Mini update

*Deep breath*

I am sitting here in the office, and the house is so quiet. Michael is away at fire drill. He is as excited as a 6 year old because they are actually going to play with real fire tonight! They will stage some burns and practice putting them out. I was just thinking I should go watch, but I think I’ll wait til they do the next one. I have a Netflix I have been sitting on for a couple weeks. I really want to watch it. I would have sooner, but the office is to cold for sitting that long. It’s a shoot ‘em up movie, so Michael isn’t keen on watching it. I will be taking advantage of my evening alone to do so. Along with 5 kitties and a cup of tea. Heaven!

I went home this weekend. Man, can I plan a day out! I packed my days just perfectly full, and I really enjoyed my visit. I miss my friends and family something horrible, but I also love being here with Michael so terribly much. Torn, torn, torn. Le sigh!

I left home about 4:30 am Friday morning and arrived in Bellevue to hook up with Autumnbear for breakfast at 8am. Then I had a chiropractor appointment, a haircut appointment (soooo needed it!) and then zipped off from there to do...well, I actually don’t remember. Sign of my age, I guess. Oh wait! I was able to hook up with my friend from Alaska until 3:30pm. She was trapped in Seattle because of the volcano, so the little bit of planned time we were going to get together became a bigger bit. No complaints here. I see her once every year or two if I am lucky. I have known here since I started working for Michaels, oh so long ago. I spent from about 4 ish until Saturday morning with my niece, brother and his beautiful wife. I baby-sat while they had a much needed evening out, and I had a much needed evening crafting and playing with my favorite kid in the world! We made a memory game and watched a movie while eating Mac and Cheese lovingly made by Beth. I even slept most of the night in her bed, although she makes my restless sleeping look like the sleep of the dead! Man, can that girl toss, turn and chatter in her sleep!. I have the bruises to prove it!

After a wonderful morning catching up with my brother, I went to my parents house. We talked and ate a late brunch, then headed to the mall for walking and to meet up with Madeline, Dave and Beth for lunch. Then home for some ohing and ahhing over the disappearing mudroom on the house. Also there was digging up of irises, black eyed susans and something else. I got to go home with transplants for the yard! Yeah!!!!
I spent the evening hanging out with a small group of work friends celebrating a 21st birthday. We went from Red Robin to a little local bar where we had a beer and participated in spontaneous karaoke form our table. The we went to the new casino in Snoqualmie and I threw $5 of my friends money to the wind as if it were nothing!
It felt great! Arrived home a few minutes after midnight and snuggled up under a warm down comforter. Dad woke me around 7:30 so I could grab a cup of coffee with him and Mom before they headed to church. I said goodbye and then drove to Ikea about 10am to meet up with another friend who was at the airport, dropping off her son. He will be teaching English in Japan for a year. We droned sorrows and caught up over meatballs in the little restaurant, and then I headed home for a pleasant evening with my sweetie.

Needless to say I am tired, but happy. I had a wonderful time, and hope to repeat it again soon. Moving has been kinda tough.
Anyhow, I will be hitting the sack as soon as I am done with this movie, so I think I will sign of and get it rolling. Toodles!

I thougth rain was supposed to fall mainly on Spains' plains.!

So I must be in Spain. Looks suspiciously like Mist to me, though. Hmmm....
I had a quiet night last nigh. Wrote a letter, downloaded some podcasts, did a lot of kitty snuggling. This morning I arose at 6am so I could enjoy the lightening of the sky with a cup of coffee, my journal and a cat or 3. I have been gathering things to do today. I want to craft a little. I have some postcards to write. I wrote a long letter yesterday in response to a wonderful letter I received, and had fun doing it! It's been a while since I simply sat and wrote, not worrying about pictures or spelling or formality. I hope to do this more often. Maybe add it to my mental list of crafty things to do.

I have been listening to a podcast called Craftypod! Inspirational. Such wonderful ideas. I want to listen to a few more episodes today while crafting. I found a great felting idea in a book at work, and want to adapt it to paper. I adhered to my 'Use what you have' resolution for the supplies except for a few sheets of paper. I know what I have, and I don't have the grey colors I need. If the craft turns out well, I'll stick a picture of it here for your amusement.

Off to clean out the chicken coop. Oh! We received our first egg from chicken number 2. It is a lovely blue green color. almost up to a whole dozen now!

I stood outside this morning for a bit and just listened. Listened to the rain on the roof over the front door entrance, listened to the red wing blackbirds and starlings. Listened to morning.

It is the little things...

Michael hung my coat and hat hooks in the shoe room last night. This morning I was able to grab both a coat AND my favorite hat on my way out to say good morning to the Girls (this is what I have named the chickens). It may seem strange, but it was so nice to have my hat, coat and shoes all in the same place. Since that in the door we almost always enter and exit by, it's great having my outerwear right there now.

Easy to please. That's me!

An average work day. Boring read.

So, my workdays seem to be about like this;
The alarm goes off at 3am. If I am lucky, there is snuggling and a little chatter before rising. I like when I am lucky! Michael takes the first shower and gives me a holler when he is done. While I wait for his hollering, I snuggle with a random assortment of kitties and think about my day. Then I shower, dress, eat, pack my lunch, drink coffee, and leave. If it is frost/snowy out, I load up the car and start it, but then head back in where it is warmer and wait a couple minutes. If it is just raining, I head out right away. On the way to town I listen to my Zune. My brother gave me an adapter for the car for Christmas, and I L.O.V.E. it! Makes the hour and 20 minutes go by much faster. At work, I spend the first 3 hours listening to podcasts on my ipod. This gift from Michael has also proved to be a life saver. I am having a blast listening to Cartalk, Craftypod, The New Yorker, and many other podcasts. I am plowing through them at a fast rate, and always looking for somehing new to try.
At 9am the headphones go away for the day. Except at lunch and on breaks. Out they come for more podcasty goodness.
I punch out at 1:30pm and head home. This is when I try and stick in an errand or three. I have found very convenient stores locations for my shopping needs, and I am doing things like getting a library card, opening a bank account at the local credit union, and mailing things, etc. All a little at a time. I get home, pet cats, change clothes, make the bed and get repacked for the next day of work. Then it's time for a visit to the chickens, a visit to the mailbox, and dinner. Michael gets home at varing times, but is good about emailing me or calling me to let me know what is going on. I spend my evening putzing around with unpacking and doing stuff that gets me settled in, and then it's bed time. Usually between 7 and 8pm.

Wash, rinse, repeat.

Lists

I have almost 2 pages of things I want/need to do. I need to start separating these list I make into 'Things I need to do' and 'Things I am interested in doing'.
Otherwise I think I will go crazy trying to remember it all.
Le sigh!

Me on my 40th Birthday

It was in December, but I finally had a free moment to do a little adjusting to the picture.

This and that.

They have been messing with my schedule at work a little. I am working tomorrow because we have planograms to set for Monday's merchandise. I hope the manager gets things worked out soon with corporate so I know what my permanent schedule will be. I have become spoiled with a set schedule. I like it, I do!

Anyhow, today has been filled with little things. I am sorting the last pile of pictures into 'things I want to have in the house' and 'things that can go into storage'. I should be done shortly. I have become addicted to podcasts, and have been loading up my ipod with fun things to listen to. I discovered podcasts on crafts, so I am going to check thoses out!

I have mopped and vacuumed the kitchen, shoe and back entrance room. I have a rug I bought for the back entrance room, and it fits perfectly, however the screen door doesn't clean it, so I will have to speak to Michael about how best to fix this little delemia. I did a quick clean in the chicken coop as well. The girls laid 3 eggs! I was very surprised to find anything. I look every few days, however I haven't expected to find little treasures for a while. Today we had three, which we scrambled and ate. Yum!

So, busy day. Michael will be home soon from a CPR class he is helping with. I want to be out of the office by then so he can decompress. I need to go for a walk and stretch out my back. All the bending over and cleaning has stiffened my up something fierce. nothing a brisk walk won't fix. And a glass of wine. Or a beer...yeah, a beer!

On Milo.

Milo is starting to settle in at the shelter. The kennel manager Jason has befriended him
and tells me he is doing better than anyone expected. Milo has let Jason pet him, and was taken into one of the meet and greet rooms for a brief time a few days ago. I was told he did very well and was all about getting the pets! It is good to hear he is almost ready to be introduced to the public. I hope good news comes swiftly for that sweet little guy.

Had a wonderful time last night at dinner with a handful of Michael’s friends. We had a birthday dinner at a place called Cinetopia. It’s a restaurant and movie theater. The restaurant was on the upscale side for looks and price, but the food was only mediocre. I don’t care how nicely the waiters are dressed, or how artsey you place the food on the plate. It had better be good. I’ll take Claim Jumpers any day. Bigger portions, better food, same size. However, I am under the impression that there is at least one screen where you can watch your movie while eating your meal/dessert and consuming an alcoholic beverage. That could be fun. Dessert and a movie sounds kinda nice to do once. Maybe a thing to do with my niece sometime when she is down to visit.

After dinner we headed home, and shortly after that, Michael was toned out, so I gathered Scrawny and headed for bed. He snuggled under the covers to warm me up, and Squirrel soon came and did her best impersonation of a head scarf. I fell asleep in no time! Michael woke me, laughing at my blanket and cat bundling. Scrawny had move out from beneath the covers without my knowledge, and had plopped himself onto my chest. Squirrel was still working hard on her impersonation. Michael brought Nini in for snuggles, and soon we were all toasty warm and snoring away the rest of the night.

This weekend has been full of tasks. I have gotten most of what I wanted to done. I head into next week with an idea of what I want/need to get done. I am down to 4 boxes, and all my pictures. Once that is done I can stop for a while. The rest of the resort will happen in the studio in warmer weather. I’ll simply need to place the few trinkets out that I want to see, and hang the few pictures Michael and I agree to look at. The rest can wait a few weeks while I live in this space and figure it all out. Last thing I want to do is over book myself.

I went for a long walk across the field and into the woods today. Found a little marshy area that I think I will keep my eyes on. I want to see what grows there.

The work week is over!

Man, I am having a hard time getting used to rising at 3:30am. I need to be up for an hour before getting behind the wheel of the car for the long drive in because there are lots of places to go off the road and down a steeeeep embankment if I don't pay attention.

The moon and stars have been keeping me company on the drive in this week. Also my Zune. And a cup of coffee. Yeah coffee! I am getting to know where things are along the way, like some gas stations and a grocery store. I am trying very hard to learn the layout of the land and remember what roads are where. Not easy for me. It will come, but I will never be as good as Dad with this stuff.

Unloading the truck at work is a weird experience. It backs down a chute so the door is level with the unloading dock. This means the floor of the truck is slanted. Merchandise tips and falls much easier when encouraged by a sloping floor. Also, we unload the truck outside. There is a roof over us, but we are not enclosed in. So rain and wind will make this job pretty miserable. Right now it is just cold. I miss Issaquah, where the truck backed up to a receiving door that opened into a warehouse. Walls and a roof make for a warming unloading experience. It also backed in level, so it was easier to avoid things falling on you. It is very annoying to have boxes fall at your head, and then chase you down the truck's interior.

My first day working, and other stuff.

It was very surreal. I have not worked in the Beaverton Michaels since 1997, and I was surprised at how much I recognized, how much came back to me, and how fast. I briefly crossed paths with my department manager and partner in crime at the end of my shift. Again, it was very surreal. I worked with Susie for over 3 years in Issaquah, and here she is again. Driving home via Costco and seeing a mix of things that were present when I lived in the area surrounded now by new things was like looking at a double exposure.I had a great day, but I am feeling a bit disjointed from all the old/new crashing into my eyes. Oh, and from getting up at 3am. Ugh. I will end up liking it, but it will take getting used to.

Yesterday was a very productive day. Michael moved my computer desk into the office, so I now have more storage. The black table my computer was on has replaced the picnic table in the dining are. That has been moved to the back porch and replaced the table that was out there, and THAT table was moved into the shoe room, where I had stacked all my boxes. Lots of furniture shuffling for one afternoon, but it sure does look all nice and spiffy now.

I never realized how much my little computer desk held. I am glad to have it back, as it has allowed me to unload a ton of boxes. I am down to 7 in the office, and a couple of those will be easy. The others will take more time and mental strength than I have today. I want to get a little more shuffling of things done before Michael gets home. I want him to have as much of his house back as possible as soon as possible, and I want my things. I will tackle the boxes in the shoe room another day.

Long and Windy Post.

I was exhausted when I arrived yesterday, and so after unloading the car I climbed into my jammies and took a nap. Michael snuck a cat under the covers for me to snuggle with. Since they really aren’t supposed to be under there, it was a nice surprise. The look on Scrawny’s face was “Wow! I can’t believe this is happening to me! Wow! Really?! Wow!” Lots of happy noises and purring ensued, and I slept a little better having a kitty with me. I miss Milo something terrible, and as sweet as all Michael’s kitties are, they aren’t him. I have had his face
staring at me like a picture backdrop in my mind’s eye. Everything I do has him in the background. I don’t know how to explain it. It’s part of the way I think, and it can be a big old pain in the butt at times. Like now. I cannot stop seeing him, but I know he is in great hands at MEOW, and has a better chance of getting adopted where people can see him. I just wish he could be here. It’s times like these that I am soooo glad I am not a parent.

We went into town in the evening for a birthday dinner with Michael’s friends. We ate at a Moroccan place. It was interesting. The seating was authentic. Pillows on the floor or low couches. We had a communal hand washing before the meal, and our silverware was bread. There was much laughter, and the food was different than anything I have ever had. I don’t know if I liked it. I think I will need to try it one more time. Strange combination of flavors.

We arrived home late and fell into bed. This morning, the unpacking began. My stack of boxes has been reduced greatly. I hate starting the unpacking process more than I hate any other part of unpacking. Especially in a shared space. I hate making people move there stuff for mine, no matter how much they say they don’t mind. Having things where you want them makes life nice. I hate disrupting that for people I love.

I tend to find I need to unpack everything and quickly put it away, not worrying about whether or not I have found the best place for it all. Then I spend the next couple of months moving things around to fit the way I function in my new space. Michael was a great help today getting things out and up, and making space for me and all my things. He was patient, which I need most right now as I do the processy thing in my head. It is a wonderful thing to have my stuff accessible again. I really hate not having my things. They are a great comfort.

Hopefully tomorrow I can get my computer desk up. That will allow me to unload another ton of boxes. I will cook pot roast and maybe see how well I can make biscuits with rice milk. I have to be to work Monday morning at 6 am, so I will have to be up by 3:30 am. My schedule has changed to Monday thru Friday for this week. I might end up having every weekend off. I don’t know how I feel about that. I haven’t had that since, well...I don’t know. It’s weird.

The shifting of the earth.

Woke up to an earthquake a couple days ago. Not fun. At first I thought it was Milo. He has taken up launching himself from the top of the fridge to the bed at strange hours. Unfortunately, it was not him. He was just as startled as I was by the shaking earth!
I hate when mother Nature cuts an hour off my sleep time. Grrrrr!

The flooding

This is what the parking lot looked like at my apartment with all the flooding a few weeks ago. Lucky for me a friend invited Milo and me to stay at her place for a week.

Hope that is over with.

I tried to post earlier but was having issues, so I gave up. I see now I can get in here and finish what I started. Yeah!
So,what I am hoping is over is the excessive snow and rain. To much water in to many forms for this girl. It was balmy today compared to the last few weeks. A fabulous high of 51 F.Practically yummy. I am at my friend Connie's house. She is making us Mac n Cheese from scratch. We shall eat and I will wait for the icky traffic to subside, and then I will pack up Milo and head for home. Yeah home!

The drive. The joy.

Michael and I looked up from our task Sunday to find it had started snowing. Again. With storm warnings. Again. So, I packed up and headed home. I left around 4:15, and arrived home around 9:15. The visibility was poor, but the roads were pretty good. That is, until 405. And 90. Then it was slushville, and people finally had a reason for driving slow (unlike before, where they were craaaaawling for no reason whatsoever, but I digress). My little Kiwi did great! I also noticed that the anxiety attacks I usually have when driving with poor visibility in snowing weather never arose. Three cheers for lexapro. It make life so much better for me in so many little ways.
Again, I digress.
I was still tense and headachy when I arrived home. I called those I needed to call, letting them know I was safe and sound, and then Milo and I played for a bit while I unpacked and wound down. Then we snuggled up for the night. After the usually laying all over me and purring session he stretched out along my side and placed his check against mine. We fell asleep, my arm around him, cheek to cheek, and I think we were both smiling! He is such a good, good cat! I love him so much!

Christmas

I had a wonderful Christmas!Michael braved the roads and came up. He spent hours killing time at Tully’s while I finished my work shift. He spent a little time after we closed the store hanging out at the registers, chatting up a few employees. They all love him, think he’s handsome, and enjoyed conversing with him. Yeah! Then he whisked me off to Mom and Dad’s house, where we joined the rest of the family for great Swiss cold cuts and rolls, drink, cookies, caroling and mingling. Lots of laughing and joking ensued, and all was white and wonderful and as close to perfect as possible It was fun to watch Madeline open a few gifts, and it would seem she enjoyed the butterfly gift tag I made her enough to play with it the remainder of the time she was there.Then the extended family departed, and Mom, Dad, Michael and I opened up our gifts by candlelight. I certainly had a wonderful time sharing all this with Michael. Of course, I received wonderful, thoughtful gifts, and enjoyed every second of Christmas candlelight. On the 26th, Michael and I headed for his place. I was a few minutes behind him in my car, and when I turned onto his road I saw his car, stuck in the snow. Okay, not stuck, but it wasn’t going to make it any further forward. Seconds later, he arrived on the ATV to pick me up. *grin * What fun! We had no power, but he hooked up the generator and took care of me for the weekend. Such a sweetie! I had a fun time riding on the tractor and the ATV, and tromping around doing house stuff. We cleared a bookshelf off and moved it into the office. It resides across from my computer, and has a smattering of my things on it. It feels really good to see them there.Power came back on a hair before Sunday rolled in, and we enjoyed Internet connection, lights, and oven usage(yeah for tater tots!). I headed home on freshly plowed roads and am here to report that it was a truly fine and fabulous Christmas for me!

I can almost touch it!

Christmas is so close! Wow! All this snow is making the store crazy full of people. I like it. I am deviating from my normal routine of not following directions and doing things I normally wouldn't. That would be not following directions and doing work that has nothing to do with my department. My focus is to help up make sales. That's it. The more we sell, the more we make. The more we make, the more labor hours we are allotted. I want labor hours so we can slap a few more cashiers on the registers. This keeps me off one and on the floor, where I can then better do my job.

I arrived back at my apartment last night to a cat that was very happy to see me. Lots of snuggles were shared, and now he his back to ignoring me unless I go near his food dish. Sigh. I sure did miss the little guy.
I will load my car with Christmas gift this morning so that I can deliver them to mom and dads’ festive home tonight. They brought in the tree yesterday, so I will sit around with them a wee bit and admire how beautiful it is. Then I will go home and finish making and wrapping 2 gifts, and getting ready for a long awaited visit from Michael. Miss miss miss him!

Home away from home.

I am at the parental unit's house. I'll spend the night here. Hopefully I can go home tomorrow. Been watching the news. There are some high winds on the pass, but so far it is not as bad as they said it would be by my house. The night is young, so who knows what will happen.

I am off to check other internet things, like mail and LJ, then upstairs I will go so I can beat Mom and Dad at a game. Might as well take advantage of my stay here and have a little fun!

Stormy McStormerson

The storm watch has been upgraded to a Storm Alert. Hopefully I will only suffer mild amounts of additional snow. However, I have been warned about getting high winds. Le sigh.

I have a bag packed in case I need to stay at the parents house, and I will call them in the morning to chat about it. I hate the thought of leaving Milo. I always hate the thought of leaving him, but I'll load him up with 2 days of food and a boat load of water. He'll be fine.

I hope I can come home tomorrow night. I like being here, wrapping gifts and being all cozy and Christmassy. Being at my parent's house does have its benefits though. Great food, great company, and usually a rousing game of cards or Fast Track. I do love my parents so! Maybe I'll stay there tomorrow regardless....it's starting to sound fun!

I had a wonderful Birthday this year. I turned 40! Yes, I was excited to turn 40. I figured I had 2 ways to go with this. Get sad and depressed about being 40 and a loser, or forget the loser part and just be excited that I made it to 40 and had at least proved to myself that I do okay all on my own.

But back to my birthday!

I had a wonderful time! I arrived at The Homestead early Friday morning to find a little bitty prezzie on my pillow. I was a little surprised there wasn’t a cat sleeping on it, as one of them seems to like my pillow and I am sure would thumb wrestle me for using rights if he had the thumbs. The gift was nicely wrapped with a note written on the outside. The inside contained

an iPod Touch!

I believe I am being assimilated, and *pauses for a moment* I don’t think I mind all that much. *grin*

The best part of the gifty was the inscription he had put on the back. It says “Ti Amo Tanto, Bimba” which translates to “I love you a lot, baby”. I think I spend more time looking at the back of the ipod than using it. Le siiiiiiigh!

The second best thing about the gifty was it did not come with lectures about proper care and maintainence, how delicate the device is, blah blah blah. He assumed I was smart enough to figure that part out all on my own, and so cut straight to the “wanna go play with it?” part. I think he was as excited about it as I was. Maybe more. Hehehe!


We went for an overnight stay at the Grand Lodge in Forest Grove. If I remember correctly, it is an old Masons building that McMenamins Brewery bought and converted into a hotel. There is a treasure hunt set up that takes you all over the grounds and hotel, which is a great way for people to become familiar with the history as well as the layout of the place. The décor is fun, with little faces painted on the pipe corners and fun, goofy paintings everywhere. The rooms are themed, there is a Japanese spa to soak in, the beer is fabulous and the food was good. I felt the service was slow, but it looked like they were having a few corporate Christmas parties, and I think most of the restaurant help was pulled pretty thin. The atmosphere was light and relaxing, and other than the rude, annoying, drunk girls and their drama in the room next to us, I have no complaints. The company was sexy and fabulous. Michael looks fine in anything he wears, at least to me. I had the opportunity to break out my little black lace dress (which I have owned and fit in for almost 20 years), my Mary Janes, and wear the beautiful tiara Autumnbear purchased for me. We had dinner around the same time the wandering carolers were in the building, and they sang me happy birthday. Michael spied 2 other women with tiaras on our way out, so I asked them if they were having birthdays, too. They beamed, said yes, and one of them asked me if I was also turning 30.

I could have kissed her!

I proudly informed her I was turning 40, and then Michael said to them “This is what you have to look forward to”. I could have kissed him right there! He always says such wonderful things, at such perfect times. I did kiss him, but later.

The rest of the weekend went wonderfully, with my Christmas gift being found and purchased, snow making his place all pretty, kitties snuggling with us, us snuggling with each other, and and and.
It was a great birthday weekend, and I enjoyed it so much! Maybe I can turn 40 again next year.

Hi Mom!!!

Yet another journaling tool in which I can bore the masses with my brain drivel. Go me!!!!