Adios August, hola rest of the year

Once like two years ago my brother Jeremy told me that I shouldn’t hide important information in the end of these things. Really, define important. You’ll have to search REALLY hard to find any important information here so don’t get your hopes up.
On Saturday I’m going to Nicaragua until the 20th. I thought as I got closer I would have fabulous details to fill you in on. This is what I have instead a plane ticket (round-trip), the equivalent of $6 US in Nicaraguan currency, about 6 packages people have shipped to me to bring down, a weather report of thunder showers. There are a few holes in my plans but I’m sure but the time I fly home they will all be filled in.
Other news I went to an A’s game with my office a few Friday’s ago. I learned about all the behaviors that my roommates and I skipped out on in college and discovered that 60 is not to old to party hard. I attached a picture of me eating the worst churro of my life, $4. I didn’t have an A’s shirt to wear so I wore my chlorophyll shirt, it is green and we sell chemicals.

My sister Julie made some comment about me working on my hope chest. My recent addition to it is this lovely ceramic tray that I painted at Color-Me-Mine. It will get stashed with my salt and pepper shakers if they ever are finished. I did my painting with my friend Keri, she made a tile in honor of her snake. Lucky you get to view both of these.

good news about bad weather

This summer the weather has been unseasonably cold. I’m not a huge fan of the cold but I heard on the radio West Nile Virus has trouble spreading in these temperatures so locally fewer birds (maybe 10 total) and no people had died from that this summer. And think, I never even knew that was something that I could potentially worry about.
Last Thursday my dad decided to put down our 14.5 year-old family dog. Or as my ever-gracious sister put it, “he murdered my roommate.” I didn’t cry about that either but I considered that if I were prone to crying it would have been an acceptable reason.
Friday was my one-year anniversary at Dowd & Guild. I didn’t cry.
Over the weekend someone asked me if I was an introvert or an extrovert. Firstly, if you’ve met my parents you can see why I am completely torn between these two sides. Secondly, who am I supposed to be extroverted with?
On that note some ‘friends’ wanted to go see the meteor shower last night. We camped out in the middle of some private road for 3 hours and I think I saw about 15 total. Not the one a minute I was hoping for but it was still nice and we only had to clear off the road 3 times. Did I mention you can’t see meteors during the day? Actually you have to wait until it gets dark. Anyhow I didn’t get home until 1am, so I’m thinking of going back to my friendless life where at least I can go to bed at a decent hour.
Last summer I went over to the Bonnington’s a few times to learn how to do things with wood. Rich did teach me how to tie my shoes so this is a natural progression. After a year long hiatus (humm, I wonder if there is a correlation between that length of time and the length of time I’ve had my job?) I started up on the lathe again last week. I am going to make a set of salt and pepper shakers. Working with my hands is very gratifying. I think by the time I own my own house they will be completed.
I’m not planning on moving back to Nicaragua, I’m just going for a visit. I bought my ticket for $100 so it seems I’m set to go. I saw the name Sampson on some report I was reading yesterday and it reminded me of Sampson’s in Nicaragua. Whoever is organizing my time there should make sure we go there.

Goodbye July

That super clever rhyme of a title just made me think that I haven’t written you any poems recently. But don’t get your hopes too high, it isn’t going to happen today either.
July has been an inspirational month for me in the world of ice cream sandwiches. It also served as a reminder than not all inspiration is good. Ginger cookies with lemon ice cream = good, chocolate chip cookies with coffee ice cream = good, peanut butter cookies with chocolate chip ice cream = good, peanut butter cookies rolled in salt with chocolate chip ice cream = I’m still believing that this had the potential of being wonderful.
At work my position is changing, unfortunately no one has clued me in to what it is changing to. I do know that I’m still the Ambassador of Goodwill. In that role I run a scholarship program for students that are serving in their communities. We are supposed to award one a month but we were on hold for 2009 and the first half of 2010 so we’re playing catch-up and in July we gave four. My boss and I screen all the applicants first and then call in the winners for interviews with some of our staff. It’s a pretty neat program and since my boss and I are very like-minded on some things we are able to help out some very cool people. I really like the interviews, they are a great way for people in the office to be exposed to those in need and many candidates have a strong Christian testimony. Another great part of my job is yesterday I re-organized my boss’s files. They are now color coordinated; I forgot how gratifying it is to organize files.
Upcoming events:
From September 4th to 20th I’ll be back in Nicaragua. I’m excited to take the time off work and to see people and things. I’m sure more details will follow about that.
Tomorrow night the Roller Derby is in Richmond. My friend Keri invited me to go with her, she probably just wants to use me for my un-fancy car and those cardio-kick boxing classes I took at Davis.
Today is casual day and afternoon snack day at work.
August plans are up in the air, maybe I’ll hear from you.

life unexpected

I, surprisingly enough, don’t have a lot to say right now. But today is the designated day to send out an update so I will fill you in on two anecdotes from my week.
On Monday I was reminded why I never want to be a homeowner. I live at my parents’ currently and I have very little home responsibility. Well my parents were gone for a few days and my dad told me to make sure I turn off the sprinklers if I was going to park in the driveway because we have well water and if it dries on your car it is a mini-disaster. Well, you see, I remembered on my way home. But then when I pulled up to the house I had to bring in the garbage cans and bring in the mail and bring in the 6 burritos that my cousin was getting rid of and I got distracted. Tuesday morning at 6:40 I heard the sprinklers outside my window so I jumped out of my bed and threw on some sandals and turned them off. They had already thoroughly drenched my car s then I had to wash off the well water with city water. I guess I am the crazy person on the block that washes her car in her pajamas before 7am.
Last week I was off work. I saw quite a few people that get this little piece of spam. You are great. Now I am back to work. Yesterday I had a meeting with one of my bosses to keep him updated on the projects we have pending. He is very intense. I’ve been working for the company for almost a year and about 3 months ago he decided we should work more together. I am pretty good now at not being caught off guard and answering him confidently. Yesterday he asked me how many people I go to church with and if I know the pastor, I stammered out some answer and most likely he now thinks I’m in a cult. He wanted to know if I wanted to head up a service project at my church based on a book he recently had me read that I enjoyed. I said I’d think about it, I didn’t want to tell him what the likelihood is of a semi-inspirational service project getting approved. To some people this paragraph will make perfect sense, and you’ll understand my predicament. Others of you will have no idea what I’m talking about and that’s OK.
Lunch is over.
What’s going on with you?

welcome to july!

I like July. Tomorrow at work we’re having a BBQ for the 4th and I’m taking next week off. Today I get to redecorate the bulletin board in the kitchen. I like doing that; it puts my years of high school leadership to good use.

June on the other hand was a little rough work-wise. I think on a scale of 1 to 10, with 1 meaning nothing goes how it is supposed to and 10 being everything going according to plan it would be about a 6. The problem with making mistakes constantly is I have to go back and fix them. Doing everything twice takes a lot more time than doing things correctly the first time. At first the mistakes really could be blamed on other people but looking back (especially the past two weeks) quite a few were completely my fault. Really I can’t blame anyone for me missing the big red warning on the Hilton website that said my credit card was about to be charged and the reservations are unchangeable. Thankfully God is gracious (and so are the people in hotel and airline customer service).

Last time I wrote about bringing in snacks to work and people not understanding the snacks were soccer mom classics. The next week there was another World Cup game (USA vs. Algeria) so I made rice krispie treats. My boss asked me what they were. I told him and his reaction very clearly gave away the fact that he had never heard of them. Actually I’d put money on the fact that he hasn’t heard of the cereal either. Another lady asked me if they were those things people make with marshmallow fluff. I guess rice krispie treat isn’t in her vocabulary either.

Other life news.

I think things are going well. My life is becoming more balanced. I enjoy doing un-work related things but they are less entertaining to write about.

The girl from work that ignored me last time I asked if she wanted to hang out after work changed her mind so we hung out on Monday and it was really good. I can add her to my list of new friends, I’m up to 4.

My lunch break is almost over I’d better be on my way.

Go Team USA

My new way to keep entertained at work is by giving rewards and treats. The rewards have the potential of costing the company a lot of money but usually people don’t participate in my challenges so they are pretty pointless.
Here are some recent ones:
I put a suggestion box in the kitchen any suggestion and I give the person a $5 gift card. Do people write down their suggestions? Rarely, mostly they just complain.
We’re thinking if switching the coffee in the kitchen, it has been a very dramatic process. Since I don’t drink coffee I told people to try my 4 samples and give feed back and they would get participation prizes. I gave $5 gift cards to each person that turned in at least one response. Only 7 people got them.
We have a new girl Kayla, with new people I like to put a fun fact and their favorite ice cream on the board in the kitchen. She told me that she is boring and couldn’t think of one. I told the office that they have until today to ask her one question each and whoever gets the most interesting response wins a $5 gift card. So far I’ve only received 4 facts and one of them is that she has “a brown dog that is kind of large.”
Today when the World Cup game (which I really have no interest in) ended at 9 I set up snacks: orange slices, Capri Suns, and Quaker granola bars. People really liked it but only about 5 people understood the correlation between the foods I brought and soccer.
I’m going to keep doing these things for the remnant (and for myself).
The other day when I was proofing BBQ invitations for my boss I caught that it asked people to bring appetizers and hors D’vours. I had to double check fist that they were in fact the same thing (I never know about rich people rules) then I told him. He and his wife both separately expressed their gratitude, maybe I’ll get a raise.
I’ve been continuing to pursue being social…
I’ve been talking on the phone more lately, and not just to my sister.
Last night I went to dinner with one of my Davis roommates she only lives an hour away and we hadn’t talked since December.
Last week I emailed this girl from work to see if she wanted to go out to coffee when we got off. She never responded.
Last Saturday I went to a wedding by myself and actually stayed for the reception. I was talking to this girl (white like me) and this black man asked if we were sisters, that is the second time that I have been asked that this month.

On hair and taxes and other things unrelated

As you may remember, a few years ago I stopped brushing/combing my hair, then some time after that I stopped conditioning too. I picked backed up the conditioner thing after a five-year hiatus because when people give me shampoo it often comes with the matching conditioner and I don’t like it when one bottle gets finished before the other. Last weekend my friend Amaris encouraged me to give the brush another chance. As I discovered my hair does look a little smoother when it gets brushed with a brush instead of my fingers. I don’t want to become vain so I wasn’t sure if actually buying one would be a good use of my money but then my aunt was just giving one away so I took it as a sign and snatched it up. Now in the past week I have used it at least three times. Literally I think that is more times than in the last probably 8 years combined. Amaris assures me that now the boys will swoon. I personally am excited that if I brush out my hair maybe I’ll find less of it on my clothes, in my car, in my sheets, etc. (it works for my dog). We’ll see how long it lasts, old habits die hard and all that.

Here is a picture of me at my friend Lora’s wedding with brushed hair.

Recently my car did not pass smog. I was quite a bit bummed but the lovely people told me about a government assistance program to subsidize the cost of smog related repairs. To qualify you either have to be poor (which I guess I’m not anymore) or have a car that they expect to fail. Me and my ‘92 Accord fell into the latter category. So thank you tax payers! I got $540 worth of repairs for $108.

And speaking of ’92 Accords, do you have one? Because I swear every person that I have driven lately either has one, or had one, or their mom has one, or their brother has one. So when I’m driving people from work that now drive 7-series BMWs I give them an opportunity to reminisce about the years they spent in a boxy Hondas. It is very equalizing.

Now some other fun facts.
-Memorial Day I was in San Diego, it was great.
-I switched up the coffee at work today, I expect there will be a strong reaction tomorrow morning.
-I’ve made a few non-related friends recently – it only took 17 months.
-Today is my oldest brother’s birthday – Happy birthday Jeremy, this is your gift.
-Is summer here? – I think it is getting closer
-I think you’re great!