Burning in the Desert

Oh what a night!

2010-10-07T00:11:00.003-07:00

Well, I spent my evening in the emergency room. My mom texted me (yeah, you read that right - she TEXTED me) that she was at the emergency room because she couldn't breathe.

She is having a hard time dealing with the fact that many years of smoking has put her in bad shape even after the doctor put her on oxygen just yesterday.

In the meantime - today is day 47 for me. One day at a time. <:]

Oh what a night!

2010-10-07T00:11:00.001-07:00

Dear Diary....

2010-10-05T23:39:00.001-07:00

Been thinking about blogging again for awhile, figured no better time than the present.

Today we had one hell of a rain storm including flooding and hail. You can tell it doesn't happen around here very often because everyone and their grandmother talked about it or posted pictures on facebook. (Obviously only if their grandmother lives in the desert and has a facebook page that she can update herself)
Regardless, it will be on the news tomorrow "The great storm of 2010"

Don't get me wrong, it is really nice to have these kinds of storms. It is some of the few time during the "summer" that I actually don't mind living here.

Freezing

2007-01-16T21:55:00.000-07:00

It has been so cold here in AZ, absolutely amazing.

I think the other day it was 22 degrees here. What a difference from the summer when it was 113 degrees. Almost 100 degree difference.

Other than that life has been boring (are you starting see a theme here)

Work has been kicking my butt, and that is leaving a lot of 4 letter words out. I am getting tired of being torn in 50 million directions. It is amazing how little accountablity there is out there.

For example we have a new contract at work, every member of leadership has been given a copy, but do you think anyone has read it. Yeah, someone has, me. Yep just me. I dont get paid enough to put in the hours that I do. I miss not having any responsibility, I miss just being able to get my job done and go home. But, I love my job and cant really imagine doing anything different.

Oh well, School starts tomorrow. It will be a nice distraction. Never thought I would say that.

A gift from a "True Friend"

2007-01-09T19:35:00.000-07:00

My married friend of mine gave me a book to read, ironically she recieved it from her husband.

The name of the book you ask? "The Spotter's Guide to the Male Species" by Juliette Willis.

This book is absolutely hysterical. Here is an excerpt:

In the section titled Appearance and Plumage - under the part regarding shoes.

Cowboy Boots
There's really no excuse unless he is actually a cowboy, and if you're not in Texas or Nevada, then it's unlikely that he is. Brad Pitt in Thelma & Louise wasn't a cowboy as such but he managed to carry it off, and he's the only man in history aside from Clint Eastwood who can. Avoid this man at all costs- he is either headlong into stage two of a midlife crisis (stage one being the sports car) or he's in a band that hasn't made it. Unless of course, he's Jon Bon Jovi, but even he's had his day and should know better. Worn with jeans, by the way, is bad enough, but if they're worn with trousers, then he needs medical attention, fast. This kind of creature should be extinct by now.

I was absolutely rolling when I read this, because I know someone who is like this and yes he single and yes, he wears the cowboy boots with trousers.

Back to Work

2007-01-07T23:36:00.000-07:00

Last two day weekend for the next couple of months since I start back to school soon.

I didn't get much of anything done, however I did finally unpack the last two boxes from my move. They have been sitting in my dining room feeling unloved. It only took me 3 months and 5 hours. Of course I couldn't just unpack the boxes I had to go through them to see what crap I had dragged with me from my last place. I should have just thrown it all away since I hadn't had to rummage through the boxes to find anything I needed, but I guess deep down inside I am a pack rat.

In those boxes I found countless bills that I had been holding on to. I don't know how long to hold onto that stuff, so I checked a website. You know what the website said? It said to keep them from one year to forever. Forever is a freaking long time. I just threw them away. Well actually I put them in another box to be shred. I will keep them there until I buy a shredder.

I also found love notes from high school (don't ask), tennis balls, two decks of cards, literally a gazillion pens (not one pencil though), numerous computer disks and a bunch of pins. All completely random.

I also managed to do a load of laundry. I figured it was time since I am wearing my last pair of undies. Tomorrow would have had to be commando (please don't try to picture this).

Finally, I watched about 4 movies.

Pretty productive now that I think about it :: Patting myself on the back ::

Oh yeah, one last thing - I blogged. 2007 is looking good.

Yeah, you will shake your head too

2007-01-05T19:36:00.000-07:00

Ok, so I am watching tv tonight - the new show on NBC, 1 vs 100.

The question:

How many 6 packs would you need to have 99 bottles of beer on the wall?

A: Less than 15

B: Exactly 15

C: More than 15

I dont know about you, but this seems to be pretty straight forward

15 packs would give you 70 bottles..

So if you need 99, what do you do?

Well use one of your helps of course.

It gets better, of the 70 people remaining only 50 got the question right.

I hope none of them are giving me my change back in the grocery store. I know that math is not everyone's subject, but good lord this is simple multiplication.

Oh Madd....

2007-01-04T23:37:00.001-07:00

I am so mad, I lost my other template.

This new blogger sucks

*** Revised

I was able to get it back - Thank God.

Credit

2007-01-04T23:14:00.000-07:00

Since I was young I have battled the credit beast. I had to learn the hard way that the credit was not something to mess around with.

You know it is actually kind of funny, I clearly remember what my very first credit card purchase was. I was probably 18 and of course a college student. Discover card decided they wanted to take a risk on me. It was the start of a very rocky relationship. I remember receiving my shiny new piece of plastic in the mail, I was so excited. I think my limit was $1000. So many zero's!

I went to the mall with my mom, my sister and my shiny piece of plastic in my wallet, it was burning a hole. I was afriad it would melt the plastic. As we walked through the stores trying to decide what to do with it. We saw the store, FootLocker. Yep, we went to FootLocker. That day, my very first purchase and my ticket to credit hell was 3 pretty pairs of sneakers, one for my mom, one for my sister and one for myself.

I think I finally paid those damn sneakers off 5 years later... I wont even mention the interest. Yeah, it was shortly after that I decided I needed to break up with Discover, or maybe they broke up with me - it is kind of foggy these days...

That is where it began. Finally a gazillion years later, I have "Fair" credit. Crack me up. Not a single late payement in 6 years and they still say I have "Fair" credit. Well you know what, FU!

I shouldnt be looking at my credit report when I am cranky...

Quick!

2007-01-02T20:54:00.001-07:00

Turn on the TV.

Channel 23 - Discovery

How to make fireworks....

Opps - I guessed you missed it

Number 3!!!

2007-01-02T20:26:00.000-07:00

Am I on a roll or what!

The last two weeks have been absolutely wonderful - I work in an office environment so pretty much everyone has been out on vacation. It is amazing how much you can get done when you dont have someone calling you to their office every 5 minutes.

Today though, not so much. I didnt even listen to my voicemail once. It was like the entire place just suddenly impacted upon itself and unleashed the demons of hell. I was so busy I started to shake from not eating. The only thing I had to eat until around 2pm were two stupid cookies I grabbed on my way out the door this morning, Oh yeah and the last mini snickers from my Christmas candy I grabbed as my boss was calling my name.

On top of it being so busy I am sick with a terrible cold. Not sick enough not to go to work. Of course when I am sick I get ornery (did I spell that right?). And today was a bad day for that because like I said the demons of hell came out of their resting place and dropped paper all over my department. I cant even begin to imagine how many trees we killed over this weekend to cause the nightmare I walked into today.

I hope today was not an indication of what my year is going to be like....

Tip for today:

Use oven mitts to take hot items out of the oven...

2nd Post

2007-01-01T21:20:00.000-07:00

Two posts this year already - amazing.

I find it is kinda hard to write when there is absolutely nothing going on.

Today, I was talking to a friend who I havent spoken to in awhile and guess what we talked about? The weather, yeah you heard me, the weather. How boring is that!

I suppose that is a good thing that nothing bad has happened, but it sucks that nothing "good" has happened either. I kinda feel like I am just floating through life. The problem is when you get to be my age, how do you spice it up without getting yourself in trouble?

2007-01-01T10:32:00.000-07:00

Man...

2006-06-10T19:13:00.000-07:00

Man, it is really dusty in here....

Where is my feather duster?

An Airplane, a uniform and bad singing

2006-04-09T15:57:00.000-07:00

Blast from the past....

I was flipping through the channels and stopped on the abc family channel. To my delight, one of my all time favorite movies is on.

TOP GUN!

It has all of the best things in it... Airplanes (fast ones), hot men in uniforms and romance.

Hmmm... I am going to have good dreams tonight

Overwhelmed!

2006-04-06T19:45:00.000-07:00

There is only so much one person can do.... Give me a freaking break!

And another thing!

2006-04-04T21:08:00.000-07:00

I think my porch is turning into a zoo.

So you know about the damn cat that I cant get rid of. Well, I haven't seen him in a while. Maybe he took Picadilly up on her offer and shipped off for Amsterdam. Don't worry Picadilly, I will send you some flea powder.

So anyway, on top of the cat, there has been a spider that has been living on my porch. I named him Mr. Spider. We both had our own sections of the porch so I left him alone. Now if he had crossed the line I would have smooshed him but we were living in harmony and all was good. Besides he was eating all of the other little bugs that tried to find a home there.

In addition to the cat and the spider, I had a gecko that frequented my lovely porch. I named him Oscar. Well, I guess Oscar found a friend, so now both gecko's have been chillin on the porch.

Well, yesterday I noticed that Mr. Spider was missing. I have a feeling that either Oscar or his friend became a little hungry and ate Mr. Spider and here I thought we were one big happy family. Then Oscar had to go and literally have lunch with Mr. Spider. The least they could have done was clean up the dirty ass spider web.

Primal Instinct at it's finest!

People.....

2006-04-04T20:54:00.000-07:00

The crazy people are out in mass these days....

Yesterday I saw a guy smoking a bowl at a stop light, right out in plain view... are you kidding me? Of course that was after I stopped at the grocery store and stood in line for a 1/2 hour because a woman was screaming that the cashier would not sell her alcohol because of a new state law.

Then today, I was talking to my friend and she was telling me this hysterical story. She went into a public restroom at the airport and she was near the handicapp stall where she noticed some unusual activity. Being that she works at the airport she was concered that someone was having a seziure in the restroom. When she took a closer look she realized that there were way to many feet in the stall. Even better the feet had no shoes on. Then she realized the implication.

- Two sets of feet - one obviously male
- Movement that looks like a seizure
- Heavy breathing

She put 2 and 2 together and realized that there was two people having sex!

Can you believe it! In a public restroom, where mother's change their children's diapers and grandma's go to powder their noses.

Needless to say I guess the girl was quite intoxicated and missed her flight and probrably wont remember much of what happend.

Simply amazing.... I think I am going to play it safe and just stay home.

Not much going on

2006-04-03T22:11:00.000-07:00

I love these kinds of weeks, not much going on. No drama, no stress... just ______ (nothing).

Have you ever heard of myspace. Well, I guess it is all the rage of "kids" these days. =)

I have become addicted. You would be surprised who has set up shop over there. I have spent many hours searching for people from my past. Not that I really want to contact them, but more of a curiosity of what they are doing now. You know comparing myself to them and all.

Anyway... I really dont have much to talk about since there is no drama and all and I am not feeling particularly insightful these days... so if you are bored to tears from reading this hodge podge of a post... you can always pop over to myspace and see who you can find.

Stupid Cat

2006-03-30T21:20:00.000-07:00

I have this stupid cat that likes to hang around on my porch. He/she will not go away. I wouldnt mind the cat hanging out on my porch but it keeps rubbing all up against me and I am terrified that it has fleas. The first time I find a flea I am going to go buy a shot gun. (Just kidding)

Anyone want this cat?

Happy St. Patricks Day!!

2006-03-25T23:01:00.000-07:00

You know you are too drunk when you let your friends tape you up while taking pictures

Never fear I am still here!

2006-03-25T22:49:00.000-07:00

Wow, a whole week!

I never thought I could be busier but heck I was wrong after this week. To start spring break is over so back to school. I was fit to be tied when I went back to my first class on Monday and it was cancelled. Mind you it is about a 30 mile commute from my job to school. I was irrate.

Then meeting after meeting after meeting, I was so far behind at work it wasnt even funny anymore. On top of all that I must have worked over 50 hours.

Anyway, today was a quiet day at work and I was able to get caught up, then a friend of mine had a Vegas party at her house. I think tomorrow I am going shopping for some new clothes. I am starting to look a little raggity...

Exciting ;)

A Night on the town

2006-03-18T23:59:00.000-07:00

Now that I finally have weekends off and going along with my need to break out of my little rut, we have been going doing different things each weekend.

This weeked we went to dinner and then a movie. Not exactly wild and crazy, however we made up for it the night before, St Patricks Day. As soon as blogger allows me to post a stupid picture I will tell you about the evening. The story really wont do any justice without the picture.

So anyway, back to today. Our company has an employee sponsored club. For $1 a paycheck, which equals out to $26 for the year, you can be a member of the employee club. Basically the club was designed to get employees together outside of work for some team bonding. What that means, if you have an event with at least three employee club members the club will refund up to $25 per person to help fund the event. There are some rules, like the club will not pay for any alcohol nor will it cover any non-employee members like spouses and children. Even though it is a pretty good deal.

So we decided to use the employee club to fund dinner. We try to pick a different resturant each time and typically it ends up being random people that decide to come with us. We usually do something in addition to the dinner however, we get the most bang for our buck when we do submit the dinner.

All in all it is a pretty good deal. I figure I am about even with the club. The first 4 years I didnt really do any events - this past year I have been pretty active.

Great way to fund a social life and it is pretty cool because you get to expand your circle of friends.

So anyway, after dinner like I said we ended up going to a movie. Failure to launch. I thought it was good. The other people I was with were less than impressed, I am not really surprised considering they are guys.

Not exactly an exciting post but I am tired and need to go to sleep... Yawn....

Peach Out!

Workaholic

2006-03-16T21:11:00.000-07:00

If you were to look in the dictionary for the definition of the word "workaholic" you would definitely find my picture there. I often wonder if it my fatal flaw or my best quality.

I love to have a purpose and I am so extremely competitive that I do what ever is necessary to get the job done, even if that means working a gazillion hours a week or sacrificing a social life.

This new job is definitely a good fit for me. I am control freak and overly organized which is something this department has been lacking for a long period of time. When I moved into my cubicle, there is a 5 drawer filing cabinet behind me. I tossed everything in that filing cabinet. I found things from when I was hired 6 years ago. I found things in there with the company's address that didn't even exist any more. Heck, I found the manual to a typewriter. I haven't seen a typewriter in years.

Yeah, Yeah - I know I need to get a life....

Out of the box

2006-03-15T21:21:00.000-07:00

Okay, so I broke my streak.

I am trying to step outside of my tight little box. I am bored. I want to get out and do different things. Experience life to it's fullest. I tend to get into big ruts, trying to climb the walls to get out but getting nowhere.

This last month I have been making progress, doing different things. Last Thursday I went to my first real concert. Bon Jovi. An awesome time, being there watching him shake his booty up on the big screen while people screamed their heads off and sang with him was an amazing experience. It reminded me of my childhood, Bon Jovi is one of the first singers I can truly remember loving. We would watch tapes of his concerts when the babysitter came over dancing in front of the tv, lip singing with a hair brush.

Yesterday I happened to score some tickets to the local hockey team. I really only went because they were tickets for the company suite at the local arena. Let me tell you, the suite tickets were sweet. I was like a little kid in a candy store. Definitely a great experience.

I am keeping my eye open for different things to do. I think this weekend we are going bowling. I haven't been bowling in at least 5 years.

Once Spring Break is over I will look for more traveling options. I hear Seattle has a museum of flight. Maybe I will fly up there and spend a day at the museum. I'll keep you posted.

3 for 3

2006-03-12T23:06:00.000-07:00

Three posts in three days... Go me!

Today was my own personal spring cleaning. I started in the bedroom and whipped through the house like a hurricane. What an exciting weekend. It was good though, my house really needed it and it was getting to the point that I was washing one outfit each day. It is quite the novel idea to have all of your clothes clean and hanging in the closet.

The only place left to clean is the fish bowl. At least he has water, it was getting pretty bad there for awhile.

After all of my cleaning, I took a break and saw a movie with a friend. We saw Date Movie. It was cute, I like those spoof movies pioneered by Leslie Nielsen in Airplane.

Now, I am off to bed - 6am comes pretty fast.

Tuna Out!

Rainy Days

2006-03-11T20:18:00.000-07:00

You see that green blob over AZ? Yeah, that's where I live. We haven't had rain in over 4 months and today we woke up to the glorious sound of rain drops on the roof.

AZ is one of the few places in the world, that the population rejoices over a bit of rain. It was even the top headline on the local paper and all over the news.

Dont let the fact that I live in the desert confuse you. I absolutely love the rain!! I would definitely be very happy living in Seattle or a rain forest for that fact. My mom thinks I am crazy.

There is definitely nothing better than wrapping yourself up in a warm fuzzy blanket, doing absolutely nothing but watching tv. Hmm.....

Here's to your next rainy day =)

Long time...

2006-03-10T18:00:00.000-07:00

Wow, it has been a long time since I sat on my couch trying to think of something to share with the blogger world.

I never really disappeared from the blog world, I just stopped contributing. I was more of a leech reading other's sites. However, I was motivated to write myself by a comment left on someone else's site asking where I have been all this time. So to who ever you were Thank you.

So, my life has changed pretty drastically over the last six months, which is part of the reason I haven't been sharing my "secrets" with the world.

In September I moved into my own apartment, which was a huge step for me. My roommate and I figured it was time to part ways, all on good terms. However, I was unsure of the financial strain the move would place on my checking account so I had to terminate my internet account.

On the plus side, I changed positions in my company and took a promotion which allowed me a few extra cents for which I decided it was time to get reconnected to the information super highway. Never mind the fact that I was going to take an internet class this semester and I did not really want to spend my extra moments sitting in a crowded computer center. I would rather sit on the couch in my pj's while eating french toast. =)

On top of everything my new position while completely rewarding, has been extremely demanding of my time. I am working more than I am sleeping which is a big change for me. Things have finally calmed down and everything is starting to fall into place.

Missed me didn't you?

2005-07-18T11:06:00.000-07:00

I am back with stories of far off lands and a wonderful vacation.
I figured I would post the trip in parts because there is so much to talk about, so stay tuned for each port we visited.

(I would post some pictures but Blogger is being a jerk and not playing nice, so until I have more energy to post the pics inline)

To start we left on Sunday July3 - we had a wonderful flight to Amsterdam where we met up with my Dad and Step-mom. There seemed to be a bit of weather issues in Amsterdam so our connecting flight was delayed about an hour, a little more since SAS doesn't have any concept of a quick turn (a quick turn is the process we call when we try to send a late plane back out as quick as possible) . Despite the delay we arrived in Cophenhagen around 1pm and began our journey to the ship. We had to take a train and then walk the rest of the way to the pier. After getting off the train we could see the ship, an absolute amazing site. The ship was huge, it towered over the rest of the buildings in the area and was as long as 3 city blocks. Simply amazing that this thing floated on water.

After a pretty smooth check in process we walked on board our home for the next 10 days. Our room was nice considering it was an inside cabin with no windows but it had mirrors that made the room appear large. It was clean and laid out nicely. After we finally received our bags and took showers we headed out to check out the ship.

I expected the ship to be flashy, gaudy and overdone but was pleasantly surprised. It was absolutely beautiful with light woods and subtle colors. After a little wondering around we decided to have something to eat and take a nap since we had been traveling for over 24 hours and we figured since our next day would be at sea we would have plenty of time to see the rest of the ship.

Let me tell you if you are deciding to take a cruise, I would suggest Princess. Everyone on board was wonderful. The cruise director was extremely knowledgeable about the ports we were visiting, giving very through talks about the ports and his talks were not directed for the passenger traveling on the ships tours. The entertainment staff was great, putting on some excellent productions and their on-board activities directors were energetic and very friendly.

All in all it was a great ship with great staff.

I will write tomorrow on our first port - Tallin, Estonia.

Vacation Mode

2005-06-29T10:04:00.000-07:00

I am so in vacation mode. As you can see my countdown is doing it's thing and as the numbers fall I am getting so excited.

I have been so busy these past couple of days, working and shopping. I have had to find a "formal" dress to wear for this cruise.

Unfortunately with my body type it is difficult to find something that hides all of my parts but is not a freaking tent. After visiting a million stores in the 200 degree weather I finally found the dress I was looking for.

Now we just have to figure out how we are going to get to Copenhagen. Even though we are flying standby the tickets are freaking expensive due to the European taxes. We are looking at taking $100 tickets and turning them into $250 tickets because of taxes. It is just ridiculous. The hurdle we come across is we are flying over 4th of July weekend. Flying stand-by sucks when you are flying over any holiday. You never know if you are going to get on the flights, talk about stress.

Anyhow, I better go I have to do some laundry and get ready for work. Just wanted to drop a note letting you know I am still alive and breathing.

Phoenix Monsoon

2005-06-23T14:07:00.000-07:00

Last night we had a monsoon. Monsoons in Phoenix are an awesome event. You can see some other pretty good pictures over at PHX Monsoon (that's where I got this one)
I remember the first time I had heard about the monsoon, I didn't quite understand the big deal about monsoons. I had seen some pretty good storms, including a hurricane. So I thought, "How bad could a monsoon be?"

I learned about the power of a monsoon real quick. It rolled in fast, starting out with a dust storm, only to finish up with some amazing down pours and an awe inspiring thunder and lightning show.

One of the most powerful monsoons I have seen was about 2 years ago. I was working at the airport that night and we had been having warnings about the storms for a couple of hours. The dust storm came in thick and fast. We could barely see across the concourse to the other side of the airport. Next came high winds and lightning. It was amazing. The winds were so strong they moved a 757 (our biggest plane) off the gate by about 20 feet. It tour the jetway apart and did a bit of aircraft damage.

Then within 1 hour it was gone, like it had never happened. Amazing.

A little desert humor

2005-06-22T11:21:00.000-07:00

Adding to the drama

2005-06-21T22:57:00.000-07:00

So my little brother called me today and said that he was thinking about going to school out here in Phoenix.

He is 19 and is currently living in South Carolina with his girlfriend. He graduated a military high school last year, where he did really well academically. Unfortunately, his first year of real freedom didnt go so well and he flunked out of college. My dad (his cash cow) was really pissed so now he has to get himself out of this mess.

I was kinda surprised that he would move all the way out here away from his girlfriend who has him whipped but she is starting college this year and I am sure he is wondering where he fits into the equation.

It may be a pretty good thing because it would solve my roommate problems and he could focus on school.

Well have to wait and see what happens.

Still Breathing

2005-06-20T12:19:00.000-07:00

I am still around and unfortunately my blog is being totally neglected. I am still in hyper work mode, just finished up working 5 16 hour double shifts over 6 days. My current mantra is that it will all be worth it when I am cruiseing on the Baltic sea. I am expecting one whopping big paycheck next week. I better not be disappointed.

In other news my roommate has not been home for about 2 weeks. She has been spending all of her time at her boyfriends house. I am happy for her but sad in other ways. It seems that our roommate relationship will be coming to an end soon. September will mark our 5 year anniversary. We met during orientation for the airline. During those 4 weeks we found that we had a lot in common. At the time we both were living with our uncles in the same part of town, our families lived thousands of miles away and were very similar in a dysfunctional kind of way. We decided that we could try the roommate thing and see what happens. I remember when we were signing the lease we opted for a shorter one to make sure that we would get along. Five years later we are still together.

I haven't quite figured out what I am going to do when it is over. I pretty much only have 3 options. I can get my own apartment, which on one hand would be nice but very lonely as well as very expensive. I could try to find another roommate but I think I am getting to old to deal with living with someone I don't know or Cowboy and I talked about getting an apartment together. Unfortunately Cowboy comes with a lot of baggage. His brother is moving to town in August and he has a roommate. I am not sure if I am ready to share a place with 3 guys varying in age from 25 to 50. It would be interesting though and I know damn well that I would have to have my own bathroom.

I guess I am just going to play it by ear, I have never lived with a guy that I was not sleeping with so it would be interesting. Well, see what happens.

I am off to get some running around done, the library sent me an email telling me my books were due and I have been craving Chinese food like you would not believe.

TTFN (ta, ta for now)

Strange Friends in Life

2005-06-15T22:52:00.000-07:00

I find that as I go through life I tend to become friends with the strangest people.

My friend Cowboy is a tall, skinny thing. He is about 6'1, stick legs and arms, no rear and a little beer belly. This will matter later.

So, Cowboy and I are walking back to the office after having a cigarette and he is telling me about his recent trip home to the back mountains of some northern state. He tells me that him and his family were discussing the sizes of their beer bellies and how he was so proud that he was catching up to some of them. As we are walking I am just laughing at him because he is proud of it. So I tell him, that having a beer belly is not something to be proud of, that he should try to put some of that beer belly in his rear, the rest of the conversation goes like this....

Cowboy: "There is nothing wrong with being proud of my beer belly"
Me: "Why?"
Cowboy: "Because it is more fuel for the Love Machine"
Me: (Laughing Hysterically) "I cant believe you just said that, no wonder you are single"

So, ladies if you are looking for a man with fuel for the Love Machine, let me know...

Finally...

2005-06-12T23:30:00.000-07:00

Well, as of 10pm tonight, I finished my 10 day stretch of working and I get to "relax" tomorrow, after I do all of my running around. Which, includes a freaking dentist visit. Sounds like fun.

Of course a fitting end to my day I sat talking with a customer who had misconnected due to ATC/weather issues. He didnt believe the fact that there was an ATC/weather problem. As an airline employee that is probrably one of the most frustrating parts of the job. Imagine going to work everyday and all of the people you come in contact with dont believe what you are telling them. This is probrably one of the reasons most people want to leave the passenger service part of the airline. I am not going to say that I have never lied because that would just not be true. However, I would say about 99% of time I am truthful in my work, especially when I have to tell people things I know they dont know want to hear. I would love to tell everyone what they want to hear, it makes my job a lot easier but that is just not practical.

I do love my job though.. I can not imagine doing anything else. I love working with the customers because heck they are what my job is all about, when they stop flying, I stop getting a pay check. You can meet so many interesting people, visit interesting places and see wonderful things. Everyday I marvel at the fact that they actually pay me for doing my job. I would have never guessed 10 years ago that I would be doing this.

I suppose I am one of the lucky ones to say that I truly like my job. :)

Day 9

2005-06-11T22:46:00.000-07:00

I'm on my ninth straight day at work. So far, I have worked 88 hours in 9 days. That averages out to about 9.8 hours a day without a day off. I can see the end of my stretch since I have Monday off, then back to work for another two days filled with 32 hours of work.

It is hard to blog when I am working this much, especially since I really cant blog while at work.

On the bright side I really love my new position with the Company. If I had known the grass was this green, I would have become a fat cow munchin on the green grass a long time ago.

However, all of this hard work will be so worth it while I am loungin on my 10 day Scandinavian/Russian cruise. All these hours will equal one really "phat" paycheck that is only to be used for my cruising pleasure. Oh yeah and it will be even better because the company shorted me 16 hours on this paycheck and they owe me some back money to the tune of $180 from my status change (long story). All of these monies will be available to me on my next already fat paycheck. Yeah baby!

Of course all would be even better if I was independently wealthy and I wouldn't have to work at all. In my current state all that is, is wishful thinking.

Truth in Advertising

2005-06-09T11:18:00.000-07:00

So true, So true

Dreams

2005-06-09T10:37:00.000-07:00

I dont know whether it is the heat or the moon cycle but I have been having the craziest dreams lately. They range from getting married, my sister being on trial to beer being thrown in my brand new car. I have no idea where these night-time mini movies are coming from but I like it, it makes the night more entertaining :)

Like a Dog

2005-06-07T10:10:00.000-07:00

My posts around here are going to be sporadic over the next couple of weeks. I am working a few extra hours to pay for my upcoming vacation. Like in the next two weeks I am working an extra 7 days. Yeah, you heard me right 7 days! I will all be worth it when I am sitting on the flight heading off to my cruise. I cant wait.

Well, I am off to hop in the shower for work. Ugh!

No Secret

2005-06-01T23:36:00.000-07:00

JJ over at Picadilly asked me how I "created" my banner.

Well, there is no real secret to it. When I was in California last month we were at the beach and I love to write stuff in the sand, but you can only write your name so many times so I got the idea to use my other "identity" and took a picture with the intention of using it for a banner.

I was really happy when it came out the way I pictured it in my mind.

Vacation Plans

2005-06-01T11:44:00.000-07:00

I have been wanting to go on a real vacation for a while now, but is seems like nothing ever works out, whether it be money or time or both our plans always seem to fall apart.

Well, yesterday we finalized our plans for our vacation this summer. We decided we are going to take a Northern European cruise. I am so freaking excited, I can hardly wait.

On top of everything the cruise was a smoking deal. It is aboard the Star Princess on the Princess cruise line. Our ports include Copenhagen, Denmark - Stockholm, Sweden - Helsinki, Finland - Tallin, Estonia - Gdansk, Poland - St. Petersburg, Russia and Berlin, Germany. All for less than $1000 per person. It comes out to like $60 dollars a night. Absolutely amazing.

It is about time!

Late

2005-05-29T22:42:00.000-07:00

I hate being late. All of my life my mom was late, heck she will probrably be late to her own funeral. So as an adult I try to be ontime. Every single clock in my house is set at least 5 minutes fast.

Yesterday not even 4 hours fast could have helped me. Friday night I worked a double shift which went from 5:30am till 10:00pm. I was supposed to work another double shift on Saturday. Like I good girl I was in bed shortly after I arrived home. My food for the next day had been prepared on Thursday, my clothes laid out. All I had to do the next morning was get out of bed, into the shower and leave for work. Pretty simple right?

Well, stupid me forgot to turn on the alarm. I set the damn thing for 4:15am, I just didnt turn it on. You can see where this is going right? I ended up waiting up at 8:45am, 4 1/2 hours after I was supposed to be up.

It freaking sucked. Fortunately my boss is really nice. My late was considered an occurance but I wasnt put infront of the firing squad. Thank God. All though I was the focus of many jokes the rest of the day. Just a little humilation is better than a good ass reaming.

The Criminal

2005-05-26T16:38:00.000-07:00

Okay here is the post about my brother.....

On Saturday my 19 year old brother and his girlfriend came down from Camden to help us move my mom into her new apartment. It was one of the reasons I went down to Charleston. The move went really well, we rented a U-haul and cleaned out my mom's storage unit and the crap from my sister's.

As we were heading back to the apartment from the storage place, my sister and brother were in the car and my brothers girlfriend and I were following in the U-haul. Sometime during the day my brother got it into his head that he thought it would be funny to moon us. All day long he had been pulling down his pants, bearing all. Eventually we had gotten to the point where we were immune to it, especially since we had seen it so many times that day.

So anyway, we were following my sister and she had just made a left onto my mom's street. Since I was stuck at the light waiting to turn and not very familiar with the area she had pulled off to the side to wait for us. Finally there was a break in the traffic and we were able to turn, Just after the turn we see my brother get out of the car and moon us. His girlfriend and I burst into a fit of giggles, we were laughing so hard, what a dork. After he gets back into the car I see something in the corner of my eye. It turned out that there was a cop behind us, he didn't have his lights on but we knew he had seen the stunt my brother pulled.

We go up the road a little bit and turn into my mom's apartment complex when we realize that the police officer was following us. After getting into the complex, I parked the U-haul and his girlfriend and I both ran into the house while the police were questioning my brother. We couldn't keep the from laughing and figured it would be better to be hysterical in the house then in front of the police officer.

My brother has the worst luck, he can not get away with anything. What are the odds that a police officer would be sitting at the gas station waiting to turn onto the street? Needless to say everything worked out okay, he ended up with just a smack on the hand and the hopefully the smarts of never doing that again. Although the police officer did threaten to charge him as a sex offender.

Found and other little tid bits

2005-05-25T22:07:00.000-07:00

They found my luggage - It ended up in Orange County, CA. Go figure. That is where my flight continued onto after leaving Phoenix. So my suitcase is back in my possession - safe and sound with all of it's contents. Not a bad experience for the first time.

Tomorrow I have to go and register for summer school. Yeah! I am not really looking forward to it but what else do I have to do. It just brings me two classes closer to graduating.

My dad called me this morning and said that he would spring for a cruise for me in July. Not a bad deal. The cruise he wants to take is to Russia/Scandinavia, 10 days. It starts about a week before my vacation - hopefully I will be able to get the days off. Sounds like a good deal to me.

(Reminder to myself to tell the story of my brother, a U-haul and the police tomorrow)

Lost

2005-05-24T20:48:00.000-07:00

After 15 years or so of traveling it has finally happened. The airlines lost my luggage.

You know I had the feeling when I checked in my bag in Charleston. Since I have to connect between two different airlines I don't usually check my bag but today I was also carrying two pictures frames with me that were quite large and I didn't want to deal with dragging my suitcase around also. So I checked it in.

All through the trip I wasn't sure if my bag would arrive. When I got down to the baggage claim in Phoenix my bag was not going around and around. So I went to the baggage service office. Since I am a stand-by my luggage is not covered by the airline. Usually if the airline loses your bag and it doesn't turn up they reimburse you for the estimated value. As a stand-by I am just shit out of luck. They don't deliver it to me, heck they don't even file a "claim" for it.

So now I just have to sit and wait and hope that it turns up.

Questions Answered

2005-05-23T21:51:00.000-07:00

Yes - all of the pictures in my banner are from places I have been.
I have pictures of each one of those things except my pictures were not as good, especially when they were shrunk down to the smaller size.

Also,
In my class we didnt get to play with the flight simulator. They were teaching us all of the stuff that we needed to know before we actually flew a plane. I however will not be doing that because I am way to scared to fly :)

All the way from Charleston

2005-05-23T21:43:00.000-07:00

The problem with traveling is that insomnia strikes, besides the fact that my sister has cable tv and a cable modem.

It has been a really great weekend, I love spending time with my niece. She is quite the motor-mouth. My mom says she is just like me when I was little. I give her a lot of credit if I talked that much.

I will hopefully be home by tomorrow... I miss my bed.

Summer School

2005-05-18T11:33:00.000-07:00

I got my grades for this past semester and I did really good. A's in both of my classes, it is amazing what that can do to a GPA. Despite the good grades I am going to have to take summer classes if I want to graduate sometime soon.

So today I am off to register for my summer classes. I am going to take Uses of Accounting and Macroeconomics. Two very entertaining classes. At least they are condensed over the summer, Only 5 weeks of fun, not the normal 16.

Yeah....

Crappy Week

2005-05-16T02:09:00.000-07:00

This last week has been really crappy, starting with the new address change. Long story as to why it happened but it needed to be done.

Along with the address change, I have been battling with one of the cats. Japser specifically. He has found the need to urinate on just about everything I own, including my bed and sheets (several times) It ended with him urinating on me one night while I was sleeping. Talk about freaking disgusting. Had this happened another time I probrably would have been able to deal with it but right now is not so good. So we have decided that the cat has got to go. Now we just need to find someone that can take him to the pound.

Finally adding to the above mess, everyone wants money from me. AHHHH.....