The Christmas Stretch!

Hello all! Today is another day off and it is starting on the very lazy side. :) Just like I like it. I'll be working Saturday and Sunday, and then I'm not sure about the week of Christmas, but I assume I'll work most of the week before the 3-4 day break. I'm VERY excited to see Kara & John, who will arrive late on the 21st.

I have received TWO Christmas presents so far and I am in Heaven! I know I wasn't supposed to, but I opened one present already. It was an ACCIDENT! I cut the package just a tiny, tiny bit to see if John & Leah had wrapped the gift inside, and instead I saw an AWESOME pair of earrings Leah made and I just couldn't help myself! (As a side note - J&L: I wore the purple shirt yesterday - it fits me perfectly! And I love love both sets of earrings! I've been wearing them nonstop, too! THANK YOU!)

Yesterday was the first real rain I saw in Tucson since the night I drove in. Ryan and I were running the stand by ourselves, as Laura and Randy were picking their youngest son up from the airport in Phoenix. Business was slow due to the cold weather, but watching the clouds move up and down the Catalina Mountains over and over was breathtaking. The rain continued into the night, so I got to listen to the beautiful sound of raindrops on my roof as I went to sleep. I didn't realize how long it'd been since I'd seen precipitation!

Today I might try out a new gym. Or I might not... :) I will definitely get further in a few books I'm reading and watch a few more Bones episodes (I'm addicted, at the moment). For the most part, I'm just waiting around for Christmas - but hey, at least we're on the home stretch!

I hope this finds you all well! Have a great day!

Updates from Reginald

Hi there! Can someone please show these pictures to Grandma? I think she'd love to see them. :) The first picture was taken just three days ago! The second I took this morning. I can't believe how quickly he's growing! And TWO blooms! :) Anyone know what I'm supposed to do once he blooms? Does he just keep on growing til next Christmas? Or am I supposed to do something special with his bulb?

Thanks!




I have tomorrow off work and I'm looking forward to reading in the sun, doing some craft projects and writing a few letters. I work again on Thursday (which is also the day Ryan Wise will be flying into town) and then have Friday off again.

Hope this finds you all well!

New Vantage

Hello, hello! Today was a productive day off. I started it nice and early (about 7:40ish) and managed to get grocery shopping, Christmas shopping, laundry and a post office visit done all before lunch! Then, of course, it was time to sit in the sun and read. This afternoon I dyed my hair an auburn color and I've posted some pictures below so you can see how it turned out. Not as deep as I expected, but I still like it a lot. The lighting in my apartment is weird at night, so I took two photos.

I ALSO drove to Gates Pass today. I'm not sure exactly what lies beyond the pass, but the pass itself is beautiful. Nothing too steep, to be honest, but when you crest the top - WOW! What a view! I caught it just about sundown. The pictures don't do it justice. The colors were BRILLIANT. Saguaro cactus trees were everywhere. The sky was painted pink during my drive back. It's about 40-45 minutes from my apartment. Oh! And I passed by both the university and the Wildlife Museum on the way. Very exciting. :)

I'll post pictures of Christmas lights and Reginald's progress next. :)

Love you all!

Adele - Rolling In The Deep

You MUST turn your speakers WAY up before listening to this. I recommend just listening to the song before getting distracted by watching the video (which is interesting, because it's a great portrait of the singer, but I think takes away from the song as a whole). Jill, you're going to LOVE this one. Excellent drums.

Another Day in Paradise!

Hello all! The weather is back up to the upper 70s and should be there most of the week. Manny, my co-worker, is a little down about this since he likes to snowboard (he told me once that their ski season here is usually about a month and a half long - two and a half if they're lucky. He was pretty dang surprised and jealous when I told him about Washington's winters). I, as you can assume, am not down about it in the slightest. :)

Day three down of a six day work week. The new schedule seems to be working out for everyone very well. The only downside I can see is that our new business hours are almost the exact same as the post office. Mailing presents, therefore, will be a little bit of a struggle. I plan to start the process tomorrow, but might end up finishing the task during my lunch hour. My only previous Tucson post office experience was this: I walked through the doors three minutes after the windows opened and 15 people were already in line. Since two of the three open windows were clogged by trouble-customers for a good 10 minutes, the rest of us were forced to slowly process through the last remaining window. I was almost late for work! So... wish me luck. ;)

I haven't had any recent trouble with my computer, so I think it is officially fixed. Oh! And Reginald is looking VERY sharp these days (insert proud expression here). He is nearly three inches tall! I make sure to move him to the window every day when I leave. I'll have to take a picture of him for you soon.

I learned of another vantage point to check out on my next day off (Friday & Saturday). I'm not yet sure if there are any trails there, but I might make the drive just to see the area. It is to the far west of Tucson, whereas I live in the far east side.

OH! And MY GOODNESS! The swag and edible goodies were SO wonderful to get in the mail! Many thanks to the Havillah crew for sending all that love my direction! I put the swag on the walkway next to my door. It looks wonderful there. And the cookies are already all gone! (I was nice and shared with my co-workers.)

Hope this finds you well. Love you all lots!

Cait's Random Day Off

Greetings! I had an interesting day so far. It started with vampires, werewolves and preternaturals, and ended with talk of travel and Italian restaurants.

I finished Blameless (a very silly, but utterly engrossing book about supernaturals) early in the morning, got some Christmas shopping done, wrote a few letters and even managed to work out for a bit (it had been a while... Thanksgiving and all that). In the evening, I then chatted away with my new computer guru: a guy named Jeremy who I hired to remove a virus from my computer. My computer, so far, seems to be much happier, but there still may be something evil embedded deep inside somewhere. Time will tell. Lucky for me, if anything else IS in fact wrong, Jeremy will do another entire 'deep clean-type' session for free. So that's nice. I'm happy enough to get online for the moment, and to have entertainment for the night.

In any case, what I thought would be an awkward couple of hours with a stranger turned into a very fun chat. I believe he grew up stateside (he seemed purposefully vague about that), but went to high school in Australia. He then spent some time in Canada, Malaysia and China. Oh, yes, and his girlfriend, whom he met in Mexico, is from Italy. We had a good chat about how silly America is when it comes to certain things (like trains), how interesting the parks in Canada are, how beautiful Tuscany is, how important personal roots are, and the whole bit. Jaima will agree: chatting about travel comes SO easily and is so much fun. (Of course, Jeremy was sitting on my ..."slightly"... broken chair all the while. Except he didn't know it was broken. He'd keep adjusting his weight and I'd hear it squeak and have to just praying it did fall apart underneath him! Oh, how embarrassing that would have been...)

SO! Tomorrow will mark the start of a six day work week, but I will be rewarded by two days off in a row at the end. We're starting a new schedule which involves 8 hour shifts and regular weekends. I'm a fan of the plan so far. :)

The weather here has been WONDERFUL. High 70s ever since Pat left, so of course I've been giving him a hard time by blaming the bout of cold weather on him. ;)

People are not so much into the holiday decor around here. It's a little bit sad, to be honest. Sure there are advertisement displays at the stores, and my apartment's leasing office has gone to the effort to put lights up... but really, it's few and far between as far as the holiday spirit goes around here. Oh, speaking of that! I haven't picked up my swag from the post office yet (SORRY!), but I plan on doing it first thing tomorrow morning before work. I was hoping my postal delivery man would leave it at my door, but apparently I have to go in to pick it up. I'm VERY excited to see it! Thank you mom, grandma, Jaima, Jill, Kim, April, June and anyone else who pitched in on it!!!

Love you all. Have a good night! Happy weekend!