Resigned

Well, the big news in the Nilla Life is that I quit my library job yesterday. Well, I put in my two-weeks' notice. No, I do not have another job. I wish I did, but I don't. Well, other than the funeral home. But I'm not counting that, since I already had that one.

So in 8 more days, I won't have to make a 25-minute drive 5 days a week that was essentially a waste of time, energy, effort, gas, and money. Which is why I quit. Financially, it wasn't a wise situation to continue.

And in other semi-related news... I'm expanding my job search parameters. Who knows where I'll end up. Or if I'll just end up right here in Washington. So I'll be sending out applications here, there, and yonder (which is only in the South, of course, since that's where you get told 'it's over in yonder' ;)).

Meanwhile, I'll be accepting applications as well. Job title: Mr. Wonderful. And the pay is freakin' awesome. ;). Feel free to inquire within (the comments). Hahaha.

Okay, that's enough crazy Nilla for the day. Just thought I'd let the world at large know my up-t0-the minute (minus a day) news.

Cooking With Nilla

Now I have to say I'm not a terrible cook. And by cook, I mean the kind of person who follows a written recipe, not a "chef" who is able to make it up as they go along. I enjoy cooking. I enjoy trying new things (both in making them and eating them). Hence Monday Meals. Which we didn't have today, since Lea and Morgan flew to Arizona to get her all oriented and registered for her Freshman year of college. (Sometimes it's weird to me that many of my friends have teenage children... But then I remember that I also have friends who have grown children, and it doesn't seem so strange anymore ;)). Anyway... So yeah, for the most part, I can follow a recipe and have it turn out at least close to what it should be like. Yeah, my roll-cake cracked. Yeah, my barley pilaf was a bit firmer than it should have been (and a few of the barley pieces got a little burned from the browning portion of the instructions). But all in all, my stuff comes out edible and rather tasty.

But sometimes I still have my adventures.

Like tonight. Tonight I thought I'd throw a dinner together. I try to always use a recipe, because there is comfort in that for me. Especially the "tried and true" ones on allrecipes.com. But sometimes we don't have all the ingredients. And sometimes I don't feel like stopping at the store. And today was one of those sometimes. So I decided to wing it and do my best at creating a white chicken chili with what we already had in the pantry.

Frozen chicken breast tenders.... check!
chicken broth... check! (only I didn't use it and opted instead for the chicken water resulting from boiling the chicken)
lots of various seasonings... check!
2 cans of cannelloni beans... check! (stocked up on beans when they were 50 cents a couple weeks ago)
green onions... check! (once I pulled out the ones that were still good, at least :)).

So I did my thing. And wound up with something that much more resembled chicken and bean soup than white chicken chili. In fact, the first time I tasted it, it tasted like chicken floating in slightly chicken-flavored water. It made me think of this. That show seriously cracks me up. Anyway... I added more seasonings, and let it just simmer and cook down. And actually, by the time we added peas (which was a last-minute decision when I didn't realize it would reduce down to something resembling a chili, which I could have added sour cream to) and then it reduced down quite a bit, it was actually more flavorful, and perhaps a tad too salty -- but not unbearably so. Anyway, it was edible. And my mom even said it was "pretty good." Eh... I wouldn't write it up for future use or try to re-invent it for Monday Meals at some future date. But it was food. And it used what we had rather than me stopping at the store for ingredients.

So that was my brief foray into cooking sans recipe. I probably won't venture there often. My taste buds expect deliciousness, not "eh."

Last week, I followed a recipe though. It was for a Dumb Bunny Cake, and I made it at Lea's for last Monday's dinner. Now, I had made this recipe once before, in December 2009. It's super, super easy. In fact, the end of the instructions indicate that "It's so easy, any dumb bunny can make it." (I'm foreshadowing here...). So I only had to pick up one ingredient: pie filling. I chose cherry, because it was on sale. Plus I love cherry anyway. So here's how you make the recipe. You take your pie filling (2 21-ounce cans) and pour it into the bottom of a greased 9x13 pan. Then you sprinkle one box of yellow cake mix (dry) over the pie filling. Then you melt two squares of butter and drizzle it over the cake mix. Here's where I made my mistake: interpreting that 2 squares. I decided it must mean 2 tablespoons, because those are pretty "square" when you cut them off a stick of butter. So I melted my 2 TBSP of butter and drizzled. Then I baked at 375 for 45 minutes. And when I pulled it out, the spot I'd drizzled stood starkly contrasted against the rest of the powder cake mix. Hmmm. Now, I knew that wasn't how it looked before when I made it. So after much discussion with Lea and calling me mom (both of whom agreed that 2 squares would, they would have assumed, be 2 tablespoons), we decided it probably was 2 sticks of butter. And when we proceeded to melt that much and drizzle... Well that looked more like it! Fearing burning something, I only cooked it for 30 minutes the 2nd time. And I'm happy to report that it wasn't merely cake mix powder that came out of the oven the 2nd time. So yeah, that's 2 sticks of butter. Very healthy indeed. But it really is good. And easy, once you know the trick. So easy that any dumb bunny can make it ;). Hahaha. (When we saw that line in the instructions after my first failed attempt, we laughed quite hard...)

My Fashion Faux Pas

Oddly enough, driving home the other night in my 60s hippie get-up was not my fashion faux pas. Nope, I reserved that experience for today.

The end of March means that snow tires must come off the cars, by law. So I had plans to take my car in to get my tires switched out, since I would be riding with Lea to work today anyway. My mom was going to take her car to the dealership, because her low coolant light is always on, but every time she checks the fluid, it's full. So maybe there is a blockage or something. Or maybe it's something worse. But either way, she was going to take her car to the dealership. So I set my alarm for 7:30 (this is a true sacrifice for me... ;)) so that I could follow her to the dealership, take her to the funeral home, and then take my car to the tire place where Lea would pick me up. So my alarm went off. And I called my mom's cell phone from the warmth of my bed. Call me lazy, I don't care. I was going to get up, just wanted to make sure she didn't forget our plans. Hahaha. Well, she had decided the night before that she would just have someone from the funeral home follow her over there later in the day to take her back to work after she dropped it off, since she didn't know when the dealership opened. I said, "Well that would've been nice to know yesterday." Since then I could have slept another hour. But whatever, so I tried to go back to sleep. And then my mom called my cell phone ten minutes later (I think cell phones make us lazy....) and asked if I was getting ready. I was like, "No! Why?" Well, she thought she was going with me to the tire place to turn in my car and then take me to the funeral home where Lea would pick me up. And so, in the end, I gave up that extra hour of sleep (because let's be real... I was already too awake to go back to sleep "good" anyway, so I might as well get up). And that's exactly what we did. So while getting ready for the day, I knew I wasn't working at the funeral home, since the plan was to go to Morgan's softball game with Lea. So I threw on jeans, my toe socks with flip flops, and my new bright yellow Children's Summer Reading Program (SRP)shirt. I had worn the adult one a couple weeks ago, and thought I'd wear the Children's. After all, it's sitting there, I paid for it, and I might as well use it, right? Plus I was curious what the yellow would look like on me.

You're probably thinking I looked like a big yellow bus and that that was my hideous fashion faux pas. Well, not exactly. Yeah, it's bright yellow, and yea, you can see me coming for miles. Like a ray of sunshine. Hahahaha. But that's not the issue. Once I got to the library, the Children's Librarian said, "Well, someone's wearing their SRP shirt a little early this year." Ah yes, the subtlety was so lost on me. Whatever. I said, "Oh really? I didn't know there was a specific date when we could wear them." Well, that resulted in an email to the staff. Because we don't want to ruin the "unveiling" of the t-shirts in June by wearing the shirts 2 months before then and thereby lessening the "impact" (her words, not mine). Yeah, you're so right... We wouldn't want that. Nevermind the fact I didn't see a single kid in the library today. Nevermind the fact that the shirt doesn't indicate it's for the Summer Reading Program (so you'd have to be a pretty swift kid to pick up on the idea that that's what it's for and not some random shirt I picked up in Panama or something -- which is why I picked yellow, after all, since it has a toucan). So that was my fashion faux pas. Who knew I could so totally ruin a whole Summer Reading Program by wearing a shirt in March? Yikes.
And P.S... Looks like I just ruined it for all of you as well. I'm so uncouth. Eh, what can you do? Maybe next time she'll send an email reminding people to wait until she says "go!" on the shirts or maybe not order them in December. Otherwise, when I buy a piece of clothing, I'm kind of prone to assume I can wear it whenever I want to... (Especially when nobody was particularly bothered that I wore the adult shirt twice).
And if you think that's the most ridiculous thing to happen at my library job... Well, you have another think coming. I have stories of magazine competition (and I ain't talking about Glamour and Redbook trying to outsell each other) and shelving checklists that could curl your eyelashes. I actually posted one story on here, and then removed it for a few reasons. But look for it in the memoirs one day. Or just email me and ask me about it. Seriously can't make this stuff up...

And P.P.S... The softball game got cancelled after all, because it was supposed to be a home game, but it was supposed to rain here, so they moved it to the other team's "home" which is about an hour North, meaning we wouldn't be going. And then it actually did rain there, so they cancelled it. And guess what? Not a drop of rain here. In fact, it was an absolutely gorgeous day, and it was even warm enough to cause me to glisten (aka sweat) when I got into Lea's stuffy car after work. Then she and I went and ate Mexican for lunch since neither of us had anywhere to be. And then she dropped me off to get my car. Which the tire place even fixed whatever was up with my emergency break. It went out a couple weeks ago. I just resigned myself to it being one more thing falling apart on my car...

And P.P.P.S... My mom never got around to taking her car in. Which is why I planned for her to do it first thing, because I know she'll never stop to take it in in the middle of the day.

In other news... On Sunday, in my Sunday School class, one of my students (she's 12) said, "Um, not to be rude, but you have gray hair." Spoken like a true pre-teen. I said, "Yeah, I know, it's all here in the front." Then she added, "You have a lot! You're getting old!" Yep. I know that too. Hahaha.

And back to today... After getting my car and dropping off my spare keys with my mom at the funeral home (and laughing with her and Sue about some ultra-outside-of-the-box-to-the-point-of-absurdity ideas), I went to Target to get more biodegradable pots and currant tomato seeds, and, on a whim, cilantro seeds. Because I love that stuff! And this way, if everything grows and produces, I'll have almost everything to make that fresh tomato salsa and I'll have picked it all from the garden! So when I got home, I planted almost everything. It got windy and cold once the sun started going down, so I quit, but here's what I have so far:
Which leads me to another Sunday story... So the Sunday before last, right before choir practice, the choir pianist turned to me and said, "Would you be willing to sing one of these or all of these next Sunday?" What she had was 3 pages of way old songs (which, it turns out, were from the Children's songbook back in the day). I told her I would be willing to sing them with her, but not alone. So that's what we planned. She is a very strong alto, while I sing soprano, because I don't have the talent to sing anything but melody :). So the plan was for us to practice at her house one day before we were to sing in Relief Society. She called me Saturday, and I told her I'd be at her house by 3. So I showed up, but since I had gone there after work, I didn't have the music with me, but I figured she would. Well, it turned out she couldn't find it. So we didn't end up practicing. I said I'd make every effort to get to church early to plunk it out roughly so that at least I'd have a clue what the tune was, because I'm also not a sight-reader, and I can't hit a note if I don't have something to go by... (I was still house-sitting, which is why I didn't have the chance to play the piano in the garage here...). Well, I had a longer drive than usual since I was house-sitting, so I didn't make it early enough. But it was okay, because I'd also found out that through massive miscommunication, a very musically inclined couple was asked to sing the songs. I figured, "Hey, fine by me! I'm off the hook!" Yeah, it seemed weird that a guy would be singing in Relief Society with his wife, but whatever. Well, by Relief Society, Jolene (the pianist) came over to me, and smiled as she sat down. And I knew... I said, "It's us, isn't it?" She said, "Yep, it's us. The others thought they were supposed to sing these songs a capella for Primary." Hahaha. I bet that was a fun experience showing up in Primary to sing these songs when the whole Primary is like, "Huh?" So in the end, we just got Christina (the wife of the musical couple) to play each song through once before we sung each one. It was awful. And I couldn't stop laughing. And I had to stand away from Jolene, since she's a strong alto, and I couldn't hear my part, so my voice was all over the place! But anyway, how does this apply? Well, because like I said, these were old Children's songs. And so you can imagine they were kind of simple. And the tunes were, well, interesting. As were the words. And here's one of the ones we sang (the lesson was The Word of Wisdom).

Little Brother Vegetable
Little Brother Vegetable, sat within a dish,
Cooked and seasoned spicily as you'd ever wish.
Said Little Brother Vegetable, "Just you look at me!
I'm the food of hidden treasure; Eat me and you'll see!"

Little Brother Vegetable, Brings good health to you,
Cheeks grow red as any rosebud, Eyes will sparkle too,
If you want lots of vim and pep for your work and play,
Better eat your vegetables Ev'ry single day!
-Maryhale Woolsey & Mildred T. Pettit

Okay, so I'll admit it's kind of cute. The tune is jaunty. But can you imagine a very unschooled singer up there trying to guess at the right notes for this song?!? And this is why there was no way I was doing these alone (even if I had practiced). I only wish we'd have made it an event for the female choir members as a whole. Either way, I guess I'll hope my Little Brother Vegetables will grow so that I can eat them spicily from within my dish. :)

Well, I guess I was feeling chatty. Because I sure wrote a lot. I did pause halfway through to eat homemade mac & cheese. Because FYI... My mom makes the best homemade mac & cheese 99.95% of the time, hands down. (The other .05% is when she uses whatever cheeses we have in the fridge, and they don't always mesh well, or when she tries a new recipe that calls for apples. Ew.)

I'll Be Sowing the Seeds of [Food]

I've said it before, and I'll say it again: I LOVE music!!! Seriously a song for every occasion, with a little bit of tweaking. Listen here to this one. I know this song is in a movie I like. But I can't remember which movie.

So it is officially Spring! And we had two gorgeous days that got into the 60s! And you know what all of this means?!? It's almost time to plant again! Yeehaw!! I'm so excited! I feel most confident about tomatoes, cucumber, bell pepper, and squash since I was successful with those last year. But this year I'm expanding my horizons to include grape tomatoes (they will ripen faster), and hopefully zucchini (though they are a type of squash, so I think it will be okay), pumpkin (again a squash), jalapeno peppers, peas (I hope), spinach (I hope), and romaine lettuce (I hope). I have my concerns about whether or not some of those will grow, since in reading the book Ben and Michele got me for Christmas, I find that some things like cooler temperatures, and perhaps should be planted outside now (but the garden isn't ready yet, so they can't be...). But all I can do is give it a shot! So yeah, I'll be sowing the seeds soon. Below is the book and the seeds that Michele gave me today! I'm pretty impressed with lettuce seeds. I mean, who ever considered what a lettuce seed looks like!?!

So other than my excitement about the upcoming gardening season... Not a whole lot has been going on. I went to a softball game with Lea and Dan for Morgan. Doing that again tomorrow afternoon. Taking my car in to get the snow tires off and the regular tires put on tomorrow. So as you can tell, it's a thrilla Nilla life ;).

Peace

Well, I can imagine you've all been so excited to see pictures of the funeral home party. Let me preface the loads of pictures that will follow with this statement: The party was neat-o, groovy, far-out, cool, awesome, radical, rockin', bomb, and pretty much any other over-used slang term of any given decade that would be synonymous with those I just listed.

So sit back, relax, and travel back in time (sort of) as you see and read about our celebration of the last 60 years.

Here's our meal/food, backwards.... Representing 2000s, the health-food era, was salad. We also had bacon bits and cheese along with all those dressings. They just weren't put out at this point. Representing the 1990s were Subway sandwiches. We all remember the Subway craze for sure, and though Jared came along early in the 2000s, Subway had pretty much hit its stride in the 90s. We didn't have Subway in Panama, so this was quite a treat when we were state-side during vacations.
In the 1980s, junk food reigned. I mean, sure.... There was junk food before. But in the 1980s, so many varieties came into existence. We're talking cheetos, fritos, doritos, cheeseballs, cheese puffs, pop rocks, fun dip, Big League chew, Razzles... The list could go on. And so we decided a goody bag would be the way to go, with samples of several things from back in the day (but mostly from the 80s). So below you can see the contents of our 1980s (plus) goody bags, which included a disco-ball necklace (70s, I know -- but I got 8 for a $1 at the Dollar Tree!) and glow-in-the dark shutter shades :). We were going to add a bag of individual chips, but that didn't end up happening. Even so, I think we collected some awesome stuff for the bags.
I'm sure you're all stumped as to what the 1970s featured, right? Nah, probably not. Everyone has pretty much heard of fondue. (And if you've ever watched Everybody Loves Raymond, you're even familiar with "fondue fun night.") So yep, we fondued. And it was fun! I have a fondue pot that was given to me by Pat who used to work at Troy. Such a sweet lady. I think of her every time I see the fondue pot or the plastic traveling cake holder, which she also gave me. But we couldn't stop with only one fondue... And we managed to track down a second (authentic 70s) fondue pot! So we had our chocolate fondue and our cheese fondue. The people who signed up for fruit to dip didn't end up showing up, which was a bummer, but we made do with strawberries :). Here's what I did learn about fondue, though.... I'm pretty sure I figured out why fondue went out of style. It's because cleaning those pots afterward is horrible. They just end up with a big glob of well-burned whatever-was-in-the-pot right over where the flame was hitting. Ick. And while it wasn't so bad with my stainless steel pot (steel wool, baby, steel wool), we certainly didn't want to scratch up the nice white-painted inside of the authentic fondue pot which wasn't even ours! So that one took some effort. But it was all worth it, and it was fun to try some fondue-ing with our party.
Our main dish came from the 1960s. It was a time of ease and simplicity. A time when women were mostly still at home and didn't want to make a bunch of food from scratch anymore. I mean, shoot... We had to clean the whole house and look pretty for when the husband came home, right? So why waste time on food? Enter the TV dinner. In a foil tray, I might add. But try to find those hanging around in a grocery store!!! So that was what inspired our main dish. We found some divided trays that were squarish/rectangularish. And we bought KFC fried chicken, and my mom made Salisbury Steaks, and mashed potatoes (not pictured). And let me tell you... It was delicious. My mom makes awesome food, though. Like, always.
And we can't forget the 1950s. Back in that time, going to the diner or the soda shoppe was all the rage. And so we featured the soda shoppe beverages for our drinks. We had tons of soda (as you can clearly see) and cherry syrup, vanilla syrup, and vanilla ice cream for root beer and creamsicle floats. Yum! And so much fun. I think most people opted for Root Beer floats. I went orange creamsicle at first and cherry Pepsi second (which resulted in not being able to sleep that night, since caffeine has a serious effect on me these days -- I think I'm getting old...).
And now the moment you've been waiting for.... The picture of the people. Some of us didn't dress up. But some of us did. I got my outfit from a thrift store here, and I got it about a year and a half ago, probably off the Halloween rack. So without further ado... Here are me and Rebecca (who went "Physical" style while I went hippie-style):
And here's everyone who attended. You can see several people dressed up in this one. We had quite an awesome turnout! Including the 4 kids who were there, we had a total of 24.
Me and Rebecca, who refuses to make a normal face in pictures according to her. I braided my headband and got the glasses (which you can see I forgot to take the sticker off of) at Party City for like $1.50.
Here are me and Bob, representing the early 60s (him) and the late psychedelic 60s (me):
I had made up a game of Decades Bingo. Prizes for winning included a box of Charleston Chews, a box of Hubba Bubba bubble gum, a mini-rubix cube, a friendship bracelet kit, a lanyard keychain kit, and a slinky.
I have a friend who, when she saw this on facebook, said she is guilty of 19 of these. Me? I'm guilty of 12 of them. And if you want to know which ones... been to a drive-in movie, worn leg-warmers, know who died in Seattle on April 8, 1994, can dance the chicken dance, have roller-skated, have eaten all fondue meal, walked around in spandex shorts, owned a trapper keeper, owned a walkman, know what the first video ever played on MTV was, have used a rotary phone, and have worn jelly shoes ;). So, give it a whirl and see how many you have done! (And leave it in the comments if you want). There were a lot of other BINGO cards, and some of them had other stuff also, like if you remember tan m&ms or ever went to a sock-hop. It was just fun and gave us a chance to learn something new about people. And sometimes those things we learned were shocking and hilarious! For example, one person I never would have dreamed would watch such a thing has watched "Beavis and Butthead." And it was funny who ended up winning first, and the fact that he had (and still has) a Cabbage Patch doll is one of the reasons he won!

We also played a game that Pam and Vicky developed. It was THE PRICE IS RIGHT DECADES STYLE! And it was so awesome! They found all sorts of retro stuff and found facts about those items. Then we had to try to guess how much it cost when it was first introduced. Whoever got closest without going over would win the item. I ended up winning the throwback Pepsi. But there was also Coke, mountain dew, Yoohoo, Zots candy, pop rocks, Cap'n Crunch cereal, Cinnamon Toast Crunch cereal, and a ton of other goodies. This game was a hit, and they did a great job preparing it!
I forgot to take a picture of my "TV dinner" (my tray full of food). So I remembered after I'd scarfed everything down :(. So I decided to just take a picture of the empty tray so you could see that we did actually use divided trays!
So here are me and my mom. And Barry Manilow. Hahaha... While looking for my fondue pot in the garage (which was miraculously easy to find!), we also came across some of my mom's old records. And so we took some in for display. Anyway, my mom made a poodle skirt and an initial shirt, plus she wore bobby socks. And we wore our shutter shades for this picture.
We took one last picture of everyone who dressed up (minus our boss who had to leave early to see a family). I think everyone who dressed up did a really great job, and really, quite a few of us got into the fun!
And here is the fabulous funeral home party committee! Rebecca, me, Pam, and Deb (also known as Mom).
It was a fabulous time, and proof that we can party like it's 1999 (and 1959, 1969, 1979, 1989, and 2009) :).

So there you have it. Hope you enjoyed the party read. We already have our next "party" in the works. Because we love it.

Updates and happenings of The Nilla Life will come in a later post.

Comments From Nilla

Today definitely began as a Monday. It's been raining for like 3 days straight. And this morning the rain was coming down pretty good. So I was headed to work, and had my X-Files DVD to watch while working, plus my grocery store sales ad, plus all the coupons I'd clipped yesterday. And it was all balanced precariously in my hand as I hurried through the rain to my car. And while I was trying to unlock the door, the balance quit being balanced, and I dropped everything (the disc and all coupons) except the sales ad, which had been supporting everything else. Boo. So my coupons got soaked, and I had to lay them out on paper towels at the funeral home. And then, by the time I got to the funeral home, the rain was coming down even faster and harder, and I got good and soaked. So yep, it definitely began as a Monday. But tonight is Monday Meals. So it can only get better ;).

So I had a mild cold last week. I really can't complain, because that's about as bad as it gets for me every year. Usually around the beginning of the change of seasons, I wake up one morning with a sore throat. Then the next morning I will also have a sore throat and then I start to feel stuffy. Only I don't sound stuffy, but voice will sound a bit rough from the throat scratchiness. By day 3, I'm officially stuffy, but the sore throat is gone. Day 4 will find me going to the restroom every 5 minutes to blow my nose (it's either that or spend the day sniffing or let it drip -- ew). Day 5 will be similar to day 4, just less frequent nose-blowing. Side note: I always go to the bathroom or somewhere else where nobody else is around to blow my nose. One of my pet peeves is people blowing their nose in my presence. It grosses me out. By day 6, everything is pretty much cleared up, except the skin around my nostrils is sure to be chaffed from all the tissue I've been rubbing up there all week.

Anyway, so why do I tell you all this? Well, so you'll feel sorry for me, of course ;). Nah, I'm kidding. Actually it was because along with the stuffy nose around day 4, I get another "symptom" that is a result of the stuffy nose. And that is an inability to taste. Let me just say this: not being able to taste sucks. And so it occurred to me how very very thankful I am for the sense of taste. I mean, when you think about it, we don't need to be able to taste in order to live. If nobody was ever born with taste buds, we'd never know the difference. And probably food would be a lot less expensive, because we could all eat gruel 3 meals a day for all it mattered. And so it made me think that I am thankful to a Heavenly Father who created in us an ability to taste and enjoy food. Because I love food. (As though you didn't already know, right ;)). It made me think of a Primary song that I loved to sing in childhood and loved to play on the piano as an adult (it is one of the few that will actually be recognizable when I play it ;)).

My Heavenly Father Loves Me
Whenever I hear the song of a bird
Or look at the blue, blue sky;
Whenever I feel the rain on my face
Or the wind as it rushes by.
Whenever I touch a velvet rose
Or walk by a lilac tree...
I'm glad that I live in this beautiful world
Heavenly Father created for me.

He gave me my eyes that I might see
The color of butterfly wings.
He gave me my ears that I might hear
The magical sound of things.
He gave me my life, my mind, my heart;
I thank Him reverently
For all His creations of which I'm a part.
Yes, I know Heavenly Father loves me.
-Clara W. McMaster

I am thankful for those things that help make life wonderful. The things that don't have to be as far as survival is concerned, but that are so that we may find joy in the journey. There is beauty everywhere, when I look for it. Even in rain-drenched Washington. I mean, it is always green :). Which is beautiful to me. And when it's a clear day, seriously... The views are breathtaking.

And in less "thoughty" news ;).... (I got that word from A B.C. Christmas. "Oh, that was very thoughty of you." I think it may also have been featured in Dilbert :).)

So while house-sitting, I am relishing quietude and watching movies and TV shows. Arrested Development seriously makes me laugh. "Have any of you ever actually seen a chicken?" Hahaha. But I don't spend all my time watching TV. I am also enjoying the quietude and reading a lot. I finished a historical fiction for children from the "Dear America" series. It was the journal of a girl who rode the Titanic. I love stuff about the Titanic, and i just needed something quick to fill my gap between books, since I was waiting on one to come in on hold for me. So that was a good, quick read. And then I got the one I've been waiting for since like September. Ice Cold by Tess Gerritsen. I'm loving the book, but then I love all of Gerritsen's books. But here's the thing. Very suspenseful. Very. And so it's a little scary sitting there alone reading this suspense book. Hahaha. You would think I would have learned 11 years ago when I was the only one still awake at home, sitting in my recliner in my room, reading Salem's Lot. When I turned off the light, it was a little creepy. And I had to go into my sister's room to sleep, since my cousin was there visiting, and I think we decided we'd all sleep in the same room. Or maybe I was wimpy and didn't want to sleep alone after reading Salem's Lot. I can't really remember ;).

Laughing 'Til It Hurts

So today marked the second occasion this week in which I laughed so hard my stomach hurt.

The first time was Monday. I was at the funeral home working, and the admin department's new home (well, since November) is a bit smaller than where we "lived" formerly. And so we have four people in there, and it's kind of close quarters. And there's not much in the way of ventilation, since the fan in there, when turned on, makes it sound like the whole building is preparing for take-off... Not necessarily appropriate noise for a funeral home. So we never run it. Anyway, on most days, this is not an issue. But Monday, I was walking out the door (which we try to keep closed to keep out the undesirables -- other staff members, not families) and I got a whiff of something that smelled like vomit. I commented on it, but nobody else seemed to notice, so I went out, did whatever I was doing, and then returned and smelled it again. But nobody else noticed. So I proceeded to smell myself (of course) to make sure it wasn't me. Which it wasn't. Well, a short time later, Rebecca came in and said, "Did someone step in dog poo?" I immediately laughed, because it was funny. But also because that was proof that there was in fact a smell. So I told her that we didn't know what it was. So Sue lit a candle, and Rebecca smelled my mom's lunch container, which had had roast and cream cheese mashed potatoes in it and hadn't been washed out yet. She said that was where the smell was coming from, but I went and smelled it, and I didn't agree. But when my mom got back, I handed it to her anyway and said maybe that was the problem, because Rebecca thought so (maybe my sniffer was broken, after all...) and she washed it. Well, after a while, I noticed the smell had gone away. Well, then my mom called me. She had gone to Cash & Carry for lasagnas for the location. Apparently while there, she noticed she had something on her dress. So she smelled it. And it smelled bad. So she called me to tell me she was going home to change and then would be back. I tried to ask her where it was on her dress, but she kept saying, "I'm at Cash & Carry! I have to go, because I'm getting on the road." So I just gave up and then went back to work. Well then I ended up having to call her again, because Michael (the new boss) decided to cook everyone breakfast for the next morning's staff meeting. So they wanted me to call my mom to find out about the breakfast casserole that she makes sometimes and takes up there. So I did. And she was at home changing. So then I asked again where the spot was, and she said it was on the front of her dress, she had no idea what it was, and no idea how it got there, "but it STUNK!!!" I could not stop laughing with the way she kept saying all this. I kept saying, "Stop, I have to pee! And I will pee right here where I sit!" But she kept on and kept saying, "So it was me that smelled! Please tell everyone I am so sorry!" The more I laughed, the more she laughed, and she kept saying, "It's not funny!" Oh my stomach seriously was hurting so bad. And everyone was looking at me like I was crazy. (I'm laughing now as I remember it...). So again, she told me to apologize to everyone. So when I hung up the phone, I did just that and relayed the whole story. Laughing so hard, I was crying. I have never done that before. I just could not stop laughing. We still don't know what was on that dress or where it even came from. Which is a scary thought when you work in a funeral home...

Of course, then that night, I had Marvelous Monday Meals. As is the norm, we ate and then sat around the table talking for a good 30 minutes when we were done eating. And this always results in laughter. We got on the topic of taking driving tests and driving adventures. So I shared my Friday stories about Rebecca driving against traffic going to the high school. And they told stories about when Morgan learned to drive and the way Xavier ran into their Suburban with his dad's truck within the first 30 seconds of driving over the weekend. And about how Chuck went to get his license in Arizona, failed immediately when he couldn't parallel park in front of the licensing place in order for his "grader" to get in, and was told he failed and had to leave... Only there was no one there to drive him home (his dad had let him drive there alone to get the license) only now, the car was parked in front of the station with all the people there watching and knowing he'd just failed and didn't have a license. So he still got in the car and drove away, freaking out the whole way... That was hysterical. Yeah, we laughed some more. And then watched Scrubs. And laughed some more.

Tuesday was mostly laugh-free. Nothing exciting.

But today... Oh my gosh, today. What an interesting day! So I woke up early to get ready for Lea to pick me up. We headed down to a different branch of our library system to take our CPR training. Well, we plus one other lady from our branch were the first ones there. So the instructor asked us if we would mind helping him construct all the CPR dummies. So we did. We piled them on the floor once they had a face and nose and then attached to the ribcage. Then he looked down at one point and said, "Someone put that one's head on upside down." hahaha..... Lea said she thinks it was her. I mean, these things looked like aliens enough... And then this one with its head upside down. It was too funny. So eventually we got to actually practice on the plastic torsos with heads. (They lacked all other appendages...). Oh, and we each got our own, plus we had our own mouth guard. So that was nice. I didn't wear lipstick today. Didn't want anything to look like I'd been making out with it. So anyway... It's some seriously hard work doing chest compressions on these plastic dummies. I have a bruise on the palm of my hand now. And one lady there was getting over a virus that had a nasty cough attached to it. So Lea and I got on the back row (and there wasn't a lot of room), because I felt like it was better to be able to distance myself from the bootie in front of me rather than worrying about how close someone behind me was to my bootie. Hahaha. So we chose the back. And so did the other lady who was coughing a lot. So there we are, in the middle of our 30 chest compressions, which takes serious effort. The other lady starts coughing hard and then toots. Oh. My. Gosh. Yes, I'm such a juvenile, right? I don't care. I could not look at Lea to save my life. I would have busted out laughing. So I waited until we were in her car and I said "So, that lady tooted two times in there." Lea was like, "Oh my gosh! I know!!!" And then we laughed so hard, my stomach was hurting again. And then Lea said, "But I gotta give it to her. She coughed, tooted, and then kept on compressing like it was just the natural flow of things..." Which made us laugh some more. Meanwhile, during this laugh-fest, we were at a stop-light, waiting for it to turn green. We were behind the other lady we work with, and she had asked if we wanted to stop at this Mexican restaurant that was along the path back home. We agreed. So the light turned green, and as there was only one lane in each direction, left turners had to yield to the on-coming traffic. Well, Karen (our co-worker) was at the front, and the car opposite her also wanted to turn left, so they could both go ahead and go without having to wait. But when Karen did this, she almost hit pedestrians, which I totally missed, but Lea didn't. So Lea is watching Karen almost kill people (maybe so we could practice our CPR?), she starts going without yielding. And I'm watching the truck now opposite of us who isn't turning left, but wants to go straight (and so we should have yielded). But too late... I wasn't sure if he was going to stop or if Lea would go fast enough, so I was like, "Watch it girl! Watch it!" When she saw what was happening, she gunned it and waved apologetically to the man in the truck. She laughed and said, "well, between me and Rebecca, you've had quite a few brushes with death this week!" True... But I did once run a red light with Lea in the car... So we make it to 2 Margaritas. The same chain where I ate with Rebecca on Friday, but in a different city. The host seats us, and I'm on the outside of the booth and can see the kitchen and bar area. So the host takes our drink orders, a different guy comes with our drinks. The host comes back and takes our meal orders. We go about our talking. The host brings out one of the items they thought was an appetizer, and when he does, he says to me, "Do you speak Spanish?" (I can't remember now if he asked in Spanish or English at that point). I told him that I do. So he asked (in Spanish) where I am from. I told him Panama. He said that one of the guys in the kitchen asked him if I speak Spanish, and he didn't know why the guy asked him that, since I look American." I said, "Well, I am. I'm half." (Which was an accidental slip-up. I'm actually only a quarter Panamanian). Well, Lea and Karen were just watching me through this conversation, because they didn't know what was going on. So I told them. And when I looked over in the direction of where the host went, he was talking to some guy and they were both looking our way. Awkward. So Lea started watching the kitchen (which you could see into) to see who had been asking about me. But she said every time she'd look, the guys were staring at our table. Which made me feel incredibly self-conscious when the food came. So Lea is like, "Yeesh girl! Look at you!" I laughed and said, "Girl I don't know... I'm not even wearing all my make-up today!" She was like, "Well, you don't need it obviously. Between this guy and the guy at the Jiffy Lube giving you a discount... Maybe I should start taking you places!" I laughed and said, "Yeah, that guy at Jiffy Lube was all of 24. I'd be robbing the cradle!" To which she laughed and said, "Ha! I'd take a 24 year old!" Hahaha. So we laughed while we ate. Then I asked for a box, because my food was way too much. From the young white kid who'd brought us our drinks. So he came back with the box, and I held my hand out for it, but was also texting at the same time, so wasn't paying attention to the fact that he was holding it just out of my reach and kept pulling it away from my grasp. When it finally dawned on me what he was doing, I smiled and laughed and then he gave it to me. And there are Lea and Karen staring at me, and Lea goes, "What is going on girl!?!" Shoot if I know! So they were saying they were going to write my number on a napkin. I said, "Girl, that kid looks like he is 12!" She said, "He's not 12! He'd be in school!" Yeah, well... Whatever. He's a baby. And I'm 30. So yeah, we laughed about all that. I guess I was getting my flirt-on at the Mexican place, even though I really wasn't doing anything at all.

So I got home and the neighbor tells me that she thinks Bruiser (the dog) got out again and is in the fence of the neighbor across the street. Ugh. He manages to find the 6-inch opening in our gate when the wind blows it open, but he couldn't figure out how to get back out of the double-car width opening of the gate across the street. Smart dog. (And okay, our gate must open a bit more than 6 inches, because that dog would never fit through a 6-inch gate...). So I had to go retrieve the dog. Fun. I had to go to the funeral home, after all... But I got him and got him home.

Then I went to the funeral home. Which was pretty much normal. Until 5 when I took over the phones. Mostly I didn't do much. I typed up an obituary for one of the funeral directors. And then the phone rang. I did my usual spiel and waited for the person on the end of the line to start talking. She said, "Are you guys having Bible Study tonight?" I hesitated. I was very confused. I said, "Uh..." And she said, "Because it's Ash Wednesday?" So okay, I've not been in the industry all that long. A little over 2 years. And granted, in those 2 years, we've never had a special Bible Study at the funeral home for Ash Wednesday. But hey, maybe it's a tradition we just didn't do before, but that is common in most funeral homes, right? Well, that's what I was thinking. So I said, "No ma'am, I'm sorry to say we didn't plan that this year." As though we plan it every other year, right? And she says, "Well is there still Sunday School then?" At which point I decided this was very likely a wrong number. So I said, "Ma'am, you do know you called a funeral home, right?" And yep, it was a wrong number. She apologized profusely (which I assured her it was no trouble at all) and that was the only call I took after 5. But I guess it was par for the course today. Today was a funny funny day. And when I told Rebecca (who was still there) about that call, we laughed together. Because it's just funny. There I was thinking we were missing out on a funeral home tradition, and that maybe I should pass that info up the chain of command. And all it was was a wrong number. Hahahaha.

Today was awesome. And now I will go. I am house-sitting for my friend John for about 2 weeks. So it's me, a cat, a couch, and a tv for the night. I'm pretty stoked. Need to decide what movies and tv shows to take. I'm thinking Arrested Development. Because then I can laugh some more until it hurts :).

Oh laughter. How I love thee. You make life a happy place :).