Furlough Day 14! Congress claims they’re making progress, but I’m still temporarily out of a job. On the plus side, I went to Charlotte for an entire 8 days and didn’t have to use a single minute of annual leave. On the negative side…well, did I mention the lack of a paycheck? Yeah.
Want to hear something really ridiculous? (I mean, besides Congress?)
When we were in Charlotte last week having fun, there was a small part of my brain that I kept having to shush. It said “just think about all the stuff I could be getting done if we were at home instead of here!” Because that’s the silver lining of being furloughed — a lot of unexpected and not-already-spoken-for free time.
But what kind of person goes on vacation to visit her family and keeps thinking about all the stuff she could be doing at home (even if it was only for brief moment)s?
Me, apparently. I’M that kind of person. Yes, you can all give me a GIANT EYEROLL whenever you wish, if you haven’t already.
Anyway, the bottom line is that I had a wonderful week in Charlotte and immensely enjoyed being with my family. And now I’m back in Houston. And we are STILL furloughed, which boggles my mind. I don’t even know what else to do at this point other than embrace the madness and start doing some of the things I thought about last week. I started making plans on Friday, which I figured would guarantee that we’d be back at work — and I’d then have to cancel said plans. But nope! I can’t even jinx Congress into getting their act together!
So here’s what I’ll be doing over the next few days unless I’m finally allowed to go back to work:
1. Making Emma’s Halloween costume! She’s going to be a bumblebee, which, I know, not the most original. But it’s simple and easy to make and she’s going to look adorable! I’m making a black and yellow striped dress, and I ordered black tights. I found a set of antenna and wings at Joann when I was getting fabric for the dress. The only other thing I need is shoes — I don’t think pink sandals really go with the bee look!
2. Going out to lunch with my coworkers! AKA friends who I used to work with and hope to again someday. I am super lucky in that I have a bunch of I coworkers who I really, really like and I have actually missed them over the past couple weeks.
3. Getting an embroidery lesson from Rachel! We’ve talked about doing this for a while — she’s an embroidery expert, and I want to learn. There’s no better time than now, right?
4. Getting a manicure with Erin! I kinda want to try gel nails just to see how they hold up, and she offered to make appointments for both of us.
Yaaaaaay for a clean kitchen counter once again
5. Continuing to make progress on my October goals! I’m 25% of the way through this month’s book club selection and today I cleared the baby stuff off the kitchen counter and all the empty space shocks me every time I look over there — it’s so nice to be rid of the clutter, which is now neatly contained on two shelves behind a cabinet door.
A girl could get used to all this free time. For everyone’s sake, I hope we’re back to work soon.
let me know how the gels go. I’ve tried about 4 times never lasted more than 3 days.. but i am willing to try one more time.