Back at Maswik

Well seems like internet didn't want to connect in my room again, so I walked down to Maswik Cafe again today. And probably just my luck the internet will work again in the room when I get home. The wireless service is sooo finicky in my building that it gets real annoying.

As usual business looks pretty slow. The special today is beef tips over mashed potato...not for me. Cashier cracked up when she saw that I was buying 3 brownies though.

I work tomorrow & Tuesday (2-close) then get Wednesday off. So I should get 4 days with vacation pay and then 2 work days for this week, which should mean that I will have overtime...but thats if I actually get my vacation pay. I will be really surprised if its on my next paycheck. I never got the vacation pay in December.

The schedule for Yavapai is partly posted up. They have the schedule for the cooks & dishwashers but not for anyone out front. So I will have to wait & see where I will be working.
Found out yesterday, that the bartender~Amy got the manager position at Yavapai. I've seen her for a short time after she got moved to Maswik Pizza Pub but don't usually spend lots of time chatting with her.

While I was at Maswik today~I finally bought my plane tickets to go back East in June. I get to Boston on June 2nd, and then take the bus up to NH on June 3rd...plenty of time to make sure I get to Kevin's graduation on the 5th. Then I will fly back to Phoenix on the 8th.

Mother Nature is calling

For New England~The highest wind reported was 91 mph off the coast of Portsmouth, N.H. — well above hurricane force of 74 mph. Portsmouth is a few hours East/Southeast of where most of my kids live.
Up in Littleton,NH where my baby brother & his wife live, my sister-in-law, messeged me saying that it was flurring out but they had very little snow on the ground.
My kids in Campton/Plymouth area are expecting snow everyday until Thursday. Lots of areas in New England are losing electricity/power. Internet forecast for their area has gone up to 33 degrees just since I started typing this. Supposedly it's 43 degrees here at the canyon right now. ~EDIT~ It started hailing outside just before I walked down to Maswik Cafe before 3pm.


Now in Hinesville,GA where Adam is stationed right now...the weather is still in the mid 50's-low 60's. I bet Kevin wishes that he was still there on vacation.
Philip is still at FT.HOOD and they should be getting a bit of rain on Sunday & Monday. I still follow FT.HOOD on twitter & facebook, but haven't really read their updates much lately.

~Relief~couple of my kids and my grand-daughter have been online today so I know that at least they have power.


I was busy reading up on the news of the earthquake that hit CHILI early this morning. Tsunamis are a unforunate norm after earthquakes and places as far as Japan & Hawaii are on alert. Robert Falvey (from high school) has been living in Hawaii with his wife for years now. He already made flight plans to fly over to Savannah,GA for tonight. I just checked on facebook and he wasn't online right now...so hopefully he is already flying out of Hawaii.

I was so busy catching up on news today that I realized I hadn't eaten before noon today, so I got the rice cooker going. I decided to try out some new mexican seasoning that I had bought from the general store weeks ago. I ain't into real spicy food so I wasn't sure if I would like it...but turns out I couldn't put more in.

~The latest Yahoo news~
HILO, Hawaii (AP) — Waters have begun receding off the shores of Hawaii in what appears to be the first sign of a tsunami.
The tsunami began affecting Hilo Bay on the Big Island just before noon local time. Water began pulling away from shore, exposing reefs and sending dark streaks of muddy, sandy water offshore. That is usually an indication of the wave building strength before coming ashore.
The tsunami raced across the Pacific Ocean in terrifying force after the magnitude-8.8 quake hit Chile. Officials in Hawaii had ample time to get people out of the potential disaster area, and thousands were evacuated.

"Hair Month"

Wow, the super-bright lights sure does make the new red hair-color stand out.

slightly more normal lighting when I stand in my room. But I can still tell I colored my hair....wonder why nobody at Maswik seemed to notice yesterday.

Or the fact that I trimmed it a few days ago too..

.

Well it seems for the last few yrs that Feb. has turned into "hair month" Whether it's just getting tired & bored of a long winter...but by February I am ready for a change. So I end up changing my hair. This year I didn't go into Flagstaff or anywhere else to have it done. I cut it myself...which some people might think is crazy but many, many years ago I always cut my own hair as I thought it was a crazy waste of money to have other people do it. All I really tried to do was trim/ even out the bottom of last years haircut. Course I probably messed up the back of it but nobody has said anything about it yet so it can't be to bad.

Course I'm sure I'll notice the white hair again within a week. My hair never keeps the color very long and I read or saw somewhere years ago that RED hair-dye doesn't last as long as other colors, but I like reddish colored hair. Actually this time I used "Nice 'n Easy~Natural Reddish Blonde"

Years ago after coloring my hair a light teabag (or whatever the name of the red color was) I was in a check-out line of a store and a total stranger was behind me stroking my hair as if it would bring him luck...LOL He finally asked if I was Irish (which yes, part of my dad's family is) but had to disappoint him and tell him that my color came from a box. Even though I do remember a couple school pictures (long before I ever dyed my hair) where the lighting made my hair look slightly red-tinted (but I also wore red shirts for those pics)....think it was about 5th-7th grade.

Well I'm going to go visit Brenda for awhile (she's going home early from work cuz she has been sick this last week) wonder if she will notice a difference in my hair?

~EDIT~

Kevin made it back home to NH, today and they are also expecting snow this weekend just like I am.

Birthdays

Well the little Hopi lady that cleans my building is celebrating her 89th birthday today. HR had a pizza party for her at noon today. Genevieve said when she was born on the rez that some nurse would visit the rez once a month or so and fill out whatever birth certificates that were needed whenever she got there and just put the date on for the day she filled out the paperwork. So we don't really know when Genevieve's was really born.

Genevieve has worked here at the Grand Canyon longer then I have been alive. I think she is going on her 50 year anniversary here. As far as I know she has had the same job for the whole 50 years. I can't think of anyone else that I have ever met anywhere in the world who can say that they have had the same job for that long.

Trying to imagine myself working at here that long...wow I would have to imagine myself staying in 1 spot for 50 years. Sometimes it seems possible and other times it seems like a crazy impossible idea. Well even if I stayed here 50 years, I have already changed jobs a few times.

Well my son Kevin should be home tomorrow. He must be busy sight-seeing around GA cuz he still is not online. Seeing as Kevin was born on my birthday, he tells people that he is my best birthday present.

We had our annoying fire drill today. Didn't last very long. Andrea got woke up and just as she came outside we were told that it was over. Rachel came out of the shower after the "Fire & Security" left.
Well for some darn reason the wireless internet wouldn't work in my room today, so I finally came down to Maswik Cafe to type this. It's after 4pm and not many people in here at all. From my seat I only count 15 people sitting at tables and most of us are employees that I recognize.

Snowing Again

Started out the day by getting out of bed late. Feet have been dry lately so today I got out the "Working Hands" Ointment that I bought from a lady down in Valle last year. With just olive oil, bees wax, lavender, calendula & comfry on the ingredients list how can you go wrong? So I greased up both feet with it and then put on the warm fuzzy socks and my feet haven't itched or bugged me all day since then.

Instead of making coffee, I had a protein smoothie (soymilk, banana, chocolate whey protein powder) But around 1-2pm, I was tired and about ready to go back to bed. Geez, I also said that I drink coffee for the taste not to help stay awake. So why am I so tired today when I didn't have any? But instead of going back to sleep, 1 of the guys from downstairs insisted that I go to the store with him.

Snowing out again today but at least the wind wasn't blowing. The shuttle buses were practically empty...on the trip to store & back home.

Later I watched the movie "Liar,Liar" downstairs with Dan. He was cooking some beef stew type of meal in a slow cooker which made the room smell good everytime he lifted the lid to stir it.
Dan also got the 2nd bed out of his room, which made it look lots better...almost got me in the mood to re-arrange my room.

Time Off

ok, I'm sorta on vacation until after the beginning of March. I get 2 weeks vacation every year. I had a vacation in December but never got the vacation pay, so instead of debating it over with the general office I just got another vacation. Only this time my heartburn & hacking cough are driving me nuts. But hopefully this time I get the vacation pay otherwise I will have to go whine for it; seeing as I need to get the vacation pay by my anniversary date which is March 13th.



I've been sleeping more during my time off and watching the snow through my window. Yup we got more snow this week. Luckily today was a nice sunny day and when I took the shuttle up to the post office, I was surprised at how crowded the bus was. I didn't recognize the first driver and will assume he was new...especially when he told guests at the shrine that no more people could fit and there was a big open space up front of the bus. If this driver don't know how to pack sardines then he won't last through the Summer.



I cooked more brown rice in my rice cooker today (third day this week)...boy wouldn't my grandmother have loved to have one of those in her time. Its a small rice cooker and sits right next to my laptop...yeah, food & laptop all within reach.



I really need to set myself a schedule of some sort to get stuff done that I wanted when I planned on this sorta vacation. Yeah I can imagine my daughter laughing at that. Sure just make another list of what I want to do. A list/ time schedule or whatever you want to call it doesn't do any good if I keep losing the list. Didn't see my son, Kevin, on facebook today. Maybe he's on his way back home. Kevin spent his school vacation in GA visiting Adam.



Well someone else here at the canyon (Rebecca) has also started a blogger site and she wants to try to write everyday...hmmm, wonder if I could think of anything to write about every single day. Geez, I'm not usually to good about keeping up with doing something every single day. Guess I could at least try it until it's time for my camping trip.

Single~NOT looking

Once again some guy joins myspace and will send me a messege telling me that I look interesting & beautiful, which tells me he is bored & blind.

My relationship says "single" not "desperately looking". I'm single cuz I wanna be single. Now don't get me wrong...a "committed" relationship can be nice. Not everyone can be like my manager and brag on how they married their best friend....relationships require to much work and a whole lot of compromising, a whole lot more then I want to deal with anymore.

As an example:
If 1 person likes things hot (as in the temp of a room or the temp of the water in a shower) in order to compromise, both people would have to give and take and you would run the water warm. Well then you get 2 people complaining cuz whoever likes very hot showers will think the water is to cold and whoever wants a cold shower will say the warm water is to hot. My solution~get the hell outta my shower.
And the same person who likes cold showers also wants to sleep with all the windows open all night, all year long; while other person is freezing to death. My solution~sleep in seperate rooms.
Course if I sleep in a seperate room, then nobody can complain about my snoring, the fact I'm a blanket hog or bed-hog, or whine if I fall asleep reading a book with the lights on or whine if I decide not to go to sleep at all.

I have a tendency now to get really selfish about wanting to do my own thing and on my own time schedule. As a single person I can go visit friends whenever I want without some "significant other" whining that its taking time away from them, I can spend my measly paycheck anyway I want without someone telling me what I should or shouldn't buy.

I feel sorry for people who are actually like Julia Robert's character in Runaway Bride....in the fact that she had no idea how she liked her eggs. Sure she knew how every potential husband liked their eggs because she would just copy them and eat whatever they ate. She had no mind of her own and had no idea what she liked (until the end of the movie).

Just thought of a situation, when I was staying with a friend in TN, and we went shopping together. I got out of his truck to walk into the store while he was still fiddling with stuff in the truck...for some reason he got irratated and called out to me and at the moment I forget the exact comments he said. But I couldn't figure out what his problem was...sure I was crashing out on his sofa for a month and we did ride down to the store together, but I was still a big girl, enough to walk into a store all by myself. Seeing as we had been writing for a few years before then, I assumed he already knew I was sorta used to coming & going as I please.

Now alot of people will tell me that I'll regret being single when I'm older and will want someone around then. Well I live at the Grand Canyon now and I have people "around" everywhere. I have felt alone/lonely more times when I had a "significant other" sitting across from me at the kitchen table then I do now when I get the table all to myself.
I also have more male friends here then I have ever had in my entire life. Friends who will gladly give you a hug everytime they see you, or unexpectedly sit down with me for breakfast while I was typing this up today, or wonder where the hell I've been if they ain't seen me for awhile, or go out for coffee & ice cream (without calling it a date even if they pay for the coffee & ice cream).

Society makes such a big deal out of everyone needing a "significant other" that even if total strangers meet up with toddlers will automatically call the toddlers "boyfriend/girlfriend" if the toddlers are acting nice toward each other. Geez the kids aren't even out of diapers yet and parents want to image them paired up with someone. Sorry but thats DUMB to me.

sappy movies on Valentine's Day

About 12 & 1/2 years ago while I was living in a homeless shelter, a few of us women would hog the TV on Sundays to watch whatever movie was on the Lifetime channel. Seeing as how I was pregnant...still working a fulltime job...and giving most of my paycheck to my kids & their dad at the time, nobody wanted to tell me that I couldn't have the time off to relax with the TV no matter what sporting event was playing. In fact the day became known as "Sappy Sunday" for the 4 months that I was living at the shelter.

Well I still like sappy movies and here's a list of some of my favorite (or at least what I will call sappy movies);
The Notebook, Dirty Dancing (1987), Titanic (1997), Pretty Woman, Notting Hill (1999),Grease (1978),Stepmom (1998), Ghost, Runaway Bride (1999), A Walk to Remember (2002), City of Angels (1998), A Family Man

So seeing as I have tonight off again, I get to sit home and watch movies tonight. I like Drew Barrymore movies and I have a couple that I haven't seen in quite awhile so I figure I might as well watch them tonight. #1 Never Been Kissed #2 EverAfter. Drew Barrymore is always good for a laugh.

I realized today that I forgot to buy popcorn yesterday while I was in Flagstaff. How in the world did I forget popcorn? Oh well it just means I have to get it at the general store here later this week. I also seem to be missing a magazine that I was sure that I bought....maybe I left it in Brenda's car.

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Today is Valentine's Day (a rather dumb holiday which I never liked). AZ became a state on Valentine's Day in 1912, guess that makes AZ "The Lover's State"
People expect to much from this holiday...there was something online today about what the "wrong" gifts to send on Valentine's Day. A box of chocolates from a drugstore made the list...since when is it wrong to give chocolate...no matter where it came from?

My day in Flagstaff

Actually this picture was taken last year at a little diner/cafe in the old part of town. Brenda & I like stopping in there to eat...but at the moment I can't even think of the name of the place. I just liked looking at all the different license plates they had on display.

Today we found a new place to eat called "Brandy's Kitchen". Luckily they serve breakfast later on weekends, and it was yummy.

Next to Brandy's Kitchen was a scrapbooking store. Brenda went in to find stuff for a wedding gift for a co-worker who is getting married later this month. They had lots of stuff for valentines, Easter, graduation and even halloween.

Then we went to see if Michael's craft store had a scrapbooking book. Brenda found a nice book there and even though I had not planned on buying anything in Michael's, I got about $40 worth of Jewelry-making stuff.

I finally got to see what all the fuss was about at JoAnn's too....1 of our snowstorms that we had this year, totalled the roof in. That store was all roped off with warnings signs up telling people not to go near it.

Then we went to Target & Fry's. All the stores we went to were busy with long lines but their lines were not as looooong as the line of traffic we saw as we were heading home....about 7 miles of traffic trying to get into Flagstaff. Glad I wasn't in that line.

Lazy weekend

Yes your calender says that today is Tuesday but its my weekend as I had yesterday & today off and then I also have this coming Friday-Sunday off. Hooray the wifi just started working in my room again today (but still messes up alot)...was also able to check my direct deposit and I got about $150.
Strangest thing, Wal-mart in NH (where Forrest works) sent me his insurance cards. Got them in the mail today. He wasn't to thrilled when I emailed him to tell him. I guess now AZ is garnishing his checks. Boy government & state welfare people are all nuts.

Now I should find the darn paperwork that I need to bring into HR. I know I still have it because I brought it into work this week and one of the managers made a copy of it (which they were not to thrilled with) 1 of the managers asked me if I had thought of being a hostess, as they thought that job would be better for me. hmmmm?
Now seeing as I didn't get my 2-week vacation pay in December (no idea why) I have decided to try again for another 2-week vacation starting Feb.18th...hopefully I get paid for this one.

Now I started cleaning out boxes in my room. Giving away magazines to my neighbors. Also passed out some tomatoes to a few. Gave most of my yarn to Dale. She made me a new purple hat.
Somehow I still have to much crap in my room-and what am I doing now? wasting time on the internet.

Its snowy & cold today~I sure hope the snow is all gone by March 27th as that's the day I go hiking again and camp-out at Indian Gardens. If the ground is still covered in snow, I might just skip that trip. I decided to go then for the day I get to have my birthday holiday off (ok so I would be a week and a half late)
Actually the trails have been icy lately so mules are not taking people down to Phantom Ranch for a few days. We are having a $25 special for mule rides to the Abyss until the Feb. 28th. Haven't decided yet if I want to go on that ride.

offline for a bit

seems the network I always connected to at home has disappeared, then my computer screen shifted so that instead of being in the normal (horizontal) position everything is now coming up flipped around (vertically...if that makes sense)

So today I'm sitting at park headquarters to check email and do a quick search on AZ unemployment stuff and also stuff about a CT scan. Seems the clinic here wants me to get a CT scan done to get a better idea on what all my headaches are about. I also have to schedule an appointment with the eye doctor down in Flagstaff.
I told the doc here to wait until I can rob a bank first...actually I have Tuesday off, so hopefully I can get all my paperwork together again and apply for state medical assistance and hopefully they will pay for it all.

Geez if I can get on AHCCCS then they will also provide transportation down to all the DR appts too, so I don't have to worry about that. Otherwise it would be easier to just move to a Flagstaff shelter.