Colorado, Part 2

On Sunday Mr X and I went to the Colorado Rockies game. They were playing the Mets. In the game on Saturday they lost pretty badly and from what I heard it was a pretty boring game in general but Sunday's game was great. One of the newer players (who had a batting average of .000) hit a home run with two guys already on base and won the game for the Rockies. We had pretty decent seats over by first base. On Monday we slowly made our way back south toward NM. One of the places we stopped was Garden of the Gods. It is a beautiful place. I wish we had been able to spend more time there exploring but we only have a half hour or so because we didn't want to miss the Crocodile Farm later (a future post).

Dream

Last night I had a nightmare. It's a recurring nightmare that I've had several times a year since childhood. It's one in which my teeth either rot, fall out or crumble. It's awful.

Last night in the dream I noticed that one tooth in particular was a little loose. Then gradually I noticed that it was getting more and more loose until finally I could actually pull the entire tooth out of the socket clean and easily. Since I was hopeful that maybe the dentist could just put it back and somehow fix it, I shoved the tooth back into the socket. That's when I discovered that several more of my teeth were getting loose like that as well. That's when I started freaking out a little bit. I tried calling my dentist to tell her it was an emergency but every time I tried to speak, my teeth kept popping out of their sockets and I kept scrambling around and stuffing them back into their sockets. Finally I got them all back into the sockets so I went to look in the mirror and saw, to my horror, that all the teeth that had been falling out had turned grey and the rest of my teeth that I had thought were fine had crumbled to jagged little nubs. The pieces that had 'crumbled' off were all over in my mouth and I could feel them crunching as if there was sand in my mouth. At that point I jerked awake and immediately checked to make sure my teeth were still intact and seemingly healthy.

I wonder what this dream means.

Do you have recurring nightmares? What are yours?

Colorado, Part 1

This past weekend Mr X and I went to Colorado. We had a really great time and tried to do as much as possible in three very short days. The first day we were there we drove up into the mountains and explored the little mountain towns of Dillin, Silverthorne and several others whose names I can't remember. Since we were right there we decided to check out Buffalo Bill's grave/memorial.

(Mr X even shed a tear or two.)

After paying our respects we attempted to go into the museum there but it costs money in the form of cash and we only had plastic. So we admired the views of the valley and downtown and then thoroughly enjoyed the gift shop. We didn't buy anything because we were being cheap but we took plenty of pictures.

The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly

Good news: I had lots of great pictures over the past few weeks that I intend to post.

Bad news: I haven't posted them yet.

The ugly news: My coworker blows his nose loudly every morning several times and he always inspects the content of his tissues.

The first day back

Mr X and I got back from Colorado last night. A fantastic time was had by all, or at least me. But the crummy thing about trip (short or long) is the first day back at work after the trip. Why is it always such a difficult day?

For example:

This morning I woke up and as I was finishing getting ready for work I realized that I had no idea where my car keys were. I needed them to drive myself to the park n' ride to catch my bus. Then it hit me that I had no idea where my bus pass was. If I lost it, I'd have to pay to ride the bus for the rest month - the equivalent of $24 and that's frustrating when I already paid $90 for the monthly bus pass anyway. I relaxed for a moment when it occurred to me that both my keys and my pass could very likely be in the pocket of my leather coat. My relief quickly disappeared when I discovered that I had forgotten my frequently used leather jacket at the hotel in Denver. Perfect. I continued scrambling around the house looking for the keys/pass in the hopes that they were NOT in my jacket pocket but I never found them. I had to take Mr X's car key and get going if I wanted to catch my bus. But I needed to stop for gas because our car was on empty. For the first time in my life, the gas pump wouldn't shut off for some reason and wasted gasoline was pouring all over the car, my hands and shoes - more money wasted as well. (And I cannot, for the life of me get rid of that smell) I barely made my bus and the man I had to sit behind always drops his seat ALL THE WAY back so he's practically laying in my lap. Grrrrr. After arriving at work I made the mistake of thinking that my day couldn't possibly get worse. But it did...I managed to flood the ladies room. I didn't even do a #2 (it's gross that I'm detailing this for you, I know) so basically I was framed. Because of someone else's dirty deed, I had to be the one that burned with shame as I rushed out of the restroom only to have to warn the ladies on their way in that "...it's probably not a good idea to go in there..."

Hello again.

It's been a while since I posted. I guess I've been busy and I know I promised pictures from my weekend in AZ but I can't today because here at work I have no access to those pictures. But I will, I promise...

Anyway, I'm posting because I just wanted to let you know that I am indeed alive (for those that might have been wondering) and well.

Mr X and I are headed to Denver for the holiday weekend for some good times. I am leaving work early on Friday (woo hoo!) so we can drive up there and get to our hotel in time to run around downtown a bit before bed. On Sunday we are going to a Rockies vs. Mets baseball game. I'm really looking forward to it because I always enjoyed the baseball games in San Diego with Mr X. On Monday we are planning on going here on our way home to check out some alligators.

Happy Mother's Day!

I am sure bloggers all over the American blogosphere today are posting mother-related content on their site. The idea of joining the throngs makes me itch with a rebellious desire to buck the trend and do something different....but I've got a blog so I'm already just one of the crowd and why fight the natural course of things? Plus, I love my mom and she's definitely deserving of some good blog-bragging from her children.

Those of you who actually know my mom will know exactly what I mean when I say that she is brutally concise/to-the-point, structured, thorough and demanding. Those may seem like negative qualities but they aren't. Those traits are just the ones I have tortured her with throughout the years by doing everything in a fly-by-the-seat-of-my-pants manner. But those traits come in handy in many instances - teaching, cleaning, just having 6 kids in general, etc...

But rather than list all of her great qualities, I'll just tell you a couple memories of mother-daughter moments from my childhood that will always stick with me:

1. Do you remember those plastic jelly-ish bracelets that were big back in the 80's? You'd pile as many as you could on your wrists and do cool criss-cross things with them? Back when I was in elementary school they were all the rage. I wanted some but just assumed I couldn't have them so I never bothered asking for any. And then one day, after school I was at home apparently doing nothing all that memorable with my brothers. I just remember I was sitting on the floor and my mom walked in after a shopping trip and presented me with these bracelets. Tons of them - and she didn't have anything special for my brothers, which made it all the more special to me. I remember thinking, "Holy crap I have the coolest mom on earth!"

2. I used to have this little mini baking kit that was exactly like my mom's (rolling pin, mat, cookie cutters, etc) except kid sized. Whenever she made anything with any sort of dough, she'd set me up with my little mat and rolling pin right next to her and give me a fist sized amount of dough to work with. I would take it and copy her every move, rolling the dough out, kneading it, cutting it, etc. She was patient enough to help me every step of the way and then she even helped me to cook it and I got to eat it afterward. I always looked forward to these moments because my brothers didn't get to do it - it was my special thing with my mom and it was kind of GIRLY, and that was a rare thing in a household of 5 boys and 1 girl. But once again, in those moments I vividly remember thinking, "My mom is so nice and helpful and fun!"

There are many more of these, but those are just two of my favorites. Happy Mother's Day to my mom and all of those mothers out there. You are an admirable and impressive bunch of ladies - I have trouble handling kids for an hour straight so I can't imagine 18 years of it, let alone a lifetime.

See you next week!

Today Mr X and I are leaving for my company's AGM. We'll probably see a bit of Mr T so I'm hoping to get some good quality pictures of him (and his lovely wife, Mrs T) for your viewing pleasure. We won't be back until Tuesday next week so you won't hear from me until then probably - since I have decided NOT to bring any sort of computer because that's a treat for a girl like me. Bye and enjoy your weekend!

How was your day, dear?

I was relieved to step off the bus this morning to see that my office building was still standing. I kind of assumed it would still be there because I recognized some of the usuals from my building on the bus when I boarded. Yesterday afternoon some crazy person called in a bomb threat to our building. So we were all herded out and to a safe distance away. They brought in the fire department and an ambulance and the police - you know, all the people you'd expect to show up in an instance like this. Even some dogs. And we all proceeded to hurry up and wait. No one could go anywhere because they sealed off the parking lot as well. Two-plus hours later (at the end of the work day) we were informed that if we had our things with us, we could go directly to our cars and leave the lot but our cars would be subject to a search as we exited. Luckily I was one of those people (I drove yesterday) that had thought to grab my stuff on the way out of our building. So I joined the cars in line to exit the parking lot and slowly left. *whew* This morning I've been led to believe that nothing was found and they finally allowed the poor saps who'd left their keys at their desks back into the building around 6:45 that evening. Geez!

Congrats to my brother!

My oldest brother just found out he passed the Bar. He's now a big fancy lawyer for the Coast Guard. Congrats to him! (He never reads this so he'll never know I'm wishing him well ... maybe I should call him...)

Perks of Work

This week and next week are short weeks for me as far as work goes. I'm pretty happy about it. This week I'm working through Wednesday then I have Thursday through Tuesday off. So only 3 days of work next week too.

Once a year my company treats all it's employees to it's Annual General Meeting (AGM). I guess it's a chance for all the employees to meet together to discuss/prepare/etc. This is a difficult feat logistically speaking because all of the employees are spread around something like 20 states and a few countries. So my company also treats this AGM as a reward to it's employees for all their hard work and dedication. They also bring along the families of the employees as a thanks to them for putting up with having their spouses gone all the time for work. I don't necessarily think it makes up for it, but the effort definitely works because after the whole thing is over I'm always left thinking that I work for a fantastic company and I am always eagerly anticipating the next AGM. So the fact that it buoys me and buys my loyalty means it's successful in achieving it's purpose, right?

My brother's company just let him take off on a sabbatical for 2 months (paid of course) so he's about to leave to Hawaii with his family tomorrow. Maybe he's company is better than mine.