Signs I Have Seen

Since I have been living up here I have noticed a proliferation of signs regarding cell phone usage. I don't know if there were any back in CA, but if there were I did not notice them. The place I work has a sign that says "Kindly turn off cell phones when in building" and my chiropractor has one that says "This is a place of healing--turn off your cell phone." I have been to more than one semi-fast food place where when you step up to the counter to order, a sign tells you to get off your phone. I think it's good that businesses realize that they don't have to deal with people on their cell phones if they don't want to. It makes for a smoother transaction and less opportunity for people to be rude.
Okay enough about that. The other signs I have noticed have been the handmade cardboard signs that the homeless beggars on the street corners use. The homeless in Spokane are starting to get creative with these signs, they are really raising the bar for homeless beggars everywhere. Here are three examples from the past 2 days:

"Homeless Veteran With Visions of a Cheeseburger" That one was ok. Then later that same car trip we saw:
"Why Lie-I Need a Veggie Burger" I'm sensing a trend here. But the best one was
the one we saw today:

"Adopt A Hobo -- $1.00"

I almost did.

Recycling

I am a recycler. I used to call myself a fierce recycler back in Monterey. There you could recycle everything into one can, and boy did I ever. I was so obsessive about it that if I saw someone throw a can or bottle into the trash at my house, after they left I would go through the trash and fish it out to recycle. I have always had a box under my desk for junk mail and old papers and when it got full I would just take it out to the big can. And everything plastic went out to recycle. We were allowed to recycle all the plastic with the numbers in the triangle from 1 through 7. That covers just about all plastic. I was proud of myself for being such a fierce recycler.

Then we moved to Spokane. Where they hardly recycle anything. They take cans, some bottles, and plastic soda and milk jugs, only the triangle number 1. Triangles 2 through 7 just go into the trash. And paper, NO, only newspaper and corrugated cardboard. Junk mail is considered "mixed waste" and in order to recycle it you have to go to a special company and PAY THEM to take it. Which I have done. At first it really bugged me to throw something in the trash that I know is recyclable. But now you should see the way I am tossing those sour cream and yogurt containers into the trash like I don't care, almost relieved that I have one less thing to rinse out! What has happened to me? I am no longer the fierce recycler I imagined myself to be. So I have demoted myself to just recycler, hoping for the day the City of Spokane is able to take everything recyclable in one can so I can take my title back.

Adjusting

So I worked a full week at work and then when my kids came home this past week I only worked three half-days. Being off was good, I was able to get a lot of stuff done like school shopping, dentist appointments and school enrollment. But Monday I go back full time. Now, the first week I worked full time, I had a real hard time with it. There were moments that I prayed not to just get up and walk out. These feelings alarmed me, I didn't know where they were coming from. Was it the job, the work, the place, the people, what? I thought about it all last week and this week and tried to put my finger on just what it was that was causing these urges to quit. About Thursday of this week, I think I had my answer.

The problem is me.

I just don't want to work. I am used to staying home and I want to continue staying home. Well, staying home is not a feasible option. So I just have to get over it and haul my sorry self into work. I will have to (sigh) adjust. Over the next few weeks there will be more adjusting around here as Leo starts middle school and Max starts college. I'm sure it will be easier for them than it has been for me. I have gone back into the workforce before after periods of stay-at-home-mom life and I have never had such a hard time with it. When did I become so set in my ways? PS That is a rhetorical question, family members and friends need not answer! :-)

Clarification

If I had been the one to write the previous post it would have gone like this. And the reason I didn't write it is that I was watching Law and Order--dun dun!

I only worked half a day today and then had to take Leo to the orthodontist because he is ready for phase 2 of his braces. His new ortho has a very cool office way up in the north end of town and since we were up there we did some school clothes shopping for the boys. We were hungry so we went to Red Robin for lunch. Their burgers are really good AND they have fun coasters. It seems inevitable that when we go out to eat that at some point the pens come out and things start becoming works of art. We never draw on menus but pretty much everything else is fair game. Napkins, sugar packets and especially those paper kids menus. Anyway, Red Robin has coasters that just beg to be drawn on, so of course we did. And in sticking with his emo theme of late, made the coaster's sad face into an emo kid. I think that if you add a little mustache to it, then it will look like Hitler. A little emo Hitler.
When Max signed off on the previous post he used the letters POMK. I knew all the other abbreviations but I had never heard of POMK. Apparently it stands for Puke On My Keyboard. Why I do not know. Is puking on one's keyboard such a common occurrence that they have to have an abbreviation for it?

RED ROBIN

Went to Red Robin for lunch today. Food was tasty. Coasters were fun too.




This is Max by the way.
lol j/k j/k wtf? pomk!

Tonight's Outing

My kids got back yesterday and today we were supposed to go back to school shopping for Leo but we didn't, but I did get my hair colored, which shows that at least my priorities are in order! Have I found the kids and me a doctor yet? No, but I got me a hairdresser! Anyway...
Tonight we decided to go to Hu Hot mongolian grill for dinner, which is so good, but before that we went to this store called the General Store. This store is aptly named because they have a little of everything. It has an emphasis on sporting goods, hunting and camping stuff, and has a bit of a trailer trash vibe to it. They had kids camo clogs for crying out loud! I got the boys some new shoes (not camo clogs just so you know), and as we were in line at the checkstand, the cashier at the stand next to ours dropped the F-Bomb in a conversation she was having with the people she was checking out! Max and I looked at each other in disbelief, it was very clear that we were not in Target, not even close. I gave the benefit of the doubt to the bomb dropper, thinking that she must have known those people to feel uninhibited enough to swear, but even so! Everyone heard her! I would say that we won't be going there again, except they have a good selection of Dickies pants, which is what Max wears. And maybe my little grandniece would look cute in those camo clogs...



Imagine these in camo. Yikes!

Supper Club Success!

Well we had seven for the Supper Club tonight. All sitting around my tiny 4 seater dining table. Eating pasta and drinking wine and talking and laughing. The food was yummy and the company was great. I'm really starting to feel more at home in Spokane, and part of it is because of the Supper Club girls who are starting to feel like my friends. Anyway, if you want all the sordid details from tonight I'm sure that Faythe will have a post up soon, she took pictures and always does such a good job with the Supper Club posts. No pressure, Faythe!
I have to go feed the cats now, Blossom will not shut up. Then it's off to bed, I'm beat, and tomorrow is a big day--my kids are coming home!

Another Feather in Spokane's Cap

Spokane has 4 seasons, the normal ones. But a local told me that Spokane only has two seasons: Winter and Construction. The cold winter prohibits road crews from working, so they schedule all their road projects in the summer. The bad news is that in the summer there are a lot of detours while they do road work. However, and this is new to me: The road projects are finished by winter. In CA, they take FOREVER to do a road project because they can work year-round on it. And by work I mean 5 guys standing around looking at one guy working. Maybe. Sometimes they all stand around, don't they have an office to have their meetings at, why do they want to have them in the middle of the freeway? Anyway, the subject of this post is not stupid CalTrans.
This summer, part of the Interstate was closed while they resurface the highway. This has meant that the freeway entrance closest to my house has been closed, forcing me to drive through downtown and adding about 10 minutes to my commute. I have been looking forward to mid-September when they will be done. Well, yesterday in the paper I read where the freeway is going to open back up by next week, it seems the road crews finished the project THREE WEEKS EARLY. That blows my mind. And makes me very happy.
And another thing. I have never seen a place where people actually go the speed limit. I'm not kidding, if the sign says 60, they do 60. If the sign says 20, they do 20! It's amazing, I actually kind of like it! Also, there are a lot of intersections with no stop signs around here, and people are so courteous, they are like those two gophers in the Warner Brothers cartoons, after you, no after you, no I insist! It's great. Of course I'd be lying if I said there were no speeders or jerks on the road, of course they are everywhere, but there isn't that mass disregard for the speed limit like there is in CA. It's good.

After you!

Joining the Ranks

Yesterday morning I wrote in the previous post that I had 2 job interviews to go to. Well I went, and by 5:30 pm I had a job offer which I accepted. I am now an employee of a company called Scafco, they manufacture grain silos and steel studs for construction. I start Monday. I hope I'm ready, it has been awhile since I've done office work, I'm hoping it will all come back to me like riding a bike. Wish me luck!

This morning Faythe and I went out to Greenbluff and split a box of absolutely beautiful peaches, but what do you do with 20 huge peaches when it's just you at home?
1) Give six peaches to Steve and Sara.
2) Make peach salsa.
3) Make a peach smoothie tonight.
4) Eat peaches and cream for breakfast tomorrow.

Have a peachy weekend, Lord knows I will!

Some Good News...

1) I have two job interviews today at 10am and 1pm. Even if I tank, at least people are calling me.

2) Steve's cat PJ was found and returned yesterday. He had been gone for 6 weeks. Yesterday was a good day for Steve and Sara.

3) In other cat-related news, Blossom went up the tree again, but this time I was able to talk her down instead of trying to catch her as she fell.

Last night I had anxiety-riddled dreams about not being able to get to these job interviews on time. I don't feel nervous but I must be deep down. If you are the praying type, pray for God's will in this situation. That takes the heat off me, then I can be regular goofy me and not nervous me, nervous me has lost me jobs in the past.

OK gotta go.

My Kids Are Gone

Well I put the boys on a plane this morning for California. They are going to be gone for 11 days. This will be the most time I have ever spent by myself since they were born. I am not looking forward to it, but I have made a list of things to accomplish while they are away, that way I won't just sit around in my nightgown and cry for 11 days, maybe only a couple of days. Some of the things on my list are:
1) Get the cars washed. That should take all of half an afternoon.
2) Get the cars oil changed. There's the other half.
3) Go to Green Bluff and pick some fruit or flowers. This would be more fun to do with someone, any volunteers?
4) Finish putting together the office/craft room. That way I can start calling it the craft room and quit calling it the crap room.
5) Go to TJ Maxx. Enough said.
6) Wash Max's clothes and hang them up in his closet. But only as a last resort if I'm desperate.
So, for now I'm going to refer to my house as the Fortress of Solitude, at least until the 20th, when I am hosting the August edition of the Sunday Night Supper Club. Please feel free to email or call me anytime!

Saturday Morning Star Trek

Kirk and Spock are hot!

Every Saturday morning on G4 they show like 6 Star Treks in a row. It has become a fun habit to get up Saturday morning and turn it on. Here are some random quotes from this morning, some from Star Trek, some from us.

"Why is Chekov's hair teased into a bouffant?"

"Not jack-off, Max, Chek-ov!"

"He's dead, Jim."

"Kirk is going to kiss her, you can tell because clarinets are playing."

"My name is Khan. Welcome to Fantasy Island."

"I'm afraid he's dead, Jim."

"Look, it's Julie Newmar!"

"Her hair looks like the marble rye from Seinfeld."

"That is not a giant cat, they just built a tiny hallway and put the cat in it."

"That's not makeup, it's peanut butter. Extra chunky."

"That man is dead, Jim."


In closing, a Saturday morning with Kirk and the Gang is time well spent.

Knitting Fever

Yesterday I learned the basics of how to knit. I know how to cast on and do the knit stitch. I took a class at this yarn shop called Holy Threads. It is a beautiful store not too far from my house and the store itself is in a beautiful old house. In the class I would learn how to knit a scarf using this awesome yarn called Noro. Now, I had attempted to learn to knit once before at this yarn shop in Pacific Grove, and for some reason it just didn't stick. I think it was because the yarn was red and boring, and the needles were slippery. By the time I got home from that class I had forgotten everything I had supposedly been taught. But this time when I saw the yarn I was determined to learn, so I went to this class. I was the only one there, and I was taught by the shop owner herself, a lovely woman named Chris, or Cris, or maybe Kris, whatever, she was a great teacher. She was very encouraging and patient, and we had a lovely two-hour visit while I was learning how to knit. I feel like I made a friend! AND I learned how to knit! Double-bonus! Here is the picture of the beautiful Noro yarn, it's from Japan, and very artistic with lots of different colors and textures:



And here is the scarf so far. I think crocheting a scarf using this yarn would work too, and probably would go a lot faster, but learning how to knit will open up lots of projects so I'm excited about it, I feel like I'm part of a club.



Knit on!

The Transformation is Complete

Yesterday I went and got Washington license plates for the cars. Even though I had to get a smog check for one of them, the whole process only took about an hour, and that included going across town from the smog place to the license place. The way they smog cars here in WA is super efficient compared to CA. The smog places are run by the state in centralized locations and charge a flat fee of $15. You drive in, they hook your car up to a computer, and you drive out with a certificate, the whole process took about 15 minutes. You never even leave your car! I was highly impressed. Then it was over to the Licensing Office. There were two people ahead of me. TWO. Not fifty like at the CA DMV. I waited about 2 or 3 minutes to get called to a booth where the gal processed my papers for both cars in about 10 minutes and at the end she handed me my plates. I didn't have to wait 2 months for the plates to come in the mail, I got them on the spot! The total cost for smogging one car and registering two came to $190.50. The same thing in CA would have cost me $376, that's a savings of $185.50, nearly 50% less. Less time, less money, and better results. WOOHOO!!

So now when I do something dumb in traffic, which is daily, I won't be that idiot California driver, I will just be an idiot.

PS I kept my CA plates and hung them up in my garage, just sentimental I guess.