Questions

There are so many things that make me question other things...

Long Weekends

Isn't it amazing how fast time moves. I am stunned that it is already January 20...the first "holiday weekend" of the new year. My resolution for the year is to make sure that I don't let work craziness impede on every bit of my waking hours. I am doing better than I was at the end of last year...but Monday through Friday is tough with all the deliverables in my queue at the moment. It makes me crazy -- it's not as if I work in a life or death critical environment, but I -- like most of us in this "modern day work world" -- have many fewer colleagues doing a lot more work. Kinda' backward if you ask me...but until I am a few more notches up the proverbial totem pole, I guess I have to go with it, right? Oh well...at least I am keeping my weekends for my own (mostly). Until next time....

First Day Back....

Today was my first day back at work after almost three weeks away. Greedy as it sounds, I could have easily used another three weeks. It is amazing to me how stressful work can be some days. What I do for a living is not physically demanding, but herding cats (particularly cats who can be somewhat unruly) can be challenging and most of all TIRING! I just want people on my team to come to work and do the job s/he was hired to do -- not rocket science -- but some days it truly evades people's apparent ability. And I am talking bright, competent people here! Just pay attention and all will be well! Okay...I'm done grumbling (at least for now). Until next time...

Happy 2013!

Well, here we are again...at the start of a new year. So many opportunities ahead for new and exciting experiences, memories, and events. I'm starting the year by relaxing and watching the Rose Bowl Parade. It's such fun to see all the floats and bands and crowds! Been some time since I've been to California, but perhaps in years to come the chance to go and see the parade in person may arise? Who knows what tomorrow may bring?! I have such a great feeling that this year is going to be the best in some time. Amazing to me that I am still optimistic considering how much gloom and doom fills the news feeds and updates we get every day. Perhaps the world's new year's resolution should just be to try to treat others the way we want to be treated...? Call me a dreamer, but if only... Until next time...

Where have I been all this time?

Well, well, well... Isn't that the question of the century? Unfortunately, if I told you, I may have to kill you (and we wouldn't want that, now would we?). Let's suffice it to say that I have been here on and off for quite a while...and I am resolving (again) to get better about posting on a regular basis. Anyone taking odds on how long I will be able to keep up? ;-) Until next time...

Saturday

Another exciting day in the life. Work like a crazy woman all week for the "joy" of cleaning house, doing laundry, and paying bills on the weekends. What the front door?! My Bestie and I laugh about the people who say "you can't have it all" -- okay then. How about just unlimited wealth, health, and time. That's far from everything...and I'll be a test market of one. :-)

Homesick

This weekend marks 9 years since I moved 800+ miles away from what I will always consider "home base" to take on a new professional challenge. Being in a new place has been an adventure, but there are more and more days I feel the pull of home tugging at me. I can't possibly be the only one who feels that way...I continue to keep my eyes open for a professional opportunity.

Until next time....

Still Above Ground

I was shocked to realize it has been 14 months since my last post.

2011 was not as spectacular a year as I had hoped, but I survived nonetheless. There is much about life I don't understand...that much I discover over and over again. Perhaps that fact alone is the lesson...?

Until next time...

Happy 2011!!!

I can hardly believe it's another new year...time sure does move quickly!

A new year...new beginnings...fresh starts... I read an article in USA Today about outlining intentions for the new year rather than resolutions. Nuance perhaps but I like it and think I'll sign on for that approach as a change of pace.

I have this definite feeling that 2011 is going to be an amazing year. :-)

Until next time...

Who?! What?!

It has been soooooooo long since I posted to my blog, that I was surprised I could still log in to my account! I'm enjoying some much-needed time off from my day (and sometimes night....sigh) job and thought I'd post a long overdue entry.

One of my FUN to do list items while I have some time off is learning to use my new iPad. This is work's clever plot to keeping us readily accessible, but the upside is that it is a little fun too! Perhaps having such easy access to the inter web will help me get back into the blogging groove. Right now I am struggling a bit with "autocorrection" that keeps inserting the wrong words...grumble, grumble... I like technology tools when they make life easier...fighting to get the word you want to use is not making it easier! :-D

There are people I have to deal with who I would love to have an autocorrect feature to use on them. I just love the thought of talking with these ridiculous people and being able to tap a button that brings up little boxes over their heads: "copy" (GOD HELP US....NO!) / "cut" (a little extreme, pass!) / "paste" (if I can use it to seal her lips....score!) / "delete" (again...extreme...but if only from my little corner of the world....SIGN ME UP!)!!!! A girl can dream, right?!

Until next time....

Sunday Nights...

It's Sunday night again...preparing for another frantic work week ahead...and all so sad that my two days of napping and lolling about (punctuated with laundry, dishes, bedsheetchanging, toilet and tub scrubbing, vacuuming, and other pleasantries) is about to come to a close.

Why is it that our work days are so mis-allocated? I propose that we switch and work two days a week and play for five; who's with me? :-)

Until next time...

Pearls Before Swine Says It All (Again!)

'Nuff said...

Until next time...

Still good in the world...

I was at the post office this weekend doing an automated mailing (you know, the machine that allows you to weigh and pay for your package in the lobby) when a man walked up and got in line to buy stamps. He had change in his hand and seemed surprised when someone said something about the machine not taking cash...he looked over at the line (ridiculously long, as always) and a woman at the table looked at him and asked how many stamps he needed. When he responded one, she handed him a stamp and wouldn't take his money for it. It may be a small gesture, but thankfully there ARE small gestures still going on in this crazy world we live in! :-)

Until next time...

I'm Just Saying...

Can you relate too? ;-)

Until next time....

Has the World Gone Mad? Or is it just Me?

I was at Wal-Mart tonight (the bastion of all things and people a little loopy)...and there were people out in the parking lot standing around like it was a cocktail party! I don't mean in one place, I mean several clusters of people all around, like it was normal behavior to stand out in a parking lot at 10 pm at night. The saddest part was that it made me a little uneasy. Were they just waiting for friends and hanging out? Were they there to have a Tea Party meeting (and not the kind like we had when we were kids!)? Were they plotting to blow up the Wal-Mart?

That's when I realized that the world is indeed going mad, and I unfortunately may be being dragged right along with it!

After leaving Wal-Mart proper, I went to the gas station out front. As I drove over I was thinking how sad it is that our "personal safety radar" has to be on high alert at all times. My mind still pondering the group behavior in the parking lot next door, a woman comes up to me as I am getting out of my car and starts with "excuse me...." Now the last three times that has happened to me, it was someone asking for money as s/he was "almost out of gas and needed to get home to another state" (interestingly enough, the same guy was there the next week....either he still hadn't raised enough money to make the trip "home" or he was playing on people's good nature...sigh...). My radar already on high alert, I turned to the woman and said "no thank you" and turned away, surprising myself with the gruffness of my tone. I heard her walking away saying "I was just going to see if you had a bottle of water or something."

I immediately found myself flush with thoughts...Geez! Did I really just turn away someone who really needed water?! Wait, wait, wait...Wal-Mart has water fountains...stop being silly! How horrible would it be to have no other resources than to stand at a gas station asking strangers for help? What was this woman's story? Was she really that desperate, or was she someone who chose to live this way?

While pumping gas into my car, I watching this sad looking older woman approach others getting out of their cars with the same question...many times being responded to much like I had responded to her. How else can we respond when we no longer trust other people? How has the world devolved into such a spiral of fear?

I do think the world has gone mad...I'm just going to have to find some sanity for myself at least. Who's with me?

Until next time....

Romantically Challenged

A really funny new show (that will likely be canceled the way my luck goes!) is Romantically Challenged on ABC. Check it out!

Until next time...

Monday -- Again?!

Today is Monday...all the way around... Time is passing at Mach 2 pace and yet the days sound like a bottle of generic shampoo --- lather, rinse, repeat....lather, rinse, repeat.... Mondays are one of the hardest days of the week...everything out of the ordinary that no one attends to on Fridays because we are already in the zone for the weekend comes to the forefront on Mondays...and is bigger and uglier than it would have been had it been tackled on Friday. Sigh...is it Friday yet?! Until next time...

April?! Already?!

Loooooong time, no blog! I figured I should post SOMETHING so my Bestie doesn't think I have completely given up on the writing process. It is incomprehensible to me that it is already April...I guess the old saying that life happens when you are making other plans is more true than I believed possible.

Lazy Sundays with My "Top Cat"

Truly...is there anything else QUITE as luxurious as a lazy Sunday with nothing outside of the house on the schedule for the day? Sleep is one of those treasures that has been in short supply in my world over the past nine months (see earlier posts re: heart-ripping by the imbecile formerly known as fiancee'), and Sunday is generally the one day a week I don't have to hear the alarm clock on my cell phone blaring an obnoxious reminder that sleep must end -- no matter much I want and need more of it -- to begin another frantically busy day.

After moving into my new place, it was a challenge to settle into a new routine and what felt like a cavernously barren space. When the man I thought I knew and I went our separate ways, I lost...among many things...the custody fight over our little cat who I completely adored. By his twisted logic, she was "his cat" -- even though I was the one who fed her, cleaned her box, bought her food and litter, brushed her, and loved her...yet ANOTHER barometer of his self-centered, ass-holiness!!

From the tender age of three years, I have had a number of cats who owned me -- even when I lived in the sorority house and was busy doing my college thing, I had a cat that stayed with Mama and Daddy. Needless to say, the house seemed empty and my heart was aching on many, many levels.

During a Sunday of unpacking in that empty-feeling house, I took a break to go for groceries...and in a brief moment of weakness from missing my little cat, went into Petco...and it seemed to be fate....the adorable little kitten had been found under the porch of a school out at the beach and taken in by a local no-kill group...and the family who had stated interest in taking her home earlier in the day changed course...so Daisy Mae came home to live with me a week later...and hence began our lazy Sunday (and crazy every other day too!) routine.

It has been a delight to have my "Top Cat" (my Paw used to call all the cats in my family "Top Cat" -- even though he didn't like cats -- uh, huh...riiiiiiiiiiiiight...) with me. She has helped me be able to smile again and has finally gotten over the 5 am snuggle sessions she learned based on the work schedule of her foster family. Being low on sleep already and having a spunky little kitten, no matter how much you adore her, climb on your chest while you are sound asleep and proceed to "make bread" on your chin is a little unsettling! Now she is always there when I start to wake, but doesn't come in for the snuggle/purr-fest until she sees my eyes open.

Sundays are the best because I have lots of time to enjoy just hanging out doing lots of nothing....digging the sun coming in the high window over my bed....and not fretting over much of anything....life is good...at least for Sundays, that is.

Until next time....

Not Quite What I Was Planning...

Okay...here's the deal...I was listening to Talk of the Nation on NPR (one of my favorites!) the other day and there was a story called Six-Word Memoirs: Life Stories Distilled (click there to read the article / listen to the story -- don't you love the interweb?!). Apparently there are a series of books by Larry Smith and a website called Smith Magazine based on the concept of six-word descriptors people have written about themselves. The idea got me thinking -- what would my "six-word memoir" be if I were to be so bold? Hmmmm... this is going to require some serious contemplation!

Until next time...