Esprit de l'escalier

Friday -Ryan’s birthday party was Friday. We had a lovely family dinner then went to see Get Smart. We enjoyed the movie very much.

Saturday -Our car was broken into. They took all my work bags (which included papers and tools) and worst of all, they took my Garmin. Mean people suck.

Sunday -Charlene’s baby shower was a beautiful success. Attendence and food were fantastic. We had a lot of fun.

Monday – Back to the grind trying desperately to wrap things up before we leave for CA.

I’m in one of those moods where I’m questioning my place in life. I know it’s probably (partially) due to the fact that I’m tired, over-worked, sore/injured and hungry…but still, it has me writing a post that I’ll probably take down in a couple hours.

Kyle sent me a job opportunity via email. No…I haven’t lost the job I have now…he just randomly started looking for me. The job I have now is fine, I’m learning a lot about stuff that doesn’t really apply at all to what I went to school for…but it pays the bills. It makes me a bit sad to think that I fell into that trap – the trap that they warned us about at graduation, “A large percentage of people graduate and take jobs that are outside their field…blah blah blah.”

The thing is, I feel like I’m too rusty to ever take a writing job again. I haven’t really written anything worth publishing in years. Granted I am still “young” and “trainable”, but with the economy the way it is, and with my interests the way they are…I doubt there is really a job out there that would both hold interest and provide a big enough pay check.

Side note: getting a house really messes with your priorities…a pay check didn’t really matter to me until we got a house and I actually needed to earn a certain amount of money. But it’s worth it. And our house looks awesome! We’ve come a long way.

I’m probably just having confidence issues…that must be it. I’ve grown comfortable in my routine (of not having a routine) and I’m afraid I won’t have the discipline or creativity to blossom in writing again.

Isn’t that ironic? I manage the critique groups for the Northwest Christian Writer’s Association, and yet I haven’t submitted anything for critique since I started. What kind of leader am I? I’m like an overweight PE teacher. “Run five laps kids while I sit here and eat my donut.”

Well, enough whining for now. Back to work. If you got this far, thanks for reading!

Kyle took me on a sweet vacation for Memorial Day weekend. I’ve always wanted to see Leavenworth because the commercials made it look so beautiful and fun. So he booked us a room at this sweet little bed & breakfast lodge called the Mountain Home Lodge. We stayed in the Mountain View Room and it was absolutely amazing. I’m going to get Kyle to post photos soon because my words can’t do it justice.

The lodge was about 2 miles up in the hills outside Leavenworth. We had a sweeping view of the Cascades and the night we arrived we saw a huge elk just chillin’ in the fields! Rumor had it there was also a bear wandering around and I immediately made it my mission to see the bear. Although, Kyle kept trying to tell me that tracking down a bear wasn’t a good idea. But I told him it wasn’t like I was going to walk up and pet it. I just wanted to see it.

In the meantime, we relaxed, played games, went hiking and explored Leavenworth (the delightful Bavarian village). I’ve got to be honest though…I was slightly disappointed by the town…it felt really staged, kind of like Disneyland. It was too touristy. But we still enjoyed some amazing food and had a great time walking around, people watching.

The best meals we had all weekend were at the lodge. They have this top-notch, five-star, award-winning chef. The food was a-mazing! Three course meals, hors d’oeuvres and your choice of wines. Stunning scenery, cozy accommodations, (the room had music, super soft robes, bath sheets for the spa, port for two and amazing carpet) and we are definitely going to be visiting again.

We met a variety of people. One couple had just been married and were staying in one of the cabins. They didn’t see the bear. There was a couple celebrating their 66th wedding anniversary. They didn’t see the bear. Another couple was staying in the room above us and were there celebrating the boyfriend’s birthday. The girlfriend had purchased a special cake from a local bakery and brought it in the car all the way from Seattle without her boyfriend knowing. It was really sweet. They got to see the bear. I was jealous.

On the hike I saw two chipmunks, three lizards, a couple squirrels, a ton of birds (including hummingbirds which I used a bird guide provided by the lodge to identify as native to our region), an elk, two deer, four dogs, two cats and a woodpecker. But no bear. *sigh* I guess we’re just going to have to go back for another vacation! 🙂 Next time we are gonna go horseback riding too! (and maybe see the bear).

Sooooo no one has responded to my previous post about the BBQ. So I’m assuming that everyone got the evite and no one can come. So sad! If this is wrong, please please please let me know! I’d really love for you to come!

We now have:

-New furnace
-New water heater
-New gutters on the right side of our house
-A cat that can eat a whole bowl of ranch dressing in under 60 seconds (without anyone the wiser)

We will have soon:

-New eaves (sp?) on the left side of our house
-New gutters to go with the eaves
-A relaxing trip to Leavenworth for Memorial Day escape
-A fun bbq to celebrate our house warming (if you have not received the evite, let me know ASAP)

I wish I could:

-Leave work right now and get a jump start on our vacation
-Be done with this stupid cold

I knew being a home owner was expensive, but holy cow! Perhaps we’re moving a bit fast, but I think it’s a good thing to get it all done before we loose our momentum. Just so you know, this particular momentum has helped us acquire new Leaf Filter gutters, monthly landscape maintenance, a high efficiency tankless water heater and a high efficiency furnace with special filter that catches 99.9% of all air particulates including mold spores and the influenza virus. I wonder if it will filter cat furr too.

Lucky for us we get the WA rebates for using high efficiency appliances. We can bubbles so I can enjoy the endless flow of hot water in a nice warm bubble bath. 🙂

The bummer of this is that the “stimulus package” that we are supposed to be getting isn’t going to even make a dent in any of our home repairs. I think it’d be wise if they try the same idea again, just with a few tweeks – like maybe increasing the amount? Just a thought.

Yesterday I re-potted my house plants because Kyle said they look like weeds. Now I can tell him that obviously they aren’t weeds because people don’t put weeds in pots, they put pretty primroses in pots.

Now all we need is to finish painting.

First and foremost, I am thankful I have a job. But there are times when that thankfulness isn’t enough to make me feel better when I’m having a grumpy day.

So I have this thing I do when I’m not feeling so good about my general position in the work place. I like to call it, ‘pretend thankfulness’. I know I have a lot to be thankful for outside of the workplace and I could definitly think about that when I’m bummed at work. But sometimes the two worlds just don’t cross over well. So here’s my list of pretend thankfulness for the workplace and the corresponding circumstances I’m trying to look past:

-I’m thankful that I have a space to work (though it’s being torn down in a few weeks because of it’s lack of functionality and asthetic appeal)
-I’m thankful to have a steady flow of work from my contacts (I really don’t)
-I’m glad my co-workers share their infinit wisdom (all too often sometimes)
-I’m thankful for the life and excitment that ebbs and flows throughout our office (even when I’m on the phone and can hardly hear my customers over the noise)
-I’m thankful I have my own rolly, swivel chair (which tends to buck me off every chance it gets)
-I’m glad I have a challenging marketing position (which means I have very little work right now because people would rather use the money from the insurance company to buy food instead of a new floor)
-I’m glad that my company holds me accountable to high standards and goals (even when they are very much out of my reach and completely unrealistic)
-I’m thankful for all the vacation time I get to use this summer (I have a total of 5 days for the entire year)

So I think that’s enough for now. I have to get back to marketing for work. Lord help me, I’d rather be home reading, writing or painting with friends (and getting paid for it, haha).

My brother and future sis-in-law came this last weekend and brought a truck load of furniture I inhereted from various family members. Most of the pieces are almost 100 years old. They are really beautiful pieces. A dining set & chairs, sofa, rocker, chair, sewing table with pedal and an amazing china hutch. They also brought boxes and boxes of china sets and collectable plates that were passed down from grandparents. I’m really excited to go through them when I get home…if I can stay awake. I’m so tired!

The hutch and dining table will need the most restoration work. I guess being almost 100 years old can wear on you pretty hard.

We had tons of fun taking Sarah (furture sis-in-law) around Seattle and showing her Pike’s Place. We only had a day, so that’s as far as we got. Haha. Next time we’ll take her to the Space Needle – simply because you have to go there as a tourist. There’s no way around it really. haha.

I overheard one side of a conversation between a crew chief and his tech talking about a job he and his crew were working on today:

Crew Lead on the phone: “You broke what?! An urn?!”

“What do you mean someone should have told you what it was? How could you not know what it was?”

****

“Well then go wash the dead guy off your hands and come back to the shop to fill out a report.”

The Crew Lead hangs up the phone.

Secretary sitting at a neighboring desk: “Where’s the dead guy now?”

Crew Lead: “In a bag somewhere.”

I just learned that the odds of survival for something I’ve always wanted to do are 1 – 1,000. Meaning, 1 in 1,000 people die. I’ve also learned the proper term for this activity. It’s called parapente, or para-gliding. It looks like so much fun, but I just got done talking to a co-worker about it and he said he’s done it before and it’s very dangerous.

My thinking is that it’s not as dangerous as just plain parachuting or hang gliding…so if I’m going to do something dangerous, at least it’s not as dangerous as other things, right? haha.

Oh well. I suppose I could spend my time doing something more safe…like making sand art in a monastary or playing with cotton balls in a padded room.