The End of the Teens

It always seems unreal to me when the end of the year arrives.  Sometimes I feel accomplished, usually, I don't, and 99% of the time, I've already forgotten what transpired.  This year is different (although I'm still not sure what all transpired).  I know it's because we're leaving the teens behind and entering the 20's so it feels more dramatic.  I also know it's because I'm feeling too nostalgic.  When I thought about Christmas this year, it occurred to me that this could be my midpoint of Christmas' where my child is at home on Christmas morning.

I always overthink these things.  I don't want my child to stay young forever, but I also don't want her growing up.  It's an age-old problem for most parents...the best part is watching your children grow...the hardest part is watching your children grow.

We're also entering the "doldrums".  It's that time of year when holiday's stall and days out of work are slim.  It's dreary out with cold gray days.  I dread it really, but there's plenty to keep me busy, so onward we march with at least a slight smile.

So what transpired in 2019...well, the year started off with terrible bloodwork from my doctor which carried through the whole year.  Liver enzymes are up as well so I have to monitor that (liver enzymes hadn't been tested in ages, so I'm assuming those tanked when I just stopped trying to eat well).  I have, what I believe to be, tendonitis in my left foot which makes walking rough sometimes.  Rest helps, as well as stretching before I have to walk.  That developed around September of this year.  The kiddo is now in third grade and loving it.  I am still the PTO's secretary, a job which I sort of loathe (if anyone tells you the PTO/PTA is not filled with drama, they clearly don't know what they are talking about).  Helping the school though, that's wonderful!  At the end of 2018-2019 school year, the kiddo got to go to the Science Center with her 2nd-grade teacher, which was fun.   We have gone a couple times this year as well, including our work party which rented out the planetarium (it was amazing).  I ended up traveling a bit this year.  In May, the kiddo and I flew to Fargo, ND followed up by a two-hour drive to my sister's town in Minnesota.  We were there for her son's high school graduation.  While there we also went to the beginning of the Mississippi River, which, despite being cliche, was very cool to experience.  The trip home was interesting since our flight was delayed (sat on the plane for hours) followed up by the flight getting canceled and we had to fly home the following day.  It was a fiasco, and we were so glad to be home...but the overall trip was wonderful.  I also flew to Orlando for a girls' trip (R., E., and myself) where we had some fun in Disney, and drank ourselves around the world in Epcot.  We failed in our efforts and had to return the following day to get the job done (I blame Mexico).  We had our final camping season in Indiana (Indiana Beach).  It was our one and only camping trip of the year and we then sold the camper.  Let me rephrase, we (C.) traded in his truck and the camper for a Jeep.  It's bittersweet, but overall, I can't say I'm devastated.  We took our annual trip to Moline for Christmas.  I worked at (and attended) the steel conference in St. Louis this year.  I am helping plan the Structures Congress for 2020 (though I'm not sure what you can claim "help" is) and I continued to help plan and work at our local conference.  Piano for the kid is still ongoing, as is martial arts.

What is there to look forward to in 2020: well, another trip to Disney (our family and E.'s family) followed up by another trip to Florida in the summer (beach trip, same travelers).  Piano will still resume and hopefully, the kiddo will acquire her black belt this year.  Her first opportunity to test is March.  I look forward to actually trying to focus on my health, though, I say that every year.  I also look forward to trying to relax a bit more (depends on how this belt testing goes).  I'd love to be cliche and say I'll meet up with friends more, or read more, or write more...but that probably won't happen.  I will probably craft more (new Cricut for Christmas).  I don't know that this next thing is a thing I'm looking forward to necessarily (I was, but my team members are not very good team members) but I am working on a high profile project that I am super excited to be involved in with a company I didn't anticipate working with...the world is weird that way.  I don't/can't elaborate, but it's interesting. 

So, I hope your teens and your 2019 were great.  I hope your 20's are even better!

Year In Review - Part II

As always, I made sure to have some escapade in my year.

This year was New York, NY; Kansas City, MO; Austin, TX; Santa Claus, IN; Dublin, Ireland; London, UK; Glasgow, Scotland; Berkeley, CA.

Here are a few pics...








Lessons Learned...

• Sometimes you have to get away be it for entertainment, avoidance, therapy, or your birthday. You just need to do it!


• Traveling alone has its rewards. You get to go where you want, do what you want, and all on your schedule.


• Traveling alone can be scary. When something goes wrong, you have only your brain to figure out what to do


• Traveling alone means it's hard to get good pictures. Yea, you can ask the random stranger to take a picture for you; but with my trust issues, no one was touching my camera!


• Sometimes the places you least expect to enjoy are the best and vice versa. I had high hopes for London though it proved much less enjoyable than anticipated. I had low hopes for Berkley and it proved to be a top on my list of places to return.

NaBloPoMo Day 16 Post 13 - For @sheehanpaul

There are some of us that like to travel and to remember our travel in the smallest of ways...by this I mean, liberating ink pens from hotel rooms! Here is a small collection of mine...

From top to bottom -
Couples Resorts, Negril, Jamaica
Bellagio, Las Vegas, Nevada
Hotel Bothwell, Sedalia, Missouri
Stratosphere, Las Vegas, Nevada
Double Tree in Berkley Marina, Berkley, California
Congress Plaza Hotel, Chicago, Illinois
Renaissance Hotel, Austin, Texas
Millennium Hotel, St. Louis, Missouri

Join the club, PLO - Pen Liberation Organization...

This post is for Twitter friend @sheehanpaul, loved your liberated pen picture a while back! Keep up the good work!

Word...

ringtone DJ: An annoying person who shuffles through all their ringtones incessantly.
Austrailian kiss: (aka Aussie kiss)-Similar to a French kiss, but down under.

Tomorrow I Take Off

I'm very excited, as today is my last full day of this week. Tomorrow I take off to Dublin/London/Glasgow. I just checked the weather and it should be in the 70's with rain. I should plan to pack an extra set of pants and maybe less shorts.

Tomorrow will be hectic. I am having Chris drop me off at a Metrolink station so I can take Metro downtown to work for a few hours. I think sometime around 10 or 11 I'll leave work to Metro to the airport. My flight isn't until 3, but with the President coming to St. Louis for the All-Star game, I have to be prepared for hassles at the airport. Metrolink to the airport is about 45-50 minutes from downtown, so if I leave at 10, I should get there around 11, and I'll just eat lunch inside security and have about 3 hours to kill. I'd better pack another book!

It has just occured to me that I used the words President and kill in the same blog! Egads! What do you think will happen?

So just a quick review of my weekend and then I'm off to work as much as I can possibly stand today!

Saturday, Amanda and I went for a bike ride, partly for the ride, partly for the geocaching experience. We looked but found no geocach. We also rode in the rain, which was slick, but fun.

Sunday, Eva and I went for a hike up at Pere Marquette State Park. We are getting Eva prepared for her trip to the Smokies. While there, we looked for a geocach, and surprisingly enough found it. Lucky for me it had a Travel Bug so I get to take that with me to the UK to deposit in a different geocach! I am very excited about this!



Words-
ungood: Surfer term for "bad". Also used in George Orwell's bovel 1984.
drunk catcher: An obstacle found in one's path that, while drunk, provides, an incredible challenge to avoid. This includes cracks in the sidewalk, low-hanging tree branches, abnormal curbs, and members of the opposite sex who are of questionable attractiveness. Generally these are ranked by class, or degree of difficulty: class 1 being the lowest and class 5 being the highest.

In Use: The captain totally tweaked his ankle last night on a class 5 drunk catcher.

My Itinerary

For those of you that choose to keep track of me, like Amanda, Holly, and Drew (for mom) . . . here is my itinerary for next week. (This is also my back up copy).

[For reference, STL-St. Louis, ATL-Atlanta, DUB-Dublin, LHR-London Heathrow, GLA-Glasgow, all US flights are Delta booked through Northwest]

DUBLIN
JULY 14 Flight DL1723 STL-ATL 15:15; arrive 17:57
JULY 14 Flight DL0176 ATL-DUB 20:55; arrive 10:00 (+ 1 day)
Hotel Jurys Inn Parnell Street (353 (0)1 878 4900) [In-15th, Out-16th]

LONDON
JULY 16 Flight BD124 DUB-LHR 11:40; arrive 13:00 (44 (0)13 3264 8181) [REF#32L4ZX, bmi]
Hotel Euston Square Hotel (44 (0)20 7388 0099) [In-16th, Out-18th]

GLASGOW
JULY 18 Flight BA1492 LHR-GLA 17:35; arrive 19:00 [REF#32FWHT, British Airways]
Hotel Victorian House Hotel (0141 332 0129) [In-18th, Out-20th]

DUBLIN
JULY 20 Flight AL225 GLA-DUB 10:55; arrive 11:50 [REF#25FJ2N, Aer Lingus]
Hotel Jurys Inn Parnell Street (353 (0)1 878 4900) [In-20th, Out-21st]

HOME
JULY 21 Flight DL0177 DUB-ATL 11:50; arrive 15:45
JULY 21 Flight DL0909 ATL-STL 17:35; arrive 18:20

Anyone wanting to drop me off and/or pick me up at the airport or a Metrolink station may volunteer! ha, like how I threw that in there!

I Love to Travel.

Okay, so a quick update, then I have to get to work. I got home yesterday to find a package left on my bed. One quick glance at the return addy and I knew it was my new Rancid album. It's sweet. I could just hug those boys. They'd probably look at me funny and tell me to get away; but I'd hug them anyway! Darlings I tell you.

Work stuff: I had a deadline set for July 1. Just a schematic design package so realistically what I already have done is enough; I am an over-achiever so not good enough for me. I will be working 10-12 hour days every day this week. Good news is that I had planned to take next week off to hide for a week. I'd tell you where but that would ruin the point of hiding! But, the extra time I work this week will be applied to next week so less vacay time to be used. Saves me about 2 days! Amanda and I will plan a trip with the extra time. I love to travel, this is perfect.

Other: So I have two friends, I think of one as a best friend (never ever going to be above my Eva in ranks, so don't go getting some ego), and another as a new friend (some one I think of as more than an acquaintance). Even if, let's say for example, they hated each other one day, I would want to think of them as I do now, liking each in their respective ways. I'd also like to say I want was is best for them, and what that is, I have no idea. I try to be judicial in my judgements. Fairness for everyone is the least anyone deserves from me. Having said that, I want to mention that I think he is worth the chance, I really do. If in the end, it all comes to nil, then she doesn't deserve him. She doesn't deserve his compassion, his idiosyncrasies, his charm (if that is what one can call it)!


Likes/Dislikes:

New Rancid album, Let the Dominoes Fall. Especially the acoustic album. I think Eva will love the acoustic song New Orleans. It's lovely. You Want It, You Got It has a zydeco feel to it, yet another Eva will love. EEE, I can't wait for their show in 'bout two weeks.


Industrialization of Jamaica

Word-
elevision: The act of people in an elevator staring up, uncomfortably, at the numbers as they light up when the car moves.

Other Transportation - National Bike Month

For National Bike Month, I plan on riding to work tomorrow. Well, actually, I will be riding my bike to the bus station and then catching the bus the rest of the way. This is my route to the bus station . . . 1.6 miles [2.57 km]



If I were to ride to the grocery store, this would be my route . . . 1.2 miles [1.93 km]



If I were going to ride to my mom's house (about the farthest I would safely venture), I would take this route . . . 9.5 miles [15.29 km]

Very Cool Visuals

Air Travel . . . .

over a 24 hour period.





Also, check out this website . . . .

http://www.yooouuutuuube.com/

Just Pining

I walked to my desk, hit the button on my computer that makes him think, replenished my water and sat down for a busy day of organizing paper! As the morning usually goes, I skipped past the news and went straight for my blogs. It was here, on this day, March 26 of 2009 at 7:40AM that I saw my soul mate. You might be giggling to yourself thinking that I am having yet another delusional morning, but no, this is not the case. I really did see him in a YouTube video. Are you dying to see him too? Okay, well here he is, Matt Harding in his video "Where the Hell is Matt?".

Have you watched it yet? Did you see that he is both travelling and dancing? How awesome is that? Did you see the elephants?

I am in a better mood this morning, so I will write as quickly as my fingers can type so that I can get a couple of stories in and then quickly get to work on those stacks of paper that are just pining to be organized!

English Beat Tix...Kansas City radio station has tickets to this show. It is the only way to get tickets to this show. I e-mail the radio DJ who tells me that I can have tickets but that I must call the morning show on Wednesday morning to get them. I do this, and she tells me she changed her mind. Really?? I was in no mood yesterday to handle anything like that. I think she heard my heart drop because she apologized profusely and told me that it should be a KC thing, and we were St. Louisans! Really?? So long story short....I begged, literally begged for them; she made me say things like "I hate St. Louis radio" and "I hate Cornbread". Oddly enough, both statements are true! But then she tells me that I have to wear a scarlet letter the entire night. Really?? I don't even know what that means! Oh well, we'll see what happens between now and then!

Dub Kitchen...I work with an awesome girl named Jen R. here at my cult called HOK. She is in a dub reggae band called Dub Kitchen. I got to see her perform for the first time, and she totally rocks! Her voice is perfect for this style of music, and she was adorable on stage as well! I got to dance too! I've already briefly blogged about the event, so I won't dwell, but my complaints are about Missouri bars, smoking, and hippies. Ugh, hippies! I went to the show alone, but knew a couple of people there to hang out with, though, I did little hanging 'cept between bands. Fellow cult member Seth was one of these people. He told me that on very rare occasions, he goes to the Pub, yes, the one and only O'Connell's Pub! He likes the jukebox! So do I!

Okay, so seriously, I need to get to these papers. They are giving me some looks that say, "Touch me all over and shove me in that binder. Scan me baby, scan me!". I really can't deny them of their due treats!

A few other notes before I get to it; 1)How did I get this bruise on my arm?, 2) How many times do I say "I'm sorry" in a day?, 3)Am I allowed to say "stop asking me that or I WILL punch you in the face"?, 4)Elephants are cool, so are seals, 5)I really need to not drink alcohol, I am failing miserably at this task!

Word of the day(I so like this one):
cheeky monkey: Originally used to define someone who gives lots of lip and is a smart-ass, but now refers to anyone talking or behaving audaciously.

Damn Difficult, Damn Rewarding

Yesterday was interesting. Two friends (M&S) got crappy news, one of which is required to have surgery on Friday; another friend (C) is getting no news when she needs to hear anything; and Amanda came over to do laundry (and of course walk the dogs). I got added to a project here at HOK, which implies I will be here for the long haul of the project. This sounds very reassuring to me, I have a job still, at the place I love to work.

I feel exhausted. On one hand, it's a good feeling, because I hate feeling antsy and it makes sleep peaceful. On the other hand, exhaustion is hard to work through, especially when the sun isn't even up yet and I'm at work. I'm drinking some hot tea though, so I'll be alert in no time I should guess!

I think I am mentally in a better place these days. Part of it is medication, I am sure the other part is planning a trip. I feel like I just need to get away, do something I want to do, spend my money on me, and see things I want to see (an adventure). I guess unless you are in my head, it makes little sense; but I am really looking forward to the future, which is pretty necessary in my opinion. I haven't really looked forward to anything lately.

So in my planning, I look up something new everyday. Today, I might look up more information on the public transportation available in London. You probably already know I am a big advocate for public transportation, and would prefer to never drive again in an automobile (unless I'm the passenger). It makes "getting around" pretty damn difficult sometimes; but is usually a damn rewarding journey.

Alas it is time for me to move onto something else today, a little thing called work! I am designing a retaining wall today, a continuation of yesterday! I might stop back in later to post more, but until then, please have an enjoyable day!

Word of the Day:
fembot: A girl or woman who, unfortunately, finds herself oversubscribed to dominant views of beauty and femininity.

In use: Dude, your new stepmom is such a fembot with her plastic surgery, dye job, and falsies. I don't know what your dad sees in her!

Go With Me to Scotland

Yesterday I met Mike's friend Kelly. She's pretty great. She blogs, writes things in a notebook, collects quotes, and has framed Frank Lloyd Wright drawings. I condone of Mike hanging out with this Kelly!

Speaking of Mike, go to the doctor, please?! I don't want to hear any of this maybe maybe maybe crap, just go!

Onto other things, I heard of a Scottish architect I needed to check out. I didn't recall his name, Ruben isn't here to ask, so I just started browsing for Scottish architects. I found a guy by the name of Charles Rennie Mackintosh. This guy is so right up my alley I'm surprised I'd never heard of him before! I recommend checking him out. I particularly like his glass panel for The Rose Boudoir. On his site, they have a Places to Visit section. I was just thinking to myself how cool it would be to go and do the Mackintosh Trail. When I go to London this summer, perhaps I'll just hop on up to Scotland (it's like right there!) and do this tour thing. It sounds amazing. The really cool thing about the website, is that they tell you how to get to the places, which buses to take, how long of a walk you have (up a steep hill even). This is the type of adventure I want to have! So on that note, go with me to Scotland, we'll have fun, or at least I will!

Well, perhaps I'll blog more later. According to Mike, I blog twice a day. I would have to disappoint him!

Word of the day:
Irish flu: A particularly unpleasant hangover.