News Flash

I am getting ...
ha, ha, you thought it was going to be something really exciting didn't you??? LOL

Actually nothing quite that exciting but I just had to mention that hiking season has really started in earnest! I have plans to be out a lot this year and I would love some company. If any of you are feeling like hitting the hills I would love to have you join me! But so far judging by my hikes the last two weekends it's going to be a bad year for bugs so just be prepared. There are some fabulous trails in the Chuckanut area, one of which I checked out today, in addition to all sorts of adventures geocaching so there is no end to fun we could have! Then of course there are the fabulous trails higher up in the mountains that get good later in the summer. Last summer I hardly got out at all but this summer will not a repeat preformance. I don't know what my schedule will be like exactly but try me if you want to get together and I am sure we can make something work.

Hope to hit the hills with you sometime this spring or summer!

Overwhelmed

The last few days have been trying ones for me and it's taken me a little bit to figure out why. I have just been exhausted and somewhat short tempered and its just not me. After having given it some serious thought I have figured out why: I have been overwhelmed. Ever since my brain injury I have had a much lower tolerance for choices but I know this and am usually able to compensate. The last few days though have been another story. Not only am I tired and exhausted from all the months of conflict at work I have been suddenly finding myself in situations with overwhelming options and it's caught me off guard.

Right now in chemistry class we are dealing with some areas that have so many options my brain is reeling after each class and I haven't been able to adequately process them. In my nutrition class we have been talking about all the choices out there for American shoppers and to illustrate that we had to go to the grocery store and count the choices available to us in a few departments. Even though I didn't have to make any choices or actually purchase anything the very act of having to go and count the items and recognize that there are 45 different choices of bagged salad and over a 175 different options for yogurt was just too much. For someone who has been known to leave a store in tears after having spent 45 min. trying to buy toothpaste this was a very overwhelming exercise.

Then moving away from the smaller issues of which one of the 11 option of carrots I would buy to something a little more important as to which job I should take it gets even more exhausting. People have been so helpful and each day I am presented with new job opportunities that people are so kind to share with me. It's a wonderful thing to have so many helpful friends but there are too many options. The current place of employment it really toying with my emotional health and making me make all the disicions because they aren't communicating with me at all. They won't answer my questions, tell everyone else things instead of me so I am only hearing things through the grapevine but only half the story, etc. Everyday I am faced with who to ask, how much to push, whether I should just leave, maybe it will get better, everyone else's opinion when they come to me with the latest thing that they have heard, etc. It's overload to begin with and that doesn't even begin to touch the real questions like: Which jobs should I even apply for? Should I wait for the ones that I have applied for to get back to me or should I just apply for all of them and see who calls? Should I take the first one that offers me a job or should I wait until I have heard from all of them? Should I take one that I might not look at as a long term solution just until something better comes along or should I wait? Or should I just forget the whole works and stay where I am even though it's a bad situation and will involve a pay cut just on the chance that I could help someone there? And then which one do I really want because several of the potential options sounds interesting? Can you see my dilemma?

The whole thing is leaving me drained. I fear if I have to make another decision I will be pushed over the edge. My poor lab partner the other night was asking me such simple questions as "do you want to measure out this stuff or should be take turns or how do you want to do this?" and all I could say was, "I want you to do it and I am sorry I need to step outside." Some helpful lab partner I am. Then I come home and mom wants to know what I want for dinner. "Food will be fine, thank you." I really couldn't care less. If you fix a real dinner or leave me to make a PB sandwich, it really doesn't matter. Food isn't a huge deal to me in the first place and to have to choose something is more than I care to do. Can anyone say, "leftovers"?!

I think after tomorrow I need to take a few days and just study for the two big tests I have coming up, not make any big decisions and pray a lot. I need to regroup and get some clarity. Ugh...I hate making decisions. Is it any wonder that one of my favorite types of vacations are cruises? You get on the boat, they take you someone, you have a few options of things to do, you know where you are eating and sleeping and then you get back on and go to the next place. That is a vacation, the decision making is kept to a minimum and you can focus on having fun. Road trips are fun if the purpose is clear from the beginning, either to just drive and see what there is to be seen or to get to a specific place, otherwise they are torture because the whole way you have make decisions and try to figure out the time you have verses the things you might want to see, in addition to where to eat and sleep and how many hours you should drive, etc. Talk about torture. I usually end up in tears more than once.

Ok enough of my little pity party...It seems I might be having some more free time in the next few weeks and I would love to get together with any of you but just don't ask me what I would like to do. Just call me and say, "hey I have an hour or two, would you like to meet at such and such a place?" That sort of choice I can probably make!

Riddle

Ok so for all my riddle loving friends I have one for you. I actually got this one in about 10 seconds which never happens so just think the first thing that comes to mind and you just might have it.

What is the largest room?

Hints: Think outside the box (or walls as the case maybe) and somewhat metiphorically.

Answer: Gur ebbz sbe vzcebirzrag
After you post some tries I'll tell you the encryption of the answer.

Crazy life

Well I thought I had better say something one of these days or people might stop visiting thinking and that would be dreadful!

So anyway life goes one from one interesting development to the next. Where shall I start...ok actually my life isn't all that exciting but it's never fails to amuse me so I guess that is good!
Work: well now that is an interesting topic. I certainly never thought that when I started working at a "christian" establishment that I would find myself at odds with the management and ultimately being forced out of my job over my beliefs but alas the unthinkable has happened. I haven't actually been fired but I was offered a different job and a pay reductions because the new supervisor I have won't stick to the agreement that I had with the previous supervisor. After 6 months of fighting with them and the last month of serious game playing that I finally put a stop to the end of the month is my deadline to either change my mind or step out of my current position. It's not like the other job they have offered me is bad but it does pay less and I am not exactly thrilled at the idea of taking a pay cut because they feel like it and want to play games. In short it's been a nightmare that I am seriously glad is almost over. There are some wonderful people where I work but I am pretty done with all the politics and the petty back bitting and fault finding so I am job hunting at the moment which is proving interesting. If I am not supposed to be there any longer then I know the Lord has just the right job for me. If nothing opens up then I will stay a bit longer in the other position and see what comes open elsewhere in the future. They have posted my job in the paper which seems a little strange to see it while I job search but whatever...life goes on!

Geocaching: Ok now this is the really fun thing I have taken up in the last couple of weeks and it has proved even more fun that I thought it would be. A dear friend out of the blue loaned me his GPS unit so now I don't have to just go with my friend who got me into I can go by my self and find treasures whenever I please! I have registered on the geocaching site so I am actually official and I have 21 or 22 finds logged so far! What is even funnier is that I have been almost on the door steps of friends hunting caches and they don't even know they are there...Reimers if you ever get bored then is one hiding quietly right in the cemetery by your house! I found a few in BC this last weekend and while hunting in another cemetery (there is a series of them at 28 little cemeteries around the county) I came upon the first 3 whole outhouse I have ever seen...you just never know what old treasures await you as you hunt! LOL I also picked up a travel bug (A big plastic bug with a dog tag and a destination goal that has been placed in caches and then you pick it up and log its location and take it to another place, hopefully in the direction of it's destination) that started out in OR, came up to BC and it now wanting to head back to somewhere warm! There is a series that just was placed at the local libraries and I have 4 of the 7 of those found but I still have a few to go. If you at all like riddles or treasure hunting this can easily grow on you. So anyway when I am not at work, home studying or doing actually nesecary things you can bet that I am either out hunting or planning my next caching expedition!

School is going great. I am taking Chem and nutrition which is really fun. The lab this quarter are quite different than the last two quarters and I am finding them a little frusterating but it's getting better and I still love the class!

Yeah Spring is here and so are hiking and caching opportunities! I can't wait for things to get a little warmer and drier so I can start to hit some of the caches that are out on trails and in the hills. I didn't get out hardly at all last summer and that will not happen again so if any of you are up to spending time out doors with me please let me know because I would love your company.

Well so I am sure that is enough boring info for the moment. Till next time....

My Life

It's not denial. I'm just selective about the reality I accept.
Calvin & Hobbes

Blessing

This evening my beloved cat, Tut Tut, the one I have had since he was 5 days old, ran outside at dusk and was eating some grass before I came close enough to catch him. He did the usual run as I got close for a couple of min. and then he kind of laid down in the grass and I was able to grab him. He was wiggly on the way back to the house but I didn't think anything of it. I got inside and put him down only to be shocked in the next instant as he was falling over and slightly convulsing. My first thought was that I had somehow injured him in carrying him in I didn't know what I could have done to him. I grabbed him and was trying to get him to throw up or at least stand and it really looked like he was choking on something. I picked him up and he was literally dying in my arms, his tounge was gray and his paws were grabbing at his face, he was slobering a little and his eyes were closing. I then thought maybe he had eating something poisinous but there isn't really anything out there and we haven't sprayed any chemicals so that didn't seem to fit either. I put him back on the floor and held him up while prying his mouth open and plunging my finger repeatedly down this throat. This caused him to seem like he was going to throw up but he never did. He was still not doing well and I was still poking away down his throat to see if I could feel anything but nothing seemed there, though he finally did swallow. Mom grabbed her purse and shoes and call the emergency clinic to find out where they were and we headed out. By the time we got into the car though he seemed a little better and so we just drove slowly a little ways down the road before turning around and heading home. He is fine now, came home and ate and wanted to purr and snuggle. I think he ate too much long grass too fast and he was choking on it literally. By shoving my finger down his throat it made him swallow and there wasn't too much of it to finally go down. We prayed and I am so thankful our prayers were answered quickly before we ended up paying a lot of money at the vet only to be told he has grass in the throat! What a goofy cat! 2 Aprils ago he had to have his stomache operated on because of yarn he ate and now this April it's grass. What next???? On second thought I don't want to know!

Red Letter Day

Wow! This was definetly the best day of my spring break!
In the morning I finally purchased an Ipod from a well known auction site and I got a better deal than the one I had been bidding on before. (read previous post about that) I know this isn't probably very exciting for most of you but I was pretty excited because I have been researching and thinking about them for a while now and now I will finally have one to play with. I hope it's all I think it will be!
In the afternoon was our second choir concert which went very well and I got to connect with some friends that I haven't seen for a few months which was awesome. I am going to work on seeing people more often...your help in this regard would be most appreciated by the way. Don't let me get so focused and caught up in work and school that I miss out on seeing people besides co-workers and classmates!
Then this evening I got to go geocaching with a friend for the first time. It was truely as much fun as I thought it would be. It was really cold but it didn't rain or snow on us so all was well. (Geocaching is solving clues and puzzles to get coordinates that you put into a GPS device and then you got to the certain areas and look for the hidden treasure that are there. We were actually working on solving a series of micro caches, just little tiny tubes or boxes which don't really have treasure but you do sign a little log and then note on your geocaching account log on-line that you have been there and found the cache. Basically it's treasure hunting with a technological twist.) So anyway Monique had solved most of the math and clues already so all we had to do was go to the sites and hunt. We went to 6 sites around Lynden and found what we were after at 3 of them. Well she found the first one and then I was on the right track for the second one but she actually physically found it and then the last one she kind of had a hunch where it was and sure enough it was there. She has been at this for awhile so she knows more what she is looking for. This particular cache is a series of 7 all having to do with Lynden bridges and the hidder is pretty sneaky! This is a hunt that will be continued! I will be heading back to the sites where we weren't successful because at least for one of them we think we know where it is but we needed a pair of pliers to find it! Definetly addicting I look forward to going again with her sometime.