As you all can see, I haven’t posted very much over the last couple of months. Things have been a little hectic and I figured I owe all of you loyal readers a bit of an explanation and an outline of my plan, going forward…
I’ll do my best not to get too personal, but will have to share some of my life with you in order to explain what’s been up, as of late. In addition to being an avid food eater and cocktail drinker, I am a proud full time occupational therapist. I work with children with special needs… usually autism, Down syndrome, or cerebral palsy and lots of other issues, too. For the last few years, I have been doing this extra full time: working at a school from 8-3 with some pretty awesome kids, and then after school doing early intervention (EI) from 3 until usually about 7 at night with some pretty awesome babies. I also squeezed (squoze?) in an EI session before school at 7:10 am a few days a week. I love my job and adore the kids I work with. I have been lucky enough to meet some really incredible and inspiring children and families. If anyone is interested in occupational therapy, I am a huge advocate for the profession and would be happy to explain exactly what I do or how you get to land such an awesome job… shoot me an email.
As much as I love my job, I am pretty fucking tired. And as much as I love my families, it is inevitable that schedules change and things come up at the last minute. Being a psychotic OCD control freak, the most challenging part of this job for me is not the children at all. What stresses me out is first dealing with the schedules in the morning before school, then rearranging the entire schedule ten minutes before a session because the kid puked or fell asleep, then driving all over Staten Island with completely unpredictable traffic, and getting in and out of my car which is messily jam packed with files, literature, and every toy, puzzle, and piece of sensory equipment you can think of. If it’s raining, multiply the anxiety by ten, and if it’s snowing multiply it by a hundred. Sometimes schedules get so difficult to manage that I wind up pushing sessions to weekends, too. Surprisingly, getting on the floor and working with these kids, some of whom have some really challenging behaviors, is always the easy part.
By the time I get home, I have enough time to shower, eat whatever dinner Jason so wonderfully and carefully always prepares, watch about an hour of TV (currently catching up on Orange is the New Black) and head to bed to pass out by 9:30 the absolute latest. I can’t keep my eyes open long enough to read more than a page of a book. I have no time to bake or cook anything. No time to go for walks or any form of exercise. And pretty much no time to Baconbooze.
So, I made the extremely difficult decision about a month ago to give up the after school job, and am gradually cutting down. By the end of June, I will be completely done. I am proud to say I just got my first haircut in two years last weekend, and feel that I am taking the very first steps into reclaiming my own life, and this blog.
I have about a hundred million ideas of what I am going to do with all of my new found free time… sometimes the amount of ideas I have scares me. For starters I am going to be preparing for my upcoming fall wedding (yes, he totally put a ring on it, and obviously we’re having a pig roast). I have purchased various colored pencils and adult coloring books, and the necessary candles to burn while I “work” on them. I am beginning to scan through lots of cookbooks for ideas of new recipes that I want to try out. I want to go for walks along the beach all summer long… I live about a minute away from it and rarely take advantage of it. I am going to clean the house like it’s never been cleaned before, at least once a week. Plus keep up with the laundry which has always had to wait for the weekends. I’m going to read more than one book a year. I considered trying out naps, but am afraid I will become addicted. I might even blow out my hair more than once a month… eh, maybe. Eventually, Jason and I want to have a little Baconboozer baby, so I want to be totally stress free before that happens.
And, really the point of this whole post, is that I am going to attempt to make Baconboozer into more than just a random collection of posts that I scramble to put together whenever schools are closed for a few days. I want to get better at my photography and include some photos of my own culinary creations. I started this blog out just for fun, but slowly realized how much I enjoy the whole process of it. My ultimate goal is to become the Staten Island bar/restaurant reviewer and consultant, while of course continuing to include some fun spots from our neighboring boroughs. All in all, I am pretty sure that this is going to be the best summer of my life.
So, tell all your friends: I am about to Baconboozer the shit out of Staten Island.