I'm talking about Andyisms... they haven't stopped. Just my blogging stopped. Andy doesn't stop.
The fear of the apartment being burned down started off quite early when we thought we could pop out to the grocery store for moment with the kid home alone. We got back and the house smelled of burning. Turns out he had been lighting matches in his room and burning plastic in his waste bin. We learned early on that he can't be left alone if we want the apartment not being burned down and my dogs dead.
It welcomes us all at some point. I have been kicking this post around for almost a month now. Wait! I know I have become quite laggy at posts but this one I seriously had to wait on.
Michelle, I just got your advent. I am glad you got my post cards.
Will, I had a great time visiting you and the Mrs'.
Yu, thanks for showing us around Tokyo. It was a blast.
Cameron, Yuan and Katherine.... I hope to catch you on one of my travels or one of yours.
Before I delve into my trip to South Korea and Japan (future posts... fo'real). I do have one thing to say: My aunt passed. Some people may be thinking, oh her aunt that's sad. It is sad especially since my aunt raised me from infancy through my teen years. She was the one to rush me to the hospital when I had a seizure. She was the one that got called to the principal's office when I was bad. She was my mom away from my real mom.
It has yet to happen but I am feeling a tad uneasy about it right now. I got an e-mail yesterday afternoon from the cruise line regarding a delay in departure.
This was our final day of adventuring. So we decided to go as far into West Maui as possible without breaking our car rental contract. The picture above was a little turn off that we were able to stop at before turning around to avoid the 'danger' zone of driving.
Anyone who has known me for any length of time knows about my fear of the ocean. I started taking baby-steps and learned to swim. While in Hawaii, I did the unthinkable and went snorkeling. I actually swam out, away from the boat, on my own and looked into the ocean. I got to see the wonder and beauty that I was only able to see through fish tanks before. I got to swim through a bunch of little fish and I loved it. I was scared to death when I got in the water but after my panic subsided and by breathing returned to normal I was off exploring INSIDE the ocean.
I am hoping to continue snorkeling when I go on other adventures. Being able to see life underwater was life changing and inspired me to face my fears more often. I hope to have the opportunity to go underwater again in the future. Maybe on my next vacation!
More on facing my fears in Hawaii will be coming up soon as soon as this blog challenge is over. I plan to upload some video I was able to take while snorkeling too.
Snarky, my dog was on the side of the bed I woke up on, that's a good thing. Nothing like waking up next to undying loyalty and wagging tails right? The morning started out so nicely, I was looking forward to work and later pottery. I was looking forward to the child returning to school until I was reminded what a pill it is to get him going to school. So my mood quickly shifted to snarky and seems to have stayed with me. I left while he was in the midst of his school routine, not listening, lolly gagging and running late as usual.
I feel like Hank right now.
Any moment now I feel like I could just be less helpful than I tend to be at work. Or tell a co-worker to shut up because I am tired of hearing about their children. There is a child in my house, I don't want to hear, see or be around others when I am at work. Work is the great escape and I like my job. Well at least until recently.
Diabetes sucks, runs in the family but from what I gather it can happen to anyone if they let their weight climb above what is normal. Let me clarify, I am talking Type 2 Diabetes. My grandmother lived a long life for someone who had Type 2. Though, she did succumb to complications of diabetes (coupled with the incompetence of the hospital she was at). My grandmother ended up in an out of the hospital for about two weeks before they finally amputated her leg. Her old, frail body just didn't bounce back so well after the surgery and she passed away.
I don't want to go out suffering like that and I don't want any other relatives to suffer the same fate. My mom and sister are right on the border edge of Type 2 if they don't watch their diet and health; they will end up with diabetes. But my uncle who is more like a brother than an uncle has had Type 2 for some time now. Though it's sad to say, I have always known in the back of my mind he would probably be the first to go out of my grandmother's children from natural causes. Diabetes is a bitch and you gotta stay on top of your diet and medications to control it.
I was a lazy shit this week. I didn't run since last week, not once, until today. My sister, who doesn't run, decided to come run along with me. She had her best mile time in, well, since ever! I had a nice shower and said my goodbyes to my mister and his son. Went on my way to a Pampered Chef Party... I promised I would. So off I went to have my shower; so my sister could take me with, to her house and then have her shower too. The plan was we could go to the party from her house after her shower.
I waited at her house while I had a nice long chat with her room mate. This is her first year teaching and she has a bit of a tough student. Andy's teacher is also in her first year, having a tough student being none other than Andy. After my sister had her shower we headed over to the glorified Tupperware Party. By this time (11.30) I was famished. A 5k run, only a smoothy in my belly; I was looking forward to the snacks these parties provide. I was considering what to pile onto my second cake-slice sized plate of food when I heard my phone ring.
She said: "Introspection and Action The first is easy the second comes hard to most. And far too easy for some. Easy like a snake sloughing off it's old skin to let the new one shine. Leaving the old shell behind gets harder with age/time. Connections have become fewer and slightly harder to make. People get comfortable in their niche. Ignorance is bliss, which is why most people turn a blind eye to the inside. And the fear of change keeps that blind eye shut."
To which he responded: "Introspection without action is fine as well. Now, if we come to the same conclusions over and over, decide a change must be made, and then promptly uncork a bottle of wine..."
Nah I didn't go wrecking houses. But I did happen to land on this movie sort of at the right time. IF there is such a thing as the right time.
Getting married at my ripe old age of; in my 30's, hasn't really taught me any more than I already knew . By my age, unless I marry a tot out of high school, my partner will have already partnered before (several times). Sometimes these partnerings (I am making up words, leave me alone!) tread into that murky water I call, procreation.
I volunteered not to participate in the enriching, diluting or anything having to do with gene pools. One of me is more than enough (mom has thanked me, no joke). People pee in pools, I would like to stay out of them.
I back-peddaled in my personal plan not to partner with a parent. Shit happens, the dating world gets much smaller as you get older! Whatever; making excuses for myself I suppose. I still remain happily married... now I am just happily married with a 10 year old on his way.
I have to play step-mom. For how long? I dunno, I THINK just for the summer. But then again (see paragraph above) we have seen how far my thinking has gotten me. No excuses, I should have planned from day one. This could happen at any time... and that time is now.
I think I have to do right by society and the parents. I think I need to find some guidelines to post on fridge next to the sign that says:
And hopefully I won't end up in the dog house by the parents for beingstupid. Or as part of the long list of Wicked Step-mothers! My biggest fear is failure... and failing at raising kids can be pretty disastrous (or interesting if good biographies are written).
I suppose I should get back to apartment hunting... the only door inside my current place is one to the bathroom. I think I need (the step-son probably will too) more privacy than that.
Now where did I stash that bottle of wine I was looking for???
When I started work at my company my contract stated an hour lunch. After conferring with my boss and explaining that my peak productivity is during mid day (teachers and staff call me during their lunch time) we agreed it would be smart for me to have a 30 minute lunch. I love 30 minute lunches, don't worry I will get to the reasoning after the backstory. Skip forward several years, after we have gone through several HR directors, to present day. (I like our current director because he IS fair.)
"I had a terrible nightmare. I think it's cause the students and normal school craps starts up again today. But I had a dream that some crazy gun-toting student went into {name of sister's school} and shot up the place and that you got shot. And I had a nervous breakdown at work like when grandma was dying in the hospital. :( I woke up feeling scared and sad last night. Today I feel better. But make sure you have a plan of escape and I think maybe today I will type up what I want done with my remains if something tragic ever happens to me." {And run on sentences for days, with lots of ands! If you have met me when I am excited about something I literally word vomit. I type like I talk :p}
Yeah, I am scared of horses for the stupidest reason on Earth. They have big teeth!!! Forget the fact that they are bigger than I am and can trample me to death if they so desire. I am just afraid that they will bite me. I know, I know, it's probably not likely but I have seen horse bites. Yeah, fuck that noise! I don't need Mr. Ed's dental imprint on my body. Looks painful and not in a good way. So I stay away from them. But I did go see mini horse creatures at the park today.
That is not my hand in the picture but I did work up the courage to pet some of the ponies. They were nice and the guy at the pony rides said to keep your hand flat and not to lean against the fence. He said if they bite it's not because they are vicous. He said most people are being absent minded and lean on a fence and while they are not paying attention they get nibbled on.
So I learned some things about horsey creatures today. But I still think I will keep my distance, one of these days I want to hit Pismo Beach and rent a horse to walk the beach on.
Originally the plan was to hang out with my sister after work and do some shopping. Well, like most of our plans go we tend to modify our plans at the drop of a hat. SO before our adventure even started I was told we would be going to Laetitia Winery to meet up with a long time friend of mine and some of her friends from out of town. The drive was nice, traffic was not bad and the sun was not yet in my eyes. The afternoon was perfect for some wine, cheese and a little Bocce ball.
I don't even know... I mean I guess creativity is subjective? To me this thing called "fashion" is a thing of nightmares. I think I saw 3 pictures on this site that didn't cause me to get the 'deer in the headlights' stare of terror. I also want to understand why no one smiles anymore. Is it not fashionable? Will their millionz billionz layers of face paint crack. I don't even know what to say.... Seriously check out the link and stare at the pictures trying to see the vision that designers are trying to convey.... I just don't even know.
Now to make up for abusing your poor soul to the scary of what people consider fashion, I give you SPACE! Amazing Hubble photos.
So last night I woke up twice; frightened and one time choking and gasping for air. So in all three of my dreams I was near the ocean and the waves started to get bigger. So I would back away from the water that was coming cause I don't like the ocean or the cold. And for some strange reason in one of the dreams I felt a sense of panic cause my cell phone was in my pocket and I didn't want to ruin it. (Stupid brain making dumbness happens in my dream. Who cares if I have a phone in my pocket, I hate the ocean!)
Once upon a time when I first started making changes in Active Directory and remotely connecting to servers here at work, I used to get nightmares. They were kinda lame funny ones but still, I was nervous about making mistakes. So basically I started maintaining all network accounts: deleting, creating, modifying. I was really nervous about making changes that would affect someones ability to connect up to our domain correctly. With the task of managing network accounts I would have to remotely log onto servers that are not located at the district office to move peoples personal files. So I had to be very careful and LOG OFF of the server I connect to instead of shut it down. Basically, "Never, ever, ever shut down the servers." --- Yes that is exactly how I was told, using a very serious tone.
I don't know if this applies to everyone or just nervous ninny's like me but with added responsibilities and an increase in work load I started having dreams about work. One of my recurring dreams involves me accidentally shutting down a server I was remotely connected to. Shortly thereafter, the sys admin shows up to pretty much chew my head off. Then after I get yelled at for messing things up, he chops my pinky fingers off! Yikes! I had this dream for a while and then one day I came into work and told the sys admin I was having dreams of him chopping my fingers off. He laughed and that's about when I realized that my fear was more comical than anything to be concerned with. I mean really in retrospect if I shut down a server accidentally, it would just mean an interruption in service that was not planned. No biggie really.
So that happened years ago, now at work I am the one that makes ALL the changes in AD because, well it became one of my duties. Last week our network administrator sent out an email asking all the network techs not to make changes in active directory. That all changes should go through me because after the change in AD occurs I usually have to move their group and home folders. In addition to that I also have to make sure that I update our master list and make sure all the changes reflect correctly in Exchange. So in a response to that email, I followed it up saying if they make any changes I will remove their pinky's and replace them with twigs. So the IT director who was CC'ed on this email asked me what's up with the pinkys and twigs, so I explained my silly dream that I used to have. This is the picture he sent out to the whole group asking if this is what I meant by replacing pinkys with twigs. It's good to know the group I work with has a sense of humor.
