Another Day

Well the bulk of another day has came and is almost over. Work today was frustrating, but it's over so that's that. I won't go into details. It wasn't a good day though. Days like today make me think twice about accepting this position if it's offered to me. But we'll see.

In other news, well...There isn't a whole lot to report actually. I managed to spend a day at my parents place earlier this week cleaning out my mess of a room that I left behind. It seems my parents are giving that final push and kicking me out for good. My mom is excitedly painting my old bedroom in order to turn it into an office / guest room. And so, with 20 some odd years of collected odds and ends from my life, it's time to go through it all for good and throw out what I don't need and box up the mementos that are important enough to me for me to keep. There's still lots of work to do, but I did manage to clear my room enough for my mom to finish painting & make the room what she wants it to be. Most of my stuff it semi-boxed up & in the spare room until I can finish the sorting process.

Tomorrow night I have some fun plans to look forward to. One of my seasonals at work invited me to go to the Mudhens game with her & her parents tomorrow night...they had an extra ticket. So of course I accepted and am looking forward to a Friday night out & about. Baseball isn't really my favorite sport, but it is one that I really enjoy attending. For some reason, being at a baseball game just has that feeling of fun regardless of how familiar you are with the sport. And it's nice to have something to look forward to. I tend to be happier in life when I have something to look forward to other than the monotonousness of the daily this & that. I'll talk more later...just feeling kinda blah at the moment.

Maybe an evening to sit & relax, maybe get caught up on some journaling and drink some yummy hot tea will re-charge me & get me feeling grounded in life again. I wish I could rediscover that balance between work & life...not enough time alone to do the things I need to to re-charge can throw any semblance of balance out of wack pretty quickly. Sometimes it takes a little longer than I would like to recover from it. But hey, life is all about the journey & learning what we can from it all.

Random Boat Picture

A random boat picture from our 10th Anniversary last season.

"Drink Coke for that refreshing feeling of days gone bye."

Sunday Quote Blogging

The very existence of flamethrowers proves that some time, somewhere, someone said to themselves, "You know, I want to set those people over there on fire, but I'm just not close enought to get the job done."
~ George Carlin

Boat Pic

So here's a picture of me at work on the boat...well not really working, but at work all the same.
Now Shannon can stop bugging me about posting pictures on my blog. :-)

This one is from my first season on the boat, so if I look a little younger it's because it was taken 3 1/2 years ago. And just for those of you interested to know - Randy is on the far right. He didn't like me much that year and was trying to stay as far away as possible. I'm joking of course. Imagine - in this picture, I had no clue that we would eventually be dating. How crazy is that?!

Some Like It Hot...

And some have a job outside in the hot where they get to sweat buckets. Yeah, that's me. Working on the boat when it's this stinking hot is miserable. (And yes, believe me, it is "stinking hot"! Come stand within 5 feet of me after a day like today on the boat if you don't believe me... you'll be begging me to shower I promise.) I know this job is my choice & I do enjoy what it is that I do. But it's hard when it's this damn hot...staying hydrated alone is almost impossible...asking a person to actually move about & work ropes seems like cruel punishment. Throw in keeping a pleasant attitude to talk to the public with ~ if you can manage to accomplish all three of those things, you've got yourself a miracle my friends!

Enough bitching though. Oddly enough I somehow did manage to keep a positive attitude on the boat today. It's amazing how that works sometimes. In other but related news, I applied for the manager job at work. After all of the "I want it" and "I don't want it" moments, I decided (at the last minute) that yes, it is worth applying for. And so I am officially in the running for the Historical Programs Manger job. Of course, I plan on keep you all posted regarding the outcome.

Last night I went to dinner with my parents, grandma & our neighbor. We were celebrating my parents 28th wedding anniversary. We went to a nice upscale place and had a great meal. And for a change, it was actually a pleasant evening. It's amazing how much moving out can improve a relationship with one's parents.

Well, my brain is pretty fried so I'm going to crash on Randy's futon & enjoy some Calvin & Hobbes comics. I have another hot day on the boat to look forward to tomorrow, so sleep will come early tonight I'm sure.

A Good "Weekend"

It has been a good "weekend". Monday & Tuesday will continue to be my weekend until the end of October. And I'm okay with that. I knew that's what I was getting myself into when I signed on for this job 4 years ago & I kept coming back, so it's not too bad. If I had a normal weekends off job, depending on what it was I might go insane.

Sunday I spent the entire day working on the boat. It was a nice break from the office monotony. We had a lot of visitors & most were good audiences on the boat. I had a really good time! It feels good to be able to have a good time at work...especially at a job you've done off & on for the past 4 years. I'm really thankful that I'm not bored or burnt out. Hopefully this week will be just as fun - we'll be a skeleton crew this week so I'll be on the boat all week.

Hmmmm...I don't really have much new to talk about. Life is becoming pretty routine. It's nice to know what to expect out of a day. But a little variation is always welcome too. Not too much of that lately. Maybe that's why working at camp in California was so awesome - there was rarely a dull moment! God I miss that job. And those mountains. I miss Tucson more than California. The whole feel of that city was just amazing! It really felt like home ya know? There's something about that landscape & those mountains that really appeals to me. Maybe someday I'll be able to call it home for good. Who knows?

Anywho, I guess I'll go be productive for a while. I have dishes to wash & some shopping to do. Oh yeah, and letters to be finished & mailed.

Sunday Quote Blogging

In honor of Father's Day & the Grandfather's in my life who have passed on:

"Death makes angels of us all & gives wings where we had shoulders..."
~ Jim Morrison
from his book of poetry "The American Night"

& here's a bonus quote just because I'm in the mood. This one relates to someone I've been thinking about a lot over the past couple of days....my cousin Blake - who I hope is enjoying being a father of a new baby...but maybe I'll never know.

"Come on in. I've gotta tell you what a state I'm in. I've gotta tell you in my loudest tones, that I started looking for a warning sign. When the truth is - I miss you. Yeah the truth is, I miss you so. ... & I'm tired. I should not let you go. So I'll crawl back into your open arms. Yes, I'll crawl back into your open arms."
~ Coldplay

I wonder if those arms will ever be open to me again. Time will tell. I've done what can be done...& I can sleep well knowing that. I know I'm being rather undetailed...if anyone is interested in the details that doesn't already know, drop me an e-mail or leave me a comment & we'll chat.

Howly Toledo!

Well, well, well. I spend a couple of days ignoring the urge to check my daily blogs for updates (which have been few & far between lately) & all of a sudden when I check again tonight, most of you have posted. Keeping me on my toes are you?

Randy & I had a fun evening out tonight. We went to a gallery for an art opening thingy...ate some munchies & oooh'd & awwwwe'd at lots of expensive art work that neither of us will be able to afford in the next 5 years or so...if ever. Then we went to dinner & ate some yummy Lebanese food. Then I ate a big bowl of yummy Howly Toledo Toft's ice cream! Ummmmm...ice cream!

Just some random things to blog about:

Life: It's good. Enjoying my time to relax in the evenings. Trying to get back in the habit of reading, but am finding it a little difficult. I tend to be exhausted most nights & reading has a way of lulling me to sleep when I'm like that. But I'm working on an Edward Abbey novel & he's freakin' amazing, so it's helping. I love to read & I've been missing not taking the time to get in a good read every day. It'll be easier to get back in the routine of it when things slow down a bit...whenever that day comes.

Liberty: I'm basking in the freedom of my very own apartment! I love the opportunity to just be on my own & live on my own terms. I've found that I'm being much more adult about it this time around (cleaning, cooking, grocery shopping, keeping better track of my fundage). That's sort of scary...I know if I'm ready to think of myself as an "Adult" yet. But it's all good. We all have to grow up sometime ey? I'll let you all know when I get there.

And Finally...
The Pursuit of The Almighty Dollar: I feel like I'm finally getting the hang of things with this new position at work. I've had enough office time in the past couple of weeks to get caught up on things & take some initiative on some other things that are coming up in the next month or two. Life is good. (Stressful every now & again, but good nonetheless.)

Sunday Quote Blogging

"Poetry is not an expression of the party line. It's that time of night, lying in bed, thinking what you really think, making the private world public, that's what the poet does."
~ Allen Ginsberg

Bueno!

Watching Fear Factor on the Spanish station is hilarious! Telemundo is awesome!!!!

Yeah ~ Links!

So look over there <--- I finally have links! Yeah! Shannon can stop making fun of me now 'cause I'm not cool enough to figure it out. (Okay, so really I'm not. Randy had to help me. Baby step me through it.) But after the inital "How the heck do I do this?" & "What the crap?" questions & confusion, I did manage to do most of it on my own. Yeah! One more computer fight won!

Not really too much to say. Life is good. After a couple of pretty crummy days at work last week I managed to have a good chunk of time off, which has helped my attitude immensly! This week work has been really good. Busy, but I'm taking things as they come & not surcuming to the overwhelming stress and fear of failure that grabbed hold of me last week. I'm learning the job & that's what counts. I'm doing my best - they can't expect me to walk into this & be a superhero. My best is all I have to give.

You may have noticed that I've included some political links on my page. I realize that how divided our nation is politically and I realize that some of you probably have some pretty conflicting political views from my own. And that's cool. It's pretty common knowledge that I'm a liberal girl these days. When I lived in California, I started to actually give a damn about political issues for the first time. And so I'm still relatively new to this whole staying informed about the issues thing & yes, I'm still learning about this & that in the realm of politics & current events. But my realitive newness simply means that I'm still hungary for knowledge about it all. And so my point is this: The political links I've posted aren't meant to offend or upset any of my readers (ya know, those 2 of you out there reading this). I've posted them for my own use as well as to help those of you with similar interest stay informed & connected. Take them as such.

Summer Heat 101

Holy crap is it hot! And out of nowhere! High of 92 today - and my air conditioner that came with my apartment doesn't seem to be in working condition. The fan works fine, but it's just pumping out warm air. I'll have to make a stop by the office & get maintenance on that. I don't know how long I can take this heat with some sort of AC comfort...Especially if I'm spending all day at work out in the heat & humidity.

Nonetheless, here I sit at my desk, window open, blinds closed to keep out the sun & thus more heat, drinking my second cup of coffee. I guess I'm a glutton for punishment. What can I say - the coffee addiction is strong. Maybe I should think about cutting back in this heat. A sip of coffee followed by a huge gulp of ice water. Fighting addiction to warm beverage with ice water.

Went to Cedar Point yesterday with Randy & a couple of guys from work. It was a perfect day for it! The weather was awesome (a little warm sure, but not raining or too windy). A good call to go this early in the season on a Monday. We walked right on to the majority of rides. Our longest wait was about 20-30 minutes. We hit all of coasters in amazing time! And Matt managed to escape the day without an incident involving law enforcement. Sometimes it's the small victories in life! :-)

I think I've managed to recover from my panicky attitude I managed to fall into at work the past 2 days I went in. Things just seemed to overwhelming again & it was a challenge to look at things realistically & keep a positive attitude. But I think the time off I've taken this week has helped me refocus & regain some of the confidence in my abilities to do this Interim Manager thing for as long as I need to. I'll start working on updating & revamping my resume today to turn in my application for the position later this week. Whether or not I get the position shouldn't really matter. The fact that I have a chance to update my resume & get some more experience interviewing will be a good thing for me regardless.

Sunday Quote Blogging

Our "Neoconservatives" are neither new nor conservative, but old as Babylon and evil as Hell.

~ Edward Abbey

What the?

This is really scary. Some so-called "Christians" apparently don't realize how much of a turn off this type of crap is to people. It doesn't make me want to rush out and go to the nearest place of worship if you know what I mean. In fact, it does the exact opposite - it makes me want to avoid religion altogether.

Check this out!