Fun and Games

It's been a crazy week.
The girl I work with, who replaced my friend Marly who retired this spring, has been threatening to quit almost since day one.
I wish she would already as it is very stressful working with someone who complains about the job she was hired for.
Granted there are parts of my job I dislike, but I do them anyway.
All the energy & time she commits to complaining to anyone who will listen, she could have the tasks completed.
She's hyperactive and in constant motion as her leg is constantly swinging and her had is never still on the mouse.
Try sitting next to a hyper person all day....
I have nicknamed her Sparky as she reminds me of a hyper little dog.

I took the Friday before and Tuesday after Columbus Day/CA Thanksgiving Day as my BIL was in town with a cousin from Canada, and as my BIL would be out of the country for the USA Thanksgiving, and my in-laws were Canadian, we decided to celebrate Thanksgiving the Sunday before Columbus Day.
So that day I made 4 homemade pies, 2 apple and 2 pumpkin...from scratch, homemade crust...not from a mix...real apples etc..
And we had the traditional Turkey dinner as I was lucky enough to find a fresh one at the local supermarket as my Hubby who said that he would get one for $.99 a pound at a place he knew, forgot.
So I ended up paying $1.69 /lb for a fresh Honeysuckle White Turkey, one of the 2 non-frozen turkeys they had in the whole store.
It was well worth it.
It turned out so tender and moist.
Everyone enjoyed the dinner.
My daughter invited her friend over and told her that it was an official Canadian Thanksgiving as we had an actual Canadian there for dinner.
My son was home for the weekend from college.
I took him back to college Tuesday as I had the day off and Hubby took his brother to the airport on his way to work.
My mother went with us as it is a 2 hour drive each way and she came to keep me company on the ride back. We went to Wendy's for lunch once we got to the college's town.
Although the weekend started off rough with the CT scan, it turned out nice.

Well that left Sparky to fend for herself for 2 whole days at work.
Rumor has it she was throwing files down on her desk and swearing a lot.
She actually took home all her personal stuff off her desk.
When I came back to work Weds, she was crabby and complaining about the job and threatening to quit. I just told her "You have to do what makes you happy".
I'm not about to try to talk her out of doing something that would make her happy.
As a person, I like her. She does have a good heart.
She just needs to get some medication for her hyperactivity.
And I think she feels guilty and stressed out about working as she has children in school.

When my 2 children were little I stayed home till my oldest was in school. Then I went back to work part-time nights/weekends 12-16 hours per week. I was there to put them on the bus and home to get them off the bus.
We only had one car, which was always a used car.
We didn't have cable TV, still don't, and didn't have the Internet.
The kids didn't know the difference.
I didn't start full time till 10 years ago when the oldest was old enough to watch themselves.
I wish that i would have stayed part-time sometimes.

So I decided that I too would take all my personal stuff home...on the day Sparky left early to go to the dentist...this past Thursday.
I had a lot of stuff and 5 plants...took 3 trips to the car.
They are reorganizing where everyone sits, so Sparky & I are on the list of people to be moved to a different cubicle.
Not knowing where I was going to be working and some of the cubicles are smaller than the one I am in now and have no natural lighting, I decided to take my plants home before it started to get freezing out and snowing.
At least that was what I told people so they didn't think I was fired.
(That's how we know someone got fired as they get called into HR at 5pm, then the next day all their stuff is gone from the cubicle and no one says anything)
Actually I thought I would freak Sparky out a little.
(Yeah, I have a bit of a nasty side....but she deserved it after all the shit I've put up with from her for the past 6 months)
I came in a little late Friday.
Took the far driveway into the parking lot as the one I usually take goes by our windows.
She wasn't at her desk.
She was in talking to our supervisor.
Not a word was said when she came back to her desk about all my stuff being gone.
I didn't mention it either.
But, man, she was overly happy to see me!!!

I went over my friend Elly's house last night.
Her husband was working the night shift.
After she got her 2 little ones to bed, we watched "Sex in the City"...no...make that "Sex and the City" .
We both agreed after the movie;
that we could have written a better movie as it was kinda depressing at times,
we both need to color more, and
we eat so we don't cheat..that's why we are a little over weight.
She is such a good friend to me and came into my life when I really needed one.

It's coming up on the 13th anniversary of my best friend's death. Every fall I think of her. She was only 34 when she died from congestive heart failure. As a nurse, she should have known to take better care of herself and not smoke and she should have recognized her symptoms as something serious, but she was in denial.
She was to go to the doctor the next day as her mother set up the appointment and told her she would pay for it as she was on disability and her health insurance lapsed.
Her brother found her on the floor dead.
I never realized how ill she actually was.
She called me 3 days before she died.
I wasn't home.
My husband never gave me the message till after she died.
It took me a while to forgive him for that.
I was friends with her since our diaper days.
Our families were friends.

About a month after she died, I remembered something that she told me a friend of hers had gotten her from Mexico as a joke.
It was a marble, life size, larger than average size penis.
I never saw it but she said it even had veins carved on it...
It was an OMG moment...as I knew I had better tell her mother that SHE didn't buy it for herself, that someone had gotten it for her as a joke.
When I told her mother, she said that she was wondering about that as she had found it and didn't know what to think.
What ever made me think of that.
She only mentioned it to me once.
It was almost like she sent me a message from the spirit world so her mother wouldn't think she was some kind of marble dildo loving freak.

Her death had a very huge impact on my life.
I was subconsciously afraid to get too close to anyone after that.
I can't tell you what the exact date it was that she died as I have blocked it from my memory. I remember her birthday.
My mother-in-law always remembered the dates of the deaths of her relatives.
She would say, oh so and so died today upteen years ago.
I asked her one day after she made such a remark what was their birthdate and she couldn't remember their birthday.
My husband said that his mother always loved a funeral.
Well..she was Irish...Catholic ...and Canadian.
After someone she knew passed away, she would cross their name off in her address book.

My daughter went to a Halloween party tonight.
Her costume is this:


She's the sexy candy Corn witch.
But she has on black glittery tights and a black shirt on underneath a the place where the party is isn't heated. Being the mother that I am, when i was with her at the store I suggested that she get something a little warmer.
I must admit that she did look cute in it and I'm glad that she had to wear the shirt underneath it.And she is wearing black converse sneakers instead of heels.
When I was 24 I was too shy to wear something like that in public.
And when I was 24 I was married and she was a baby.

To help me get in the Halloween spirit she painted my nails midnight blue.
I may go goth all next week to work.....have to find all my black clothes.
Have a happy Halloween!
Carve your own pumpkin
Check this out:
http://www.coasttocoastam.com/timages/page/pumpkin_sim.html