Thirty Thirty

Ok. I turned the big 3-0 this month. I'm having a hard time with it. Yes, I know you read that every year, but it's true. I'm a woman that can't handle the aging process.

I'm not fully where I thought I would be at this age and sometimes that thought really gets me depressed. I could probably have more money, a nicer house or nicer cars if I worked harder. But as I told a friend, more successful people often have more sacrifices and at the end of the day. I would rather sacrifice time at work than time with friends and family. I would rather have less money and more memories because money can be gone in the blink of an eye (or the fall of a stock market), but memories are something you can take with you.

Wow, occasionally something really meaningful does pop of my head.

Daytona Days

We arrived at Turtle Inn Beach Club at around 4:30pm on our first day. Not much got accomplished. Showers to wash off 2 days of "traveling in the car skeeve", followed by the need to fulfill my mom's desire to eat at a Golden Corral that was in the opposite direction from the condo. Then it was back to the condo to plop into bed for the night.

My wonderful slumber was destroyed by the senile old bat on Day 2, as she poked me to wake up so we could have a morning stroll on the beach. 90 minutes later my leg muscles were still twitching and I was wondering if I put Shady Pines on speed dial before I left. A giant bowl of Captin Crunch passified me for the remainder of the morning. With food in my tummy it was time to go to DeBary Hall. It's an old citrus plantation that I kept sending texts of to Joe with the caption, "buy for me now, please". It was so pretty, but I was not allowed to take photos inside the house.

Day 3 was a trip to Ponce Inlet Light House, which I didn't climb to the top of. I'm waiting to come with Joe next year so that he can carry me. That was followed up by a late lunch that mom spent watching the races at North Turn Grill.

Day 4 kicked off my lounging around the pool and working on my tan. Such a difficult life! Then we took a trip to the Marine Science Center. There I was able to watch a rescued juvenile sea turtle recive life saving medication and other treatments. There was also a nice tour of the facility that showed off the aquatic life of Florida as well as rescued birds from the area. After that we went on a Manatee Scenic Tour. That was excititng, even though we didnt see any manatee. Go figure! According to the guide the winter had been so cold, that the manatee were taking longer than usual to come back to the area. But we did see several small pods of dolphins, including a set of parents with a baby. That was too cute. The tour took us along the inlet where we also got to look at some multi-million dollar homes. I guess there is no accounting for taste... The tour was followed up by dinner at Boondocks. I think Joe will love it there. It's picnic table dining on a dock! I think I would expect that in the deep South. Florida doesn't count as deep South, it's New York South.

Day 5 I had to call in sick to work. I guess they forgot that I requested the day off. I had called to verify that I was off, but surprise, my favorite scheduler screwed up again. It will look great that I called in sick and come back with a tan, huh? Today was the adventure highlight of the trip. We took a drive north to St. Augustine. What a beautiful old city! It reminded me of Charleston, and not just because of the old fort. At the suggestion of friends, we took a trolly ride around the city after touring the fort. We walked around the plaza, stopped for lunch and some amazing ice cream. The neatest thing we saw has to have been the small handful of homes that were original to the city. People back then were my size, because I fit in everything! Must go back next year with Joe.

Day 6, our last day. I sat chilling by the pool with my Mike's Hard Cranberry Lemonade and tanning, which I occasionally interrupted with a dip into the pool. Around dinner time we packed it up and started the long journey home. Trapped in a car with mom for another 20 something hours. HELP

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Staff Support

When you come into a job with a long established group of employees, life can be tough. It can be tougher still when the average turn over of new staff is 90-120 days. No matter how much or how little experience you have in that job or field, you will be viewed as a threat to someone. I think it's very sad, really. It can make for a very tough place to work, which often leads to an even higher turn over rate.

I bring this up for several reasons. In October 2009 I interviewed with a very upscale dermatology office. It was, what I thought, my dream job. I did 2 successful interviews before the leading physician told me I was "far to intelligent and ambitious to work here." I was devastated. Now, I just smile because every 90 days he has an advertisement in the paper for the same position that I was too smart for. I now know that this is not the place I would want to work for, just by how often that ad come up. It speaks volume to what they must be like to work for and work with.

I face the dilemma at my current job that I'm highly over qualified and over educated for my position. Some lesser trained people with bigger titles see me as a threat. Others still, just wonder what I'm doing working here. It huts me that no one asks me things or says things to me directly. Instead, college educated, middle aged women hop on facebook (while on duty) and gossip about me like a bunch of teenagers. I'm the type confront people with my issues or concerns. It's the mature thing to do. Yet they deny it. I have not befriended any of these people on facebook, but I do have a mole that prints up their comments for me. Even confronted with their own printed words they deny.

How are employees like these taken seriously?

Warm House

Well, this afternoon we had the housewarming party. It was small, only 10 people (excluding us) came by. It was nice to have such a small gathering. I know we're aiming for something much bigger on Memorial Day.

I guess I should tell people about the house. It resembles a contemporary chalet ranch thingy that has 1008 square feet. There are 2 bedrooms and 1.5 bathrooms. We also have a garage, but it's not usable right now. Well, for cars anyway because a coal bin resides in the middle of it. I will move that thing... Ok, JOE will move that thing. =o) The kitchen is much smaller than the Pine Ridge house, providing me a challenge when it comes to making larger meals. There are very vaulted ceilings, so we're heating a lot of air when we actually have the heat on. There is a lovely coal/wood burning stove in place of a traditional fireplace. I can't wait for it to be cleaned so we can use that next winter to offset the ever increasing energy bills. There is a small screened in porch off of the dining room. It's probably going to be a summer playroom for the "kids".

Keys To Nowhere

Today was an interesting day. I left to go take a quick test at work this morning, once there I realized I didn't have my house key. Not a big deal, because Joe would be home until I got done. That's what happens when only 1 person has the debit card.

After the test I took a brief trip to Wally World and drove home. Upon pulling into the driveway, I see Joe sitting on the front porch steps with the dogs. I thought it was cute that he would be waiting outside for me to get home. Then I saw the half smile on his face when I got out of the car.

Me: "Don't tell me you got locked out because I don't have my house key either."
Joe: "What do you mean you don't have your keys?"
Me: "I didn't realize I didn't have them until I got to work because I left without my coat since it was so nice out this morning. I didn't think it was a big deal because you were home."
Joe: "Yeah, well I didn't realize the door was locked after you left. I guess I'm going to have to smash the garage window."

That's just what he did. Though to keep us safe he did board up the broken window. We'll be getting replacement glass here shortly. He did buy a new door lock set. The one that was on the house the internal knob turned fully whether the door was locked or unlocked. It was annoying because this is the second time this has happened, but the first resulting in smashed glass. The first time Joe locked himself out, he was taking the dogs out for the last walk of the night,. He finished up and realized the door was locked. He pounded on the door for 5 minutes before I woke up and heard him. Talk about peeved! I actually tried to find him to check on the pounding on the door before I noticed he wasn't in the house and neither were the dogs.

The new lock system was overdue after that night.

Gettin' Down

We took a trip to donate a few pieces of rather large furniture to the Salvation Army today. Already there is a good amount of space that has been opened in the living room. I can walk from the front door to the dining room without bumping into boxes. Yay

I'm cleaning out what little clothing I have left in my closest for donation & encouraged Joe to do the same. He managed to donate 4 overly stuffed bags of clothing. Wouldn't you know it, that little fashion whore still has more clothes than I do. Not fair, damnit!

Speaking of clothes, I got to use the washer & dryer for the first time today. Washer worked well, though it is a lot smaller than the one that I had in the Pine Ridge house. As for the dryer, if you close the door to that room you don't hear the horrible squeal it makes. In defense of the appliances, they are probably original to the house (1970 something) & have held out for a long time. So what if it takes 2 hours to dry a load of laundry...

Tomorrow we will be doing a few more cleaning tasks. If I can find my paint brushes and painting trays I might even get around to painting the full bathroom.

We're In!!!

Yippee!!! We're finally in the new house.

Ok, in reality we were in on Monday. I just get around to this whole blogging thing a little late. I'm happy to be out of the house in Pine Ridge, though it's bitter sweet. We put so much work into that house & didn't get to enjoy it for too long before it sold. I'm not complaining though, we are in a much nicer, much safer area. Even though we only moved 5 minutes away, it feels like 50 miles away.

Our new house is 1 of 2 on a cul-de-sac about a mile inside of our community. From what we can tell, our neighbours only come up on the weekends. We reached that conculsion because someone was in the house when we moved in over the weekend, but since Monday we haven't see anyone or tire tracks in the snow. I enjoy the privacy! The "kids" have all adjusted well. As soon as we get some stuff out of the garage & other stuff off to the Salvation Army, we will be able to really start getting settled in.