What took me so long?!

Oh, it was kind of expensive. That, probably. Still, though, hear me out. I moved to DC in August of 2001, and I have been flying regularly since then. I am an appallingly bad traveler; air travel freaks me out, I hate packing and unpacking, I hate that last minute list of things you need to use right before you leave the house and therefore can't pack until the literal last minute. Generally it's not a big deal when I forget things; there is almost always a CVS nearby, and who am I kidding -- half the time I'm just going to my parents' or inlaws' house.

However, work trips break my spirit. Business clothes, heels, the dread of forgetting something vital because you actually have to look professional and presentable, needing to pack in a roll-aboard -- it stinks. But I have fiiiiinally come up with A System! Note: My system is absolutely not novel in any way; I just threw money at the problem and bought dedicated travel duplicates of all the stuff I need. It's amazing -- I left last night, but I packed ON SATURDAY. This has never happened before. EVER. Look at this:


Clothes neatly seatbelted in! Shoes and toiletries zipped in on the other side!

Hairbrushes, comb, and clips zip into that little bag and the dryer folds right up!
Miscellaneous personal items on the left, baggie o' liquids and makeup on the right!
I hate this stupid 3-1-1 rule. HATE.
New makeup! Powder, blush, and liner/shadow-in-one, plus mini brushes I forgot I had! I still have my eye on the Sephora Rose Gold set, though. One of these days...


So far, so good. I zipped through the airport with no problem at all, and I had everything I needed getting ready this morning. The real test will be tomorrow morning when I actually have to dry freshly washed hair rather than just smoothing and neatening day old hair. (The degree to which my hair believes itself to be a very special snowflake is outrageous; I'm nervous about whether it will accept the new brushes and dryer.) If I actually get home tomorrow and unpack right away? Mark may even come around on The System, regardless of the shameful Ulta price tag.

Time flies when you're drugged to the gills.

So! February and March kind of slipped right on by me. It has been eventful around here. Let's break it down bullet-style:
  • New House: Ground has been broken! We have a foundation and first floor, and they're framing the second floor as we type. This is SUPER EXCITING, mostly because I just want this to be over and done with. I feel like we have been planning forever and I just. want. to get. the show. ON THE ROAD. The house is supposed to have all three floors and a roof by the end of this week, then the trades start coming in to do their things, and we have a tentative closing date in mid-June. Let's bear in mind, though, that DC has been in a complete snow drought for two years, but as soon as they scheduled a ground breaking for this house, our usually springy and fabulous March got drunk and produced three snowstorms, because OF COURSE. So, yeah: tentative.
  • Old House: Part of moving is, obviously, unloading our current house. It is a very, very typical northern Virginia townhouse. We like that it has some backyard space and a nice, open floorplan. There is also nothing original left in the joint; we have renovated it ALL, as it was vintage 1995 and seriously vanilla. We ripped out the carpeting and put in Brazilian cherry floors, gutted the kitchen and bathrooms, replaced the windows, installed an alarm system, added a deck, replaced the front door and a slider, etc. The remaining carpet in the basement and bedrooms was replaced yesterday. In short, there have been lots of projects, as you know well from all of my whining about them. Now is where we hope and pray that they pay off. Apparently we have lucked into an out-of-nowhere seller's market, as all of the agents we interviewed keep going on about the low inventory and bidding wars; they seem shocked and confused by this development after years of working in a buyer's market. We have spent the last few weeks packing up most of our non-essential belongings and moving them to storage, and now we're cleaning and staging. (We're off to Home Depot to collect flowers and mulch shortly -- curb appeal!) (This is best said with *jazz hands*.) Photographer comes tomorrow (don't open the closets!) and the listing goes live on Friday. We're hoping to walk away with a little bit of savings, so cross everything, please.
  • Your face hurts? Well, it's killing me! I have, um, problematic sinuses. I have had sinus infections since I was a kid, and I can feel weather pressure changes in my face. It's an awesome(ly painful) party trick. To add insult to injury, I have ridiculous environmental allergies. I'm basically incompatible with earth. When I worked downtown, I used to see a very fancy allergist (he was on Oprah!) who, despite doing a scan of my sinuses, never diagnosed the anatomical issues and just loaded me up on an insanely expensive cocktail of drugs. He did not believe in using older drugs with generic versions, so my COPAY was $200 for this stuff. Anyway, I stopped working downtown (and stopped raking in the cash hand over fist), which was when I had two seconds to call b.s. on this routine. I found an ENT around the corner from my house and figured it would at least save me the commute to Chevy Chase. Little did I know I was stumbling into truly excellent care with The Swamster (of @HBapothecary fame). He is no joke, you guys. He listens to you, then actually remembers what you have told him. When I told him about the CF carrier thing, he actually sat back and stroked his chin, like I had provided another fascinating piece of a puzzle. In addition, he seems to have created a treatment plan that will improve quality of life in the short term, and in the long term, maybe even diminish the effects of allergies on daily life. Part of the plan, however, was a balloon sinuplasty, and I brilliantly decided to do this a day and half before I had guests arriving for Easter at my house. Although the procedure was ... uncomfortable (HOLY SHIT it sounds like your face bones are breaking apart) and the Afrin spray they are so fond of to prevent bleeding burns like the very fires of hell itself are ravaging your skull, the recovery was not as bad as I expected. I did not expect so be so exhausted, but apparently your body responds to the trauma like you have a massive sinus infection, so there you go. A week plus out? I'm feeling like I have the tail end of a cold kicking around and things are draining that have never drained before. However, spring sprang overnight this year, so I'm still having a lot of sinus pressure and pain, mostly in the eyebrow region, and my poor husband was devastated to learn that I can still out-snore most anyone.
  • Babies and the Lack Thereof: So I'm on my second medicated cycle, and wow, you guys. The fun NEVER ENDS. I have a ton of antral follicles, so we have to go low and slow in order to avoid Octomomming me (HAAAA NO). I am also seemingly a slow responder. Last month, we did two rounds of clomid (next stop, Crazytown), but I did not respond at all, even to a doubled dose, so we ditched it and moved on to injectables. My insurance does not cover injectables, so my direct deposit now goes straight to the pharmacy. I'm on Bravelle, which is super fun because it comes as a powder that you mix with a diluent and then shoot up. Chemistry in my bathroom, you guys! Last month I did a half vial nightly, but this month I have steadily moved from a full vial to 1.5 to 2. Let me tell you, it was super fun forking over $580 the other day for a mere 5 days worth of meds. I had more bloodwork and another ultrasound today (my poor arms, I totally look like a junkie), and it's looking like another few days of meds and more monitoring. Seriously, a child doesn't even exist yet, and I'm still hemorrhaging cash.

    So I think this catches us up nicely, no? Gotta go stick things in closets because the realtor is coming to take photos momentarily. More soon...

up