Cold Cold Cold

During the worst of the Polar Vortex that made temperatures drop to minus A LOT in the Midwest I got to stay home from work. There was not enough to do for it to be worth my time and effort to come in. Yesterday temperatures rose to positive numbers and today I had to come in to actually do some work. Rise of temperatures yesterday + freeze today = first fall of the year in the ice ring that our parking lot is.... One broken nail, sore wrist and a minor cut on a finger sums up the damage that i can access at this point.

The joys or winter in Minnesota for a clumsy person...

Friendship

This morning the topic was on my mind, so decided to share some thoughts here.

One of my friends is coming to spend over this weekend. And it got me thinking how we became friends. We met in college. Same thing happened to most of my friends. I have less than a handful of friends from times prior or after college. And that is fine, I don't have many friends, but the ones I have are good ones. Quality over quantity.
But back to the topic, most of these friends I remember meeting. Or I associate my first friendly memory of them with a specific class or event.
The friend that is coming to visit I met during our first year, first semester, but only got friendly the next one.
However, I can't place a time or event that brought me together to another friend. Mutual acquaintances? Shared classes or group work? Can't remember. She is so important to me that i think she came with the college acceptance package. They knew I needed her to enrich my life and to be a part of it.
She is not a very touchy-feel kind of person, so I can't really tell her this without making her uncomfortable, so I will write it here, so I will always remember the day I figured she has been in my life forever, and that she was already my friend before our paths crossed. We were meant to be friends and destiny just had to make that happen.

I can live for many many years. Pretty sure I will never work on the field I studied. Pretty sure I really don't care. But i am certain that i made the right choice, because it allowed me to meet the people I met and finally find my people there.

10y challenge

Seems like the thing to do is to post pictures of one self now and 10y ago. I am not going to do that. Partly because I don't have any pictures available of me 10y ago, partly because I don't want to.
But i can make a mental exercise and think of where I was and what was happening to me in 2009.
Memory isn't the best, so after a quick trip to FB and this blog's history, these are the most remarkable things to consider:

• Ended a relationship with someone that i really didn't care for;
• Had a crush on a rebound guy:
• Met my husband and fell in love with him;
• My niece turned 6. She was the most adorable little girl in the world and I loved her to pieces. 
• Was very addicted to an online game called Ikariam;
• Told my parents I met someone that might be the one and where he was from.
• Had another hip surgery;
• Stayed home to recover and couldn't go to work. Sounds like a good thing, but i remember being bored out of my mind;
• My friends where the same as they are today. Bonus points for choosing them well! 

And this was it in a nutshell. It all seems like it happened yesterday, not ten years ago. 

Almost a past lifetime! However, many of those things remain true. My love for my niece, hubbie and friends. My need to have medical attention to my hip (even if i have been neglecting it or checks ups for the past 7y). My fear of hurting and/or disappointing my parents. And my constant boredom at whatever work I'm doing and simultaneous need to be doing it to keep mental wellness. And lastly my tendency to have some sort of online game to keep me distracted (currently it is Marvel Future Fight). 

Guess years may go by as they please, but i will be me and things won't change that much if i am true to myself. 

Now back to waiting for bids to come in! 

Coincidences

For our wedding anniversary back in December my hubby decided to get me a new wedding band. Mostly because I had been hinting at one for a while. He kept telling me to get one and I kept procrastinating. Nothing new there. So on the eve of the anniversary he dragged me to Macy's so we could choose one. That might sound very easy, but it isn't. Not the dragging me to Macy's part, but the choosing one. If he had is way I would be sporting a big rock, a diamond able to cut glass at several of Macy's storefronts. Me on the other hand would much rather have a simple gold band that is as simple and innocent as possible. Much like the one I use, but like half a size bigger, just to accommodate my not slimming down.
And then the browsing and trying stuff began. Poor sales guy must of been cursing the day he met us, but he was a sweetheart and sucked it up.
We finally narrowed down the search to two options. One that I loved and he tolerated and one that he loved and I was OK with. I caved in and chose the one he loved. Slightly more shiny and bigger, but nothing i can't handle with some getting used to. And surprise surprise... it was too big for me! Must of tried 20 different rings, all that perfectly fit me... and he chose the one that needed to be resized! Fine, i can wait the 3 weeks the guy mentioned...
Fast forward 3 weeks...
And no call to pick up the ring!
A month goes by. And yesterday I actually call to check on it. It is just starting to bug me, since I have to pay the credit card bill and not a fan of paying for stuff I don't have.
Yesterday afternoon the ring "wasn't ready yet". Bummer...
This morning i get a call before 10 saying the ring is ready to be picked up! Don't want to sound paranoid, but isn't that a big weird coincidence? I will try not to think that the ring has been sitting there, all alone and feeling left out because no one called me to pick it up... The poor thing...
And now that i vented about this totally dumb and self absorbed topic, I can get to work and/or read the news, whatever happens first.

Funny stuff at work 2

Convo held over the phone with a sub:
" Sub: Hey, I was checking for that email you were going to send. I didn't receive it.
   Me [after confirming I had the correct email info]: Have you checked your spam folder?
   Sub: Yeah, i checked my junk before I called
   Me: ...

     Me: I will send you the email from a different source."

Juvenile, I know... But the way he said it was just hilarious! 

Government shut down

The title alone says it all. The US government is shut down because the chosen president won't budge on is wish to have funds to build a wall. It is perfectly fine to have 800,000 people not getting paid to do their work. Sounds like a solid plan...

Let's imagine that these people get $7/h. Per week that equals $224,000,000 in savings that can go towards the wall. A couple of months of government shutdown and the wall will pay for itself... Who would of guessed that Mexico wouldn't want to pay for that ridiculous notion? Now everyone needs to make sacrifices and what not...

This is all so ridiculous it's hard to grasp....

New Year, New... ? What?

Let me start off 2019 with the usual: Happy New Year! May this be the year all your wishes come thru. All but one, so you always have something to strive for.

Now that I got that out of the way, regular programming may follow.

Christmas season is come and gone, the spirit never fully made an appearance, but this year, for the first time, hubby and I stayed at home with the cat. It was nice to stay warm and cozy at home, with no pressure or stress. We don't really exchange gifts, so i just made my traditional Xmas dessert and we were both happy about it. And of course the decorated tree was the cat's perfect gift!

And then I blinked and it was 2019! This year there were no New Year's resolutions made, so I don't have to quit them by the end of February! I see that as progress. There were no midnight wishes, because I was half asleep and didn't remember. And it really doesn't make any difference. If I truly want to make anything different of commit to some changes, I can decide to do so anytime. No need to stick with that particular date to do it.

For now I am at work (lunch time), trying my hardest to actually get this job we are aiming at. Been doing my fair share of calls and digging around. So if it doesn't happen I can say I really tried. Of course it also means that my hardest wasn't good enough, but let's go glass half full here.

Been meaning to check out gym deals. Not because I have some burning desire to join one, but i am pretty sure there will be deals out there, to take advantage of everyone's resolution of joining a gym. And if there are no joining fees I may give it a try. Or not. But can't hurt to try! In all honesty, I have been downloading fitness apps for the past 2 or 3 months, and so far haven't checked any of them out.

 Maybe I could make a resolution of actually writing here more often. Mostly because I get a kick of reading old stuff and remembering things that otherwise would be long forgotten. I won't call it a resolution, but i certainly will keep it in mind.

And for now that will be a wrap. Time to get back to work, even if it is still lunch time for most people that I am about to call.

And once again: Happy New Year!

Under-19 EURO

Proud of my home team! Good job boys!

Should I be worried - the update

Everything is OK. Company still going. On the 4th day someone showed up!

In the meantime I have been actually working and trying to find proposals for projects. To be totally honest I think we won't be getting any of these projects, but we carry on trying...

Today is Tuesday. Not Monday. Doesn't mean that the Monday blues aren't in. Wishing i was home lounging in the couch. So sleepy it's not even funny... YAWN

Should i be worried?

Two days since I've had zero contact to anyone else at the office. No phone calls, emails, text messages, smoke signal, carrier pigeons... nothing!

I wonder if they decided to close out and forgot to tell me, like some old piece of furniture left to rot?

In the meanwhile I will continue doing my job, but it is still a bit odd...

Dealing with tantrums

I apologize in advance to the poor soul who found this blog in a search for how to deal with difficult or stubborn child. This is not the right place for that.

What follows is a rant about grown-ups that behave like children.

- At work one of our clients, who is an idiot, refused to shake mini boss' hand today. This because mini boss dared to send an email to one of the guys co-workers asking for a revised PO. Since mini boss emailed the accounting person, seems like he did nothing wrong. But per the client that was a huge disrespect and cause to halt new projects with us. Also cause to be rude to mini boss. I just can't understand how a self respecting professional works like that. How he can plainly ignore someone you are working for/with you. All the emails he send are addressed to me, even if mini boss is the one responding. As stated, client is an idiot. But if I am not mistaken, he won't be a client for much longer...

- Miss S sent me a couple of messages on Whatsapp, very passive aggressive saying i had no business telling her ex that she was in love with another guy. Seems he called and told her someone had told him and she instantly assumed i had been the one. And I was pissed. At her for believing i would tell him something she told me and at him for making it sound like i did. I told her I would send her snaps of our full convo if she needed proof. My bottom line is a lesson to me of just staying out of it all and not talking to either of them.

- POTUS. Because he is a prime example of a grown up behaving like a spoiled toddler. For more info just refer to anything posted by him on Twitter.

This being said, I am currently the holder of a massive head ache and feel as grumpy as it gets. Over things i mostly can't control, but still disgust me.

T - 5h

And my vacation will start! 3 full weeks without having to come to work!

In all honesty, by now I am only counting down time and not doing much. Just ridding it out and pretending to be busy.

Next week I get to fly out to Portugal and finally see my people. See my country. Smell the ocean. Eat good food. Hopefully get some nice vitamin D.

There is a bit of regret for having to leave my kitty here, quite alone when compared to her usual routine. Hubbies nephew will take care of her. He agreed to go over and feed her and clean her litter box and all that stuff. Just hope he decides to sleep over so she doesn't spend so much time alone. Also hope she takes to him instead of hiding for the duration of the trip....

She will be fine. She will be well taken care of. And she will forgive our absence and not to try to kill us as soon as we return. It would be perfect to be able to take her with us, but that will be a struggle for when we move permanently!

Shouldn't feel guilty over leaving her home "alone". It's much better than leave her at the vet hospital, caged in a 3' x 3' cage, surrounded by weird sounds and spaces, while being sprayed with some sort of calming stuff. Home is better. Where she is safe and comfortable!

T - 4h 53m 👀

Sickies

The office today sounds like some sort of sad hospital waiting room on a slow day. Or maybe the sitting room at some retirement home. And these are references based on my Portuguese experience, since I am lucky enough to not know how those things are in the US. 

So back to the topic at hand: mini boss is out there whimpering (not exaggerating, there are actual grunts coming from him) with back pain. Lady boss is coughing away in her office complaining about the heat in the office and the dryness of the air. Big boss seems to be OK, just recovering quietly from his procedure last week. If this was really a waiting room he would just be here to get his stitches removed of something similar. 

And I am quietly sitting at my desk, dog laying next to me. Like an oasis of quietness for both of us. 

Don't want to complain about having people here, but it sure is a lot quieter when it's just me, myself and I... 

5/2/2018 - Wednesday meeting outcome

The most appreciated moment during the work week is our Wednesday morning meeting. That can happen on Thursdays... or Fridays... or any day, as long as there are donuts and coffee! This week it was Wednesday.

Despite the social side of it, we do talk about work. It's a nice way to summarize where we are on the different projects and ask for guidance if needed.

But then comes the social side. That usually happens when all other topics have been covered and we really don't want to go back to work. Today's conversation wandered into allergies. And pets. And relatives with severe allergies to pets. And we all came to the conclusion that between our pets and some people (in my mind, that included extended family), our pets will trump many people! In all honesty, I was the one saying it first, but they eventually caved and agreed.
The scenario was something in the lines of:
Other: " X is visiting and he is severely allergic to cats. Cat vs person, you'd think they would send the cat away so X can breathe!"
Me: "My kitty trumps a LOT of people for me... I wouldn't send her away either, X would have to suck it up and have some allergy pills"

And that only reinforces my strong belief that i love that cat with all my heart! Even if she doesn't feel the same way about me. And a while ago, when she went all crazy and wanted to attack hubby, i did do a double take in taking sides... He said "you have to choose: the cat or me". And for a fraction of a second, I did think about it... Finally said I would choose him, but not without a touch of guilt and the strong hope that no action had to be taken. Luckily she decided to go back to her normal, hubby-worshiping cat, and the world fell back in place, not forcing me to make any decisions that would rip an extra piece of my heart.

YES, this became a post about how much i love my cat. YES, I am a pet person, and love them with all my heart. YES, i can write whatever the f#$% i want here, because i am the one reading it anyway!

YES, it's Wednesday and i am bored out of my mind at work while procrastinating the bowling alley stuff...

05/01/2018

Another holiday in Portugal. We do have many of those out there. At least when compared to the US. Meanwhile, I'm at work. At the moment, there is no one in other than myself. And that is fine with me.

Big boss is having a procedure done today. Hope him the best. Got a text with an update and it sounds good. Mini boss is probably at the job site... again... That site super makes him his bitch and he lets him. Each time i hear them on the phone or learn of the many emails and chores he is given, I feel like slapping him. I keep reminding him that the site super is getting paid over $4K a month to do his job, and still he keeps demanding help from his Project Manager. In the meanwhile mini boss is walking around overwhelmed and backbone-less... I keep trying to get more projects, to keep the company going. And sometimes it feels like I am the only one trying to accomplish that. Feels kind of lonely here at the bottom of the corporate food chain...

Quick update: just got the mail and it seems the supervisor gets $4K every 2 weeks, plus expenses... And he called me while i was typing that complaining he needed support. Oh boy... does he get stressed over nothing.

Mini boss arrived. Updated him on things and passed on the conversation and what i had done. Really not that complicated. Pick your battles people, don't over complicate.

And now I am supposed to find some pricing for work at the bowling alleys. More silly cosmetic work instead of addressing the real needs of the places. Kind of hard to get along with the people that work there and justify why money is being spent on crappy things instead of fixing structural or personnel issues...

Off to do some work! Happy Tuesday.

The need to share

Sharing thoughts and feelings doesn't come naturally to me. When I am sad the route is to repress it and hope it goes away. When i am happy i savor the feeling and live it, more than talk about it.

And for sure there are more out there that are the same. Except... when you are talking to strangers online or on the phone. At least in my day to day seems to happen with some frequency. Part of my job is to talk on the phone with subs and trades people on the phone. Lately I've been talking a couple of times with a welder. Just work stuff, "please go do that", "what is your credit card info to process the payment"... that kind of stuff. And yesterday he felt the need to share that he was at odds with his son, that will get married in August and he fears he won't be invited to the wedding. I listened and tried reassuring him the best i could, without really knowing what was going on. But that gentleman, that doesn't know me, felt the need to take that off his chest and the recipient chosen was me, a person he has never met. Was it because I would be a safe, judgment free, listener? A few days ago, while chatting with a game buddy, there came the confession that his relationship was going through stuff and that he was really lost and didn't know what to do.

How can we really help these "strangers" that call out for help and we really don't know? Sometimes a hug is the best help possible, and the long distance and anonymity take away that possibility altogether. Is it because they fear the follow up? The concern of others for their well-being and happiness?

Reach out for help from the ones you love, the ones that really care and will be able to help you get past it. The ones that can give you a hug or smack you on the head and tell you if you are wrong.

And be happy. Smile. Even when you don't feel like it. Because a smile is more likely to bring good vibes. I think. Maybe not, but why not try?

Domestic drama

For the last couple weeks I have failed to open the mailbox and retrieve mail. Not for lack of trying I must add. But simply couldn't fit the key to open it.

Me (at least one week ago): "hey babe, I can't open the mailbox, can you please go try?
Hubby: "you're just doing it wrong [note: i open locks wrong, it's a mistery how I've been entering places and opening doors for over 30y]. You have to wiggle it a bit and it will open"
Me: "Glad you know the trick, go get the mail please"

** a week passes **

Ridiculous and significant snow fall. Hubby outside clearing the driveway for a second time. Walks in the house and I shout from the computer room "go get the mail". 10 mins pass and no return. Look out the window and there he is, fighting a lost battle with the mailbox.

** walks back in the house, defeated by the mailbox**

Hubby: "key won't fit the lock"
Me: "..." - while silently thinking "no shit Einstein, been telling you that for a while now"

Called the USPS and now waiting for a locksmith sent by them to change the lock and charge us $40... I am also fairly certain we will need forceps to remove all the mail from the box, including a package including make up [post to be published later about thing] that should be destroyed by now...