Here I am, at work, day 2 of reading the internet, and luckily my last work day of the week.
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So happy that I will not be at work for a whole 5 days!!! but in the back of my head there is a little worry that it most likely will not be this slow when I return and I will have to actually do work again on Monday. whatevs.
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Tomorrow I am going on the RailRunner up to Santa with my mom, sister, and Narayan and there is a pretty good chance we will see some snow fall while we are there.
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Thursday I think I might make an appointment with one of the Luvin' Labs foster moms to meet another PalmChalski family dog candidate. Sassy's family has my information is supposed to contact me, but I haven't heard from them. I'm sure they are having a hard time giving up their sweet doggie, and in the meantime, I'm still shopping around, just in case. After going through all the photos and profiles again, I've narrowed it down to two brown lady labs: Bella and Aspen.
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David and his buddies have been tentatively planning our New Year's Eve in Wolfcreek, and just as I predicted, plans fell through. Instead, we are now going up to the Ranch, a much better solution. And now that things are in my hands, and I have the time, I'm planning for some great food, drinks, games, playing in the snow, good sleep, and warm company.
I can't believe in a few short days it will be 2011 -- it will be a great year.
So while browsing the internets today I found 100 more dogs that I want to adopt to come live at our PalmChalski Seaside Dog Villas. I've been cruising all the shelter and rescue sites the last month and it hurts to see all the little faces, just patiently waiting for homes.
A new site I found today was Luvin' Labs, an ABQ Lab rescue. They foster, place, and advertise shelter dogs from all over the state (did you know that people discriminate against black dogs and they are not as easy to adopt out as lighter colored dogs?!)
Well anyways, I fell for quite a few of their labs, but one specifically reminded me of Luka. She is the same size, a year younger, black, and A GIRL! She moved here from Alaska with her Air Force family and the house they have on the base doesn't have a yard for her and they feel terrible that she is in her crate all day and is depressed. Because she is not officially a lab in the organization (Luvin Labs was contacted by the family yesterday and agreed to put her on the site), the adoption process might be even easier.
Here's hoping!
I love her big nose and shiny black hair. Love love love.
So I have a lot of thoughts about Christmas right now, some good and some bad, but mostly I feel pretty indifferent. It's not that I'm a Christmas grinch, I just feel that the holiday would be just as good (if not better) if we all forgo exchanging presents and just spent the day together. Easter, Thanksgiving, Fourth of July, all of these holidays are great and there is no pressure buy, spend, and shop and also the final pressure of coordinating when and where we are going to see which family and making sure everyone is happy and no one feels jipped. It's a lot of pressure and I always feel like it falls on me to be the coordinator and make sure everyone is happy.
Item #2
Every Christmas / New Year's I'm reminded of my early Christmases with D. This is usually the time of year he gets cranky and frustrated and we used to break up during this week. Granted this hasn't happened in 3 or 4 years, but I just remember being broken hearted around this time and any little glimmer of stress I see in him, I get a little flustered inside. He has been stressed at work but a real champ at home as we have been planning our first Christmas Eve / Day schedule together with both our families (in the past we would do our own thing and this year we are making the rounds together and he is having to make concessions like NOT SPENDING THE NIGHT AT HIS MOM'S HOUSE ON XMAS EVE -- CHILD!)
Item #3
Why is it that all I want to do lately is stay at home, relax, watch movies and cuddle, yet we are working, sitting in traffic, running around town, and doing the Christmas party marathon? IIIIIII juuussttttt wannnnttt toooo dooo nothinnnggg (but it's against D's nature, he wants to do everything all the time and I'm a bum because I want to stay home).
Item #4
Seriously PRN? You thought that because every Dec. in the history of the company has been slow that Dec. 2010 would be no different? WRONG! Your head honcho conference pullled every supe off the floor for a week, you let everyone and their mom take vacation, you have a huge roll out, new SOP, we have to learn to do our jobs upsidown and inside out and you want to move our desks to the other side of the room?! all during our busy random chaos? Thanks.
Item #5
Luka is on Santa's naughty list and is getting a huge lump of coal in his stocking. I wanted to get him a sister right after New Year's, but now I'm not so sure. The past six months he has developed a terrible attitude and this morning it culminated into a 9am barking, snapping, cowering, hair raising, growling, peeing himself incident that left both D and me in a funky mood today. He is harboring some neurotic OCD protectiveness over the bedroom and when D gets ready in the morning (or whoever gets up first), if he comes near the bed, or walks past the bedroom door, barking and growling ensue. It sucks. I spray him, I let him outside, I spank him, I talk to him...nothing works. He gets sooo wound up over it and I've decided we need some space for a while so he will be sleeping in the office until further notice. I moved his bed in there this morning and he didn't seem to care too much bc he goes where his bed goes. The next few mornings he'll be fine (he's totally happy when we are all together and can wake up slowly and pet and relax -- part of me thinks he gets so defensive bc he doesn't want D to go to work in the a.m. and wants us to all be together all the time) but we'll see if he acts up again on Monday. People who have kids may not agree, but I feel like this is testing my parenting abilities and I hope I don't have to resort to using the water bottle on my real kids someday.....
I know that everything will work out fine and all the things I'm not looking forward to, I will appreciate in the end, but right now I need to get through the longest workday in history so I can get the ball rolling and get this Christmas cheer in gear. LALALALALALAALALALA. arg.
So David and I were on a Christmas party binge this weekend and are now paying the price. All the gorging, heavy drinking, games, small talk and white elephant gift exchanges have been replaced by the stomach flu (I feel better if I call it a 24 hour bug bc I'm letting all the germies know that they need to be out by tomorrow, but who the heck knows). Dave has it pretty bad (running to the toilet and fever/chills --- in the back of my head all night I was kinda scared he was going to accidentally barf on me) and I'm just nauseous and acidic / bubbly inside. I could probably go to work (I've used up all my time so today is probably going to be unpaid leave) but I also wanted to stay home and take care of him. I won the record with the world's longest cold (six weeks) and he was very attentive, not to mention that he nursed me through a killer hang over on Sunday, so I'm happy to return the favor for one unpaid day.
Plus, we had such a busy weekend that I'm perfectly happy to lay on the couch and watch movies all day before rejoining the craziness at work tomorrow (HEAR THIS: starting today, new SOP, new system upgrades, we are officially paperless, photo, fax, INTL and LatAm are in USES, and we no longer read out loud during qas).
We are officially in for the day and have plenty of gatorade and chicken noodle soup for all who are interested. Happy Monday!
last week D and I drove down to T or C and enjoyed a short romantic / family get away to River Bend hot springs. I HIGHLY SUGGEST RIVER BEND HOT SPRINGS BY THE WAY. It was great and quiet. The hotsprings are right off the river, the rooms are quaint and artsy and funky and clean and sweet, and there is a high priced posh Cali-kitchen style Italian restaurant to splurge on when you are tired of soaking....heaven. Also you can reserve a private pool for an hour at a time and you are out under the stars, next to the river, enclosed in your pool with a little hot water fall....bliss.
These stairs lead down to the river and you can take a dip if you dare brave the freezing water.
I just drove to Target and didn't buy one single thing. I could have easily spent $100 and come home with soft T-shirts and longsleeves, 5 scarves, slipper boots, or a bathing suit...but I showed restraint. Partially because we are going out of town this weekend and I need to have money in my bank account, and also because it is the Christmas season and I can't be spending this money on myself and then skimping on my family's gifts....Damn you Target for being so good at making me want everything.
Dear Santa,
If you are reading this, I want the brass reindeer paper weights, boyfriend pocket T's, new pajama pants, flannel sheets, and a flattering bathingsuit (we are going to T or C hotsprings on Sat.).
I have this constant wonder about what people are like in their personal time. Like people waiting at the bus stop...do they go home and complain that they had to wait at the cold bus stop? do they have wives? hobbies? are they from here? I wonder what their house looks like? how long did it take them to get dressed this morning? what were their last thoughts leaving the house?
I love people watching and speculating (errr.... judging) about the different way people live. Like there are so many things about myself that I feel only a few people know, so I can only imagine all the little secrets all of these strangers around me have. Also, I have moments throughout my life where I'm like, wow, if only the people sitting in the cubicle next to me knew this, they would think about me completely different than the quiet, private, boring person that I come off as.
Bottom line, I would much rather quietly learn about and watch other people, than divulge about myself .(For the first 3 years of my relationship w/ D, he and his family thought it was shyness, but really, they love to talk about themselves, and I love to listen...and judge. Now D is fully aware of my people watching fetish, and as a compromise, I interact a lot more). Anyways, back to my point: the downside of being a private person is that people who are my friends and family and coworkers, don't know me very well, and when I'm feeling good and happy and being 'myself' I sometimes find out that people are shocked by some of my interests, or things I do or say and then I feel like "oh my gosh, I'm surrounded by strangers, if they only knew."
So in the spirit of letting it all hang out and full disclosure, I will drop a few little Rebecca specials as they come to my mind. Here are a few to start off:
1. I love old school hip hop and R&B and tune into the 97.3 old school lunch hour everyday to go down memory lane, but then scoff at how they play songs from when I was in high school. I look forward to being old, because 'oldies' stations will be playing the songs I love from the 90s. When it was the 90s, I was in elementary school and I always said I hated rap music because my initials spell R.A.P. and I didn't want to be a conformist. To say the least, I was a late bloomer.
2. I love watching compilation album info-mercials. Rock ballads, Quiet Storm Slow Jams, Favorite Hits from the 60s and 70s, Soft Rock, Monster Jams ...they just run on a loop, over and over and over, and I stay tuned. They are the songs everyone forgot. In reference to #1, I also can't wait til I'm old so I can buy all my favorite random one-hit wonder 90s songs on cheesy compilation albums.
4. I have a memory of steel, when it is in the ON position. I think I have a photographic memory. No, I can't see a sheet of numbers and recite them to you in reverse order. The way I remember things the best is by writing it on a piece of paper, and just by seeing it, the information is printed in my brain and I have something to refer back to. I'm not so good at remembering what time I'm supposed to meet people places and I can't remember movie quotes to save my life, but I can read books and tell Dave about my favorite part while remembering if it was on the left or the right page, and on the top or the bottom. In college, I learned 25% of the material, and memorized the other 75% (I didn't know what I was talking about, I could just recall the visualization of each note card or the pages of text). Dave thinks I'm crazy that I remember so much. I feel like I can recall every moment of my life from age 4, and he says he can barely remember his elementary school years. I have pretty vivid memories of most everything and poor poor David never wins a fight because of this.
5. I sing. I sing in the shower, and around the house, but mainly sing in the car. I need to hear a song 3.2 times to memorize the lyrics, and then I bust it out. David is the king of movie quotes, and I'm the queen of song lyrics. Songs I do like, songs I don't like, I have them all memorized. I can't drive with no music in the car, I can't drive with music I don't like in the car (usually music with no words), and I have to sing in the car regardless of whether I'm driving or someone else is driving (I hold back with strangers). It's like a bad habit, but I have to be doing something while I'm getting from place to place, and it's better than raging. When I think about how I look, I'm ashamed (who cares about how I sound, no one can hear me), but I try and be inconspicuous...except for when I'm throwing down some Bombs Over Baghdad.
so let me tell you,
this past week I've really been dragging at work and to top it off, I got chewed out by a client last night, right before I went home. I was so furious I was shaking and couldn't focus on anything. My brain was whirring and when I got home to see D I couldn't shut it off. I felt bad because he's been out of town and it was his grand return, and I just wasn't in the mood.
I couldn't fall asleep because I was just replaying everything in my head over and over and David snored....allll.....nightt......loonnggg. And you know when you are already angry and half way sleeping / half way awake? I totally took it out on him, pushing him around and telling him to shut up, to say the least I felt really bad all day. When he finally left for work this morning I got a few hours of sleep in, but of course I dreamed up crazy work chaos in my subconscious. Eventually I got up and went to my sister's for lunch with my dad, and I just couldn't shake the mood.
While eating lunch my Dad asked her about a picture on the mantle that is of her standing in front of an Everest sized mountain, covered with snow. It brought back all kinds of memories and for the next hour she showed us pictures of where she lived (places I actually visitied!) and then pictures of the entire trek up to the source of Ganga River, a glacier, and then above that, the peaks of the Himalayas. She told us about where the paths take you, and how she stayed with a lady Sadu in her cave for a night and she had warm woolen blankets that were really really thick, and how the glacier ice would chip and fall right in front of her while she was bathing in freezing water....
I've heard most of this before, and I saw a lot of it first hand, but it was a great shock to my mood to be reminded that here my sister is, changing diapers, fending off tantrums, and cleaning house, but just two years ago she was making pilgramages to holy sites, taking vows of silence, living a minimalist lifestyle, and having a secret love affair in an exotic country. Wow! Like, life really changes, it's a big wide world out there, and we have to be open to adaptation. These are all big ideas, but what really hit home with me, was seeing the pictures. There is something magical in them.
1. Honorable mention at the top of this month's list: NKOTBSB
That's right. New Kids on the Block and the Backstreet Boys, larger than life (hehe). Sunday night D and I were flipping through the channels and just happened to catch the very last performance of the American Music Awards, in all it's amazing glory. Please dedicate the next five minutes and fifty two seconds to the greatness that is NKOTBSB.
2. Christmas carols on the radio. I know it can seem a little premature, but I'm so excited about the crackling fire, twinkling lights and yummy egg nog that I can't help myself from tuning into the two 24/7 Christmas stations for a little pick me up. Seriously, hearing the perfect holiday song at the right moment really takes the edge off a long work day.
3. Tea thermos. My sister called me last week to ask if I would be interested in a tea thermos for Christmas, and I told her hells yeah! Since I've been sick for the past week, I've been drinking a TON of tea. She took pity on my sicky sick self and brought it to me on Saturday instead of waiting til Christmas. I seriously haven't had coffee since Sunday and instead have had like 3 cups of tea a day, just because I love drinking from my classy ceramic tea carafe.
I have the thermos on the left
4. cheesy I know, but give some love for Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. I've only really grown to love these movies since the characters have gotten older and the movies a bit darker, so no, I'm not die hard, I would lose at HP trivia, I would never dress up for a premiere, and no, I've never read a book, but don't hate...I can enjoy a good movie just as much as the next person.
Another mentionable movie I saw with an interesting story line: 'The Kids Are All Right' Google it.
5. My friend Violet. She is amazing and a dreamer and down to earth and funny and brave and adventurous and strong and smart and a great mom and fun friend. We treated ourselves to a post birthday Girls Weekend (I am two days older than she is) in Denver. We went with no plans except to relax, stay at a great hotel, eat good food, and go to the Broncos game...all plans were wildly successful. This is our second vacation together and I felt bad that she might think I'm a huge blabber mouth, but do you have those people in your life who you feel are just appendages of yourself and you know they think the exact same way you do? and think all the same things are interesting? and around other people you can't just say every little thing that comes to your mind, but with your bestie soul friend partner, you can say anything, or too much of all things, and they are like, "yeah, totally, me too!"? That's Violet. Love her. Seriously think we are some kind of soul mates and this weekend just really sealed the deal because it worked out perfectly, almost too perfect at some points, like surreal-ly perfect. The universe wanted us to be in Denver that weekend, and we were happy to oblige.
Double Daughters - our pizza / cocktail bar of choice, two nights in a row
6. Okay, maybe not really a November favorite, but definitely a November milestone. I recently watched the very last episode of M*A*S*H. It was season 11, episode 16, originally aired on Feb. 28, 1983 and was the most watched episode in television history up until the recent 2010 XLIV Super Bowl.
This is something that not widely known: My dad used to tell me that my grandma watched MASH because Col. Harry Potter looked just like my grandpa. I never saw an episode until staying at a family friend's house where I watched a day long marathon of MASH episodes and I was hooked. That was six or seven years ago, and since then I bought all eleven seasons on DVD, one by one, and watching an episode has become my nightly ritual, and sometimes is my Saturday comfort. Most people don't understand it, and David really just tolerates it, but it's just my thing, take it or leave it. I haven't watched it every single night for the past seven years, but I've definitely watched every episode at least five times and can't fall asleep without it...sometimes I even wake up in the middle of the night, and turn on an episode before I can fall back asleep. Why? It's dim and technicolor, there is no sound track aside from the intro song, the canned laugh track is as soothing as falling rain, and the characters, in my opinion, are the most original and sincere people ever. It was SO ahead of its time. Homophobia, pre-marital sex, racism, STDs, alcoholism, anti-war sentiment, mental health problems, were all common topics as well as acceptance, endurance, friendship, etc. (Also, there is something very sexy about tall skinny Army surgeons who do not follow protocol). I'm still going to watch MASH every night, but I have officially seen EVERY episode. #1 fan. high five.
7. Coldwater Creek infinity scarf. Ok, so it's a store for middle- / older-aged ladies, but I actually found myself liking quite a few things in there while shopping with my mom last weekend. It's getting fricken cold outside and it made all of their scarves look even better. This is one I'm gonna go back for when pay day comes, and I'll probably pick up a few extras as x-mas presents as well.
8. Also in the shopping theme....LOVE Cost Plus World Market. I went in there on Sunday "just to get some ideas" and left with $50 worth of Xmas decorations (and I edited by selections about a million times just to get down to the $50 mark). I love this place. It's all stuff that both D and I like, and I could decorate our house up and down, inside and out, using only their worldly-hippie-mildly overpriced wares (some things are better bought at Hobby Lobby). But seriously, you can buy Williams Sonoma / Pottery Barn type things, for 1/4 the price. Frames, candle holders, wine, chocolate, rugs, pillows, bath stuff, pictures, dishes and kitchen stuff...just never buy their furniture. It is for midgets and you will pay out the wazoo.
I will be back there this weekend to start my Xmas shopping...it will be wonderful.
I bought these last weekend, but didn't realize you put the candle on top. In the store they were flipped the other way so I've had them with the candle inside. Now that I see them this way, I like them even more.
9. David comes home tomorrow. Technically it's happening in December, and isn't really a 'favorite,' just a VIP. He's been in New Hampshire visiting his dad for a week and I've been perfectly content without him, until today. Now that I know he's coming back tomorrow, I can't wait to have him home! Back in the day I wouldn't be able to function without him, but a lot has changed and I am happy for him to go off and explore on his own knowing that he is coming back to our house to be with me. Also, I'm happy to have the time to myself to do things I don't normally prioritize when he is home (like dust every single surface in the house and file, shred, and open piles of mail, dirty every dish in the cabinet and then wash them all at once, eat popsicles for breakfast lunch and dinner, and watch anything I want on tv). He always comes back with a fresh outlook and lots of new ideas, and I want the house to be clean and organized for our fresh start.
Wow, where does the time go?........already December. Yowzer.
