good memories

Spring Break 1996, on the banks of the Mighty Mississippi. This picture was one I used to show my students when I was teaching English in Japan to illustrate the word "friends."

Frustration

Earlier today, I spent 14 minutes in a conference room waiting for a conference call to begin. I work in a cube, so I spent quite a bit of time in conference rooms when there are confidential things that need to be discussed. I tend to need to discuss confidential things quite a bit since I’m in HR. Anyway, since I was away from my desk and didn’t get the IM that the meeting would be postponed until tomorrow. It was originally scheduled for 1:00, then 1:15 and then 1:30…now sometime tomorrow. Lovely. Yeah, cubes make us all so much more productive.

Reunion

Nevermind the fact that I get the Erasure song stuck in my name every time I mention the name of this wonderful new show. Set your TiVo now for Thursday night to record Reunion. Or, I suppose you could do it the old fashioned way and actually watch it. I recorded the premiere last week and didn't get around to watching it until Monday night.

The characters graduated from highschool in 1986, the same year that I finished 6th grade. Each episode is a year, with a few scenes from the present day thrown in. I loved thinking back to 1986 as I watched it. The soundtrack brought back a lot of memories too. One character said "Wham is the next Beatles" and later in the episode was watching an Ah Ha video on MTV. Love it!

What really hit me was how different life is now that I thought it would be when I graduated from highschool. Or even more recently, how much has happened/changed in the 9 short years since college graduation.

Oh My Achin'

Man, I'm gettin' old. We spent the bulk of the weekend painting. The HUSband's parents have decided to put a house on the market that they've rented for the majority of the last 20 years. They also decided to paint every wall in the house... and we got to help. Thankfully, his sister and her new HUSband came to help as well. Six painters are much more productive than two. I painted four closets, the master bedroom, 1/2 of the hallway, the wet bar, and the entry way. My back doesn't hurt nearly as much as I thought it would, but my legs are killing me from all of the bending a squatting.

This house was a trip. They lived in it for 2 years in the early 80s prior to moving into the house they still live in today. There are remnants of bad wallpaper and flooring choices tucked away. The switchplates and outlets have been painted over for the most part. One in the master bath had been wallpapered to match what was on the walls at one time - - navy blue background with gold and brownish flowers. Oh my! I think the best part was the bits of low pile floral brown carpet that once was in the whole kitchen/dining/bar/utility room area. The HUSband also replaced six light fixtures for less than $100 - - a great investment in my opinion. He's trying to get them to do small things like replace some blinds that don't work very well or the towel bars in the bathrooms. They really just want to be done with it all.... and I can't say that I blame them. They're at a point in their lives where they'd like to have the equity out of the house to be able to put towards some land to retire to in a few years.

I had all good intention of doing some stuff around the house when we got home. All I managed to complete was one load of laundry. I suppose I'll vacuum tonight.

Still Here

Donna posted an inquiry earlier today to see if the internet was awake. I am. I just haven't been posting lately.

I have spent much of my time on the internet reading articles and blogs about the hurricane. I can't begin to express how sad the whole thing makes me. For selfish reasons, I am sad that our family trip (11 people from three generations) to Louisiana scheduled for the 15th through 18th has been cancelled. However, I am so happy to know that what little of my family still lives in Louisiana is safe. My cousin's cousin (from his mother's side of the family) is the only person I know that actually lives (lived) in New Orleans. She and her husband were in Dallas during the storm, but he is a doctor and went back on Tuesday of last week. I should check to see if he's still there and how he's doing.

I fell through on the August Happiness Challenge, that's for sure.
Good news today is that we're already close to the end of day #2 in the work week and I've only had to work one day. The HUSband ended up being off work yesterday too, which is unusual since he works in a restaurant that is only closed two days of the year.

Our work email and messaging tool and HRIS have all been down for the better part of the afternoon. I think it's a sign that we should all leave early. I'm outta here.....