LIfe's Transitions

Ah life. Life and death.  I am heavy of heart this night, as my last Grandmother is passing away. She has not been stricken ill, she is not suffering; she is happy and content but I think she's just decided to Go Home.  My dad is not sounding to good, and he told me today that his crazy girlfriend needs my help as well.  So I'm going to be going up to the house to visit for the next few days, and I'm sad sad sad.  But at least we've had a really good last few years with her.

So the situation is that she's stopped eating and is sleeping most of the time.  I talk to her and you can just hear the smile in her voice.  I know she's ready and I've been feeling this come on for awhile, but it's still really really hard.

So tomorrow is the first day of Goodbye...

I am so sad.

-C-

Beginning of the End?

So my phone rings in the middle of the night last night.  Never a good sign, right?  Well, it turns out to be my dad's girlfriend (DG).  Drunk, of course, I'm sure.  So I let it ring. She calls a total of 3 times between 2:30 and 4:30, and her last call is a pleading, slurred call with the phrases: "down to a few days now," "called the state," "yer dad's not doing well," "I'm drunk but not THAT drunk," and on and on.  Nearest I can figure is one of 2 scenarios:


1.  My granny is on her last legs, which I have been expecting for awhile.  In which case shit's going down and life is going to suck for a little while.


2.  DG is on a rampage and trying to elicit my sympathy and commiseration, which she will not get, and then life will suck for awhile.


Why so cold and cavalier, you may ask?  Ever heard of the boy who cried wolf?  Yeah, that's her in 2011.  Since my dad hasn't called, I'll let them sleep a little longer before I call and get the scoop.

Sunny Day in Careyworld

Welcome Back, it's been a long time.

I've been considering blogging for awhile, but now I think I'll get down to brass tacks.

So all in all, in the scenario of "it's the little things," life is pretty damned good.

I had a sliver yesterday which was buried pretty deep, and got my whole thumb sore even though it was not much thicker than a hair. After about 2-1/2 hours of digging with a needle, clipping with a fingernail clipper, icing, ointmenting and cursing, I got that sucker out. Now it's healing nice and pie, and just slightly tender.

I think I'm starting to grasp calculus. I have been taking time to review some basic algebra in my book, which I find actually goes all the way up to pre-calc; glad I got that back from my friend. I have also been using my pre-calc book, and taking advantage of YouTube. It's fantastic. I'm going to have to keep putting in the hours and going painstakingly over things like exponential functions, the fact that the square root of x = x^1/2, and things like that that make differentiating polynomials much easier. :) There may be a light at the end of this tunnel after all.

When I came to work this morning, Adam had filled my candy jar with European Chocolate. I love it when he does that. They are Swiss, I believe; yup! Caillei of Switzerland. There are dark chocolate ones, white chocolate, hazelnut, "Chocmel" (no idea, I just wanted to type that). It's good.

I'm signed up for another Trail Maintenance Party on November 28th. The good thing is that we don't have to leave til 7:30, being as how it's only out I-90. The place is called Taylor Mountain, and it has a creek named Carey Creek running through it!!! It's fate, I tellya.

My printer, which has been slightly wonky for quite some time, is now fixed. My bypass tray was incapable of taking 1 sheet at a time, and my regular tray keep slipping out of place. Now it has new parts and is shiny and happy and like new. Nothing can stop me now! Really. It's a good day in Careyworld.

I feel like my life is kind of starting anew. Fresh. I'm on this kind of un-cluttering kick, which has its ups and downs but when I keep on track it's very rewarding. It seems to me at the heart of it to be about setting a schedule. And now that I'm starting to make one, it seems like it's just that structure I need. I've started making it to work on time, thanks to a chatty student on the bus. Her love of morning chats has driven me to get up earlier, cause I REALLY don't like chatting in the morning. And that is starting to kick in pretty well and be comfortable and I actually had a little extra time this morning to futz around. It was good.

OK well that's a long, lengthy, boring start to what will probably be a long, boring blog, but hey, what can you say.

Back?

Wow, it's been a long time since I posted. It's been a crazy summer, with record breaking temperatures, dismally low-rainfall, fires, armed robberies in the U-District and elsewhere, murders....

We are on the road to fall quarter;13 days til it starts. I'm busy as a little bee, working on orientation, scheduling one class for my boss, updating new student information, etc. I was sick as a dog with some kind of weird virus that is apparently spreading around the campus and hitting like a mac truck; I've been sick for 3 weeks and have heard stories about people actually being OUT of their OFFICES for 2 weeks, and sick for 4 and 5 weeks. I guess I should consider myself lucky. I got sick on the 25th, so it's just a little over 3.

Right before I got sick I started going back to the gym, and was really on a roll; I managed to go 7 out of 9 days before I was struck down. I have chosen this week to go back, and have been easing myself into it; still doing a long workout, but not going as fast on the cardio, and not lifting my normal amount of weight. So far, so good, I haven't relapsed, and that's the way I'd like to keep it.

I won tickets to see a fantastic London band called Fanfarlo. They played at Chop Suey in Capitol Hill on Monday. I went with my cousin and it was fantastic. I was completey blissed out.
The opening band was a group called Weinland. They were from Portland and they pretty much rocked the house as well. It was a great night.











I got a message from KeXp on Facebook for another contest to win tickets for Ben Folds playing at the Benaroya. And what do you know, I won THAT one! :) So I will be Benaroya bound on October 20th. Should be fun. He's playing with the Seattle Symphony! How exciting. Don't know if I'll be able to take pix there, though. I'm sure it will be fun.

OK that's enough for today. I may try to start a regular blog again, I'm not sure.

Long Time No Write

Yes, I realize I've been away for awhile, but I think I'm ready to come back. It is August, I am 40 and starting a new chapter of my life. I feel a little reflective and oddly empowered, like now I am entitled to enact the positive changes I was working on in my 30's. Let's see what happens. :)

I have all my Mondays in August off, so my August goals are

a) get my bedroom to the point where it is tranquil and smells good and is a place I like to kick back

b) have at least one good adventure. I still have to suss out what that is, but I'm thinking a day on the bus going somewhere I haven't been before. Perhaps #1 cuz can help me with that one.

Today is banking, a little light grocery shopping, and then back home to work on the bedroom.

Here's to freedom. :)

Ah, a little break....

Well hallelujah, I am finally done with Spring Quarter. That was a tough one for some reason, man, really really tough. I'm trying to figure out why; I mean, it's not like I had SUPER hard classes; stats was a relative breeze, German was complicated and a little frustrating but not hard like science-hard. I think part of it was the fact that it was my last 3/4 time quarter at NSCC. And maybe some of it is frustration with the fact that I SHOULD have been done this quarter; if I had passed Calculus, I would have my AS

right now. Oh well, I need to stop rehashing THAT one and just DEAL with it. Anyway as you can see from these pix, I devoted my Sunday to my deck. I am getting things arranged into an aesthetically pleasing form, and I swept and threw things away and pulled out cobwebs and it's just NICE out there. A place I actually WANT to sit and enjoy, listen to music, read a book in.


Anyway, that's my story for now. I am going to go back to work now. Someone is lurking and demanding my attention. Sigh.

Another quarter draws to an end

So here it is, 8 days til the end of Spring quarter, and I am completely overwhelmed. I have so much work to do that I don't know how I will POSSIBLY get it done...only that I must, so I shall soldier on. No fun outdoor activities for ME this weekend. :(

BUT. I have a tune-up (therapy appointment) on Monday, and a massage on the 22nd. So those are things to look forward to. Plus I rejoined the Mountaineers, meaning I can lead hikes or sign up for anything I want to this summer. AND after a minor glitch (in which they told me I owed $735, but it wound up I had a $109 credit) I got re-instated at Miekos and can now work on whittling away some of this fat ass. Hooray for me! Now if I can just figure out my i-Pod clip I'll be in good shape.

On a down-but-somewhat-plus note, it looks like Calculus is already closed for Summer, but I will attend the first couple of classes anyway and see if I can get in as a State Employee. It would really suck to have to wait, or have to take it in fall with the same crappy teacher. The plus side of it is that if I can't get in, or find another class, I will have my first free summer in many, many years, and that would just be neat. I could work full-time, earn a good wage, pay more shit off...

So on that note, I will go ahead and try to pass my freakin' classes. Wish me luck, say a prayer for me, and I'll see you in 9 days!!!!