The world is spinning too fast, I’d like to get off, please.
I know I’m preaching to the choir here, but seriously folks – IT’S TIME FOR CHRISTMAS AGAIN?!
Are you ready? I’m not, though I do have some gift ideas. The only people I really buy gifts for anymore is my mom and our boys. Which is silly, because the boys are 32 and 29, but you know how it is when you’re a parent – your kids will always be little in your mind.
We put the Christmas tree up right around my birthday, which is early November. I know, we’re THOSE people. But I don’t care. I feel like we get the tree up, don’t get a chance to enjoy it because we’re so busy with work and other obligations, Christmas happens and it’s time to take it down. Nope. We’re putting it up early November and keeping it up until New Year’s. We get six weeks to enjoy it.
Plus, it’s a lot of work and I hate doing work with little pay out.
What is up with Christmas lights? We’ve had two strands burn out on us so far this year. Kevin just pus another strand on, the tree is decorated and it’s too much of a pain to take everything off, change out lights, then put everything back on again. So. When it’s time to dismantle the tree, we’ll be peeling off about two extra sets of dead lights.
Fun.
But I suppose that’s like everything else – nothing is made like it used to be. We used to get four, or more, years out of a strand of Christmas lights, now we’re lucky if we get four, or more, weeks out of a strand of lights.
We’re planning a few Christmas parties. We’re supposed to go to Kevin’s family’s party on the 15th, then we’re having my family’s party on the 22nd. We’re having Kevin’s party at his parents’ clubhouse. It’s the clubhouse that everyone in the neighborhood uses. It’s a really nice space that comfortably houses everyone. It comes with a kitchen, too, so it’s really handy. We’re planning on having my family’s party at our house on the 22nd. I think mom would have liked to have the party at her house but our house is bigger.
Hopefully, I have my voice back by then. These past two weeks have been ROUGH for me. I left work/home to drive up to Wal-Mart because I needed a few things and as I was walking into the store, I got THAT feeling. You know, THAT feeling when you start to feel sick? I can’t even describe THAT feeling … just an overall pressure/heaviness that weighs down your entire body. And it came on HARD. I had been feeling a little run down before that and had loaded up on Vitamin C, Zinc and Zicam but apparently it wasn’t enough to stop the freight train that slammed into my entire body. I quickly got what I needed from Wal-Mart and came back home. I felt ok-ish for the rest of the day but by Tuesday, my throat was really sore and I had a dry cough.
Swell.
Wednesday, my sinuses started to thicken up and my voice was raspy, but still, I thought I would feel better by Thanksgiving.
Nope.
I woke up Thanksgiving day and felt like a dog had dug me up and treated me like a beloved chew toy. Yum. We were supposed to have Kevin’s parents, my mom, the boys and Leroy over for Thanksgiving dinner. Kevin had cooked the turkey the day before, but he went ahead and cooked the entire meal, by himself, the day of (God bless him), and he ended up taking food to his folks and having lunch with them while the boys took my mom some food and had lunch with her. It was just me and my germs at home.
Still though, I had a dry cough, I could barely speak, but I didn’t feel that bad, overall. I wasn’t in any shape to be around people, but I wasn’t feeling that bad.
The week after Thanksgiving, my cough turned phlegmy, heavy and loud. I was glad, actually, that meant whatever crap I had caught was finally started to break up. My body had figured out the key to this sickness lock and I had turned a corner. Monday, I could talk but it sounded like I had a cold, Tuesday, it was a little weaker, but I started training the new girl that day and I talked ALL DAY so by the time Wednesday rolled around, I could barely speak above a whisper. I had to train her via text, which was fun … not. (Reminder – I work from home and my company uses Microsoft Teams to communicate with one another). I trained via text pretty much the rest of the week.
It’s a good thing I’m a fast typist. The new girl was being nice, she said she didn’t mind it because it slowed us down, and she was right about that! But still, I felt guilty. I’ve NEVER had laryngitis this bad in my entire life. I felt fine otherwise, I just couldn’t talk.
Friday, mom picked me up and we drove up to the Middle School to set up her Christmas craft booth. It was only a one-day event but we went up the night before to set it up. I was fine until about halfway through the set up and then a wave of nausea hit me so hard I had to go outside, around the corner of the building and throw up. I felt better for about 15 minutes and then, it started to hit me again. Mom said I looked pretty bad so she could tell I wasn’t feeling well, so we left. Mom has a harder time seeing at night, so I drove my dad’s truck back to my house. As soon as we got to my house, I said bye and rushed into the house, straight to our bathroom and threw up two more times.
Dude. I don’t know. Again, I’m NEVER sick so by this time, I’m getting pretty annoyed with myself. I don’t know if I ate something bad? Or if it was because I hadn’t eaten anything before going up to the school and I’ve been pretty sedentary because I’ve been sick and it was the sudden physical activity, or maybe it was because I sucked on a cough drop on an empty stomach, maybe it was a combination of all these things, but after emptying my stomach, I felt loads better and I feel good today.
I have A voice, it’s not MY voice. It still sounds like I have a stuffy nose but at least I can talk, people can understand me and my throat is no longer sore. I had heard, from other people at work, that a sickness has been going around and it was affecting people’s voice boxes … who knows. All I know is I’m glad I’m back to semi-normal and life has resumed once again.
The craft show on Saturday went well. I woke up Saturday, took a shower, got ready and started feeling nauseous again. AAARGH. I ate a piece of dried toast, took a Tylenol, laid down for about 30 minutes and felt like a new woman. Kevin dropped me off at the school shortly after the show started and I was able to sit with mom all day with no problem. Still couldn’t talk very loudly, but I could talk. There weren’t as many people there as we had hoped. It started out busy in the morning but by about 1:00 PM, traffic as practically nil. It was a beautiful day and a lot of people were out, but not a lot of people were at the school shopping for crafts. Overall, mom did well. She sold quite a few things, I sold some of my dorky diamond painting ornaments, my cute diamond paining cow picture and I ended up buying a super cute snowman from mom’s craft neighbor and friend.
I’m just glad I felt better and was able to sit with her. The show ended at 4:00 and we were packed up and driving away from the school by 4:20!! That has to be a record. Granted, I did move her truck up closer to the school about an hour before closing time and we lucked out and got a spot right outside the doors when it was time to leave but we timed it perfectly and kicked butt getting out of there.
Now, to get through the rest of the holidays.
I just wanted to post a little something-something to let ya’ll know I’m still here. I’m feeling the urge to write again but don’t worry, I’m sure it will go away like it usually does. Ha! I’m hoping to write a little more, if not consistently, in 2025, but you know me …
K – time to shift focus and get ready to clock on for work. Since I’ve been training I’ve been working 10:30 AM – 7:00 PM and I sort of hate it. Not the training part but the hours. This right-smack-dab-in-the-middle-of-the-day shift is for the birds. Not a fan. Boo!
Christmas is right around the corner … are you ready?!
(My Reflections posts are more stream-of-consciousness kind of posts so I apologize up front if some of what you read doesn’t make sense. But this is me we’re talking about here so … are you really surprised? Also, I’m behind – again, anyone surprised?)
February 1:
So. In addition to being part of the UAT (Urgent Action Team), I will be continuing to help the VA department import their documents into patient’s chart, (not hard, in fact, it’s sort of mind numbing but it is time consuming), I will be part of another team – getting authorizations for patients who come to the hospital by ambulance and are being admitted to the hospital. They say the requests that come in for this particular group are intermittent and sporadic – some days it may be one, some days it may be six, but the point is, it’s another project I’ll be working on. And to be honest? I love it! Ha! Didn’t see that coming, did you? Well, hold on, let me clarify that statement, I’ll love it when I know what I’m doing. Right now? It terrifies me. However, that project won’t start until February 8th to give us some time to get semi-used to fully taking UAT over. I can do this … I can do this … I can do this …
February 2:
Gah! SOOOO hard to focus today! I only worked till noon. I don’t know if I was having a stroke, or what, but I could not focus on anything this morning. I know it’s because I was super distracted because I was going to pick mom up after work and we were driving to Overland Park, Kansas, but still. When I have days like this I can’t help but wonder – am I losing my mind? Is this early dementia? I need to stop thinking like that, I don’t want to manifest that to become true. After clocking off, I gathered my suitcase, loaded up the car and drove over to pick mom up. The weather was perfect – sunny and almost 70!! In February!! We were really blessed with great weather. After making sure mom’s house would still be standing when got back, (oven is off, etc), we got on the road. I love road trips. But I won’t bore you with recounting the story here, I’ve written about the entire weekend here.
February 5:
Today was hell incarnate. So. I sometimes check my email on Sunday nights just to clear it out so that I don’t clock on Monday with a handful of emails clogging my focus. When I signed on last night, I noticed that it was time to change my password – the hospital requires that you change it every six months. But it’s always a pain to change it because it takes a minute for the other programs to catch up and it causes some glitches. So, again, to avoid a messy Monday, I went ahead and changed my password. And I couldn’t get back into my programs. “Oh well”, I thought, “it will work itself out on Monday”. I signed on this morning at 7:30 and my programs still weren’t coming up, so I clocked on and called the Help Desk thinking, “Oh well, they’ll have this up and running by 8:00 AM.” It wasn’t until 3:00 today that something was decided, IT couldn’t figure it out. In the meantime, I’m literally sitting around all day waiting with bated breath for someone from IT to deem it necessary to reach out to me, (to be fair, they did a great job, it was just as frustrating for them as it was for me), and TODAY was the first day the UAT was up and running, SOLO. I felt so bad for my coworkers!!! They not only had to struggle to figure out a brand new process but now they had to cover my alphas, too. (I’ve been assigned the D-H’s). IT couldn’t figure it out so I told them I was going to go into the office, (which is conveniently located right across the street from the hospital which is also conveniently close to our house – not everyone is as lucky), to see if I could sign on and maybe, hopefully, get SOMETHING done. Because at this point IT didn’t know if it was my account, or my computer. I unplug my computer, because IT was going to meet me to pick it up and work on it and I go into the office. Which is always super awkward because we’re rarely there and people look at you like, “Who the heck are you?” Which … fair. I sit down, sign on and I’m able to access my programs! Okay, so it’s definitely my computer. I contact my IT guy and he advised me to plug my computer into the hospitals resources. I carefully figure out how to do that, (because I’m often technologically challenged) and the MoFo freaking works!!! So, apparently, IT said that once in a while, (and OF COURSE it happens with me), when a person works remotely the VPN disconnects from the hospital’s servers and you have to take your computer up the hospital to plug into their system directly for it to reconnect. That is what happened to me. So, Monday was completely wasted but at least I have my computer back and I can continue to work from home as opposed to having to go into the office until IT could fix my computer. There’s always a bright side!
February 6:
Today kicked my butt. Since I had computer issues yesterday today was my first full day of the new process and being solo and … wow. It really pushed my multi-tasking abilities to the limit. I ended up doing a lot of cases and that, at least, went pretty smoothly. However, as with any new process, we had a lot of work management wasn’t anticipating, so now everyone is scrambling to absorb this unexpected surprise and trying to compensate. I have to give management credit, though, they have been mega involved this entire process and we have a lot of support, that certainly helps.
February 7:
Worked 10 hours today. Got A LOT done but I’m brain dead. That is all.
February 8:
Had a butt-pucker moment today. (You know what I’m talking about – we all have butt-pucker moments, don’t lie). I’m figuring out that mornings are going to naturally be our busiest times. Which makes sense because the clinics are open, the doctors are cranking patients out and sending them for stat tests. It’s mid-morning and I’m like this cat meme:
When my supervisor messages me and asks if I can work on the ambulance transfer request that just came by email. CRAP! I forgot we were going to start taking that project over starting today. It couldn’t have come at a worse time. I was in the middle of things things, (for real, not exaggerating here), I had a meeting in 45 minutes and they wanted me to work on a process that I haven’t even had time to read the documentation for. Suuuuure. So, I flatly told my supervisor that I would have to tackle it after my meeting. (Sorry about the gif above – I wish it would shut off, it’s distracting, but it perfectly depicts my day). After my meeting, management, me and one of my UAT co-workers all worked through the process together and it wasn’t as hard as I thought it would be. But just add that fat, juicy morsel to my already overflowing plate of tasty job duties. *sigh*
February 9:
Just when I thought it COULDN’T possibly be busier … WRONG. I don’t know what happened today but I’m quite convinced that every single person in the city with the last name between D-H saw their doctor today because my inbox EXPLODED. Again, furiously working away, like that annoying cat gif above and by the time I clocked off at 5:30, (supposed to clock off at 4:30), my brain was M.U.S.H. I ended up working five hours overtime this week. I’m exhausted.
February 10:
Finally got my hair colored today. My hair dresser, actually, I’ve only been to her once but I think she’s the sweetest and we really hit it off, moved to another salon to be more independent, (good for her!), so I awkwardly walked into the place and acted like I owned, “Hello!”. That’s my go to – fake confidence, no one will know that you’re actually trembling inside. It was a great experience, she didn’t charge me as much, but I gave her a generous tip anyway, and I hope she sticks around. Good stylists are hard to find! I went over to mom’s afterward, my sister was in town, and we chit-chatted, worked on some crafts and went out to lunch and dinner. It was a fun day!
February 11:
Chores. Sundays are boring for me. I save all my housekeeping chores for Sundays because I just can’t be bothered during the week. Kevin got another part for the treadmill, this makes his fifth try, and though he’s closer to getting fixing it, (it’s not sucking power and causing the lights to flicker anymore), it’s still not working. He’s not giving up on fixing it, (Kevin is a BULL DOG when it comes to this kind of stuff), but he’s finally agreed to buying a new treadmill. So. We’ll start seriously looking, (I have my eye on one on Amazon), and make the leap. I’m ready. I NEED to walk again. I do WAAAY too much sitting.
February 12:
It snowed today! Big, fat, wet flakes. It was beautiful, really. And it was one of those days that I was really glad that I was working from home. It was nice to look out the window and not have to stress about getting out in it. But we were fortunate, it all melted off by the afternoon – my favorite kind of snow. Management is helping with our UAT flags. They are trying to figure out why we’re getting so many requests. And they are figuring out that there are some that are being sent to the pool that shouldn’t be. In essence, our pool is becoming a dumping ground for the crap that no one else wants to take care of. NOPE. Not happening and I will continue to point this crap out and bitch, in a professional way, until it stops. Not happening. Met mom and my sister for dinner after work at Fazoli’s. We ate, chatted, and laughed for two hours, it was nice. My sister goes back home tomorrow. Boo.
February 14:
Happy Valentine’s Day! Yeah, I don’t care. It’s not that I don’t care, per se, but my thinking is, every day should be Valentine’s day. You should show the ones you love how much you love them every day, not just a designated day of obligation. Anyway. My impressions of my co-workers: you can read that post here.
February 15:
And of COURSE, I was Voluntold to train one of the new UAT girls. We have two girls that are currently being trained for the job, one of them is doing great, the other one is not doing that great. Guess which one management stuck me with. *sigh* Why, WHY?!? But being the team player that I am, I said I would be glad to help and today was our first day. She’s very nice and she seemed to know what I was talking about. She was also an MA in her previous life so she is familiar with clinicals and insurances, etc. But she’s not familiar with our system. No worries, I can work with that. But I confess, this is taking more patience that I’m capable of having right now, so I’m struggling. But we got through the day.
February 16:
Kevin put the treadmill together! I felt bad for him, it weighs 200 pounds and he really struggled bringing into the house. I couldn’t help because I was still working so he did it all by himself. He was going to call LeRoy but as he says, “I can’t rely on LeRoy all the time.” So, he dragged the thing in from the garage, all the way to our bedroom, put it together and by the time I clocked off, it was ready for me to sync up and unlock. I had to sign up for an iFit account, which … meh, we’ll see, I get the first 30 days free, then we’ll see if it’s worth paying for. But after making an account and syncing up my phone, it unlocked. I can’t wait to use it! I’ve done nothing but sit for the past month and I’m ready to get back to it. We’re going to keep the old treadmill, Kevin thinks he can fix it and with enough time, he probably can. It’s become a challenge for him now. I wish I had his problem-solving patience and skills. The reason I was still working when Kevin was bringing the treadmill in was because everyone else left early so I was LITERALLY the last person on the clock and guess what? Crap came in that had to be worked. I went into overdrive and I got crap done, ya’ll! That was the fastest I’ve worked at this job so far and it was exhilarating but I wouldn’t want to do it very often. Also, I was annoyed that management didn’t think to have more than one person AFTER 3:00 PM!
February 17:
Mom came over to our house today. We ate at Schlotzskys for lunch, came back, finished Season 4 of Survivor, (the person I wanted to win, didn’t win), had some coffee, snacked on the strawberry cheesecake she brought over, along with the Snickerdoodle cookies I made, crafter and listened to the audio book “The Shack” Which isn’t bad, but has taken a weird turn. I worked on my diamond painting until I got tired of that and then switched to cross-sticthing an angel Christmas ornament, and poor mom worked on undoing a mistake she made on a plastic canvas project. I love my Saturdays with mom. Afterward, Kevin and I went out to eat at Whole Hog Cafe, (BBQ, yum!) and watched “Awakenings.” Which made me cry. I hate crying.
February 18:
Worked five hours today. Yes, it’s Sunday. Management has approved overtime and I’m taking advantage of it. I worked on importing VA documents and sending those documents to offices so our Vets can get appointments. Our VA department is always behind and I feel bad for the Vets who need to be seen. Also made two banana loafs today.
February 19:
Frustrating day at work. One of my co-workers seemed mad – or maybe not. It’s really hard to gauge people’s moods or deciphering tones because we communicate exclusively by writing. I don’t have the advantage of decoding facial expressions or listening to the way people say something to know exactly what they’re saying and how they’re saying it. Had to coach one of my co-workers today – I just don’t think she’s UAT material but that decision is above my pay grade.
February 20:
Head down and focus kind of day. I ignored Teams pretty much the whole day and that really helped. I ended up covering 8 alphas today. I loved it, but it was a lot. Did some more admits – really not digging these admits. It’s primarily because no one knows what’s going on or what to do and I HATE not knowing what I’m doing or understanding WHY I’m doing something. Talked to Brandon today – it was his last day of the job he hated. He starts his new job next week and he’s looking forward to the change. I hope this new job works out for him. He’s had lousy luck with jobs.
February 21:
Management is going to give the new girl the admit/transfers. Thank goodness. Pretty sick of the daily meetings. I appreciate management being right there and available to talk about issues and work on solutions but these daily meetings … too much.
February 22:
I’ve lost track of how much overtime I’ve gotten this week. It’s been crazy trying to keep track of the crap that is being dumped on us. Now that Ciox is gone and we’ve taken over full time, it’s really been an adjustment for everyone. We’re realizing that a bunch of stuff was dumped on UAT when Ciox was here – I guess they just did it – but that’s going to stop. UAT is not a dumping ground. If the test isn’t scheduled and it’s marked stat/urgent, how do we know it’s really stat/urgent? To be fair, how do we know it’s NOT? Starting to get burned out and something is going to have to give. Can’t keep this pace up indefinitely.
February 23:
I’ve been running the work flow through my head, trying to come up with a workable solution. I wrote down a possible flow and presented it to management. Who knows if they go along with it but it helped to just write it out and get it straight in my head. UHC’s website was down today and everyone FREAKED OUT. We have a lot of patients that have UHC insurance so it was a real struggle to work those. We had a department-wide meeting today, basically, to tell everyone to chill out and consolidate your UHC cases so that when you call, you have several to check as opposed to being on hold for 30 minutes waiting to check one. It all seems so common sense to me but I guess people truly don’t have common sense anymore. It’s exhausting and I’m exhausted.
February 24:
Weekly get together with mom. Watched Survivor, worked on some cross-stitch Christmas ornaments, talked to sis on Google Meet. We’re coming up on Dad’s one-year anniversary of his death. I can tell it’s starting to take a toll on mom.
February 25:
Booked another camping trip today. It’s in the boothill – we’ve never really been down there before. It’s in the middle of nowhere but it has sewer, is a state part and I’ve seen some good reviews on it. Can’t wait to go camping again!
February 26:
Quiet today. Would have been great but management voluntold me, (I seem to be voluntold for a lot of things lately) to speak to some woman about the UAT processes. I think she’s trying to meld our processes with the hospital’s processes. She was very nice and I enjoyed talking to her but … we’ll see if anything really comes from it. I have mixed feelings on management “asking” me to do these types of things. On one hand, it’s flattering to be asked and that they have confidence in me but on the other hand, I really wish I was one of these personalities where I could just sort of fade into the background. Alas – I am not that person.
February 28:
The pace is starting to slow down a bit. We’re not being sent some stuff like we were before so I think everyone is getting the hint – don’t send us your crap. Management doesn’t seem to be as focused on UAT as they were in the beginning. I think they are shifting their focus to other departments and I’m okay with that!
Is anyone surprised by this? I mean, not only the stress of COVID and being segregated into categories, the vaccinated versus the unvaccinated, (i.e. people who are killing others), which is stupid and dangerous and we NEED TO STOP DOING THAT. We’re all humans, respect individual decisions – what others do is none of your business, but the fact that I’m not sure if I will have a job from day-to-day – yeah, that’s stressful. (I talk more about that in my podcasts and you’ll read more in my monthly reflections wrap-up post coming the end of July).
I’ve been listening to soothing music when I go to sleep but the problem with that is, it either continues to play all night long, or, the loud ads wake me up.
So I started listening to podcasts. But the subject matter is so interesting that it only serves to keep me awake, not put me to sleep.
But then I found “Get Sleepy.” (I sound like a damn infomercial. And this is not sponsored, by the way).
Get Sleepy is a twice weekly story-telling podcast with the goal of helping you get a great night’s rest. In reviews, listeners have described the podcast as “Life changing”.
Behind the podcast is a small creative team of writers, voice-over artists, and meditation experts. Together, with the guidance of leading sleep experts, our goal is to create the best podcast to help you fall asleep.
I have really enjoyed this podcast. It starts out with breathing exercises and then starts a calm, boring story that is meant to put you to sleep. Nothing exciting, nothing that will startle you awake. And you can set a timer for it to shut off after 30 minutes, 45 minutes, whatever. It has really been great and I highly recommend you try it.
I know I haven’t been around much lately, you can hear what is going on in my podcasts, but I’ve been highly distracted and worried about my next work move. I miss writing but I just haven’t had the mental space to tackle my creative side lately.
I hope you’re doing well. Don’t let the news media scare you and stress you out. Again, I talk about all of this stuff in my podcasts as I feel it’s important to know what’s going on but also to stay objective and realistic about what you’re hearing.
I’m pretty active on Twitter if you want to follow me there. Otherwise, my podcast is really the best place to catch up on my thoughts and life.
I apologize if this entry is boring, but considering I blog to journal my life, and this is what we did over Labor Day weekend … well, it’s a bit tedious. I remember my grandmother used to write in a diary and she would document her days, the weather, what she had to eat, what she wore, the conversations she had and though that sounds boring on the surface, it wasn’t. In fact, it was strangely … comforting to read about her mundane life.
I miss you grandma.
I’m writing this from Cooper Creek Campground in Branson, Missouri. We arrived at the park Friday night at 5:30. We had to rush to get going after the boys got out of school and as a result, we forgot quite a few things.
But we’ve adapted.
The campground is packed – there isn’t an empty site to be found. The weather has been perfect – sunny and mid-80’s. The air coming off the lake is cool and refreshing.
And judging by the weather reports, we took this camping trip just in time – Hurricane Gustav (?) is heading toward the Gulf of Mexico and though that weather won’t affect us for a few days, it will indeed affect us – we have rain in the forecast for most of next week.
The only flies in our perfect ointment are:
We’re surrounded by dogs and children. The dogs howl and bark, the children scream and cry. We actually saw one little guy wipe out on his bike when he zoomed past us on the hill, swerved, lost control, sailed over the handlebars and fall face first on the gravel and concrete.
He wasn’t wearing a helmet. Luckily, the boy was okay and walked away, his lower lip trembling as he tried to absorb his stinging wounds. Why his parents allowed him (this boy couldn’t have been more than six) to ride his bike without safety gear on, in my opinion, is not only foolhardy but a form of child abuse.
All four of us witnessed the little boy fall – the husband and I thanked the Lord that he wasn’t our little boy and our boys walked away learning the importance of protecting themselves in precarious situations.
The bathrooms? Are ½ mile away from our campsite. In fact, we are in the next to last campsite in the park. I made the reservations at the last minute and we were lucky to get a spot at all. I usually request a space near the bathrooms (we use our camper bathroom as a storage closet – though this trip the guys did use it for peeing only. Not me, I’d rather hike the ½ mile to the bathrooms – I’m funny like that) but unfortunately, I forgot this go-around and now we I have had to hike to take a pee and a shower.
But I’m not complaining too loudly, it gives me the opportunity to walk off the excess food that I’ve been eating (there’s just something about camping and pigging out).
The neighbors to our left moved in late last night. In fact, we didn’t even know we HAD neighbors until we woke up this morning. It was really weird because when I woke up, started the coffee maker and opened the shades, it was like looking into a mirror. Our neighbor’s camper? Almost an exact replica as ours. The only difference is that they have a slide out – we do not.
I’m jealous.
They are from Oklahoma. The guy is a big dude – not fat, just big. The woman is thin and attractive and they have one lone boy with them – he’s about GD’s age – and painfully skinny. They have one small, quiet, brown and white Chihuahua that shakes whenever they take it for a walk.
All three people are wearing the same shirt so I’m assuming they are here for some sort of family reunion or some sort of organizational meeting.
The neighbors on our other side are two men. They are both large and overly hairy. I know this because they sit around their campground without shirts on. They are the only ones in the campground that are using a tent. They are driving a brownish-tan Dodge Ram 2500 pulling a very long and well used fishing boat. They left early this morning and are now back (5:00 pm.) and sitting in front of their tent watching various cars and people pass by.
They’re a bit creepy. They don’t talk very much, but they seem comfortable in each other’s presence. I have no idea if they caught any fish but judging by their self-satisfied expressions, I’m assuming they did.
This is the first time we’ve camped here that we haven’t been able to access WiFi. As a result, we’ve had to walk down to the office and use the small platforms they have nailed to the wall and sit on the hard, uncomfortable stools to check our email. The boys have been pretty bored without Internet, but they have adapted by playing around with a laptop the husband saved from a co-worker who was just going to throw it away. The husband simply reformatted it and it works like a charm now. The co-worker didn’t want it back (he had already bought a new laptop), so now the boys have a computer they can goof around with. And they have been the whole camping trip.
Isn’t it amazing what people are willing to throw away? One person’s trash, is another person’s treasure. *smile*
For me? I was disappointed at first whenever I first discovered I couldn’t establish a connection from our camper, but it’s been very nice to be FORCED away from cyber world.
I needed the break. Especially since these past few days have been insanely busy for me and I’ve been on the computer and working nearly 12-hour days.
We treated the boys to Bandana BBQ for dinner Friday night. I felt grungy, sweaty and completely underdressed, but Branson is a tourist town and they are used to seeing grungy, sweaty people.
Saturday, the husband I went to the new bookstore called “Books-A-Million” or BAM for short. In short, it’s a Barnes and Noble type of establishment and it was quite busy.
I was quite pleased to see people milling around. You hear how less and less people are actually reading and it was encouraging to see that at least in my area, that’s not entirely true.
I walked away from the bookstore with “Killer Smile” by Lisa Scottoline and “The PMS Murder” by Laura Levine. I like to try and buy at least one book from an author I’m not familiar with whenever I visit the bookstore.
I need to stop buying books and start reading books – my personal library is taking over the house.
Saturday night, we took the boys go-cart racing and it cost us $30.00. It was the best $30.00 we’ve spent in a long time. The cars were fast and the boys beat the pants off of me and the husband. In fact, I was a whole lap down from them. But judging by their flushed cheeks and excited lap recounts, they had a ball and we made another fun childhood memory.
After go-carts, we went putt-putting. We went to a very popular dinosaur-themed course and the place was wall-to-wall people. In fact, the back nine was so backed up we ended up standing around as opposed to actually playing. But the people were friendly and everyone was in good spirits so we had a good time.
The boys beat the pants off us again. Isn’t it amazing how kids adapt to sports/games? I felt awkward and stupid, but it was fun to be teased by the boys so I got over my feelings of inadequacy. *grin*
After we finished golfing, we went for ice cream. The husband and GD had chocolate malts, MK had a vanilla ice cream cup (he won’t eat any other flavor ice cream), I had a raspberry concrete.
Oh. My. Gosh. That raspberry concrete was TO DIE FOR. Very scrumptious and definitely a new favorite. It’s a good thing we’re so far from the bathrooms, I’ll definitely need to walk that those calories off.
We ended up spending $85. (I need to stop keeping a running total in my head. How can you put a dollar sign on family moments?) But we really had a great family night together and I’m so glad the husband and I decided to do this camping thing. You’ve heard me talk about how much work it is. And how uncomfortable it can be, but by golly, we’ve had the best times in our camper and we’ve walked away with some pretty fun stories in the process. I’m quite confident the boys will tell their kids about their camping trips with grandma and grandpa. *grin*
It’s now 7:57 a.m. Sunday morning. I’m the first one up, the guys are all sleeping in. It’s a cool, crisp morning and I wish I had brought some sweats with me. I just got back from the restrooms and I have goosebumps. The park is quiet, but it’s slowly coming to life. I can hear various birds chirping their morning songs and an occasional bump as people move about their RV’s.
I can smell bacon and coffee in the air – there is NOTHING like smelling bacon cooking at your campground early in the morning. It’s very … real and comforting.
I’m drinking my morning coffee and after I finish writing this, I’ll head to the showers. We really have nothing on tap for today’s activities. We’ll most likely spend a lazy day around the camper, though the husband and I will probably head out to some craft booths later today – I have a craving to buy a Christmas ornament (I have no idea why).
We might walk down to the lake and just sit and watch the people fish off the pier or the boats slowly float past. We don’t have anything planned for this evening, either. We’ll most likely pop some popcorn and watch a movie … or not. That’s the beauty of these little camping getaways – anything goes – our plans are wide open.
We’ll head back home tomorrow morning. We’re only about 45 minutes from home, so we’ll get home and unpack well before lunch. I’ll most likely catch up on laundry and clean the camper out, then I’ll catch up on emails and various other duties. We’ll have a relaxing afternoon at home before the kids go back to school and the husband goes back to work on Tuesday.
And life will resume its hectic, but very satisfying, pace.
You must be willing to get dirty, to be sweaty, to take showers in different, sometimes bug-infested places and to show body parts to strange people while pretending that walking around in a towel in front of women you’ve never seen in your life before and will most likely never see again, is all perfectly commonplace.
But camping? DOES it for me. And my family? LOVES it.
Which is really odd for me to say because though I’m not exactly a “prissy” sort of girl, I don’t care to get dirty. I DON’T enjoy gardening, on any level. Why? Because I can’t stand the thought of having dirt under my fingernails or possibly running the pads of my fingers over a cold, slimy worm. In fact, I don’t enjoy any sort of outdoor work mainly because I can’t stand that outdoorsy smell that clings to your skin and clothes when you come back in.
I don’t swim in lakes because of the fishy, moldy, NASTY lake smell and the fact that you’re swimming in pond scum and God knows what else. And I can barely stand to wade into the ocean because when seaweed wraps it’s slick fingers around my legs it makes me gag and feel all … icky (how’s that for an original adjective?).
And yet, I’m okay with camping.
Go figure.
Camping is A LOT of work. It’s a lot of work to prepare our camper – soak the fold-down canvas beds with waterproof solution, check, and patch any leaks, replace a faulty faucet, tear out soaked cardboard and insulation because the caulk on one of our seams had aged and cracked and it leaked, air up the tires, make sure the propane tanks have enough gas, the brakes on our camper are working properly (this was especially important when we went camping in Colorado last year), blahblahblah.
And then, packing the thing with clothes, bedding, towels, food (we’ve learned that buying our perishable food when we reached our destination is SO MUCH EASIER than stressing about whether it’s staying cold in a cooler the whole trip), cooking utensils, cookery, plastic forks, spoons, knives, dish soap, paper towels, coffee maker, coffee mugs (I almost always forget coffee mugs), entertainment …. and on and on.
In essence, when you pack a camper, you’re furnishing a small house – it’s time consuming, back-breaking and really sweaty work hauling stuff back and forth between the house and the camper – both coming and going.
And yet, we do it, several times a year … and we enjoy it.
Well, me and the boys enjoy it; I think the husband just tolerates it because of me.
The camping bug usually bites me in mid-summer. I don’t care camping in the spring because my guys have allergies and the few times we’ve camped in the spring, it’s been a miserable experience for them – so we don’t.
By mid-summer, I don’t know, I just yearn to be outdoors, to appreciate nature, to breathe in that fresh air you only get when you leave the city, to hear the nature creatures and insects you can only hear when you’re away from the buzz of the city. It’s soothing, it’s peaceful, it’s rejuvenating.
But if I EVER talk about going camping at the end of July/first of August again, you have my permission to reach across cyber space and flick me on the forehead.
For those just tuning in, we went camping this past weekend – in 100 degree weather. Wow. It was not only hot (which I can handle), but it was stuffy and unbearable (which I can not handle). This past weekend was a heat wave. And to make matters even more uncomfortable, there was no wind. None. Walking outside was like trying to breathe through a blanket. The air was heavy, thick and moist. Within minutes of being outside, your skin beaded with moisture and felt clammy and unnatural.
In essence? It was miserable camping weather. We’ve camped when it’s been hot before, but not anything like this. The skies were clear, the atmosphere was hazy and people walked around liked zombies because it was simply too much of an effort to be anything more.
So, we didn’t venture outside our air conditioned camper very often. We sat around and read, played games and watched movies, and we were perfectly okay with that. We wanted a brief getaway where we did … nothing. We had no agenda. We had no desire to get out and see the sights because we’ve seen them a million times before. (We camped in Branson for the like the umpteenth time). We simply wanted to get away and … breathe, a chance to catch our breath and focus on just being together.
I think the boys really like camping because the husband and I pay attention to them. The husband and I enjoy camping with the boys because they actually acknowledge our existence. We get so caught up and distracted with other things and responsibilities at home, that we often find ourselves co-existing, and not much more.
I bought some of those cheesy plastic ball lights that you string up along your awning. We’ve always wanted them but just never got around to buying them in the past. We strung those lights up and one night, we oiled our skin up with insect repellent and sat outside together under those lights. It was a comfortable, companionable silence, the silence that you typically experience with people you’re around a lot.
And then something wonderful happened – the boys began talking.
If you are, or have ever been, a parent of a teenager, then you’ll know that when these “talk” sessions happen, you savor every minute of it. It’s hard enough to communicate with your teenager at the best of times, but it’s certainly a rarity if they VOLUNTEER information about themselves or what they’re thinking.
We sat around and had a really good chat. They talked, and we listened. We asked them questions, and they actually answered them, honestly. It was an insightful and rewarding pow-wow with our sons. We caught a glimpse of the men they were becoming and we were quite pleased with what we saw.
We have been blessed with some truly great kids.
We spent the majority of our time playing a board game. It’s called Blokus and in essence, it’s a reality-based Tetras game. You can only place your pieces on the corner of your own colored pieces and when you run out of places you can place your tiles, you count up how many squares you have remaining and the person who has the least squares, wins.
We really had a great time playing that game. It’s a strategy THINKING game (as opposed to all of those RPG shoot-first-ask-questions-later games the boys are in to), and we shared quite a few laughs trying to outwit each other. I think MK might have won the most games, which doesn’t surprise me, he is the linear thinker in the family (well, he and the husband – they are two peas in a pod). GD and I held our own, though. (Translation: We weren’t TOTALLY boring to play. 😀 )
See this happy, relaxed smile?
THAT, ladies and gentlemen, is what I like about camping: the easy camaraderie, the relaxed atmosphere and the chance to be together and enjoy each other.
It makes all the sweat and hard work seem insignificant in comparison.
Okay, I’m behind. Not A behind, though that certainly applies nowadays, but I’m behind in work. I spent yesterday doing Turbo Sculpt (and I’m hobbling around today as a result, that is a KILLER workout for your legs), then I got caught in a SEVERE and UNEXPECTED thunderstorm while taking my movies back to Blockbuster. In fact, it rained so hard that I had to spend 20 minutes in my car to wait the thing out so I wouldn’t be swept away and left hanging onto the storm drain for dear life.
Can you imagine? … On second thought, don’t imagine. 🙂
When the rain had abated enough for me to make it inside without getting drenched, I backed up and parked in a spot a little closer to the store. Normally, I wouldn’t do this. Normally, I LAUGH at people that circle parking lots, like vultures, looking for juicy spots close to the store front. I SNICKER at people who wait to sweep in and snatch up the next available parking spot all in the name of saving themselves from walking another 20 feet. *snort* But yesterday? I broke my cardinal rule (it’s a mile to the entrance? No worries, walking won’t kill me) and I parked close enough that, if I wanted to, I could leap frog onto the sidewalk.
However, shortly before I put my car into park and shut the engine off I noticed an unfamiliar, and unwelcome, light on my dashboard: my “low-tire” light had switched on.
Son of a …
This was the second time in about three months that my low-tire light has come on. The first go around I actually heard the hissing as the air escaped from my tire. And I KNEW it was going to happen because shortly before I started hearing that hissing sound, as I’m driving down the road and over my radio, that’s how loud it was, I drove through a patch of glass. I can still hear the sickening, crunching noise as the shards ground their way into the rubber. I immediately drove my car to Mr. Goodwrench and they patched my tire. Cha-ching! They sucked me out of fifteen bucks. (Which isn’t bad to patch a flat, in my opinion. And may I just add, the Mr. Goodwrench dude? SMOKIN’ HOT).
But this go around, I had no clue what could be causing the light to come on. I mean, one minute I’m sitting in my car, waiting for the rain to ease up and the next? I’m staring at the low-tire symbol – a symbol I’m beginning to dislike IMMENSELY.
The funny thing is? I hadn’t moved when that light came on. WTH?
I drove home, got out and circled my car, putting my ear to each tire in an attempt to hear that tell-tell hissing noise. And I got the giggles because I could just imagine my nosy neighbors looking out of their windows and seeing me bent over my car, like I’m trying to tell it a secret or I’m having an intense conversation with it. My neighbors already see me constantly Windexing my car windows, vacuuming it out and shining up the wheels anyhow, I’m sure they already think I have an unhealthy attachment to my car to begin with. And now I’m walking around the thing, leaning in close and telling it my deepest, darkest secrets.
Me and my Vibe? We’re thisclose.
I know – how stupid. But this is how I think folks. I keep TELLING you I’m a certified dork. WHEN will you start believing me?!
Where was I … oh yes. No hissing noise. Hmm … now what? I mean, I COULD take it up to Mr. Goodwrench again, but what if all it needs is air? How embarrassing would that be? So, I do what every female does in this situation – I called my man.
“Um, honey?”
*grunt* He’s really busy at work right now. I hated to bother him, but this was SERIOUS! What if I needed to run an errand tomorrow and I walked out to my garage and my car was lopsided because I had a flat tire? Oh sure, I could call Triple A but come on … you and I both know I wouldn’t do that. I’m WAY too chicken to deal with a strange man in my garage! *shudder*
“My tires are losing air.”
*pause* “And?”
“And … I’m not sure whether I should take it to Mr. Goodwrench. I mean, what if it just needs air? Then I’ll feel like a fool and have to pay them to put air into my tire. How pathetic would that be?”
There’s a long pause.
“Hub?”
“Look,” he sighs, “check the air pressure. Your tires should have 32 pounds of air. If any of them are below 30 pounds, then take it in.”
Hhm, that sounded logical. And easy. I can DO easy. “All right.”
So I did. I checked my tire pressure in each tire. And every tire showed exactly 32 pounds … EXCEPT my back right tire.
Swell. It registered 27 pounds. I thought that was pretty low. And considering my light came on not thirty minutes earlier, I thought that was REALLY low given the time frame.
So, I swallowed my girly pride and drove my Vibe up to Mr. Goodwrench. When the guy FINALLY came out (that is the only thing that irritates me about this place – HELLO?! *KNOCKKNOCK* Customer calling!), he looked at me like I was crazy when I told him that I thought my right rear wheel was leaking air. It was only after I told him my low-tire light had come on did he give a brusque nod and say, “Okay, we’ll take a look at it.”
I know he thought I was crazy. But HEY! How much trouble would it have been if I didn’t follow up on this and the damn thing lost ALL air?
Exactly. Humpf.
So, they checked it out. And they spent a long time on it – too long. I began to get worried. And suspicious. There was no way I was going to allow them to sucker punch me into thinking I needed something for that car when I didn’t really need it. You know how it goes – single female, all alone and looking nervous. Just tape a huge dollar sign to my head, why don’t cha.
I gritted my teeth and waited for the verdict. When they finally lowered my car and walked into the waiting area, I was ready to do battle.
“Well, you ran over a nail,” were the first words out of his mouth.
“Erm … huh?” Was my intelligent response.
“Yep. Nail.” He grinned and motioned for me to come up to the counter. “Apparently, we’ve had some remodeling truck come through here a few days ago and lose some of their equipment. I’m thinking they must have dropped some nails because we’ve had several cars through here the past few days with nails in the tires.”
“Erm … I’m sure THAT’S a coincidence.” I chuckled to cover the fact that I was ready to do battle with this nice man. Honestly, it’s a wonder I have a man at all given my snappy comebacks. *rolls eyes*
So, Cha-ching! Another 15 bucks went up in smoke. And as a result of this unexpected stop, (and the fact that I had to go tan – HEY! I have my priorities straight, hush), I didn’t get any work done.
And now, I’m even MORE behind than I was before I told you this story. I had MEANT to just post a joke and get back to work but now …
Well, I’ll go ahead and post the joke anyway. (Provided you’re still awake at this point to READ it. Heh).
Ready?
___________________________
A mechanic was removing a cylinder head from the engine of a Jaguar when he spotted a well-known heart surgeon in his garage.
The surgeon was there, waiting for the service manager to come and take a look at his car.
The mechanic shouted across the garage, “Hey, Doc, can I ask you a question?”
The surgeon a bit surprised, walked over to the mechanic working on the Jaguar. The mechanic straightened up, wiped his hands on a rag and asked, “So Doc, look at this engine. I open its heart, take valves out, fix ’em, put ’em back in, and when I finish, it works just like new. So how come I get such a small salary and you get the really big bucks, when you and I are doing basically the same work?”
The surgeon paused, smiled and leaned over, and whispered to the mechanic…
“Try doing it with the engine running.”
___________________________
How’s about that? I even found a mechanic joke! WOW! I’m good.
Write From Karen 