I'm liking the sound of this... :)
Year 2010 Overview
Taurus always gets tagged with things like "pleasure-seeking" and "materialistic." That's probably unfair, in most cases. You're just as good at dishing out the pleasure as you are at seeking it, and who doesn't like a few nice things around? Sadly, there's been just too much struggle in your life the last couple of years when it comes to those two very important parts of your life. Thankfully, 2010 marks the end of that long uphill struggle. Your pleasurable pursuits have been a little more restricted than you'd like over the course of the last two years or so. That's over with now, so ... game on!
The big events this year will not so much be a matter of major happenings as they will be things that have been in the works and are slowly revealing themselves. In the last two years, you've put a lot of work into what makes you happy, while Saturn transited your solar Fifth House. Now that those pressures are finally being relieved, you'll find you are finally gaining traction. Certainly, your love life and your career will feel the difference, but beyond that you'll notice things going a lot better in other departments of your life. You may have already noticed some of these changes starting to kick in; the real results start happening around your birthday in 2010.
Let's hope this is true! Happy New Year everyone!
Thursday, December 31, 2009
Wednesday, December 30, 2009
32 questions about me.
I thought I'd lighten the mood a little and do a questionnaire since my posts are usually full of whining and complaining! Sorry! I swear I used to be a happy positive person!
1) CURRENT LIVING ARRANGEMENT? Single-family house in the suburbs of Charlotte.
2). WHAT BOOK ARE YOU READING NOW? I just finished "Time of My Life" by Allison Winn Scotch. It's basically chick-lit. It was ok. I started reading "Open Season" by Archer Mayor before that and will probably continue to read that now that I'm done with the other book. Archer Mayor is an author that writes murder mysteries set in Vermont, which is where I was born, so I like reading his books.
3). WHAT'S ON YOUR MOUSE PAD? It's a Dell mousepad (not very exciting!)
4). FAVORITE BOARD GAME? - It's not really a board game, but I'm addicted to Apples to Apples right now.
6). FAVORITE SMELLS? - lilac, vanilla, cookies/brownies baking. Also, on Greg I like Bvlgari black cologne. On myself I like Beyond Paradise or Banana Republic for Women.
7).LEAST FAVORITE SMELLS? skunk, garbage, dog breath
8). FAVORITE SOUND? good music, waves crashing at the beach.
9). WORST FEELING IN THE WORLD? losing someone you love.
10). WHAT IS THE FIRST THING YOU THINK OF WHEN YOU WAKE UP IN THE MORNING? Greg if he's next to me, then I roll over and hug him. If not, getting ready for work!
11). FAVORITE COLOR? - blue and green
> 12). HOW MANY RINGS BEFORE YOU ANSWER THE PHONE? Usually about 2.
> 14). WHAT IS MOST IMPORTANT IN LIFE? Being happy.
> 15). FAVORITE FOODS? Lobster, baked stuffed shrimp, Reeses pieces sundae, movie popcorn
16). CHOCOLATE OR VANILLA? both
17). DO YOU LIKE TO DRIVE FAST? Yes I do. I'm kind of a speed demon.
18). DO YOU SLEEP WITH A STUFFED ANIMAL? No, I sleep with Greg and I sleep on my side while holding a pillow.
19). STORMS - LIKE OR DON'T LIKE? I kind of like storms as long as they're not too crazy.
20). WHAT TYPE WAS YOUR FIRST CAR? - 1986 Toyota Camry that I shared with my brother.
21). FAVORITE DRINK? Hmm, too many to name just one. I like Dr. Pepper, Hard Cider, good red wine, Pomegranate Martinis, hazelnut coffee, green tea.
22). WHAT IS YOUR ZODIAC SIGN? - Taurus
23). DO YOU EAT THE STEMS OF BROCCOLI? if they are in soup or something, yes.
24). IF YOU COULD HAVE ANY JOB YOU WANTED WHAT WOULD IT BE? Hmm... maybe a foreign diplomat.
25). IF YOU COULD DYE YOUR HAIR ANY COLOR WHAT COLOR WOULD YOU BE? I like my hair the color it is. I put highlights and low-lights in. Once I went red, it was fun, but I don't think I'll do it again anytime soon.
26). EVER BEEN IN LOVE? Yup.
27). IS THE GLASS HALF EMPTY OR HALF FULL? Honestly, I'm so beaten down by life right now, I'll say it's half empty, but I SWEAR I have almost always been a half full kind of girl!
28). FAVORITE MOVIES? So many! Singles, Big, The Notebook, Office Space, Napoleon Dynamite, Serendipity, The Breakfast Club, Elf.
29). DO YOU TYPE WITH YOUR FINGERS ON THE RIGHT KEYS? Yes, thanks to Mrs. Hoyer's 7th grade typing class. That ended up being very useful!!
30). WHAT'S UNDER YOUR BED? I think some slippers.
31). WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE NUMBER? 6
32). FAVORITE SPORT TO WATCH? I really don't watch sports on TV much unless it's the Olympics or a major game. I'd say I like watching baseball, basketball, or figure skating best.
1) CURRENT LIVING ARRANGEMENT? Single-family house in the suburbs of Charlotte.
2). WHAT BOOK ARE YOU READING NOW? I just finished "Time of My Life" by Allison Winn Scotch. It's basically chick-lit. It was ok. I started reading "Open Season" by Archer Mayor before that and will probably continue to read that now that I'm done with the other book. Archer Mayor is an author that writes murder mysteries set in Vermont, which is where I was born, so I like reading his books.
3). WHAT'S ON YOUR MOUSE PAD? It's a Dell mousepad (not very exciting!)
4). FAVORITE BOARD GAME? - It's not really a board game, but I'm addicted to Apples to Apples right now.
6). FAVORITE SMELLS? - lilac, vanilla, cookies/brownies baking. Also, on Greg I like Bvlgari black cologne. On myself I like Beyond Paradise or Banana Republic for Women.
7).LEAST FAVORITE SMELLS? skunk, garbage, dog breath
8). FAVORITE SOUND? good music, waves crashing at the beach.
9). WORST FEELING IN THE WORLD? losing someone you love.
10). WHAT IS THE FIRST THING YOU THINK OF WHEN YOU WAKE UP IN THE MORNING? Greg if he's next to me, then I roll over and hug him. If not, getting ready for work!
11). FAVORITE COLOR? - blue and green
> 12). HOW MANY RINGS BEFORE YOU ANSWER THE PHONE? Usually about 2.
> 14). WHAT IS MOST IMPORTANT IN LIFE? Being happy.
> 15). FAVORITE FOODS? Lobster, baked stuffed shrimp, Reeses pieces sundae, movie popcorn
16). CHOCOLATE OR VANILLA? both
17). DO YOU LIKE TO DRIVE FAST? Yes I do. I'm kind of a speed demon.
18). DO YOU SLEEP WITH A STUFFED ANIMAL? No, I sleep with Greg and I sleep on my side while holding a pillow.
19). STORMS - LIKE OR DON'T LIKE? I kind of like storms as long as they're not too crazy.
20). WHAT TYPE WAS YOUR FIRST CAR? - 1986 Toyota Camry that I shared with my brother.
21). FAVORITE DRINK? Hmm, too many to name just one. I like Dr. Pepper, Hard Cider, good red wine, Pomegranate Martinis, hazelnut coffee, green tea.
22). WHAT IS YOUR ZODIAC SIGN? - Taurus
23). DO YOU EAT THE STEMS OF BROCCOLI? if they are in soup or something, yes.
24). IF YOU COULD HAVE ANY JOB YOU WANTED WHAT WOULD IT BE? Hmm... maybe a foreign diplomat.
25). IF YOU COULD DYE YOUR HAIR ANY COLOR WHAT COLOR WOULD YOU BE? I like my hair the color it is. I put highlights and low-lights in. Once I went red, it was fun, but I don't think I'll do it again anytime soon.
26). EVER BEEN IN LOVE? Yup.
27). IS THE GLASS HALF EMPTY OR HALF FULL? Honestly, I'm so beaten down by life right now, I'll say it's half empty, but I SWEAR I have almost always been a half full kind of girl!
28). FAVORITE MOVIES? So many! Singles, Big, The Notebook, Office Space, Napoleon Dynamite, Serendipity, The Breakfast Club, Elf.
29). DO YOU TYPE WITH YOUR FINGERS ON THE RIGHT KEYS? Yes, thanks to Mrs. Hoyer's 7th grade typing class. That ended up being very useful!!
30). WHAT'S UNDER YOUR BED? I think some slippers.
31). WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE NUMBER? 6
32). FAVORITE SPORT TO WATCH? I really don't watch sports on TV much unless it's the Olympics or a major game. I'd say I like watching baseball, basketball, or figure skating best.
Monday, December 28, 2009
Well, Christmas weekend was pretty good. It had it's ups and downs.
Friday morning Greg and I got up and I made us croissants with Nutella (I think Greg could live on Nutella right now) and coffee. We did our presents for each other. He got me some windowsill herb gardens, a Shiatsu massage pillow, a necklace and earrings with coin pearl and purple crystals, an Itunes gift card, Starbucks gift card, Movie theater gift card, and Amazon.com gift card, and a bunch of stocking stuffers (mostly chocolate). I made out well! I got him some shirts, slippers, a book, and lots of his favorite junk food. He just bought himself a new laptop recently (his other one died- so it was necessary), so I wasn't allowed to get him a lot. I kinda went with necessities more than luxury items because of this.
Friday afternoon I packed up and headed down to Hilton Head to spend the rest of the weekend with my parents since Greg was working all weekend. I got there at cocktail hour and had lovely Pomegranate Martini and then we dove into the turkey dinner my mom made- yum!
Last week my mom had emailed me to see if I wanted to go to an Italian cooking class Saturday (um- hell yes!), so we did that on Saturday. It was a Scallopine class, so we learned how to cook chicken, veal, pork, and swordfish scallopine style with four different kinds of sauce, which are interchangeable. We both learned a lot, such as the right technique for pounding meat (lol), and that it's better to use grapeseed oil rather than olive oil because it's got a higher burning point and doesn't make the food taste like burned olive oil (interesting right?). The food was fantastic and we had all the wine we could drink. I paced myself so my mom could take advantage and I could drive! haha!
Saturday night we did dinner with some old family friends that also live in HHI (Hilton Head Island). They just moved into a new house so that was my first time over. When we first got there we all sat around in the living room having cocktails and munching on snacks while the lasagna finished cooking in the oven. At one point I was sitting with the men- my dad and Pete, and my mom and Lois called me into the kitchen to hang with the women. Well, upon entering the kitchen, I kinda got cornered by them and sort of a "baby intervention" happened where they basically asked what we were waiting for and why not have a baby now. Historically my parents have never been the kind that pressured me to get married, have a baby, or really do anything in my life (except study when I was in school). My parents have always said that I should do things when I want to and feel ready. Obviously, I've stated it before that having a baby is probably at the top of the list for things I want right now, but I feel like this is just the worst time ever because of Greg's job situation- financially and stability-wise. I reiterated that to them, but Lois kinda pushed me harder and said I should just do it and not wait. Lois and Pete have no children, and the story I have heard is that they never really tried to, but never prevented it and it just never happened for them and they just never did anything about it. I think they look at my brother and me and their nieces and nephews and sometimes regret that. She said something about how I shouldn't wait forever because it didn't happen for her. That is an extremely real fear I have- that we will have trouble getting pregnant. Especially the older I get. I know I'm still relatively young (I'm 31), but we still don't know how it will be when we try. It pretty much freaks me out on a daily basis. Anyway, I told them about the Continental bids coming out soon and how Greg thinks we'll know more once we see that and can reassess then. We moved on and had dinner and then played a game. The whole thing really threw me off though and I found myself thinking about it a lot.
The next morning I called Greg and told him about the "baby intervention". I basically bawled on the phone to him for like 15 minutes. He reassured me that we would probably know more pretty soon. Later, my mom and I decided to go take a walk on the beach. I was itching to bring the conversation up again because I just couldn't get it out of my head and eventually I did bring it up. She apologized and said she didn't want to push me and that Lois roped her into it. She did kind of ask again why we wouldn't consider having a baby now though if it's what we really want. She said if it's mostly financial why couldn't I do more budget our money. My philosophy on the situation is that we have cut back a lot on spending from the way we used to be. I really don't just go to the mall and get a bunch of stuff ever. There was a time where if we had the inkling in our head "Hey, we want kayaks", we'd just go buy some. If I buy something it's got to be pretty justifiable. One thing I do spend money on is some social time with friends- mainly dinner out once in a while. I don't think it's extremely excessive though, and my rational is that life sucks enough right now, I would like to at the very least enjoy some small things with my friends. We do have a somewhat expensive house we don't want to move from. We also have a one car payment. We are about at break even point and have some debt, but not a really excessive amount. We just want to either maintain where we are and/or pay off debt, but not go into more debt. I feel like never going out with friends or cutting out cable, etc... Is not going to get us where we need to be to have a baby anyway, so why cut out what little pleasure we have left? Yeah, it might add up some, but probably in the grand scheme of things to only like a couple grand a year, not tens of thousands of dollars that would make the difference between us feeling like we're really financially set to have a baby. The only real thing that will bring us to that comfort level is for Greg to go back to flying or get a much better paying job. In our current situation, it's probably not happening because he's really not making enough for us to feel comfortable enough to have a baby. Is that screwed up logic? Anyway, so my mom and I had that conversation on the beach and I don't think she does agree with my logic. She kinda said she doesn't think I'm willing to do WHATEVER it will take to have a baby right now. I guess in a sense she's right. I'm not willing to sell our house and car. I'm not willing to never leave the house or never buy a shirt I like once every two months, or go for coffee with a co-worker once in a while. I'd rather wait and have our situation get better than it is now and then have a baby, but not have to lose what we have now to do it. Anyway, I ended up crying a bunch more while we talked about it. It is a hard thing, because I DO want a baby. Aside from the money, I also want Greg's career stress to not be an issue anymore. I don't want us becoming new parents and not knowing what the heck he's doing with his life. I feel like he either needs to be back flying or in a stable CAREER type job- not a entry level hotel job that he KNOWS is not permanent.
The whole thing did definitely put a damper on the weekend. I know my mom feels bad about bringing the whole thing up. It's ok though. None of what we talked about is anything I'm not already thinking every day anyway. I feel like I needed to talk about it and have a good cry about it. This stuff is always running through my mind.
When I was back at the house, I checked my Facebook and saw a message from my friend Becky that she is pregnant. I actually had to laugh, because I was basically all cried out by then. I'm happy for her. I am.
We went to see "Up in the Air" Sunday afternoon. It was really good and did take my mind off of things.
This morning I went running (yay, hopefully I'm back on the wagon!) around the plantation and then my Dad and I took my mom to lunch (she worked today) in Beaufort, SC. Dad and I perused the shops on the main drag and then I headed off on my drive home.
I really hope things turn around for us in 2010.
Friday morning Greg and I got up and I made us croissants with Nutella (I think Greg could live on Nutella right now) and coffee. We did our presents for each other. He got me some windowsill herb gardens, a Shiatsu massage pillow, a necklace and earrings with coin pearl and purple crystals, an Itunes gift card, Starbucks gift card, Movie theater gift card, and Amazon.com gift card, and a bunch of stocking stuffers (mostly chocolate). I made out well! I got him some shirts, slippers, a book, and lots of his favorite junk food. He just bought himself a new laptop recently (his other one died- so it was necessary), so I wasn't allowed to get him a lot. I kinda went with necessities more than luxury items because of this.
Friday afternoon I packed up and headed down to Hilton Head to spend the rest of the weekend with my parents since Greg was working all weekend. I got there at cocktail hour and had lovely Pomegranate Martini and then we dove into the turkey dinner my mom made- yum!
Last week my mom had emailed me to see if I wanted to go to an Italian cooking class Saturday (um- hell yes!), so we did that on Saturday. It was a Scallopine class, so we learned how to cook chicken, veal, pork, and swordfish scallopine style with four different kinds of sauce, which are interchangeable. We both learned a lot, such as the right technique for pounding meat (lol), and that it's better to use grapeseed oil rather than olive oil because it's got a higher burning point and doesn't make the food taste like burned olive oil (interesting right?). The food was fantastic and we had all the wine we could drink. I paced myself so my mom could take advantage and I could drive! haha!
Saturday night we did dinner with some old family friends that also live in HHI (Hilton Head Island). They just moved into a new house so that was my first time over. When we first got there we all sat around in the living room having cocktails and munching on snacks while the lasagna finished cooking in the oven. At one point I was sitting with the men- my dad and Pete, and my mom and Lois called me into the kitchen to hang with the women. Well, upon entering the kitchen, I kinda got cornered by them and sort of a "baby intervention" happened where they basically asked what we were waiting for and why not have a baby now. Historically my parents have never been the kind that pressured me to get married, have a baby, or really do anything in my life (except study when I was in school). My parents have always said that I should do things when I want to and feel ready. Obviously, I've stated it before that having a baby is probably at the top of the list for things I want right now, but I feel like this is just the worst time ever because of Greg's job situation- financially and stability-wise. I reiterated that to them, but Lois kinda pushed me harder and said I should just do it and not wait. Lois and Pete have no children, and the story I have heard is that they never really tried to, but never prevented it and it just never happened for them and they just never did anything about it. I think they look at my brother and me and their nieces and nephews and sometimes regret that. She said something about how I shouldn't wait forever because it didn't happen for her. That is an extremely real fear I have- that we will have trouble getting pregnant. Especially the older I get. I know I'm still relatively young (I'm 31), but we still don't know how it will be when we try. It pretty much freaks me out on a daily basis. Anyway, I told them about the Continental bids coming out soon and how Greg thinks we'll know more once we see that and can reassess then. We moved on and had dinner and then played a game. The whole thing really threw me off though and I found myself thinking about it a lot.
The next morning I called Greg and told him about the "baby intervention". I basically bawled on the phone to him for like 15 minutes. He reassured me that we would probably know more pretty soon. Later, my mom and I decided to go take a walk on the beach. I was itching to bring the conversation up again because I just couldn't get it out of my head and eventually I did bring it up. She apologized and said she didn't want to push me and that Lois roped her into it. She did kind of ask again why we wouldn't consider having a baby now though if it's what we really want. She said if it's mostly financial why couldn't I do more budget our money. My philosophy on the situation is that we have cut back a lot on spending from the way we used to be. I really don't just go to the mall and get a bunch of stuff ever. There was a time where if we had the inkling in our head "Hey, we want kayaks", we'd just go buy some. If I buy something it's got to be pretty justifiable. One thing I do spend money on is some social time with friends- mainly dinner out once in a while. I don't think it's extremely excessive though, and my rational is that life sucks enough right now, I would like to at the very least enjoy some small things with my friends. We do have a somewhat expensive house we don't want to move from. We also have a one car payment. We are about at break even point and have some debt, but not a really excessive amount. We just want to either maintain where we are and/or pay off debt, but not go into more debt. I feel like never going out with friends or cutting out cable, etc... Is not going to get us where we need to be to have a baby anyway, so why cut out what little pleasure we have left? Yeah, it might add up some, but probably in the grand scheme of things to only like a couple grand a year, not tens of thousands of dollars that would make the difference between us feeling like we're really financially set to have a baby. The only real thing that will bring us to that comfort level is for Greg to go back to flying or get a much better paying job. In our current situation, it's probably not happening because he's really not making enough for us to feel comfortable enough to have a baby. Is that screwed up logic? Anyway, so my mom and I had that conversation on the beach and I don't think she does agree with my logic. She kinda said she doesn't think I'm willing to do WHATEVER it will take to have a baby right now. I guess in a sense she's right. I'm not willing to sell our house and car. I'm not willing to never leave the house or never buy a shirt I like once every two months, or go for coffee with a co-worker once in a while. I'd rather wait and have our situation get better than it is now and then have a baby, but not have to lose what we have now to do it. Anyway, I ended up crying a bunch more while we talked about it. It is a hard thing, because I DO want a baby. Aside from the money, I also want Greg's career stress to not be an issue anymore. I don't want us becoming new parents and not knowing what the heck he's doing with his life. I feel like he either needs to be back flying or in a stable CAREER type job- not a entry level hotel job that he KNOWS is not permanent.
The whole thing did definitely put a damper on the weekend. I know my mom feels bad about bringing the whole thing up. It's ok though. None of what we talked about is anything I'm not already thinking every day anyway. I feel like I needed to talk about it and have a good cry about it. This stuff is always running through my mind.
When I was back at the house, I checked my Facebook and saw a message from my friend Becky that she is pregnant. I actually had to laugh, because I was basically all cried out by then. I'm happy for her. I am.
We went to see "Up in the Air" Sunday afternoon. It was really good and did take my mind off of things.
This morning I went running (yay, hopefully I'm back on the wagon!) around the plantation and then my Dad and I took my mom to lunch (she worked today) in Beaufort, SC. Dad and I perused the shops on the main drag and then I headed off on my drive home.
I really hope things turn around for us in 2010.
Thursday, December 24, 2009
Christmas??
Ok, I'm just going to say it. It doesn't feel like Christmas to me right now. I think it's partly that I already had Christmas with my brother, parents, and our spouses a couple weeks ago. That was the "BIG" Christmas for me this year, so tomorrow just feels kind of anti-climactic. I tried for the last two weeks to keep the Christmas momentum going. I watched Christmas movies, baked lots of cookies, and even wore red and green a lot. But it just doesn't feel like Christmas to me that much anymore this season. I'm having trouble keeping the excited feeling going. Maybe it's also because I didn't take a lot of time off around Christmas this year. I am taking Monday (the 28th) off so I can stay in Hilton Head an extra day, but other than that I'm working right up til the last minute.
Greg also doesn't seem that into it. We didn't do overly elaborate gifts for each other this year, which is fine. Neither of us need much and we'd rather save the money. Yesterday I was talking about the plan for this weekend and he was like "When is Christmas again?" SERIOUSLY?? That's my Greg... He hasn't gotten my stocking stuffers yet and I told him he better get on it. I don't think Greg's family really did much with stockings when he was growing up because I had to teach him of the importance of filling the stocking when we got together. I don't even care if my stocking has cans of soup wrapped up, I just like some stuff in there. You know?!
It's probably also the underlying sad frustration I carry with me all the time now due to Greg's furlough. Several people I know have babies that they are having their first Christmas with this year. I wish we were experiencing that. I feel like Christmas will have a renewed magic when we have kids. It just feels kind of dull right now with just us, still waiting out the furlough, and half a day to be together since Greg is working tomorrow. I'm glad I get to spend Christmas morning with him at all, as we've had years when we weren't together for Christmas, but it still feels lack luster.
I'm going to see A Christmas Carol with some friends later today. Maybe that will help put me in a more Christmasy mood.
I hope everyone has a very Merry Christmas!
Greg also doesn't seem that into it. We didn't do overly elaborate gifts for each other this year, which is fine. Neither of us need much and we'd rather save the money. Yesterday I was talking about the plan for this weekend and he was like "When is Christmas again?" SERIOUSLY?? That's my Greg... He hasn't gotten my stocking stuffers yet and I told him he better get on it. I don't think Greg's family really did much with stockings when he was growing up because I had to teach him of the importance of filling the stocking when we got together. I don't even care if my stocking has cans of soup wrapped up, I just like some stuff in there. You know?!
It's probably also the underlying sad frustration I carry with me all the time now due to Greg's furlough. Several people I know have babies that they are having their first Christmas with this year. I wish we were experiencing that. I feel like Christmas will have a renewed magic when we have kids. It just feels kind of dull right now with just us, still waiting out the furlough, and half a day to be together since Greg is working tomorrow. I'm glad I get to spend Christmas morning with him at all, as we've had years when we weren't together for Christmas, but it still feels lack luster.
I'm going to see A Christmas Carol with some friends later today. Maybe that will help put me in a more Christmasy mood.
I hope everyone has a very Merry Christmas!
Tuesday, December 22, 2009
In other news...
Greg heard that Continental has a system bid coming out in the next couple weeks. He said then the company will show what planes/positions/hubs they have available and how many in each place, and then everyone will bid for what hub/plane/seat they want. We're hoping this will give us some idea of what is happening at CAL and when/if Greg will get called back. Or at least we might see that it looks totally hopeless based on the projected plan for 2010, and we can assume he's not getting called back. It probably won't change much for us, but it's still helpful to have SOME information rather than none.
It's looking like Regional hiring may be picking up. We've heard that a bunch of Regionals are calling back their furloughs and may start hiring soon. That could work out for Greg... The only thing is that then he may have to make a choice between staying at CAL and going to a Regional, which he feels most are unstable in the long run. He'd most likely have to officially resign from CAL in order to go to another airline, which has been an issue ever since furlough. Well, we'll cross that bridge when we come to it if the decision has to be made.
Oh- an update on the dog situation. Apparently having Rascal for the weekend actually worked to my advantage. Greg did some thinking after spending a weekend taking care of a dog and agreed with me that he isn't sure he wants one just yet either. He realized the work that went into taking care of Rascal. I think he also got scared about how the house could get torn up if we were house training a puppy. As much as it was fun to play with a dog, we will hold off for now. I'm glad he's on the same page with me about it now. So to those of you looking to break the dog desires of your significant other- borrow one for the weekend and see if they still want one after! Haha!
I miss Greg on this schedule he's on. He's working evenings and I go to work when he's still asleep and he gets home after I've gone to sleep so we don't see each other much on days he's working. Lately I've been stopping by the hotel on my way home hoping to see him for a few minutes. Last night I did. I don't want to bother him while he's working, but I think he likes seeing me, and I'm always tempted to stop in since his hotel is on my way home, so I usually end up stopping by to say hi.
I decided on a plan for this weekend for Christmas. It's been a debacle because my parents have been to our house twice in the last month or so (for Thanksgiving and when my bro was here), so it's really my turn to go there. I'm going to stay home Christmas Eve and have Christmas morning with Greg before he goes to work and then leave for my parents' after we do our Christmas. I think it's important that I spend part of Christmas with Greg so we can do our presents and have breakfast together before he works. I'll spend the rest of the weekend hanging out with my parents. If I stayed in Charlotte for the weekend I wouldn't have much time to spend with Greg because he's working all weekend anyway. I haven't been down to Hilton Head in a while, and I'm itching to go. I think it'll be a good weekend. I wish Greg could come, but at least he was off the last two weekends with me and I'll still do Christmas morning with him and make him his favorite blueberry pancakes for him :)
It's looking like Regional hiring may be picking up. We've heard that a bunch of Regionals are calling back their furloughs and may start hiring soon. That could work out for Greg... The only thing is that then he may have to make a choice between staying at CAL and going to a Regional, which he feels most are unstable in the long run. He'd most likely have to officially resign from CAL in order to go to another airline, which has been an issue ever since furlough. Well, we'll cross that bridge when we come to it if the decision has to be made.
Oh- an update on the dog situation. Apparently having Rascal for the weekend actually worked to my advantage. Greg did some thinking after spending a weekend taking care of a dog and agreed with me that he isn't sure he wants one just yet either. He realized the work that went into taking care of Rascal. I think he also got scared about how the house could get torn up if we were house training a puppy. As much as it was fun to play with a dog, we will hold off for now. I'm glad he's on the same page with me about it now. So to those of you looking to break the dog desires of your significant other- borrow one for the weekend and see if they still want one after! Haha!
I miss Greg on this schedule he's on. He's working evenings and I go to work when he's still asleep and he gets home after I've gone to sleep so we don't see each other much on days he's working. Lately I've been stopping by the hotel on my way home hoping to see him for a few minutes. Last night I did. I don't want to bother him while he's working, but I think he likes seeing me, and I'm always tempted to stop in since his hotel is on my way home, so I usually end up stopping by to say hi.
I decided on a plan for this weekend for Christmas. It's been a debacle because my parents have been to our house twice in the last month or so (for Thanksgiving and when my bro was here), so it's really my turn to go there. I'm going to stay home Christmas Eve and have Christmas morning with Greg before he goes to work and then leave for my parents' after we do our Christmas. I think it's important that I spend part of Christmas with Greg so we can do our presents and have breakfast together before he works. I'll spend the rest of the weekend hanging out with my parents. If I stayed in Charlotte for the weekend I wouldn't have much time to spend with Greg because he's working all weekend anyway. I haven't been down to Hilton Head in a while, and I'm itching to go. I think it'll be a good weekend. I wish Greg could come, but at least he was off the last two weekends with me and I'll still do Christmas morning with him and make him his favorite blueberry pancakes for him :)
No more baking!
Ok, so I THINK the Christmas cookie baking is over. I love baking Christmas cookies (and eating them!). It's one of the things that most gets me in the Christmas mood. I've always liked and been pretty good at baking. At early age I was much more interested in baking than cooking regular food. I don't think I really got into cooking other food (aside from mac and cheese) til I was in college, and then it was mainly because I wasn't eating at home or at the dining hall anymore, so it was up to me to learn how to cook if I wanted to eat anything but prepared food. I usually give out a lot of cookies as gifts at Christmas. This year it felt like I just kept baking and baking, and was never really sure I had enough. Actually, I'm pretty sure it's like that every year, but it felt particularly exhausting this year. Last night I made a batch of raspberry chocolate pinwheels, which are similar to the orange chocolate ones, but with raspberry flavor instead. I also made my first ever batch of peanut butter chocolate fudge. It came out good and was relatively easy to make. I think I'm done now though. I packaged up the cookies and fudge in Christmas bags and brought them into work to give out today. Who knows, maybe I'll make one more batch before I head to my parents' this weekend!
Sunday, December 20, 2009
Dog days
I bring you this addition of Life in a Holding Pattern with a dog in my lap. That's right a DOG. Friday night I went to my friend Kelly's cookies and cocktails party. Kelly and Brad were going to Brad's company Christmas party in Richmond, VA for the night Saturday, and were talking about Kelly's dad watching Rascal, their dog. Well the weather was looking questionable Friday night. By questionable I mean that it was raining. Down here people freak out if there's RAIN. I kid you not that Saturday was entirely clear, but just talk of "weather" had the news strip on TV showing all kinds of delays and cancelations of church and weekend activities around Charlotte. I digress. Anyway, I suggested that Greg and I could watch Rascal for the weekend if they wanted and could just take him home with me that night after the cookie party. Now, I don't know if I've mentioned this or not, but Greg has been bugging me HARD for a dog lately. It's gotten to the point where I think one of these days I'm going to come home and find a dog that he has picked out on his own, without my permission, when I have explicitly said I didn't think this was the right time for us to get a dog. This freaks me out. I am not a huge dog person. I think dogs have a certain smell I'm not really into, and don't like dog breath or dog poop, or anything of that nature. I feel like bunnies are my perfect speed for animals. They are cuddly, cute, but exist independently and can be left alone for good amounts of time since they have litter boxes and don't have to be walked. I also think they are fairly easy when it comes to taking trips. Someone can come over and feed them or they are pretty easy to transport, and my parents tolerate them pretty well (they are not pet people of any kind). Having a dog would really change everything, and I don't know that I'm ready for that right now. I think if I'm going to get anything that will change everything, I would rather have it be a baby.
Anyway, I surprised Greg by bringing Rascal home with me on Friday night. Greg ended up staying late at the hotel because they had a bunch of stranded airline passengers and he helped out. He got home and Rascal was flipping out growling and barking because he didn't know who Greg was. Greg was so excited though, it was cute. I think I did pretty good with everything, I even let Rascal sleep in the bed with us (he usually sleeps with Brad and Kelly). Yesterday morning I got up and took Rascal out to pee. We went back in and he followed me around. Which has been pretty consistent. Greg calls him my "shadow". We got out his stuffed squirrel and chew toy and he played with those a bunch. Greg plays this game with Rascal where he chases him around while Rascal has the squirrel in his mouth. It's funny. Later we took him for a walk around the neighborhood. Rascal likes mailboxes. And pretty much every vertical object outside. He peed on everything he could. He also pooped twice and we had to go back to the house for an extra bag. Later we went to do some errands and took him with us in the car.
*I interrupt this post to chase Rascal with his stuffed squirrel as he his whining for me to*
We got back to the house and had dinner and Greg took him outside for a little while more.
Last night he slept with us again. This morning Greg took him out to pee early, and then I got up a little later and he came down to the office with me while I checked my email, Facebook, etc...
I did kinda want to see what life with a dog would be like. It's fun, but it's kind of all-consuming. They are total attention whores.
*stop to pick up Rascal and put him on my lap*
Rascal is a Dachshund. He is one of the most well trained dogs I've ever seen. Brad and Kelly have taught him a crazy amount of tricks he'll do on cue. He's small and pretty unsmelly as far as dog's go, which is why I agreed to take him for the weekend. It's gone well, but I think that this experiment can not be taken as an absolute version of what us getting a dog would really be like. Rascal is an extremely good, fully trained dog, and I think one of the things that freaks me out is the idea of training a dog and going through the "craps in the house, eats the furniture, cries all night long" phase. I don't want to deal with that. I also don't think it's a good idea financially. Dogs can be expensive. The whole idea is for us to SAVE money right now while Greg isn't making a lot. I think having a dog would be an added expense we don't need. Also, the time/attention thing. I like being able to stay downtown after work if I want to run, go out, meet friends, etc... I like being able to say "I want to go to my parents this weekend" and not having to really figure anything out. Someday Greg may get called back or be at a job where he's not home a lot again and it'll be all me to deal with the dog. Not up for that yet.
I think someday I'm open to getting a dog, but now is not the time. Like I said. I want a baby and I'm ready to make those sacrifices for a baby, but not for a dog right now.
In the meantime I will go back to snuggling Rascal while we have him for the weekend. I could definitely deal with watching him once a month or so. It's kinda like California- it's a nice place to visit, but I don't want to live there.
Friday, December 18, 2009
Pretty much every night this week was spent similarly. I went home, put my warm pajamas on (it's been COLD here- high of like 37 today!!), and worked on various Christmas tasks. I made a trip to Wal-mart early in the week to pick up Christmas cards I had printed to the photo center. I'm kinda late with cards this year. I seem to remember being more on top of that last year. Anyway, since Greg and I still have no kids, a while back we got in the habit of doing a Christmas picture of one or more of our rabbits every year. We have three bunnies; Cinnamon (girl), Bosco (boy), and Baxter (boy). The first year we did the bunny Christmas year was probably like 6-7 years ago and we did a picture of two bunnies we had back then, Butterscotch and Oreo, with two little Santa hats we got at Petco. Thus the bunny Christmas card tradition was born. The past couple years we've been mostly using Baxter as our Christmas poster child as he is the most photogenic of the crew. Plus he's black and white so his coloring goes well with most Christmas stuff (red settings). This year I did a picture of him with candy canes scattered around him.
So, each night I've been working on the Christmas cards, wrapping stocking stuffers (which I got the night I went to Wal-mart to get the Christmas cards), and baking TONS of cookies.
Every year I make a ton of Christmas cookies and give them as gifts to friends and co-workers. My friend Kelly is having a cookie and cocktails party tonight, so I made a big batch of my orange chocolate pinwheels for the party. If anyone is interested in the recipe, these are my go-to cookies if you want something kinda different with a wow-factor. A couple years ago I was watching Food Network's cookie special and Alton Brown made these cookies except with peppermint flavor instead of orange. My dad LOVES orange and chocolate together, so it occurred to me that I could make these cookies and change out the peppermint flavor for orange extract (I also add a bunch of orange zest). I've also made them with raspberry extract and they are good that way too. You really could use any flavoring you want in the "peppermint" dough that you like with chocolate. The cookies are slightly labor intensive, but if you plan ahead and make the dough ahead, I don't think they're too bad. Anyway, here's the link to the recipe.
Speaking of Kelly, two weeks ago she and her man Brad got engaged! I met them last spring in my running group and love hanging out with them. I've mentioned them many times before in the blog because they are single-handedly responsible for jump starting my social life in Charlotte. They love good food, wine, and Noda! Friends have always been important to me, but in the last few years I've really started to reassess what good friendship is, as I had my first ever "friend break-up" about a year and a half ago. I think I'm a lot more wary of who I will get close to and trust now because of that. I can honestly say I'm at a good place now with the people I've chosen to have as friends and I am very lucky to have them in my life. Kelly is definitely one of those people that has been easy to be friends with from day one. She's just a happy, positive person and very fun to be around. Earlier this week she called to chat and asked me to be a bridesmaid in her wedding next summer! I happily accepted and I'm so glad she feels the same about our friendship as I do. It's really nice to have a good bunch of girl friends and I'm glad she's one of mine :)
Tuesday, December 15, 2009
furloughed pilot blogs?
It's hard to find any blogs written by furloughed pilots or furloughed pilot's wives. That was my main reason for starting this one. I continually search for other people going through this, but really haven't found much. I hope that if there are other pilot families going through furlough, they may find this blog. Maybe it will give them some comfort. Maybe they will reach out to me and share their experience.
I found this site today... It's written by a furloughed corporate pilot who has been furloughed about the same amount of time as Greg. Interesting.
I know most of my followers are other pilots wives. I hope my blog isn't too depressing (sorry!). I feel like before the furlough I didn't have the perspective I have now. I was coasting along seemingly unaware that the bottom could drop out from under us. I wished I'd prepared myself for it better.
I just want to capture the emotions that both pilot and spouse go through during furlough. The lows, the stress, the ups and downs of good news and bad, etc...
I found this site today... It's written by a furloughed corporate pilot who has been furloughed about the same amount of time as Greg. Interesting.
I know most of my followers are other pilots wives. I hope my blog isn't too depressing (sorry!). I feel like before the furlough I didn't have the perspective I have now. I was coasting along seemingly unaware that the bottom could drop out from under us. I wished I'd prepared myself for it better.
I just want to capture the emotions that both pilot and spouse go through during furlough. The lows, the stress, the ups and downs of good news and bad, etc...
Monday, December 14, 2009
How Greg and I met
I actually met Greg online on Yahoo Chat, almost exactly 8 years ago. We met about a week or so before Christmas. Back then Match.com wasn't really big yet and I was into going into the chat rooms on Yahoo and just talking to people online when I had downtime. Occasionally I dated people I met online. I usually went to the Police and Fire chat rooms but sometimes I did the local DC ones as well. Here's my take on online dating since I get asked about it a lot when people find out I met Greg online. I say follow your instincts and definitely rule out anyone that throws you red flags immediately (ie- they bring up anything sexual, inappropriate, etc...). I think it's different to date online now because most people use Match or EHarmony instead of chat rooms. I advise getting to know someone a little bit but at the same time not investing tons and tons of time only getting to know them online before meeting in person. One thing I learned in the online dating process was that as much as you may think someone you meet online is perfect for you, CHEMISTRY is something that doesn't translate that well online. A couple of times I got very wrapped up in chatting with someone online and waited weeks before meeting them in person only to discover I had zero chemistry with them when meeting in person. I was surprised that it's that instant a thing, but I think it kind of is. You just know one way or another if you are into someone or not right away. Greg and I chatted online twice before we met in person. The first time I believe he was in Detroit on an overnight with ACA and I was on a night shift schedule, and we met in a DC chat room. The conversation was nothing earth shattering, I just got the impression he was a normal guy, which is what I was looking for. After chatting twice he suggested meeting in person. I was fine with it. I was a cop at the time, so I figured if he gave me any trouble I'd just pull out my gun (LOL). We met in a mall near where I lived in Arlington, VA. I got there first and sat on a bench and when he walked up I just smiled and giggled a lot because I instantly knew I liked him. We walked to a Mongolian BBQ restaurant for dinner and then walked to a bar called Carpool to continue talking. The conversation was easy and we kept discovering more and more things we had in common and would say "oh, we'll have to do that together sometime!" It was really nice. A couple days later we went on our second date which consisted of lunch at this french bakery and Christmas shopping at Tyson's Corner. At the end of our date Greg walked me to my car and wanted to kiss me so our first kiss was on one of those parking lot islands at the mall (again setting the stage for a future filled with pseudo-romantic moments). Our third date was actually on Christmas day. I was working at the college where I was a cop and Greg came there and had lunch with me on my lunch break at the police station. I later met him at his house to hang out when I finished work that night. The rest is pretty much history. I like that we fell in love during the holidays though. It was fun :)
Time to play catch up. Thursday night was my office Christmas party. This year we had it at a club/restaurant in the Epicenter of Charlotte called Mez. They put us in this loft area of the club with lots of couches and it had a real loungy feel to it. Past years we've done the hotel "wedding reception" type Christmas party and one at a bar that was really casual. This one was sort of in between. They had a food buffet with sliders, a couple different kinds of pasta, and pita with dips. I mainly hung with my usual crew, but got up to mingle a little bit with some people I don't see that often, as I don't work in the same location with them. At one point a couple guys asked me how I met my husband. I forget how that even came up. It reminds me that I should tell the story, so my next entry will be how Greg and I met.
Friday we had our annual all employee conference at work. Basically a lot of different programs give a presentation about their program to everyone (like 100-200 people). I haven't ever had to do one in the time I've been in Charlotte, but this year I did. I was with a co-worker and he offered to do most of the talking. I am a pretty outgoing person, but I kind of have a fear of public speaking to large crowds. I was definitely nervous. We got up on stage and for about the first ten minutes I really just stood there and nodded my head if he needed me to confirm something. Finally I started to relax and eventually spoke up and interjected with important points. It actually went pretty well.
The weekend with my family was great. Saturday we all got ready and went to Paper Skyscraper (the fun little store with all the eclectic things I mentioned in my previous post). We had a good time poking around in there. One highlight was a book called "Stuff White People Like", which has funny stuff like "eating outside" and "The Toyota Prius". We all were cracking up at that. I also like the booke "Breaking Bad News with Baby Animals", which is a book of pictures of cute little animals and each one says something on it like "I'm a registered sex-offender" or "You're adopted", etc... Good stuff! We went to Macs Speedshop for BBQ and had a yummy lunch. After lunch we did do the Old Dominion Brewery as planned. It's a weird little place. They don't have food there other than bowls of pretzels on the tables. We tried the beer and did the "tour" which consisted of standing in the room where the tanks are while the guide told us about the beer making process. I'd say we were there less than an hour total. The beer is good, but I think the place has a ways to go in terms of development. Adding a restaurant would definitely be a good idea.
For dinner we went to this restaurant called Roosters in South Park. Greg's been wanting to go there ever since he picked up a menu from their brochure kiosk at the hotel. It was very good. The place has a neat modern but rustic ambiance. My mom and I split scallops and sweet potato gnocchi with a hazelnut sauce (OMG SO GOOD!). Greg had some mushroom pasta that was also yummy, and my dad of course had steak. We also had some scalloped potatoes and grilled brussel sprouts. The portions were kind of small, but we had enough food and it was pretty delish. The only part that wasn't fantastic was the salad I had before dinner, but my mom had a different salad and hers was great.
Sunday morning was "Christmas morning" for us. Everyone seemed to like what they got. I got a new brown Coach bag from my parents, a whole lot of stocking stuffers (kitchen utensils, lotion, candy, etc), a pair of boots, and a North Face jacket from my brother. I realized that the jacket is not what I expected, but it's my fault as I gave him the exact specifications and he just ordered what I had told him. I was wanting one of those ones that have the outside "skin" that looks like seal skin or a wetsuit. I ended up getting a fleece one. I think I'm going to try and exchange it for the one I had in mind as I have a few fleece jackets already.
Most years when we all get together we do a big traditional type Christmas meal with either turkey or filet of beef or something like that. This year we decided to keep it casual and do homemade pizzas for our Christmas dinner. We got a bunch of pizza dough and everyone made their own pizza. Mine was white pizza with artichoke hearts, roasted red pepper, mushrooms, and mozzarella. YUM!
My parents left in the afternoon and Greg and I drove Mark and Ashley to the airport for their flight back. I love my family :)
Wednesday, December 9, 2009
Things to do in Charlotte
My side of the family is coming this weekend for our annual early Christmas fun. We have become accustomed to celebrating at off times, as we all have much going on with with our spouses, vacations days, and the pain of trying to fly during the holidays, it's often easier to just pick an alternate weekend and celebrate then. I've lived in Charlotte, NC a little over 3 years now. I've discovered it's not the easiest place in the world to entertain people. Before moving to Charlotte I lived in Northern Virginia right outside our nation's capital for 6 years. I can honestly say THAT is the easiest place in the world to entertain people. There is nothing that area doesn't have to offer. Giant shopping malls with every store imaginable, indoor, outdoor, outlet- take your pick. A plethora of cute little historic areas complete with cobble-stoned streets and artsy little shops, restaurants, and sites to see (Georgetown, Old Town Alexandria, Leesburg). Every type of museum imaginable. Monuments. Sporting events. Hiking trails. Bike trails. Harbors. Amusements parks. The list goes on and on. Even if the same friends or family members visited like 15 times we could pick a different area every time and never get through it all. It was a playground for guests and for residents. It's something I definitely miss about living up there. Also, people WANTED to come visit us there. And it was EASY to travel to, because with three major airports in the area, there was bound to be a relatively cheap flight into at least one of them.
Charlotte has been a lot more of a challenge for us in this respect. I repeatedly beat my head against the computer each time I have someone coming to visit and I'm trying to figure out what the heck I'm going to do with them. Charlotte is a beautiful, clean, modern city. But it takes all of 20 minutes to walk the downtown area, and there is NO shopping in downtown Charlotte at all. It's a very business oriented city and much more busy during the week than on a weekend. The first time I brought my brother downtown it was a weekend and he was like "WTF??". I made sure to take him down on a weekday the next time so that I could prove the city was more than a ghost town of gray sky scrapers. Pretty much the only option is picking a place to eat and walking around for a bit, and that covers downtown.
We boast a fancy mall called South Park, but if you live in an area with decent shopping, this doesn't really impress anyone. The outdoor mall is Birkdale Village. Also a decent place to shop, but nothing to write home about if you have ever been anywhere with decent shopping.
Here's some ideas I've come up with for things to do with out of town guests. As you'll see, the major problem is that most of them are outdoor activities, and seeing as it's December and getting relatively chilly, a lot of this stuff can only be done at time of the year when the climate is better than it is now.
1. By far the best find has been an off-road Segway tour of Latta Plantation. It's $35 for 3-4 hours of outdoor exploration on a Segway scooter. Pure Awesome!
2. The US National Whitewater Center. I've actually yet to even DO any real activities there. But, there's a restaurant, and outdoor seating, and it's worth going just to sit outside and eat and watch all the people do the rafting, zip-lining, and climbing.
3. Childress Winery. It's about an hour from Charlotte, but we took our friends from Indy there when they visited in the spring, and we had a great time doing the wine tour, eating some food, and checking out the place. It's a beautiful facility and it's owned by a Nascar driver, so you feel like you're doing justice to that factor of NC as well.
4. NoDa Gallery Crawl. The biggest problem with this is that it's only on certain Friday nights. Unlikely that you'll get lucky and have all the stars align to let you partake in this with guests from out of town, especially if it's just a weekend trip. It's a lot of fun though to go and eat somewhere over there then wander around the galleries and duck into the music venues. I really enjoyed it.
5. Paper Skyscraper. It's a store on East Boulevard and it's one of those stores that has a gazillion fun things to look at. Books, magnets, political humor, kitchen stuff, bath stuff, sexual stuff, funny napkins, cards, decor. It's just a great store to take people to and wander around in for an hour.
6. The Daniel Stowe Botanical Gardens. Again, an outdoor activity for a warmer time of year. It's cool to see though and a great photography opportunity. I also especially like the new Orchid Conservatory.
7. Concerts/sporting events. If you are lucky, there might be one happening on the weekend you have visitors coming. If anything decent is in town, I recommend this option. I've done a Bobcats/Celtics game, Fleetwood Mac, etc... Unfortunately the ONLY thing in town this weekend is The Nutcracker, which would thrill my mom and I to go see, but I'm thinking the boys would be snoring about 10 minutes in, so that wasn't an option. All the sports teams are away. Bummer.
8. Restaurants. My family and friends pretty much plan our schedules around eating anyway. The one thing I'll give Charlotte is that it does have a lot of good restaurants. Probably because Johnson and Wales is here. Find some good ones and eat!
That's about it... My idea for this weekend is to take my fam to the Old Mecklenburg Brewery. I saw on their website that they have brewery tours on Saturdays, so I'm thinking we have lunch and then do that. I have no idea if it'll be cool or not, but I'll definitely report back. I think much of the weekend will be spent hanging around at my house, which is fine with me. I do kinda wish we had a few more exciting options though!
Charlotte has been a lot more of a challenge for us in this respect. I repeatedly beat my head against the computer each time I have someone coming to visit and I'm trying to figure out what the heck I'm going to do with them. Charlotte is a beautiful, clean, modern city. But it takes all of 20 minutes to walk the downtown area, and there is NO shopping in downtown Charlotte at all. It's a very business oriented city and much more busy during the week than on a weekend. The first time I brought my brother downtown it was a weekend and he was like "WTF??". I made sure to take him down on a weekday the next time so that I could prove the city was more than a ghost town of gray sky scrapers. Pretty much the only option is picking a place to eat and walking around for a bit, and that covers downtown.
We boast a fancy mall called South Park, but if you live in an area with decent shopping, this doesn't really impress anyone. The outdoor mall is Birkdale Village. Also a decent place to shop, but nothing to write home about if you have ever been anywhere with decent shopping.
Here's some ideas I've come up with for things to do with out of town guests. As you'll see, the major problem is that most of them are outdoor activities, and seeing as it's December and getting relatively chilly, a lot of this stuff can only be done at time of the year when the climate is better than it is now.
1. By far the best find has been an off-road Segway tour of Latta Plantation. It's $35 for 3-4 hours of outdoor exploration on a Segway scooter. Pure Awesome!
2. The US National Whitewater Center. I've actually yet to even DO any real activities there. But, there's a restaurant, and outdoor seating, and it's worth going just to sit outside and eat and watch all the people do the rafting, zip-lining, and climbing.
3. Childress Winery. It's about an hour from Charlotte, but we took our friends from Indy there when they visited in the spring, and we had a great time doing the wine tour, eating some food, and checking out the place. It's a beautiful facility and it's owned by a Nascar driver, so you feel like you're doing justice to that factor of NC as well.
4. NoDa Gallery Crawl. The biggest problem with this is that it's only on certain Friday nights. Unlikely that you'll get lucky and have all the stars align to let you partake in this with guests from out of town, especially if it's just a weekend trip. It's a lot of fun though to go and eat somewhere over there then wander around the galleries and duck into the music venues. I really enjoyed it.
5. Paper Skyscraper. It's a store on East Boulevard and it's one of those stores that has a gazillion fun things to look at. Books, magnets, political humor, kitchen stuff, bath stuff, sexual stuff, funny napkins, cards, decor. It's just a great store to take people to and wander around in for an hour.
6. The Daniel Stowe Botanical Gardens. Again, an outdoor activity for a warmer time of year. It's cool to see though and a great photography opportunity. I also especially like the new Orchid Conservatory.
7. Concerts/sporting events. If you are lucky, there might be one happening on the weekend you have visitors coming. If anything decent is in town, I recommend this option. I've done a Bobcats/Celtics game, Fleetwood Mac, etc... Unfortunately the ONLY thing in town this weekend is The Nutcracker, which would thrill my mom and I to go see, but I'm thinking the boys would be snoring about 10 minutes in, so that wasn't an option. All the sports teams are away. Bummer.
8. Restaurants. My family and friends pretty much plan our schedules around eating anyway. The one thing I'll give Charlotte is that it does have a lot of good restaurants. Probably because Johnson and Wales is here. Find some good ones and eat!
That's about it... My idea for this weekend is to take my fam to the Old Mecklenburg Brewery. I saw on their website that they have brewery tours on Saturdays, so I'm thinking we have lunch and then do that. I have no idea if it'll be cool or not, but I'll definitely report back. I think much of the weekend will be spent hanging around at my house, which is fine with me. I do kinda wish we had a few more exciting options though!
Monday, December 7, 2009
Update on Saturday's news
Greg confirmed that the rumor he heard is true. Continental is selling the planes to the Russian company. He pulled up a website that shows plane transactions and it shows that the sale has already occurred. Some planes are probably still in the fleet but they will be headed to Russia eventually. Greg showed me the Continental projected business plan for 2010, which came out in October, and it shows those 31 planes on it, plus getting 9 new planes. This is a big deal because 31 planes translates to about 200 pilots to operate. Not only does it look like Greg won't be recalled, but they may furlough more pilots. It makes me really mad that they didn't inform the pilots of this. We are holding out tremendous amounts of hope that Greg will be called back and they are sitting on information that we need in order to figure out how to proceed with our lives. Greg knew that Continental was looking to sell the planes to this Russian company a while back but the financing had fallen through, so he had thought Continental had reconsidered and wasn't expecting the deal to be revisited.
It's just frustrating. Yet another blow. I just wish Greg could get some good news. He's such a great pilot. It's a tradgedy that he's not able to do what he loves and excels at.
It's just frustrating. Yet another blow. I just wish Greg could get some good news. He's such a great pilot. It's a tradgedy that he's not able to do what he loves and excels at.
Saturday, December 5, 2009
Greg is all freaked out and depressed again. I admit that I have also gotten somewhat hooked on airline (well, the pilot wives ones) forums, but I think you have to take everytyhing you read on there as information that may not necessarily be factual. Anyone can post an opinion or rumor and you don't know if it's true. Greg seems to latch on to any piece of really good or really bad news, which I think is a mistake. This morning he discovered a posting that said something about Continental possibly selling thirty-one 737-500s to some Russian airline. Apparently this was a possibility a while back but then the company couldn't get financing and now they might have gotten the financing and be back trying to make the deal with Continental happen again. This completely freaked Greg out because he's been going by the Continental business plan that came out in October that showed them not only keeping all the planes in question, but also getting an additional 9 planes next year. If they did in fact lose 30+ planes it would obviously reduce the chances of his getting called back and probably mean additional furloughs if anything. This immediately sent Greg into a terrible down-spin. I hate that. I mean, in my opinion there's just as much possibility of the merger with United happening or the company suddenly deciding to get rid of more planes for some reason other than the Russians wanting them, so the possibility of him never getting called back is always there and he should always know this is a possibility.
It also happened right before we were leaving for Gibson's for a brunch he hosted this morning. I could tell Greg was about to severely melt down on the way in the car. I put on the cheeriest Christmas music I could and sang along like a dork to try and cheer him up. I think brunch helped. Usually when he's in a dumpy mood he wants to stay home and curl up in bed and wallow. Which I understand. But I don't think that's always the best thing. I think sometimes it helps to have something going on to take your mind off things, so brunch was good for that.
In addition to that he was going over our finances the other day and said that we are in fact losing money each month, which is not a huge surprise to me since he's working pretty much a minimum wage job. I feel like I've done a lot to try and cut back on my personal spending. I usually bring lunch to work and I don't let myself go near Ann Taylor or Banana Republic, even though I'm mostly wearing older clothes. I buy the groceries but I carefully pick out what I know we need and will eat and don't go nuts on extras. I am mainly guilty of social spending- dinner and nights out with friends on occasion. I will do even more if I can to curb that though. It's difficult because sometimes being social means spending some money, and I feel like I need my social time to keep myself sane with all that is going on.
I again to not know how to help with our situation. I again told him I think he needs to figure out what he wants to do for a career if he doesn't go back to flying. I think it's crazy for him to let the online airline forums dictate his outlook on his aviation career. I've been saying since day one of his furlough that he should plan as if he's not going back and if he gets to go back that's great.
Sorry to my readers if all of this sounds repetitive. I know I sound like a broken record, but this seems to be my place for venting and sorting through my thoughts.
Despite all this, I feel ok. I'm even in a relatively festive mood. I'm going to go wrap some Christmas presents and might even start making some Christmas cookie dough. I think that will be a good mood booster.
It also happened right before we were leaving for Gibson's for a brunch he hosted this morning. I could tell Greg was about to severely melt down on the way in the car. I put on the cheeriest Christmas music I could and sang along like a dork to try and cheer him up. I think brunch helped. Usually when he's in a dumpy mood he wants to stay home and curl up in bed and wallow. Which I understand. But I don't think that's always the best thing. I think sometimes it helps to have something going on to take your mind off things, so brunch was good for that.
In addition to that he was going over our finances the other day and said that we are in fact losing money each month, which is not a huge surprise to me since he's working pretty much a minimum wage job. I feel like I've done a lot to try and cut back on my personal spending. I usually bring lunch to work and I don't let myself go near Ann Taylor or Banana Republic, even though I'm mostly wearing older clothes. I buy the groceries but I carefully pick out what I know we need and will eat and don't go nuts on extras. I am mainly guilty of social spending- dinner and nights out with friends on occasion. I will do even more if I can to curb that though. It's difficult because sometimes being social means spending some money, and I feel like I need my social time to keep myself sane with all that is going on.
I again to not know how to help with our situation. I again told him I think he needs to figure out what he wants to do for a career if he doesn't go back to flying. I think it's crazy for him to let the online airline forums dictate his outlook on his aviation career. I've been saying since day one of his furlough that he should plan as if he's not going back and if he gets to go back that's great.
Sorry to my readers if all of this sounds repetitive. I know I sound like a broken record, but this seems to be my place for venting and sorting through my thoughts.
Despite all this, I feel ok. I'm even in a relatively festive mood. I'm going to go wrap some Christmas presents and might even start making some Christmas cookie dough. I think that will be a good mood booster.
Friday, December 4, 2009
Wicked Cool
The week has actually gone by pretty fast. A bunch of times yesterday I was thinking it was Wednesday when it was actually Thursday. It's always a good thing when it's later in the work week than you think it is!
I convinced Sarah to come to running group with me last night and figured we could stay together (in the dark) and do it at our own pace. It was a good run, I'm glad I went. I'm still feeling like I need to work off some of the crap I ate Thanksgiving weekend so any time I can get my butt in gear and work out that's good. After the run we gathered to have our beer we got to talking to a couple guys in the running group and I heard one say "University of New Hampshire". I immediately jumped in and asked if he went there and he did! He grew up in Peterborough and was at UNH til 1998, so we were actually there at the same time for about 2 years. Pretty funny! We talked a bunch about UNH specific things like the Greek life, dorms, UNH hockey games and how every time we hear the song "Black Betty" we picture the giant bass being thrown on the ice (that's what UNH does after they score their first goal at every game). He asked me if I still say "wicked" and I confirmed that I do, and had in fact used it several times during the day yesterday. It's an adjective used to amp up another adjective. For example you can say something is "cool", or you can say it is "wicked cool" and it is that much cooler. He said his sister also uses the term "wicked wicked". That was a new use to me, but I may have to incorporate that into my vocab. As if I need anymore crap for using the term wicked. It was a fun nostalgic talk. I love New Hampshire people. They're hard to find down here!
Greg's been working evening shift all week with no evenings off this week. It's been hard for us to see each other and communicate much. If I call him from work in the morning he's usually still sleeping because he sleeps very very late. I warned him about the possibility of this happening because I worked evening shift when I was in police work and know how the schedule ends up taking over. It's a great shift in terms of sleep because you can go to bed late and sleep late, which is perfect for Greg because that's his preferred sleep schedule anyway. But I think it's very difficult to get anything done when you're on that shift, because you tend to come home late still kinda wired and stay up really late til you wind down, then you sleep very late the next day, thus creating a pattern of nothing much but work and sleep and really accomplishing almost nothing else. I can see that this has already happened to Greg. The honey-do lists sit untouched...lol. So anyway, I can't call him in the morning because he's still sleeping but if I wait to call him early in the afternoon he usually seems like he's already flustered and getting ready for work and doesn't have much time to talk. He can't use his phone while he's working unless he's on a break, so the only time I really talk to him is when he calls me during his break at work, but we usually can't talk that long then either. I'm already asleep when he gets home and he's still sleeping when I go to work. We give each other hugs and kisses hello and goodbye, but that's about it for interaction. Last night after running I decided to stop in at the hotel on my way home from work and say hi. He was down the street at McDonalds making a snack run for some of the desk people and brought me a hot fudge sundae. We sat in my car and talked and ate the sundae. It was nice to have a little time with him squeezed in. I will have Saturday and Sunday morning with him and then he's got a couple week nights off next week. I look forward to that time with him.
Tonight I'm going Christmas shopping with a couple friends and to dinner.
I convinced Sarah to come to running group with me last night and figured we could stay together (in the dark) and do it at our own pace. It was a good run, I'm glad I went. I'm still feeling like I need to work off some of the crap I ate Thanksgiving weekend so any time I can get my butt in gear and work out that's good. After the run we gathered to have our beer we got to talking to a couple guys in the running group and I heard one say "University of New Hampshire". I immediately jumped in and asked if he went there and he did! He grew up in Peterborough and was at UNH til 1998, so we were actually there at the same time for about 2 years. Pretty funny! We talked a bunch about UNH specific things like the Greek life, dorms, UNH hockey games and how every time we hear the song "Black Betty" we picture the giant bass being thrown on the ice (that's what UNH does after they score their first goal at every game). He asked me if I still say "wicked" and I confirmed that I do, and had in fact used it several times during the day yesterday. It's an adjective used to amp up another adjective. For example you can say something is "cool", or you can say it is "wicked cool" and it is that much cooler. He said his sister also uses the term "wicked wicked". That was a new use to me, but I may have to incorporate that into my vocab. As if I need anymore crap for using the term wicked. It was a fun nostalgic talk. I love New Hampshire people. They're hard to find down here!
Greg's been working evening shift all week with no evenings off this week. It's been hard for us to see each other and communicate much. If I call him from work in the morning he's usually still sleeping because he sleeps very very late. I warned him about the possibility of this happening because I worked evening shift when I was in police work and know how the schedule ends up taking over. It's a great shift in terms of sleep because you can go to bed late and sleep late, which is perfect for Greg because that's his preferred sleep schedule anyway. But I think it's very difficult to get anything done when you're on that shift, because you tend to come home late still kinda wired and stay up really late til you wind down, then you sleep very late the next day, thus creating a pattern of nothing much but work and sleep and really accomplishing almost nothing else. I can see that this has already happened to Greg. The honey-do lists sit untouched...lol. So anyway, I can't call him in the morning because he's still sleeping but if I wait to call him early in the afternoon he usually seems like he's already flustered and getting ready for work and doesn't have much time to talk. He can't use his phone while he's working unless he's on a break, so the only time I really talk to him is when he calls me during his break at work, but we usually can't talk that long then either. I'm already asleep when he gets home and he's still sleeping when I go to work. We give each other hugs and kisses hello and goodbye, but that's about it for interaction. Last night after running I decided to stop in at the hotel on my way home from work and say hi. He was down the street at McDonalds making a snack run for some of the desk people and brought me a hot fudge sundae. We sat in my car and talked and ate the sundae. It was nice to have a little time with him squeezed in. I will have Saturday and Sunday morning with him and then he's got a couple week nights off next week. I look forward to that time with him.
Tonight I'm going Christmas shopping with a couple friends and to dinner.
Tuesday, December 1, 2009
The other day Greg and I went for a walk. The conversations on these walks are almost always initiated by Greg sighing loudly and saying how he wished he was flying again. Then he says some variation of "I wish I had a crystal ball so I could see when I'd be called back". He's kind of like a broken record. We still have no indication of when or if Continental will call the furloughed pilots back. Right now it's even looking like a merger with United could happen at some point, which is scary. The outgoing Continental CEO was against the merger (Greg really liked the guy), but the new one actually has a legal background in mergers and acquisitions, so it's looking like he might want to help the whole deal along. If a merger with United happens, I don't know if Greg will ever fly for the company again. United has tons of pilots furloughed- all the way back to guys that started at the company in 1998. So if they merge seniority or give United the upper hand (which they always seem to get), than Greg would be so far down on the totem pole under their furloughed guys it would be hopeless for him to get to fly with them again.
My main worry is still having kids. Greg's 37 and will be 38 in a couple months. At this point it's looking like the soonest we'll have our first kid will be when he's 40, so he's going to be even older when/if we have a second kid. I also still have no idea whether we'll have trouble getting pregnant or not either, so it makes me really nervous to keep putting the whole process off. My instincts are telling me that it would be a good idea to do this soon if possible. I just don't want to wait forever to start a family. It'd be nice to have kids when we're relatively young and less complications can arise. I feel like we're ready in all other aspects other than Greg's job situation.
I told Greg again that he probably needs to really start planning on an alternate career. He agreed (I don't know if he'll actually DO anything about it). I've said it before and I'll say it again, but I figure he should start planning as if he's not getting called back or getting hired to fly again, and if he does get called back- great, but if he doesn't have the opportunity to fly again he's got a real shot at an alternate career. These jobs he's been doing this past year are just to hold him over til he gets to fly again (truck driving, van driving), and I think he's making a mistake to not really pursue an actual career type job because we don't know what kind of time line we're dealing with, and the longer he continues to do a job like he's got at the hotel, that's just more time taken away from time he could be accumulating in a career type job. I know initially he tried to find some jobs like that, but after a while of it not materializing he resigned to just applying for pretty lowly jobs. I feel like now the job markets is slightly better and he should try again to find a job that would allow him to apply his smarts. I do want to say though, that I am really proud of him for doing what he had to do for us and not being one of those guys that said "No, I won't do anything else but fly" or "I won't do _______ (fill in the blank) because my standards are too high". I also think people with that attitude are making a huge mistake. The reality is that the job market does suck and flying jobs or any sort of jobs are hard to find. Greg tells me that there are still some furloughed guys who haven't found jobs and are in dire straights because of it. And a lot of them have kids/families to support. I feel like if Greg found work- even if it's not ideal work, than they can too. They're just not going outside the box. While I want Greg to continue to look for better jobs, I am glad he's doing SOMETHING right now, even if it's on the lower end of what he's capable of and what pays well. These dudes need to wake up and realize that ANY job is better than no job and they should do something to bring in money.
Last night he called to tell me that his boss told him that they decided not to train him to work the front desk at the hotel. Initially when he started he was kind of excited at the prospect of driving the van and getting tips, but also at the prospect of working at the front desk when he has down time, which he has a lot of. Some nights he only has two runs to the airport, so that's like 7 hours worth of time he has nothing to do. He would like to contribute, especially since the front desk is often really busy. We don't know the reason that his boss opted not to let him work the desk. It may be because other desk clerks don't want him there, it might be because the other van drivers don't want to, we don't know why. It was a blow to Greg's ego though, because he's got a business degree and can fly friggin airplanes, but the hotel people don't want him applying any extra brain power other than driving the van. He was also sort of hoping they would see he was smart, capable, and responsible and working the desk might also lead to a management opportunity or promotion of some sort. I told Greg this is why he needs to be looking for a job that is not minimum wage and entry level. Hopefully this kind of wakes him up to that reality and prompts him to keep applying for other things while he does this in the mean time.
My main worry is still having kids. Greg's 37 and will be 38 in a couple months. At this point it's looking like the soonest we'll have our first kid will be when he's 40, so he's going to be even older when/if we have a second kid. I also still have no idea whether we'll have trouble getting pregnant or not either, so it makes me really nervous to keep putting the whole process off. My instincts are telling me that it would be a good idea to do this soon if possible. I just don't want to wait forever to start a family. It'd be nice to have kids when we're relatively young and less complications can arise. I feel like we're ready in all other aspects other than Greg's job situation.
I told Greg again that he probably needs to really start planning on an alternate career. He agreed (I don't know if he'll actually DO anything about it). I've said it before and I'll say it again, but I figure he should start planning as if he's not getting called back or getting hired to fly again, and if he does get called back- great, but if he doesn't have the opportunity to fly again he's got a real shot at an alternate career. These jobs he's been doing this past year are just to hold him over til he gets to fly again (truck driving, van driving), and I think he's making a mistake to not really pursue an actual career type job because we don't know what kind of time line we're dealing with, and the longer he continues to do a job like he's got at the hotel, that's just more time taken away from time he could be accumulating in a career type job. I know initially he tried to find some jobs like that, but after a while of it not materializing he resigned to just applying for pretty lowly jobs. I feel like now the job markets is slightly better and he should try again to find a job that would allow him to apply his smarts. I do want to say though, that I am really proud of him for doing what he had to do for us and not being one of those guys that said "No, I won't do anything else but fly" or "I won't do _______ (fill in the blank) because my standards are too high". I also think people with that attitude are making a huge mistake. The reality is that the job market does suck and flying jobs or any sort of jobs are hard to find. Greg tells me that there are still some furloughed guys who haven't found jobs and are in dire straights because of it. And a lot of them have kids/families to support. I feel like if Greg found work- even if it's not ideal work, than they can too. They're just not going outside the box. While I want Greg to continue to look for better jobs, I am glad he's doing SOMETHING right now, even if it's on the lower end of what he's capable of and what pays well. These dudes need to wake up and realize that ANY job is better than no job and they should do something to bring in money.
Last night he called to tell me that his boss told him that they decided not to train him to work the front desk at the hotel. Initially when he started he was kind of excited at the prospect of driving the van and getting tips, but also at the prospect of working at the front desk when he has down time, which he has a lot of. Some nights he only has two runs to the airport, so that's like 7 hours worth of time he has nothing to do. He would like to contribute, especially since the front desk is often really busy. We don't know the reason that his boss opted not to let him work the desk. It may be because other desk clerks don't want him there, it might be because the other van drivers don't want to, we don't know why. It was a blow to Greg's ego though, because he's got a business degree and can fly friggin airplanes, but the hotel people don't want him applying any extra brain power other than driving the van. He was also sort of hoping they would see he was smart, capable, and responsible and working the desk might also lead to a management opportunity or promotion of some sort. I told Greg this is why he needs to be looking for a job that is not minimum wage and entry level. Hopefully this kind of wakes him up to that reality and prompts him to keep applying for other things while he does this in the mean time.
Monday, November 30, 2009
Getting Christmasy
Yesterday Greg and I decorated for Christmas. It's probably the earliest we've ever done it. It was about 70 degrees out and sunny so we figured that the weather wouldn't get any better for putting up Christmas lights than that and we might as well take advantage of it. Last year we switched out our old icicle lights for LEDs and the new ones have more of a bright white/blueish hue. They are very bright and we both crack up at the fact that when you pass by the front door it looks like it's "daylight" outside. Anyway, Greg got them hung while I helped by holding the ladder. He also cleaned out the front gutters while up there.
Later, Greg brought up all the inside Christmas stuff and we went ahead and put up our tree. We have a fake tree. Growing up in NH we always had a real tree. I love the smell of the pine and still miss that, but it's cheaper and a hell of a lot easier to just do the fake tree. I have a pine scented candle that I sometimes put over near the tree for that piney smell.
I am a complete ornament hound. I LOVE Christmas ornaments. My mom started giving me new ornaments every year from the time I was little and when I left home I got to take my set. It's steadily grown to the point that it's pretty out of control and I can easily decorate the entire tree, including the back without much free space. I like to put all my favorites near the top. My absolute favorite is this miniature wooden violin. I also like this red ceramic boot with a Christmas tree coming out of it that I got when I was in Boston with my parents at Christmas time one year. Greg has like 10 plane/pilot Christmas ornaments that my mom and I have gotten him over the years. We also have a "first year married" one from 2006 when we got married. We have the four South Park kids. We have two from the neighborhood we lived in our first two Christmas's together. We have a Starbucks cup and a red wine bottle. We have a bunch from different places we've been: a margarita from Wilmington, NC, a shell from Hilton Head, and a Chatham, Ma bandstand ornament. My tree doesn't really have a theme. I would say it's mostly red/green/silver, but there's tons of eclectic stuff on it. Greg tells me every year that I'm cut off, but I can't help but still want to keep getting a few new ones every year. While decorating the tree we watched "Christmas Vacation" and drank cocoa. It was quite festive.
Later, Greg brought up all the inside Christmas stuff and we went ahead and put up our tree. We have a fake tree. Growing up in NH we always had a real tree. I love the smell of the pine and still miss that, but it's cheaper and a hell of a lot easier to just do the fake tree. I have a pine scented candle that I sometimes put over near the tree for that piney smell.
I am a complete ornament hound. I LOVE Christmas ornaments. My mom started giving me new ornaments every year from the time I was little and when I left home I got to take my set. It's steadily grown to the point that it's pretty out of control and I can easily decorate the entire tree, including the back without much free space. I like to put all my favorites near the top. My absolute favorite is this miniature wooden violin. I also like this red ceramic boot with a Christmas tree coming out of it that I got when I was in Boston with my parents at Christmas time one year. Greg has like 10 plane/pilot Christmas ornaments that my mom and I have gotten him over the years. We also have a "first year married" one from 2006 when we got married. We have the four South Park kids. We have two from the neighborhood we lived in our first two Christmas's together. We have a Starbucks cup and a red wine bottle. We have a bunch from different places we've been: a margarita from Wilmington, NC, a shell from Hilton Head, and a Chatham, Ma bandstand ornament. My tree doesn't really have a theme. I would say it's mostly red/green/silver, but there's tons of eclectic stuff on it. Greg tells me every year that I'm cut off, but I can't help but still want to keep getting a few new ones every year. While decorating the tree we watched "Christmas Vacation" and drank cocoa. It was quite festive.
Sunday, November 29, 2009
Gobble Gobble
Thanksgiving was great. My parents arrived by lunchtime on Thanksgiving day. I made a pot of chili for us to eat for lunch since we weren't having the big meal until dinner time since Greg had work til 3pm. Mom and I made all the staples: turkey, stuffing, sweet potato, mashed potato, and gravy.
We also made my grandma's mac and cheese. It's a family tradition. The recipe is as follows:
1 box of spagetti noodles (cook as directed on package)
1 block of sharp white cheddar, shredded (it has to be sharp white- yellow won't taste or melt the same)
salt and pepper
1/3 to 1/2 cup of milk (eye ball it)
Butter a large round casserole dish.
Layer spagetti noodles, cheese, and salt and pepper.
End with final layer of cheese and then pour the milk over the top. Bake at about 350 degrees for about 40 minutes or so. You want the top to be bubbly/browned and a little crunchy.
We also had apple pie and pumpkin pie.
My parents brought me a few things, including this game called Apples to Apples. After dinner we decided to play and it was so fun and funny that we played til we were falling asleep. Basically the concept is that you have a "hand" of cards that are all nouns. There is a card in the middle that is an adjective. You have put down a card from your hand that best matches with the adjective. Sometimes you have NOTHING that matches well at all, but you just have to wing it. Then each person takes turns being "the judge" and they decide which card that was put down goes with the adjective card best. Very fun. I think we'll have to have a game night at some point and have everyone over to play.
Friday morning my mom and I had a plan of going to Radio Shack for a set of cordless phones Greg and I had seen in their flyer. We've been having problems with our current set holding a charge and it seems we are due for new batteries. We found out that new batteries for 4 cordless phones cost as much as buying new ones though, so we decided we'd go ahead and just buy new phones. Plus we had 2 $10 off coupons and the plan was to use those as well. We got to Radio Shack and they told us we couldn't use the coupons with the deal (even though another sales person had told us we could a couple days ago). They also were out of the phones we wanted. So that mission was a bust. The only consilation was that we headed down the street to Dunkin Donuts and got some donuts.
Once we were ready for the day we went to DSW. There's a bunch of stores we have in Charlotte that my parents don't have near them in Hilton Head, and one is DSW, which is a favorite of my mom's. I got some cute black shoes for work. I'm short, and most of my pants are a little on the long side on me, but fit great with a pair of heels, so I usually wear heels. Plus I think it's a more flattering line. Anyway, the pair of black heels I usually wear for work have been bothering me. I think it's causing some damage to my right foot especially. Therefore I was psyched to find a pair that seems comfortable and hopefully will be better for my feet. After DSW we went downtown in Charlotte and went to Nix for lunch. It's this great burger place and I wanted to show my dad, because he LOVES a good burger. This place has the best burgers I've had in Charlotte. My favorite burgers anywhere are at this place called The Tombs in Georgetown (DC).
After lunch Greg went to work at the hotel. We then went to Total Wine so my parents could load up on wine. We had a quiet afternoon/evening in. Went for a walk around the neighborhood and got a pizza for dinner.
Yesterday we did a Costco run with my parents. They have a Sam's Club membership (there's no Costco near them) and wanted to check out our Costco. I got a cute brown shirt, some crazy cheap Calvin Klein sheets, and a bunch of other odds and ends. We did a lunch of leftovers and then my parents headed back home.
Greg and I met Sarah and Josie at this bar called Brazwell's for drinks last night. Sarah pointed out a guy she thought was cute. I played "Wing Girl" and tugged on the guy's sleeve and said "Hi, this is my friend Sarah". He chatted with us for a bit. I'm determined to help my single friends any way I can!
My lasting impression of this weekend is the amount of food I've consumed: turkey, burgers, mac and cheese, pie, donuts, pizza, chili....Ugh. I think I need a diet!
We also made my grandma's mac and cheese. It's a family tradition. The recipe is as follows:
1 box of spagetti noodles (cook as directed on package)
1 block of sharp white cheddar, shredded (it has to be sharp white- yellow won't taste or melt the same)
salt and pepper
1/3 to 1/2 cup of milk (eye ball it)
Butter a large round casserole dish.
Layer spagetti noodles, cheese, and salt and pepper.
End with final layer of cheese and then pour the milk over the top. Bake at about 350 degrees for about 40 minutes or so. You want the top to be bubbly/browned and a little crunchy.
We also had apple pie and pumpkin pie.
My parents brought me a few things, including this game called Apples to Apples. After dinner we decided to play and it was so fun and funny that we played til we were falling asleep. Basically the concept is that you have a "hand" of cards that are all nouns. There is a card in the middle that is an adjective. You have put down a card from your hand that best matches with the adjective. Sometimes you have NOTHING that matches well at all, but you just have to wing it. Then each person takes turns being "the judge" and they decide which card that was put down goes with the adjective card best. Very fun. I think we'll have to have a game night at some point and have everyone over to play.
Friday morning my mom and I had a plan of going to Radio Shack for a set of cordless phones Greg and I had seen in their flyer. We've been having problems with our current set holding a charge and it seems we are due for new batteries. We found out that new batteries for 4 cordless phones cost as much as buying new ones though, so we decided we'd go ahead and just buy new phones. Plus we had 2 $10 off coupons and the plan was to use those as well. We got to Radio Shack and they told us we couldn't use the coupons with the deal (even though another sales person had told us we could a couple days ago). They also were out of the phones we wanted. So that mission was a bust. The only consilation was that we headed down the street to Dunkin Donuts and got some donuts.
Once we were ready for the day we went to DSW. There's a bunch of stores we have in Charlotte that my parents don't have near them in Hilton Head, and one is DSW, which is a favorite of my mom's. I got some cute black shoes for work. I'm short, and most of my pants are a little on the long side on me, but fit great with a pair of heels, so I usually wear heels. Plus I think it's a more flattering line. Anyway, the pair of black heels I usually wear for work have been bothering me. I think it's causing some damage to my right foot especially. Therefore I was psyched to find a pair that seems comfortable and hopefully will be better for my feet. After DSW we went downtown in Charlotte and went to Nix for lunch. It's this great burger place and I wanted to show my dad, because he LOVES a good burger. This place has the best burgers I've had in Charlotte. My favorite burgers anywhere are at this place called The Tombs in Georgetown (DC).
After lunch Greg went to work at the hotel. We then went to Total Wine so my parents could load up on wine. We had a quiet afternoon/evening in. Went for a walk around the neighborhood and got a pizza for dinner.
Yesterday we did a Costco run with my parents. They have a Sam's Club membership (there's no Costco near them) and wanted to check out our Costco. I got a cute brown shirt, some crazy cheap Calvin Klein sheets, and a bunch of other odds and ends. We did a lunch of leftovers and then my parents headed back home.
Greg and I met Sarah and Josie at this bar called Brazwell's for drinks last night. Sarah pointed out a guy she thought was cute. I played "Wing Girl" and tugged on the guy's sleeve and said "Hi, this is my friend Sarah". He chatted with us for a bit. I'm determined to help my single friends any way I can!
My lasting impression of this weekend is the amount of food I've consumed: turkey, burgers, mac and cheese, pie, donuts, pizza, chili....Ugh. I think I need a diet!
Wednesday, November 25, 2009
Thanksgiving/holiday mood
I'm in a great mood today. We get out of work 2 hours early this afternoon for Thanksgiving, so that is AWESOME!!!
My parents are coming to my house for Thanksgiving tomorrow. I'm taking leave on Friday too, so I can be off to hang out with them (ie go to Total Wine and buy mass quantities of wine). My parents are driving up tomorrow morning and then we're having the dinner at like 6ish I think, since Greg works til 3pm. That gives my mom and I all afternoon to whip up the meal.
The Christmas music flood gates are now open for me. I waited til this week, but now I feel like it's time. Last year I spent a while creating my ultimate Christmas playlist of my favorites. It is as follows:
Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas- James Taylor
Christmas Time is Here- Sarah McLachlan with Diana Krall
Mistletoe- Colbie Caillat
The Christmas Song- Michael Buble
Oh Christmas Tree/Peanuts Christmas- Vince Guaraldi
Little Saint Nick- The Beach Boys
Have a Holly Jolly Christmas- Burl Ives
Hula Hoop- Alvin and the Chipmunks
Chuanaka Song- Adam Sandler
12 Days of Christmas- The Muppets
Last Christmas- Wham
Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas- Sarah McLachlan
All I Want for Christmas is You- Mariah Carey
Wintersong- Sarah McLachlan
I'll Be Home for Christmas- Michael Buble
Dream On- Kelly Sweet (not really a Christmas song, but I first heard it before Christmas last year, and it sounds like a Christmas song the way she sings it, so it made the list. If you haven't heard it, check it out, she has an amazing voice).
Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas- Coldplay
Last Christmas- Taylor Swift
In case you can't tell, my favorite Christmas song is "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas", so I have 3 different versions. I also love the Ernie and Bert version from "Christmas Eve on Sesame Street", a movie my mom and I like to watch at Christmas, cheesy and kid-like, but classic. Only problem is that we only have it on VHS and need to convert it to DVD, so it's been a couple years since we've watched it.
I'm all for not rushing a holiday (I do realize that Halloween and most of November is early to get in the mood for Christmas), but the week of Thanksgiving I start getting into a general Thanksgiving/Christmas/family/holiday type mood, so I think it's appropriate to start listening to the Christmas tunage around this time.
Tonight I'm going to do a run uptown with Gibson after work in preparation of the mass quantities of food I'm going to consume in the next couple days. After that I will go home and clean and prep for this weekend.
Greg and I did a grocery and errand trip last night. We went on a search for batteries for our cordless phones as they will only hold a charge for like 5 minutes lately and it's driving us both nuts. We went to Lowe's first because it's the closest to our house. They didn't have them. Greg is funny, he gets very upset every time we go to Lowe's about the fact that they have no less than 12 Handicapped parking spaces in front of every Lowe's. "How many handicapped people are actually doing home improvement projects??" he laments every time and, "Have you EVER actually seen a handicapped person at Lowe's??" He just doesn't understand the logic. I try to reassure him that it's going to be alright and that it's probably a requirement/code thing that every store have that. It's funny. Anyway, Lowe's didn't have the the batteries, but we located some at Radio Shack, where we also discovered that they cost $18 a set and we need 4 sets. Therefore it's probably going to be cheaper to just buy new cordless phones. Good times. We then got all the necessary odds and ends for Thanksgiving at Harris Teeter.
Looking forward to this weekend- should be fun! Happy Thanksgiving!
My parents are coming to my house for Thanksgiving tomorrow. I'm taking leave on Friday too, so I can be off to hang out with them (ie go to Total Wine and buy mass quantities of wine). My parents are driving up tomorrow morning and then we're having the dinner at like 6ish I think, since Greg works til 3pm. That gives my mom and I all afternoon to whip up the meal.
The Christmas music flood gates are now open for me. I waited til this week, but now I feel like it's time. Last year I spent a while creating my ultimate Christmas playlist of my favorites. It is as follows:
Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas- James Taylor
Christmas Time is Here- Sarah McLachlan with Diana Krall
Mistletoe- Colbie Caillat
The Christmas Song- Michael Buble
Oh Christmas Tree/Peanuts Christmas- Vince Guaraldi
Little Saint Nick- The Beach Boys
Have a Holly Jolly Christmas- Burl Ives
Hula Hoop- Alvin and the Chipmunks
Chuanaka Song- Adam Sandler
12 Days of Christmas- The Muppets
Last Christmas- Wham
Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas- Sarah McLachlan
All I Want for Christmas is You- Mariah Carey
Wintersong- Sarah McLachlan
I'll Be Home for Christmas- Michael Buble
Dream On- Kelly Sweet (not really a Christmas song, but I first heard it before Christmas last year, and it sounds like a Christmas song the way she sings it, so it made the list. If you haven't heard it, check it out, she has an amazing voice).
Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas- Coldplay
Last Christmas- Taylor Swift
In case you can't tell, my favorite Christmas song is "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas", so I have 3 different versions. I also love the Ernie and Bert version from "Christmas Eve on Sesame Street", a movie my mom and I like to watch at Christmas, cheesy and kid-like, but classic. Only problem is that we only have it on VHS and need to convert it to DVD, so it's been a couple years since we've watched it.
I'm all for not rushing a holiday (I do realize that Halloween and most of November is early to get in the mood for Christmas), but the week of Thanksgiving I start getting into a general Thanksgiving/Christmas/family/holiday type mood, so I think it's appropriate to start listening to the Christmas tunage around this time.
Tonight I'm going to do a run uptown with Gibson after work in preparation of the mass quantities of food I'm going to consume in the next couple days. After that I will go home and clean and prep for this weekend.
Greg and I did a grocery and errand trip last night. We went on a search for batteries for our cordless phones as they will only hold a charge for like 5 minutes lately and it's driving us both nuts. We went to Lowe's first because it's the closest to our house. They didn't have them. Greg is funny, he gets very upset every time we go to Lowe's about the fact that they have no less than 12 Handicapped parking spaces in front of every Lowe's. "How many handicapped people are actually doing home improvement projects??" he laments every time and, "Have you EVER actually seen a handicapped person at Lowe's??" He just doesn't understand the logic. I try to reassure him that it's going to be alright and that it's probably a requirement/code thing that every store have that. It's funny. Anyway, Lowe's didn't have the the batteries, but we located some at Radio Shack, where we also discovered that they cost $18 a set and we need 4 sets. Therefore it's probably going to be cheaper to just buy new cordless phones. Good times. We then got all the necessary odds and ends for Thanksgiving at Harris Teeter.
Looking forward to this weekend- should be fun! Happy Thanksgiving!
Tuesday, November 24, 2009
50 Questions
50 Questions.
1. What color is your toothbrush?
White and pink, but I also have a white and green electric toothbrush. I alternate.
2. Name one person who made you smile today?
Chad (co-worker)
3. What were you doing at 8 am this morning?
Checking email, entering evidence, drinking coffee...
4. What were you doing 45 minutes ago?
pretty much the same stuff as at 8am.
5. What is your favorite candy bar?
I like Kit Kats, but don't discriminate.
6. Have you ever been to a strip club?
Nope
7. What is the last thing you said aloud?
"Do you want to go to lunch?" to my friend Kerrie at work.
8. What is your favorite ice cream?
Again, I don't discriminate, but I'm into this Harris Teeter Bear Claw ice cream right now. It's dark chocolate- so good!
9. What was the last thing you had to drink?
Brownie flavored coffee.
10. Do you like your wallet?
Yes, it's a Coach wallet my brother got me.
11. What was the last thing you ate?
an apple
12. Have you bought any new clothing items this week?
no
13. The last sporting event you watched?
basketball
14. What is your favorite flavor of popcorn?
Butter
15. Who is the last person you sent a text message?
Sarah
16. Ever go camping?
Not the real kind of camping. I want to though!
17. Do you take vitamins daily?
I try to at least take a Women's multi-vitamin every day. I also take Omega 3 sometimes.
18. Do you go to church every Sunday?
No
19. Do you have a tan?
No, I don't really tan much with this skin! I just try to not be blinding white- that's all I can really hope for.
20. Do you prefer Chinese food over pizza?
No, I like both.
21. Do you drink your soda with a straw?'
Fountain soda- yes. Can- no.
22. What did your last text message say?
It was about lunch tomorrow with Sarah (lunch plans are very important to me- in case you can't tell).
23. What are you doing tomorrow?
working, lunch with Sarah at a Hibachi place, going home to clean and prep for Thanksgiving.
25. Look to your left, what do you see?
Police patches and pins on my bulletin board.
26. What color is your watch?
I have two, both are silver. One has a black face, the other is totally silver.
27. What do you think of when you hear Australia!
Kangaroo/koala
29. Do you go in at a fast food place or just hit the drive thru?
Drive thru, unless I have to pee.
30. What is your favorite number?
6
31. Who's the last person you talked to on the phone
Kerrie
32. Any plans today?
Going grocery shopping with Greg for Thanksgiving stuff.
33. How many states have you lived in?
5
34. Biggest annoyance right now?
the airlines
35. Last song listened to?
"All I Need" Mat Kearney
36.Can you say the alphabet backwards?
Not without a lot of thought.
37. Do you have a maid service clean your house?
No, but I probably should.
38. Favorite pair of shoes you wear all the time?
black boots/shoes
39. Are you jealous of anyone?
People who have traveled a lot. Friends with kids. People in jobs I aspire to do.
40. Is anyone jealous of you?
I don't know.
41, Do you love anyone?
Yes
42. Do any of your friends have children?
Yes, some do.
43. What do you usually do during the day?
Accept and process evidence.
44. Do you hate anyone that you know right now?
Hate is a strong word...
45. Do you use the word 'hello' daily?
That or some variation of it. I'm more of a "hi" or "hey" kind of person.
46. What color is your car?
charcoal gray (it's so pretty :)
47. Do you like cats?
sure
48. Are you thinking about someone right now?
My family
49. Have you ever been to Six Flags?
Yes, I've been to three of them.
50. How did you get your worst scar?
I have one buried in my eyebrow that I got when I was young riding my bike. I fell off and hit my head on wood in our wood pile. I got some stitches.
1. What color is your toothbrush?
White and pink, but I also have a white and green electric toothbrush. I alternate.
2. Name one person who made you smile today?
Chad (co-worker)
3. What were you doing at 8 am this morning?
Checking email, entering evidence, drinking coffee...
4. What were you doing 45 minutes ago?
pretty much the same stuff as at 8am.
5. What is your favorite candy bar?
I like Kit Kats, but don't discriminate.
6. Have you ever been to a strip club?
Nope
7. What is the last thing you said aloud?
"Do you want to go to lunch?" to my friend Kerrie at work.
8. What is your favorite ice cream?
Again, I don't discriminate, but I'm into this Harris Teeter Bear Claw ice cream right now. It's dark chocolate- so good!
9. What was the last thing you had to drink?
Brownie flavored coffee.
10. Do you like your wallet?
Yes, it's a Coach wallet my brother got me.
11. What was the last thing you ate?
an apple
12. Have you bought any new clothing items this week?
no
13. The last sporting event you watched?
basketball
14. What is your favorite flavor of popcorn?
Butter
15. Who is the last person you sent a text message?
Sarah
16. Ever go camping?
Not the real kind of camping. I want to though!
17. Do you take vitamins daily?
I try to at least take a Women's multi-vitamin every day. I also take Omega 3 sometimes.
18. Do you go to church every Sunday?
No
19. Do you have a tan?
No, I don't really tan much with this skin! I just try to not be blinding white- that's all I can really hope for.
20. Do you prefer Chinese food over pizza?
No, I like both.
21. Do you drink your soda with a straw?'
Fountain soda- yes. Can- no.
22. What did your last text message say?
It was about lunch tomorrow with Sarah (lunch plans are very important to me- in case you can't tell).
23. What are you doing tomorrow?
working, lunch with Sarah at a Hibachi place, going home to clean and prep for Thanksgiving.
25. Look to your left, what do you see?
Police patches and pins on my bulletin board.
26. What color is your watch?
I have two, both are silver. One has a black face, the other is totally silver.
27. What do you think of when you hear Australia!
Kangaroo/koala
29. Do you go in at a fast food place or just hit the drive thru?
Drive thru, unless I have to pee.
30. What is your favorite number?
6
31. Who's the last person you talked to on the phone
Kerrie
32. Any plans today?
Going grocery shopping with Greg for Thanksgiving stuff.
33. How many states have you lived in?
5
34. Biggest annoyance right now?
the airlines
35. Last song listened to?
"All I Need" Mat Kearney
36.Can you say the alphabet backwards?
Not without a lot of thought.
37. Do you have a maid service clean your house?
No, but I probably should.
38. Favorite pair of shoes you wear all the time?
black boots/shoes
39. Are you jealous of anyone?
People who have traveled a lot. Friends with kids. People in jobs I aspire to do.
40. Is anyone jealous of you?
I don't know.
41, Do you love anyone?
Yes
42. Do any of your friends have children?
Yes, some do.
43. What do you usually do during the day?
Accept and process evidence.
44. Do you hate anyone that you know right now?
Hate is a strong word...
45. Do you use the word 'hello' daily?
That or some variation of it. I'm more of a "hi" or "hey" kind of person.
46. What color is your car?
charcoal gray (it's so pretty :)
47. Do you like cats?
sure
48. Are you thinking about someone right now?
My family
49. Have you ever been to Six Flags?
Yes, I've been to three of them.
50. How did you get your worst scar?
I have one buried in my eyebrow that I got when I was young riding my bike. I fell off and hit my head on wood in our wood pile. I got some stitches.
Monday, November 23, 2009
Things I did this weekend.
Friday night I made last minute plans to go to a theater production with my friend Kim from work. This plan was almost foiled by horrendous traffic during the commute home Friday night. Greg had called me on Friday to let me know that the hotel was giving all the staff free turkeys. We decided it would be best if I swung by on my way home to pick it up so it wouldn't be sitting in his car til after 11pm. It was frozen, but we still thought it'd be best to get it into a fridge. Somehow this small pit stop at the hotel combined with Friday traffic caused a riff in the space time continuum and I was then unable to get home in a reasonable amount of time. Usually my commute takes about 20-25 minutes one way. On this day, it was a good hour. I'm a really impatient driver too, so if I even smell stop and go traffic, I get off the highway and look for alternate routes, which often probably doesn't pay off in terms of getting me where I want to go any quicker, but I rationalize it in that I'm not sitting still somewhere I am MOVING. I had planned on having about an hour at home to chill and get a few things done before going out to meet Kim, but that turned into about 10 minutes. Once through the door I threw (ok, so I didn't THROW it- a large frozen turkey could damage stuff if you were throwing it around) the turkey in the fridge, put a load of laundry in the wash, changed into jeans, touched up my make-up, and that was about all I had time to do, before I was out again. Kim and I went to this British Pub called Big Ben that's over near the theater. I ordered a Woodchuck Hard Cider, to which Kim asked "what is that?" and I explained what is was and she got one too. She's now a lover of hard cider and asked me all sorts of questions about where this nectar of the gods came from. "Do they sell this in the grocery store?", "Why did I not know this existed before?", "Can I be buried with bottles of this surrounding me in my coffin?" Ok, so she didn't ask that last one, but you get the idea, she loved it. We both got cheese burgers to go with our Cider. After dinner we headed to the theater. Kim's roommate was in the production. It was kind of a medley of different one-acts, but some of it was also readings and other theatrical contributions. The theme was women, and all of the performers were women, with the exception of one dude in drag for one skit. It was pretty fun. I generally like going to anything at a theater.
Afterwords I rushed home to get to bed so I'd be able to get up early for my 5K run.
The 5K was called The Thin Blue Line Run, and was held at the Charlotte Mecklenburg Police Academy. I met up with Gibson and Kelly at the race and we checked in. The run was good. There was a lot of terrain on the race route. Some of the race was on pavement and some was on trails through the woods. There were also steps, hills, and a portion that wove through the firing range targets (no one was actually firing!). I felt like I did pretty good. I think my time was 30 minutes and some amount of seconds.
Greg and Kelly's boyfriend Brad met us after the run and we went to Panera for some coffee and breakfast.
Kelly and Brad invited us for dinner that night. Greg had work, but Gibson and I went. Kelly made a really good pot of beef stew. After dinner we went to Solstice in NoDa to have some drinks. I had already had two glasses of wine at dinner though, and after getting up early for the run, I was starting to fade, so I opted to just have a Coke.
Yesterday I attempted to clean in preparation for Thanksgiving. We finally decided my parents will just come to our house. Greg is working til 3pm on Thanksgiving and we don't yet know his schedule for Friday, but there's a decent chance he'll be working that day, so they might as well come here so he can be somewhat involved when he is home. Other than cleaning, it was a fairly lazy Sunday. I did the usual catch up on Tivo.
Tonight after work we are going to see New Moon! YAY!
Afterwords I rushed home to get to bed so I'd be able to get up early for my 5K run.
The 5K was called The Thin Blue Line Run, and was held at the Charlotte Mecklenburg Police Academy. I met up with Gibson and Kelly at the race and we checked in. The run was good. There was a lot of terrain on the race route. Some of the race was on pavement and some was on trails through the woods. There were also steps, hills, and a portion that wove through the firing range targets (no one was actually firing!). I felt like I did pretty good. I think my time was 30 minutes and some amount of seconds.
Greg and Kelly's boyfriend Brad met us after the run and we went to Panera for some coffee and breakfast.
Kelly and Brad invited us for dinner that night. Greg had work, but Gibson and I went. Kelly made a really good pot of beef stew. After dinner we went to Solstice in NoDa to have some drinks. I had already had two glasses of wine at dinner though, and after getting up early for the run, I was starting to fade, so I opted to just have a Coke.
Yesterday I attempted to clean in preparation for Thanksgiving. We finally decided my parents will just come to our house. Greg is working til 3pm on Thanksgiving and we don't yet know his schedule for Friday, but there's a decent chance he'll be working that day, so they might as well come here so he can be somewhat involved when he is home. Other than cleaning, it was a fairly lazy Sunday. I did the usual catch up on Tivo.
Tonight after work we are going to see New Moon! YAY!
Friday, November 20, 2009
Date nights 1 and 2
After a series of meltdowns, arguments, and major stress between us lately over Greg's job, trying to plan Thanksgiving, and everything else that goes wrong all the time, this week we decided to make the most of Greg's evenings off by having some "date nights". If we don't set up these plans ahead of time, I usually come home from work and put on pajamas within 5 minutes of walking through the door and don't want to do anything but harvest my Farmville Farm and watch stupid TV. Greg usually spends the entire evening glued to his laptop trying to predict the state of the aviation industry based on online airline forums. Therefore it's crucial that we decide ahead of time that TONIGHT WE ARE GOING OUT. Our date nights usually involve an errand or two along with dinner somewhere in the proximity of an errand. Hey, we're just really practical people, ok? Oh yeah, and we're like the least romantic couple on the planet. Have I mentioned that Greg proposed to me during a fight? Or that we slept in the same bed the night before our wedding (gasp) and saw each other for pictures before the ceremony? Yeah, I could go on and on about the lack of romance we have going...lol.
Anyway, one of our favorite past times is going to Costco and cruising the aisles for an hour or so. Especially when we get those Costco coupon books in the mail. We usually go with a list of stuff we want from the coupon book and then tool around checking everything else out. Greg usually spends an abnormal amount of time in the electronics section checking out laptops, cameras, TVs, and other manly electronic items, while I like to peruse the clothing aisles trying to decide if I need a 100-pack of underwear or a down parka meant for some person living in a tundra and not in Charlotte (why do they even sell those down here???). Wednesday night that's what we did. We didn't get too out of control on this trip- mostly stuck to our list. I've still yet to get in and out of Costco without spending less than $100 though. I don't think it's humanly possible. I returned my Adidas running shoes I got on the previous trip and got the right size (yay- so glad they still had them left in an 8!). After Costco we went to Chili's for dinner as we had a gift card to use. I know Chili's is also not romantic, but I tell you, this in itself was a victory, because usually if we go to Costco anywhere the proximity of a meal, the $1.50 hotdog/soda combo becomes our "romantic dinner". We got one of those $20 for two people three-course dinners. We had cheese fries, sliders, chicken quesadillas (Dang quesa-dillllllla), and white chocolate berry molten cake. Healthy!!! That was way more food than either of us could consume, so most of my quesadilla, black beans, and rice came home with us.
Last night was a similar night to Wednesday night. We headed out to Walmart in pursuit of a air ionizer thingie Greg wanted. We were both disappointed that we didn't find any candidates for www.peopleofwalmart.com. I was however, happy to find Christmas bags for 25 cents a piece that I can use for my annual gift to friends and co-workers of mass amounts of my oh-so-delicious Christmas cookies. Excellent find.
After completing this errand, we headed to Olive Garden to use yet another gift card we had stockpiled. When Greg got furloughed and people asked us what we wanted for holidays and other gift giving occasions, we usually told them we'd like gift cards for shopping or restaurants since these were luxuries we were trying to cut back spending our own money on. Therefore we have like 5 different chain restaurant gift cards. At Olive Garden we had the obligatory salad and bread sticks (always a crowd-pleaser). I had Pork Milanese, which is breaded pork chops with cheese tortellini in a garlic sauce with spinach. Good stuff and a departure from my usual Tour of Italy. Half of it is now sitting in the fridge with my quesadilla. Hopefully Greg will be eating some of that before he goes to work today. Greg had portabella ravioli that apparently upset the gods that live in his stomach. I think he'd still do it over though if given the choice. He does love portabella anything.
We got home just in time for Flash Forward (which is my new Lost), Grey's, and for Greg to continue pouring through the online pilot forums (because the 8 hours he had already spent while I was at work yesterday was HARDLY sufficient). I do love my nerd, but his propensity to spend hours and hours doing this and NOTHING ELSE REMOTELY PRODUCTIVE may actually kill me.
Just for fun, this is what our rabbit Cinnimon (affectionately known as "Mini") would look like if she had on this crazy get-up. I immediately emailed Greg this picture upon finding it this morning.
Anyway, one of our favorite past times is going to Costco and cruising the aisles for an hour or so. Especially when we get those Costco coupon books in the mail. We usually go with a list of stuff we want from the coupon book and then tool around checking everything else out. Greg usually spends an abnormal amount of time in the electronics section checking out laptops, cameras, TVs, and other manly electronic items, while I like to peruse the clothing aisles trying to decide if I need a 100-pack of underwear or a down parka meant for some person living in a tundra and not in Charlotte (why do they even sell those down here???). Wednesday night that's what we did. We didn't get too out of control on this trip- mostly stuck to our list. I've still yet to get in and out of Costco without spending less than $100 though. I don't think it's humanly possible. I returned my Adidas running shoes I got on the previous trip and got the right size (yay- so glad they still had them left in an 8!). After Costco we went to Chili's for dinner as we had a gift card to use. I know Chili's is also not romantic, but I tell you, this in itself was a victory, because usually if we go to Costco anywhere the proximity of a meal, the $1.50 hotdog/soda combo becomes our "romantic dinner". We got one of those $20 for two people three-course dinners. We had cheese fries, sliders, chicken quesadillas (Dang quesa-dillllllla), and white chocolate berry molten cake. Healthy!!! That was way more food than either of us could consume, so most of my quesadilla, black beans, and rice came home with us.
Last night was a similar night to Wednesday night. We headed out to Walmart in pursuit of a air ionizer thingie Greg wanted. We were both disappointed that we didn't find any candidates for www.peopleofwalmart.com. I was however, happy to find Christmas bags for 25 cents a piece that I can use for my annual gift to friends and co-workers of mass amounts of my oh-so-delicious Christmas cookies. Excellent find.
After completing this errand, we headed to Olive Garden to use yet another gift card we had stockpiled. When Greg got furloughed and people asked us what we wanted for holidays and other gift giving occasions, we usually told them we'd like gift cards for shopping or restaurants since these were luxuries we were trying to cut back spending our own money on. Therefore we have like 5 different chain restaurant gift cards. At Olive Garden we had the obligatory salad and bread sticks (always a crowd-pleaser). I had Pork Milanese, which is breaded pork chops with cheese tortellini in a garlic sauce with spinach. Good stuff and a departure from my usual Tour of Italy. Half of it is now sitting in the fridge with my quesadilla. Hopefully Greg will be eating some of that before he goes to work today. Greg had portabella ravioli that apparently upset the gods that live in his stomach. I think he'd still do it over though if given the choice. He does love portabella anything.
We got home just in time for Flash Forward (which is my new Lost), Grey's, and for Greg to continue pouring through the online pilot forums (because the 8 hours he had already spent while I was at work yesterday was HARDLY sufficient). I do love my nerd, but his propensity to spend hours and hours doing this and NOTHING ELSE REMOTELY PRODUCTIVE may actually kill me.
Just for fun, this is what our rabbit Cinnimon (affectionately known as "Mini") would look like if she had on this crazy get-up. I immediately emailed Greg this picture upon finding it this morning.
Tuesday, November 17, 2009
Don't get me going about global warming...
Today I accidentally got into a heated discussion about the environment with my friend Gibson. I was asked to babysit some contractors working in our building this morning, which translates to sitting around for two hours in a chair reading. Gibson, thankfully came down at my halfway mark to see if I needed to use the bathroom, as last time I was asked to perform this mundane task, I was all but forgotten had to frantically call everyone I knew until I reached someone that could relieve me so I could pee. I made sure to ask him ahead of time if he would mind coming down and checking on me this time.
I took the opportunity to bring a stack of magazines with me for my escort duty this morning, one them being a recent issue of Newsweek which featured Al Gore on the front cover. Upon coming to relieve me, Gibson took note of the cover. Later on when I returned to my office, I had an email from Gib with a link to this page.
Ok, I am pretty liberal. I grew up with liberal parents and went to a liberal New England boarding school. To me, the Democrat outlook on things just makes a lot of sense. However, I don't like talking politics with a lot of my friends, especially the far right ones. I generally avoid these discussions. But alas, Gib had already sent me the evil link and I felt compelled to defend Al Gore. Especially since Gibson royally pisses me off on a daily basis for critiquing things he doesn't even have direct knowledge of, he just forms his opinions based on the opinions of others. Like the time he went on and on about how much Twilight sucks when he HASN'T EVEN READ THE BOOKS! HELLLLLLLLLLOOOOOO???? Same goes for this. Gibson HASN'T EVEN SEEN AN INCONVENIENT TRUTH and he's dumping on it. I have seen it. It was a while ago, but what I took away from it was this: The planet is not an infinite vat of resources. We as people can't all just go around doing whatever the hell we want to it forever. We will ruin the planet if we don't take care of it. Individually, it helps if we all treat the Earth well and do what we can to take care of it. Why is that bad of Al Gore to bring that to everyone's attention? Why does some douchebag have to go through the damn movie with a fine-tooth comb and go "NO NO NO, this isn't accurate!" That is not THE POINT of the movie to me. I think Al Gore is just trying to show that we can hurt the earth by being careless and that our actions will make a difference in keeping the earth in good shape. Furthermore, my opinion is that statistics and research findings can always be skewed to support a point of view. Gore's might not be completely correct, but who's to say this other bonehead's research is perfectly accurate either? I bet hundreds of people could do this research and all the results would be different. The point of the movie is to say that we need to take care of the planet. I don't see what is wrong with this making this point.
I realize that Gore's movie and Michael Moore's movies are leftist. But I think the thing to take away from them is that we all need to wake up. Walking around like everything is fine because we are in our little neat bubbles makes us oblivious to what is wrong and that the current system could be flawed. I think it's good to make people think about these things. It's a point of view to think about. Even a discussion about how much you disagree with them at least gets the issue brought up as opposed to not being dealt with at all.
Anyway, I got really pissed at Gibson and it took me a while to calm down. This was also after he claimed Fox News was the most unbiased news source. Yeah. Ok. I'm done having these conversations with him. He seems like a reasonable person. BUT HE'S NOT!
Monday, November 16, 2009
Throughout the past year of Greg being furloughed I feel like Greg have alternated feeling crappy/depressed about things. I would say for the most part it's been him that has had lower moments. It makes sense since it was him that lost his job and him that's had to continually look for new jobs, search for flying jobs, and take the brunt of the pressure and sadness that's come with all of this. There were times when he was close to inconsolable he was so consumed with his sad feelings. Usually during those times, I was actually doing ok. I think as a spouse, you realize that both of you being in that low state of mind at the same time is bad, so you keep your head up and play cheerleader and do the best you can to be there for your spouse since they are in need.
For the most part, cosmetically, the furlough didn't change my life that much. I still have the same job, drive the same car, live in the same house, etc... But it did change my life in a large intangible way. It robbed me of a sense of security. It took away the momentum we had going towards building our future. I've said it before- I just feel stuck. The past few weeks, I think I've been the one that's feeling low about everything. Greg got a boost when he left the truck driving job he hated and started the hotel job, which he loves in comparison. I however, looked at the situation differently. He is in his third job in a year that doesn't pay well, has an awful schedule, and has no real future. We don't know if he will ever get called back to Continental. I think around the year mark, I recognized this even more than I did before. We've always known that we didn't know when, but after a year, it just seems like endless purgatory. I thought maybe at the year mark we'd have more of a light at the end of the tunnel. But we don't. I feel like we're just in this hole that we're never going to get out of, and I am losing my ability to be optimistic and being taken over by this jaded attitude about life.
Being married is interesting. Like I said, really for all intensive purposes, MY life- separate from Greg, hasn't changed. But when you get married, it's like you all the sudden feel everything your spouse feels, and everything is so intertwined. I feel guilty for saying it, but I feel dragged down by my husband's situation. He's a wonderful person and I'm proud of him for doing everything he has done this year. He's worked hard to keep us afloat and for the most part he's handled the situation pretty well. But right now, I feel like his situation is dragging us waaaaaaaay down, emotionally and financially. I don't blame him, but I feel like marriage is very tough because of this. It's getting to me lately. I feel exhausted trying to stay positive and happy despite everything. I feel like I'm succumbing a little bit to the misery of the situation. I just feel like wallowing in the frustration and sadness of not knowing when things are going to get better. I know I'm going to keep getting out of bed in the morning and going about life. But right now, I am not enjoying life that much. I feel like I'm going through the motions and waiting for things to get better.
For the most part, cosmetically, the furlough didn't change my life that much. I still have the same job, drive the same car, live in the same house, etc... But it did change my life in a large intangible way. It robbed me of a sense of security. It took away the momentum we had going towards building our future. I've said it before- I just feel stuck. The past few weeks, I think I've been the one that's feeling low about everything. Greg got a boost when he left the truck driving job he hated and started the hotel job, which he loves in comparison. I however, looked at the situation differently. He is in his third job in a year that doesn't pay well, has an awful schedule, and has no real future. We don't know if he will ever get called back to Continental. I think around the year mark, I recognized this even more than I did before. We've always known that we didn't know when, but after a year, it just seems like endless purgatory. I thought maybe at the year mark we'd have more of a light at the end of the tunnel. But we don't. I feel like we're just in this hole that we're never going to get out of, and I am losing my ability to be optimistic and being taken over by this jaded attitude about life.
Being married is interesting. Like I said, really for all intensive purposes, MY life- separate from Greg, hasn't changed. But when you get married, it's like you all the sudden feel everything your spouse feels, and everything is so intertwined. I feel guilty for saying it, but I feel dragged down by my husband's situation. He's a wonderful person and I'm proud of him for doing everything he has done this year. He's worked hard to keep us afloat and for the most part he's handled the situation pretty well. But right now, I feel like his situation is dragging us waaaaaaaay down, emotionally and financially. I don't blame him, but I feel like marriage is very tough because of this. It's getting to me lately. I feel exhausted trying to stay positive and happy despite everything. I feel like I'm succumbing a little bit to the misery of the situation. I just feel like wallowing in the frustration and sadness of not knowing when things are going to get better. I know I'm going to keep getting out of bed in the morning and going about life. But right now, I am not enjoying life that much. I feel like I'm going through the motions and waiting for things to get better.
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