occur to me that the size of this TV may be an issue for our lack of a truck or SUV to transport it. Due to their technology, HDTVs are highly suggested to be transported upright and we had brought a 4-door sedan. The salesman measured the box (54 inches) then I measured the backseat of our car (53 inches). Wacky. In the end, we just managed to wedge the heavily-padded box into our backseat and we were on our way home with a new TV (and me, still sleep-deprived and even more tired from the long day). The only thing stronger than my will to sleep that night was my will to set up our new TV. I spent two hours getting it to at least be functional, then it was time for bed! Wonderful? Nope, wacky.
Like a kid on Christmas morning
Before and After
We clearly have a bachelor pad now!
I was awoken at 5am to Stace coughing profusely. A week of hearing her coughing and 4 nights in a row of poor sleep now let anger outweigh any compassion I had left for her. What's the opposite of wonderful? I was being that. After 30 minutes of her coughing, I grabbed my pillow and a blanket, headed down to our couch, and told Stace not to wake me up. Like all the nights before, I was wide awake despite my gross lack of sleep, and I was now in a rush to fall back asleep before the sun started to rise in an hour. Thankfully I did, but not without frequently awaking from unrestful sleep until I finally got off the couch and saw that it was 11:30! I would never have guessed it was that late. We are usually up by 8:30 on the weekends and never anywhere near 11:30, regardless of when we get to bed. We ate breakfast at noon (Stace made us French toast and eggs) and spent much of the day cleaning the house (and cars) inside and out, shopping for groceries, and really making the most out of a bad/slow start to the day. We were even able to open all the windows in the house as we cleaned. We enjoyed a beautiful day in the 70's, with a warm breeze to air out all the odd smells that had worked their way into the fabrics of our house during the confining days of winter.
We enjoyed a high of 76 on Sunday
Warm.
Meanwhile, a massive winter storm was forming in the southwest that as of today had already wreaked havoc on several states. With nearly 100 million predicted to be affected by this storm system, 33 states observing winter weather advisories, a 2,100-mile swath of 1ft. or more snow accumulation, and some states seeing their coldest days this year, this is definitely the largest winter storm of the season and possibly for the past several years. With all that's been going on and perhaps my denial that spring isn't here yet, I haven't paid much attention to this storm but it sounds like a doozy!
Forecast (48hr.) precipitation as of last night
Wacky, warm, wonderful...our weekend. It is one that will stand out for a while and one that I am still very much in the process of recovering from/reacting to. Stace and I slept in different rooms Sunday night, for the first time since we moved here. I wasn't risking another bad night's sleep, especially to start off a new work week. While it helped not worrying about bothering each other, I didn't sleep any better. It took me an hour to fall asleep, I woke up twice, and had a headache all day yesterday. We slept in separate rooms again last night and yet again the night got the best of me. I woke up at 1:30 exhausted, an hour later cold, and at 5:30 with no ability to fall back asleep. Tonight will be night number seven of this insomnia insanity and if I don't get any quality sleep tonight...
ZZZZZZzzzzzzZZZZZZzzzzzzzzz....
HAPPY BIRTHDAY TIME & SPACE!!
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