New City, New Life

I have moved! It's truly an exciting adventure. I can't wait for all the neat people I am going to meet and all cool things I am going to be able to do. At this point I am confronted with the epitome of the quarter-life crisis. Where do I fit in? I have been researching ways to meet people and get involved. Since I am not so into the "bar crawl," I have to find other outlets to connect. I dread "singles" groups. So often it's like you are being interviewed to see whether you are "spouse-worthy." All I am asking for is people to have fun with. I have been dying to go ice skating. I used to love to ice skate, but I don't really know anyone to go with me here. I guess I could go by myself, but that is not so fun. I know the companions will come with time, but I want them NOW! (Insert tantrum here)
I was so fortunate to have several great friends from high school come into town to visit me last weekend. It was such a great opportunity for me to explore my new city and enjoy the company of old friends. We experienced the "night life" (I have been using quotes a lot, probably incorrectly), we went canoeing, and played Frisbee in a BEAUTIFUL park. Oh yeah, we also tried slack-lining too (I stink). I know there are tons of other gems in this city, but I need to find new people to explore them with me.
Does this sound too negative? Life is actually really good right now. I am not sure I have ever felt so blessed. Since my social life has declined I have more time for quiet times, introspection, and even rest. I have been really encouraged by calls from friends from around the world and now I have time to talk. It's great. So if you need someone to talk to, I am the person to call. :)
Essentially, at this point I just long for fellowship. I was warned once not to pray for patience because God will make you practice it, but I guess it is what I really need.

Another round of water?

Okay, so I was out to dinner with some girlfriends last week and we were having a marvelous time. Laughing it up and such. Then the waitress came over with a tray filled with glasses of water. She said "These are from the guy in the blue shirt." What? Water? Are you kidding? It was hilarious. We were trying to figure out this strange guy sending over glasses of water. Either he was too cheap, underage, or maybe he thought we were too loud and needed water to dilute the revelry. Later he came over and asked us if we wanted another round, on him of course. It was just too strange. That was all I wanted to share.

Convict in a tree

Well, crazy things happen at my work. Today was a pretty normal busy day. One of the security guards had asked my co-worker to send out an email telling everyone to lock their cars because there was a convict on the loose. We kind of laughed it off because this particular security guard tends to be overzealous. My co-worker went ahead and sent out an email about being vigilant since we had some theft problems anyway.

Then we forgot about it and went on about our day.

That was 10ish. Then at 3:30 I get the report. At 3:00 the security guards switched shifts so the new crew had just come on the job. A man had come up to security and asked them to use the phone. He used it and then left. One of the security guards watched him because she was a bit suspicious. Then she saw him climb up one of the trees that line the driveway at work. So she called the police.
We are in a small town so the entire police force shows up. Five police officers surround the tree with guns pointing up at the guy. They finally get him down and throw cuffs on him. So apparently, this guy escaped from jail, hijacked a car, and had been running around the country all day. They found crack and crack pipe on him which really isn't surprising considering he climbed up a tree in plain view of our security.
Anyway, it was weird. I am glad he didn't do anything to any of our employees. I looked to see if it was in the local news tonight, but it wasn't. I thought it was pretty big news or at least it was was exciting to me. Oh well.
That's it.

There are flies everywhere "sweetie"

Okay folks, I don't really have any particular topic in mind to write about, but for some reason I feel drawn to writing. I guess we'll see where the this rambling leads. I keep getting distracted by flies. When I got home from work there were flies all over my windows, probably 50 or so. It was so gross. I have been in a futile war with them for the past few hours. I couldn't find any newspapers to swat them with, so I am armed with a paper towel roll. If anyone was to catch a glimpse of me in my apartment they would probably think I am insane as I thrash around trying to kill the tiny infiltrators. I have proof of the dozens of casualties in my trash can. Okay, enough war analogies. It's just that I think I get them all and then another one turns up. It's quite frusterating. Someone told me to put out wine and dish soap in a bowl and that the flies will be attracted to it and drown. Well, the bowl still has no flies in it.
Moving on. My latest soap box has been people calling me "sweetie" all the time. I got called "sweetie" at work last week and I found it very patronizing. Granted, the guy was more than 10 years older than I am, but for some reason it rubbed me the wrong way. Since then I have noticed that I get called "sweetie" a lot. I have gone out to eat 3 times in the last 2 days and I have been called sweetie 7 times by 5 different people (not that I am keeping count or anything). Okay, I live in the south and it is common for adults to call younger people "sweetie." But, each time I have been out with groups of at least 8 people, most of whom are the same age as me, and I am the only one that gets this moniker. My friend at work says I should take it as a compliment that people feel comfortable enough around me to call me "sweetie." I know she's right, but I guess I feel it is slightly belittling. I don't know why this bothers me now, because I have never noticed it before. I probably need to just let it go. The problem isn't when someone significantly older than me in a non-work setting calls me "sweetie," but in a professional setting, I don't think it's appropriate. Today one of my male co-workers said "You are such a sweetie." He was trying to compliment me but he definitely used the wrong verbage considering my current "sweetie" issues. My other friend said I should start growling at people and then they probably would stop calling me "sweetie." I don't think that it bothers me to that extreme. As to be expected, now all my friends have resorted to calling me "sweetie" just to bug me. But I guess that is what friends are for. (Note: Just to clarify for those who are worried now because they call their girlfriend/wife/child/significant other "sweeties," it not patronizing/belittling when said genuinly to a loved one.)
I guess that's all for now. Happy 4th of July to everyone. I appologize for the extremely long paragraphs, but I am too tired to go through and edit. Again, I appologize.

The Swarm

Yeah so it has been a while. I guess I've been pretty busy. Yesterday for the first time in months, maybe even years, I came to the point of having done everything that I needed to do. What a relief! I even took a nap. I never take naps because I always spend them thinking about the things that I should be doing instead. Last night when I was trying to sleep I realized the other reason that I don't take naps, because I can't sleep at night if I sleep during the day. So now, I am exhausted from a poor night's sleep and I must stay awake for a while to break the cycle. Sounds like the perfect time to blog. I hope you can wade through this delirius rambling without too much pain.
So I have a story about bees. I don't mind bugs too much. I try to avoid them, but I'm not one of those girls who is on top of her chair at the sight of a roach. I guess that come from growing up in Asia. Bugs were kind of just a way of life. Anyway, I have seen pretty much every type of creature at my workplace. We had spiders, an invasion of crickets, mice, and our latest visitors were a swarm of bees.
I came into work on Monday and the railing on the handicap ramp was totally covered with bees. I have never seen so many bees concentrated in one place so close to me. My company is a "green" company so we couldn't call the exterminator. Our facilities people at headquarters contacted a beekeeper who said he could come move the queen and that the rest would follow. Although he said that they were migrating and that they would probably leave on their own in 24 hours.
My dilemma was that I had an event that required everyone to be outside under a huge tent relatively close to the bees the next day. Besides that, one of our employee's ex-husbands had died from an allergic reaction to bee stings not even a week earlier. Do I take the chance that they leave on their own (to which I was very skeptical) or do I get them taken care of? They had been first noticed at 4:00 the previous day and so if they weren't gone by 3:00 we would get the bee keeper to move them.
My boss came and interupted a meeting at 3:00 to let us know that the bees had left at exactly 3:00. At 3:05 the pest control person showed up to find 5 bees and a railing covered in honey. Apparently they were honey bees like we had been told and they were migrating (hopefully far away). We guessed around 500 bees, but the bee expert said that a fist equals about 1,000 bees so we probably had 20,000 bees. My skin crawls thinking about that. Well, now they're gone. Now if getting rid of the mice was that easy.

How's the weather?

Ok, you know how people ask "how's the weather?" when there is nothing better to talk about? Well, our weather is crazy and I feel it merits a blog entry. In one week I lived through a tornado and snow in Texas in April. It's just weird. It's 34 degrees out on Easter Sunday. What is up with that? We got more snow overnight than we had all winter. Weird.

The day of the tornado it was pitch black and rain was pouring horizontally into the windows. So of course, everyone was going to the weather web pages to see what was going on. Finally we got word from the police department that we needed to head for the basement. It was a surreal experience. I started directing traffic and made sure no one tried to leave to go home. I was a little surprised at how I was able to hold it together and a little overwhelmed by the fact that people actually looked to me for direction. We got everyone in the basement and then just waited. 30 minutes later it had blown over although flash flooding was still a problem. We had no power so they released everyone to go home. I included pictures of a building 300 yards away from ours that got hit by the tornado. Man it was close.

The tornado hit building:

My office from the tornado hit building:

Then we get snow! I was driving home through the snow and it was beautiful. It was crazy to see the bluebonnets covered in snow. Here are pics of the snow.

(Pic courtesy of the Qourzals)

So this year in temperate Texas we have had hurricanes, ice storms, tornados and snow in April? So, who said talking about the weather was boring?

ER experience

I never get sick. I just don't. The last time I went to ER was when I sprained my ankle in 2nd grade. Well, at least not until last week. There has been an epidemic of the flu here lately. Every night on the news they're talking about how there is record outage in the schools due to the flu. Well, I was not exempt. I got my flu shot, but I still managed to get super sick. I hadn't been sick a single day since I started my job a year and a half ago. Anyway, I stayed home sick and at about noon I thought I was going to throw up so I went into the bathroom. I ended up passing out. I woke up on the floor surrounded by water. It turns out when I passed out I hit my head on the tank of the toilet and it split in half. I reached up and turned off the water at the base of the toilet. Then I started cleaning up the water and I passed out again. After I woke up the second time I laid there for a while trying to figure out how I was going to deal with this. I think I had fever because laying there in the cold water felt so good. Once I felt good enough to get up and get my phone, I called several people but no one answered. Finally I got ahold of my friend Carie who got ahold of Jessica who took me to the emergency room. I couldn't ask for 2 better people to spend hours in the ER with.
While I was waiting for them to come get me, I called our apartment manager. I tried to calmly explain to her what happened, but then I fell apart. I should cry on the phone when I talk to my apartment manager more often because when I got home from the ER my toilet was fixed and the water was cleaned up. They've never worked so fast. Maybe I should call and cry about the 6 ft hole that has been blocking the entrance to to our building for the last 5 days too.
It was amazing because when we got to the ER there was no one else there. I was rushed in and taken care of immediately. I got to experience my first IV, my first EKG, and my first cat scan. Everything came up clear. Apparently I have a very hard head. I can break a toilet with my head with no concussion or anything. The doctor said it was vasovagal sycope. I looked it up on Wikipedia when I got home. Fainting from extreme stimuli. They filled me up with fluids from the IV and then sent me on my way. He prescribed an antibiotic and mucinex (the miracle drug). Fun stuff. When I left 4 hours later the waiting room to the ER was packed. By the way, Carie and Jessica entertained me in my room by reenacting Saturday Live skits or things they had seen on YouTube. It was great.
So I basically slept for the next two days. My roommate was sick too so we basically planted ourselves on the couch for the weekend while our bodies fought off our germs.
So yeah, that's about it for my sickness story. I'm fine now besides the remnant bruise left from the IV in my arm. I wish I had thought to take a picture of my toilet before I left for the ER, but that wasn't my top priority. Carie, Jessica, and my roommates can vouch for me though. I seriously broke the toilet in half. By the way, the only reason I know it was with my head, was because that's the only part of me that hurt. But it didn't start hurting until about 8 hours afterwards. How weird is that? Anyway, all is well now.

Matchmaker, Matchmaker make me a match...

Ok, so many of the women at work feel like it's their duty to match me up with their sons, brothers, nephews, friends, neighbors and acquaintances. They all say, "You are such nice person and I just want my (son, brother, nephew, friend, neighbor or acquaintance) to find a nice girl." It actually amuses me quite a bit as they go on and rave about the positive attributes of my prospective suitor.
One time I did actually give a mom my phone number for her son. The lady asked me for my number and so I consulted with a friend on what I should do. She said I need to live by the "Yes" rule, which basically says unless the guy is an absolute creep, you have to say yes to one date. I wondered how this applied in my situation since I didn't actually know the guy. My friend decided that if the mom is nice, then the same rule should apply. So I gave her my number. Let's just say she told her son that I saw his picture on her desk and thought he was cute, so I gave her my number and asked him to call. He ended up calling. We talked for about 10 minutes but then he was embarrased to no end when he found out his mother was playing matchmaker. Let's just say things were a little awkward at work when I had to face the scheming, little, old lady the next day. Finally she yelled at me and said I didn't need to avoid her. Yes, yes I did.
That incident was almost normal compared to the conversation I had with a lady from work last Friday. She said she had a guy that she wanted to set me up with, but when I found out who he was I probably would be shocked. That's never a good preface to a blind date scenario. She said that she really wanted this guy to find a nice girl and that I was the first one to come to mind. So who was this man? It was her ex-husband. After I stared at her blankly for awhile I decided to ask her why she would set me up with someone she divorced. She said that she was miserable being married to him, but now looking back it wasn't that bad. The grass was greener on the other side, so to speak. But, she did mention he cheated on her a couple times. What? Why would I ever want to date a guy with a history of cheating? I was floored by this point. Then she said that she had to think about whoever he dated and the influence they would have on their three kids, especially her impressionable 16-year-old daughter. With a 16-year-old daughter he would have to be. . . I asked. He is 38. I'm much closer to the daughter's age than I am to his. She said he was "young at heart," but has grown up a lot since they were married. These two things somehow are contradictory to me. Hmmm.
She asked me to go to a bar that night and hang out with their group of friends to see if we had anything in common. Fortunately, I had plans so I dodged a bullet, but then she asked me to hang out the next night. I didn't have plans so I made something up. I lied. I am a horrible liar so she probably saw right through me. I should have just said, "no, I'm not interested", but I was dumb and didn't want to hurt her feelings.
Yikes, being single in a workplace filled with meddling women is dangerous business. Not to mention the scary guys who stalk you and write you creepy messages, but that's a story for another time.

The day I almost died

So everyone has heard about the ice storm that has swept the nation. Well, my town was not exempt from the icy chaos. Work was cancelled one day, but the day it was worst we has a late start. So the adventure began with me calling our weather hot line at 6am to see what time we would be opening. The freeing feeling that comes from finding out work doesn't start until 10am cannot be described in words. The sheer joy of rolling over and knowing you can sleep an extra two hours is probably one of the best feelings ever.
Anyway, it ended up being pushed back again until noon, so my roommates and I bundled up and watched the Chronicles of Narnia. The warmth that Aslan brought to Narnia gave me hope that one day feeling would return to my toes. So after putting on my 7 layers I finally had to leave the semi-warmth of the apartment and brave the tundra.
Well, I almost died. A guy in a slick, black Lexus with vanity plates decided to pass me. I was driving cautiously at 35mph where the speed limit was 70 because I was fishtailing all over the place. We were the only 2 cars on the road. He got past me and began to spin. Instinctively I slammed on the breaks (I know, I know the absolute worst thing to do in ice), but if I hadn't I would have slammed into him. Then he flies off the side of the road into the ditch. My car finally stops perpendicular to the highway. I was able to pull off onto the shoulder to check on the guy who drove off the road. The Lexus drives back on to the road and honks as he goes by to let me know he's OK. "I'm glad you're fine, sir who was driving to fast, but my hands are still shaking, thanks for asking." So, I'm closer to work than I am to my house so I carefully drive on. I was one of maybe 10 people in the building. Slowly our number climbed, but we topped out at 50 (we have 250 in our building normally).
The ice adventure stories began to trickle in. One employee was in a ditch and the "big boss" who is from New England (he was calling everyone wusses for complaining about the ice) decided he would go get her out. Then they told him which employee it was and he said maybe he should wait a little while. I think you have to know the person to really appreciate the hilarity of that statement. He decided that he had to go get her, and he was able to get her out.
Next we found out our HR lady had attempted the to make the hour and a half commute to work in the ice and wrecked her Z3. This car was her baby, her birthday present to herself. So the "big boss" decided he was going to go rescue her too. I asked him if he had a hero complex. My coworkers laughed uncomfortably not sure if the boss would find this funny too. I told him I was trying to break down barriers, but he said I was asking to not ever get promoted. He was kidding, I hope.
You won't believe the nerve of this state trooper. The HR lady asked the State Trooper, who stopped to check on her, to write an incident report for her insurance. He said he would also have to give her a citation if he wrote up an incident report, or else she'd have to do it herself. She asked him for what the citation would be for. He said that she must have been going too fast to spin off the road. She swears she was going 40 in a 70. Immediately after this, a little, old lady in a minivan going 35 hit the same patch of ice and slid off the road about 50 feet ahead. The trooper speeds off to go check on her and does the exact same thing. Talk about dumb.
So yeah, I think that was all the really exciting stories. Fortunately, no one was hurt. But Texans don't know how to drive on ice. Well, I guess I can't talk. I lived the majority of my life on the equator, then lived in Southern California, and finally Texas. So yep that was ice escapades or ice capades so to speak

My first blog ever

I have been inspired by my coworker to start my own blog. I kind of missed that bandwagon when it started a couple years ago. I think I was in Argentina. I'm at a point in my life when so many crazy things are happening and decisions are being made, that I feel like it would be fun to chronicle it. If not for anyone else, at least for myself. Just forewarning, I hate punctuation so please don't judge me by my grammar skills. I think I must have slept through that part of elementary school or else my teachers all assumed that another teacher would impart that crucial piece literary knowledge.
My first story begins with work. My office is a petri dish of interesting stories. I work for a gigantic cutting-edge technology company in one of their satellite locations out in the country. This dichotomy is quite interesting. Basically the town gave us use of this former missile factory for free, so we are stuck in a town with less people than the number of employees in our one division. That being said, today I received an email survey from global facilities. Most of the questions were not even applicable. I had to rate the food service...I guess I would be rating myself since lunch means running to one of the 3 fast food restaurants in town (two more than when we first opened). The next one asked to rate the landscaping. Well, considering we hire the model inmates at the local women's correctional facility to mow the fields surrounding our building, I guess we get our money's worth. But can you really call that landscaping? Anyway, those little funny things like this never fail to amuse me.
So yeah, it's late, and I really just wanted to start a blog. We'll see if I can keep up with this.