• Job hunt equals much frustration and serious self-confidence destruction and minor depression.
• Next round of the Friending Frenzy to follow shortly. If anyone else wants in on the action, let me know. I have at least two more people interested.
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• Thank heavens for new Signing Time videos. Sophie is being terribly cute by searching the house for Hopkins (the frog) right now. I love that kid to pieces!
• I will eventually get around to responding to the recent post/poll about the crafts. I greatly appreciate all of your responses, even if it was to just vote in the poll. That helps me tremendously.
• Someone once asked how my username came about. I believe she said something like, "What exactly is a 'sm00bs'?" Well... here's the answer, because I know you're all dying to know. Back in the day, I used to have an AOL account (I mean, really back in the day). I had fun hanging around in the chat rooms there and came up with the screen name of Sm00chies. No idea why, but that's what it was (Smoochies was already taken). In the chat room I frequented, people often called me Sm00 or Sm00byDoo. Sm00byDoo stuck when I moved over to IRC (yes, I'm that sort of geek), so that was my original nick there. Of course, one of my dear friends always called me sm00bs and eventually I caved and just changed my nick permanently. I assumed he just called me sm00bs because it was a shorter version of Sm00byDoo. Apparently, while that was part of it, it wasn't the whole reason. Yes, it had something to do with boobs, even though he'd never seen mine (still hasn't). Silly boys. It's not a very exciting story, but there it is. I kept it because it was my name for years before I started LJ. I tried using ellemenno at one point, but just couldn't get into it.
• I will hopefully be posting about some of the recent campaigns for BzzAgent. I now have two cans of Oust, a Scrubbing Bubbles Automatic Shower Cleaner, and coupons to Chili's for free burgers. I'm going to do a little poll to see what opinions other people have of these products soon.
• If any of you are looking for good music in podcast form, perfect length to burn on a CD for a car ride, check out starpush's monthly release of Soundtrack. This last Show, Class Is in Session, is excellent! I know some of you share my taste in music, and even B found this show entertaining. I highly recommend it!
• One of these days I'll get around to playing with icons. I think I need a little play time.
• It's time to get really serious about my sewing. I might even take a class or two. The more I think about it, the more I want to make the Etsy thing work.
• Eventually I'll get some pictures and videos posted of Sophie. I just have to get the videos uploaded and go through the pictures.
• Gah. Much stress weighing be down right now.

• We're having a bit of a rough time adjusting and the postpartum blues have set in pretty hardcore. Thankfully, they're not the get-that-thing-away-from-me sort, but rather the can't-get-enough-of-her sort.
• Our first baby pictures arrived in the mail today and I have to admit (even if I am a little biased), she is one adorable little girl. B still has to upload pictures from the hospital, and his mother has taken several photos as well. I still need to get my camera base hooked up so I can charge my camera.
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• My back now has a pain in the middle where I had my fun little shot.
• The baby was delivered C-Section with little labor (could possibly explain why she's so beautiful - no cone head). I would say more details to follow, but honestly, I remember very little of my hospital stay. I had some absolutely wonderful nurses but I also had some horrible nurses. I want to thank all the women at the hospital who helped me. Some of them were so kind and helpful and they made my stay that much easier. The baby had the same issue with nurses. I want to thank all the nursery nurses who were so good with her and helped me learn more about her.
• Mommy is very tired and still recuperating. Baby is well behaved, though (thankfully).
• B has been so incredibly helpful. I love this man so much. He is absolutely adorable with the baby and has been so patient with all of us. I'm sure he's going nuts having to deal with us all the time, especially when I get all teary.
• The nursery is almost all put together. We need to find a home for the diapers, still need to find a changing pad for the table we bought at IKEA (apparently it's not a standard size), need to put the playpen we picked up on eBay back in the carrying case ($40! What a bargain!), need to put up the picket fence and all the bugs, and then I think it will be done. The baby is sleeping in a bassinet in our room for now, so it's not that big of a deal yet, but the sooner that room is finished, the better I'll feel.
• It hurts to sneeze, cough, laugh, walk, open certain containers, ride in the car, move to sit/lay down, get up, etc. I honestly don't know that there's much it doesn't hurt to do. I know eventually I'll feel better, and I certainly feel tons better than I felt right after the surgery.
• Trying to fit in two showers a day with a brand new baby isn't easy.
• Her gurgles and coos make everything I've had to endure so totally worth it.

The Hawaii trip has been moved up to 10/27-11/3 instead of 10/29-11/7. The only bad thing about this is the Florida trip was changed to a short drive to Shreveport (10/25-10/27). This now means I have to figure out a way to get from Shreveport to Hawaii on the 27th. I could fly, but I was originally planning on a nice drive to Shreveport since it's so close. Trying to make travel arrangements for trips like this can be a serious whip.

I mentioned that to a friend and he said, "So is life." I had to agree. My job and my relationship are beating me to death. They don't mix. I love B and I love my job. B is definitely more important to me than my job, although I do need a job of some sort. I'm sure he would much rather I do something that requires me to remain in Dallas. I'm also certain he would rather me have a job that wasn't nearly as stressful, didn't require so many hours of me, and paid me better. I know he wants what's best for me. I just wish these two very important parts of my life worked better together. I know my job frustrates him. I believe it frustrates him more than I do, which isn't easy to do. It quite possibly even frustrates him more than it frustrates me.

*sigh*

I know that other people have problems as well. I'm not the only one struggling between relationship and career. I know I have a wonderful relationship with B and I know I have a great job that I enjoy. I'm just sad they don't work so well together, very sad. I was hoping I'd be able to do this for a year or two, and it's only been six months. The worst part about that is that I didn't even do much traveling the first couple of months. Maybe that spoiled us, giving us different expectations or something. I know there are other people out there without relationships or without good relationships, and there are people out there without jobs or without good jobs, but I have both and can't make them work together nicely.

I'm frustrated with myself for being so naive to think that I could change departments without it affecting my relationship so drastically. I'm frustrated with work for pushing the schedule on me like they do without increasing my pay. I'm frustrated that I can't make my job and my relationship find some common ground. I'm frustrated I can't make B happier and that this is hurting him as much (or more) as it is me. I'm frustrated with the whole lot of it all right now, frustrated beyond belief.

I've just frustrated myself into a depressed funk.