10 Best

I was speaking to my much older brother (jokes) on Father's Day and he mentioned that my nephew would be turning 16 soon.  As we started down the usual path of my how time flies, I stopped and said, "well I hope you told him this is it. He's got 10 good years!"

You remember my brother, right?

We went on to analyze the triumphs of turning 16 and enjoying the last year's of high school (in our case that meant partying). Then moving on to the freedom and independence that college brings (aka better parties) and then the joy and ignorance which is early twenties (parties every night of the week). That's when you think you are grown, but you are still having a lot of fun and that's the first sign that you are not grown!

We reminisced about turning 25 and being able to rent a car with no hassles and more importantly get into the 25 and over clubs (do those still exist?).  At any rate, I know I did it up right in my 10 Best.  Everything wasn't coming up roses all the time, and the scars of romantic trauma may live on indefinitely, but damn I had fun! 

I once had to make a list of goals for this very serious seminar and I listed as my main goal to, have fun and be fun". This goal was not welcomed enthusiastically by the 40 somethings leading the seminars.  I of course thought, you don't get it because you haven't committed to having fun.  Fun is a state of mind a choice. So, just choose it!

Fast forward to 41 years old and fun is definitely a choice.  The only problem is all the other choices that have to be made for me and my family.  Oh there is certainly still fun to be had.  Just ask anyone sitting near my crew at the Beyonce concert (correction, standing cause sitting down would have been heresy).  But that fun required two or more months of planning. 

School ends tomorrow and I've been counting down to the start of summer as if I was the student.  Now it's here and I realize I've planned a summer of fun for Duckie and diddly squat for me.  I saved, begged and borrowed to give her a summer to remember (sleep away camp then day camp then sleep away camp again).  But when I think about summer plans for myself, I'm much less willing to come up with the cash.

So this is a wake up call to myself and to anyone else out there.  Let's choose fun, no matter how much planning it requires.  We owe it to ourselves to show the next generation that an old school party is a new school party and a new school party don't stop! (Sing it with me).

Right, so 4 minutes left before school pick up. I've got to run, but hit me up if you want to participate in some summer FUN. Talk soon ... BMK

So, what do you do for, ummm … like work?

Many people ask me, “What do you do?”  Or, “So what are you doing now?  And the classic, “Are you looking for work?”  And I realize most people, even friends and family don’t realize what I do. 

Here’s what I do:  I buy real estate, I fix it up and I rent it out.  Sometimes as normal apartments and in the case of one property as a vacation rental home in Florida.  Then when a better deal comes along and I need money, I sell a property and buy a new one. Repeat process.  Also, I parent… I’m not looking for work … at the current time.

As an entrepreneur, unless you have received venture capital funding, people often mistake your flexible schedule as a work-free one.  I’m used to that because I’ve always felt happier working from home than in an office.  Aside from the comforts of home, its simple math.  If you are capable of managing yourself, you will have more productive hours at home than at any office.  Once you subtract the time for small talk and useless meetings, your office work day is usually cut in half.  

As the Queen of Efficiency, I prefer to get my work done in solid shifts and then on-the-go via technology.  So for example here was my day yesterday:

6:00 am up and doing Pilates while Hubby ran on the treadmill (this is purely of gesture of spousal support and by no means a recommendation to wake up at an ungodly hour)

6:45 am back in bed, because it’s too damn early 

7:30 am up and dressed and cleaning kitchen, eating breakfast, doing kids hair and helping with homework, also checking emails on phone

8:55 am 25 minute walk to/from school to drop off kid 

9:30am  PTA meeting postponed, drive to YMCA (because back pain told me not walk)  pay for kids swim team, register kid for day camp 

10:00 am 10:45 Swim Class (my back was happy I came) 

11:00 am CVS consult with pharmacist about nasal spray not covered by insurance, while checking emails 

11:15 am call Sherwin Williams to see if they have my paint in yet 

11:30 am go to Sherwin Williams and pick up 10 gallons of paint for 2 family house I’m having renovated before renting it out

12 noon go grocery shopping while talking to contractor on the phone about issues with water heaters (we bought the wrong ones), kitchen cabinet installation (light switch is in the way, electrician wants $1000 to move, me say no way), additional paint needed, additional renovation needed in basement

1:00 pm drop off paint at renovation site, talk with workman about alternative options for cabinet installation, watch him punch holes in walls and point to wires I don’t see.  Discuss need for additional floor tiles he forgot to ask for on my second run to the tile store

1:45 pm home to unload groceries, make lunch, eat lunch

2:00 pm make to do list and check emails on computer which I couldn’t reply to on the go, schedule doctor’s appointments for Duckie, update Google Calendar, notify tenant in Florida of end of lease, curse New Jersey Financial aid site for never allowing me to log in easily to check the status of the child’s financial aid application and Hubby’s 18 year old mentee for never giving me the right login info (teenagers!!!) 

3:00 pm get on Facebook and respond to messages, post to groups and schedule event 

3:20 pm drive to school for pick up (because back/hip are really killing me now) 

3:30 pm sit on playground and talk to a parent while kids play, respond to Hubby’s various phone calls and questions 

4:15 pm take Duckie to Starbucks for mommy/daughter date and then go to the library 

5:30 pm come home and make dinner 

6:00 pm eat dinner 

7:00 pm drop kid at neighbors, go to renovation site with Hubby, load two giant water heaters into truck, return to them to Home Depot.  Buy new ones and repeat process in reverse 

8:15 pm pick up kid from neighbors 

8:45 pm get kid to bed, reply to emails and text on phone while watching news 

9:00 pm watch show from DVR with Hubby 

9:30 pm turn off TV and plan to go to bed 

9:50 pm finally get off couch after talking to hubby about efficient strategies for tracking his work in Excel spreadsheets 

10:20 pm read on Kindle 

10:40 pm lights out, rue the day I agreed to wake up at 6am to work out with “him”

And then I woke up this morning (same ungodly hour) and started doing it all again.  But of course I left a little time to write you this blog post J

The Queen of Efficiency aka Busy Mom Kimya aka KiKi (at Starbucks for efficiency) has got to go buy more damn paint!!!   Talk soon … BMK

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