Chapter Closed on 2019 Christmas

Yesterday made my way to Milwaukie to spend Christmas Eve with Steve and his family. Marie went along for the ride and we met up with her aunt and uncle a couple of exits before Steve so she could spend the day with them. Continued to Milwaukie then onward to Oregon City to his sister Teri's for dinner.

Arrived early and were able to relax before everyone else arrived. I just love his family - just a really great group of people. We had a huge dinner, which included Waldorf salad, a dish my mom used to make.  The salad was made with Cosmic Crisp apples - the first widely-grown apple variety in Washington. It went on sale for the first time on December 1, 2019.  And that apple was pretty damn good!!

Also tried a Bourbon Moscow Mule - ginger beer, lime, and Bourbon. Had a bit of a kick to it - idea was tasty but never had much of a liking for Bourbon and that opinion has remained unchanged.

After dinner we played the White Elephant game, which was a hoot. Gifts such as Trump toilet paper, a portable bidet, Darth Vader clapping lamp, and a toilet bowl fishing game were among the selections. Thankfully my number was toward the end so I wound up with a unicorn coffee cup, memo pad, and pen - a score in my eyes.

Next we shared gifts with the person for whom we drew. My gift was for Steve's nephew's girlfriend. Ended up stalking Facebook, grabbed a pic of them at a Duck's game, and made a canvas picture for her. She loved it.

Steve's niece had me; my gift was a dreamy candle along with body scrub and lotion. I gave Steve a canvas print (yes, was on a roll with the Walgreen's canvas pics) of him on a boat in Astoria with a big salmon catch. He loved it. Steve gifted me with a beautiful Pendleton woolen scarf and a lovely card.

Party over, drove to pick up Marie then on the road for home. Arrived about 11pm but didn't fall asleep until 1am.

This Christmas morning slept in then spent time getting the house ready for company and cooking the food. Jordan, Candy, her son Jeffrey, Sam, Kaitlyn and Khloe all arrived for gifts and dinner. So nice to have both my boys together. Everyone enjoyed their gifts, ham dinner was successful, and the long day came to a close about 9pm.

Another Christmas down for the count. Now looking forward to bringing in a brand new decade - 2020!

Haiku on a Saturday Night

Was browsing through a local community paper, The Columbia River Reader, and saw they were having a haiku contest.  Haikus are pretty easy so figured why not? 

Last night whipped up five (the max) to submit. The categories were Traditional (i.e. nature), Pop (not nature), and Lewis & Clark because the paper has  been focusing several articles on this topic.   It's not like the Lewis & Clark journey is in my wheelhouse of creativity but figured might as well toss one in the mix.

If you remember from grade school, haikus are 5/7/5 - five syllables on the first line, seven on the second, and five on the last.  Think my hand began cramping due to repeatedly counting syllables with my fingers.

1.
First time toes felt sand
And salty wind kissed my face
My beach soul was hooked

2.
Not the sunny days
But a blustery beach storm
That revives my soul

The above was my view on my way to work the other day so took inspiration from it, as follows:

3.
Gardenia pink
Outlining black tree branches
Floods my morning sky

4.
Determined Maple
Why flood yard with leaves so soon?
I just raked two hours

5.
Sacajawea
Strong Shoshone with newborn son
Voyage diplomat

Hideous and Beauty When You Least Expect It

The other day when I was mindlessly wandering around Walmart, I stumbled upon the most hideous face mask.  It was selling hope of restoration and beauty but via a route of Jason from Friday the 13th!  Take a look!

Heading to work today and there was the most glorious sunrise!  Had to take a quick snap!

Cold, Christmas, and The Crown

It's now been a week since the Christmas Cold made its presence known.  Worked half day Monday then was off Tuesday and Wednesday as I laid in bed, doped up on cough and congestion meds. Also started watching The Crown on Netflix - so good! Love those English melodramas!

Returned to work Thursday then threw together my company party outfit for the shindig in Tacoma on Friday. Basic black witchy dress, sparkly cloak, and goofy top hat headband for the Nightmare Before Christmas themed holiday bash. Rode the party bus up with co-workers and the Portland team. Even slapped on some pink and black lip color that was supposed to stay put. It worked pretty well until after a couple of hours when it started flaking and became patchy which I'm sure was due to my cold affected, chapped lips.

Party was great - didn't win a prize but, after a week of broth and 7 Up, ventured into eating solid food. Tables were set up with a variety of options- dim sum, seafood, beef, pasta,  salads, veggies, curry, and desserts.

Back to the bus at 5pm for the commute home, which was lengthy due to Friday night traffic. Pulled in about 7pm and headed for home.

So tired fell into bed and crashed. Woke up about 10pm and immediately hit the bathroom to be sick. Ugh. Guess that dinner wasn't the best idea.

Next morning slept in a little then arose for coffee.  Marie talked me into making a big batch of banana bread to take to the annual Shepard Christmas party. Steve, smoked salmon in hand, made his annual appearance.  Marie joined us as well and she had a good time catching up with my siblings.

The food looked great but I stayed away from it for the most part. Spent about an hour tackling a piece of apple pie.

Played the gift game - ended up losing three gifts and wound up with a Do It Yourself Family Tree book.  Best Christmas present was seeing my younger sis Erin who, following stage 4 cancer diagnosis and weeks of chemo and radiation, was pronounced 100% cancer free last week!

Party over, Steve departed and I made my way to Walmart for a few groceries and Christmas shopping.

I love the Christmas season but it also gives me the blues, especially if I'm sick. Miss my departed family members and the Christmas mornings of when I was a kid. 

Here's hoping everyone's Christmas is exactly as they hope it will be!

Early Christmas Present - Ugh!

Today has turned on me.

Friday my throat was itchy and had a headache. Yesterday still had the headache. Last night all hell broke loose and I'm now saddled with a cold. Been downing the Benydryl, Alka Seltzer Cold, and generic Cough and Congestion drugs - nothing is helping!

Been sequestered in my room with the dog all day napping, watching bake-off shows, and browsing Netflix. Not having a good time and in fact I'm miserable.

So if you are relaxed and breathing easily, say a little prayer for me to get back to 100% health!

Tacoma, Training, and Tinsel Traffic

Busy week!  Left work about 3pm on Monday to head to Tacoma for training.  Pit stop at Target which delayed our trip out of town until 4:20 or so. Traffic not too bad so arrived at co-workers house around 6:15. She was nice enough to let us stay the night as we had to be at the office at 7:30am on Tuesday.

She prepared lumpia, fried rice and mimosas for dinner. Yum!! Lots of chatter then to bed. Always seems weird to not have my little Stubbs with me as end up waking in the middle of the night looking for him. However, bed was comfy so had a good rest.

Spent all day Tuesday in the training class followed by a test which I'm sure I passed. Made the mistake of asking the trainer "what happens if you flunk the test?"  He then said he would make it very clear which items would be on the test. This meant -for the whole day mind you - he would say "Alicia, highlight section 1, number B." This went on and on and on all day. At first it was funny but it got old real fast.

Class over, our team held our little Christmas party at Pacific Grille. Food was awesome, and company even better.  I was feeling pretty worn out. Not sure if it's hot flashes but was feeling so sweaty and warm that had to shove my hair in a ponytail to get some relief. Group picture was taken and yowza! Not a flattering photograph!!  Couldn't hit the delete button fast enough!

Dinner over it was time to hit the road for home. Arrived home about 10pm and I was completely done for the day!

Rest of the week was par for the course. Tonight was the Annual Longview Christmas parade. Marie and I hit my work office as we did last year as it has a prime view of the parade.  Lots of sparkling floats along with a ton of log trucks, John Deere tractors, and PUD trucks. Could easily tell we live in a blue collar, union town by the emphasis on the big rigs.

Looking forward to this coming Friday for the company Christmas party followed on Saturday with the family holiday party. Next thing you know Christmas will be here - in fact, only 17 more days!

Thanksgiving 2019

Thanksgiving has came and went and it's already Sunday tomorrow.

Spent Thanksgiving this year with son Sam at his girlfriend's family gathering. It was way out in the boonies toward Chehalis. Big ranch house and the shop was turned into a dining area. There were about 50 people gathered for dinner.  We arrived little late but it made for good timing as there was no wait for the food. And boy was there a lot of food! Turkey, ham, mashed potatoes, gravy, green bean casserole, sweet potatoes, homemade rolls, bacon and cheese stuffed jalapenos, chili, spinach dip, mac and cheese, and a whole lot more.  Tried to take a little bit of everything but then when it all runs together it's no longer appealing. Good way to limit the calorie intake as when the plate begins to resemble a smorgasbord of slop, it's headed straight to the garbage.

Highlight of the evening was when Grandma stepped in dog doo doo and was gagging, trying not to throw up. Not that I laughed so much at Grandma but more along the lines of it was a perfect memory that will stay with everyone for a very long time. It will also be brought up at every future family Thanksgiving to relive the horror of dog doo doo and Grandma gagging.

Skipped the Black Friday sales and instead went to the storage unit to grab my Christmas tree. It was way in the back of the unit on top. This involved breaking out my spidygirl skills to climb on top of chairs to reach the bag. Grabbed a piece of wood then extended it to loop it under the bag handle. Pulled, tugged, and strained trying to extract that damn #%&# bag! It was stuck on another piece of furniture; once I finagled the bag out of that quagmire, it was easy to pull from the rafters of the storage unit.

Shoved it in the rig then packed items back into the unit and left for home, where I promptly unbagged the tree (losing just one ornament in the process) and set it up in the front window.  Ahhh...the season is now upon us!

Today stopped by Ross to do some holiday shopping. Browsed the dress aisle in search of a Nightmare Before Christmas inspiration for my upcoming work party. Unfortunately found nothing appropriate so may be forced to create an outfit. Perhaps a black tulle tutu?

Back to Ross - Happy to report that the checkout line moved fairly quickly, mainly because they had plenty of checkers on hand, compared to normal days.  It's usually so slow you have time to not only browse the snacks surrounding the line but investigate and memorize the ingredients at the same time.

Tonight we watched The Lion King live action take on the movie. Graphics were fabulous!   It was entertaining although it seemed it would be rather scary for children.  Ravenous hyenas baring teeth trying to eat Simba and Nala; Scar ruthlessly killing Mufasa; Scar telling hyenas to chase Simba and "kill him."

Final note - ran across the following and thought it was apropos for December, which starts tomorrow!

The Humble, the Weary, the Downtrodden

In the last few weeks the homeless have begun setting up tents at the local City Hall, which is directly across the street from my office building. At first they were out of sight around the corner; now they have moved to the front of the entrance by the sidewalk and even in the meridian. A town hall was held last week and the homeless have been given 30 days to vacate the area during the daylight hours, although they can return at night.

Through watercooler chat and Facebook posts, there have been a wide variety of opinions given about the City Hall shantytown. Are they all druggies? Criminals? Jobless n'ere do wells?

Statistics show the following for the homeless:

Of course, as with all society, the homeless include drug addicts and criminals. But they also include families, children, mentally ill, laid off, displaced, and so on.  It seems so easy for the homeless to be negatively labeled and demonized rather than determining the "why" behind the circumstance.

The characterization of the City Hall homeless seemed so similar to the depiction of the Jewish in Germany it is uncanny.  Per the New York Historical Society, it is about "the ease with which the rhetoric of hatred directed toward a particular group - in this case, the Jews - can permeate a national discourse and become "normal" for ordinary people."  I see this happening with the City Hall homeless.

Instead of tearing down the group, perhaps City Hall should have spent the meeting trying to figure out how and where to accommodate the people in need. Isn't there land somewhere available to pitch the tents? Or free on-site medical attention for addiction and mental health treatment?  

I don't know these people nor do I have all the answers. Just thinking that the judging from society isn't helping and what is needed are solutions rather than labels.  In the end, therefore but the grace of God go I.

Curtain Conquest

After lounging around this sleepy Sunday, finally took a shower to gain some momentum. And it actually worked!

Marie had picked up some $2.99 fabric at Goodwill and asked me to make some kitchen curtains. Threw my crafty cap on, measured the window, cut the fabric, then sewed. Was 80% done when hit a snag. The back portion of the stitch was clogging and looked horrendous. Had to pull out the bane of my existence - the seam ripper - and remove the curtain hem.

Since it was Marie's sewing machine, had her investigate. The root problem ended up being the bobbin, which coincidentally I had just (incorrectly) filled.  Oops! She fixed it (which required unspooling all the bobbin thread and restringing it) and I was in the curtain business once again.

Finished the curtains, hung them, and voila! Success, meaning they were the correct width and length.  Plus I can mark off my list that I actually accomplished something today!

Impeachment for Dummies

Waking up in the early morning hours, as seems to be the custom lately, the Internet ends up being my choice of entertainment.   After catching up on email and posting Facebook Happy Birthdays, my next view is of the news.  Recent news in the headlines is the possible impeachment of Donald Trump.

Now, I'm definitely not part of the political scene or analysis, but to be honest my opinion of Trump has been pretty darn low. He's a bad egg.  However, I didn't understand the facts behind his possible impeachment. Lots of terms such a Ukraine, Zelensky, Biden, weapons, quid pro quo, and whistleblower were being tossed around. I didn't have a clue as to how everything fit together.

So I did the next best thing - I Googled "explanation of Trump impeachment" and found the following step-by-step outline:

https://www.vox.com/2019/11/5/20914280/impeachment-trump-explained

In a nutshell, in a phone conversation with the Ukranian president, Trump said he would release American foreign aid to Ukraine if they would investigate his top 2020 Democratic competitor Joe Biden and his son Hunter for wrongdoing, thus using his presidential powers via quid-pro-quo in order to influence personal gain.

You may recognize quid-pro-quo from sexual harassment cases as it is a Latin term meaning "you give me what I want, I'll give you something in return", i.e. "give me sex, I give you a promotion." In this case, it was "investigate my top presidential competitor and I'll give you foreign aid aka money."  Not a very presidential stance.

There are a lot more actions involved with the above incident that have occurred, including:

A whistleblower (later determined to be a member of the CIA), sent a written report in July 2019 via proper channels of the conversation that occurred to the Director of National Intelligence.  Instead of following procedure, he sat on the report deeming it not a matter of urgent concern.

Knowledge of the report came to light in September, at which point it was discovered the transcript of the phone conversation with Ukraine was on "lockdown" and not accessible, which is outside of standard protocol. It wasn't until September 26 that the White House allowed both the whistleblower's complaint and the transcript of the phone call to become public.

Sounds very Watergate doesn't it? At some point I expect Redford and Hoffman to pop up with Deep Throat.

It's a long read but very clear and informative.

Ocean Absorb Me

After the packing
The coffee, the drive
The pit stops and
The last minute groceries

No, not until after
the unloading of essentials
and the dibbing of
the comfy bed

As always not until
the routine of adulting
the work, the bills, the parts
one is expected to play

The listener, the advisor
the mother, the lover
the sister, the friend
the orphan, the guilty

Not until the back screen door
cracks open for me to
sneak across the deck and
downstairs to the path

Winding between vacation cabins following
wooden stairs that could
use some upkeep but let's
put that off til next year

Five pound pup keeping up
my pace as we trot
to the end of the steps where
the wood meets the sand

And there it is surely the same as when I left it last
and the same as when we
were first introduced

Vast, endless and pounding
tore off the elastic from my pony so the breeze could tangle my hair with sweet saltwater scent

Wandering between the dry sand and the marshmallow tinged surf, my weary mind surrendered to the ocean roar

It had been too long since my
soul had been freed among
the sight, taste, sound and smell of the beach

Memories back to when a barefoot little girl ran freely
through the sand, straight to the Pacific, which always flowed cold

No adulting, no work, no fear
mind free, clear and present imprinting the ocean and a child's day of play in the sun

This is why the beach whispers
and pleads with me to come
enjoy the mist, salt, sand,
bare feet and broken shells

Embrace this moment, this day
this memory you are creating when its just you and the dog being absorbed by the ocean

Coast and Curls

Took Stubbs on a beach walk this afternoon. Was misty sprinkling but the ocean air felt so good.  Stubbs absolutely loves to run, explore and pee all over the ocean sand.

After an hour on the beach, decided it was time to take a shower and try out the new LUS curl products. Left my hair sopping wet, applied the cream throughout my hair and began to blow dry. Unfortunately left my blow dryer and diffuser at home so had to use the antique dryer and my fingers to encourage the curl.

It turned out okay but I have greater expectations for when I use the diffuser.  But that shower sure felt good!

Can you tell I also left my under eye concealer at home?

Beach, Barf, and Birthday

Happily it was our monthly half-day Friday yesterday at work so Steve and I left about 2pm to hit the road for the Arch Cape beach house. Stopped in Seaside Safeway for groceries then on to the beach.

Unpacked the rig, bags, and groceries, let little Stubbers out for a potty break, then on to the Driftwood for dinner.  We usually wind up there each beach trip.

Due to a friendly host, we scored a great table at the window.  Outstanding waitress and the meal, including steamed clams, crisp salad, and fettuccine with mounds of crab, was superb.

Finished dinner about 6:30pm although the darkness made us feel it was after 10pm. Made it home then relaxed with coffee and snacks until bedtime.

Not a good idea. Woke up with bubbling heartburn and wound up woofing my cookies. Ugh.  Guess that fine dinner and snacks returned to bite me back.

Wound up on the couch with Stubbs. Slept little, woke up early, and now sipping coffee while watching Twight Zone.  Foggy outside but still the beach is visible, high tide coming in.

Looking forward to strolling the beach when low tide hits. Even brought my pup his sweater to keep him cozy.

On a side note, happy birthday to Jay and Julie today!!!