NEW BEGINNING

I have the strangest feeling. The feeling that I had better hurry up and do something. I don’t want to be late. I don’t want to forget. I don’t have much time….

But I do. I have a ton of time now. I retired from my job on Friday. It is an early retirement since I am still in my 50s and I am ecstatic.

Still I am feeling a great deal of anxiety because I should be getting a bunch of stuff done in preparation for my work week. It will take some time to wrap my head around the fact that I do not have to get up at some ungodly hour to drive to my job an hour away. I do not have to reach performance goals for the day. I do not have to track the results. I do not have to deal with the escalations from customers, who quite frankly have shown themselves all too often, to be disgusting people.

I am looking forward to more cooking and recipes on here. I am looking forward to getting to know my new town since we have been here a year but I have not had much time to prowl and post about the wonderful finds. I am looking forward to not caring when I cannot sleep in during the night.

I am looking forward to having the time to visit with my fellow bloggers who have sadly been neglected by me over the past 5 1/2 years. I have missed you all so much.

SEEMS LIKE A GOOD IDEA

OR WHAT AM I GETTING MYSELF INTO?

I regularly would have people from work over for get togethers after hours. Our job is often very stressful and we need to let off steam regularly.

We would eat and yack and sip and yack and laugh and yack…. always a nice evening. I lived very close to our office.

Since I have moved about an hour away from work those get togethers are not happening any more….. unless of course we do it on the weekend and it becomes a sleepover…… What? Quick shaking your heads!!! It will be fine. Really.

Oh my. Maybe you are right.

Am I ready for the giddiness of a sleepover? The pyjama party pranks. The silliness that comes with late nights and beverages.

I think we need to check all phones at the door so no cameras are documenting the silliness.

Do I want these nice people to see me in the morning before my cup of coffee?

Well maybe if I keep them all fed and watered it will be okay. We will be having this for breakfast along with some other things. Recipe from Mennonite Girls Can Cook.

NOW YOU SEE ME, NOW YOU DON’T

I have been in the blogging world since around February 2009. My introduction to this crazy, but fabulous world came through a recipe that I found on the Pioneer Woman’s blog.

I was making food for our yearly December Boxing Day party and was deep into the internet recipes when one site kept coming up over and over.

I noticed how these recipes had comments on them, in her case hundreds of them. Then I saw there were links in some of the comments. I clicked on them and they brought me to the blogs of those who had left a comment for Ree Drummond.

I was hooked. One blog led me to another and within a couple of weeks I knew had to figure out how to do this for myself.

Nobody I knew ever spoke of blogs. I decided to get a book on the subject and bought the Blogging For Dummies book. I don’t think I am dumb but these books are great at step by step instructions and great diagrams. Turned out that one of the authors of this particular one is co-written by a local Vancouver man, Shane Birley. Good thing for me because I needed his help at one point. So you come up with a name for your blog. You decorate your new space. You start over and change everything, twice. You add gadgets and widgets and decorations and photos. You learn some basic html code and it blows your mind. Templates come and go like a train in the station. We are creative and we need to change things.

You pat yourself on the back because you now know what a gadget, a widget and html are. You can now throw out these words at parties to the amazement of those who have not yet entered the blog world. They have no idea what you do. Your audience gathers around you as you tell them about the widget you added to your blog that you had to edit the html code to match the colors of your template. They think you are Bill Gates, not for the money part but for the techno brilliance you now exude. Actually their eyes glaze over and they excuse themselves to use the washroom.

Then you have to write. You have to actually post on this blog of yours. You have to find your niche.

Are you a Mom Blogger, a Food Blogger, a Travel Blogger, a Technology Blogger. Are you like me? An amalgamation of all of the above. I will call us Renaissance Bloggers (a person who has wide interests and is expert in several areas). We blog about all kinds of things that interest us and that we do.

Then it happens. Someone comments on your blog post. You are giddy with excitement. Oh. Wait. It is just spam but you remain hopeful and you finally build up a following for your blog. You get comments and you reply to them. Etiquette requires that you visit that person’s blog as well to reciprocate.  When I started blogging I was at home full time . I had the time to go and see many interesting places, shops, gardens and the like. I had lots of time to cook and to photograph the process for the blog. My garden beds were beautiful. I had time to paint and to do give-a-ways on my blog. I could decorate my home and join in memes. (note: add the word meme to my new blogging words. I had never heard of one before) I tablescaped on Thursdays and I posted food on Foody Fridays. I could post my metamorphosis on Metamorphosis Mondays with the rest of the uber creative bloggers.

Then it happened. I went back into the work force…full time. For 40 hours a week. There is little time nor energy left for the interesting things I used to have time to do.

There is little time left for visiting the bloggers who I have come to know well over the past 4 years. It is for this I feel the most disappointment. You guys know who you are. I used to visit you at least every other day. We laughed and chatted and left witty comments on each others blogs. We appreciated the hard work that went into each post. We shared our heartbreaks and losses as well as our triumphs and delights.

I am not going to quit blogging but I just wanted to explain why I post so little now and why I don’t get around to your blogs for visits. I am not burnt out I am just kinda boring now LOL.

How many of you are in the same boat? How do you squeeze it in?

 

YA, YA…I’M GOING

I have to go back today….back to work after the many days off over the last 10 days.

Back to work with no sign of any holidays for months.

Don’t get me wrong. I am very lucky to have a job. I like my job.

It is just that these extra days off at Christmas  brought me back to a time before I went back into the work force when I was a SAHM for 25 years.

A time when my schedule was all my own. I was the boss and I chose the projects and duties. A time when I had the time to go to interesting places and take photos to share with all of you. And also the time to spend time with all of you in your corners of the blog world.

So here I will go this morning, off to my job which again I know I am lucky to have but I will be thinking of all of you in this new year. I look forward to whatever time we can find to visit each other.

No having fun without me please!!!

 

I WILL BE READY

This year I will be ready for Christmas without all the stress of last year.

I had been at home for the past 25 years or so and have always gone all out for Christmas. We also do a Boxing Day (Dec. 26 for those who don’t know) open house for as many people as show up. Food is a main part of this day. 

I had a lot of time to prepare, bake, decorate and shop. I started early and went full speed ahead with a smile on my face and heart.

I went back to work full time about 2 years ago and last year I was the first time I was completely strapped for time and energy for my Christmas preparations.

I didn’t prepare the kinds of foods that I normally would and although it is more about the friends and family who come by this was not okay with me. The guests always offer to bring food too but that is not what I want. Any other time of the year sure but Christmas is different.

I also didn’t finish decorating the house the way I usually do either.

NO. NO. NO. Not this year.

I have taken a week holiday from work starting on Monday so I can get things done. Many people would think I am crazy but it makes me happy to get ready for Christmas. I would rather do this than go away for a week. Really.

When I was a child Christmas was not a happy time since my mother had little money and we were often relying on the generosity of others for gifts. The food hamper was the only way we had a traditional turkey dinner.

It is important to me to have things in my home the way I want for Christmas. It is not that I want perfection. It isn’t about a spotless house because I assure you that will never happen. It is about setting the stage. It is about setting the tone, the feeling.

And this year I will have it back again. Now I have to get ready for my last day of work…… for now.

LATE SHIFT LOLLING

http://www.flickr.com/photos/goingslo/4622193908/lightbox/

v. lolled, loll·ing, lolls

v.intr.

1. To move, stand, or recline in an indolent or relaxed manner.

2. To hang or droop laxly: a pennant lolling from the mast.

v.tr.

To permit to hang or droop laxly: lolled his head on the armrest.

n. Archaic

An act or attitude of lolling.

****Not to be confused with laughing out loud*****

Normally I work 4 ten hour shifts a week and get an extra day off during the week.

I love this shift. I don’t even notice the extra 2 hours a day that I am at work.

Sometimes I get a Friday or a Monday off and I have a long weekend. Sometimes I get a Friday off one week and the Monday off then next week giving me a 4 day weekend. I love my 4 day weekends. Kiss, kiss.

This week however is supposed to be crazy busy at work and I am working all 5 days…in a row…Gah!

Since these will just be 8 hour shifts though I have all this extra time in the morning and I am lolling. Don’t you love that word? Say it with me…lolling.

I still get up early so I have an extra 2 hours to loll. I roll over in bed and peek at the clock. Lots of time. Loll, loll.

The down side is that I am sure one of these mornings I am going to forget to get ready and will realize too late that I have to go to work. LOL. Okay this time I am laughing out loud not lolling. Get it? Lol.

GET UP, GET UP

I had a dream last night that I slept in and was really late for work.

This would be really bad because I have to present an audit to the CEO this morning. My first.

When I woke up I flipped over in a hurry to see it was 5:10 am and I still had a couple hours before work.

Ooops, gotta run now or I really will be late.

See ya later.

SOCIAL MEDIA AND WORK

Maybe this should be titled Social Media OR Work. Lots going on in the news yesterday and today about whether or not people should be involved in social media sites while at the work place. Some workplaces completely block access and some embrace it. 
The constant that you hear from people is that it should be okay if you just take a quick break once in a while. 

Seriously? Really?

Don't any of you work with someone who is going to slack off and attend to their Facebook or Twitter pages rather than do the work they are being paid for. Do you think the boss will say Sally can use it because she doesn't abuse the privilege but Andy can't because his work is slipping. Nope.You will be doing extra work to make up for what they are ignoring. 

I get paid by the hour to do a job. I show up on time, I don't take extra time on my breaks and I sure as heck don't tend to my private business during work time. C'mon people....they are paying you! Money! To work for them! 

Wait until your break time to tell your BFF that her hair looked great on Friday night. Don't worry. She will still be there, likely getting paid to do a job while she tweets about her plans for that night. Text your guy about the restaurant after work not during. 

What do you think? Are you responsible enough and should be able to use social media sites during your work hours? Do you own a business and think it should be grounds for dismissal or something your responsible staff can handle properly in small doses? 

SPUR OF THE MOMENT

At the last minute at work on Wednesday I suddenly had a great idea. I have invited everyone...well everyone who was still there at closing, to come by my house tonight and we will order pizza and have a gab fest. 
I contacted some that are on my Facebook page too. The rest I will have to nab at work today. 
That also meant I had to clean my messy house. More so the messy dog. It is so sad that our black lab who is almost 14 years old is peeing herself all the time. She will not be around much longer. She can barely get up the couple stairs needed to get outside when we let her out. 
It isn't that she doesn't know to go outside any more it is just that with all the lumps and bumps growing on her one of them seems to be pushing on her bladder. The result is that she is always soaking wet with pee. It smells really bad. 
We give her baths all the time but she is pretty heavy and we can't really lift her in and out of the tub so she has taken some pretty bad tumbles getting out. She doesn't mind the water but it breaks our hearts to have to put her through this every day or so. 
Secondly my house stinks of dog pee. Ugh. She has been relegated to the downstairs which is fine because she can't get up them hardly anyways. So what to do about the smell with guests coming? 
Well the door down there will be shut. Don't worry she has a soft bed to sleep on...which she ignores to go and find a piece of concrete floor instead. 
I will be leaving for work shortly and coming home with guests so I am going to run the crock pot all day with cinnamon, cloves and allspice berries, orange peels too. 
I just hope when we come in the front door the aroma of the simmering spices will be the only thing we smell. Fingers crossed. 
Hooray it is Friday. 

THE PAY OFF

W

ell I am coming up on my first extra day off. The pay off for working 10 hour days. I have this Friday off. Calooh Callay!!!
I am heading back to Vancouver Island to see family. I will leave right from work on Thursday night. You can see my last ferry ride over here.

I will stay at my sister and brother in laws. I hope I remember my camera because their garden is so fabulous. I posted about it before so take a peek here. 

I don't know what we will get up to but last time we went to some cool shops. You can see them here.

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LUNCHTIME

I have been back working full time for a month now. I am pleased with myself that I have brought my lunch every day except one and they have all been extremely healthy and low cal.
There are places to buy lunch close by but I have avoided that trap because even if they didn't take so long they are really not healthy.
The only thing I have bought pre-made was a healthy bean  soup from my coffee shop.
Most days my lunch consists of a small container of yogurt, a salad with balsamic vinegar and a piece of fruit. I am not doing it as a diet but just as a way of eating healthy. I come home and have a regular dinner.
The best thing about the whole back to work scenario is my BB Guy cleaned a bathroom this weekend and has done laundry. We had guests over for dinner and things got done between the two of us. I really enjoyed and appreciated that.
How about you? What do you have for lunch at work? Working at home? C'mon...tell the truth.

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I OWE, I OWE, SO IT'S OFF TO WORK I GO

 

http://flickr.com/photos/pepemichelle/3645214132/ 

So after many years of being Suzy Homemaker I am heading back to work on Monday. FULL TIME. Oh how will I survive? I will get used to it. I am pretty flexible. It will be nice to be out of the house more often but it will be a huge change for the others that live here. My BB guy will step up to the plate for sure. Since we have had the cabin he has learned how much work it is shopping for and preparing meals for a group of people. He is the head cook at the cabin while there with his buddies and organizes all the meals.  

So yes I will put on my pearls and pumps and head to the office on Monday morning. I will have to pack a lunch just like in school. You all know how I feel about Johnny Depp. I would totally rock with a lunchbox like this one. All the other staff would be so jealous. I will still have a bit of time before work to meet with my coffee group. I hope I don't forget that I have to leave. That would be bad.

 
image courtesy of http://www.ioffer.com/selling/johnv

I do have to work on my typing though. Although I type on here everyday I am using a laptop and almost no numbers. My job will include many, many numbers. Your hands are positioned on a different angle on a laptop than they are on a regular keyboard. I learned to type a long time ago but I am sure I can catch up. 

I still intend to post as often as I can. My goal is to keep responding to all comments from my great blog friends, as I do now (if I can find an email for you...link one up people). I hope to keep my visiting up too but as all of you know it takes a great deal of time to visit and comment on all the blogs you follow and I follow MANY. I have always tried to leave a "real" message on your sites, something well thought out if not downright silly. I will try my best but please know if you don't hear from me in a while that you are not forgotten. It is not you...it is me. I have really appreciated all the friends I have made on here and hope to keep you guys around for a long time.

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LORI'S BIG CITY ADVENTURE

I had to go into Vancouver on Tuesday for an appointment. With the Vancouver 2010 Olympics starting up very soon there are a lot of street closures and extra traffic everywhere with a reduction in parking areas. It became very obvious that I was not going to drive in.
I have always driven in heavy traffic and that doesn't bother me but I had no idea what to expect downtown and figured public transit would be the better plan. Uh huh. Yup. Public transit.

Did you know they will let pretty much anyone on those things? How dumb is that.I know?
Lucky for me my husband works very close to one of the main Sky Train stations. I parked my car at his work and walked over to the station.
First I got to suck up some rain spray from the big trucks driving by me. Great start. Over I go to the station and up the loooong escalator. Ooops, turn around and walk back down the loooong flight of stairs to purchase a ticket from the machines that were just inside the door when I came in. Kind of behind your back as you are looking ahead.
The trains run often so there was not a long wait. There is such a variety of people on public transit because as I have said they will let pretty much anyone on these things. There were lots of students, chatting on phones, texting and talking to their friends all too loudly.
There were workers of all types heading in for their workday. Several of the young men who reached into their pockets to grab their phones or something would release a very pungent smell of weed. I wonder if they think no one can smell it?

photo D Sharon Pruitt

When you ride on the elevated train you get a very different perspective of the city. You can see into people's back yards, on top of building rooftops, into fenced off areas, into a movie set. You can see graffiti all over the place. There seems to be a new trend of putting couches outside in the rain for years to help them acquire a nice patina. I saw at least 6 in different areas. I am pretty sure there is no garbage pick up in these areas because it is all piled up in the back yards. My god people. Open the front door and put the garbage out to the curb on garbage day.

flickr.com

The people on the trains are so odd. Of course there is the customary "scream crazy stuff at everyone" guy. I wanted to peel some of the duct tape off of his jacket and put it across his mouth to keep some of the crazy inside him.
Then there was the man who took off his shoe and adjusted his toes so they were more to his liking. Twice. Then he took the other shoe off but realized he was still not getting the toe on the first foot right so he switched back to the original foot and adjusted it a third time.
Sometimes when the train empties out at a popular stop you glance up and you are looking at the guy 30 feet away from you staring right at you through 4 different plexiglass dividers. It wasn't enough.

flickr.com

You wonder about the people on the train. What are their stories, where are they going.
There is the rather attractive woman who is probably in her early 60's. Lovely, long, wavy red hair, tall, slim and well dressed. And your eyes go down to her boots that more suited to a stripper with their shiny, black patent leather and their stiletto heels. I figure she is a dominatrix. On public transit. Times are tough all over.

 

flickr.com

And riddle me this Batman. Why does the great big guy have to sit beside me and make me feel suffocated. I am claustrophobic and thought I would scream. This commute for him required him to talk loudly into his phone for the entire length of his trip. STFU.
I don't have to use public transit often thank goodness but the next time I do I think I will wrap tin foil on my head and talk loudly into a blow dryer. At least I will get the seat to myself ... and likely a date.

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GETTING BACK AT IT

When you have a questions you go to the experts right? I am going to pick your brains here today.
I am planning on re-entering the work force, full time. I have had jobs in the past that I interviewed for but not for many years. I have done a few different jobs in the more recent years but they were jobs that I didn't have to interview for. Jobs where basically I answered to myself.
We owned our own business for years and I went in to the office for a while and also worked from home for the company. I have painted and sold my art. I have done contract work for a company. I have given computer lessons.
I interviewed yesterday for a job and it went really well in my opinion. Now I will have to meet with an employment company that actually does the hiring. Having never done this before I am wondering if any of you have and what you can tell me about the process. I like to be prepared. Maybe I should be a boy scout.

Secondly how do you manage to keep up with your blogging duties while working full time or even part time? I am a pretty committed blogger (or should be committed, I can never remember which) so I know I will have to cut back somewhere. My paid job will have to come first before blogging. My kids are adults so they don't take my time. My husband is very independent and can take care of himself. He is often out of town too so I have lots of blogging time. But still as I envision my days I do wonder how you ladies do such a great job with your blog life and your RL (real life)?

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