Calm

I’ve just returned from a whirlwind vacation. For some reason, I seem to be doing days worth of traveling in 2010, most of which is work-related. But I didn’t travel much at all in 2009, so who knows if or when it will continue.

One thing I have learned from all my travel is that on Southwest, the front row seats are rarely taken right away. So if you are in Group A or even the beginning of Group B, it’s possible to get the front row (and with it, a ton of extra legroom). Just a tip. But you don’t have a seat in front of you for storing things, so you have to only have one bag. (Southwest has free luggage checking, too, so it is possible.) The front row is also fun because if you sit on the right side of the plane you can see the flight attendant seat and listen to them gossip about their coworkers and possibly also your fellow passengers. (Plus I always take my cues about being scared from them—if they are calm, so am I.)

Anyway, my car is being weird. A check engine light came on yesterday, went off today, and then oil light popped on for a few seconds this morning. Bizarro. That prompted me to think about how calm I am about stupid stuff like this now. Back in college, car things always seemed like SUCH A HASSLE (and they kind of were, because college was in the middle of nowhere), but now. Meh. I’ll cope. There are options. I guess this is one of the small joys of getting older. It’s easier to cope with little hassles without getting all crazy about it. Oh, and flying? Yeah, doesn’t bug me anymore. I used to be freaked out by planes. Now, not so much. Maybe I’ll die, but probably not.

Summing

Blogging.

I like HAVING a blog. I really like being able to look back at said blog and remember what I was doing at a particular time. There have been several times lately when Mike and I have been discussing WHEN exactly something happened, and I can go back and check in my blog. Date, and everything. I watched The Wire for the first time 2 years ago, almost exactly, and I know that thanks to this blog.

But, WRITING in the blog seems to take more energy than I have for this sort of thing. I like reflecting. I like thinking about my life. But I don't always have any kind of motivation to write something coherent about it.

So quick 2010 so-far summary: New Year's Eve with Mike and Sara early, then hanging out with Tim, Allison and new baby Sean to ring in 2010. Trip to Indiana at the end of the month (still in Ind.). College friend gathering this coming weekend, which is very exciting, since we haven't had a big reunion, really, since Jan. 2005. Work: Good. Life: Good.

That is all.

Scraps of happy

I use my blog mainly for ranting these days, and believe me, there is no end to the stuff I could go on and on about that drives me insane.

BUT!

I am not going to do that today. Good stuff is everywhere.

My cousin had a baby on Saturday (honorary nephew!) and his name is Jack and he is chunky and cute and healthy, so that’s awesome. Mad Men season 3 is underway and I’m enjoying it immensely. I DID get a new camera, so I can take pictures of the new baby. I’m in the process of painting and doing some general home improvement stuff that’s making me happy. Plus, youtube has videos on how to caulk a bathtub – score! (Honestly, what did we do before the internet?)

Mike came down to work in my office today, so I have a co-worker (very temporarily) and it’s a little bit like the olden days. Good times. Also the weather is perfect and we walked to Wawa for lunch.

I’m reading Fred Clark’s Slacktivist takedown of the Left Behind series, which is full of complete and utter WIN. He’s systematically destroying the books page by page with some pretty heavy and awesome snark AND Jesus-based theology (my favorite combo!). This is taking a long time to read, because he writes 3,000 words for every 2 pages of book (so after 6 years, he’s only on book 2 of the series.) But I’m still loving it.

And I have a Labor Day pool party to go to, and a wedding in a few weeks, and the new Gabaldon book comes out on September 22. There hasn’t been a new one of those since before I started this blog. So it’s about time.

Normally I despise the month of August, but this year it was actually pretty great. And September should be, too, I think. The rest of this year is looking stellar, as a matter of fact—at least until the question of What to Do for Christmas must be faced. It’s an odd-numbered year, which means married sibs and cousins are with the in-laws and it may just be me and my parents sitting around and staring at each other, which is depressing. So let’s push that thought off for another day.

Hooray for late summer!

Come and Gone

I should be sleeping, because even though I'm not going to work tomorrow, I still need to go to the airport early for my trip to Canada! Vancouver! To see the kids. And by the kids I mean my brother and sis-in-law. I'm excited.

But before I go to sleep, I feel like I should update briefly about the "Letter to Myself at 30" that I wrote from my 20-year-old self.

Let's just say it wasn't as bad as I thought. I thought it was going to be full of wishes I'd made at 20 that I'd hoped would be true at 30, and aren't. But no. I basically just had a lot of questions.

Here's an excerpt:
"What kind of music, clothes, etc. are in now? Right now the music is kind of pop alternative and people like to wear work shirts w/other people's names (just one trend of many). 70s styles are in. Any new words? [Um. Yes. Google. Facebook. iPod. What else? There must be tons.] What was the year 2000 like? [Mostly disappointing.] Right now that seems spooky. And you get to P.E.I.? [I like this question, because YES! I did. With the cousins, just like we'd planned.]

I had questions about my brother . . . I forgot how much I didn't like him when he was 17 and I was 20. Looking back now, I think we were just really, really different and I didn't understand anything that was going on his life, nor was I particularly open to hearing about it. And I think he was kind of obnoxious. But we are both different, and we've moved closer together, and I think it's good.

Another excerpt:
"I feel like I should say something edifying--a revelation about this time, so at 30 you can look back and learn from this. But what? Well, what have I learned since I was 10? Depression is temporary. Friends are important, I am a loyal person, etc. What have you learned between 20 and 30. Hopefully something."

Yeah, hopefully. Geez, 20 year old me didn't have a lot of faith. I've learned more in the last decade than in any previous, so that's good. What have I learned? It can pretty much be summed up with "nothing's as big of a deal as you think it is."

And finally:
"All I have is questions. I feel as though I'm writing to a different person, and in a way I am. Thirty is different than 20. But how am I the same? What has carried over from 10 to 20 to 30. Anything? Maybe by 30 you will know."

Do I know? I know MORE. But maybe that's the whole point of this aging thing. Maybe uncovering "me" is an ongoing process that's never going to be finished. It's all in the journey and that sort of thing.

And if you look at "growing up" as slowly uncovering your soul--whatever it is that makes YOU, you--then it's kind of interesting adventure.

And now it's time for me to quit muddling around in philosophical musings and go to bed.

Don't wish it away

“The sooner you realize that the highlight of your week will be a trip to the Olive Garden (if you're lucky) the sooner you'll get over your Quarterlife Crisis.”

I posted this message-board quote a few months ago, because it cracked me up. And then yesterday I got to live it. Tuesday: the highlight of my week . . . and here’s why:
First, they had my favorite soup (tomato bisque) at the grocery store—AND the delicious crusty mini-baguette I like to get to go with it. Neither of these are guaranteed, and they’re rarely there together, but yesterday they had both!

Then, it was such a nice day. Really sunny and warm, but not humid. I went on a quick walk down the shady, breezy street and then got in the car to drive over to my cousin’s house. I put all the windows down and opened the sunroof. And “I Guess that’s Why They Call it the Blues” started the minute I turned on the radio, which is the Elton John song I sing most as I’m going about my daily life. Seriously, I break into this song frequently as I walk around.

So that kept me singing as I drove the few minutes to Tim’s, with the sun slanting through the trees and the breeze blowing in the windows.

And then . . . SUSHI! Delicious, delicious sushi and fruity drinks.

On the way home we stopped to fill my tires with air, so the “low pressure” warning light in my car would go off. And it did.

Then we played music trivia on the computer and got a ton of questions right and made ourselves feel good about how smart we were.

And all this combined made it pretty much a perfect day.

So I think that means that I’ve accepted my life as it is . . . and I’m officially over my quarter-life crisis.

Post Getaway

Whoa! How is it July already? And are there any songs with July in the lyrics? I guess Yankee Doodle Dandy. And that Chicago song about Saturday in the park.

Speaking of Chicago, I got back from that town on Sunday with no problems. Travel certainly went better than I expected, but I suppose that’s the beauty of non-stop flights. No connections to screw you up. But the most interesting thing about the trip was getting a ride back from the pre-wedding barbeque with a guy who’s a post-doctoral fellow in early brain development with a specialty in autism. Joy and I were hanging on his every word in the car, and then we made him go to the hotel bar with us and tell us more.

Traditional pickup lines? No good. Start talking smart about brain development and we’ll follow you anywhere.

P.S. Soon I'll put photos on my Facebook--so watch for that!

Friday Dos & Don'ts

I don’t like getting random invitations to Facebook events that I have no intention of attending from people I barely speak to or know.

I do like leaving work early and going to Chicago for the weekend.

I don’t like bad coffee.

I do like laughing hysterically with my co-workers.

I don’t like when my breakfast oatmeal dries on the inside of the bowl.

I do like hearing a Sales guy singing “Bleeding Love” in falsetto.

More, please

I really think I should spend my life going away for the weekend. Granted the weekends must include temperatures near 80 and plenty of sunshine.

I spent this past weekend with friends and relations in a cabin on a creek in the country (to some, Lancaster is the country. To Lancastrians, not so much.) There was hiking, and biking, and canoeing, and a little dachshund running around, and also s'mores. I love roasting the absolutely perfect golden brown marshmallow, rotating it slowly, trying hard not to catch it on fire or char the top.

We also attempted to hold the completed s'more over the fire to melt the chocolate, which actually worked really well--if you have a 2-pronged stick to rest it on. The chocolate melts and tastes like Hershey's syrup. Note: this method is about 100 times messier than a regular s'more--and that's pretty messy.

Speaking of some more, I don't consider myself a particularly girly-girl, but the Lancaster Sephora opens on Friday and I am super-excited. No more trips to King of Prussia! More makeup! I love Sephora, I'm almost out of a bunch of my products, AND I want to find an exciting new exfoliant. And their email marketing team is pretty on top of things--today I got an email with a coupon letting me know exactly what day the store will open. So guess who will be at Sephora this Friday?! (Yes, me.)

Also bewildering this weekend. We were discussing the movie Back to the Future and HAD TO STOP AND EXPLAIN IT to some of the people we were with. I thought my friend was joking as he began: "it's this movie, from the 80s, about a kid . . . ." I almost laughed at how funny he was being, spelling it all out like that, and then I realized that he was serious, and she didn't know what he was talking about. My world was seriously shaken. Have people in 2008 really never heard of BttF?

And, exciting possibly: will the Democratic party finally have a nominee tomorrow? Fingers crossed.

Score! (update)

Look what was waiting for me on my desk today!


the next 36 spare hours of my life

And look what I won in the Oscar drawing at Blockbuster!


Candy and a giant popcorn tub

Please go chasing waterfalls . . .

The Honduras narrative is coming to an end (one more day after these two). Good times!

On Sunday, December 23 we went to some deserted Mayan ruins that were very cool. Copan is apparently the big set of very popular and touristy ruins, but these, called El Puente, were much smaller. Also less crowded. Jen and I were the only ones around for most of the sightseeing.

That night we made flour tortillas at the camp where Jen lives. Two Honduran women who live at camp tried to advise us, but the tortillas were not quite up to standard. We had fun, though.

On Monday, December 24, we drove and then hiked to a waterfall. The drive was crazy--all dirt roads, fording little streams, and finally parking in what turned out to be inches-deep manure! Which we then proceeded to walk through.

The waterfall was very hidden--definitely NOT a tourist attraction, as no gringos ever would've found it without help from the locals.

Later, after we washed it, Jen's Isuzu Rodeo wouldn't start (not because of the washing), and we had to clutch-start it with the help of a mechanic and local missionary nurse. That was cool. I want to learn to clutch-start a car.

Nothing about this day felt like Christmas Eve, but it was fun nevertheless.

I'm not posting pictures, because you can see all of them in Jen's Facebook album entitled Hidden Waterfalls in Pinalejos and El Puente. Pinalejos is the little town outside the camp. Check out the awesome waterfall! Los Cascados!

In Between

Happy New Year! I celebrated January 1 by putting my flannel sheets on my bed and taking a cold walk around the neighborhood and seeing an awesome flaming sunset. Later, I will probably do some laundry and also take out the trash. 2008 has been packed with excitement so far.

Anyway, I suppose I should do some kind of 2007 Year in Review, but this year has been fairly unremarkable, at least as far as I can tell. (There's always the chance that in hindsight these years could be incredibly important, but I'll let you know if that happens). In the Sad Things of 2007 column, two of my best friends moved away this year, and I miss them. Under the Good Things header, I came more into my own at work, and feel like I have much more to offer than I did last year at this time. The joy of a job that you actually like can't really be overstated. It's crucial.

I kept all three of my 2007 resolutions: figure out retirement funds, go to the dentist twice, buy a MINI, and that makes me hesitant to make any 2008 resolutions, unless they can be as easily and definitively measured. I should go to the doctor, so I'll make that a resolution. And my budget really needs some help (quote of 2007: "My finances are shit. I really need to get married.") So, my other resolution will be to start saving for an emergency fund, and also tithe regularly. (Yikes. Now I have to actually do it).

Okay, back to Honduras. Going through day-by-day is exhausting me, so I will probably skip over some stuff. The highlights of Saturday, December 22, were our trip to a botanical gardens and a spontaneous trip to a professional soccer game in the evening. We heard a rumor that it was the Honduran Cup, but that was never confirmed. Now, why I am I still using words? Here are pictures!

Giant Bamboo!
(Mark is standing in front for scale).


The Melaleuca Tree


The Mangosteen Tree!


A REAL LIVE Mangosteen!


Cannonball Tree. The balls are ornamental.


Cool Red-and-Green Palm trees


Jen is frightened by the deadly Strychnine Tree . . .
Don't touch or YOU WILL DIE!


Cool pink flower . . .


. . . that drops its petals everywhere.


Sitting in the river at the Botanical Gardens . . .
this felt like being in PA.


Two lanes quickly turns into eight unorganized lanes on the way to the soccer game.


The stadium at night


Inside the game


What it was like after a goal . . . can you spot the shower of beer?


Look what we found in an Honduran grocery store!
From Leola, PA . . . and we know these Hesses

Honduras Day 2

Friday, December 21, 2007.
We were up early to be picked up by our tour guide, but the pick up was fairly useless, because we went right back into town and hung around the tour office while the rest of our tour mates joined us. Jen and I were the only USers--Mark is from Canada, and our other tour mates were from Italy and France.

The point of the trip was kayaking on a river and swimming on a beach. The beach was a deserted, quiet place in a town called Triunfo de la Cruz. It's a Garifuna village, all dirt roads and wandering animals, but that doesn't stop Pepsi and Coke from plastering their names on every available piece of property.

We took a long winding way through the town, and finally arrived at our entry point on the river. From there on it was kayaking and seeing all kinds of cool things. We never saw a really big crocodile, but we heard an ominous splash as we came around a bend in the river--a big splash. We did see baby crocs, birds, and monkeys! For the rest of this post, I'm going to rely completely on photos. And videos, if I can get them to load.

Breakfast at the hotel before we left on our tour


Pepsi is Omnipresent


Pig in the Road


The Africa Discotec.
I wonder if we could really have danced here.


Kayak entry point

Video of kayaking through the river


White-faced monkey in a tree!


The beach


Thatched cabanas on the beach

Where do I begin . . .

First things first: I need some plans for New Year's Eve that do not involve me sitting alone in my house (or being alone anywhere, for that matter). I'm not great fun at parties, but I don't get drunk and try to makeout with someone's boyfriend, either. So, if calm and drama-free is a plus for your gathering, please let me know. It's gotten to the point where I dread this holiday simply because getting something together requires effort, now that my college friends seem to have abandoned our New Year Reunion tradition.

Okay, on to Honduras. I haven't blogged in 11 days, but that was mostly because I was lazy, not because I didn't have a computer. So I'll be posting in stages. First, Day 1 and 2.

December 19-20, 2007.
I had to take a little side jaunt to Chicago on my way to Miami to catch my flight to Honduras (did you catch that) and I had just taken my seat in the plane from DC to Chicago when the flight attendant announced that the plane was "out of service" and we all needed to get off. We all looked at each other like she must be kidding, but nope. Off we went. And I called and rebooked myself (after some stress) on a flight directly to Miami, bypassing Chicago altogether, which is what I wanted all along. Trouble is, I had to abandon my luggage and hope for the best. But . . . a Christmas miracle! When I exited customs in San Pedro Sula, there was my luggage. Both bags! So, I grabbed them and went to meet Jen.

Jen splits her time between life in the city (San Pedro Sula) and the country (the camp where she works). We were spending the night in SPS because it was already 7:30 by the time I arrived, and because of safety issues, giant potholes, and ridiculous dark tinting on her car windows, Jen prefers not to drive anywhere at night. She did drive me back to the house she is currently living in (while house-sitting) in the dark, and I got to see a little of the city. Mostly I counted US restaurant chains: Pizza Hut, KFC, Subway, Wendy's, etc. When we got to the house I was introduced to Baxter and Biscuit (dog security) and the giant metal gates, padlocks, and concertina wire that seem to surround the houses in SPS. Robbery must be a major problem, because the house we stayed in had all of the above, plus a neighborhood watchman armed with a handgun.

San Pedro Sula is very much like the bad future in Back to the Future 2--the one where Biff is in charge and there are bars on the window of Marty's old house.

Biscuit and Baxter



But . . . I digress. We stayed at the house (very nice, by Honduran standards) that night and then got up and drove to Tela the next morning. Tela is a beach town, and we stayed in a very tall pink hotel on a hill, with an awesome view of the water. It reminded me of the Swiss Family Robinson treehouse. We walked into town to buy sunscreen ($11!) and then laid in the hammocks at the hotel for the rest of the afternoon. Later, a friend of Jen's named Mark joined us, and we went to dinner at a local restaurant near the beach where we were entertained by a fire-breather.

Me in a hole-y hammock


The three hammocks


Part of the pink hotel


View from a hammock

Feliz Navidad

This is the week at work where piles of chocolate, truffles, nuts, cookies, and various other stuff from clients appear on the table in the kitchen . . . and of course, we all eat them. Today I had a really interesting cream puff cookie and a yummy bitter chocolate truffle--both highly recommended. Then tonight I went to the gym to try to counteract all of it.

Hard to believe that a week from tonight I'll be in another country. I don't think I've really talked about it here, but in a week I'm flying to Honduras for Christmas. I'm going to spend the week with my cousin Jen, and see another country. I'm excited about both of those things, but I'm weirded out by the idea that Christmas isn't going to happen the same way this year. I could go home and spend the holiday with my parents, alone, and although I love my parents, that's not exactly appealing either. I'd miss the big family Christmas either way, because this is the year that all of my married cousins and brother are with their in-laws.

Tonight Jen called to go over some logistics and she mentioned sunscreen--which is a good thing, because such a thing never would've crossed my mind at this point. Sunscreen seems like it belongs in a faraway place. It's been raining here for days and days, and tomorrow there's supposed to be ice (Ha! Yeah, right).

So, that's the plan. I will go spend Christmas on the beach--well, probably not on the beach, more likely with the monkeys and strychnine trees in the subtropical jungle. No doubt there will be pictures to come.

Lazy Sunday

I went to our work Christmas party on Friday night and then spent most of the rest of the weekend sleeping, or so it seems. And watching a bunch of episodes of 30 Rock on DVD. And going to church today. It was a completely lazy weekend, although I did manage to clean up my kitchen tonight while I was on the phone with my parents.

For this year's party, we were in the Nigerian room--the room where they ask you for your social security number and bank account so they can send you the fortune of a former high-ranking official. (Zing!)

Anyway, the party was fun; I posted some pictures on Facebook, but they're mostly just of people eating. We ate, drank, danced, and won things in a raffle. I didn't win anything, but many from my department did.

And now back to work tomorrow for plain old job stuff. Whoo-hoo.

Over Again

Thankgiving is over for another year. We had our usual dinner, jokes, old funny stories, family drama, and healthy heapings of gossip. Or not-so-healthy, as the case may be.

We did not do karaoke, and I was hardly inspired to take pictures, except at the football game we went to on Sunday night. I assume that other countries have their own versions of tailgating, but tailgating in a dark, cold parking lot on the Sunday after Thanksgiving, grilling and drinking Bud Light, is quintessentially American. And we did that. And then we watched the Eagles play surprisingly well against the Patriots. The Eagles fans at the game were especially obnoxious; we treated to choruses of "Fly, Eagles, Fly" over and over again.

Here are a couple of pictures I DID take.

View from the cheap seats

Dark Cold Blur

On Pause

I'm outta here, and since there's no blog contest this year, I probably won't post until I'm back from my Thanksgiving holiday on Olde Cape Cod (next week).

Catch ya on the flip side.

Sasquatches Unite!

Tonight I was about to go bowling with two friends from work when the desk guy asked us what size shoes we wear.

"Ten," I said.

"Me too," said work girl #1.

Me too," said work girl #2.

And we all looked at each other. And laughed.

I have been a size 10 since I was about 12, and I'm used to having big feet. Never being able to borrow shoes, always worrying about what I will do if I go creek-stomping or on some other shoe-ruining adventure. I'm no 7.5.

So to have two other girls share my shoe size. . . well, it means a lot. Sort of. I'd also had about 10 Jack & cokes at the time, so I might not have been totally clear on what was happening.

Other things that may have happened tonight:
me bowling two strikes
me talking the ear off of several people (since when do I talk?)
me singing Hit Me Baby One More Time at karaoke

I'm home now, and safely tucked up in my bed. It's 62 degrees in my bedroom, but I'm holding out on turning on the heat, and I know I'll make it past November 5 . . . since that's Monday. But I MUST remember to turn the clocks back tomorrow!

Scraps

On nearly all the blogs I read that get lots of comments, there's always at least one commenter that claims to have spit milk/diet coke/coffee/wine, etc. all over his or her monitor/screen/keyboard.

Now, really. Does anyone in real life do a spit take while reading blogs? Do that many people spray liquids all over their computers? I love the blogs I read (and I read a lot). Most of them are very funny. However, I never, ever, have involuntarily gushed liquid out of my mouth upon reading something on a computer.

Which leads me to believe this phrase is now just a compliment, just a way of saying you were amused . . . much like "threw up in my mouth a little" is synonomous with being grossed out.

Let me just say I don't like any of it.
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I've been feeling a little misanthropic lately, and people aren't helping. The other night at the gym I overheard a woman complaining (loudly--she was about 7 machines away from me) about city life. "Ugh, the city," she said. "They really do their best to make me want to leave. The drugs, and crime, and all the parking tickets. And the Race Against Racism. It shuts down my street for an entire day."

Okay. I will passionately defend city life. At work I get passionate about 2 things: 1) Lancaster is cool, and fun, and NOT any less awesome than Harrisburg, and 2) no one under 27 can complain about being old in my presence, because I will yell at them.

So I do like city life. But this was insane.

First, I understand that drugs and crime are a concern. They are in any city. But there's plenty of crime and murder in the suburbs around here. As for parking tickets, the city doesn't just start piling tickets on your car. You are responsible for that. Read the street signs!

But the Race against Racism? You're complaining about this? It gets people downtown, it's for a good cause . . . I have never in my life heard anyone complain about it.

And the kicker? This woman was telling all of this to the black guy who was next to her on the ellipticals.
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Today at work we were all sitting around having a convo about buying houses and mortgages and property taxes, and I was thinking about how there's very little chance I'm going to still know all these people in a few years--when they all DO own houses--because we're all going to move on. And then I was sad, because these are the only people who understand this weird work world--what it's like to work with our particular clients. These are the only people who can crack jokes about the strange world we all work in every day. Really, you can't understand it unless you're in it . . . and we're all in it together.

And the fact that someday they'll all just be memories . . . is sad. But like I said, I get nostalgic for things that are happening or haven't happened yet. If that's even possible.

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I wish it would rain. Or get cooler. This weather is ridiculous.

Extensions

This has been a total work weekend (so far), and there are some pics of our work scavenger hunt here.

I don't have any pictures of us in the pool, though. One of our big point activities was swimming in a stranger's pool, so we all jumped in. I spent the evening in soaking wet, and then eventually just slightly damp, jeans.

At least I got something for my discomfort, however. Our team placed second!