Whatever I Feel LikeGosh!

I keep meaning to get over here and post this, but the past two days have been fabulously crazy.

You all will never guess what happened on Thursday. I was sitting on my couch in my pajamas, it was already around 11:30 in the morning and I was just planning on taking it real easy my first day of being laid off when the phone rang. It was my boss. She said, “Do you want to come back and help us close this place down?” I said, “Are you kidding me???”

Apparently there was some web stuff that the owner needed done and he asked Rob why it wasn’t being done. Rob said to him, “Um, because you laid off Amy???” The owner was like, “What? No! She shouldn’t have been let go! Can you get her to come back in??” So I was mistakenly laid off early. Is that a trip or what? Which meant I had to get up and get dressed and stuff to go into work Thursday afternoon. Good times.

In the meantime, I was also working with three different recruiters as well as a couple of other prospects, one of which asked to see my portfolio. Portfolio??? Ha! I had nothing of the sort, so I had to put that together. It was hard finding a few of the things that I had worked on over the years to give screen shots. And after I completed it I realized I had at least 2 more things I could have added to it before sending. I guess the next company will get to see those, if need be.

Everything is so surreal right now. Going into the office is like walking through a ghost town with all the empty offices and cubicles - and the few remaining employees’ office contents are all boxed up, too. It’s weird to be at work and openly talking about the job search. “Did you get any calls today on your resume?” “I’ve got an interview!” “Oh, be right back, this is a recruiter calling!” Strange days, indeed.

I’ve got my first interview on Monday at 10 am. I didn’t have a suit in my size since the last time I had to wear business attire was 3 or 4 years ago and I’ve lost probably 20-30 pounds since then. Thankfully my mom’s next door neighbor is an expert seamstress and has time to alter the suit for me. I ran it over to New Jersey last night and got fitted so I won’t look completely frumpy on Monday. I haven’t been on in interview in over 8 years. I’m nervous! But, I’m also really, really, really excited. Having been in the position of interviewing lots of people for jobs over the past 5 years, I think I have a fair shot at this. But, wish me luck anyway, okay? What I really want is to have a few different jobs to choose from so I can make the best choice for me. I want these employers fighting over me, damn it! And they should. Because, well, I rock. HA!

Stay tuned.

I’m so excited! You know how we want to move to Virginia to live out in the country on my parents’ property, right? There are three major stumbling blocks in our way right now.

1 - Cost. It will cost approximately 200K to build there, including digging for septic and wall water. While that is a great price, we want to move there and not maintain the same lifestyle we’re leading now with both of us working full time.

2 - Internet and cell phone connectivity. Catawba, Virginia is pretty remote which means the closest cell towers are about 15-20 miles away. Since this is mountainous territory, the signals from the towers in neighboring Blacksburg and Roanoke don’t always provide enough signal strength.

3 - Connor doesn’t want to move.

Well, I just discovered something that might be an answer to the first two stumbling blocks. My family and I have talked about how to get a cell phone tower on their property, but none of us had any idea what to do to make that happen. Enter the Wireless Landlord Association. They are an advocacy group that can help us secure a lease with one of the big cell phone companies like AT&T, Sprint, and T-Mobile. With their free promotional and marketing support, we’d be more attractive to the cell phone companies. Since we’re so uneducated about this whole venture, the Association could also be a great source of information to help us from start to finish.

I’m not sure they can provide much help where are third stumbling block is concerned, though. How do you convince a teenager that moving away from all of his friends is a great idea, anyway?

I know it’s almost a week after Thanksgiving, but I was reminded yesterday of all the things I have to be grateful for and I don’t want to forget them. The company I work for is not doing well financially. Business is way down and people’s jobs are now being affected. We came in yesterday to the news of more layoffs for some, forced part time hours for most everyone else. What a thing to happen right before the holidays. Thankfully, Rob and I were not affected in this round and our jobs are still intact. I went through so much fear yesterday, and it was pointed out to me that I still had my job, exactly as it has been and that I should be grateful. It’s true. And that helped to shift my thinking dramatically.

I realized last night as I was trying to drift off to sleep that I do have so much to be grateful for in my life. I need to focus on those things, and not give such life to all the fear and negativity. I’ve got a roof over my head, food - good, healthy and sometimes expensive food at that - in my kitchen, a family that loves me to pieces, friends that adore me, a job that pays well, a car that gives me joy to drive, a relationship with a Higher Power that provides me intense comfort, a closet full of totally cute clothes, and all the creature comforts I could ask for. I could sit here and list things for hours, I’m sure. The point is, my life is good - damn good. And no matter what happens at my current place of employment, I’m going to be just fine. Better than fine, even. I’m going to be spectacular!

I haven’t felt like writing here lately, but I wanted to have a record of our anniversary trip. It’s always nice to read this kind of stuff months and years later, ya know?

Friday afternoon, Rob and I left work early and headed home to pack and get the kids and the dog all packed and ready to go to Grandma’s. (It still sort of blows me away that my parents are grandparents.) We dropped Connor off at a friend’s house because they were doing an all night thing with a youth group at a bowling alley and the Brunswick Zone. By the time we got to my parents’, it was dinner time - so we all headed out to eat together before Rob and I took off on our own.

The ride up to the place was nice - we chattered excitedly about various things and just generally enjoyed each others company. I had to pee on the way there, so we got off at an exit and I ran into an UNO to use their restroom. I felt like I was stealing or something - walking in purposely as if I was meeting my party at their table… and then walking out, avoiding eye contact with the hostesses. No one stopped me and told me to give back their toilet water and paper, though, so it was all good.

As we got closer to our destination, we ended up on some dark, somewhat spooky roads. Both of us fell silent as we braced ourselves. Would the place be totally scary and unsafe? Would we have to turn back around? Even worse - would we be abducted, never to be seen again after this night? Okay, so my imagination gets a little carried away at times. I’m sure Rob wasn’t thinking that dramatically. Or maybe he was. ;-)

I was really anxious to see if the place I found online lived up to the pictures and descriptions from its website. My worries were for naught, as it turned out. We stayed at the Furnace Hills Bed & Breakfast in Denver, PA and I can’t say enough good things about it. The house is a log cabin built by the proprietor and his loving touches were apparent everywhere. The entire place was gorgeous, clean, well-kept and peaceful. The owners weren’t there this weekend, though, so we were greeted by the owner’s sister, Heather.

Shortly after we arrived, we hit the hot tub on the back deck, even though it was raining/snowing softly and the hot tub had no shelter. It actually felt great! That night we stayed in our room, enjoying the time to ourselves. We watched Desperate Housewives online sitting next to each other on the bed with Rob’s laptop. That was fun. Since we got there somewhat late, our first night was pretty short, but it was the perfect precursor to our relaxing, alone weekend.

On Saturday we ate breakfast with the other lodgers - a female couple who roomed next door to us. I swear they said they were sisters, but Rob disagrees. ;-) They were nice enough, but really kept to themselves. Our hostess cooked a breakfast of oven baked caramel French toast, and sausage links with a beautiful fruit platter served on the side. Due to my food issues, I just packed my own breakfast loaf, though, and ate it with the others. Surprisingly enough, the other guests didn’t ask why I wasn’t eating the same food as them.

After breakfast, we decided to begin our adventure by driving towards Lancaster. Neither of us were sure what to expect. I think I had visions of Amish people out in groves, walking on sides of roads or riding their buggies all over the place. Since we just put Lancaster into the GPS, our directions took us to downtown Lancaster where we promptly entered the ghetto. I was quite surprised - where were the Amish people? The horse and buggies? I got on the phone with my parents who told us another address to plug into the GPS system and we were on our way towards the rolling countryside I had imagined. We drove around for a bit, trying to decide what to do first when he happened upon the Strasburg Railroad. Rob immediately pulled over and as we walked up to the museum area, we looked across the street and saw the locomotive there for rides. We agreed that it looked like fun and bought our tickets.

The ride was entertaining and educational as the conductor told us bits of trivia about all the areas we were passing there and back. It was also nice to sit for a while because I wasn’t feeling so great. My legs were achy and I felt run-down. I was grateful for something local to do that didn’t require a lot of energy on my part. I took some pictures with my cell phone because we both forgot to bring our digital camera. Thankfully, my cell phone takes somewhat decent pics. Here’s Rob sitting on the train before all the other passengers boarded. Doesn’t he look thrilled? Ha!

By the time the train ride was over, it was close to 1 PM and we were both ravenous, so finding a place to eat lunch was the priority. My parents mentioned Millers Smorgasboard as a place they liked, and it was only minutes away from the train, so that’s where we landed. I just read a review that says this place is a slightly overpriced tourist trap, and I would have to agree. We paid $50 for lunch! The food was just okay, but the atmosphere was inviting and comforting. We were just glad to be away from home, alone together, and decided we didn’t really care about the price. In general, all-you-can-eat places end up being a big waste of money for me, anyway since I eat my controlled portion sizes no matter where I am.

Once lunch was over, I was feeling a bit better, so we hit the outlets hard. There is definitely plenty of shopping to be had in Lancaster! Usually, I get to the outlets in Rehoboth all by myself; shopping outlet-style with Rob was cool, I felt like he got to take a peek into my world. I am a big time bargain hunter and know my prices pretty well - I loved being able to tell Rob what was worth it and what wasn’t based on my experiences. We ended up getting a bit of our Christmas shopping completed and Rob scored some new clothes for himself, too. I didn’t get anything for me except makeup, since none of the prices were good enough.

The outlets weren’t the only stores we went to - we also checked out a few of the smaller Amish-style places as we drove all around the area. We visited Intercourse, Bird in Hand, Ronks, Paradise, Ephrata, and Akron among other towns in the area. We got a few new decorations for our house that I just love. You can see one of them here:

Isn’t it pretty? It also gave me the opportunity to change around the walls since I have never liked the positioning of my “Love, Faith, Hope” photo frame things. I arranged them differently and put them on a smaller wall. See?

Anyway, back to the trip. This is turning into the world’s longest blog entry. Saturday night we went out to eat at a Chinese buffet place (again with the buffet!) that I really didn’t enjoy at all. Then we bought License to Wed to watch on the laptop back in the room. We did much the same thing on Saturday night as we did the night before - hot tub soaking and watching our entertainment on the laptop while lying in bed. Bliss.

Sunday was check out day and it came too fast, of course. I was glad I wouldn’t have another night sleeping in the bed there, though. The bed in our room was just horrid. I’m not sure what was wrong with it exactly, because it felt fine just sitting or lying on it. But sleeping in it all night was another story. Neither one of us got a good night’s rest there because we kept waking up in pain from the bed. Not good. I want to go back, though, and try out the other beds because I just loved this place so much.

Look how gorgeous it is!

Before heading back home, we went back into the tourist areas to buy some vacation gifts for my parents. Afterwards, we were on our way.

All in all, it was a great weekend. It was good to reconnect with Rob away from work, the kids, and all of the every day life stressors we deal with on a regular basis. I loved being able to just cuddle up to him and focus all of my attention on him and him alone. We need to do it more often!

And here’s to at least another 15 years with my honey!

I briefly touched on my new phone earlier in another post, but I simply must give this beauty its own space. I am completely smitten with this little gadget to the point that I’m considering bringing it to bed with me tonight so I can play with it before I fall asleep instead of my usual reading that I do.

I did a lot of research before deciding on which phone to get, and although there were a few drawbacks that people consistently posted about this model, I decided to go for it anyway. I’m glad I did - I’m not in the least bit disappointed. Some users don’t like the keyboard (which is on the small side) or the way the number pad is designed inside the keyboard. It’s been 1/2 a day and I’m already adjusted to it. To those people I say, “Quit yer cryin’”.

One thing I’ve needed for a while is the ability to access my work email on my phone; with my previous models, this simply wasn’t an option. Rob helped me get all synced up and I’m in business with the email. Of course this means I no longer have an excuse for not responding in a timely manner, doesn’t it? Did I say I thought this thing through?? ;-)

Now get ready to laugh: I think I need to name this phone because I get the feeling I’m going to be quite attached to her! In the meantime, she will just be known as Love. Because, seriously, love.