Crazy job, crazy cat, crazy marriage

Hah! Most of you are probably thinking this will be a post about all of the crazy mad things going on in my life, but mostly it's joy I've found out of the norm.

First, I got a new job and I can't tell you how nice it has been. My previous job had definitely run its course and it was time for me to move on. I interviewed a couple of times with the company for a couple positions and was offered the second position I interviewed for. Originally, I was underwhelmed. (Sorry, you can't be just whelmed.) There didn't seem to be enough for me to do. That isn't the case now. Now, I've got projects to work on, help to give, and experiences to have. It's great.

Oh, and there are some simple joys too. The elevator are like a miniature adventure on their own. You enter the floor you want on the key pad then get in the letter elevator it shows. (So there are no floor buttons in the elevator.) It also moves REALLY fast (45 mph). It moves fast enough that my stomach jumps every time I ride it. And the view from the building is awesome! You can see all of downtown, the Capitol, some hawks/falcons, and rainstorm IN the clouds. Seriously, so cool!

As for my crazy cat and crazy marriage, my husband loves me. (I know mushy, and you're all ahhing.) Anyhow, back to the story. Ballou (See adorable picture. He was a stray I Dr. Dolittled and brought home.)

is normally a VERY active cat. (He plays fetch like a puppy.) I started to notice he wasn't playing like he normally did. Instead he was more lethargic and 'talked' more too. I started to get worried and took him in to an emergency vet. (I could bore you with the details, but I don't know that you really care that much.) Needless to say, he was sick, but could be fixed. Downside, the price it would cost.

I love all of my cats and couldn't put him down because of the cost. Fielding, on the other hand, isn't a fan of spending a lot of money on an animal. But like I said, he loves me. He was willing to invest the money in my cat because he knew it would make me happy, and I love him more for it. Ballou came home three days later and is back to his old self.

Lastly, I'm going to rant (or put my opinion out there because I have a lot of them). Who really believes that all marriages are utter perfection and just magically float along on wishes and dandelion fluff? I'm proud to admit that marriage and relationship doesn't. Fielding and I work on our relationship all the time. We remember the other person isn't trying to be mean by what they say and don't demean each other. And the benefit, Fielding and I love spending time together. We can talk about anything, can work through anything. And so long as we are willing to do those things, we'll always a future and forever.

Entertainment Rental

Have you ever noticed that life in the blogging world seems to take a hiatus as soon as Summer starts? Part of me wants to complain because I love reading the stories people have to post. They seem to make my day go by so much better. (And no, that isn't because I think my life is better. The stories just make me smile.)

The other part of me understands that as soon as summer rolls around there are a million and one better things to do than sit around staring at the computer. (That doesn't actually mean I get the ambition to do any of those million and one things though. One can dream.)

Unfortunately, I don't think there are really any amazing stories to update you on. Fielding and I were supposed to go on a great trip to Capital Reef. One Fielding planned almost exclusively on his own. And had we gone, I'm pretty sure I'd have some great pictures to share. I got sick though with a sinus infection/cold and Fielding ended up taking care of over the 'vacation' time we'd planned. He was so nice to take care of my whiny self. (I'm a terrible sick person. Definitely one that should be left behind to die so I don't draw attention from zombies or bad guys.)

Beyond that, Fielding and I's life has been blase. He shifted his work schedule and I accepted a new one. I know I should be more excited for it, but it just hasn't fully sunk in yet. My last day was today and my new job starts Monday. Maybe by then it will start to feel a bit less surreal.

Oh, sorry. I guess overall this whole post is about how...blah, regular, vanilla, etc. our life is. Luckily, I can live vicariously through rental children (i.e. nieces/nephews) that are returned to their parents after I'm done laughing and teaching them terrible things. Colin learned to throw snails over the fence while we were all weeding at my parents' and kept coming over to see if I'd found another one. Lily has reminded me that 'ugly' is a bad word and we don't say it. (Unfortunately, I just replaced it with the word unattractive. One day I'll learn.) And tonight is supposed to be a slumber party with Gage. (Hopefully, I'll get some stories out of it to tell.) He crazy, sporadic, and loud. Just the kind of kid I need to create some madness. Bring it on.

Otherwise I'll have to find something else and then what will I do?

Beep, beep, vroom!

Every person who's ever been in driver's education (which is pretty much everyone over the age of 16) has been taught that when you're involved in an accident you should move your vehicle to the right-hand most space on the road (if your vehicle is drivable).

So it shocked me to no end when I got hit on the freeway about a week and a half ago and the driver of the other vehicle decided to continue driving (and in fact seemed to use evasive moves to try to get away). I'd been traveling Northbound on I-15 when a red eclipse changed lanes from the rightmost lane and cut me off after the 53rd South on ramp. (Seriously, the space was barely enough for a parallel park.)

So when that vehicle cut me off, I slowed down a bit to avoid any issues. It was at that moment (and the decision of the vehicle behind me) that they decided to change lanes from behind me to the lane directly left of it. Unfortunately, they chose to speed up and cut the silver car in that lane off at the same moment I slowed down just a bit to avoid the red eclipse.

Bump! Yeah, the first thought that hit me 'holy crap, I just got hit' by that car that just changed lanes. (I also wondered if they'd hit the other car too, but wasn't sure.) The second thought that hit me was that they'd start making their way over the right hand side of the road so we could go through all of the formalities. (This thought was also aided by the fact that they had turned on their right hand blinker after they hit me.) But no, that was not to be the case. Instead they sped up to get away from me, didn't change lanes, then changed lanes, then sped up again. I was so shocked.

I finally grabbed my cell phone and called 911 so I could give them the information of a vehicle. I got put on hold (So yes, don't call 911 unless it's to save a life, prevent a crime, or report a fire.) By the time to operator answered, which wasn't as long as it felt, I had a lot of adrenaline running through my system. I think the first thing I spit out at the operator is that I'd gotten hit going northbound on I-15 and that the other vehicle had driven off and that I probably needed highway patrol, and I just passed one. I then gave them my contact information, but got them the wrong phone number (they got my husband's) because I just spit out the information. The next thing that I was spitting out was all of the information about the vehicle, make, model, color, window details, then driver detail. (mazda, 626, maroon with a butterfly decal in the rear back window, and a license plate border with butterflies)

I think the driver had decided she'd either lost me or she'd pretend she hadn't done anything. (And yes, it bothered me that she was busy smoking a cigarette instead of doing what she should have done.) She took the 33rd exit and the 911 operator told me to pull over at a gas station and wait for an officer to show up to take my statement.

So the officer showed up a while later, took my statement, pictures of the damage, and headed off to locate the other car and driver.

So yeah, though part of this is to provide me with a detailed reminder in case I need it in two years. The other part of it is to remind people of two important facts. 1- If you hit someone they WILL feel it (even if you think it's nothing). 2-A hit and run is FAR worse on your record than a simple car accident so don't just leave the scene.

Oh, and I guess one more tip would be that if you witness an accident pull over and provide a statement or at least contact information.

Color Me Easter

Easter is one of those holidays that I absolutely LOVED as a kid. We got to color Easter eggs, go to the family Easter egg hunt, and get some fabulous new outfit.

So this year I decided it was high time that I got around to coloring Easter eggs again. Luckily, Fielding's sister let me borrow her daughter and we colored some eggs a couple of weeks before Easter. She was SO EXCITED! (Trust me that's what she said in the first picture.)


From there it just kept getting better. She was obsessed with the purple (because it's her favorite). She just wanted to keep dropping the eggs into the different colors to see what they would look like. As soon as one egg was out of the color she would want another one put into the color.


I totally forget all of my skills that I had mastered as a child though. It took me a while to remember that you can actually color the egg different colors and use the wax crayon to draw additional details on the eggs. Luckily, Fielding's dad remembered and started us creating some fabulous eggs. (Neon blue egg with hot pink polka dots, Yellow and Green, purple and pink, etc.)


It was great fun to color Easter eggs again. Some of the best parts were after we finished coloring the Easter eggs though. Lily kept saying thank you and then she wanted to eat some of the eggs.

No big deal right? Well...I guess there aren't too many people who still get around to coloring Easter eggs. She cracked one open and threw it in the garbage can because she thought there was candy inside. Lol. It was SO funny to see her face and hear her tell us that there wasn't any candy inside.

It reminded me of so many memories from when I was a kid. Memories of my grandpa and the Easter party tradition he put in place for my family. I'm pretty sure that I can speak for all of us grandkids and say that it is a favorite of ours even as adults.

It's all a big deal. We break up the group into kids and adults with separate hunting grounds for each.

We have to pass out bags for all the loot we're hoping to get and then the anticipation begins to build.




I still don't think any of you understand just HOW much we LOVE our Easter egg hunt. Seriously, this picture is just the adults. It doesn't include the ten or twenty kids that already ran through the lawn collecting loot.

Obviously, there weren't a large number of pictures taken after this point because we were all set on hunting loot and Easter eggs. I got several random food items and four eggs. Before you criticize the fact that I only found four eggs, I'll have you know that there were fifty of them hidden and most people found three or less eggs. But because my grandpa wanted this to be fun for everyone, we have to make sure that everyone has at least one egg.

*Sigh* there went two of my eggs, even before I knew what prize was attached to them. Number 6 went to Celeste and number 48 went to James. And with each parting, I courteously told them that they'd better not win something fabulous. I guess karma wasn't with me (or maybe it was my courteous wish or Celeste's karma). Celeste got the "winning egg"! What!?! Oy! Why, oh why didn't I give up a different number. Oh well. I guess I'll just have to do better next year.

But don't let that make you think that is ALL our Easter party is about. There's always fabulous food and the candy count. (I've only won once in all my years.) The best part is still getting the chance to catch up with family, creating new memories, and keeping our family traditions going. I love them and I can't wait until next year when we get to do it once again.

Screaming inside my head

I'd love to take a moment to basque in some story full of pithy quips, but it's the end of the semester and my work is prepping for an external audit so it will have to wait.

I'm sorry, but please note that there are little people running around in my head screaming at the top of their lungs. I'm sure you understand.

I will take a moment to say that coloring Easter eggs with Fielding's niece was a lot of fun. I'll have to see what pictures Fielding has of the event and post them after the madness has passed.

*sigh* back to work, school work that is.

Too close

Oy! I don't know what to say about society any longer. There are a million and one ways for people to find out what is happening in your life. There are a million and one people who want to be able to see what you have to say, but very few of them care what you have to say. (Or at least that would be my assumption from the few comments.)

Do people really care THIS much? I don't know that they really do care that much. Instead, I think there are too many people who get caught up trying to figure out what everyone else is doing so they can decide what they should be doing.

Instead why don't we all try to be genuinely interested or genuinely happy without worrying if we have what they have or if we've accomplished what they've accomplished.

Caveat: I totally understand that this blog is public and I'm okay with that. That is the point to my blog. It means that I get to throw my opinions out there and anyone who chooses to read it does so of their own decision. (And yes, any comments I get I do appreciate.) This also would apply to anyone's cyber stalking of public sites. It's public. If you don't want it out there don't put it out there.

Also, recognize that sometimes people aren't willing to accept you because they don't want you to see what they write, aren't interested in telling you what is going on in their lives, or maybe they would prefer to practice an time old tradition of catching up occasionally at social events or maybe over lunch.

Okay, so basically this ended up being a rant, but I refuse to be bullied into letting people closer to me than I'm willing. So...get over it. (or watch the South Park episode about fb.)

Also, a word of caution. Don't let the advances in technology pull you away from who you are. There are SO many people now a days that are caught up in it all and end up walking away or destroying some of the most important relationships you can have in your life. Words become cheap, trust becomes fodder, and love a sacrifice.

Curses

For the past couple of weeks any time someone asked how things were going, I'd shrug and tell them it's normal. Nothing exciting one way or the other. And now that I've thrown statements like that out into the universe it's come back to get me.

So just an FYI, if you ever think that your life is too boring just find the happiness in it. There's so much more for us to love about a boring life. A boring life means you don't have anything in your life causing you stress. No stress about money and how you're going to pay your bills. No stress about doing things just right. No misunderstandings, arguments, or frustrations with your spouse.

Overall, I guess I'm saying that we should be happy with the simple every day joys in our lives. If we don't remember to notice those things we're likely to find ourselves being reminded.