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!

Wonderful Visits & New Volunteering Opportunities

Greetings to all! Happy Monday night. I got home from dropping Pat off at the airport not too long ago. It sounds like he had some trouble getting his ticket (at some point a woman said to him, “You shouldn’t even have been able to leave Spokane…”, and later a Travelocity representative said via phone, “Are you SURE you’re in Tucson? You made it to Tucson from Spokane?”), but he was finally able to board at 7 p.m. bound for a Salt Lake City layover before landing in Spokane. Of course, it remains to be known if he will be held in Salt Lake City due to snow conditions. So he may have an interesting night ahead of him.

We had a wonderful time together. We tried out a restaurant called Bamboo Club last night for a drink and appetizers. We got a little bit of shopping done – I think we both were just looking around for Christmas ideas, although not much materialized. It will take a while to get used to having the apartment to myself again. He did leave me with some good new music to listen to, though (Kings of Leon’s new stuff) and a new book to read (the third of a fourpolly sent from my sister), so at least I’ve got some things to stay occupied with for a while. 

Upon arriving in Tucson, I set about looking for volunteer opportunities. I spent two or three years of college volunteering at a nursing home (with Sara) and found the experience to reap unparalleled rewards. Learning from the older generations, and watching them meet difficult challenges, has taught me so much. I was therefore very excited to start that back up with the free time I’d have down here. Unfortunately, a lot has changed since I volunteered in Ellensburg. A minimum of 30 training hours and a tetanus shot must be administered before you can even apply to be a volunteer now. Sad story. After much personal debate, though, I finally found something that fits my personality – I applied for and have been matched to write a ‘pen pal’ prisoner in Texas through God Cares We Care ministry. Maybe it’s a little bit ‘out there’ for some of you, but I hope you can at least appreciate that it utilizes my free time, my love of writing letters, and my love of loving other people, despite their backgrounds. So… I got my first letter today and will be responding to it shortly. Just wanted to share my excitement with you – it feels good to ‘volunteer’ and help other people again.

Not too much else new. Again, I had a great time with Pat. We made use of the hot tub and pool, watched some good movies, ate a ridiculous amount of food and took everything very slow. I’m very lucky to have had company over the holiday weekend. Now it’s back to the grindstone of working, which really isn’t all that bad, anyhow. The weather should be warming back up to the 70s by Wednesday, and it couldn’t happen fast enough for me. My toes are freezing as I write this.

Love you all!!!

Holiday Weekend Greetings

Sigh, what a wonderful feeling it is to know I have tomorrow off - THREE DAYS IN A ROW! I picked Pat up from the airport at 2 p.m. on Thanksgiving day and we had a good time making dinner together that afternoon. Aside from the pie that was slightly on the unsweet side (although when we lathered it with toppings we couldn't tell as much), everything was a huge success. We had squash, marinated chicken, stuffing, cranberries and braeburn apples. Today we went up to Summerhaven, which is a beautiful hour long-ish drive to the top of Mt. Lemmon. We then checked out the shopping scene at Old Navy, but didn't buy anything (the line was all the way to the back of the store!). Next was a stop at In n Out for burgers (Pat had never had it before! Check that off the bucket list ;) and watched The Expendables, which is a silly, over-the-top, but wonderful action flick with Sylvester Stallone (yes, it DOES include an exploding helicopter! And an exploding palace, which is also good).

We've got a few things on the books for tomorrow, but for the most part we're playing it by ear. I've been thinking of you all constantly and hoping the holiday is full of laughter, good food and lots of relaxing. Love you all bunches. Here are some pictures for your enjoyment.

Notes While Baking in the Morning

Greetings from the sunny land of Tucson. We had a huge chill come through last night, but nothing like the blizzard that swept Spokane, from how I understand it. I hope everyone is SAFE and happily covered in layers of blankets (or in Jill and Gordon's case, moving swiftly down a hill in some fashion of kayak, skis or sled).

Things here are going very well. Only two more days of work until I get company in town and a three day weekend. I'm very excited. Pat and I don't have a whole lot on the schedule, but there are a few restaurants and bars I want to try out (hopefully play a little pool, if I'm lucky), and a day trip to Summerhaven (that will lead us back up to Mt. Lemmon - I'm excited to go back!!).

I've currently got the pumpkin baking in the oven and a load of laundry getting washed, so I'm feeling all kinds of productive this morning. (Also, my apartment smells delicious!) I did, however, buy an extra already-made pumpkin pie in case this one goes south. I'm crossing my fingers! I'll let you know in two days, I guess. :)

Nothing much else to report. I tried to make yam for dinner last night and it was only semi-successful. Baby steps, though. Baby steps.

Turns out Marvin isn't as depressed as I thought! He was just allergic to Energize batteries. When the noise from the air pump began to sound something similar to an agonizing whimper last night, I switched out the batteries for Duracell and BAM Marvin was up and pumped and full of life like you wouldn't believe! Who knows, though. He may relapse. I'll keep ya posted.

Well, I'm signing off for now, but please send me updates on how you're spending this wonderful, snowy day (work? play? books? anything I should read?).

All my snowy love,

The Bait

Pumpkin Muck

It's a Sunday morning and I am not feeling motivated to get anything done at all. :) Although I have a rather short 'to do' list, I think I will leave the bulk of it for tomorrow morning. It is the first cloudy morning since I moved into my new apartment, so perhaps cooler weather is on its way after all. Work has been going well and only four more days til I have company and a three day weekend. :)

I'm preparing to make pumpkin pie filling soon, and I have a question for everyone - Is there something to do with all the muck and seeds inside? Laura's instructions only have me use the actual pumpkin shell, but I seem to remember Grandma keeping the muck for some reason or another. Is there something I should be doing with it??

Thanks!!

Art, Sun, Hiking and Holiday Countdowns!

Happy Friday to everyone! Of course, it’s not MY Friday, but there are worse things that can happen. I had a wonderful day off yesterday – started with some exploring to track down a few galleries. I ended up in the right area, but it is a very congested section of town, full of confusing one ways, so I ended up only looking at two galleries. Still, it is good to have finally given it a try, and I know where ‘gallery row’ is now in case I want to go back again sometime. The first gallery wasn’t impressive at all, unfortunately, but the second was incredibly interesting. It wasn’t your typical gallery with just a few striking paintings on the wall – it was almost like three huge rooms of someone’s unorganized office; artwork EVERYwhere – on the walls, on the floor, stacked against the wall, one behind the other. Most of the artists had some sort of connection with Arizona; either they lived here for a while or captured the landscape at some point in their lives. I saw a statue by Erte, who, as it turns out, is really well known. I can see why. I’m not that big into statues, but these are small enough, and combine just enough style to be captivating. It’s like a cross between the 1920s and Egyptian art. Very strange, but very awesome. Two others I liked were George Bodine and Kelly Murray. (That second link is actually the gallery's home link, too.)

Second on my list for the day was sun tanning. It had been a week, if not more, since I spent any time in the sun. And OH what a perfect day it was for that! Later in the afternoon, Ryan (co-worker) and I went for a hike on Mt. Lemmon. The drive was forever long (only about 30 miles away, but most of it is windy, 30 mph stuff), but very worth it for the views. There is a very small ski resort up there that we drove through, which was also interesting. Apparently it is the only place to ski for several hours in all directions.

Today is another sunny morning. Reginald is sun bathing in the corner… making some progress toward growing, but not a whole heck of a lot. (True, Herold is a family name, AND Christmassy ;), but not quite artsy enough – I think Reginald fits him very well, though). I will need to drive down to the coffee shop in a moment to send this out to you all, since my STUPID internet won’t connect. Six days til Thanksgiving!!! Wahoo!

Oh, and the license plates of the day are: LEXUS and WINK 1.

Photo Op

Greetings! Not a whole lot new to say today, but I did end up taking a few photos yesterday that I wanted to share with you. The first is the gorgeous tree outside my living room window that lights up brilliantly with the morning sun (of course, the photo doesn’t do it justice). The second is a picture of my new house plant – an amaryllis that my Grandma mailed to me. If I’m lucky, it’ll bloom at Christmas. Anyone have any suggestions for a name? I think it’s a guy, if that helps. The rest are photos from work. (Kara, I tried to get one of your parents, but I didn’t realize how camera-shy your mom was; apparently I have to be very sneaky to succeed in that plot.)

Love you all!