Pueblo Joins In

Did you know that Pueblo has its own college?  Yes, it’s true.  In addition to the well-respected two-year Pueblo Community College PCC), there is also a 4-year college here, University of Colorado-Pueblo (UCP).  The local PBS station has its offices and broadcasting facilities there, and on Wednesday, the college will join in the same-sex marriage debate with these two fellows going head-to-head on the issue.

G and I are definitely going and I am really looking forward to it.  Hopefully, I will be able to report back with optimism.

In other news daughter and SIL just showed up to hopefully finish some cement work that he had started a while back.  We ran out of cement, then the weather got nasty, but we’ve had a spell of warmer days and yesterday we hauled in 10 more bags of cement, so with luck they can finish today.

I also want to get my bike fixed so I can pedal to Dancing With The Stars, then I have to do the next installment on the GAN.  It went well yesterday, nearly 4000 words at a pop.  Plus we hope to get some kind of a walk in since the weather is nice.  In the mean time, I am doing laundry, wheee.

I tried to update the photos on the blog in Flikr, but I don’t like how they are ordered, so I will have to go play with that now.

Hope everyone has a happy Monday.

GG

Wiped (with update)

Saturdays wipe me out.  I finally just reached my daily line count (a bit over), but will still probably need to work for a little while tomorrow to make the weekly count.  The boys were over last night, because it was step-dad’s birthday, so nothing got written on the Great American Novel (GAN), and we are going to a potluck tonight so nothing will get written tonight.  I have much to catch up on tomorrow and Monday.  Plus I still haven’t gotten my flat tire fixed.  On my bike.  Did I even write about that?  Well, I have a flat on my bike and I need to get it fixed.

Last night was good.  The boys are getting older and don’t have to be watched 24/7.  GS2, who never wanted to go into the basement by himself, asked if he could play on the computer down there.  G’s old computer is now set up for them with games, etc.

G brought home a beautiful pork loin roast and I cooked it slowly in the oven, basting often.  GS2 (who is a very picky eater), nevertheless LOVES to help do stuff in the kitchen.  He helped me peel carrots for steaming, and when I took the roast out to slice it and put gravy on it (yes, I made gravy), he said, “Gramma that looks DELICIOUS!  I think I could eat that whole thing!”  This from a 7 year old!  I steamed broccoli and carrots, made mashed potatoes and sliced the roast, and it was so warm, we ate outside on the back patio, since the living room is still full of bicycles.  Afterwards, G washed up and I put the food away and then the boys and I played Monopoly.  They LOVE Monopoly.  I got our game at the ARC thrift store for $1.00.  All pieces included.

Then we wanted to have a fire, so off we went to the fire pit.  I am SO happy we closed off that little area behind the garage.  It’s just a great little private space.  We got our drums and rattles and the boys were happy to make music as the fire lit up the night.  I could tell GS2 was about to nod off, but he kept up a surprisingly good rhythm with his drum.  (I believe he is 1/6 Comanche through his bio father). He seemed to really be into the drumming and watching the fire.  It started to get a little cooler and I asked GS2 if he wanted a bath (he loves being in the water) and he said yes, so we closed the fire, and get the boys their baths and I laid out their pallets in the living room.  GS2 was asleep by the time his head hit the pillow, but GS1 remembered we had mentioned “popcorn, mabye” so he wanted some.  We flipped around and found a movie to watch, and he ate his popcorn and pretty soon he was in dreamland, too.

I had planned to get up early and work before they woke up, but I just couldn’t.  I was too pooped, so I got up normally and had JUST signed in for work when down trooped the boys wanting breakfast.  I had promised GS1 an omelette, so had to make good on that.  Again, GS2 had to help me with every little thing in the kitchen, and I had to explain why I crack each egg separately in a little cup first.  He’s just the most curious kid.

After breakfast, I did get to work and G took the boys outside to help her with projects.  She took them home and I think they were going to go fishing.

I had a brief, frustrating conversation with my daughter, who was “done” with her husband for the Xth time.  I guess “some bitch” is texting him, or what ever.  I just do not have time or energy for that kind of drama.  I don’t know if that makes me a bad mother, but then I’ve never thought I was a particularly GOOD mother, so what else is new?

I just couldn’t talk to her about it.  She knew this guy for years before they got married.  She knew he was a cheater because he cheated WITH her.  Granted, he wasn’t married, but still.  I want to feel bad for her, but my perspective is, your eyes were open, you can’t pretend to be outraged, and people don’t change just because they get married.  They just find sneakier ways of doing what they always did.

Anyway, I’m sure it was not as bad as she made it seems because I am where she vents.  Time will tell.  I can’t worry about it because it’s not my life (THANK GOD).

So, now I have to go get ready for this potluck that I don’t really want to go to, and I DON’T feel like cooking, so I think I am going to go by a lemon pie from a local restaurant and call it good.

Mas tarde,

GG

*G just came downstairs (she can do that now), and since I am cross-eyed tired, and she is hurting like a bitch, we called and begged off the pot luck.  I think our hosts were disappointed, but I am just too tired to be a good guest.  Maybe a dip in the hot tub later.  Now…the weekend begins!

Gifts of Love

I’ve mentioned our Friday night “dinner group” a few times.  G and I haven’t been going quite as often as before, what with surgery, rehab, being out of town, etc.  However, this month 4 of our members all have their birthdays within a day or two of each other, November 26 or 27.  And even more special, 2 of them will by 75 fabulous years young, and the other 2 will be 74.  I think that is amazing!  They are all 4 still incredibly vital and attractive woman, and one was instrumental in advancing the cause of women’s college basketball both in the state of Colorado and nationally.  So, this is a big deal.

Two of our other members are hosting a potluck/party in their honor on the 21st.  They have a fabulous “party house” complete with an indoor pool and karoke set up.  They are what you would call “sport dykes” as they have every sporting “toy” known to man (or woman) and use all of them frequently and happily.

Gifts of course are not mandatory at this function, but G and I wanted to do something to show these ladies how wonderful we think they are.  They are fortunately at places in their lives where they don’t really need a lot of THINGS, so my sweet G came up with what I think is one of the best ideas ever:  We are going to Heifer International and we are going to buy a flock of chickens and several shares of trees to be sent in honor of our friends.  I don’t know about you, but I think knowing that someone had received chickens to lay eggs for their family or trees that produce fruit, etc. in my name, well, I would be thrilled.  I hope they will be, too.

G often talks about how she can’t think of good gifts for people.  I think this time she has really proved herself wrong in that regard.

Heifer International is a great organization that really helps people become self-sufficient and less dependent on foreign aid.  If you ever need to send a gift but don’t want to clutter up the world with more “things”, this is a great option.

Pass it on!

GG

Back In The Water

I figured it out.  The culprit for my recent doldrums is nearly 100% the abhorrent and dreaded daylight savings time.  In which we cut 2 inches off the top of the blanket, sew it on to the bottom of the blanket and call the blanket “longer”.  Since DST went back to plain ol’ TIME, I have been waking up at 4:30 in the morning, without an alarm.  Why?  Because I’ve been waking up at 4:30 in the morning all along, only the clock said 5:30.  And I’ve been dragging around, moping and half asleep all day, waiting for the light to come in before I head down to work, and it was killing me, just killing me.

Today, I woke up at 4:30 and realized that it was Tuesday and swim practice was out at the county high school at 5:30 and man, I had plenty of time to get there!  So, I did.  And I actually swam better than 20 laps in 45 minutes, and even did a few sprint laps.  I discovered a really need a new swim suit which will be harder to find than the Holy Grail, as not to many places make swim suits, by which I mean a suit that one can actually SWIM in, for tall, fat women.  That is a bathing suit without “fat panels” and shirring and deep V-necks and tie backs and all that.  I just want a plain suit with a racer back that holds up/mashes in my flab and wont fall down when I’m on lap 50.  For under $200.00.  Is that asking too much?  No, I don’t THINK so.  (Channeling John Leguizamo in “To Wong Foo”).

Anyway, the bike trainers work great, and when I have a few extra moments, I will post a photo of our converted living room.  (How’s THAT for a non sequitur?)

The writing is going.  If I can keep at it at this pace, all will be well.  So far, I’m not running out of things to say.  I think that’s good.  Oh, and Ms Walhydra, no one has died–yet.  And why aren’t YOU taking this challenge??

I put the pedal to the metal at work today and did over 40 reports!  That is a new personal best, and the line count was good.  I also got my 4th quarter quality review and had a 99% accuracy level.  Woot!

So, maybe I’ll even go swim on Thursday as well, and see if I can keep this up.  It all boils down to just needing light in the mornings.  I NEED that for my well being.  My body craves it.  I can manage the DST in the spring because it’s just a set back–the light comes back as the season progresses.  But after the summer solstice, when the days start to get shorter…it is just too DARK for me to make any sense in the morning.  Now, when I get up I feel like I’ve been let out of a cage.  Then, after winter solstice, the days lengthen and the light comes back and we’re on the next cycle.  So, now I know what to watch out for from late August to the end of October.  Maybe next year I’ll be better prepared.

Here’s to continuing education, even if it’s only about why you can’t get up in the morning.

Oh, and is anyone else going to watch the series premiere of “V”??  I loved the old show in the 80s!

Happy writing, riding, swimming and viewing,

GG

So Far, So Good

I’m actually off to a decent start.  I love this about writing:  You have an idea, which seems to be pretty straightforward.  You start to write.  THINGS happen.  PEOPLE happen.  They do more things–all by themselves.  Seriously.  They DO things, you just write it down.

Imaginary friends, gotta love ‘em.

G had her 6-week check up today in Denver.  We saw a 4th year medical student.  Gotta love teaching hospitals.  However, he was very attentive and answered all our questions, so maybe that was a good thing.  I’ve reached that age where many doctors are now young enough to be my children.  THAT is scary.  Guess I’ll just continue to stay away from doctors. 

We got out of Denver and stopped at REI in Colorado Springs because G wanted to buy one of those things for her bike that you set the back wheel in and turn the bike into a training machine.  REI didn’t have one–well, they DID but it was in a box and the woman really didn’t seem all that keen to show us how it worked.  She TOLD us how it worked, but I couldn’t quite visualize it.  So, we passed.  I did find an ExOfficio shirt and a pair of shorts that I can wear on our trip to Australia next spring (more on that later).  Men’s sizes, of course, but WTF, men’s clothes are better made than women’s anyway, sad to say, but true.  The sales girl was such a ditz, I mean a total space case, I was just in a rotten mood when we left, so instead of our usual going to lunch, etc, I just wanted to come HOME.  Then, we went to a local bike shop near our house and got INCREDIBLE service and lots of advice and came home with TWO bike-holder-thingies, so now our living room has become a bike gym.  In fact, I’m signing off now and going upstairs to ride my bike while I watch Dancing With The Stars.

Maybe I’ll start my own cable show–Biking With The Grannies!  I think it has a nice ring to it, myself.

Pedal to the metal…

GG

I Will Probably Be Scarce in November

Thanks to the overwhelming response of 2 readers and my own well-develops sense of masochism, I have decided to go ahead and get that novel written starting tomorrow.  Thirty days of creativity to follow; however, I will be writing offline, not here, so I imagine I will not have much time to post anything.  Bear with me and perhaps I’ll surface every now and then.

You can’t say I don’t love a challenge!

Oh, and Happy Halloween!  We will just be handing out candy in our witches’ hats, and celebrating the end of daylight savings’ time.  Hope you have yourself a fun and spooky evening.

GG

One Day To Decide…HURRY!

I, the start strong and never finish professional, am toying with the idea of participating in NANOWRIMO this year.  I actually have an idea for a murder mystery story that’s been lurking in the back of my head for a few months now (inspired by my current job, no less), and this would be a great way to get the whole darn thing out of my head and into physical form.  Whether anything happens to it after that, who knows, but at least it will be written, right?

So, dear readers, what do you think?  Shall I write a novel in the space of 30 days, in addition to all of my other typing?  Can my fingers “handle” it?  Ha!

NANOWRIMO starts on Sunday, so I have to decide quickly.  I need sage advice!

GG

Just A Few Bullets

• We never did get to Denver.  Weather was messy on Sunday and I felt like shit.  Stayed in and watched movies:  Scent of a Woman, Sea of Love, Made of Honor, Seven Pounds, and parts of a few more.  Also Iron Chef America and Throw-Down with Bobby Flay.
  
• Monday we got G to the VA in Pueblo.  FINALLY they did a chest x-ray and then an x-ray of her knee for her follow-up visit next Monday.  They also gave her an antibiotic that made her puke her guts out about 20 minutes after she took it.  This happened twice, so we know it was the medicine.  UGH.  Beware of doxycycline!
• They’ve raised our line quota at work for “speech” which is supposed to be easier, but you haven’t lived until you’ve seen how voice recognition software reacts to someone with a very heavy Chinese accent.  Trust me, it’s no “labor-saving device”.
  
• I was hard at it today, bound for 1600 lines, when I get a call from the school.  GS1’s teacher and special ed teacher are supposed to have a conference with his mom, who cannot be contacted.  Her phone is off because they can’t pay the bill.  They had to be a water heater this weekend and all of her work-study money went for that.  Fortunately, her landlord will definitely deduct that from the rent, but no cash is no cash.  On the up side, GS1 is doing pretty well overall, and I was able to catch up with daughter as I got out of the conference just as she came to pick up the boys from school.  I was able to give her the paper work and tell her to PLEASE go talk to his teacher.
  
• GS1 still does not have some of his required school supplies.  I went to the dollar store and found them.  Cheap.  I will run them by the school tomorrow.
• I used to think I wanted to be a teacher and I have always ended up in some kind of training position in the majority of my jobs.  But there’s no way I could deal with all the administrative crap that teachers have to put up with.  God bless them all.
• We are dog sitting again.  A friend’s brother passed away and she headed back east this morning, since we are due for a winter storm tomorrow and she wanted to get out ahead of it.  This dog is quiet, older and our little prima dona accepts her pretty well.
• Been working out with the hand weights more regularly.  Keeping your arms above your heart when you work out really increases your effort.  So do the weights.
• Cannot WAIT for daylight savings time to end.  THEN it will be lighter in the mornings and maybe I’ll pull out of this “blue funk” I seem to have been in for way too long.
• Bought some great art at the fund-raiser for our artist friend–some of her older work and even a piece that she used in her portfolio to get into art school.  It was fun.
• I am going to watch NCIS, Dancing With The Stars, and then I am going to sit in the hot tub and after that go to bed.
• Tomorrow, it starts all over again!

As a friend of mine once said, “Life’s great if you don’t weaken.”

Stay strong!

GG

Ambition

Last night we watched a great program on LOGO about Billie Jean King.  What a woman, just amazing.  She talked about finding tennis as a young girl and realizing that was what she wanted to do.  Right then, she knew it.

I have a friend who is a research virologist and a pediatrician in South Carolina.  We went to college together and she knew from age 6 that she wanted to be a doctor.  I envy people like that–people with a drive and an ambition that I don’t have.

I have another friend who was the first person in his family to go to college.  He worked his way through doing really hard jobs, like working on an oil rig and in a sugar mill in Florida where rats crawled up his pants’ legs while he was working with very dangerous machinery.  He gets very upset when anyone talks about the “white male privilege” because he’s never felt particularly privileged, regardless of being white and male.  He’s always felt very “driven” to me, which is also something I sometimes both admire and envy.

I don’t think of myself as having much “ambition”.  I was a good student, very good, all the way through school, but that was because school was easy for me.  I enjoyed it, it was fun.  Tests were like puzzles, and I love puzzles, so there was no anxiety.  I never had a big, burning desire to BE something when I “grew up”.  I enjoyed science and nearly majored in biology in college, but fell into the theater my freshman year, and while I probably took enough biology courses maybe to minor, theater is where I put my focus.

But even then, I wasn’t particularly focused.  I went to a small school, around 500 students at the time, and our theater department reflected that.  All of us did everything.  I dabbled in acting, though it wasn’t my attraction, but I also built sets and costumes, assisted the directors, stage managed (my favorite), and designed and ran lights and sound for productions.  I was a “dabbler”.  I never had plans to go on to graduate school or even try to look for a job in “real” theater.  I was just having fun, and yes, learning a hell of a lot.  In the long run, I’d have to say that it was quite a valuable education for dealing with anything odd that life might throw at one, but it wasn’t the most practical study for going out and finding a particular “career track”.  At graduation, when all my friends were going on to law school, medical school, graduate school of some sort, I just wanted to have a LIFE.  I was tired of school by then, and wanted to see what the rest of the world was like.

The other day, we were at dinner or some kind of group thing, and I was talking with one of my friends here who is a big, corporate “hoo-ha”.  She lives here but travels to “home office” in another state about 1 week out of the year.  I suppose it’s a great job.  She and her partner have a nice house, lots of “toys” and they really use them and are constantly active and busy and having fun, but she made a remark that summed up everything I never wanted, “My company owns me.”

My dad worked for Lockheed in GA for nearly 20 years, and for nearly 20 years, all I heard was how much he hated his job.  I had no idea what his job actually WAS, but I know he despised it.  I also have no idea what it was that he might have wanted to do for a living, but it clearly wasn’t what he did.  I suppose I soaked up a bit of that attitude up via osmosis.  He often said, by way of advice, I guess, that I should find something to do that I liked, rather than just looking for something that paid well.

The trouble is, that I like a LOT of things.  And I’m good at a lot of things.  Could this be termed career ADD?  I did have a theater professor once who told me that if I could just FOCUS on something, I could really be good at it.  I had him for a design class that I found very intimidating.  I am NOT an artist and we had to do a lot of renderings and drawings.  I definitely improved during the class, but the only other person in the class was a girl who WAS an artist, and so I always felt my work never measured up, even though this professor made several comments about how my creativity showed, versus my technical, artistic skill.  Still, I was too busy running everything at that time to really listen, and looking back, I’m not even sure if I could have picked one thing to stick with, even then.

I mean, I chose to become a transcriptionist mainly because I wanted to work from home.  Yes, I do enjoy the medical field, but I don’t want to go to school to become a clinical professional.  The main, driving force was to NOT be “owned” by a company. I don’t mind working for one, but I definitely prefer to be under the radar.  And don’t get me started about “being your own boss”.  That is so WAY overrated.

Maybe I’m just suffering from some sort of ongoing burnout from having worked, and worked and worked for nearly my whole life, it seems, and not seeing much of an end in sight.  I’ve crafted my life to be home, and I do love that, don’t get me wrong, but I clearly realize that I have given up much of a chance of making any kind of a good salary in doing so.

Friends tell me I should write a book.  I have some ideas.  I’ve got about 10,000 words of a beginning, but then the “ambition” thing rears its head.  I get stumped and I don’t push through.  Same thing with this swimming.  It’s totally on the back burner these days.  I manage to do a 10 to 20 minute routine on the rebounder with and without extra hand weights most days.  Normally, on Sunday, I would be taking the dog for a long walk, but it’s raining at the moment and we are supposed to be going to Denver today to have a bit of a “getaway” since G has a dentist appointment at the VA in the morning, and we thought an overnight stay would be nice.  Now this weather.  Ugh.

Maybe I’m just feeling the season, as I have mentioned before.  Maybe it’s the darkening, shortening days.  Maybe it’s what I’m eating or not eating.  Maybe it’s a vitamin deficiency.

Or maybe it’s just the way I am.  I have a great life and I’m grateful for it, that’s not in question.  But sometimes, I just wish I knew what I wanted to be when I grow up.

GG

Frustration

It’s Friday and my work has been drilling it into our heads that this is the time that we are busy, busy, busy.  So, I started early because I want to flex my time for my t’ai chi class (the ONE thing I haven’t stopped since the summer).  So, what?  I’m sitting here waiting for work.  Also, last week I got switched or “added” rather to the speech recognition function at work rather than just working in typing text.  What this means is that the documents come in with the text already in it, and then you just have to move it around, make sure it’s formatted all right, etc. and send it along.  It’s SUPPOSED to be quicker, so the idea is that you are able to do more lines, thereby making more money.  Sounds good, right?

Well, hold your panties–the pay rate for speech is about HALF of what it is for text, and the documents don’t come in nearly as nice as they are supposed to.  You get things like “She became her own government,” when the line was supposed to be “She started work as a governess.”  It’s actually a lot harder because it’s EDITING versus just typing, and that means you really do have to check for each “a”, “and” and “the” in the document and you know how we love to just PUT those in with our eyes whether they are really there or not.

Luckily I am WAY better at editing a document I have not previously typed myself, so, so far, so good.  Except for this darn waiting for work.  Happened yesterday too, so I switched over to another account, but it was my first time and I have had NO experience with those docs, and the first document I got was a VERY technical report about cancer, all the staging info, tumor types, etc.  These are terms, while simple, are lots of letters and numbers, and I wasn’t sure which ones should be capped, which needed spaces or dashes or what.

Just very frustrating.  It’s rather difficult to get anyone “in power” to respond to you but I was lucky enough to have a co-worker in Iowa who sent me some of the e-mails that I had foolishly not kept.  The downside of not having coworkers just a cubicle away.

The boys will be here in a few minutes, and then I will be on the way to t’ai chi.  They are out of school today. On an up note, we are going to a friend’s fundraiser tonight.  She is a great artist and is selling a lot of her older work, hopefully at affordable prices, as I have an area in the bedroom that I want to change.  It’s just a thought right now, but if I see the right piece, I’ll know it.  I love her work, so click the link and check it out.

Okay, the chicken I put in the oven this morning is done and it’s time for me to go get ready for t’ai chi.

Have a great weekend, all!

GG