Month of August, 2003

Alaskan Cruise Pictures

Alaskan Cruise Photos - July 29 - August 6, 2003

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Crop Circles

Fascinating article on crop circles. I'm not sure what I believe about it all, but I'd really like to know if the "Special Crop Circle Investigative Unit in the US Air Force" is for real or not.

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Email Inboxes

I am becoming scared of checking email. My inbox is so full that I don't even know where to start. I can hardly read, reply, and delete email quick enough to keep up! The worst part is the deleting. I don't delete enough. I worry that I might need it later and if I'm not sure, I just leave it in the inbox taking up room. If I know for sure I need it later, I'll drag it off into a personal folder. But more often that not, I can't make that decision. Or I'm checking my mail on the wrong machine (because I have 3) and don't want it residing on the wrong hard drive. Oh, don't you see the trouble I'm in?!

Does anyone have any pointers for me? How can I get my inbox clean?!

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Out from Under my Rock

So, you know it's time to post when you get an email that says, "... are you alive or what?" (Thanks, Dave.) Yes, I am alive.

As you can expect, I've been pretty darn busy. Last week I was in Scottsdale, AZ for work. This week I'm in Scottsdale for work again. I spent a very brief weekend (just over 32 hours) in Denver seeing Summer and Greg. As Kevin would say I'm jet set. But being jet set isn't all it's cracked up to be...I'm tired. All the different time zones have definitely screwed with me.

Being in the corporate office is good for my career. I'm in planning meetings which is definitely a different type of role for me. It's also a good chance to get to know people. I'm really glad I've got the chance to be here to do this type of work. My favorite part of being in the corporate office is the musak in the bathrooms. Yep, musak.

Traveling so much makes me think about people in airports. For some reason there's something that happens to people's brains as soon as they walk into an airport - they go brain-dead. All sense of courteously and kindness is gone. It's like they lose all common sense and revert back to animalistic behavior (that behavior most closely resembles a herd of cattle).

Last week I had a movie date with Kevin while I was here. We saw Seabiscuit. I really, really enjoyed it. I especially liked the way they inserted a narration about American history into appropriate places. Also, the scenery was beautiful...makes me think I live in the wrong part of the country.

Phoenix is going through a gas shortage, as you've probably heard on the news. Early last week was the first time I've ever seen long lines for gas. By the end of the week though it appeared more stations had gas and prices had gone down a little bit. I managed to get gas without waiting in line at all on Friday...though the price was a bit high - $2.25. Rumor says the pipeline is fixed, but I haven't had time to check the news to know for sure.

The highlight of all this busy-ness was definitely seeing Summer. We haven't seen each other since October last year and there's nothing quite like hanging out with a good friend. (Now I just need to make it to El Paso to see Autumn and my life will be complete.) It was also really awesome to be in Colorado again. I lived in Estes Park, CO when I was 17/18 years old. Summer drove me up to Estes to see when I used to live. It had barely changed and brought back a lot of good memories. Summer was great to let me reminisce so much.

I miss my family and my dog. It will be good to wrap things up this week and go home for a long weekend. School started this week so I'll be jumping into homework too. Mostly I want to catch up on my sleep and hang out with the family. Only 3 more days until I go home.

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Weekend Recap

The weekend turned out far better than I thought. Saturday, after waking up early and complaining about what a horrible week it had been, I went back to sleep. Those couple of hours helped a lot. Got up and took the dogs for a walk. (Even though it was already sweltering at 9am.) A little later, Mom and I went shopping for tile. We're finally going to remodel my bathroom...as soon as I pick out some tile I like. It was a successful trip, and I think I've found what I want. Went back to Mom and Dad's house for lunch then just goofed off around my house. (Still working on those Alaska pictures...I don't think I'll ever be done!)

Saturday night Mom and Dad threw a party for their neighbors. I went thinking I would just make an appearance then ended up having so much fun I stayed until the end! It was so neat to meet new people and hear new stories. It was the loudest party I've been to in a long time and all the noise was from people talking! So it's safe to say everyone really enjoyed themselves. My parents did a great job with the food and making everyone comfortable. At final count we had 48 people in the house!

Today, I slept in late and only got up to go eat at Mom and Dad's. (Gosh, I think I ate over there the whole weekend!) After lunch, I helped Dad set up my parents' new bed. They recently bought a Serta "dial a number" bed. The kind with an air matress inside that you can set to your preferred firmness. We had to assemble the matress as well as the new bedframe they got to go with. It took quite awhile, but it was fascinating. I had always wondered what those bed were like and now I know. (Of course, I layed on it awhile when we finished. I liked it, which suprised me...but you can set it anyway you want, so it really shouldn't have been a surprise.)

Mom and Dad have allowed me to take their old bed to our house in order to have a guest room. So I spent the rest of the afternoon rearranging the office to make room for the bed. With Karen's help, I finally got it in here and all set up. It fits well even with my gigantic computer desk and I'm pleased. So anyone want to come visit? We've got an extra bed you can sleep on!

All in all the weekend was really good. The best part being that Kevin and I had been fighting, but we've worked it out. I'm new to this fighting and not breaking up thing. In all my past relationships, if there was a fight (no matter whose fault), I was out. But now I'm in a relationship that is really worth working things out. Wow, I'm really lucky (and need to remember that more often).

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End of the Week

This week has been a killer. Let me just a moment to remind myself how crappy it is to go back to work after taking 2 weeks of vacation. The next time I think about taking a long vacation, which would be next year at the earliest since all my vacation time is used, I need to think again. Don't get me wrong, it was absolutely fabulous to go to Alaska and spend time with my family, but coming back to work was horrible. My job isn't horrible and I love the people I work with, but two weeks of work piled up waiting for you to come back is horrible. All week I've been working my butt off trying to make a dent in it. I feel like I did fairly well, but I know I missed something. (I hate that feeling.)

In addition to all the work piled up, I had finals. Oh yeah, nothing like coming back and after working a 10 hour day hitting the books for hours. (I shouldn't complain, some people always work 10 hours days...it's the exception not the rule for me.) The final on Monday was long, but I felt pretty confident in my answers. Part of the reason it was so long was I wrote one whole essay on the completely wrong theory. It wasn't until I went back to check my work that I realized and had to re-write the whole thing. Yeah, I'm stupid and didn't reread the question before starting to write. Needless to say, it'll be a long, long time before that happens again.

The final on Thursday was a completely different story. I went in feeling like I had studied hard and really increased my knowledge before the exam. I certainly hadn't mastered the whole subject and was not an expert, but felt I could at least pass the exam. I left the test feeling stupid. It was so awful it was all I could do not to break down right then and there during the test. Instead, I waited to get to my car before shedding tears. It was a good release after the week I've had.

I thought that Friday would be my salvation, but it wasn't. First, Kevin didn't come down. Second, everything at work blew up. It just wasn't my day. So I crawled into bed to sleep hoping that would make it better. Par for the course, I woke up at 4:30am worrying and unable to sleep. So here I am, documenting what a crappy week this has been so I'll think twice about taking a long vacation. Mostly, I'm just complaining, because it's theraputic.

I can only hope that next week contains some more positive energy than this week. I'll be travelling to Arizona for work Monday through Friday, then I'll be in Denver for the weekend to visit Summer and Greg. At least I'll be able to wrap up the week with good, good friends. And on the lighter side, this weekend just started so maybe it can contain some good too. I'll just have to find it.

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Blackout of '03

Finally talked to Kevin this morning at 6:30. He said power had just been restored to his apartment (and obviously his cell phone since that's the only one he has). It was a mixture of good news and bad news. Good news is Kevin is safely at home. Bad news is he's not coming to visit this weekend. With everything such a mess, I'm sure it's for the best.

Kevin said he was at work when the power went out around 4pm. They all thought it would come back on after a few minutes, but became concerned when it didn't. The emergency lights came on and they were told in an announcement to stay at their desks. Apparently the exact same announcement was made on Sept 11th...so naturally everyone decided to leave the buildings. Eventually, Kevin got to the street and was able to hear the news on a car radio that people were crowded around. He decided to walk home.

Kevin spent 3 hours walking home and covered a total of 160 blocks. He was without power all night but, thankfully, was safe at home. What a crazy, crazy situation.

*Update: today the reports say 50 million people were out of power (up from 11 million last night).

Power Outages

Power outages across the northeast and Canada today. New York City, Toronto, Detroit, Cleveland, Toledo, and Ottowa were all completely blacked out earlier today. Eleven million people without power. When I heard around 5pm, I immediately called Kevin. I couldn't get a hold of him then and I'm still not able to get a hold of him. Cells phones aren't working, neither are the subways. The news is reporting that it isn't an act of terrorism, but a power problem. (I vaguely remember hearing about a similar outage a decade ago...something about a switch that went out, but I don't remember exactly.) The amazing part is the reports are saying that people in NYC were calm and there weren't any major acts of chaos. Amazing.

It's not completely clear what the status of electricity is now, but I don't think they're back up yet. I'm really worried about Kevin. I hope he didn't get stuck in the subway, especially with the heat (90+ degrees F). However, the power went out just as people were leaving work. Kevin probably got stuck walking home over 6 miles. To top off all my worries, he's supposed to get on a plane first thing in the morning to come here for the weekend. Without trains running, I don't know how's he going to get to the airport. I assume he'll take a cab, but who knows if he'll be able to get one. I just hope he's safe.

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Friendster

I swear everybody on Friendster is a hipster. Except me. I'm just not cool enough.

Exam
I finished my first exam tonight. Everything went smoothly and I feel good about it. It was just long, really long.

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Busy Weekend

I've been pretty busy since I got back in town. Mostly focusing on school since I have finals this week. One on Monday night - organizational behavior and statistics on Thursday night. Thursday is going to be hell. I'm totally stressing out about it. In addition, it looks like there are a lot of things brewing at work. Plenty to stress about there as well. Problems, problems...I'm in the business of dealing with people's problems, which is ok; I just need to learn how to not take them on emotionally as my own problems. It's a lot tougher for me to not let things bother me than I let off. But anything that doesn't kill me makes me stronger. I'd better sleep because I'll need plenty of energy getting back to the office tomorrow.

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At Home

We got back from our trip Thursday morning and I'm still adjusting to real life. Not too much to say right now...working on posting pictures from the trip.

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Ketchican, Alaska

I'm in Ketchican, Alaska on the 3rd day of our cruise. It's a cute little town that is known for gold mining in the beginning of the century and currently for fishing. This time of year, salmon are spawning and we actually got to watch them swim upstream. It's fascinating to me that nature would choose for them to do this...it looks so hard! There was one section of the stream called "the falls" which was particularly harsh. Humans built a fish ladder on the side which is there to make it an easier trip for the fish. It's hard to explain, but I've got pictures. We'll see if they come out alright. It's very overcast and wet here. Apparently Ketchican gets something like 25 feet of rain a year...and they don't get much snow! It's definitely wet.

Overall, I'm having a fabulous time. Tuesday we flew into Vancouver and did some sightseeing. It's such a new and beautiful city. I especially liked Stanley Park which is kinda like Central Park. The weather is bound to be pretty temperate all year long based on the folliage and the amount of windows in all the apartment buildings. If the exchange rate was a little bit better, I'd think seriously about working in Vancouver. It was a very appealing place.

Wednesday afternoon we boarded the Carnival Spirit. We spent plenty of time running around the ship getting the lay of the land so to speak. The cruise ship is amazingly large (12 decks and over 900 feet long). There's 2100 people on the ship, but surprisingly it doesn't feel all that crowded. We've been eating tons...of course, the food is amazing.

We spent Wednesday night and Thursday at sea, so there was much laying around and relaxing. It was a gorgeous day yesterday so we laid on deck mostly. I'm already halfway through the newest Harry Potter which I only started two days ago. Saw my fist whale even! It was like he was doing a show for us - flipping his tail in and out of the water over and over.

It looks like the next couple days are going to be very similar. Some sightseeing, nature watching, eating, reading, relaxing, hanging out with the family, etc. This has already been a fabulous vacation and I'm so glad to have more days to come!

Also, today is Mom and Dad's 34th wedding anniversary! Mom said the cutest thing, "I gave your dad a card this morning and today he's going to buy me something expensive." Ha! It's such a blessing to have parents that have stayed together for so long and still have such a good humor! Congrats, you guys!

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