Life is...

Rest Stop

'kaat — Thu, 29 May 2008 16:26:12 GMT

Life has come to a place of rest! A place from which to build a new foundation, to get ready for the next leg of the journey, wherever that may take me. A place to rest a bit, refresh, relax. The store relocation is complete, and I've found a new "home" of sorts there. I still hate like anything not knowing all the ins and outs of my new possition as well as I knew them in my old, but I'm learning new things, aquiring new skills, and having fun at work for the first time in over a month. There are still bumps, but I'll get over them. Mom is still in good spirits, and is doing very well, all things considered. My folks went trailor camping last week, and in spite of the weather, had a good time. They are still planning a longer trip this summer, so all is looking well on the horizon.

Limbo

'kaat — Wed, 19 Mar 2008 16:37:07 GMT

Life is in Limbo, currently, and I'm just sitting hear waiting for almost everything. And there isn't much I have control over, so it is just waiting. Mom's having surgery today, that's the biggest limbo, and we won't know the results for a while after that. The craft store I work for is moving to a new, larger location, streamlining operations, having inventory, getting a new assistant manager, and switching to Auto-Sheduling (computer vs humam) all in a two month period. My position is one of the casualties of streamlining. But, the person taking over my tasks as part of her new job description will be out of the contry for the first 3 weeks of the change over, soooo I will be doing "my" job andy way, *while* training for my new position. Oy. On the upside, negative is positive, and the reason for my Mom's surgery is better than several other potential outcomes. My house is clean, Boo is progressing in school, and I reconnected with an old high school friend, and she came over and chatted with me for about 3 hours. Which was nice. Very nice. Limbo limbo, dance under the limbo stick...being flexible in mind and spirit, if not in body.

Sad

'kaat — Fri, 15 Feb 2008 05:56:37 GMT

Life is sad when the whole family is sick for your son's 8th Birthday. Including said son! Ugh. DH was sick in bed for four days. I was sick in bed for 1 day, which probebly should have been two. And Boo was sick for 5 days, got better and now has a fever again. Grrrrrrr. On the up side, Boo got to spend two nights with the G'parents, and had a great time, giving his Papa and me some much needed rest. He was (barely) well enough on his actual birthday to head up to the G'parents again for dinner, cake and presents. I'm tired of this! All in all, one, two or three of us have been sick for over a week. I'm done. On a positive note, his sword came today! His Kung Fu teacher started to teach him a sword form a couple weeks ago, so I got to get him a Wushu sword. He was *so* happy! He can't wait to take it to class next week. I hope his teacher is healthy by then, too.

Good

'kaat — Sat, 15 Sep 2007 17:36:56 GMT

Life is good when friends reconnect. Since climbing out from under my rock, I've reconnected, and it feels good. Three dear friends who were at my wedding have responded. One, less contact, but at least there is now some communication, and some is better than none! My cousin, who I always thought was in a completely different world is more similar than I ever dreamed. I love all these ladies very much and it is the best to be back in touch. Now the upkeep! I'm trying to get at least one email out a week, not to each one, but on a rotating basis, especially to the non-tribe members. One old friend is not responding. I have a feeling this is because his life sucks right now. Or he just may want to sever all past ties, though that would by uncharacteristic, (...or not.) Or I found the wrong person with the right name. But I doubt that. Another rock-less challenge-to keep the friends I have now, make new ones, and not lose touch with them. Due to the turnover in the retail industry, I've had a *lot* of co-workers. How many am I still in touch with? None. Granted, there are only a couple I'd want to be in touch with, but I'm not with them either. Now, there are two people I work with, that I know will move on some time. Or I will. These two, it would be very sad if I lost track of them. So a new goal of mine it to keep them in my life, one way or another. Gah. Me, cheery and friendly. What is the world coming to? Heh.

Waiting

'kaat — Wed, 15 Aug 2007 15:05:15 GMT

Life is waiting......and waiting and waiting! I just got done with Jury Duty. Oy. Hurry up and wait! 2 days of mostly sitting around. Fortunately, I brought a book. Unfortunately, I finished it! At least there were some "left-behinds" and I found one that was pretty good, and short enough to finish in the time I had left. I missed out on the 2-3 week murder/attempted murder trial, not being available the 2nd week of September. I got cued up for Jury selection in another trial the afternoon of the 1st day, but it was pled out, so the last of us finally got sent home. Day 2 found, you guessed it, more waiting. Finally a group of 35 of us got called for the selection process in a drug possession case-Yes! I was hoping for that, because I know that with my beliefs, the prosecution would dump me in a heartbeat. I wouldn't lie to get tossed, but I wouldn't lie to stay on, either. It was an interesting process. First, the Judge asked if there were any jurors who would suffer a hardship if the had to serve for the next 3 days, the supposed lengh of the trial. 3 or 4 got dismissed, and 3 or 4 had their "hardship" dismessed and had to stay anyway. Some of the requests were pretty lame. Then the Judge asked a series of questions and we help up our juror number cards (I was lucky #13, and filled up a dismissed juror's spot in the jury box immediately-#11 having somehow gotten out of even the selection process) if we answered yes. Quite a list! From strong feelings about drugs, interactions with law enforcement, friends or family who aere lawyers, and on and on. They the lawyers had 20 minutes each to ask quesition of random jurors, asking us to expand on the responses we made to the first series of questions. I got asked pretty quickly about my "strong feelings about drugs" or what ever the question was. I let her know that I thought drugs should be legalized, and after a few more questions, she moved on to the other 10 or so folks who answered the same way I did. I was surprised with how many folks agreed with me. The other lawyer had her turn and then, some of the jurors were dismissed after a sidebar with the Judge. Then it was lunch-off to Chipotle again! The best thing about the last two days! Back in the court room, there were two more rounds of questioning, a couple more dismissals, and then the lawyers did their...whatever the term was...dismissing jurors from the 12 in the box without having to give a reason. As jurors in the box were dismissed, extra jurors filled in the spots. I was the prosecution's 3nd dismissal. It looked like the lawyers were trying to get rid of the extremes, and keep some sort of even keel in the jury. The NRA guys, the fundie bible thumper, and some of the others with too much personal experience with people in trouble with drugs were dismissed as well. It was an interesting process. I'm glad I did it; I'm also glad I was dismissed.

Good

'kaat — Mon, 06 Aug 2007 20:40:46 GMT

Life is good when you share one of those odd moments of complete silliness with a perfect stranger. There is a light that is long that I wait for almost every time I drive home from work after a late shift. So I sit, look around, see what's going on in the neighborhood. Last night I saw a man at the ATM across the street who was jumping up and down, punching the air in front of the machine, like he was sparring with it. All of a sudden he stopped, and looked sheepishly around. I just smiled, and it looked like he chuckled. The light changed, and as I drove through the intersection, I looked up the street to where he was still standing at the ATM, and he looked over and we shared another smile. Nice silliness late at night.

Improvisation

'kaat — Sun, 29 Jul 2007 05:28:00 GMT

Life is improvisation. I was listening to some jazz while I was driving to work, and started to think about my high school jazz band. I played bari sax. My favorite songs were the heavily chorded 1940's dance band tunes. I wasn't into the more modern melodies that were basically a jumping off point for solo work. Ohhhh ick! I hated soloing! With only the chord structure of the song for guidlines? No way. I wanted the security of the notes on the page. When forced to solo, I usually threw in some tune I had memorized, whether it fit or not, with varying degress of success. While thinking this, I was suddenly struck with how very different my views are today. When I learn a new skill, I ususally do it "by the book" the first time, then use the instructions as guidelins, and do what I like. Change an ingredient here, a stitch there. When I understand a process well enough, I frequently toss the directions all together and wing it, with varying degrees of success. And then it dawned on me that life is pretty much like that. When we're young, we're hopefully given directions and guidelines by our parents, and other teachers. As we grow older, we push the guidlines, improvise a bit, with varying degrees of success, learning to be independant. Sometimes disaster strikes when directions are tossed altoghether, sometimes not. Chosing which directions to use to guide our lives, through trial and error, through a decision to follow a religious life, a military life, civil service, or just making it up as we go along. And even in some of the most rigid structures, there is still choice. Still a chance to just wing it. With varying degrees of success. Hopefully by the time we're grown up, (are we ever, really though?) we've got some handle on how to live life. By the book, completely improvised, or how I think it works best for me, a bit of both. Now where did I put that map?

Silly

'kaat — Tue, 24 Jul 2007 03:51:50 GMT

So last night M slept in the basement because Boo was sick, who stayed with me, so I could check his temp through the night. Later, M comes upstairs, and says "It won't stop!" "What won't stop?" He has me come downstairs, and there it is. "Santa Clause is Coming to Town," played by one of those small tinny whiny sounding music boxes. And we COULDN"T FIGURE OUT WHERE IT WAS! AUGGGHHH! From the east side, it sounded like it was coming from the west side. We go back to the west side, and now the sound is from the east! OMG! It was so frustrating. I stuck my head in cubbies, between shelves, behind the furnace, and still we couldn't find the damn thing. In exasperation, I started pulling all our Christmas decorations off the shelves, and there it was. A stupid Santa pillow with a music box in the pom-pom. We think the outrageous humidity (up to 95%) must have set the damn thing off. I had to mutilate the pom-pom to get the music box out, then I had to take out the batteries befor the stupid thing would stop. The whole thing was very silly. I was giggling pretty hard by the end. (Oh, and Boo is fine, by the way. And was oblivious to the whole musical nightmare!) You better watch out!

Resoundingly Good!

'kaat — Thu, 19 Jul 2007 18:29:21 GMT

Life is good when you can go to work and enjoy yourself again! We have a new store manager (New Guy). Everything I've heard about him is good. Even the bad stuff. Which goes to show how bad the last manager (La Waca) was. According to the District Manager, the New Guy's style is almost completely opposite from La Waca's. Hallelujah! No more micro management. No more walking into work wondering who is being yelled at today, hoping it isn't my "turn". No more stopping at the front counter to see what kind of mood La Waca is in. NO MORE! Ding dong, La Waca's gone!

Good

'kaat — Wed, 18 Jul 2007 17:24:24 GMT

Life is good when you try your very first herbal tea blend, using all home grown ingredients. And it tastes good! It's a calming tea made with chamomile, lemon balm, sweet cicely and lavender. Best thing, I have enough herbs to make a good supply of it. Next, echinacea. Just have to plant some. Heh. Zzzzzzzzz

Good?

'kaat — Sat, 14 Jul 2007 18:21:17 GMT

Life is good when high school classmates recognize you and want to say "Hi" anyway. I never recognize any of them first. (The last one, I *never* would have recognized, and it took me a day just to remember who the heck she was!) Is it just that I have retained my *ahem* youthful good looks, or am I just still as much a band geek as ever? *Grin*

Good

'kaat — Thu, 12 Jul 2007 21:09:29 GMT

Life is good when you have a co-worker who can do a spot-on Sean Connery. Life is even better when he can do Sean Connery doing Jabba the Hut. Oh, my aching sides!

Good

'kaat — Wed, 11 Jul 2007 17:11:45 GMT

Life is good when your 7 1/2 year old son still enjoys running around in his King Kong underware and Darth Vader cape. And nothing else. In the back yard, under the sprinkler. Gotta love that boy!