Congrats to Tony and Melissa!

I don't even think they read this, but congrats to Tony and Melissa on their recent wedding!



Abby had enough fun for all of us with Tony's niece, "O." They danced all night long and "O" actually cried when we had to go. It was so sweet. :)

Abby's in the pink dress for those of you that don't know her.



Good thing the dress was on clearance at Walmart so I didn't have to freak out at her trying to do "the worm" on the brick dance floor.


Here we are just before leaving. Looks like the camera picked up on the buzz of the person I asked to take the picture for me! ;)

Stella is Here!

I waited to post this last today so it would be on top out of my three posts.

My friends' baby arrived over the weekend! She's cute, adorable, perfect, and sweet! Mommy let me hold her and she wasn't even 24 hours old yet! I feel so special!

Marti told me I looked uncomfortable with her, but she was just so small!!! I forgot how little they can be and I wanted to make sure I supported her head and all that. Meanwhile, she had just left her mommy, so she started crying a little. OK, so I was nervous. I'm not going to pretend I wasn't. :)

BUT, when I got that baby over my shoulder instead of cradle style, it was like home. I do remember THAT!

I am so happy for my friends! It's been a rough "last few weeks" for the whole family, and I think things are finally settling down. I can't believe I didn't even GET the email announcing her arrival! I got a text from her in the afternoon and realized I missed something. haha!!!

I want to tell you all about it, but it's not my story to tell and I don't even know if she wants it shared with the vast unknown. I remember her sister saying she wrote it all down the best she could, but that is on a password protected site, so I'm thinking they are feeling a need for privacy, which I'll honor until I hear otherwise.

God, I can't believe she's finally here! I remember the day she texted me thinking she GOT pregnant!!! I was still just getting over my miscarriage this summer and was in New York. That seems like a lifetime ago! I remember getting home and wanting to drive a pregnancy test (25 minutes) out to her so she would test, but she has way more patience than I and declined the offer that day. I guess that will come in handy now that she has an infant and a toddler. ;)

All the best in life to you, S! And to you, too, J, E, and E!!!!

Spray Tan

My friend, Tony, is getting married Sunday. I remembered I have a black dress from the UOP holiday party that might actually fit me and decided I could wear that to the wedding.

I tried it on, and it's going to work, except for the fact that I am the pastiest white girl on the face of this earth. White legs and black dress just tend to make me cringe.

So I got a spray tan after work today!

I am not supposed to wash until 4 hours later (right about now). I wonder how much of this will stay after a shower? I wonder because my face seems REALLY dark compared to normal. Because of this, it just looks dirty to me!

I'm going to take a picture before and after the shower and post here. Tell me what you think. (More to come... Stay tuned.)

ETA: I guess I'm more vain than I thought because I am now refusing to post the pictures. :) Well, they don't really show what I was talking about anyway, so it's partly that. It's that plus I just look awful in them. So, no pictures. That's that.

Potential for Misinterpretation

So, the job is good. I like it a lot. I was describing part of it to a friend today and she commented that it sounded monotonous. Uh, yea!!! :) I told her it's like pulling weeds. It's very mundane sometimes, but it's GREAT in that sense that I can see when it's DONE (or getting there) and I can walk away from it at the end of the day! She and I both like gardening, so the analogy worked.

Anyway, along those lines, I ran out of things to do for one part of my job and started in on something I've been putting off until I get more familiar with navigating through the system since it involves calling customers and discussing account histories.

Basically, what happened was I called a customer I was not really supposed to call. Apparently the location where the problem originated handles it's own problems. However, there was a printout from the woman before me and the last notes she wrote said, "Credit already applied, call him in the morning." OK. So I called. ;)

When all was said and done, I got the problem figured out, so he won't be bugged again. That's good, right?

Well, apparently he called the other location and dug into them because I called him when the issue was supposed to be resolved. But it wasn't. Not at that time.

What happened was each location was working with different information and the pieces were not fitting together. This could have gone on forever!

Anyway, my boss told me about the controversy with me calling and explained why I can't call on that location's issues anymore. Hey, that's cool with me! ;) Seriously - it's no sweat off my back.

So, she took off for a break, and while she was gone, I SNAPPED my nail bed in a HUGE three ring binder! I shouted one word when it happened. (Oh, I forgot to mention that my office is SILENT!) What do you think that word was? I should say, "KNOWING ME, what do you think that word was?"

Well, it was "OUCH!" Go figure! So, I started laughing because it hurt so badly, the girl next to me was on the phone when I yelled, and because I only yelled OUCH! For some reason, at the time, I thought that was the funniest thing in the world!

So funny, actually, that I started CRYING!!!!! Seriously!

THEN, I laughed even harder at the thought of my boss coming back and walking into all of this!

Think about it. She left just moments before after having to pass along a scolding from a manager at another location.

I imagined her walking in on me thinking I was crying hysterically because I got scolded!!! hahaha!!!! In reality I was laughing, but to the person that missed the whole finger getting snapped in the binder thing, it would have looked like I was crying only.

I found that too funny.

Hey, at least if I would have gotten yelled at for making too much noise, I would have at least had all my work done, right? :)

Irony

I was driving home from work and couldn't help but notice the irony. A little SUV was rolling along, and it had 3 window stickers. One was HUGE and white on a dark tinted window background. It read "187 INC" which some of you may know, 187 is slang for killing a cop. The other was smaller and not so obvious -- brass knuckles as featured on the 187 INC website.

The third decal is where the irony comes into play.

"Aloha"

In case you're not "all over it" yet, here's a blurb I picked up that sort of sums it up as well as anyone could:

Aloha. 1. Aloha, love, affection, compassion, mercy, sympathy, pity, kindness, sentiment, grace, charity; greeting, salutation, regards; sweetheart, lover, lover, loved one; beloved, loving, kind, compassionate, charitable, lovable; to love, be fond of; to show kindness, mercy, pity, charity, affection; to venerate; to remember with affection; to greet, to hail. Greetings! Hello! Good-by! Farewell! Alas!

Aside from the irony, what is the matter with people that they feel the need to glorify killing a cop and that people actually buy gear with this logo on it? Yes, they actually do -- I had an ex-student who I had to confiscate a hat like this from because he kept wearing it to 8th grade! I said his dad could pick it up if he wanted it back. He got it back, but not after hearing a bunch of shit from his dad. One of his dad's best friends is a cop. You can imagine how well that went over when he saw the hat his son made him come pick up!!!

WHY?????

I just decided to try to be good and see what it does for my figure. I decided to forgo the fish and chips at lunch the other day (read below), and coincidentally, Marti actually started reading my blog and saw that I made that first step.

So, what does my sweet man do? He comments how it's great that I'm being good. He's happy -- and I'm pleased that he's happy. It felt good. I had a nice little tomato and corn salad for dinner tonight. I have a little motivation. I'm clinging to it.

It's bedtime for Abby and I go to get some ice packs for her milk (that she inevitably wakes up wanting whenever we FORGET to bring some up in her little cooler at night) and what do I see in the freezer?

HIS AND HERS DULCE DE LECHE PINTS!!!!

They are screaming at me right now. I have so far resisted tonight, and I gave him a little shit on the phone about it, too. He was being nice by getting me one, but just not too terribly helpful in his efforts. :(

Hey Marti, I know you're reading this. I love you, but if you want skinny Lisa back, I need a little gentle support. Not the diet and exercise Nazi. Not the his and hers pints. Somewhere in the middle will be nice.

"I'm just sayin'..."

;)

Cutting the Apron Strings

Well, the woman who is retiring has left the building. I am officially on my own now.

I will not have her RIGHT THERE to ask questions any more. :( She was great about that, too! She'd come over to my desk instead of making me bring everything over to her. I was impressed with that. She is older and had a little back problem, so it would have been just as easy to tell me to come to her every time. That's how most everyone else would do it, right?

A few of us went out for lunch to celebrate her last day. I picked up the check to see what I owed, and the controller told us he was paying for the whole thing. :) Woo hoo! That was WAY cool! I was not expecting that!

I was good and did NOT get the fish and chips, but got the seared ahi sandwich with wasabi mayo instead. And, instead of french fries, I got fruit with it. AND, instead of a soda, I got iced tea. I wonder if I can get back to something resembling my old body without going ALL OUT? I'm not an exercise nut and I like food. It's kind of what we DO for entertainment here now! UGH!

Anyway...

My manager has a list of things she wants me to take over for her that the other woman did not do. It will be good for me to get to know all these things and build my skills!! She also said that sometime later, she's going to send me to some classes. I LOVE IT! Today she told me a great story about how she ended up in this company. She had just come back from maternity leave and had to take a day off because her son had an ear infection and could not go to daycare for 24 hours. Her new manager was a bitch and told her she felt that she was not giving 100% because of the day off! She WROTE HER UP!!!! WTF?

Anyway, she happened to get a call that same day (randomly) from our controller who asked how her job was going! (I guess he used to work there before, also.) She went to see him on lunch and was offered the job!

How vindicating must it be to go back that same day and be able to confidently turn in your notice??? :) I thought that was so great!!!

I like her a lot and we seem to "play well together." I have a feeling I am REALLY going to like this job!

Here is a picture of the view from my new desk.










It's odd to not be totally distracted by jets right behind you all day! (I'm thinking some are only like 100 feet away from me as they prepare to taxi back to the runway!) I see people coming and going all day (today and yesterday it was NASCAR racers and their crews.) and I wonder what they are doing that they require a private jet. I wonder about the story for each of the take offs and landings. Most of them just look like regular people -- even a few pets!!

A couple days ago I guess we had an ex-president land and take off in the course of a day. I missed the whole thing!!! WTF?

I also got to go up in the old air traffic control tower that we have on the premises. Our retiree's husband was there and wanted to go up, so a bunch of us tagged along. I guess he was up there in the 40s when it was actually in use! He told us a funny story about how they had a bucket for the guys to go to the bathroom in and they dropped it over the edge by a rope! Seriously! How bad does it have to be that you don't climb up and down the stairs to take care of things?

Granted, the tower is only 1/3 of the original height now (so as not to compete with the new tower and safety reasons associated with that) but I still can't imagine peeing (or POOPING!!!!!) in a bucket instead of climbing the stairs -- even 3 times! Sure, if you had an emergency, the bucket would be a good idea. I guess maybe they couldn't be away from their post that long? OK, now I think maybe it was a good idea now that I think of that! It was tiny, after all. Perhaps there was not enough staff to allow for long breaks like that.

So, anyway, it was fun to go up there. It's a piece of local history and not everyone gets the opportunity to go up there. I'm sure my dad will just about pee himself when he hears I got to go up in the tower!

On another note, I need to get in touch with my friend who works for the FAA. I think he may be in the REAL tower!!! Last I heard he was planning on moving back to the valley from OKC! He has a nasty habit of changing his email address to match his location, so I don't have a current email on him. UGH! I'll have to do some digging this weekend and see what I can turn up. We're way overdue for some chicken wings together!!!!

Gil was USED!!!!

I have a video of my fish's shadow on the wall in one of my posts. So far, it's my only video on here.

Today I got a notice in my email that someone has subscribed to my YouTube videos so they can see if I add anything new. OK. I figured I didn't know the name, but it could be one of my FF friends or just a lurker from there, and I'm cool with that.

I, of course, clicked on the link to see if there is anything on her site to give me a clue as to who subscribed, but the only thing there was P.O.R.N!!!!! Aggghhhhh!!! Great, my fish was used to try to get me to watch someone's naughty site.

Should I tell him someone pretended to be an admirer but was just using him? Do you think he'd be offended? ;)