not all who wander are lost

Alaska 2010

2010-09-14T12:53:00.001-05:00

Alaskan Cruise on Holland America's Rotterdam, August 28 - September 4, 2010 out of Seattle, WA. Ports of call were Juneau, Sitka, Ketchikan, AK, and Victoria, BC. We saw humpback whales, grey whales, dolphins, sea lions, sea otters, seals, one deer, bald eagles, seagulls, and black bears. An amazing trip!

curb appeal

2009-05-27T12:08:00.005-05:00

let's see .... i moved into this house in september and about that time is when the big tree in the front yard was removed. since then there's been a big mound of mulch in the yard which some joked as being my compost pile.

months later i finally got an idea. i took the rocks that bordered the two flowerbeds previously and made a new flowerbed out of the tree mound. now if i can just keep the colorful flowers alive for a little while, my efforts will be worth it. :-)

greener pastures, maybe?

2009-05-27T11:52:00.002-05:00

i was offered a position with the county last week. my friend, Dot, works as the tax collector assessor and needed another helper in her office so i applied. about a month later she offered me the job and i accepted. so last monday i turned in my two-week notice to a mostly un-curious boss. friday is my last day, thank goodness. i tell you what, to work in a place where no one cares about your doings, it's all very strange and i still haven't gotten used to it even after nearly 2 years.

next week i'll be in the northwest with my mom for vacation. we've had that planned for a while now. and the day after i return from vacation i'll drive to San Antonio with my new coworkers for a 2-day seminar. June 10 will be my first day in my new office.

so what will i be doing? well, i'll be working with the public nearly all day, every day, with three other ladies. i'll help the people register their vehicles with the state, give them license plates, handicap permits, process titles, and many other things i have no clue about yet. it'll be completely different than anything i've done before. kind of a mix between office and fast food cultures.

i'm a bit nervous about the learning curve, but i'm a fast learner so i should be alright. i hope. wish me luck! :-)

let there be light and functionality!

2009-04-23T12:52:00.004-05:00

check it out. i finally have a new kitchen! i started this project about a month ago. the cabinets arrived and sat in my garage. i emptied the kitchen of all the dishes and food and then hired a contractor to come in and tear it up. it took about 10 days and a lot of work, but it's finally finished and now re-organized. yay! click on the pictures to enlarge and get a good look. :-)

shutters

2009-02-20T16:03:00.004-06:00

here's a small update. basically January was a fast and non-productive month. not only did i need a rest from remodeling, but i also got sick twice. but now that February is almost over, i best get busy.

here's the house without the shutters mom and i put up last sunday...

after the shutters...

and then after i cleaned up the flowerbeds and Andy the lawn guy mowed the yard for me...

the plan is to put a couple of raised flowerbeds with retaining wall blocks on either side of the porch. i think that'll be prettier than just in the ground beds, and it'll help improve the rain sliding into the house because of the slope of the yard.

AND, notice the new front door! here was the old one...

i actually LIKED the front door that was there, as for the color, but the large window allowed even the shortest of people to peek in on me at any time. and the door itself didn't exactly fit the frame, so there were gaps that allowed air and bugs to roam freely.

Merry Christmas to me!

2009-01-05T16:04:00.006-06:00

and to you, by the way. and Happy New Year, too! i hope you and yours had blessed holidays.

but really this post is dedicated to bathrooms. one in particular, of course. over Christmas i remodeled the bathroom with the help of a motivated Colorado friend. here, let me introduce you to my bathroom on the day i received the keys...

at first glance it's not so bad. but when you're sitting on the toilet looking around for more than one minute, you notice things. that's what i did, every day, for the last 4 months. i looked around as i was taking care of business and noticed things. old things. new things. ugly things. and hated it.

and even though i tried to dress it up temporarily with a new sink and vanity and previously owned accessories, i still hated it. it was just ugly. and boring. and needed something. ANYthing!

and here was the closet on the first day. GROSS! i hated that too, so i immediately tore it all out with mom's help. which turns out was a bit of a hasty mistake, seeing as how i NEEDED a closet to store stuff, but the boxes that stuff had lived in for the last two years continued to work just fine.

but then my friend came for Christmas. not only did she bring delicious cookies, she brought love, motivation, and encouragement. first we re-built the closet shelves (because i'd recently finished drywalling and painting the closet). then we tackled the bathroom ugliness with texture and paint and new furnishings i'd recently picked out. and voila! i now have a new old bathroom. yay! :-)

and to boot, as a house-warming present my aunt & uncle bought me a new toilet! yes, i believe the original was still in the house. it had a stamp of 1942 in the tank and was sealed with rusted bolts, so i'm fairly certain it was time to replace the old throne. this new one comes highly recommended and adorns this blog recommended as well. Toto makes a fab toilet, water conservative and all. i think from the second i push the handle to the second it stops filling is about 20 seconds total. that's pretty fast! and it really does use very little water to do it all. that'll help in the summer when i'm using extra water for the yard!

thank you, Gae. and thank you Mom. and thank you Aunt Donna & Uncle Bob. you've all blessed my Christmas and New Year's greatly. :-)

2008-12-11T10:11:00.000-06:00

snow? in Brenham?

2008-12-11T09:51:00.003-06:00

yep, that's what they call this white stuff falling from the sky...

let it snow, let it snow, let it snow

2008-12-11T09:41:00.000-06:00

when mom and i were putting up the Christmas tree in my newly finished front room/office/sunroom/Christmas room, we were humming songs like "O Christmas Tree", "Santa Clause is Coming to Town" and "Let it Snow". little did we know the very next day it would ACTUALLY snow. in Brenham, Texas. where it maybe snows once every ten years (that might be an exaggeration, but in my lifetime of living in Brenham, it snowed twice when i was a kid, that i can remember, and once as an adult).

check it out. this is the back of the house when i got home from work. after i took these pictures it snowed a lot more before ceasing.

front of the house. hey, notice the two newly built windows! :-) and that mound that some say looks like a compost pile, that used to be a very large tree.

after it turned dark. pretty, huh? see my Christmas tree all lit up?

2008-12-11T09:12:00.002-06:00

Here was my closet. Actually, this is the closet in the second bedroom, but my closet looked just like it, except the wood was brown and covered with old canvas wallpaper stuff. But basically it consisted of a hole in the wall with one closet rod and a shelf above that and wood and nails and a yucky musty smell.

and this is my closet NOW, after drywall and a "closet system" i bought at Lowes. It consists of a shelf thing and three rods.

it's still small, mind you, but at least it's finished and clean and organized and doesn't smell like old wood. :-)

to plumb or not to plumb

2008-11-14T10:43:00.003-06:00

THAT is the question i've been asking myself since i moved in. i finally decided "to plumb" was the answer. Monday night after work i got started right away on taking out the old wall sink that i hated from the moment i first looked at the house. not only was it ugly, it wasn't even level! because this was the first time i'd done anything like it, the whole project ended up taking three hours and two trips to the hardware store. but now i know how to do it and what to measure for the next time i ever decide to take on such a project. AND i'm proud of myself for having done it all on my own. and yes, in case you're wondering, it works wonderfully and no, it doesn't leak at all. :-)

BEFORE:

AFTER:

that's a glass sink sitting on a granite top, sitting on top of an espresso finish cabinet with one door that now opens to reveal the plumbing instead of the various items of personal hygiene i originally envisioned. the faucet is glass and brushed nickel and is called a waterfall faucet. it's cool. my grandmother may not like it, but i think it's cool and different and even a bit classy.

see the wall behind it? that's what the wall sink left behind for me to clean up/fix later. now that i know how to disconnect the plumbing, i can do that whenever i get ready to fix the drywall. considering the bathroom has several things i don't like about it regarding the walls, the whole thing will probably become a weekend project with me brushing my teeth in the kitchen, but that's ok. it'll be totally worth it in the end.

sweet little Harriet

2008-11-03T09:25:00.003-06:00

is it a dog, a cat, or a baby??? seriously, sometimes i think this dog of mine is really a cat or a baby. look at her sleeping on the couch! she climbed up to the top of the cushion, but fell through a little. i guess she decided it was comfy enough, so she went to sleep. but as she slept, she fell through more and more until finally she was sleeping upside down! :-) she's a bugger to get to go to sleep sometimes, but once she does you can move her in any direction and she won't care. just like a baby!

and then there are the times when she decides she'll crawl all over you, no matter where her strong little paws land. she climbs up and over everything and jumps higher than i've ever seen any dog jump. she never moves away from your feet when you're walking. if anything she's right under foot and you better be aware of her otherwise YELP! and she even does that rubbing past your leg thing that cats do. i've even seen her stalk Ozzy, then take off running to pounce him to the ground in playfulness. and you should see her run! oh my goodness, just like a little greyhound or something. she's so fast! the other day the dogs got to running in the yard after each other. Harriet was making big circles, Ozzy running smaller ones, both running fast and furious and barking all the way. it was SUPER cute!

but what a little sweetheart she can be. she hugs your leg with her little "hands" and then looks at you with those little eyes. and she knows to get a treat she has to sit down, so as soon as ANY bag opens, her little butt hits the ground whether a treat is in store or not.

anyway.... it's been fun so far getting to know little Harriet. she has her issues, like possession aggression, or stealing, or running away. but still, she's a joy to have around, and i think Ozzy likes her enough. he's got company during the day now and is getting a little more exercise in the process. :-)

ramblings by Jenny

2008-11-03T08:34:00.003-06:00

life continues here in Brenham. mom and i tore out the rest of the paneling in the front bedroom to reveal the extent of the termite damage. UGH! it's not pretty. pictures can't even capture the ugliness, but i'll post some later so you can sympathize with me. :-) saturday we moved my bedroom items to the other room so work can begin on fixing the front room. the plan is to drywall it, but the wood to which it would get nailed is pretty bad, so some of that might need to be replaced first. needless to say, it's a real mess, but i have some very nice manly friends from church who are going to come over on wednesday to help with that.

work continues on rotten windows, the garage, and laundry room. my part being nail hole filling, priming, painting, and hanging shelves. oh, i built a table, too, which sits between the washer and dryer to fold & sort clothes on. when i remember to take a picture of it, i'll post it. so many things!

the dogs are doing fine. Harriet got spayed and got both her rabies and city tags. she's feeling better and jingling all around. at night i take their collars off because when they move, the jingling wakes me up, and since i'm awake enough as it is, i don't need the extra help. this morning when i got out of the shower i could hear jingling. usually that's fine, but in this case not so much because i hadn't put their collars back on them yet. which means Harriet has at least one collar in her mouth. great. so i call her to come into the bathroom, which she does. when i finally made it to the bedroom, i found both collars in her bed. oh Harriet! in putting hers around her neck, i noticed part of the plastic of the clasp had been chewed off. *sigh* it still closed, but it'll need to be replaced far sooner than i had anticipated. oh well. next time the collars go UP to safety. darn puppy!

work is work. boring, but a job. the economy being what it is doesn't help the industry excel in sales. i think a lot of businesses are hurting. nothing is being talked about, at least not around me, but hopefully sales aren't TOO down. the Christmas party is coming up, which if you know me i'm super excited about (not!). nonetheless, i have a job, and i'm thankful.

in case you haven't noticed, Christmas is coming early this year. i think it'll be taking place this month instead of next. seriously! ok, if it's still in December, then WHY in the WORLD have all the stores already put their stock out by the middle of OCTOBER??? absolutely ridiculous! i tell you what, if i wasn't already a bah-humbug kinda gal, having Christmas in October would make me one! why should i even put a tree up at my house? all i have to do is go to ANY store every couple of days, and get my fill of decorations there! dragging that stuff out at home only to have to put it away a month later, please! why even bother? i wonder when the music is going to start this year? i'm so glad i've grown out of the stage of HAVING to have music on in the car or at home. Jingle Bells and Silent Night are going to drive me nuts this year. i can already tell. (for the record, i actually LIKE Christmas, i just don't like the MATERIALISM of Christmas.)

and what is with the gas prices??? one station here in town has it for $1.99 if you use a Valero card. wow! what a RELIEF, don't get me wrong! but man, why all of a sudden? because no one has any money left in their retirement funds? so now the fuel people feel sorry for us and are lowering the prices to a REASONABLE amount that people can HOPEFULLY afford? i don't know. i don't get why, i just hope it continues to decrease. we can use all the help we can get.

and now for the touchy subject, the election. though i voted for McCain, i strongly believe Obama will win and i'm ok with it. the more this country continues to stray away from the godly foundation it was built on, the sooner the end of the world will come. and like it or not, i'm ready. i'm so ready for our time on this earth to be over. i wait with eager anticipation and a blessed hope for the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. hurry and remove us from this yucky cursed place and take us to our eternal home of perfection!!!

modern conveniences

2008-10-20T09:35:00.004-05:00

i really do tend to take a lot of things for granted. one of which is doing laundry in the confines of a clean, indoors area. call me spoiled, that's ok. but i like what i like. :-)

when i decided to buy this house, the thought of doing laundry in my garage with my new washer & dryer sitting on blocks of wood to be level and me standing with bugs and dirt at my feet was immediately tossed out of my mind as i began imagining and planning the addition of two walls and a door to make an actual laundry room. that was over a month ago.

finally, my vision has been fulfilled...

from this:

to this:

to this:

between the washer and dryer is a nicely painted window frame (no longer yellow!) and a long space to put a shelf so i can sort and fold my clothes on it. above the washer i'll put a cabinet for the detergent and other cleaning necessities, and maybe another cabinet over the dryer with a rod below it for hanging stuff up. on the long wall opposite the appliances i'll probably hang up my broom and mop and other items of that nature. the floor is now level and tiled nicely, there's a new window that actually opens, and there's a light fixture on the ceiling. it's wonderful to have modern conveniences, and it's even better to be able to use them comfortably.

awww....

2008-10-15T09:47:00.004-05:00

last night when i went to bed, this is what i found. this is Ozzy's bed, mind you. but Harriet has curled up to sleep there, too.

when the camera flashed, she looked up to see what was going on. who could resist this sweet little face?!

but where IS Ozzy? oh, THERE he is! under his blanket, of course. "if only this other dog would be still, i could get some sleep!"

and there she found comfort and peace, and off to dreamland we went.

but this morning it was back to playing. it sounds ferocious, but looks so loving...

it's hard to tell from the angle, but they really are the same size, only she's just got longer legs and so can move a lot faster. little Ozzy has been really patient with her, despite the fact he can't get away from her. :-) i think they're going to get along just fine.

the new and improved, and yet to be finished

2008-10-13T11:44:00.002-05:00

here's what the windows and frame looks like today, after two full days of work. new, solid, beautiful wood, inside and out. still needs to be trimmed out, and eventually painted, but at least it's all secure and SOLID. :-)

looks can be deceiving

2008-10-13T11:10:00.003-05:00

VERY deceiving, in fact. this is what my window looked like after the new ones got put in. looks fine, right? ah, but wait...

in the process of putting the new windows in, the guy finds some rotted wood. so my guys come along saturday and take out the new window, as well as all the wood around it.

and found this...

and this...

these lovely pieces of wood got trashed. yes, they were holding my house together, and my windows in, and shielding me from the outside world. yes, people, this very wood...

Ozzy & Harriet

2008-10-13T10:54:00.003-05:00

when i was a kid the Disney channel was good. they played the old Mickey Mouse cartoons, the classic movies, and reruns of family-friendly shows like Ozzie & Harriet. and me being me, the avid TV watcher that i am, tuned in to see these reruns, enjoying every minute of the Nelson family antics.

when i bought my first dog i knew i'd get him a playmate eventually. and because of that, wouldn't it be fun to have corresponding names? so it should come as no surprise (to some) that i named him Ozzy. however, because of The Osbornes being so popular at the time, everyone i told his name to thought i named him after Ozzy Osborne. when it's written i guess it could be confusing, because i didn't like the way Ozzie Nelson spelled his name. i have a Y in my name so i liked it better as Ozzy.

and now, the rest of the story...

this little dog needed a home. she was a stray found by girl who had two dogs and a young baby of her own, so she brought her to the country home of an older couple. the sweet little dog kept running to the neighbors for attention, because they would let her sit on their laps on the porch and feed her treats. not that the older couple was mean to her, mind you. they were loving parents, too, but they didn't want an inside dog and don't have the energy for such a springy pup.

since i bought this house and since we put Dweezil down, Ozzy has been feeling lonely and disoriented. the subject of dogs came up at church and the lap-providing neighbors asked if i was looking for a dog. a few weeks later i went to meet this little sweetheart of fur. she immediately rolled over for a belly rub and that was that.

hence, meet Ozzy & Harriet. :-)

Harriet moves fast, so i haven't been able to get any good pictures of her sweet face yet.

steps to completion

2008-10-07T16:24:00.004-05:00

meet Toby the cat. Toby was left by the previous owner who didn't think of him when she was preparing to move. for the first couple of weeks i was to try to catch the cat and call her to pick him up. but since i didn't even live there, that made it quite difficult. then i move in and a few days later, MEOW ... he shows up. hungry. and willing to eat dog food. for several days he would come home around 9-ish at night, meowing fiercely for food. i gave him dog food, because afterall, that's what i actually own. he ate and rubbed all over me and was thrilled to have ANY owner. now he has cat food in his belly and finds safety on the front step, not minding the dog only inches from him. Ozzy, on the other hand, is quite uncomfortable. i was making him sit still for the picture. notice his tail is tucked so much he's actually sitting on it. *L* poor Ozzy. i think deep down he WANTS to like Toby, but for some reason he's gun shy. i'm hoping he'll get over it. of course, keeping Toby around the house during the day to actually keep Ozzy company is a whole other story, or should i say an act of Congress. i guess Toby actually likes roaming during the day.

this is the laundry room, after Juan and friends taped and mudded.

and this is the laundry room after i textured and painted it.

check out the close up of the texture. they make this stuff that you actually mix with paint and roll it on. so that's what i did. the entire room could still use another coat of just paint, but i think it looks darn good for my first time at any kind of texture attempt.

this week is dedicated to flooring in that little room. i bought some tile and have a guy working on it in the evenings. so, i'm REALLY hoping that maybe as soon as next weekend i'll actually get to wash clothes in my very own washer and dryer in my new laundry room. :-)

windows and tree pictures are still to come.

meanwhile, i pulled off some more paneling in my bedroom to find some pretty bad and scary looking wood. but i'm thankful i didn't find any live termites continuing to eat it. i stopped at about three feet in either direction from the hole i made previously, so i'm just hoping i don't find bugs or even worse damage beyond that. my family still thinks i got duped and need to take some kind of legal action. i guess i'll have a consulation with a lawyer to see what action should be taken. my pessimism tends to lean toward the side of, "i bought what i paid for." *sigh*

farewell old tree

2008-10-01T09:03:00.003-05:00

i finally found some new bedding i liked for my bed this past weekend.

and here, finally, is the termite hole. the top layer of the paneling peels off real easy, which is why it's peeled from top to bottom. the actual panel of wood takes a little more effort, which is where the hole is. when we found termites, we stopped pulling. you can kinda see in this picture the termite damage in the actual wood that makes up my house. thankfully since termites don't like light, they aren't crawling around for me to see on the surface, otherwise i don't think i could be living there right now. the hole already freaks me out a bit, but if there were visual bugs to go with it, forget about it!

the new windows are supposed to be installed today. i'm very excited about that! also, a big change happening yesterday and today is that i'm losing a bunch of trees. apparently the big tree in the front yard is rotted and needed to be taken down. and then the trees in the back yard need to be trimmed and cleaned up and some of them even removed along the back fence which are leaning and damaging the fence. so yesterday after work i pull up to my house to find my entire front yard full of tree limbs - probably 80% of that tree is now on the ground. in the back, about 1/3 of the yard is full of tree limbs from those trees. what a mess! but it'll be so much better when it's all done. though the front of the house will look strange w/o a tree, that's for sure. when it's all done i'll post before and after pictures.

the latest saga of my life

2008-09-23T08:28:00.009-05:00

there's an actual wall there now. looks kinda weird, because it's a wall, and it wasn't there before, and now you can't see the window on the other side. funny how i got used to seeing the garage as it was even though i hardly spent any time there before the wall came. but i heard once that it only takes two weeks to make something a habit. it might look weird right now, but give it two weeks and it'll look original.

this weekend was a process, as usual. seems like i always make more work for myself. Mom says i'm like Tim Allen on the show Home Improvement. all i can say to that is, "that's probably true, but at least i haven't blown anything up yet." anyway, i decided it was time to accessorize the kitchen. all of the bottom doors and drawers didn't have any hardware, nor holes for the hardware. the upper doors did, but they were ugly (in my opinion). since the uppers already had handles, i decided to replace the handles with handles. but i really like knobs, too, so i decided all the bottom stuff could have knobs.

here's the before....

and after...

i decided the fake drawers at the sink looked neglected, so i added knobs there too. but ultimately, as i do with nearly everything, i thought about it further and decided maybe i should have put handles on the drawers and knobs on the upper doors. *sigh* i always over think everything to the point of not liking it. so now i'm looking at my kitchen liking it, but thinking i could like it a lot better. but to like it better would cause me a TON of more work.

as it turned out, my entire weekend was spent working on one WEE kitchen. and all i'd planned to do was add knobs and handles. no big deal. but the doors aren't hung evenly. and they don't close all the way. so after i spent a couple of hours adding the knobs and handles i tackled the hinge issue. and THAT is what took up the rest of my weekend.

i thought maybe it was the hinge's fault as to why the door won't close all the way. so i took the hinge off. but first i had to scrape the paint off the screws. then i got the hinge off the door and decided that the unevenness would be fixed by moving the hinge location up a little bit. ok. great idea, but it didn't work. well it did, for the unevenness, but ended up making the closing even worse. doubly worse!

i worked and worked at it, never making it better. *sigh* maybe it's the hinge. maybe the hinge is too old. or not the right kind. so off to the store i go to buy a new hinge. but now that i have the door off the cabinet and the hinge off, i might as well scrape the paint off since the paint is already ruined from the previous handle so i can repaint it and make it look new to match the new handle. went to the store and bought all the necessary supplies, came home, put the stripper on the door, opened the hinge package, looked at it up against another hanging door and decided it's not the right kind. it's flush and i need inset. i think.

it's now about 8 p.m. on saturday night, i'm in the garage scraping paint off ONE cabinet door. good grief. i got the white paint off one side of the door, but the brown paint underneath is being stubborn. after two attempts i finally decide i've had enough of this project for the day and go to bed.

the next day i took back the flush hinge and bought an inset one. i sanded the one side of the door and hung it up with the new hinge. it's ugly, but the hinges look good. :-) and, even better, it closes!!! but of course, this is ME we're talking about. the new old unpainted door with new black hinges and handle hanges beautifully and even with the other door, but it overlaps the other door, by about half an inch. well, that's because of the different hinge. solution? take the other door's hinges off and put new ones on it too, making it move to the right half an inch and all will be well with my kitchen world.

except both doors will have hinge holes on the outside that will need to be filled, the other door will need to be scraped and repainted, and the same thing will need to be done with ALL the OTHER doors. there are 10 of them, mind you. and now there are 9 matching and one oddball. of course. plus there are 8 doors on the bottom that don't match any on the top at all because they're newer and are thicker and have hidden hinges.... *sigh*

such is my life ... this from a woman who likes consistency, things that match. i think i'll scrap the entire thing and just buy new doors, ones that match the bottom ones. of course, i still have to decide if i want knobs or handles. ugh!

my little sweet pea

2008-09-19T08:30:00.005-05:00

Dweezil Mills
April 1992 - September 2008

Dweezil lived a good life, full of barking, kissing, camping, digging, and running. he wasn't much of a player, but loved to chew. he ate beef and ice cream with much anticipation, but wouldn't go near a carrot or grape. he put up with annoying younger dogs who came to visit and even started learning how to play at the very end.

but ultimately, his little legs just wouldn't carry him much anymore. though nearly blind and very deaf, his love never failed. he still welcomed us home with happiness each day.

he was preceeded in death by his human father, Bobby. he is survived by his primary human mother, Oma; his other human mother, Jenny; his furry companion and playmate Ozzy; and many other dear human family members.

Dweezil, little sweet pea, bubba, little man, The Dweez ...... you will be missed greatly, remembered fondly, and loved dearly for as long as we live. thank you for being with us.

garage progress

2008-09-19T08:30:00.002-05:00

a frame exists. awesome! i doubt very seriously that i'll be washing anything inside that little room by next weekend, but that's ok .... i guess. i will eventually, and that's really all that matters. this is one giant step for my little house and i will rejoice, even if it's still a couple of weeks from being finished. :-)

maybe next week i'll show you the termite hole. it's amazing to me that i keep forgetting to take a picture of the one thing that has caused me much frustration. can we say denial? hm, maybe.

the prettiness of my house

2008-09-18T08:54:00.020-05:00

my house is so small that it's hard to capture it in pictures and do it justice. seriously. it looks a lot better in person, so i guess you'll just have to come visit me and see for yourself. nonetheless, here's the living room, dining room, and kitchen. the rest of the house is just not photogenic.

pictures

2008-09-18T08:54:00.015-05:00

here's a basic view of the garage, a.k.a future utility room. see the window? the washer and dryer sits on either side of it. where the step up is will be a wall. you'll see, eventually. the guys are framing it today, so i'll get a picture up soon.

this is a view of the dining room. notice the trim scuffs. i really shoulda noticed those. thankfully a little paint goes a long way.

the bathroom door. again, a little paint goes a long way. apparently this room used to be baby blue. ugh!

Here is an example of nearly ALL my baseboards. some actually have shoe moulding, but even with that they look beat up and neglected.

Notice the napkin stuck in the corner of my kitchen window... yes, that's filling a hole in the glass. no, i didn't put it there. and no, i didn't notice it until after i got the keys to the house. i'm tellin ya, you'll never see all the little things during walk-throughs. just ain't gonna happen, unfortunately.

this is my bedroom as it stands now. i'd like to replace the bedding, but i haven't found anything i like yet. the headboard is sitting in the other bedroom for now, because i figure the bed will be moving around when we start working in here. this is where the termite hole is (still no picture of that), so i'll be tearing out the paneling as soon as possible. i'm also missing nightstands, but at least i know where they are! (storage, of course!)

the closet story

2008-09-18T08:54:00.014-05:00

ok, here's how the story goes. at first glance, a closet is just a closet. a small hole, not much to see, certainly nothing to brag about, but a place to put stuff nonetheless. at my first glance, that's what i thought. the second glance i noticed "scuff" marks and thought, "oh, i'll definitely need to paint in here."

that is, until i really looked at it. "hmm, what's that?" well, that's wallpaper, on top of canvas, that they put on the walls way back then. looks like they got creative when plastering came out and actually plastered the wallpaper to make it LOOK like drywall. very deceiving.

i decided to be destructive and tore that already falling apart canvas. i found wood. my wood. THE wood that makes up my house.

either the previous owner took off the canvas in here, too, or the owner before her got tired of faking it and left the wood in this closet exposed, at least most of it.

so there you have it, folks, a tour of all four closets in my house. one size fits all. but they each have a different look inside. it's almost nice, having all that character there. but they will eventually match, with REAL drywall. i need consistency in my life.

progress

2008-09-18T08:54:00.002-05:00

the termites have been treated. a garage door opener has been installed. new windows are ordered. rotted wood around three of those windows has been replaced with new wood. most of the garage has been insulated. cables have been wired mostly inside the walls instead of wrapping the entire length of the house along the outside. some plumbing pipes have been replaced. work has begun on the new wall being added in the garage. and many, many other little things have been completed.

i've also managed to move from storage most essentials for living. i've unpacked all the boxes i moved over and am making piles for the future garage sale. i finally got the refrigerator working and filled with food and i even cooked my first meal last night. and i've actually spent five nights on my own ... well, with Ozzy of course!

we're making progress. slowly but surely. things are still chaotic and work is a bit slow for my liking, especially since work on the inside of the house is on hold until the termites have had time to die. but at least i have some organization to my belongings and don't feel TOO cluttered.

i've tried to take some pictures, but they aren't very good which is why i haven't posted any. i will try again very soon though.

all work and no play makes me tired!

2008-09-08T16:39:00.002-05:00

thanks to my very willing mother, i now have nearly all the necessities for living in my new home, and then some. what i'm still missing is a bed, clothing, and food. my goal is to fill the house with those items by this weekend. maybe. i'm pretty tired and three nights this week are filled up with other activities, so it might have to wait until the actual weekend.

Ricky and his son, Gary, are also hard at work in the garage and attic. i'm really hoping to see actual evidence of that work by the end of the week.

as for the termites, the bug man came on friday and treated the area outside the house where he found live termites. so, hopefully, they are spreading the poison as i speak, thereby killing each other. why do termites exist, anyway? for what good reason? are they food for certain other animals or insects? and even if they are, how do they get eaten if they're hiding so well within walls and such? all i really know is that i want them dead and out of my wood...

oh, i also now have a working garage door opener and new windows on the way. and i've introduced Ozzy (my dog) to the house and the back yard. he hasn't exactly made friends with the five dogs in adjacent yard who very rudely bark at him the moment he sets foot outside. there are also two other dogs two houses down that see him and start barking immediately, too, and will not let up for anything. needless to say, privacy fences are definitely on my list. maybe all the dogs will get used to each other eventually, but i'd still like to be able to go outside unnoticed.

bug be gone!!!

2008-09-03T15:16:00.002-05:00

we all hit the ground running on Tuesday morning. by the time the day was all over with, it was determined that i DID have termite damage from the past and the guy who did the inspection before i bought the house missed it all. he also missed the fact that the house has wood touching soil, which is a prime condition for termites to enter the home. because of all that, the guy agreed to treat the entire house at his expense while apologizing and expressing his desire to keep me as a customer and to keep me happy. which i am and will be, as long as i have dead termites in a few weeks. (BTW, he went by today and found live termites along the soil/beam. bingo!)

last night i also met with the guy (Ricky) who's going to do some work for me inside the house. we discussed in more detail about the future laundry room in the garage. he started the prep work today. besides finishing the garage with drywall, he'll build a wall to separate the washer and dryer from the rest of the garage, add a couple of lights and power outlets, install some shelves, and put some tile on the floor. hopefully in two weeks or less i'll have an actual laundry room. :-)

i'm feeling a little better. i was very overwhelmed and VERY discouraged when we found bugs, but today i feel like we're making progress instead of problems. phew!

how much wood can a woodchuck, or termite, chuck?

2008-08-31T23:04:00.003-05:00

that's the question of the day. in order to answer it i'd have to make several more holes in my walls and doing so scares me. so i quit with one small hole and lots of tiny termites crawling around.

one might wonder, didn't i have an inspection? yes. of course! and the inpsection was clean. but they didn't attempt to tear off paneling to check for termites. like i did.

*sigh* yes, i'm disappointed. but i'm even more disappointed because of timing. i didn't get the keys till thursday night. i spent friday worrying and saturday doing various things like moving a few things in and taking out very old wallpaper off the closet walls to reveal the original wood structure (with no termites). i also did a lot of thinking and planning in my head. then today i decided i really don't like the cracking and peeling and poorly installed wood paneling that's in the majority of the house, so i might as well take off a piece to see what i find, and for future preparation of installing drywall. unfortunately, i found more than i bargained for.

however, in spite of my disappointment and frustration and worry, i'm also thankful. thankful that i decided to crack open the paneling. thankful i haven't hired anybody to do anything else in the meantime. thankful i haven't actually moved myself into the house yet. and thankful i have a grandfather who knows people and will fight for me to get this fixed ASAP.

sadly enough, i'm back to playing the waiting game....

i own it, but i don't occupy it

2008-08-21T10:02:00.004-05:00

the closing on my house was yesterday. i arrived, signed a bunch of papers, handed over a very large check, and went back to work. it was kind of odd, to say the least. like a normal day, but yet i just spent an enormous amount of money and have nothing to show for it except paper. very strange feeling. the reason for this is because the now-former owner can't move out until the end of next week. which leaves me holding a title to a house, but no keys.

and so i wait....

something hit me as i wrote the subject of this post. i own a house, but i don't occupy it. i've paid for it, but i can't go inside. this reminds me very much of the way heaven will be one day for many people. they will inhabit heaven, but they won't inherit heaven. what's the difference? being able to walk through special doors. they'll be there, watching others do things that are wonderful, going to magnificent places, even ruling with Jesus Himself, but they won't be able to do those things. heck, I might not even be able to do those things. it all just depends. i used to think going to heaven was good enough. but i've been learning so much more about rewards and priveleges and honors kept out for a select people and now i want to be able to participate, to inherit.

privelege: 1) A special advantage, immunity, permission, right, or benefit granted to or enjoyed by an individual, class, or caste. 2) Such an advantage, immunity, or right held as a prerogative of status or rank, and exercised to the exclusion or detriment of others.

wow. i don't know about you, but i hate being left out. i hate being excluded.

think about it. tomorrow you're out running errands. when you get home, your small house has been replaced with a GINORMOUS mansion. the rooms are HUGE, the tv is HUGE, the yard is PERFECT, and all the furnishings are BEAUTIFUL. there stands a housekeeper, a chef, and a gardener. but later your family and closest friends come over. they have this major cool party in the kitchen and dining room of YOUR home. your chef cooks a five-course meal for THEM and gives you a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. they have fabulous food and drinks and lots of laughter and special gifts for each other. but you're not in the kitchen. you're in the living room, by yourself, eating your PB & J sandwich, listening. maybe even catching a glimpse of the goings-on. but you can't join in. why? because when they were talking about having the party, you chose to ignore them and do your own thing. when they were trying to involve you, you didn't care about the party, because it was weeks in the future and all you cared about was watching the Olympics. they stayed up until midnight planning, but you went to bed. they got up early in the morning to go shopping for gifts and you slept in.

how would you feel? i know i would feel HORRIBLE. i'd probably cry and beg them to let me join them. but my grandpa, or someone else in authority (Jesus, in this analogy) would tell me, "i'm sorry, but you can't, because you have to be held responsible for your actions in the past. you chose to not participate then, so you can't participate now." that would just totally suck. i get to live in this mansion, which is wonderful, but there's a steel doggy-door preventing me from going to the party, which is so much better.

so what's the answer? how do you inherit heaven? well, first you have to guarantee your inhabitance. then you grow up, spiritually, and learn as much as you can about God, the Bible, and your purpose on this earth according to Him. as you do that, you learn how to keep the faith, love God, love others, love yourself, and live as a mature believer in Christ. if you grow up, you'll get to go to the party. and so much more that we can't even imagine.

of course that party in heaven is far better than having keys to my wee house. but still. today i own, but in nine days i will possess. it will be so nice to be able to walk through the front door and claim it as mine.

build, buy, or borrow?

2008-08-07T15:11:00.007-05:00

for quite some time now the lingering question in my life has been whether i should buy a house. but then, as often happens, that begs another question ... should i build a new house or buy a "used" one? well, after months and months of analyzing, researching, dreaming, and stressing, i FINALLY made a decision.

this will be my new house. get used to seeing it, i'll be posting a LOT of pictures of it over the next months, years, whatever. i REALLY wanted to build a new house with a study nook and arches and all of it's grand newness, but i finally came to the conclusion that i really couldn't afford it. i also decided i didn't really need three bedrooms, two bathrooms, and a two-car garage like the standard American family. sure, it's nice to have all that room to put my stuff in, but do i really need all that stuff even? reducing size to match my budget truly seemed the better choice.

two bedrooms, one bathroom, one car garage, a small room for an office, and a big yard. it'll be perfect. closing will be at the end of August. location is .7 of a mile from my mom, on the same street even! and work will begin as soon as i have the keys. here are the pictures from the real estate listing.

when i say work, i don't mean major construction. i mean smaller things that will still cost money and take time, but i can actually live in the house while it's happening. i want to put a passthrough window thing between the living room and kitchen. i want to add a wall in the garage to make the washer and dryer feel like they are part of the house instead of part of the garage. i'm so considerate. :-) i also want to revamp the kitchen and bathroom. a patio out back would be nice, too.

this will become my new project, the thing that gives me reason to blog. i'll share before and after pictures of all the work and with interesting stories to match, i'm sure. so, if you care to follow along, come back soon. :-)

realization

2008-07-08T16:35:00.002-05:00

ok, i got a little sidetracked with various tasks and forgot i was supposed to be posting more often. so here's another thought that i had from over a month ago in relation to my trip to Colorado.

realization: if you allow yourself the freedom to stay in the broken place your heart is in, you will continue to stay there far longer than actually necessary.

this is a tricky thought to actually explain .... .... .... basically what i'm getting at is that, while it's not ok to stuff your feelings, emotions, pain, etc., ignoring that they exist so you don't feel ANYthing, it's also not ok to allow yourself the freedom to wallow. i've done both and have found, at least for myself, that it's ok to be in that place for a period of time. but if you stay in that broken, sad, hurting place, with the excuses your head continually comes up with, you don't allow yourself to heal and move on. i think this is true of grief. divorce. psychological problems. so many different things. whatever has you in the negative place. if you continue to tell yourself that it's ok to be where you are because of the circumstance, you'll continue to stay there.

the fact is, it's FAR easier to stay in the broken place than to heal. it's comfortable. it's safe. it's usually not fun, but it's known and therefore not scary. to allow healing and growth is scary because it's unknown. where are you going to end up afterward? who are you going to be? will you have the same things, the same people around, the same thoughts and feelings about stuff? only God knows. and that's scary. that's what keeps you frozen in the place that you actually don't want to be in.

so what's the answer? well, that's different for everyone i guess. but i think the first step is to tell yourself that it really IS ok to emotionally heal and move on. if you start telling yourself that, it'll be easier to accept the changes that will start occurring. if you start telling yourself that it's ok to grow and change, i think your heart will start listening and WANT to change.

i understand everyone is different. and i understand this could be a touchy subject for some. please remember that these are my thoughts and realizations about my life. i share it all not as judgement to others, but rather with the hope that the pains in my life can bring someone else blessing and encouragement.

blessing #2

2008-06-04T09:20:00.003-05:00

warning ... this turned out to be more "preachy" than i had intended.

BLESSING #2: church

since moving back to Brenham, i've been going to a new church. at first it was just during the week for Bible study, but soon after i changed to Sundays as well. isn't it interesting how God moves you around to show you the importance of certain things for that moment in your life?

i was raised in the Baptist church. i went for social reasons, basically, most of my attendance being while i was a teenager. but after graduation, church quickly became a non-essential. when you go to church to see your friends, and then your friends are gone, why go to church? so when i moved to Colorado, i began a search for a new church, but for different reasons. all of a sudden i NEEDED God! and now i wanted a church where i could be with God, but i also wanted to fit in with a group of friends. after many years of church-hopping, growth, and realizations, i finally found a place where i felt like i was being fed. the Bible was actually taught and the music touched my heart. and there i attended twice a week, served in the bookstore, and felt like i was growing up a bit.

i returned to Brenham with no church direction and started my search once again. and not long after i began to search, i found. now i go to Country Bible Church (CBC). it's a small place, but has big teaching. the music doesn't give me an emotional experience, but that's not why i'm going to church. i'm going to learn the Word of God and more about Him, and i'm learning that. so much so that now my way of thinking has completely changed. when i see or hear something in relation to God, my brain filters it through what i've been learning and determines if it's truth or not. if it's not, or if it's only partially true, i turn it off, leave, or tune it out, and often times i am disappointed.

for example, when i was in Colorado to visit my friends, i went to my old church on Sunday morning and walked out feeling disappointed, yet thankful. the music, the same music i used to thoroughly enjoy, bored me this time. 30 minutes of the same theme, the same words sung over and over, and the leader trying to reach out ONLY to the hurting, lost, and broken ... well, it got old. AND, it made me feel as though i should be feeling hurt, lost, and broken in order to be there.

the teaching was ok. i didn't learn anything new, but was reminded about some things. but then it was all over and i left feeling empty. disappointed. like i'd just wasted an hour+ of my life. i don't think God's intention for church was for people to leave feeling that way. granted, i didn't feel that way when i was going there all the time. but that's where i was at the time, in my heart. and i guess it was good for the time, but i feel very thankful that i've grown beyond that. thankful that God has been working in me and changing me. through His grace He's brought me to new levels of learning about Him.

i don't say this to imply that every church, including my former church, is "bad." no, instead i challenge and urge you to look closely at your church's teaching, and determine if you're being fed with the Word of God, the truth, as it is in the actual scriptures. you can be fed in positive, negative, or truthful ways. not all church experiences should be positive (in that you're always feeling super wonderful about life), and not all should be negative (in that you're always feeling beat up). you should, however, feel convicted, taught, and encouraged through the Word, no matter where you are in the scriptures or where you are in your personal life.

God is so awesome ... He has given us EVERYTHING we need to live. if we have a question or a problem, we should be able to look in the Bible and find an answer. we should find our life map in there. and if you're not being shown that through your pastor, i encourage you to seek out a different church. if you're going each week but leave feeling empty, change churches. if you love the music where you're going, but the teaching isn't doing anything for you, you need to move on! that's what was happening to me ... the one church provided great music, but the pastor wasn't teaching me anything. so i prayed about going to CBC, went there in faith, and God has completely taken my supposed music need, in church, away. i've realized teaching is so much more important than just music.

church is not meant to provide an emotional experience. it's nice to have sometimes, like when you finally understand something, or when you're convicted of something. but it's not necessary in order to learn about God. and too often anymore i feel churches think they need to pump up the music and the social activities in order to reach those who are NOT going to church, instead of pumping up the teaching to reach the ones who ARE.

if you go to church because of habit, tradition or ritual, think about this: God doesn't want ritual, He wants relationship. if you go to score brownie points with God, just because you showed up, i have news for you ... it's not working. He doesn't want you to just show up. and whether that's your intention or not, if you're not learning anything, then you're just showing up. and believe me, He's disappointed. He expects you to change. and if that means going someplace new, getting out of your comfort zone, driving farther, not sleeping in, going to the lake later in the day, whatever .... you should do it.

so why is church important, anyway? because God commands us to go. because church is a way to help us stay on the right track, to teach us more about Him through ways we can't learn on our own, to put us in fellowship with other believers ... it's all for Him, really. because the more positive coming from me, the more He's glorified. so i go to church as a means for positive output. don't we take in more than enough negative just by living in the world? i don't know about you, but i want to add as much positive as possible in order to override that other stuff.

do yourselves a favor. look closely at your heart and ask, "where is God?" He wants to give you so much more!

blessings!

2008-05-28T12:16:00.006-05:00

in the last several days God has opened my eyes to many things. i want to address them, but not with just one blog entry. since my life has, in my opinion, become mundane and daily, it's hard to come up with things to write about that i feel are interesting. therefore, my realizations over the last week will be written over a period of time. i hope you find them to be blessings in your life, just as they have become in mine.

BLESSING #1: friends, fellowship, tears, hugs, laughter, and silence

i felt the need for a whirlwind trip to Colorado to see the people i love and miss dearly. in three and a half days i saw seven specific people and had wonderful one-on-one time with each of them, and had the pleasure of quickly reconnecting and hugging at least 17 others.

TO ALL OF YOU ... thank you for the honor of knowing you, seeing you, receiving your love and care. each of you is a precious gift, not only to me but to each other.

having even five minutes with each of these people is just what i needed. daily life in texas gets emotionally cloudy from time to time. i tend to get bogged down with duties and sometimes feel as if everyone i left 1,000 miles away has moved on without me. which is normal, because that's life. but i found out during this weekend that i have not been forgotten about, which is a wonderful and humbling feeling. let it be known, i have NOT forgotten ANY of you, even the people i was not able to connect with because of lack of time. i pray the opportunity come back and visit again will come sooner than later.

anyway ... i wanted to take this time to thank, as a whole, everyone who took time out of their busyness in order to spend just a few minutes of precious time with me. i am overwhelmed and tremendously honored. your presence in my life is a HUGE blessing!

since i can't give much, especially to those in Colorado, please accept this ... a picture of what is affectionately known in my life as "the happy flower." i send you happy flowers today and pray you realize you have more blessings than seem apparent at first. i love you all!

a year in texas

2008-03-03T08:53:00.003-06:00

i can not believe how quickly this year has gone by. it really doesn't feel like i've lived in texas for an entire year. i think i'm finally starting to understand time in God's mind ... this really is a short time to live in our temporary world.

i'm keeping busy ... i work full-time at the tractor place, where i've finally made a friend (it only took four months!). the job itself is good, but it's a lot harder than i thought to be creative every day. sometimes i get so tired of thinking that i wish i could just file or do data entry for a couple of days. but overall i like it.

monday nights i go over to Mr. Nello's house to help him learn how to use his computer. that's a fun challenge. he tries, but he has an older computer with flaky internet. plus, he's 75 and can't type. so mondays are my patience days. i show up at his house at 7:15 p.m., pray with him and his wife, then she leaves him to learn on his own (sometimes she participates for little bit). he asks a lot of questions and listens to my silly analogies and then he sits down and does email. i watch him and tell him where to click. then we might throw in pulling pics off his camera or watching a DVD, just for fun. at 9-ish, i leave with $20. the next week we do it all again.

tuesdays & thursdays are church nights. since my first appearance in this church, two people who were doing the computer/overhead/recording stuff have moved away, so for the past couple of months i've been helping out. it's not hard and only ends up taking about 10 minutes more of my time, but it can be a little distracting sometimes. but hey, i'm serving the Lord by serving His people, so i'm ok with it all. this is an "in-your-face" kind of teaching church ... the pastor doesn't believe in tickling your ears with a big musical performance for 30 minutes and a 15 minute feel-good message. we sing only about 3 songs (out of the hymnal), and then he teaches us the word of God for 45-60 minutes. it's incredible what we're learning about Bible doctrine, the heart of God, and how to grow up spiritually. we just finished up a prophecy series, where we saw explicitly how God's prophecy for re-gathering the Jewish people in their own land (Israel) was explained in the Bible and then fulfilled on May 14, 1948. talk about making God's word a reality. never before in mine, my mother's, or my grandparents' lives have we learned so much.

wednesday is a night of relaxation at home, usually. and friday is mexican food night and more relaxation. and then the weekend comes and it's time to catch up on the home stuff. this weekend i did my taxes, finished the afghan i was knitting, started a scarf project, and went to church on sunday (among other things).

i've also, finally, started going to the gym again. it's working out pretty good for me to go at lunchtime. after sitting for 4 hours at my desk thinking and staring at my computer, it's nice to get up and move around, doing something productive with my body. then, somehow, i actually have energy to complete the last 4 hours of my day at work. i've been trying to eat better and exercise, and so far have lost 4 pounds. hey, better than nothing!

this year has been good. a lot of changes and adjustments. but overall i've enjoyed being with my family on a more regular basis, living with my mom, and embracing this new moment of my life. but, i'm not so sure i'm liking the part where a year passes with one blink.

time flies

2008-01-03T11:03:00.000-06:00

i can't believe another year is gone already. seems like 2007 seriously FLEW by, like no other year in my life. i haven't had to write "2008" yet, so it still hasn't sunk in completely.

i don't normally make new year's resolutions, but this year i'm resolving to have a new outlook ... ahead with hope. there's always been a part of me that looked at the year that just passed with disappointment. i've had a tendency to look back, only seeing my "failures" ... the things i didn't accomplish. but this year, my resolution before the year even began, was to not look back on 2007 with anything, especially disappointment, but to focus on looking ahead at 2008 with HOPE. and so begins my resolution of hope...

Sears Wish Book

2007-12-15T00:38:00.000-06:00

remember that giant book? the one from Sears, with all the coolest toys in it? it was probably about 2 inches thick and would come in plenty of time for me to browse it, searching for just the right things to put on my wish list. i guess it doesn't exist anymore though. too bad.

the reason i bring this us is because of the above picture. it's of Rockefeller Center, all decked out in holiday lights. this is on my wish list of places to visit, most especially during Christmas. i'd actually like to go to NYC just before Christmas and hang out for that week, then go to Times Square, or someplace near there, to see all the New Year's festivities. just once i think i'd like to experience it. i'm not even sure why, but something in my head says New York City at Christmas and New Years is magical. fun. childlike. snowy. different. experiential. i just have images of me ice skating in Central Park with gloves, scarf, and beanie, actually enjoying myself while being cold and focused on not falling down (and all preferably with a husband with the same ideas).

anyway, i just thought i'd share with you one of the things on my wish list. :-)

the holidays

2007-11-21T09:21:00.000-06:00

(NOTE: this has turned into much more than intended, both context and quantity. read at your own risk.)

it's that time of year again. this same week last year i was walking the streets of Antigua, Guatemala, admiring people, churches, colors, differences. i was speaking Spanish with locals and bartering for Christmas presents. i ate spaghetti for dinner. it was warm and sunny all day and felt absolutely nothing like "Thanksgiving."

a year later, i'm wondering, "what DOES Thanksgiving feel like?" i guess i thought living in Texas again, maybe that "feeling" would come back to me. but instead, the entire Thanksgiving holiday has crept up ever-so-discreetly, practically forgotten about because of the "Christmas-Revolt". it used to feel like something. i used to anticipate it. i used to look forward to it. i guess because it meant seeing my family, enjoying our time together, eating delicious food, and being reminded that Christmas was right around the corner.

but now ... now it's just another day, another month, another year. i think it means i'm getting older. i'm realizing just how fast time is passing me by. i can't believe an entire year has passed. i can't believe that tomorrow is Thanksgiving Day. and it certainly doesn't help that EVERY store in the ENTIRE United States (yes, that MIGHT be an exaggeration, but i'm fairly close i'm sure) is all decked out in Christmas, and most were already decorating BEFORE Halloween, for crying out loud!

i'm sorry, but decorating earlier and earlier does NOT help my spirit. if anything, it makes me despise Christmas as a holiday worse and worse each year. i guess i shouldn't get started on this because i'm liable to tick somebody off. but "we" have made every holiday, but especially Christmas, into such a material production that it really turns me off to celebrations or decorations or anything else. i mean, really, why should i put up a tree at my house and listen to Christmas music when EVERYWHERE i go i see and hear the same stuff? i get more than my fill just going to the grocery store. by the time Christmas finally arrives, i've had ENOUGH of blinking lights and Santas and "Jingle Bells."

it used to be SPECIAL. and now it's not. and it just makes me sad. and the more materialistic "we" make it, the more it leaves the TRUE meanings in the dust.

to make a long story long...

Happy Thanksgiving. instead of thinking about all the turkey and stuffing and pumpkin pie you're gonna eat, think about the blessings in your life and thank God for those things. be thankful, and reminded, of the promises of God, and the ULTIMATE blessing He provided.

next month, instead of worrying about what to buy for each member of the family as time quickly passes, forget the materialism of the holiday and focus on THE BIGGER PICTURE ... JESUS CHRIST! He left His perfect home, His perfect Father, and made Himself lower than angels, in order to fulfill the plan of God to SAVE YOUR SORRY SOUL. that's what you should be focused on, every day, but especially during Thanksgiving AND Christmas.

forgive my preaching. i didn't meant to go off like that. i truly believe "each to their own," so if you want to put up your tree and lights before Thanksgiving, go right ahead. if you want to buy each person you know five presents they don't need, that's fine. and if you never think of Jesus even once during this holiday season, that's ok too. i won't hold it against you, and neither will He. :-) all i ask from you is that you try to understand that i just "long for the days of old."

random pics

2007-11-10T10:23:00.000-06:00

here are some random pictures i thought i'd share with you. first is the latest stage of the patio ... since then i've added some more rocks, changed some plants out, and still need to do some more work to it all, but this is what it looked like last week. :-)

now here's the front of my mom's house. and the leaves in the yard. and the leaves in the side yard. and the leaves in the neighbor's yard. i've never cared about leaves before because, to my knowledge, i've never raked, or had to rake, or bothered to rake, leaves before. so now i'm looking at all these leaves wondering, "do we have to rake them? is that going to be MY task? and what do we do with them once we've raked them up???"

and these are self-explanatory....

patio

2007-10-28T10:09:00.000-05:00

check out our patio. it's ALMOST finished. :-)

manual labor, oh my!

2007-10-14T18:30:00.000-05:00

it's been two weeks at my new job. everything is still going well. this last week i designed a couple of more ads, organized the used website inventory (those four external sites i was talking about in the last post), and updated our website with a few things.

in addition to technological work, mom and i have taken our backyard to a new level ... well, we're trying to anyway. i don't have any before pictures, because when i got the shovel in my hand i just started digging instead of thinking, "i should take a picture first." but, i have an after picture of one section of our project. this is our fountain. this took two weeks to finally get right, and even then it's not perfect. but, it looks pretty good and makes water sound and has a ledge for the future squirting frog. :-)

we're also in the process of digging up an 8' x 20' section of the yard to extend our patio (pretend you were me taking this picture ... that section of yard is to your left). needless to say, my body hurts from head to toe and we still have all the dirt of that section to dig out and do something with. what do you do with dirt you don't want anyway? hmmm....

we're not going to do anything fancy. we're just going to make a rectangle with some cement blocks (16" or 24" each) and then plant some flowers/plants between the new patio and the fountain. and THEN we'll be done with my "brilliant idea."

you know, i'm starting to see a pattern. every time i take on a home-do-it-yourself-project, in the middle of it i discover i never want to do that again. the same is true of this project. it sounded and looked great in my head, but my body is screaming and cursing at me and now my head is saying, "remember this next time you come up with some brilliant idea. please."

oh well, live and learn...

another ad

2007-10-04T22:31:00.001-05:00

this was ad number 3 and 4, designed as one image to be on a full-page of our local newspaper.

the last two days have been spent on less-creative endeavors. we advertise our used inventory on four different websites, plus our own. the four external sites were disorganized, to say the least, and i've been working on organizing them to include all our used inventory, with correct information and pictures, on all four sites. it's daunting and tedious, but i'm getting it done.

next week i have to create at least two ads that i know of, maybe more. the first is one just like i did my first day on the job. we run an ad in a classifieds paper every week, so that's always something i have to do on monday (or earlier, if i'm ever given the info ahead of time). the rest of the ads run once a month or occasionally.

the first week has been pretty good. not much talking happening though, so i kind of feel lonely a little, but hopefully with time i'll start "fitting" in.

selling tractors and such...

2007-10-02T22:10:00.000-05:00

it's been two days and i've created four ads to sell tractors, hay balers, backhoes, ATVs, and other pertinent things with specials like 0% for 36 months. here's how these days have gone...

monday i arrived to fill out two little forms, see how the timeclock works, and clean off my desk. then i organized what little office supplies i had in my area and acquainted myself with my computer. then i installed a trial version of Adobe CS3 that my boss downloaded over the weekend for me. i altered an ad to include our info and tagline (like they've been doing) and went to lunch. that afternoon i redesigned the ad to be double the size and completely new art. i worked on that until the end of the day. my boss took one look at it, said it was good, and handed it over to another guy. he made a couple little changes, said it looked good, i fixed them, and then was given approval. the entire process took about 10 minutes and was very matter-of-fact.

i worked this morning for about two hours on new logo ideas. then i designed my second ad, with new artwork. that one was approved by one person, which included being looked at for about five seconds and then he said, "ok, good, send it to so-and-so. i like it." a bit later it was time for lunch. this afternoon i worked on two ads that were to be side-by-side on the same page for our Outdoors company. this one was the hardest so far because i was given much less direction and had to search longer for certain images. at ten minutes after 5 the manager of the Outdoors store came over to discuss the ad. so tomorrow morning i'll make those few changes and then send it to the paper.

also this afternoon, while i was waiting for feedback about the Outdoors ads, i got oriented with the inventory system and the website. i made a few minor changes that hadn't been made since July and learned a shortcut in Dreamweaver i didn't know about yet.

i've met about 10 people there. 10 out of 25+. people seem nice, but stick to their areas of work and tend to keep busy with actual work. the phone rings constantly. the receptionist answers the phone, puts that person on hold, then calls over the loudspeaker, "sales, line 5" and things of the like, ALL DAY LONG. it's weird. never been in this kind of environment before. it's just like a car dealership, except we're selling farm equipment. i never would have guessed.

i have my own cubicle with one wall. it's situated in the sales department. i have a window. it's warm in the mornings and cold in the afternoons. i have a good computer with a widescreen LCD monitor. i have as stapler and a pair of scissors and a couple of pens and paper clips. :-)

the owners are married, their kids are the managers (one at the regular store, my boss, who's basically just a kid (20-ish) and the other at the Outdoors store, also just a kid), the Outdoors' manager's wife is the receptionist. a lady in accounting is married to a service tech. and i'm sure there are other relationships i haven't learned about yet.

so anyway... just thought i'd share that overall it's good. :-)

you're hired!

2007-09-25T14:27:00.000-05:00

i got hired for the job today! :-) went in at 10:30 and met with two of the three people i was supposed to meet with. talked for a nearly an hour and finally was offered the job. full-time, M-F, 8-5, website maintenance and coordination/design of all advertising. yay for me! :-)

interview

2007-09-24T21:31:00.000-05:00

9:45 a.m.
i just got off the phone with a very nice, Christian lady who runs the tractor company in town. get this ... she ran into the monument man, the guy who wants me to be his computer tutor who is handling my dad's headstone, at Subway a couple of days ago. one of his favorite questions is "where do you go to church" so she tells him Champion Fellowship, the new church i was going to for the music. he says he knows someone who goes there and tells her my name, that i'm looking for a job, and that i'm a computer guru. later she remembers meeting a Jenny at church one Sunday (which is true, we both remember meeting each other during the meet and greet time of the service) and thought she might see me yesterday, but i didn't go yesterday (i went to the country church with mom instead). ANYWAY .... i didn't go, so she didn't find me, so we didn't talk.

so we talked for about 20 minutes. she needs someone dedicated to updating their website and doing all the other advertising needs they have. they have someone, but he's actually supposed to be doing other things like sales or something and can't really dedicate as much time as it takes to keep the website current. she says it could be full- or part-time, depending on my needs, because i mentioned doing work for Parcel Plus as well.

8:00 p.m.
just got home from dinner and found a message on the machine from Carol at the tractor company. i called her back and told her i'd love to meet with her and the other necessary people at 10:30 tomorrow morning. she says, "you don't have to dress up or anything, we all wear blue jeans around here." perfect for me! :-) so i'll go tomorrow to the tractor company and see what happens.

i'm excited, especially because they sound like nice people to work for. plus, given the fact that the last two weeks i've been trying to learn a particular website software, it just seems like God is really working and that what i've been learning is going to actually be helpful. i've just been very aware today of how very cool it is how He puts all the little pieces together, isn't it? :-)

job

2007-09-20T22:22:00.000-05:00

a couple of weeks ago i met with a woman who runs a mailing/shipping/gift store and also has a marketing firm inside of it run by herself and her husband. she contracts out a lot of graphic design work and talked with me briefly about the possibility of freelance work and maybe part-time work in the store. she finally was able to meet with me again today to have a real conversation about it all.

this afternoon i met with her and the guy she gives a lot of the major graphic work to. we sat fairly casually and talked about their needs/ideas and my needs and 45 minutes later we parted. their ideas are that i work part-time in three different roles. 1) counter help in the store, 2) graphic work through her marketing firm (small things, stuff that doesn't require a ton of art direction), 3) graphic work for the lead designer on a contract basis.

the hope is that between the three jobs i will stay busy, challenged, and financially stable enough to move out of Mom's house and support myself here in Brenham.

she is going to talk with her husband about the gross amount i need, then further think/discuss about the three jobs to figure out what it would more closely look like and get back to me (hopefully soon).

in the meantime, i'm continuing to teach myself a complicated, yet widely-used web application. it's good that i've been learning it, because it came up in our discussion today. so my eagerness to learn actually proved helpful today ... and, it motivated me to continue learning, even though i was highly frustrated with the program earlier today. :-)

Cozumel pics

2007-09-03T11:32:00.001-05:00

pictures are up. i took 90, but only picked out the best ones to show you. click here. :-)

random

2007-09-03T10:08:00.000-05:00

i was thinking, i didn't share other stuff, so this is the random info part of Cozumel.

i got to speak spanish to everyone. i didn't have to, because everyone spoke english, a requirement to work there. but when they realized i spoke a little spanish, they wanted to talk to me in spanish. they had to repeat things several times and say it slowly, but i had nice little conversations with several people. this one guy i spoke to entirely in spanish, some random parking attendant about the paying to use their beach, the fish, and where best to go if we wanted to snorkel. it was cool cuz we both understood each other rather well and it proved to mom that i actually learned something in guatemala. :-)

shells were EVERYWHERE on our beach. they were TINY and WHITE and nothing spectacular, but there were literally thousands (100s of 1000s) along our beach. we had to walk through them to get from the sand to the water, which was VERY painful. then they'd be in the water. and then would be a small section of rocks or big shells you had to pass through, but all in the sand, and then just sand. it was weird. and we've never seen so many shells before. and if you walked further down you could see those big conch shells, none of them perfectly whole.

the sun was HOT and painful. there was no shade when walking around the resort because there weren't very many trees, nor are palm trees really big enough to provide much shade. but they had lots of thatched-roof umbrellas on the beach to sit under, which wasn't only helpful, but necessary.

there weren't tons of people, which was nice ... plenty of room for everyone and no need to fight over lounge chairs. but the night before we left more people arrived, so for breakfast the morning we left there were lots more people. but overall, business was really slow, so unfortunately for them they were losing money on that all-inclusive deal.

this place is a five-star resort, very nice, and we recommend staying there if you ever go. but keep in mind that five star in mexico versus five star in america is going to be a little different. the flies, for example, would have americans screaming up a storm in america. but in mexico everyone just goes with the flow and doesn't say a word. the food was tasty and pretty and filling, but it was just normal food, "not gourmet," as one of the guests commented. and no, it wasn't gourmet for america, but it WAS gourmet for mexico. they could have just served us all beans, rice, and tortillas. :-)

oh, the iguanas! there were iguanas running around the grounds of our resort, so when walking to breakfast or to the pool we'd see them in the grass just watching life go by. and there were lizards, too. green, black, brown, small and medium sized. i think they all lived under our huts. fun!

life in Cozumel

2007-09-02T22:42:00.000-05:00

my mom decided she needed to get away, but didn't want to get away by herself. so she took me with her to Cozumel to lie on the beach and do nothing for three days. nothing real exciting took place, because as i just said the purpose was to do nothing, and so we did.

we arrived thursday just after lunch. we found our greeter just outside the airport waiting to help us with our transportation to the hotel. very nice guy who got 12 of us into the van and then another guy drove us to the airport in the wild-Cozumel-taxi-driving way. we checked in and were given wristbands to prove we were all-inclusive and shown the direction toward our room. the resort was beautiful. an open air reception area with flowers and birds and a fountain just outside. all the rooms were in thatched-roof huts, eight rooms to a hut. we walked past flowers and shrubs and palm trees to our room, where patio furniture and a hammock were waiting on our porch. inside was a normal hotel room, two beds, a couple of chairs, a small table, and a tv. a normal hotel bathroom with a hair dryer, iron, coffee pot, and room safe. but what made it special was the towel animal of an elephant left on the bed.

it was lunchtime, so after dropping our stuff in the room we made our way a very short distance to the pool area where lunch was served buffet style every day. there was a hot grill waiting to cook your choice of chicken, pork, or beef. then already cooked were potatoes, french fries, various meats, veggies, pasta, fruit, salad, and dessert. we dipped up our plate, found a place to sit down, and then inquired of the bar about our drinking privileges ... all-inclusive really does mean, at least in this case, all you can eat and drink of anything you want. and so we ordered and drank freely (but responsibly, of course) and helped ourselves to the buffet two or three times. the only bad part about this dining outside for lunch were the flies. they were everywhere and always trying to eat our food before we could eat it. and then the bees and flies would attack our drinks. so, unfortunately, we were always fanning something.

after lunch we began our lounging and doing nothing. around 6-ish we made our way to the restaurant at the front of the hotel for dinner. this was buffet style too, but they also have a reservations-only dining room where you order off the menu. we decided to do the buffet the first two nights and the dining room the third night ... on the buffet the first night was mexican food (not all was mexican-style, but that was the theme of the night) ... and since business was slow, they only had one of the menu-restaurants open each night and the next night the mexican restaurant was open ... that would have been mexican two nights in a row. so we chose to do the seafood buffet the second night and then the italian menu-restaurant the third night. it all worked out well and provided lots of variety.

they provided entertainment each night around 9 p.m. The first night they had games outside (for free) where you played to win fake money to spend at the auction later on. so we played and hung out until the show started. after the show they had an auction where you bid to win items like a cheap necklace or a bottle of tequila. of course you win it for free, since the money was fake, so that made it even more fun. we didn't see anything we wanted to bid on, so we ended up giving our $19 to another couple who were trying to win the bottle of tequila, the last item of the night. they were furiously bidding against some other people and ran out of money. well, the other people had already won two other things, so we gave the couple our money to help win the tequila. and then a woman gave them hers. and then a girl. and finally, after all the pooled money, they outbid the other people and won. it was fun.

so the shows at night ... the first night we had mexican dance. six or eight very good dancers showed us different styles of dance from each state in Mexico. the second was a fire show by two young guys who had no fears of being burned up. and the third night was an international dance show, same dancers from the first night, but this time dancing different styles from spain, argentina, columbia, mexico, and cuba. all the entertainment was actually quite good, but the fire show was the best in my opinion. it was just different and dangerous and exciting. :-)

during the day they would have different activities like water volleyball, beach volleyball, a fashion show, horseshoes, and other things posted on a schedule. in addition to the two pools, jacuzzi, beach, and ocean activities, they had shuffleboard, tennis, a gym, and a spa. in the ocean the all-inclusive activities were all non-motorized sports ... snorkeling, boogie board, sailing, and kayaking.

so our second day was spent on the beach, lounging around in the sun, in the shade, and in the water. we snorkelled, we read, we kayaked, and we ate/drank at scheduled meal times. the snorkeling was ok, but not wonderful ... it was just regular water and sand there on our beach, so the really pretty fish weren't around because there was no coral for them to live in. we did see fish, but only a few and only white or black ones. BUT ... i saw a sting ray. and a big one at that. :-) i was on my way back to the beach when there it was. i was so shocked i moved away from it. it was a distance away and it was at the bottom, but still ... i didn't know how it might feel about me following it, so i didn't. i moved a little to the right and let it move a little to the left and after a few seconds we drifted far enough apart that i couldn't see it anymore. so i hurried on back to short to tell of my news. it was VERY cool, but enough scary that i didn't go back out ... i wanted to go find it again, but for some reason i was a little scared to.

the third day we decided to rent a car and drive around the island to see what else there is to Cozumel. after about an hour of driving, we determined ... there's not much to Cozumel. pretty much all activity is happening on the west side of the island just above and below the main city of San Miguel. if you love sunbathing/swimming, shopping, or water sports, this is a nice place to come. otherwise, you don't need to spend more than a day or two here. there's nothing on the east side except waves. no people, no activity, and not much room to pull off the road. it's very isolated and the entire 30 miles or whatever that we drove on that east side was spent with only a handful of other drivers. it was weird. but the waves were nice to see and listen to. :-)

from the air you can see the island ... there's nothing in the middle except trees. no roads, no villages, nothing ... just trees. it makes sense that they wouldn't bother with the inside since everyone comes to Cozumel for the beach, but it feels weird to drive down a road for 30+ miles and never see a turn off to another road, a house, or in some places another car! but such is life in Cozumel.

we tried to find snorkeling sites for the afternoon, but didn't have much success. we finally just took the car and snorkeling gear back and called it quits with a margarita. :-) then we got dressed for our very nice italian dinner.

dinner was nice. we had very attentive waiters, wine, a bread basket, and four courses of delicious choices ... salad, pasta, meat, and dessert. all of it was very good and beautifully-plated, but the dessert was not very good at all. the dessert as a whole at this place was always disappointing ... it usually looked great, but tasted icky. but otherwise, it was wonderful.

today we ate breakfast, packed, and sat on the beach reading for a couple of hours before checking out. after we checked out, we gave our bag to the bellman and ate lunch. then we got our taxi to the airport and flew home. the airport is so small and so efficient it only took us five minutes to check in, go through security, and find our gate. (airport-recommended two hours ahead of time is a joke, just FYI for any future travelers.)

so, in sum, it was wonderful, beautiful, and fun. yes, traveling with "panic-snoring-drunk mom," and "hormonal-indecisive jenny" had its moments, but overall we had a great time. :-) definitely two or three days is good enough. and DEFINITELY all-inclusive is the way to go!

go!

2007-08-29T10:32:00.000-05:00

i have officially begun my job search. about a week ago, i re-applied at Walgreens to work in the pharmacy. Monday the manager called me for an interview. it went well, involving casual conversation and a test. but the interview was to work in the photo lab and second in cosmetics for pretty low pay.

that night i got motivated ... finally. i submitted my resume to two or three places online and planned my route for the next day. so yesterday i went out with resumes in hand and filled out three applications in town and even had a mini-interview with the HR guy at Blue Bell. i applied for any job at BB, a 911 operator for the city, and a graphics person at a trophy shop. then i came home and applied for three different computer related positions at Blinn College, all of which i'm not really qualified for, but assured them in my cover letter that i could learn quickly.

and yesterday afternoon, while i was running around applying, the manager at the Walgreens called and asked i call him back. i didn't know what to tell him if he did offer me the job, so i slept on it. i just got off the phone with him, and sure enough he offered me the job. i thanked him and told him i would like it, but asked if i could think about it more over the weekend before accepting it.

*sigh* every job i've ever had, i just realized, i've only interviewed one time during my search and ended up being asked to stay. which is wonderful, don't get me wrong. it's very assuring and good and wonderful. BUT ... all of those other times i NEEDED a job and/or WANTED the job i was applying for. this one, i'm not so sure about because of where my heart is, because of the pay, because of the wishy-washy hours, because of .... the list could go on, but i'll spare you.

but, maybe nothing else will come along? maybe this is where God wants me? and maybe, just maybe, in 6 months or less, i would start training to be a pharmacy technician and maybe get the job in another 6 months and then i'd be making a lot more and would have great training for the future and ....

i don't know what to do. but i have a few days to think about it. thankfully he positively agreed to let me think it over until tuesday. so, while i'm laying on the beach in Cozumel drinking Piña Coladas, i'll be thinking and praying and hoping for answers.

in the meantime, i appreciate your prayers as well. and if you get any confirmations or red flags or anything, please send them my way.

procrastination at its finest

2007-08-22T22:31:00.000-05:00

i'm a procrastinator. i'm not one with ALL things, but there are things i just plain avoid until the last possible moment. one of these most recent things is getting a job. my way of procrastinating is by researching every possible idea i can come up with and traveling. where am i going NOW??!! thanks to my mom's desire to travel and non-desire to do it alone, we're going to Cozumel for a few days. :-)

we'll fly down there next thursday morning, stay three nights, and come home sunday afternoon. it's an all-inclusive plan where we lie on the beach, drink whatever, eat three (or four) meals every day, snorkel, swim, work on our tans, and logically shouldn't have to pay for anything else because we paid it up front. according to the website and the few reviews i read, it should be fun and relaxing and beautiful.

in spite of my procastination, i am getting closer to applying for jobs. i've had several different thoughts about which avenue to pursue. riverboat cruising? airline customer service? a desk job? graphics? houseparent? pharmacy tech? and so many others. part of my hesitation is the idea that i returned to texas to be with/near my family. if i then move to a larger city hours away, then i'll see them only a couple times a month. and, while that's ok at times, it sorta defeats the purpose of moving back to texas, at least in my head it does. but if i stay in Brenham, where i'll see them all the time, i may not find a contentable (yes, i think i just made up a new word) job. and so ... i continue to think, process, pray, research .... a.k.a. procrastinate.

BUT ... i did finally narrow it down to what was most important to me in working. 1) serve God. 2) serve His people. 3) make my family proud. 4) earn enough money for bills and food. 5) travel with whatever money and time is leftover.

with that established, i can now rule out certain ideas and further process others.

and in the meantime, i'll enjoy Cozumel. :-)

happy anniversary to....

2007-08-14T10:27:00.000-05:00

it just occurred to me.... i've had this blog running for one year exactly, to the day. so though i don't have anything to say, i couldn't let today pass without saying something.

this last year has been quite a trip ... chocked full of life and change, laughter and tears, confusion and frustration ... pretty much a little bit of everything. and what's messed up is that a year later, after so much, i'm in almost the same place as i was then with knowing what to do with my life. let's do a little recap...

a year ago i was contemplating change. so i went on a cruise, for vacation, but to also try to see it from an employee standpoint. i came back and basically quit my job to go to language school in Guatemala. while there learning Spanish i lost my job completely. then i sold my house and moved to Texas. i worked for a while, but didn't like it. my dad died. i moved in with my mom into a new house. just recently i spent three weeks in Europe. and today, i'm blogging about the last year in my pajamas on a Tuesday.

the only thing i can say is ... ... i survived. i grunted through the tough times and came out successful. and i learned things, in every way possible.

it would have been so much easier had i gone on vacation, gone to Guatemala to learn Spanish, and just come back to Colorado to continue working at OC. but, had it happened like that, this blog wouldn't have nearly as much text in it. :-)

Florence pics

2007-08-07T11:20:00.001-05:00

i just realized i think i missed uploading the Florence pics. so i've done that and they are now ready to view, in the same place as all the rest. :-)

final thoughts

2007-08-05T14:22:00.000-05:00

ok. i guess i've written most of what was in my journal relaying the things i saw and did. but how did i feel about it? what was my favorite thing? would i do it again? before i get to that, let me share a few sidenotes...

restrooms in Europe are called "toilets". if you ask for anything else you're probably going to get a confused look. be sure to take some cents with you because it's highly likely you'll have to pay. some toilets were a set amount like 50 cents or one euro, others were whatever you wanted to put in the tray. a couple of toilets you HAD to pay in order to get in because the money in the slot would open the turnstyle for you to go through. if you didn't pay, you'd have to find a bush outside.

european service stops are really nice. they usually have great eating options with FRESH food in addition to semi-fast and regular fast food. the first stop we went to had a McDonald's and near the end we finally found one with a Burger King ... otherwise, it was just fresh, local food, clean bathrooms, and a convenience store with everything from special pasta, fresh bread, suveniers, and toy trucks.

Contiki had a saying we had to adopt for ourselves ... it's not wrong, it's just different. toilet seats, elevators, anything other than bread for breakfast, and extra room keys are all bonus in Europe ... it's not wrong, just different.

now, to my final thoughts. i had a really great time. doing the whole trip solo was pretty easy, but it would have been much more fun to have a companion to share things with. making friends in the tour eventually got easier as well, after everyone started loosening up. Europe is beautiful and different and fun. Contiki is a great tour group for people aged 18 to 35, depending on your personality ... i had a great time with younger people, but had to find the right people to hang out with. otherwise i would have been drinking/partying much more or i would have been sitting in my room by myself much more. my hope, if i were going to do it again, would be that there are always a few mature people like me in every group.

travelling nearly 5,000 kilometers in 12 days was a crazy plan, and though we succeeded, i didn't see much. sure, i saw TONS of stuff, but most of our time was spent on the coach travelling from one place to the next. by the time we'd get to the destination city of that day it would be late afternoon or early evening and then we might only have 3-4 hours to spend in that place. that's not nearly enough to actually explore. it was wonderful to see so many places because now i know where i want to go back to and what i'd want to see or not see if i ever go back to some place i've already been.

my favorite places ... Switzerland, as a whole. Rhine Valley in Germany because of all the castles! Venice, just because of its uniqueness.

my favorite moments ... that moment i saw Big Ben for the first time. wow! seeing the castles while driving along the Rhine River in Germany. boating into Venice and realizing it's exactly how i'd pictured it.

dislikes ... the German language. when having to read a menu in German and not understanding any of it, i felt very intimidated. i was afraid i'd order something disgusting like frog legs, so i ended up eating pizza. otherwise, nothing major. :-)

the future ... i'd definitely do a group tour again. having all my hotels, transportation, and most food taken care of for me was a huge help and made my holiday much more fun. i'd recommend a group tour, as well, but i'd put this caviat in there ... realize your time for exploring a city/area will be limited and there will be people in your group who will probably cause a few problems by being disrespectful or whiny throughout the trip. however, despite all that, it was fun to do things as a group, to make a few friends along the way, and to see so much in a short amount of time. plus you always had the option of doing things with or without people ... there were lots of times i'd go do things on my own, because i CHOSE to, not because i HAD to. having that option really helps as well, especially for an independent person like me.

did i make friends? yeah, sure, but only for the duration of the trip. i didn't grow attached to my tourmates at all. it was fun while it lasted, but no best friends made for me. for others? maybe.

where did i go that i would return to ... Austria, because i only saw a little section of it between Germany and Italy. it was beautiful, but i don't feel like i got to experience it at all. and i'd still like to go to Vienna and Salzburg one day. i'd also go back to Italy. and maybe see a little more of Germany ... it's really more beautiful than i thought it would be.

what else? i can't think of other questions you might have for me, so feel free to write me and ask me anything. i'm an open book. :-)

"It's where we go, and what we do when we get there, that tells us who we are." ~Joyce Carol Oates

pictures

2007-08-02T15:37:00.000-05:00

i'm working on my pictures, but i took well over 800 so it's gonna take a while for me to get them all uploaded. just click on the "photo album" link on the right and it should take you to ALL my online pictures. then click on "vacations" and the country or city album you want to see. enjoy! :-)

home, home on the range...

2007-08-01T21:40:00.000-05:00

i rested for less than two hours. got up at 6, got all my stuff ready, and walked to the metro station. lucky for me they couldn't sell tickets. don't know why, i just know my trip was free. :-) rode the metro to the train station, found my train, got on, and rode to London. on the train i had a soda and two croissants with chocolate. YUM. in London i got on a different train to take me to the airport. in the airport i had to take a train to the North terminal.

finally, i got in a line to check my bag at the British Airways counter. this line was huge, but moved rather quickly. i had plenty of time, so wasn't worried about the wait. the next big line was security. this checkpoint was for bags. once through there we went to another checkpoint just for shoes. finally, i was out of lines and ready to go to the gate. but in London they don't let you go to the gate until a particular time. so you wait in the main area where all the shopping is, looking periodically at a screen to announce your gate number. i bought fine chocolate at the Harrod's store, bought a smoothie, and changed the rest of my euros into dollars. then my gate was listed, so off i went to my gate where i got in another line. this line checked my bag again, AND patted me down. wow. they take this stuff seriously, that's for sure.

i'd been upgraded for whatever reason to the Plus section. this is the section between first class and economy. the seats semi-reclined. there was two to three times as much leg room. there was a leg rest and a permanent cupholder. a remote control that popped out of the arm even! very comfortable despite being in the middle seat. we were served pretty good food, had decent movies to watch, but i was so tired i didn't pay much attention to much of anything for those 10+ hours.

we safely arrived in Houston late. then i got in a long line for customs. and finally found my mom outside waiting for me. we got home around 8 p.m.

i was so tired and so happy to be home and so ready to go to bed. *sigh* i figured out i was travelling for nearly 21 hours. that's ridiculous!

Paris, part 2 (AKA, the end)

2007-07-31T23:59:00.000-05:00

the last day. Paris. wow.

it was a full day, but oh so fun. started out at a perfumerie for a demonstration and a chance to buy some. it was too smelly for me, and the lady talking to us talked entirely too fast with a really thick accent, most of the words i didn't comprehend at all, so i basically sat that hour out.

next, the Eiffel Tower for our optional excursion of going to the top. had to stand in the group line for a little while, then up to the second level to change lifts to go to the top. great views, but so many people. we had to wait in another line for a good while to get in the lift to go to the third level. oh, by the way, "lift" for us Americans is elevator. :-) finally we get to the top, fight the crowds for pictures, and then make our way down. by this time we'd been at the Eiffel Tower for about two and a half hours. it was now lunch time. *L* our group at this point consisted of about ten of us. we went to the snack bar to get a quick bite to eat, then took our food to the grass to eat with the Tower looming overhead. very cool.

after lunch we split off and our group of six took off for the metro to ride to Notre Dame. after a bit of a detour because of repairs on the tracks, we finally arrive and get in line to go inside. there were always lines. i guess that's the problem with touring in the summer. oh well. once inside it was always worth it and Notre Dame was no exception. big, beautiful, the most awesome stained glass ... we all just sat down for a while and took it all in. two of the girls wanted to climb up to the top of the dome, so they went to investigate it. they were told the wait in the line to go up would be about two hours, so they chose not to go up since they were staying a few extra days after the tour was over.

so we made our way over to St. Chapelle, a chapel with stunning stained glass windows, 15 in total, that all had pictures inside of each window that told the story of mankind. it cost 7.50 euros to get in. you enter the lower chapel first, which really is UNimpressive. the low, painted ceilings are unique, but overall there isn't much to see. thankfully there's an upper chapel. we climbed up the small, circular staircase. this section of the chapel is beautiful, but not worth the 7.50 euros, to be honest. the windows are beautiful, but contains so much detail it's hard to grasp what even one is trying to relay. the sun was on the right side of the chapel at this point, so those windows displayed all the beautiful colors with ease. the left side windows, however, were dark and looked dirty and unkept. there was no light shining through, so they looked like there was thick dirt covering them up, blocking the beauty that lie beneath. i'm not sure if maybe that was true, or if it really was just the sun's fault.

throughout the chapel, upper and lower, was scratched paint, dirt, and little windows that had been scratched apart. it was strange, because every other church i'd been in was so well kept and never a flaw. this was unique and interesting, but not worth the cost nor the line we had to wait in to see it.

we strolled over to the Louvre to take pictures of the outside and the pyramid, along the river, stopping at the boutiques along the way to buy a magnet and look at the art. we took our time and enjoyed the scenery along the way. and when we got to the Louvre we sat on the fountain surrounding the pyramid and rested for about 10 minutes. then we took funny pictures and formed our next game plan.

next stop, Arc de Triumph to take pictures up close and personal. while there we witnessed an odd ceremony. don't know what it was for, but it was entertaining in an humorous way. old men with flags who didn't know where to stand and couldn't even hold the flag upright. *L* army guys who didn't march very militarily. a family of tourists allowed to be in the middle of it and a tourist guy walking around taking pictures with his little digital camera. it was funny and odd, but i guess they were taking it serious. *L*

we left there and went to Sacre Couer. on the corner of the metro stop was a restaurant/bar that looked good, so we decided to eat dinner there. very pleasant atmosphere containing live music for the last half of our time there, nice staff, great food. i had sirloin steak (asked for well done, but got medium) and green beans. had a Coke to drink and a nutella & banana crepe for dessert. it was all really good, and $30 (for my meal alone) later we left.

we started walking up the hill to Sacre Couer, the church, but the girls had to stop along the way in this shop to buy a purse with Paris written on it (and i think the Eiffel Tower was on it too). that ended up taking much longer than i desired, but we finally all got on the funicular to take us up to the top where the church is (when mom and i went 15 years ago we climbed all the stairs and saw the funicular on our way down ... i didn't want to make that mistake again). by this time it was dusk. there were people, mostly locals, hanging out on the steps, just drinking and listening to live music, looking out over the city from a perfect high point. it would have been cool to join them for a while, but we didn't have time. it was dark and the girls were starting to get nervous about the area and were wanting to get to the Eiffel Tower to see it lit up.

so we went inside the church and sat for a while. beautiful, somewhat simple, probably my most favorite of all. the only major thing in there was a mural of Jesus with his arms spread out wide, bright blue and white colors, really big at the front of the church, round. it's just really amazing. we left and tried to find the "i love you wall", but couldn't find it, but found a store selling wine and an ATM, and finally just got on the metro and made our way to the Eiffel Tower.

some of the group was feeling a bit tired and ready to just go home, but when we got off the metro and saw the Tower all lit up, they were re-energized and ready to go sit in the grass and drink the wine. and so we did. and at midnight twinkly lights started and went off for about 10 minutes. there were lots of people, most locals again, in the grass, eating and drinking and playing games. and there were guys walking around trying to sell wine to everyone, coming to us like twenty different times, at least. but it was worth it. the Tower is gorgeous at night. romantic at night, touristy during the day.

and now it was about 12:30 a.m. we had a full day, but it wasn't over. the group was meeting at a bar after the cabaret show (optional excursion only ten people chose to do) to have final night drinks and dancing together. so three of us six decided to go home and the other three (me included) went to the bar. when we arrived everyone was there. we got a drink and started dancing. Eelco was supposed to be there to have one last drink with me and to dance a little, but when i showed up, he was leaving. and he wouldn't stay. i was disappointed.

we danced and drank until after 3 a.m., then said goodbye to people and got a cab to the hotel. i was tired and tispy and had to get up in about two hours to start my journey home. i said goodbye to the girls i was with and went to my room to pack and rest for a couple of hours.

today was fun. it was the most relaxed, touristy day on the trip. i've had a blast, but i'm ready to go home. :-)

Paris, part 1

2007-07-30T23:30:00.001-05:00

we had a long drive today ... about 8 hours or so. we had two stops and two games along the way. i was tired, so i closed my eyes a lot and listened to my iPod a lot ... much more than any other time. the first three hours everyone slept. the next three hours we played two games. one was sorta like a scavenger hunt, right and left side of the bus were different teams. Rachel would call out an object and we'd have to find it on our side of the bus, pass it back to touch the window and pass it up front to her. whoever got it up front first won a point. items were such things as a British passport, lip balm, a bra, a kiss, car keys. our team (the right side of the bus) was winning for a while, but then we got stumped on car keys and lost it from there. the winning side got a bottle of tequila to share.

the second game was a game the back of the bus came up with. Rachel has a thing called "booth of truth" for those who show up late on the bus. they're supposed to stand up front and answer any three questions we throw at them. the questions are supposed to be designed to embarrass them enough that they won't be late again. but everytime someone had to face it (three times, i think), we failed miserably at coming up with a question, so finally she gave up and if you were late you didn't have to try to face the booth of truth. so, because of our failing at coming up with a question, the back of the bus people took time to think up 17 questions and then had us ALL participate on our way to France.

most of the front of the bus weren't thrilled with this idea because we all had a basic idea of what the questions would refer to ... SEX. but we played along anyways. we were to write down three numbers next to our name, from one to 17, and then Rachel would ask us one question that corresponded to one of the numbers. as soon as it started it was a mess. and soon thereafter Rachel decided it wasn't appropriate for her to be asking the questions, so she assigned one of the girls who came up with the game to ask the questions. some people refused to even answer the question given to them. thankfully i was given an easy one ... at what age did you have your first kiss.

finally it was over. and finally we arrived in Paris. just so happens our full day in Paris was a Tuesday and the Louvre is closed on Tuesdays, so as soon as we got to town we made a mad dash over to the Louvre so those who wanted to see it could quickly go in, find the main attraction (Mona Lisa), and hurry back out. in all we had about an hour in there and had to practically run through it to see Mona Lisa, Venus de Milo, and have a glance at some of the stuff in between.

then we went to the hotel to check in and have dinner ... tomatoes & mozzarella, pork with french fries, apple pie, bread, and water. afterward we jumped back on the coach and had a driving city tour. during the tour the back of the bus was being rude, talking and laughing enough that Rachel could hear them up front while she was talking (this was the third official time she got frustrated about it enough to stop talking). so finally Eelco grabbed the mic and told them off. basically saying if you don't want to be on the bus and hear what she has to say, get off at the picture stop and go somewhere else. they shut up after that.

we drove past all the major sites ... Arc de Triumph, the Louvre, the statues of Joan of Arc and Michael the angel, many other things, and of course the Eiffel Tower. we stopped at the Tower and walked from one end of it to the other, then got back on the coach and went back to the hotel. during all this Rachel gave us great history and fun facts about each of the stuff we were seeing.

when we got back to the hotel i got out my map and info sheet and sat with the sisters in the bar to plan our day. we got it all figured out, they had a drink, talked to Eelco and others, and finally went to bed, excited for the last day on tour, and feeling confident about tackling Paris. :-)

Lucerne, Switzerland

2007-07-30T23:30:00.000-05:00

we travelled many hours on the coach to arrive in Lucerne very late ... we had lots of traffic, all because of a tunnel. this tunnel is 18 kilometers long and traffic is regulated. the problem before the tunnel was three lanes of traffic having to stop at a light, waiting for their turn to go into the tunnel, then having to merge into two lanes to go through it. so we sat in the jam for well over an hour. because of this jam we had to cancel our optional trip up Mt Stanserhorn.

the plan after Stanserhorn was to go into Lucerne to shop at three particular stores who were staying open especially for us, so we finally arrived around 5. the stores contained special Swiss things, like army knives, watches, and chocolate. i didn't really want to buy anything, so i wandered off toward the river, stopping at a church i found on accident and taking pictures. we were only there for maybe an hour.

after shopping was over we walked back to the coach and retrieved our overnight bags. because of the location of the hotel, the coach can't drive there, so we had to pack overnight bags and walk to the hotel. it wasn't far, just over a covered, wooden bridge and up a little ways.

the hotel we stayed at actually used to be a medium-security women's prison. our tour manager, Rachel, reminded us several times of two specific things ... 1) the hotel is "novelty", and 2) the Swiss aren't known for their food. upon arrival we learned this firsthand. i thought it was way cool to be staying in a place like this, especially when i saw our room door. i just thought it was cool and unique. the rooms were really small and only contained two twin beds, one chair, and a bathroom (thankfully). there was one window, up high, with bars on it. *L*

right after we checked in we went to dinner. salad, bread, and water was waiting for us. then came the main entree ... sausage with gravy and fried potato links. it was edible, but the texture of the sausage didn't agree with my teeth and after half of it i decided i couldn't eat anymore. dessert was a square of ice cream, vanilla on the outside and strawberry sorbet in the middle. all in all it was good, but the main entree was considered our worst meal of the trip nearly by all.
after dinner we met to walk to the lake where most people would get on a boat for the Lake Lucerne cruise. at that point several of us split off to go see the lion monument. it was getting dark by now, so we were hurried up the hill to see it. finally we arrived (because of course we got turned around and had to ask for help), just in time to see it well with our eyes, but not in time to take a decent picture.

this monument is quite moving. it's a lion carved/sculpted out of the cliff/mountain, with a pond in front and flowers around it, and trees towering all over this area, and benches to sit on. there was no one there, so it was nice and quiet and peaceful, but it started raining after we arrived. the lion itself is a memorial to Swiss guards that died while serving honorably. back during the French Revolution 700 swiss were guarding the palace of the king and his family who were palace-bound. on this one night Parisians charged the palace and killed the swiss guards who were fighting to save a family who had already snuck out the back. the swiss guards didn't know, so they followed their orders and died doing so. that's one story. the other story is that the king told the guards not to fight, so they didn't. either way, it's sad. this monument's been around since 1821.

the whole thing is a very moving place, emotionally. and it's really beautiful as far as art goes. the details of it is really amazing. his eyes are quite telling. there are two shields sculpted with the lion, a Swiss and a French, and there's a broken spear in the lion's back. if you've seen Narnia's "The Lion, Witch, and the Wardrobe", imagine Aslan laying there when he was killed, in the form of rock on the side of a mountain and you get a good glimpse of what i saw.

when it started raining pretty good, we left and walked back to the hotel. i had a drink with Eelco in the hallway between the reception desk and the disco in the hotel, talked for a bit, then walked outside and talked for a bit more, then hugged and said goodnight. :-)

overall today was a good day with beautiful scenery, but the traffic jam really caused disappointment for several people, me included because it cut into my time in Lucerne. i had hoped to spend more time there on my own or to be able to call Susanne up and maybe meet her for drinks or something. but it just didn't work. such is life. still, i saw Switzerland again, and was reminded of a place i'd like to visit another time.

Italy, part 3

2007-07-29T23:00:00.000-05:00

next stop Florence. we arrived around lunch time, a little later, but we left early so we only ended up with about three hours or so. the moment we arrived we walked to a main plaza and took the group photo. then we walked to a leather shop and saw a demonstration. then we had about half an hour or so to meander until meeting for our guided tour.

this tour was just as good as the Rome one, but we didn't see as much stuff. but the guide was nice and she stuck around to receive a tip afterward. it ended at the Duomo, so i went in. no cost to get in, but if you wanted to climb to the top of the dome or tower, you had to pay. i didn't need to do that. the Duomo was big and pretty, as usual (unfortunately i didn't write down any details about this place in my journal, and now i can't remember what it looked like).

after that i walked back to the main square, stopping to window shop along the way. i went inside Santa Croce, paying five euros to get in. the main altar area was, of course, covered up in scaffolding. just my luck. but inside this church are buried a bunch of people including Michaelangelo and Galileo, so i saw that and then left to meet the group to leave.

we drove to the hotel (Best Western), checked in, and cleaned up and dressed for dinner and disco. we drove through the some Tuscan hills to our optional Tuscan dinner. it was beautiful and up high and there were lots of groups there. we were given a welcome cocktail and let to our tables. we were entertained with piano and accordian music as well as a female opera singer. there was even a little bit of dancing, during which i was being encouraged to go ask Eelco to dance with me, but i didn't. i wasn't drunk enough. *L* he and Rachel were sitting in the back of the restaurant with the other tour group leaders, so had i gone over to their table and asked it would have been pretty obvious.

anyways, the food was really good. a four-course meal and wine. appetizers were buffet-style, but the rest was served to us. lots of appetizers to choose from, all very tasty. then out came the second course, strips of steak with lettuce. third course was lasagna and penne pasta. (dessert was something i can't remember now. :-( but it was GOOD!) there was champagne, as well. and eventually we left to go to the disco.

our admission included a free drink (i guess i should admit now that i drank my yearly quotient of alcohol in a matter of days, but remember everything and was responsible through it all). we started out in the karaoke bar and then went upstairs to the regular dance club part. a couple more drinks and a lot of dancing later we left. but not before an interesting encounter with a very forward Italian man...

so i'm dancing, everything is going well, a man shows up and starts dancing with me and twirling me around. he talks to me, asks my name, we converse, etc., all while dancing. but a bit later he leaves to get a drink or something. a bit later another guy shows up. we dance a bit and then he leaves. and then, a cute guy walks by and i make the mistake of saying, "ooo, ciao!" well, a bit later he comes back and grabs hold of me. we dance very tightly together for a bit, all the while i'm trying to put a little space between us but he's not having it. eventually he starts kissing my neck and working his way up. oh my! after several successful attempts to keep him from locking lips, i finally give in. i thought, "well, this could be the only chance i get to kiss an Italian man, i might as well take it!" *L* so we kiss for a few seconds and then i push him away. i was getting tired and ready to go anyways, so i chose to go downstairs and pay my bill so i didn't drink anymore. paid and went back upstairs to get my taxi group. started dancing some more with the same guy and kissed him some more. why not? and then we all left. overall, it was a really fun night. :-)

Italy, part 2, Rome 2

2007-07-28T23:30:00.000-05:00

Rome is crazy busy and HOT. it's so old and historic and very cool to see in person, but i'm exhausted and stressed and totally tired of the hectic life of thousands of people in my personal space.

we got up this morning and took a chartered bus (it's supposed to be Eelco's day off) to the metro stop. we all then had to fight a hundred other people to get on the metro train. impossible to do on the first one so we wait for the second one. when it finally arrives we are literally PUSHED into the train. there were so many people pushing me forward i didn't even have to use my feet. i'm serious. it was crazy. in one car was me and Dave, a guy from Salt Lake City. the rest of our group was someplace else. there was no way to keep up with everyone, so we just assumed we all got on this train and got off at the right stop.

when we got off, we made our way to the Vatican to join the line of thousands of other people. i went looking for our group in the line in front of us, but didn't find them. so a few minutes later i went behind us and finally found them and told them we were ahead of them. i talked with the girls about me and Eelco and then Rachel asked me about it. i told her how i was feeling awkward about it. she said it was ok to go for it if i wanted to, if i liked him, but if i felt uncomfortable and wanted her to talk to him for me, she would. so that was nice. but i still didn't know what to do about our 5 o'clock plan to meet.

anyways, we waited in the line for an hour and then got into the Vatican Museum. it cost 13 euros and was HUGE. lots of paintings, sculptures, gold, and people. too many things to look at. it was all amazing, but i was feeling really overwhelmed. finally got to the Sistine Chapel, but there were so many people in there, so many distractions, and so much paint to look at, i don't think i did it justice at all ... i could have stayed in there for hours and still not have looked at it all. and the people in there ... all of them were snapping pictures and all the cops would say was, "no foto!" there were chairs on the sides to sit in, but otherwise everyone was standing and it was hot and crowded and hearing "shhhhhh!" everyone 10 seconds was really getting to me. i finally just had to leave.

walked through the tombs of previous popes. not all that interesting, but i saw the last pope's tomb. went inside St. Peter's Basilica ... this place was huge too. everything in Rome is HUGE. but once again, a place that was just too overwhelming with stuff to look at inside that i just walked around feeling ... almost depressed ... and saying "wow". it was a lot darker inside than i expected, but beautiful and amazing. mosaics everywhere and a side chapel set apart for prayer. one of the girls said later that there wasn't any candles to light like in most churches, but i didn't notice. this was free to go in, by the way, but you could climb to the top for views of the city for a cost, but i didn't have time to do that.

took pictures and made my way to the meeting place at 12:30, grabbing a sandwich on the way. ate the sandwich while waiting for our group to rejoin and time to leave. we all walked to the bus stop and rode to the meeting place for our guided tour. i was so tired and hot and done, by this point, that i just wanted to get this tour over with and go back to the hotel to go swimming. as did several others of us. and believe me, this reaction was quite a surprise to me. but i think the heat and the crowds and the busyness were finally getting to me.

at the tour meeting point i asked Rachel to call Eelco and tell him i would be leaving town early and wouldn't meet him at 5. she said he was already in town, but that she would send him a message and for me not to worry about it or how he would feel. and so i left her to catch up with the guided tour and tried not to worry.

the tour was great, really, but so hot. we should have had it earlier in the day, but that was impossible since we did the Vatican in the morning. but our guide was a funny Roman lady who tried to find us shade to stop in to talk to us about what we were seeing. we walked around Imperial Rome, which is the ancient city, walking through the ruins that had been dug up of what the Romans of old saw every day. at the end we walked around the Colosseum and then our guide ran off without time to give her a tip. it was amazing and i was so glad i endured the heat for it. very well worth it indeed.

we formed our group of 9 who wanted to go back to the hotel and made our plan. we all got on the metro and rode up to the Spanish Steps, wanting to see it since it's supposed to be special, but when we got there and saw the steps we were all rather disappointed. they were just steps with a fountain in front. we took pictures and i decided i should climb up to at least the halfway point to make sure there wasn't something we were missing. there wasn't, so i went back down and we left. (had i walked up all the way i would have found a church to check out, but i counted 71 stairs and my legs were tired and i was only half way up, so i turned around and went back down so we could get on with it. oh well.)

we stopped at the pizzeria to get take-away and the gelateria to get something cold to help us make it the rest of the trip. some got gelato, some got an strawberry icy drink. then back on the metro to ride out to our bus stop. we found the bus stop with the bus we need to take to the hotel and wait 15 minutes for the bus to come. some of us were unsure if it was the right one, so we ask the driver. he says, "other side". so, we go to the other side to the other bus stop and wait another 15 minutes for another bus. we ask that driver and he, too, says, "other side". frustrated, tired, and hot, we all cross the street and wait at the original stop yet another 15 minutes for the final bus. i say to the group, "i'm getting on the bus, no matter what, and i'll figure it out later." and so, when the bus finally arrived, we all jump on and ride out of town, in the right direction, and finally get near the hotel. when the bus stops, Dave goes up to the front and asks the driver when we're supposed to get off to get to our hotel. this driver is actually helpful and says, "next stop." and so we all got off at the next stop and hurried to our hotel, all with high hopes of swimming.

we'd been told that there was a pool, but it closes at 6. it's now 5:30, so about four of us hurry into our suits and rush out there to jump in and cool off, only to find that they want four euros from hotel guests to go swimming for 20 minutes. what?! we were SO disappointed and irritated about that. after complaining a bit, we all dispersed to take cold showers and rest in our rooms. i couldn't believe it. all afternoon all we wanted to do was get back to the hotel, swim and relax by the pool doing nothing, but it took us nearly 2 hours to get homem and then we would have had to pay four euros to jump in the pool for only a few minutes. ridiculous.

a couple of hours later i went down to the bar to get a soda and sit with a couple of girls to just sit and chill. i took my book and read a little, but as time went by more people showed up and i ended up talking instead of reading. but while the three of us were sitting there drinking a soda a couple of Italian workers came in and talked with me in broken Italian and Spanish and then bought us all another soda. that was kinda cool. :-)

the next several hours were spent on the couch talking with our group and Eelco. he came in, i was nervous about us NOT meeting earlier, but once we came over and had the chance to actually talk to me personally, he said it was all ok and we talked just like normal the rest of the night. no alcohol and no affection.

Italy, part 2, Rome 1

2007-07-27T23:30:00.000-05:00

today we're off to Rome. early morning, lots of sunshine, about six hour's drive from Venice, lots of crops and sunflowers! most of the flowers were droopy, but occasionally you'd pass a field bright yellow with perky flowers just waiting for their picture to be taken, but unfortunately driving by at 100 kph i couldn't really capture them. but the moment i realized what those droopy fields were, i got SO excited ... i've always associated Italy with sunflowers, so this was the moment i was convinced i was in Italy.

we got to Rome and did a driving tour of the city ... it was short, but we saw a few of the most important things by bus. then we made a drop off and did a walking tour. we saw the Pantheon, Trevvi Fountain, and one of the main plazas. then we walked to a "ristotheatre" for dinner. this place was nice and we had it to ourselves. really cool bathrooms. we didn't actually witness the theater part of this restaurant, but the dinner part was really good ... starters of pasta salad and little ham & cheese sandwiches; main entree of chicken and bowtie pasta; and dessert of tiramasu and something sorta like flan maybe?

then we walked back to the coach and went to the hotel to finally check in. at some point during the day Eelco asked me to have a drink with him at the hotel, so after finding my room and dropping my stuff, i went down to the bar to join everyone for a social beverage. some of the girls didn't like the hotel and were feeling a bit disgusted by it, so they came down and had drinks too. for the record, this wasn't the nicest hotel we stayed in, but livable.

so we all had drinks and a pleasant time. Eelco was pretty much only interested in talking with me and it was quite obvious. so now is when others started noticing and giving me a "hard" time about it all. you know, teasing and such. it was fun though. eventually most everyone left to go out or went to bed, leaving Eelco and me with some privacy. we walked outside so he could check the coach and before coming back inside we hugged. during the hug he said to me, "if i'd had one more beer i would've kissed you." i don't remember what i said, but we walked back into the hotel and said goodnight with another hug and a kiss on the cheek.

we drunkily made plans to meet tomorrow at the Pantheon at 5 p.m., but now i'm not so sure about that idea now. i'm feeling a little awkward about it all. he's a really nice guy and i enjoy talking with him and sharing smiles on the coach, but ultimately he's our driver and i'm a client and i'm not so sure it's a wise idea. we'll see how i feel tomorrow.

Italy, part 1

2007-07-26T22:00:00.000-05:00

in the morning

we are officially in Italy! it's really warm and beautiful. there are green mountains/hills everywhere and an occasional river, lots of houses and castles and churches. it's wonderful. we just stopped for a rest and lunch ... i ate gnocchi for the first time ... very good and filling. a bit sticky and dry, but cheesy and tasty.

Italy has interesting door handles on the bathrooms and this service stop had toilets with a spring seat. you put it down and sit down quickly, when you stand it springs back up. spring or not, i was thankful, because Italy is not one to have seats at all, so we'll see what future bathrooms bring.

Italian is fun ... very animated. lots of orange tile roofs. and now there are no more mountains. lots of crops though ... grapes, corn, wheat, peaches, apples, and something green. we went through a toll booth and got stopped by immigration. the guard came on board the coach and looked at all our passports. it's a lot more "trashy" now, for lack of a better word ... lots of run-down buildings, businesses, trash piles, graffiti, and flat land. much different the more south we go, but still very cool.

in the evening

we're in Venice ... amazing, beautiful, and picturesque Venice. i was so excited to have arrived, finally, in a place i was so looking forward to. it's perfect and just like all the pictures and all that you've ever imagined. we boated in, then had a glass-blowing demonstration. for the first time i actually got to watch someone make an animal (in addition to a vase). it was very fast and probably wasn't perfect quality, but still really cool. then they showed us their shop and tried to sell us stuff.

at that point i left and went to St. Mark's Church (Basilica San Marco). long line, but it moved quickly. it's amazing, as usual, but overwhelming. too much to look at and remember. really amazing and full and had a tons of people to distract you from the important stuff. there were mosaics everywhere, including the floor. plus, the floor was warped from it being on top of water, so you had to watch your step.

after that i walked around the city and got lost. well, i walked around a section of the city and got lost. there was no way to see all the city in only a couple of hours. there were TONS of tourists and shopping to manuveur through, but the maze of narrow streets were cool to traverse. it was just so amazing and i loved it. i saw the Rialto Bridge, the Bridge of Sighs, ate gelato, and took lots of pictures.

met the group to walk to our gondola ride spot. carefully got in the boat with five other people and took off. two bottles of wine and 45 minutes later we got out and parted ways. but during the ride, it was quiet, peaceful, and slow. in a gondola you grasp what Venice used to be like before tourists took over. *L* but the driver didn't sing, so we were a little disappointed. i guess we should have slipped him some money and then maybe he would have.

a lot of the group went to the Venetian optional dinner, but i'd read it wasn't worth it so i parted from the group at that point and walked to see more city and eat dinner on my own. i just walked around feeling shocked that i was actually there. it sorta felt unreal, kinda like i was at Disneyworld and in a mock-Venice or something. i found pizza on the street and more gelati and just ate sitting on a bridge watching the people pass by. i don't know that the pizza was the BESt pizza i've eaten, as one might expect you would get in Italy, but it was really good. just a cheese pizza with a thin crust and no sauce, fold it up and eat it as you go. the cheese was really chewy and salty and greasy and good, i know that. :-)

eventually i made my way back to the meeting place and we all boated back to the bus and then drove to the hotel. our hotel is situated about 45 minutes away from Venice, which is why we went to town first. by the time we got back to the hotel it was nearly time to go to bed, which is what i did. it's really hot here in Italy, which is a welcome change from the last week (chilly and rainy), but it's exhausting.

Austria

2007-07-25T22:00:00.000-05:00

got up at 7:30 a.m. to drive to Austria. beautiful drive, again, most of which everyone else missed. me and my alert eyes saw tons of stuff and thoroughly enjoyed the mountains, river, lake, castles, trees, and crops.

first stop today is for most of the group to go white water rafting. i chose not to do this, so me and about 10 others waited at the end point. a nice little area, but not much to do so i went for a walk to the village nearby and found nice houses to take pictures of, a pretty church, a cemetery around the church, lots of flowers, and even a snail. i don't think i've ever seen a complete and moving snail before, so i was pretty excited. :-) beautiful shell, moving slowly on the sidewalk, rain pounding down on it. went back to the end point and ate a hot dog. by this time the rafters had returned and were eating lunch as well. then we all piled in the coach and drove to the Swarovski Crystal World.

this place is weird. can't really explain it, but a cool place. it's sorta like modern art made out of crystals, but not. there were 13 different rooms with stuff to watch, listen to, see, and smell. and of course, at the end, was a gift shop where you could buy a crystal vase for 4,500 euros.

since we're in Austria, as we drove down the rode we listened to "The Sound of Music" soundtrack. we were supposed to sing along and really get into it, but we have a dud group, unless they're drunk and partying, so it didn't work. only a couple of us sang along to "Do Re Mi' with Rachel. she was disappointed, but oh well.

we drove to a little ski village to hang out before we checked into the hotel. we were early and couldn't check in until after 6 p.m. and the hotel was in a location where there was nothing to do, so we went to this little village to shop and hang out for an hour.

went to hotel, which was a mountain chalet. beautiful and fun and ideallic Austrian. the river was nearby and a church was next door. otherwise there really wasn't anything to do or see. had dinner served to us at the hotel. soup, salad, chicken & rice, and red currant cake. all was good. Eelco, our bus driver, came over after dinner and talked to us (mostly me) for a while. actually he talked to me a lot today. i think he might like me. he's a nice guy, very funny and sociable, but a little dorky-looking. still, very nice and fun to talk with.

Munich

2007-07-24T22:00:00.000-05:00

got up at 6:30 this morning and had breakfast. bread, cereal, wet eggs, deli-style meat and cheese. after breakfast we went around the corner to the beerstein store and learned about how they're made and then had a chance to shop at their store, the cuckoo clock store, and the Birkenstock shoe store (all these stores were closed last night when we arrived).

the countryside is hilly and beautiful, along the river, and filled with lots of castles and churches quickly passing by. lots of grapes growing on the hillsides, as well as other crops.

arrived in Munich late this afternoon. checked into the Holiday Inn, got back on a bus and hour later, and went to the middle of town. saw the Glockenspiel, but it was all covered up in scaffolding. a very nice girl, Nancy, hitched herself to me. she wanted to shop for a dress and i wanted to walk around and see things. it was good that she was with me because she's quite insecure and probably wouldn't have seen much on her own, but for me it was a little annoying because literally every step i took she followed. but walked around on our own for the next five hours or so. saw couple of nice churches and somewhat scary church, ate some pizza, went to a giant store (like a mall, but just one store). after we were finished we went to the famous beerhall, Haufbrau Haus, where we picked up three other people and walked to the English Gardens in the dark, then took the subway home and went to bed.

Munich was a very nice city. quite modern looking and busy, but not as busy as other cities. still big enough to have plenty of choices and lots of cool stuff to see. overall five hours was enough for me here.

Rhine Valley, Germany

2007-07-23T22:00:00.000-05:00

we got on the coach at 12:45 in Amsterdam and started our journey to the Rhine Valley area of Germany to a little village called St. Goar. during the ride Rachel, our tour manager, talked to us about the optional excursions. she did a great job at selling the stuff, but i didn't give in on a couple of things.

a couple of hours later we stopped at a service area ... clean bathrooms, nice restaurant with fresh, buffet-style food (freshly prepared though), and a convenience store. the bathrooms here in europe you have to pay for though. sometimes you have to pay a certain amount and other times you just put down 20 cents or something. most times it was 50 cents or 1 euro. there was usually a person standing there with a tray to collect it, but other times, like in Amsterdam, you had to put your money in a machine that allowed you through a turnstyle. needless to say, most of us really monitored how much we drank in order to make sure we didn't have to go on the coach (which was frowned upon unless it was an emergency), or made sure we had money if we had to go at the services. basically, it's a sticky position to be in. especially for those who didn't have any euros yet.

anyways... once we got into Germany the scenery became really beautiful and fun to look at. there were mountains, the Rhine River below, castles everywhere, lots of green. it was fun and exciting and somewhat surprising to most of us that Germany was such a beautiful country. i think the whole Nazi thing put a negative spin on our ideas of Germany as a whole.

we arrived at our hotel in St. Goar about an hour before dinner. this little quaint and peaceful village (and the Rhine Valley area) is famous for beersteins, wine, teddy bears, cuckoo clocks, and Birkenstock shoes. we dropped our stuff in our hotel and then went for a walk around the village. had dinner in the hotel which was served to us as three courses. chicken broth with rice and carrots in the bottom. then an entree of a yellow spaghetti-like noodle, pork, and peas & carrots. then dessert was a chocolate cherry cake. it was all fairly good.

afterward we went for wine tasting in an actual undersground wine cellar. it was dark and a little chilly, but very cool. we got a shot glass (but bigger than a normal glass) as a suvenier and four wines to taste ... one red and three white. it went from dry to sweet to sweeter. all very good and tasty with some cheese and bread to nibble on as well. then at the end you could taste a wine called "ice wine" if you wanted. it was REALLY sweet and is meant to be drunk as a dessert and very cold. ours wasn't that cold and we only got a little taste cuz the wine is expensive to make and expensive to buy. but the evening as a whole was a lot of fun and after all that wine i was feeling pretty good, to be quite honest. :-)

we strolled around the village and by the lake, then went to bed. the room was nice, but on the fourth level with no "lift" (elevator). not a problem for me since i bought a special suitcase i could just strap to my back and take off, but those with huge wheely cases had a bit of a struggle.

Amsterdam

2007-07-22T13:18:00.000-05:00

July 22

we arrived at the hotel ... very nice place, far better than London. it's outside of town near the airport, has escalators and a diner, and buffet-style dinner for us. several different choices and good food for the most part. went to town and got on the boat for our canal cruise. learned earlier that Amsterdam has more canals than Venice and after seeing the map i believe it. our cruise included drinks and cheese, rock music, and funny guides who didn't really guide us so much as drive us. but it was really fun and relaxing and beautiful. Amsterdam really is a beautiful city, though the Red Light District gives it a bad rap. we didn't see much as it wasn't dark yet, but we did see the "coffeehouse" sign ... we were told the different between a coffeehouse and a cafe. a cafe is where you'd go to socialize over a cup of coffee and some nibblies. a coffeehouse, on the other hand, is a drug house. a place you go to legally buy drugs, smoke or shoot them up, and maybe do other things i would know nothing about.

lots of skinny houses ... they used to have to pay tax on the amount of space the house took up on the canal, so the Dutch got smart and built deep and tall instead of wide, so all the houses are skinny, but big. there are TONS of bikes. i mean, TONS. everyone has a bike. and they're all like "mary poppins" bikes ... just the old style and upright. everyone rides with straight backs. it's funny. there was actually a parking garage FULL of bikes ... amazing. in the chain of transportation here, cars and buses are first, then bikes, and then pedestrians. so if you're walking the street and a bike or a car is coming, they are VERY unlikely to stop for you. and we saw proof of that when waiting in like at Anne Frank's house. a girl seriously got hit by a bike. she was ok, but it scared her enough to stay on the sidewalk from now on.

speaking of which ... the next morning we got up and went to town at 8:30 a.m. and had our free time. a bunch of us went to see Anne Frank's house. got there and waited in line for 1.25 hours. the house/museum was interesting, humbling, and took a while to go through. there were snippits from her diary on walls throughout. you enter nextdoor and eventually end up in the house. we all took our time and enjoyed it, but a couple of times i almost started crying. hard not to in a place with such sad history.

afterward we walked around, got some lunch, and made our way back to our pickup spot by 12:45. not a whole lot of time to do other things like the Van Gogh museum, for example, but still it was nice to have time this morning to do things in town.

i really liked this city and would have liked to spend more time here, especially if sex and drugs weren't so prevalent.

tour beginnings

2007-07-21T22:14:00.000-05:00

July 21, 2007; 11:15 a.m.

on the tour now, crossing the English Channel on the ferry. before you get on the ferry you have to go through customs, so i got a french stamp. while on the ferry you have to get out of your car and go upstairs to one of three very nice levels. they have several food choices, including a breakfast buffet, bars, an arcade, slot machines, stores, and comfy chairs to lounge in. i can see the white cliffs of Dover ... they are nice, but not as spectacular as they make them out to be. it's raining and cloudy, of course. :-)

the tour so far is good. nice driver and guide. driver is Dutch, the guide is Welsh. our group consists mostly of Americans, but also Aussies, New Zealand, Britain, Brazil, Paraguay, and one girl who lives in the States but is from Iran. my roommate is a girl from Maryland. she's a bit odd, 25, and is supposedly a structural engineer. by talking to her you wouldn't believe it though. we saw the Dover Castle from the road. and from England, on a clear day, you can see France ... though it's cloudy, we could see a little of it.

2:20 p.m.
people are sleeping. i don't understand how you can drive through a new place, a beautiful place, and sleep all the way through it. but whatever. we're driving through Belgium on our way to Holland. it's quite flat, green, lots of trees, cows, brick houses, and when passing cities you can see lots of steeples. i wish we could stop.

no windmills yet, but we passed quickly by a huge field of colorful flowers. tulips, maybe? oh, McDonald's is everywhere, driving is 'normal', and there are tour buses all the time.

where do i begin?

2007-07-20T19:30:00.000-05:00

July 20

roommate came home after midnight and left at 6. i didn't meet her. i was sleeping, or at least trying to. it rained during the night and when i woke up it was nothing but clouds, rain, wind, and slightly cold. i thought, "oh, that figures, the day i plan to do a lot of walking!" oh well. me and my rain jacket went discovering anyways.

first stop, the Imperial Hotel to check in. for whatever reason i had to change hotels for one night. i knew this, but had forgotten until last night as i was walking home from dinner. dropped off my bag in my room and hit the Tube.

second stop, Horse Guard change. i was running late, or so i thought, and was frustrated with the lateness and the rain and the cold ... but then i looked ahead and saw horses coming down the street! wow, what great timing! it was so cool to have them right there beside me, walking down the same street, basically to myself. there were hardly any people around. they made their way to the building they guard (the name i can't remember right this minute) where they met up with the "red" guards who were already there and standing in place.

the black guards rode in and got in line opposite the red. then five black guards rode off thru the arch to the opposite side. i stood there for a while to see what would happen, but nothing. and then it started raining a bit more, so i decided to go into the arch and to the other side to check it out (or at least hide for cover). good thinking on my part, cuz i got a first-hand view of the actual changing of the horse guard, which everyone else missed because they were busy watching the rest of the horse guards stand out back. wow, talk about a site. i mean, these guards in their beautiful uniforms on these gorgeous, big, black horses, riding so astutely and taking their position so seriously, moving only on command, and the horses doing exactly what they were born to do (these particular horses i mean). it was simply amazing. really.

so there i was, taking pictures of the horse guard standing in his arch when two red guards and a guard on foot coming walking out of the side of the building. the two horse guards line up behind each black one while the man on foot walks through the main gate and into the street. at his one swift command, the two black guards walk out of the archway, turn into each other, and then face the gate side by side. as soon as they moved out, the red guards moved into their arches and stopped still. then, on the foot guard's command, the black guards walked through the main gate with the foot guard following behind and off to the right through a doorway. a bit later they all three rode out, met up with their troop out back, then the red guards rode off (going to Buckingham Palace) and the black guards went back into the back of the building. it was over. and i saw it. i was right in the middle when they changed. the one horse guard actually walked around me to get to his position. i could have touched the horse i was so close. and there were only about five people around who saw it. it was the coolest thing i think i've seen as far as royalty and ritual goes.

ok, enough of that...

then i went to Westminster Abbey to go to St. Margaret's Chapel (it's next to Westminster and is free, but i didn't do it the other day), but today there was a service when i got there so i couldn't go in. but i saw it from the front door and it looked pretty, just as so many other churches do. :-)

got on the Tube and rode toward Kensington Palace. when i got up to the street it was REALLY raining, so i pulled up my hood and took off walking, hoping i was going in the right direction. came across Kensington Gardens and walked through. rain stopped. took pics of the Palace. pretty, but nothing spectactular. red brick. square. the gates were actually prettier than the house itself. but still, it's famous, so.... walked on towards Notting Hill. just cuz. mostly cuz i enjoyed the movie so much and wanted to see if it looked like it did in the movie. but it didn't. *L*

got back on the Tube and rode towards Harrods. this is THE place to shop and THE place to spend the most money. it's amazing. for some reason the inside kinda reminded me of something you'd find in Vegas. not sure why, still processing that. but the stores themselves. they were all run together, kinda like all one store (well, i guess it kinda is ... HARRODS). the clerks are all dressed prim and proper in their suits, the merchandise is set up just so, the price tags are all printed with high numbers. *L* you can buy anything you need or want here. from the finest of wine from France, the best chocolate, the best suit, or a toothbrush. grapes were 5 pounds per kilo. the most expensive slab of meat i saw was 35 pounds per kilo and that was on sale! i bought two little pieces of chocolate (truffles) for 99 pence. they were delicious. :-)

got back on the Tube and rode to Waterloo, the train station. wanted to see if i could buy a ticket to the airport ahead of time for when i'm on my way home so i didn't waste more time that morning. but i couldn't figure it out and didn't want to stand in line at the person-to-person ticket sales. i'll just deal with it later i guess.

Tubed up to my internet hang out area and ate lunch/dinner at Pizza Hut (mom, is that a surprise? *L*). it's good and cheaper than regular places, and nearby, so why not? i got four slices of garlic bread, a personal pan pizza, dessert, and unliminted soda for 8.75 pounds. that's a pretty good deal, lemme tell ya.

checked my e-mail. then Tubed to the hotel for the tour meeting at 6. that took about 20 minutes of my time. i was early and sat at a table with four chairs and took out my book. i'm such a hermit. no one sat next to me. whatever. when that was over i went to the bank and changed my money to Euros. for whatever reason they changed it to Pounds first, then to Euros. i don't know if this was just the way it's done or if it's because of the kind of service they are ... but my $700 turned out to be only $430 euros. OUCH!

came back to the internet cafe to blog the rest of my London trip and to say bye for now. i don't know if i'll be back online before i get home or not, since i don't really know how this tour will work. so, if you don't see anything beyond this post, fear not, you will upon my arrival back to the States. ;-)

BTW ... the Prius cars are popular here. :-D

more hustle and bustle

2007-07-19T22:30:00.000-05:00

July 19

another very long day, as well as overwhelming. last night there was a party going on nextdoor to my room. VERY loud and VERY obnoxious and VERY rude, until about 11:30 when they all finally decided they better go to bed if they were gonna get up at 5 a.m. to leave for their tour. i didn't have a roommate last night, thankfully, so after the party quieted the place i actually slept pretty good.

got up and left the hotel about 9. joined the bus tour at the nearest stop to the hotel. the driver was a cute and flirty guy ... he gave me his number, in fact. :-) told me he got off at 5:30 and to give him a call, we could get a drink or something. (i didn't, but it was nice to be asked.) traffic was ridiculous, so it seemed we didn't get anywhere fast the entire day ... well, until i wanted us to go slow in order to get a picture, then we zoomed by at an incredibly fast speed (probably only 15 mph, but still!). i got off near St James Park and walked through to Buckingham Palace, my first stop of the day, to see the changing of the guard. i got there around 10:45, maybe. the change takes place at 11:30. all the spots in the middle of the gates were taken, of course, so i found an empty spot over to the right and parked my butt.

a little before 11 a.m. the horse guards made their way past the palace. very, very cool. big horses. all black. really something. then at 11:30 you could hear the band coming. couldn't see anything, cuz of all the people, but you could hear them. they made their way into the palace gates and stood way over to the side where i couldn't see anything. for a long time nothing happened. finally they all moved over to the right and changed the guard. there was a lot of standing around waiting. the entire process took over an hour. and turns out, the actual changing of the guard was the same as what i saw the day (or two?) before, just the color of the guard was different. first stood a "black" guard and he was replaced by a "red" guard (uniform color). the previous time i saw it by accident, a black replaced a black. basically it was all the same except for the addition of the reds, the band, and the horse guards ... oh, and a thousand more people.

all in all, it was cool to see, but...

got back on the bus and didn't get off for a long time. i actually rode the entire tour around and then got off at St Paul's Cathedral the second time around. during this ride i saw Tower Bridge. that is just as cool as the pictures i've seen. it's very big and very castle-like. St Paul's is beautiful. i got there at almost 5, just in time for the Evensong to start. i listened to the choir sing a Psalm or something. when they moved down front to do something else, i left. i was tired and i still needed to go back to Tower Bridge and get off to take pictures. but the church ... it's beautiful, just as any other church i've seen is. BUT, the difference is that THIS church is where a couple of special people got married (you might have heard of them, Charles and Dianna?). it's also where the "Feed the Birds" scene for Mary Poppins was filmed.

oh, speaking of which, also on the tour i saw the group of houses that the Banks family "lived" at in the same movie.

anyhoo .... after the cathedral i went back to Tower Bridge and took a ton of pictures. also saw London Tower, the only castle in London. it's cool, but doesn't look like much of a castle, honestly. more like a fortress. there used to be a moat, but they drained it years ago so now it's just a big grassy ditch around it. you can go in, but i didn't. i didn't have time to go into everything!

rode the bus a long time more in order to get to the closest stop to the hotel as possible w/o having to buy a Tube ticket for the day (which i succeeded in). walked a ways and found a restaurant to have fish and chips in. served with green peas of all things. it was all good, but cost me 11.50 pounds, approx.

now i'm at home and planning tomorrow. i have a roommate, but she hasn't emerged yet. she's from australia, yes, another one. seems everyone is from australia. not true, but seems like it.

wow!

2007-07-18T20:25:00.000-05:00

ok, i may have gotten a late start today, but i still had a completely full day.

i made my way down to the river area to ride the London Eye. well, me and my directions i took the "scenic" route from the Tube station to the Eye itself. *rolls eyes* found it and found the line ... very long, but quite efficient. i don't know how long i waited and walked around like a snake, but it didn't seem as long as it probably was. the things you ride in are like giant pods or something. they're big and you can walk around or sit down in the middle on a bench. there were probably 15 or 20 of us in this thing and off it goes. very slowly. all around in a circle like a ferris wheel.

it wasn't worth it at all. it was cool and everything, yes, but i couldn't see as much as i thought i would. the best thing you could see was Big Ben and the Houses of Parliament. otherwise it all looked the same, small and crammed together. i was slightly disappointed, but whatever. it cost me 15 pounds, so over $30 ... a bit of a waste, honestly, but so be it.

once i was done there i went to a chinese buffet restaurant and had lunch. it was ok. that plus a bottle of water cost me 8 pounds and some change. that wasn't worth the money either, but it filled me up for the rest of the day.

then i started walking. i went to Westminster Abbey, paid 10 pounds to get in, and toured around on my own. they have audio tours, but they weren't working today or something. anyways, the only word that can some up this place is "WOW". it really is amazing and words can't even begin to describe it. i was in there for a long time walking around amazed at the beauty, detail, and royalness of it all. it really was quite something. only problem is that they don't allow you to take pictures inside, so i had to buy a couple of postcards in order to remember the inside.

then i started walking ... i found the Guards Museum, St James Park, and eventually i found Buckingham Palace. yes, it's as big and wonderful as you would imagine a palace being. outside were four guards, two each at two different stations in front of the palace. every couple of minutes they changed the position of their guns. and then, as if i had actually planned it, they changed guards. now, seeing as how i've never seen the actual "changing of the guard", i doubt it was the thing that happens at 11 a.m. every day, but still, it WAS a change and it WAS quite official. my opinion ... they march weird. but they stand there all day and don't even scratch their noses, so you have to respect them even if they crawled. *L* i got video of it, but the video filled up my memory card ... luckily i have two cards.

then i walked to the nearest Tube station, which was still quite a hike, and rode almost home. i stopped off to blog and get breakfast for in the morning. now i'm going to go back to the hotel and rest. my feet and legs are VERY tired. and i need to focus on my day tomorrow. the plan is to ride the bus all around the city and hopefully see the official changing on the guard at 11 a.m. but i have to plan it all out carefully or else i'll mess up and miss it completely.

anyways...

this is a pretty cool place, but oh my, i can't imagine living here. it's so busy and bustling all the time. i guess i wouldn't make it in NYC either then. well, ya never know. :-)

London, day two

2007-07-18T12:23:00.000-05:00

i'm taking it easy today thus far ... haven't done or seen anything and it's after 12 noon. i know, to some that sounds lazy, but to me it sounds ... well, lazy. *L* but i'm tired.

last night i got back to my hotel about 10:30. found my roommate (awake, thankfully). we talked for a bit while i got ready for bed. she left this morning on her tour. she got up at 5. oh my.

anyways, between the temperature of the room (hot and humid), her breathing, her getting up bloody early, and a new bed, new pillow, new sounds, etc., i didn't sleep well. which is partly why i'm being lazy today.

i'm about to go to the London Eye and "take my flight". it's a bit cloudy today, but hopefully i'll be able to see things and take some cool pictures. if not, it's ok i guess, cuz tomorrow holds "The Original Bus Tour" around the city for me and my camera, in which i'll be taking LOTS of pictures and seeing LOTS of things and hopping on and off all day long.

London, oh my!

2007-07-17T06:19:00.000-05:00

July 17; 5:20 p.m.

got up this morning and journeyed to London. Susanne went with me to Zug where i then left her, changed trains, went to Zurich, changed trains, and finally flew to London. once in the London airport i had to find the train to Victoria Station. i'd already paid for my ticket, so i went and found the train, got on, and was sitting there thinking about how lovely i'd done when the ticket guy came around. i showed him my ticket and he says, "oh, but this isn't the Gatwick Express."

*sigh*

he let it go though ... i nice older "bloke" who was understanding and didn't bother collecting more money from me. i was quite embarrassed and just couldn't figure out how i'd messed that up. i looked at the signs numerous times to make sure i was getting on the right one, but no, i screwed it up.

got off the train and realized you had to pass your ticket through the turnstile ... well, that posed a problem with the guy manning it, since i had the wrong ticket. he let me know that he wasn't happy with me, but let me pass anyways saying, "don't get on the wrong train again, it's very bad!" i passed through and went to tackle the next thing with hopeful confidence.

found the Tube station, bought a day-pass, found the right train, found my hotel, checked in, went to my room, found my roommate's bag there (a girl from Australia), dropped off my stuff and headed out.

eventually decided on food. it's hard, cuz there are TONS of choices. and people here move SO fast and SO with a purpose ... i feel so stupid just stopping to take a picture of something that they pass by 100s of times w/o noticing. anyways, i ate dinner at a place called "Hamburger Union". i was needing some meat and potatoes. *L* they had a cute little place with wood seats (no backs) and Beatles music blaring. it was quite lovely, actually. somehow seemed British enough for my first day. i paid 10 pounds, which is over $20, for a burger, fries (chips), and a soda. OUCH!

traffic is insane ... besides the fact you have to look the opposite way you normally would, there are cars, buses, motorcycles, bicycles, etc. moving constantly. it's just crazy.

after dinner i walked. and walked. and walked some more. i found Big Ben, the Houses of Parliament, and Westminster Abbey, all by accident! i was so excited when i saw it all, i just couldn't believe it. there it was, in person, bigger than i'd ever thought it would be. so very cool. along the way i saw so many building looking so "British" and royal. i even saw an official guard! there he was, dressed in his red uniform and black hat. he was a short man and moved his head around to look at the people standing around taking pictures of him, but he never said anything. he just stood there trying to be official. *L* this one asian guy actually stood next to him and took a picture of the both of them together. it was quite funny, but i'm sure those guys think all day long, "these idiot tourists" or something of the sort.

found the London Eye (the big ferris wheel thing) and bought a ticket for tomorrow. then i strolled along some more gazing at Big Ben and the Houses of Parliament with such awe. that's a HUGE building and very royal looking. it's really beautiful.

finally i decided i needed to head towards the hotel. the sun was setting and i was getting tired of walking. i Tubed back toward where i'd had dinner, cuz i saw a sign for cheap internet cafe. found it really easily, used it for an hour or so (only cost me a little over a pound) to blog about Switzerland, then went back to the hotel.

the streets are so much easier to manage at night time ... so many less people and traffic, only problem is you miss out on the seeing part of your walk! :-)

Switzerland, the end

2007-07-16T16:27:00.000-05:00

wow, what a day! we travelled for 14 hours today. left at 8:15 a.m., by train, to Interlaken. actually we had to change trains several times. once there we walked very quickly around a small portion of town looking for a store to buy bread for our picnic lunch later.

then we took a train to Lauterbrunnen, up into the mountains. very, VERY beautiful. similar to Colorado, but better. yes, i guess those were the Alps. we didn't go to the very top, but close enough. once to our destination we sat in the grass and ate our picnic lunch.

a couple of hours later we were at a small village not in the mountains anymore called Brienz. here we viewed another beautiful lake over dinner in a pizzeria. it was good pizza and of course the view couldn't be beat. it was kinda scary/funny though, cuz while we were sitting there the wind was blowing pretty hard and at one point the awning above got blown into the sign letters on the side of the building and broke them above my head. so, while susanne was in the bathroom, i was sitting there getting pelted by plastic. when i realized what was happening i jumped up and moved to a safer location and the waiter and manager came running out to see what was going on. susanne showed up and we sat down again, but i was a bit worried whenever the wind came blowing again. but the awning was lodged into a hole, so i guess we were safe enough. still, dinner was really nice.

afterward we trained home and went to bed. it was a long day of beauty and i'm so glad i decided to come here for a few days before the tour.

a journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step*

2007-07-15T16:21:00.000-05:00

today has been a relaxing day. slept in late (till 9), ate breakfast, and sat on the terrace talking and looking at pictures for 4.5 hours. susanne made lunch (chicken and pasta), we ate it, then i tried helping her with her internet issues. small problem though ... the computer and the instructions are all in german, so i couldn't help. i probably could have with another hour and a computer literate translator, but susanne was frustrated and gave up 10 minutes after i started trying. she decided we should go to the lake instead. so we did.

we laid out sweating in the hot sun and then went and jumped in the lake. the first time i chickened out because it was COLD. but the second time i decided i couldn't stand the heat anymore and had to. it was cold, but refreshing. afterward we bought an ice cream and moved to the shade.

we are getting ready to go out now. i don't know what "out" will consist of.

10:30 p.m.

the "out" part wasn't so bad. we went to Zug (the nearest large city), walked along the lake a bit (same lake as in Cham), then went to the terrace of a bar overlooking the lake and had a drink and talked. after the sun set (nearly 10 p.m.), we walked around the corner to see some old buildings and a tower (very cool) and then came home.

BTW, the greeting here for good friends (females or opposite sex) is three kisses on the cheek. guys just shake hands. two is bad enough, three just seems like a lot of work. *L*

*quote by Confucious

adventure is worthwhile*

2007-07-14T14:36:00.000-05:00

we went horseback riding this morning, but it was kinda scary. got up at 7:30 a.m., took a shower, put new clothes on, and went a different direction than normal. took the bus a very short distance to the farm. walked through the field and up to the stables. poop was everywhere and the horses were nipping because they wanted food (i later found out the owner feeds them apples, by hand, a lot). i was a little leary of their faces coming at me. and it seemed they didn't want me to pet them. then we went around to get the harnesses and lead ropes. susanne hands me one and points a horse saying, "this one's yours" as if i know exactly what to do and feel comfortable doing it. i was like, "um, yeah, i don't know what i'm doing. my dad always did it for me and i'm not too sure about doing it myself." so she did it for me.

then we start walking outside. i've got two horses, one on either side of me, and i'm following her and her horse, walking in poop with my nice clean sneakers. and THEN, my horse steps on my foot!!! i was freaked. it didn't hurt so much as just scare me, but still! we get outside and all they want to do is eat the grass. and they don't mind at all. they are just spastic and she's ok with all this. i'm not. we groom them (before? weird), get them saddled up, and then she finds out another girl is coming to ride the horse we've saddled for me. so we have to change out the horses. UGH!

so while i'm holding both horses at some point, i get in the middle and both have minds of their own, both wanting to eat grass, but in different locations. they were small horses, but horses nonetheless. i was so afraid one was just gonna buck up and say to heck with me and take off. but they didn't.

finally we get on and start riding. i'm pretty much scared and tell her, but she just laughs at me and says it's ok. we get to this one part and my horse decides to go right instead of straight. um, excuse me? i tried, but the horse wouldn't budge. susanne had to get off her horse, grab mine by the bit, and lead both our horses to the end of the road where we turned left. then my horse was ok. go figure.

we trotted a bit, but i was freaked. i had no idea how the horse was trained, so i just felt like the horse was the only one in control.

the area where we rode was nice and peaceful though. in and around corn fields. one part was through a forested area, but the highway was on one side of us so it was loud with traffic. but overall it was nice. thankfully we ended much earlier than she had originally planned.

all of this horse stuff made me miss my dad. and helped me realize just how good he was with the all the horse stuff ... he trained the horses we rode really well. he helped me feel calm and in control. i would have felt a lot better about these horses if he'd been there, i know that. when i think about it, i want to cry, but i hold back my tears for some reason.

after a full afternoon...

susanne cooked salmon and rice for lunch. it was good. we ate and a bit later she left ... she had a thing to go to that she'd had planned for a while now. i was happy to have some free time to explore on my own, walking slowly and absorbing life here.

i walked to the village. i found a church and went in. it's Catholic and beautiful, but completely empty of people. strange compared to guatemala. there were chandeliers, murals on the ceiling, and blue paint decoration, so it didn't seem so "gold" in there like it usually does. on my way out a couple spotted me and stared like i had no business coming out of the church. either that was true or seeing people coming out of the church truly is an oddity. either way it's sad.

i found the grocery store susanne normally shops at and bought an apple and a Coke. i went to buy it and the girl says something to me in german. i look lost so she says "moment" and leaves. she comes back with a sticker on the apple. when i saw the sticker i realized i'd forgotten to weight it and print the payment sticker. i'd seen susanne do it when we went to the store together, but i spaced it completely. oh well.

found my way to the lake and sat on a park bench reading my book for a couple of hours. wandered into a store at the bus station to look at maps and left with an ice cream bar. went home. took a shower. watched "Mr. and Mrs. Smith".

*quote by Amelia Earhart

Switzerland

2007-07-13T22:00:00.000-05:00

July 13; 5:30 p.m.

it has been quite a day here. got up at almost 8 a.m., packed our day bags, and took off for Lucern at 8:45. one there we got on a ferry boat to take us to Mt. Rigi (or Rigi-Kulm, don't actually know which is right). from the base of that we took a train to take us to the top, but at the next to last stop Susanne decides we'll get off and hike up the rest of the way. it was hard and i wasn't thrilled about it, but it was fun and i managed. after a while up at the top, we hiked down to a particular stop where there was a cable car that took you the rest of the way down.

from the lake we got on a boat and went across the lake to another mountain. this one i can't remember the name of. but from there we took the incline up to the top. we walked around a while and found a nice place to eat our picnic lunch.

after a bunch of pictures and eating and walking, we inclined down, ferried across, trained home, and now i'm writing and susanne is going to the lake. i am too tired and hot and sunburned enough to go.

Lake Lucerne ... wow! i thought Lake Atitlan was the most beautiful lake i'd see, but that's because i hadn't seen Lucern yet! clear, smooth, green mountains all around, and in the distances snow-peaked mountains. truly beautiful. and we have had a really nice day, clear skies, sunshine, and warm. i'd say about 85 or 90 probably.

despite my cramps, sore muscles, and sunburn, it was a very nice day and well worth it. thankfully while we were in the cable car the bag delivery guy called and susanne convinced him to leave my bag on the terrace. so now i have all my stuff and am feeling MUCH better about life here.

mode of transportation is mostly train. there is a good bus system, and lots of cars being driven, but most everyone rides their bike or takes the train (or both). everything is SO green. and lots of flowers in the flower boxes outside people's balconies. cowbells cheered us up the mountain today at Lake Lucerne. and i mean actual bells on the actual cows ... it was very cool and very Swiss. when there is a place to shop, there are tons of places to shop. turns a street into a mall, literally, with food courts (lots of tables outside restaurants) and smoking, and maybe an occassional car or three. the air is dry. it's fairly quiet; plenty of opportunity to hear the birds amongst the children playing, train (no obnoxious horns), and cars. lots of German, and i don't have a clue what they's saying. at least in Guatemala i knew when they were saying "please" and "thank you", but here i'm totally lost. it's all so foreign, so throaty, so many consonants and syllables. *L*

it's very clean here, but there's lots of graffiti. driving is "normal". and it seems the way of living is in apartments. apparently houses are very expensive and the land isn't for sale ... it's for agriculture. so when there is a town, apartment buildings are crammed together everywhere.

Susanne lives in Cham (pronounced Hom, like Hominy, not Home). it's a nice little village place with a lake. it takes about 10 minutes, maybe, to walk from her "flat" to the lake. if you want to go to the grassy part where people lay out or play or swim it would take another 5 minutes or so of walking. it's a very pretty lake. that's where we went yesterday for a stroll and where she is now.

after dinner

dinner was leftovers from last night. it's now 10 p.m. and i'm tired. susanne is on the phone with her boyfriend and i'm in the living room writing in the almost dark. it's nearly dark outside now, but kids are still outside playing. sidenote: vegetable waste goes in a green bucket outside the kitchen on the window ledge. it's a small bucket. when it's full it goes in a special trash can out by where the trash gets picked up.

european discovery ... day 1

2007-07-12T21:30:00.000-05:00

4:45 p.m.; in route to London

here are my complaints thus far ... i don't want to complain, but by stating the facts i will sound like i'm complaining, so i'll just say that i am. 1) because of London's airport issues, i had to check my bag afterall. 2) i've been seated next to a small child who likes making noise for no reason. 3) we left late. 4) my headset for the TV doesn't work right and therefore i can't really hear the sound. 5) i'm tired. 6) i still have over 7 hours. 7) it's cold and bouncy.

8:00 a.m.; in London, waiting for plane to Zurich

the flight wasn't so bad ... they had good movies to watch (i decided to switch headphones to see if it would make a difference and it did, so i used mine the rest of the flight instead of theirs). of course i didn't sleep at all and now i'm working on being awake when i should be sleeping. it's cloudy and raining in London, so i can't see anything beyond the airport, even in the air. the cars are squatty and the drivers are on the "wrong side" of the car and the road. *L* the airport is like a mall ... tons of shopping. a young woman actually said "wicked" to her kid on the phone.

Switzerland

my bag didn't come!!! ARGH! found susanne, walked a bit in Zurich, went to the grocery store, went to her apartment, sat for a while, fixed dinner, ate, went for awalk at the lake, watched a movie, and went to bed.

we carried our groceries from the store (a normal grocery store, slightly smaller than US ones) to the train station, then from the station to the house. wasn't far, but still quite an effort if we'd bought a lot. dinner was rice, potatoes, zucchini, eggplant, red peppers, and chicken in a curry-coconut sauce. susanne cooked it and it was pretty good. we watched "love actually". sleeping was comfy, a mattress with a down comforter and pillow in the living room, but terperature was hold and cold, off and on, all night. it was still daylight at 9:30 p.m.!

garage sale language blunder

2007-06-30T21:03:00.001-05:00

i don't know if i can relay this in writing as funny as it was in person, but i'm gonna try...

a lot of our customers on Friday were Hispanic, stopping by with their children, droves of families who didn't know each other, all looking for a great deal. i was attempting to help an older lady and her family while using the selling method better known as bartering. as i quoted prices in Spanish, my grandma sitting nearby would ask me in English, "how much, Jenny?"

after three or four times of her asking me that and me repeating the same answer, i FINALLY realized i was talking to my grandma IN SPANISH and the reason she kept asking me was because she didn't know what i was saying!

once i got it, i apologized, "oh, Grandma, i mean FIFTEEN!" and laughed for a while. i thought it was hilarious that i was in Spanish mode and didn't even realize it. i guess that's what happens when you get focused on trying to sell a bookshelf! *LOL* :-)

garage sale

2007-06-28T13:45:00.000-05:00

i've never had a garage sale before. i've never put one on and i've never even gone to one to shop. but yet i've found myself sitting with my grandma trying to sell our "junk" to the neighbors. we've marked everything, set it all up on tables, and got it ready to sell. now we just have to wait for passersby.

it's hard work though ... i never knew that. it takes time to go through every little thing, clean it up a little, and then think ... i wonder what i should try to sell this for? a dollar? five dollars?

it takes time and energy, both of which i've exerted quite a bit. but i've learned a lot so far in case i decide to do it again one day. i usually just give my stuff to Goodwill or some place, but i guess i should try to sell it more often ... people really will buy just about anything.

crystal clear

2007-06-16T20:26:00.000-05:00

i want to be crystal clear about something... it might seem random, which it is, but i don't need to explain why. i simply want to share my heart to clarify my experience with Sonic.

though i'm not Sonic management material, in no way have i shared my heart through my work experience in order to "bash" the business. Sonic has been very good to my family for many, many years, and i never intended to imply anything bad about Sonic as a whole.

today's life brings challenges in the business world. every place is run however it can succeed. and every Sonic store is run different. as i've said before, maybe another store would make a difference, but there are no guarantees. today brings teenagers who use every cuss word in one sentence. it brings five different problems to fix in one hour. it brings stresses of a volume that's just too much for me. these are things that just weren't good for my heart. i'm not made to take all of that in for 10 hours a day and go home happy. it wasn't a relfection on my cousin and his store. it was simply the work and what it took to stay in business and succeed.

the particular store i was in is great. the busiest in Texas, i think. they cook the food properly and serve it quickly. they're kind to the customers. and the managers always handle issues correctly. everything business there is proper and i was proud to be involved with them.

as i've said before, the work just wasn't for me. it's a lot of work and a lot of stress and i just feel i'm not cut out for it. but if i were, Sonic is where i'd want to work.

that is my heart. it always has been and always will. i encourage all ten people who will read my blog to go eat at your nearby Sonic today. order tots with cheese for me. it will always be my favorite.

Europe

2007-06-13T16:29:00.000-05:00

yes, i'm still going to Europe. i've finally made a decision and booked it. here's what it's gonna look like...

July 11 - fly to Zurich, Switzerland, and spend the next 5 days with Susanne, the friend i made in Guatemala. the plan is to recover from jet lag and see as much of Susanne's world as possible.

July 17 - fly to London, spend three days on my own, enjoying my space, mastering the Tube, seeing all the wonderful sights.

July 20 - join the tour group on a bus and head across the channel to see ... France, Belgium, Netherlands, Germany, Austria, Switzerland, and Italy.

August 1 - make my way from Paris to London, get on a plane and fly home.

August 2-6 - recover from jet lag

August 7 - look for a job

oh, i guess i can stop the timeline now... :-)

anyways, i'm very excited, though nervous about traveling somewhat on my own in countries i've never been to. but i know i'm going to see so many things i've wanted to see for SO LONG, that it'll be well worth it all. now i just have to figure out what to pack!

movies

2007-06-11T16:17:00.000-05:00

i don't remember if 8 years ago when i moved to Colorado i was SHOCKED when i went to the movies for the first time. shocked over what? over the prices of admission! i don't remember, so i can only assume that the prices weren't too much more than my hometown theater of three screens, or even the College Station Cinemark theater.

when i left Colorado (only a few months ago, mind you), prices for a matinée admission was $5.50. i've always been a firm believer in attending the movies during the middle of the afternoon anyways, so that's the only price i really care about. at Brenham's theater, now renovated and containing six screens, i paid $4.50 for the matinée last weekend.

what's my point? well, in Houston, the two times i went to the theater, i had to pay ... drumroll please ... ... .... $7.00 for matinées ($9 for showings after 6)!!! for a lover of the theater, i was willing to pay the $7 twice for the time i lived there ... but on an ongoing basis? i think not.

i guess, for curiosity sake, i should find a theater in New York City and see how much they have to pay. i know i'd be grateful for the Houston price. but still! big cities have their luxuries, but i'd much prefer the small town prices.

chinese buffet update

2007-06-10T16:05:00.000-05:00

my first chinese experience was really back in the day in my hometown. my oldest friend, Dawn, and i would go once a week or so to the buffet here in Brenham. they were never really busy, but they're still in business. the food was always decent and enough to fill us up.

so, i thought it fitting that my next chinese buffet attempt be at the original location. last weekend i had Saturday to myself, so i decided to do things that i would enjoy and that my mom wouldn't be jealous of. i had chinese buffet for lunch and went to the movies and saw Ocean's Thirteen (she doesn't like either).

when i walked in, i was pleased to see more people than i'd ever seen before. i was greeted with a smile, ordered my Mountain Dew, and made my way over to the buffet. my first surprise were the donuts WITH sugar. my second surprise was chicken on a stick. and my third surprise was steamed rice. (please revert back to the previous buffet post to see the difference.) these things seem small, but believe me ... it makes a huge difference in an appetizing meal.

everything was going fine until i got over to the beef with broccoli ... there was no broccoli! instead, there were green peppers and onions. very odd. the chicken with broccoli had broccoli, but also contained shrimp. again, odd. ah, but what's over there? BBQ chicken pieces. yum! that's new to my palette at a chinese place, so i tried it, and of course, being the BBQ lover that i am, enjoyed it. there was also the normal looking sweet and sour chicken and lo mein noodles. so all in all, i enjoyed my experience.

i wouldn't say that it was wonderful enough to go back to on a weekly basis, like the places in Colorado i became spoiled by. but, maybe once a month or so for a chinese fix wouldn't be so bad. at least they had food i recognized. and ... at least they had donuts with sugar! :-)

what am i doing?

2007-06-04T16:21:00.000-05:00

for the next month i am working out (with the goal of losing weight), tanning (cuz i feel better about myself if i'm tanner and skinnier), and helping my mom get her house in more in order. then, in July, my plan is to go to Europe on a tour for 18-35 year olds. it will cover Spain, France, Belgium, Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Italy, and the lovely city of London. the friend i made in Guatemala lives in Switzerland, so i'll see her and maybe travel with her for a little bit as well.

after that ... i will get a job, of course. don't know what i will find a job doing, but i will find one. i also don't know the location of that job search right now, but hopefully in August i will have it figured out.

until then, it's all about diet and exercise for me. i am feeling way icky about my body right now and will not go to Europe with strangers feeling the way i'm feeling about looking the way i'm looking. it's just important to me to travel while feeling good about myself.

i tried

2007-05-21T19:43:00.001-05:00

i've made a somewhat disappointing decision. i say that because i really wanted this to work. i really wanted to succeed. but i've come to the conclusion that i'm not Sonic material. i can do the work, but my heart doesn't find any pleasure in it.

i really wanted this to be THE thing for me. so i'm disappointed that since my first day i haven't been happy. i've been working 50+ hours on my feet for eight weeks (only?) and all i've experienced is stress, frustration, problems, anger, cussing, and overall badness of every kind, on a daily basis, which in turn has taken its toll on my heart.

thankfully everyone has been supportive and understanding. my cousin has been very kind in all of it, understanding fully how i feel, and yet proud of me for giving it a chance. he's even said that the door remains open, if after some time i decide i want to try again under different circumstances. timing, is of course everything. as is location. and maybe the volume of the store i've been in has an impact on me. and maybe so does the timing of my moving to Texas, my father's death, etc. right now, i don't foresee it, but you never know.

but as we all knew from the beginning, i would have never known unless i tried. and, well, i tried.

and now i will try something else.

chinese buffet

2007-05-19T19:30:00.000-05:00

there are three types of people... 1) prefers chinese off the menu, 2) prefers chinese buffet, 3) prefers a different food genre. when it comes to chinese food, i am #2. at least i used to be #2. but now that i'm in texas where it is seemingly impossible to find a good chinese buffet restaurant, i may become #1.

i didn't realize how lucky i was to have such a good chinese buffet restaurant within a 10-minute drive in Colorado. since moving back to Texas, i've been to two different restaurants in hopes of finding at least one similar food item on the buffet, but to my surprise, and disappointment, i have only found odd things that only barely taste good.

allow me to offer examples...

strangely large sweet and sour chicken. no steamed rice. chicken and broccoli without an ounce of soy sauce. very skinny lo mein noodles. and the worst of all ... donuts without sugar.

i keep thinking if i am determined enough, i will eventually find a place worthy of my business. until then, i encourage YOU to visit your favorite buffet and enjoy it while you've got it.

new responsibilities

2007-05-09T09:53:00.000-05:00

i've mastered the ice cream machine. i know how to make all the drinks. i can carhop. and i've nearly mastered taking orders on the board (computer). i'm starting to "boss" the others around a little more each day, trying to show some leadership. i've learned how to do all the money stuff at the beginning, middle, and end of every day.

and most recently i've started learning payroll and inventory. i guess tomorrow or next week i'll start doing the inventory myself. it's basically just counting what we have, but some things, if it's half a box, is considered zero, but other things it's considered one. so i have to learn our patterns and needs. it'll take me two hours to do what someone else takes 30 minutes. but that's just part of the learning process. i'll get faster the more i do it.

but, i still haven't worked in the kitchen more than just the back grill on Tuesday night (lots of burgers that night cuz it's half price burger night).

so, before i can move up much further, i have to get in that kitchen and cook everything. it's a scary thought, cuz it's so much and so fast and ... eek!

still not completely sure if this is exactly for me, but i'm still working as if this is the only option i have. for a week it's been working. i'm doing the best i can every day and trying to learn something each day. i'm trying.

it's been a month?

2007-05-04T21:33:00.000-05:00

wow, time flies. i realized a couple of days ago that i hadn't blogged in a while, so i came to my site to see what it even looked like and saw that it had been almost a month since my last entry. then, this afternoon, i received a comment from a friend saying she hadn't heard from me via my blog in a while and wanted to encourage me to pick it up again. and so....

i've been busy. let's see ... after the week of my dad dying, i went to colorado to pack up my house and say goodbye to all my friends. that was another tiring week, but successful. my uncle drove all my stuff down here for me, i flew home, and we put it all in a storage unit. the next day i went back to work.

and since i've been back to work i haven't been the happiest camper in the world. but, i've had a slight change of heart and am working on having a new attitude ... you know, be happy with what i have, give it my all, one day at a time, work at it like i don't have any other choices, etc. It's only been two days, but so far it's working. *L*

another change in my life is that my mom is buying a house in town and selling her house/property out in the country. so now when i go visit i'll be IN Brenham again. it'll be strange in the beginning, but so much more convenient for all involved. but it'll be a good change for my mom once she gets settled in.

i decided a couple of days ago to make a list of all the changes/trauma/confusion that's been a part of my life over the last year. i was quite surprised. no wonder my heart is tired and hurting when i actually bother to look at it. i won't bother you with my confusion, but take my word for it ... the last year has been quite a montage of chaos. if it's not physical, it's mental. and if it's not mental, it's ... well, everything else.

*phew*

anyways ... be happy for what you DO have, instead of being upset about the things you don't have YET. and ... it's too early to quit. those two sentences are what i'm hanging on to with everything i have right now. that and the promises that God loves me and is taking care of me. those are the things keeping me going. otherwise, i'd be on a plane to Europe right now, with no job, no house, and no idea of what to do next (which, depending on my mood, isn't such a bad idea).

keeping hanging in there with me. and thanks for checking in.

until next time...

well...

2007-04-06T22:54:00.000-05:00

it's been another difficult week....

friday, March 30, my mom called when i was getting ready for work to say she was on her way back to the hospital. my dad couldn't get out of bed because he was too weak, so the ambulance came out and took him to the hospital. they admitted him into ICU with 100% oxygen. his level was down into the 70s (normal is in the 90s) and even with 100% oxygen his level wouldn't get out of the 80s.

the following morning the hospital called my mom and said he was dying, so she hurried into the car and drove up there. she called me on her way, so instead of going to work, i called in, packed up some stuff, and headed to the hospital. about an hour later she called me saying he'd passed away. she'd missed him by about three minutes.

so the next 5 days was spent with family. monday we planned the funeral. tuesday was the visitation and wednesday was the service. a lot of people came to the visitation ... it was so nice to be supported by so many people ... it really encouraged my mom and me to know that so many people cared for my dad. there were also quite a lot of people at the funeral. we had our church pastor do the message, our favorite pianist play, and our favorite singer end the service with a really good song. everyone that attended seemed to be touched by the words and music of the service. and at the cemetery the masons performed the graveside service. all in all, it was very nice, though difficult.

my mom and i are very blessed to have our family and each other. we've been very supported, whether through cards, food, flowers, visits, or prayers. it's been even more encouraging to know that my dad is in Heaven.

it's been a very long week. and another one is coming. Sunday i fly to Colorado to pack up my house. the following Friday i will load it all into a truck, then fly back to Texas on Saturday. (my uncle has graciously offered to drive the truck from CO to TX for me.) probably on Sunday i'll unload everything from the truck into a storage unit, and then Monday i'll go back to work. PHEW!

so i guess that's about it for now. until later...

sale pending

2007-03-26T19:17:00.000-05:00

my house is in the process of being sold! :-) the closing is May 2, so i'm thinking of returning to Colorado the week of April 9 to pack up my stuff and say "see ya later" to friends and mountains.

i continue to work really hard at Sonic. the hours on my feet are still very tiring and painful, but i'm getting more used to it as each hour passes. the girls are warming up to me, for the most part, and most of us are getting along a lot better now, but the work is still enormously busy, hectic, and somewhat stressful on a continual basis. i've mostly been working in the front doing drinks and ice cream, but one night last week i worked in the kitchen, and i've been training a couple of girls in the front. that's helped speed the last week up a bit ... i need changes in my job like that.

otherwise, things are good. :-)

change

2007-03-20T22:00:00.000-05:00

i worked a full week in the front ... i made drinks, smoothies, shakes, sundaes, cones, blasts, slushes, and scooped a truck full of ice. i was thrilled to have a day off. it was nice to not have to stand up for 8+ hours on Sunday. :-)

but monday brought another full day of work, but with talk of moving to the kitchen. i was happy to talk about it and consider it, but scared to commit to it. but today i had no choice. i was delegated. :-)

so for two hours i worked in the kitchen doing a little of everything. it was slow enough that i was able to dress a burger and learn what goes on a chicken strip wrap w/o feeling pressure to perform under 10 seconds. but around 4:00 or so i got put on the grill to cook meat. Tuesdays are half-price burger night, so we have to have a TON of meat ready to go after 5. so, i learned what to do on the grill and worked it until 8. i cooked meat, bacon, and grilled chicken, and cleaned the grills. it was hot, splattery, and easy. i handled it well. :-)

and so, that's about all i have to say about that. OH, the guys in the kitchen are WAY cooler than the girls in the front. they joke with me. they introduce themselves to me. they ask me how long i've been working there. they welcomed me and said it was cool to have me working in the kitchen with them. it was much easier to handle mentally because of the crew.

my house is selling. the inspection was on monday. don't know yet how that went, but assume since i haven't heard anything that it went fairly easy. not really sure when i'll get back to Colorado to pack it all up, but if all continues to go well i'll have to be out of there by the end of April.

i guess that's about it for now.

oh, and trailer life is just fine. :-)

progress report

2007-03-15T20:58:00.000-05:00

i'm faster. i'm learning where things are. i'm mastering the ice cream and blending machines. i'm remembering the differences between items that sound and look alike. basically, i'm getting better. but i'm still tired.

and not only am i getting better at the front, i'm observing things i do and do not like that happen throughout the day with the employees and managers. if i can survive and be successful at my attempt to manage a store, i know what will and will not happen in MY store that is allowed in this one. i'm thankful for the chance to be a witness to these things. hopefully i'll be better for it.

our averages for today were under 5o seconds for drinks and just under two minutes for food. that's REALLY fast (and consistent from day to day), but apparently not fast enough. according to a managers meeting yesterday, it is a desire of someone (probably corporate) to get food out even faster. some stores are reporting 50 seconds for food! that's crazy and probably unacceptable as far as quality goes. then you have the other extreme ... i'd go to a store in Colorado and wait over five minutes just for a drink!

honestly, if i were managing right now, i'd be more than happy with three minutes for food. not only is that still very fast, but then it doesn't put so much pressure on the front to make a drink with a ton of fizz be ready to go out when the food's ready, especially when they have ten+ other drinks to make, plus ice cream items like banana splits and blasts (read dairy queen blizzard copy cat). two people in the front can only do so much. and five people in the kitchen can't do much better.

maybe i'm wrong, but i'm thinking if you spend a little more time making the food, you could cut a member of your team from having to be there, therefore serve the same amount of customers with less cost for labor. please tell me, am i wrong? i probably am. and i'll probably learn that the hard way one day when i have a chance to make the schedule. oh well.

anyways ... that's what i'm thinking and going through right now. i'm very tired and very ready for my day off. i'm going to drive to my parents' house on saturday after work, spend the night, and then spend sunday with my family doing sit-down things. :-)

just two more days, just two more days....

it's only day two?

2007-03-13T21:35:00.000-05:00

oh my goodness. i've worked 20 hours and it seems like a week has gone by. wait, that sounds familiar. oh yeah! Guatemala! wow ... talk about similarities.

today was my long day ... 11 hours with no break, no sitting, no casual dining, and hardly any talking. i'm exhausted, again.

the positive is that i almost mastered the ice cream machine today. i successfully made several items without making a huge mess (but once i didn't have such success). the trick is to pull slowly. :-)

the people in this store cuss all the time. they smoke. they move fast. they complain. they talk faster than auctioneers. the girls are rude, bossy, and not afraid to tell you when you do something wrong. the guys are helpful, kind, and actually introduce themselves (to me).

the only time i talked about anything was after work when i Ricky and i were going home. when i was asking him a question, my voice actually sounded weird to me because i hadn't heared it conversationally in so long. throughout the day the only things i say are, "order up", and the names of items. M&M Blast, ice, large cups, chocolate shake, ORDER UP!!!

and now that another day has ended entirely too quickly, i must go to bed and get ready for another one.

first day on the job

2007-03-12T20:03:00.000-05:00

oh my ... what have i gotten myself into? eight hours went by and i never sat down, never stood still, never stopped thinking, and didn't even talk to anyone. i have begun...

the ice cream machine doesn't like me ... everytime i touch it it spews ice cream everywhere. i can't remember to use both diet cherry juice and diet Sprite for the Diet Cherry Limeade. and there are two blue drinks that are actually different, but i keep making the same one over and over. i get busy making drinks for one order, but when i look up there are seven more and then i get lost.

when orders stopped for more than two seconds (which wasn't often, by the way), i filled ice, cups, lids, and limes. well, i should say i tried to fill those items. the minute i returned from the stock room with cups i had more drinks to make.

does it ever stop??? *sigh* i'm tired.

i was told i did much better than i think i did, especially compared with others' first days. but then again, i do have some experience to fall back on, even if it was 13 years ago. i still feel unsuccessful for the most part though. but that's just my perfectionism talking i guess.

my schedule is going to be busy and tiring. i hope i can survive. i think it'll go something like this... monday, thursday, friday, and saturday: 9-5; tuesday: 9-8; wednesday: 4-close. sunday: off. if i'm counting correctly, that's about 51 hours. and no, that doesn't include a break or lunch. for some that's a piece of cake. for me, at this point, it's an entire cake with a couple of tiers and layers. i hope, with a little time, it'll get easier again. today, as my feet and lower back ache, i'm fearful.

i have to remember my first days in Guatemala and how hard and impossible it all seemed. after 5 weeks or so i was feeling a bit successful. hopefully Sonic won't take that long.

a new life

2007-03-06T10:46:00.000-06:00

so i've finally decided to go back to work. i'll be working as an assistant manager of a Sonic in Kingwood, Texas. i'll be living about 10 miles away from there in my parents' travel trailer in an RV park. the trailer is a nice one ... 35-feet long, three slide-outs, a fireplace even! and the park is really open and clean, has a pool, laundry, basic cable channels, and wireless internet (and the rent is much cheaper than in an apartment).

one good point is that it's all temporary. the timeframe is unknown, but as soon as i'm ready to be a manager of my own store and a position opens up, i'll be taking it and probably moving again. so, the second good point is that a travel trailer is easy to move (wheels!) and the space is being paid for month to month, so there's no contract i have to get out of. and the third good point is that it's furnished, so i don't have to worry about moving all my stuff from Colorado into a new place just to move it again in 6 months.

when my house sells, i'll move everything into a storage unit nearby and wait until the timing is right to buy a new house.

until then, i start working on Monday (March 12). my cousin owns this particular store, so he's going to be teaching me all the finer points of management. all the operations of the store í'll have to learn on my own with the help of the employees. i'm quite a bit nervous because i haven't worked in such an environment in 13 years. it's fast and crazy nearly all day long, with no breaks, eating while working, hardly sitting down, and 6 days a week. some days i'll have to be there at 6:30 in the morning and others i'll have to start at 4 in the afternoon. granted, i've done all this before, but i was 16 at the time.

anyways...

my family is thrilled to have me close by again. and it's good to have a job where i know the potential for growth is available and totally up to me and my abilities. and even though the temporary-ness of my life right now is kinda freakin' me out, i know that's good too.

so, that's what's going on. i'm not sure when i'm going to make it back to Colorado. this wasn't my initial plan when i left a few weeks ago, but it's the best decision for now. my new plan is to work until my house sells, then come back to Colorado to pack it up and move, then go back to work. hopefully when that happens i'll see most of you for at least a few minutes. :-)

my phone number will stay the same until my house sells. but if you need my physical address, you can mail stuff to my parents' house...

Jenny Mills
c/o Oma Mills
8775 Lone Star Rd.
Washington, TX 77880

i know i can do anything i set my mind to, but i'm worried i don't have the stamina for this kind of work anymore. when you think of me, i would appreciate your prayers for my body. i haven't stood for 8 hours in a long time. thanks. :-)

life in Texas

2007-02-23T14:32:00.000-06:00

i've been in Texas for nearly two weeks. a few days after i arrived, my dad was released from the hospital, so i've been here taking care of him.

my days consist of making breakfast, lunch, and sometimes dinner. every four hours i have to give him some medicine. once a day i walk down to check the mail and feed the horses. the rest of my time is spent encouraging my dad to exercise, using the Internet, watching TV, or going to the grocery store. all the other stuff my mom takes care of either before or after work.

things, overall, are going ok. my dad still can't breathe, but he's learning how to deal with it better. he's on oxygen 24/7. the physical therapist comes out three times a week and works with him and has given us at-home exercises to do. he's getting stronger every day as far as muscles in his legs go, but his lungs aren't getting better. nature of the beast, apparently.

the Lord has really been faithful in blessing me with strength, patience, and contentment. i've been really surprised in my ability to talk with both my parents, during conflict even, and be of help.

right now this is where i'm supposed to be and i am content with that. as for my future, i don't know what God has in store for me. i have to wait for that day to come when He chooses to reveal it to me. otherwise, i will continue my work here.

P.S. my house is still for sale. i've had a few more showings, but no offers yet.

help!

2007-02-10T10:41:00.000-06:00

i am going to Texas ... don't know how long i will be there, but am staying flexible. basically you can call it a visit since my house hasn't sold yet. therefore, for all those in Colorado, you WILL see me again. as my dad would say, "is that a promise or a threat?" well, both, probably. :-)

in preparing to go there, i've realized how much i failed the last time i was there. my dad was at home for one week and in the hospital for the second week of my visit. and i really didn't handle the situation well at all. basically i withdrew into my mom's camp of the negative and critical natures that are so much a part of me. i withdrew from my dad because i didn't know how to handle him being sick, irritable, at home, and in the hospital. i've never had to do this before, so my first attempt should naturally be awkward and imperfect. however, i still feel badly about it.
and so, for my second attempt, i pray i will be better. i pray i will seek the Lord's wisdom when my dad says, "no, i don't feel like walking." i pray i will not be so critical of everything he does or does not do. and i pray i will find understanding in his situation so i can better relate to him.

overall, i'm not really sure what the Lord has in store for my time there, but i pray, mostly, that i will be a vessel for His love. other than that, i just ask for help from Him to keep me strong and open. i know for a fact that i can't succeed without Him.

tell me a story!

2007-02-03T18:17:00.000-06:00

so i went away for about 10 days to visit friends in Florida and Maryland. during the trip, i requested of my friends, "tell me a story!" for whatever reason, none of them were very creative.

being back from Guatemala, i realized i shared too much on this site about my life there. so much so that those who actually read the blog now know everything and don't need to ask any questions, therefore, i don't really get to share any stories.

i can't remedy the problem now, but i have learned what not to do next time.

and so, i will now share about my trip to FL and MD...

i went to Animal Kingdom at Disney World and felt like a kid again. i very much enjoyed myself, but was slightly disappointed in the safari ride. in MD i walked around a VERY large mall, played lots of games, attended a very good concert, felt like a kid again (or at least a teenager), and said a couple of times, "tell me a story!"

i just told you a story, now you tell me one.... :-)