hands up!!! ALL THE WAY!!!

Last week was crazy!

I ended up doing so much that I forgot which day it was WAY more than once.

The highlight, however, was definitely Wednesday!!

Jordan was in Indiana visiting Seth, so Jonathan and I decided to go hiking, explore a cute little river town called Washington, MO, and end the day at our old stomping grounds... Six Flags.

He got to pick where we went hiking (I'm not an expert at knowing where there are good trails) and he decided on Shaw Nature Reserve. It's an awesome and HUGE branch of the Missouri Botanical Gardens. I loved the idea, but I wouldn't recommend it unless you're visiting in the early spring, or fall... summer is just too hot to enjoy yourself completely.

It was very pretty, and we got to see quite an array of woodland critters: we counted around 35 bunnies, a really big turtle, a crane, two snakes, a dead frog, AND 5098073847673648346 million ticks. Haha! Only kidding. There were A LOT of ticks. More than I'd ever seen in my life, and my limited experience with nature. I, personally conquered 25 of the nasty little vermin without a single one of them biting me.

But I think my luck in not receiving more bites/bugs was mostly due to the fact that I had a thick barrier of glistening sweat covering my entire body...

(Did I mention that it was 94 degrees and REALLY humid?)

It was nasty hot, and probably the most I've sweat in my entire life!

And although the view was awesome, and the trails were fun... I would have much preferred to take the adventure when the weather was cooler and there weren't so any bugs.

10 very hot and sticky miles later, we finished. Both exhausted, mildly dehydrated, and covered in sweat-- we decided to go to WalMart and buy some fresh clothes (and check one final time for any remaining hitch hikers) before heading to Washington, MO.

When we finally made it to Washington, we had a nice little walk along the river, and found a great restaurant called Cowen's. We both had delicious little diner* dinners and celebrated our victory over our long hike with a slice of pie.

After dinner we headed straight for Six Flags!!

We both have a soft spot for the park. Jonathan and I met and became friends while we were both working there in the summer of '04. Jonathan still works there, he calls it "his fun job", and once a year he takes me with him to say hi to all of the people we used to work with and have a fun, free day. By the time we got there is was 7pm, and we only had 3 hours to ride every roller coaster, say hi to people AND watch the new parade called Glow In The Park. And to quote Jonathan: "It's not Disneyland, but it's a good show," and he's right. So, if you're at Six Flags this summer, try and stay until 9pm and watch the show. Jonathan drives one of the floats almost every weekend, and the people at the park have put a lot of hard work into it.

I'm very happy to say that we were successful in our final adventure for the day. We rode EVERYTHING: Evil Kenevile (three times), The Boss, the Batman (twice), Mr. Freeze, The Screamin' Eagle, the new Tony Hawk ride, The River King Mine Train, AND he got me to ride Colossus. I hate ferris wheels... I've been stuck in the top of one when it broke, and ever since I have vowed not to ride rides like that... but I rode it... and he took a picture of me at the top, just for proof...

18 stories up, in a replica of the same ferris wheel that graced the great city of St. Louis for the 1904 World's Fair.

And just for good measure, after the parade, we ran all the way back to Evil Kinivel, and rode it two more times!! the last two runs of the night. "HANDS UP!! ALL THE WAY!!"

A wonderful way to end a wonderful summer day.

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Tucker

He's going to be OK.

It's been a terrible two weeks for my little buddy, but he should make a full recovery.

Emily and Tucker are both moved back into my parents house in O'Fallon-- and five screws, one plate and two re-broken bones later-- he's sore, but in a much better environment.

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congrats to alyssa and jay!!!

June 27, 2009

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stars

Today I got my very last birthday present for the year.  My little sister and I have always been very different.... VERY VERY different, but in our adult lives we've both been making an effort to spend time together and rebuild our relationship.  Recently we decided that we'd really like to get a tattoo together.  We both have quite a few and we were both looking forward to getting a new addition.

So today, we did just that.  Now we both have two stars on the back of our right shoulders (one for each of us).  Emily's are much bigger than mine (mine look like they could fit inside Emily's), and they're shaped slightly differently, and we both love them.

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babies

Happy Father's Day!!

and happy first day of summer (officially)!!

The year is moving along so quickly.  So many things just keep happening, and every once in a while in the middle of doing something, I'll look up and think "is the year really halfway over?!"

I'm so excited for all of the new families and additions that have been arriving in the last few months.  :)

Emilia and Jack are both almost 3 months old, and sweet little Emory is a little over a week old and doing great!  

It's a funny feeling-- to love someone so small... it's a little bittersweet for me. I never really thought I'd be close to so many people who have children, but now that I am, I'm so unbelievably thankful, because they're all such a blessing in my life. 

The best part is watching my friends, who are already amazing people to begin with, turn into such wonderful moms and dads.  From the day Jaxon came home, to visiting Elise and Emory in the hospital, to tonight-- watching Emilia laugh at Jason... I've loved watching my friends love their children.

Witnessing all of their love and getting to be a part of their lives has meant so much to me, it gives me  refreshing feeling of hope about things I've been haunted by... and it's helped me grow as a person, so much.

Thank you for letting me be there, and for letting me hold them.  Thank you for being in my life and for the hope that you've given me, the love that you shown me, without ever knowing.

 

  

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the old lady who cried "wolf"

I fail miserably at keeping this this updated...
I apologize.

I haven't had a chance to show you pictures of my wonderful birthday, my sister's adorable new puppy, named Tucker, our new couch, or any of the other awesome things we've done this month.... Promise I'll get to it very soon.

I'm at work right now on my friend's computer trying to wish the day away a little faster, look for any good job postings, and trying to find a way to be positive about the situation I'm currently in at work.

I'll give you the run down, and you can give me your input, and guidance (any and all of it will be appreciated, because I'm losing my optomism quickly)

I started this job in January, because my mom knew my manager, Debby needed some part time help. I'm a lab technician for an optical dispensing store. We're not like Clarkson Eyecare, or Pearle Vision, we're really only a retail store with a tiny lab that can do minimal repairs. I took the job knowing that she was hiring "for evenings and weekends". At the time it wasn't a big deal because I was desperate for a job and Debby seemed like a nice person who had fallen on bad times, as far as finding good help. In the beginning it was fine, she always picked up the phone when I called and needed help, she seemed genuinely interested in me and my life, she seemed pretty flexible with the schedule-- normally* allowing me time to be at church and small group and Cornerstone Univ-- normally. But as time went on she became INCREASINGLY more sarcastic, more foul mouthed, and ALL of her doctors appointments just so happened to fall on the only two days that I requested to have off (tuesday and thursday nights). I was also later informed that she hasn't been able to keep an employee for more than 3 months... they all quit.

While working for Debby (I'm her only employee), I also picked up other part time jobs within the BX's "mall" area: the flower shop for valentines day, and with one of the vendors who sells sports stuff/ wooden rose arrangements/ and handmade fused glass jewelry.

The flower shop was short lived (they took a month to pay me, and the manager turned out to be a pretty rotten person who talked about all of her employees poorly, so I decided to distance myself from that situation and concentrate on working for Debby and for the vendors (Jackie and Kim). This is where the problem lies: Debby hates Jackie and Kim. I've come to understand recently that Debby has a general disliking for every human being that walks, besides Mary, the flower shop manager... But the fact that I work for Jackie and Kim seriously bothers Debby. What bothers her even more is that she knows that Kim and Jackie have offered me, and would love for me to work for them full time... and for the last few months that I have been working for both places Debby's mysterious "illnesses" have progressed to the point where nearly every week she has me working on the Tuesdays and Thursdays (which are the only nights I've asked to have off) for 3 hour shifts. Just enough time to waste my gas, my night, and keep me from attending small group and Cornerstone Univ. She's also had me work every friday(8-10 hour shifts), saturday (10 hour shirfts) and sunday (8 hour shifts) EVERY weekend since I've worked for her. She's given me two saturdays and one sunday off in almost 6 months.

I've tried to have patience, and I've done my best to be understanding through all of this, because in the beginning I believed her when she told me that she was ill... I tried to subtley and politely remind her that I had very important things to do on Tuesday and Thursday nights, that I was available ALL DAY, EVERY OTHER DAY OF THE WEEK... Still the crappy shifts, snide remarks and mystery illnesses grew in number and frequency. She's told me that she has everything from MS (which she claims she has been "in remission from for 15 years" and is just now suddenly flaring up again), she's recovering from breast cancer and a double mastectomy, she has skin cancer, rhumetoid arthritis, osteoperosis and macular degeneration.

Convienient, huh?

Unlucky for her, I have a background in science, multiple friends who are nurses or are in medical school, and I personally know some wonderful people who actually HAVE these painful, chronic, dibilitating diseases... Brave people who never say a word, and work through the pain everyday, so they can lead some what normal, happy lives. And she's lying about it... I can't understand why, but she's a bitter old woman who will say anything for attention.... And I actually feel really sorry for her.

Her most recent stunt was self-induced, and the source of my current situation. She's a smoker, and she recently decided to start taking the Commit nicotine lozenges to help her stop smoking (at least that's what it looked like). She's been doing this for about a week and a half, broadcasting to everyone who will listen that she "doesn't smoke anymore" and she'd shake her little canister of lozenges at you.
Even though she claimed she stopped smoking we all noticed that she still walked outside and disappeared around the side of the building for 5 to 10 minutes every couple of hours... Come to find out, she was still smoking, as much, if not more than she had been before-- and on top of that she was eating the Commit lozenges like they were candy (something it says NOT to do-- in giant red letters on the side of the bottle), and drinking 5 huge cups of coffee, everyday without ever eating a proper meal... Can you tell where this is going?

So, Wednesday afternoon while I'm puppy- sitting Tucker, I get a paniced phone call that Debby is being taken by ambulance to Memorial Hospital. Apparently she'd been having heart pain and pain down her right arm.... and she was grabbing her chest and making a scene... And since I'm the only other employee they need me to come in and work the rest of her shift, or close the store. I told them that I wasn't available since I was watching a 7 week old puppy that couldn't be left alone. So they ended up closing the store, and asked me to be there the next day-- all day-- and everyday after that, until Debby could come back.

And I've worked a 10 hour day, every day since then... and I will continue to work all day everyday until she comes back... even though she's fine (she has a partially blocked artery, but so doesn't a LARGE percentage of American adults) she was monitored and discharged on Friday morning. She didn't have a heart attack, didn't have a stroke, she was having heart palpitations from an overdose of nicotine and too much caffeine. The only thing she WAS... was dehydrated.

But for one reason or another, dehydration and heart palpitations are severe enough for her to get an entire week off work, no questions asked...

And no one has said "thank you" to me. Not one.




So I'm here. And I'm left wondering how I should handle her return.

I want to call her out on everything she's lied about and quit (or at least put in my two weeks)... but that's childish, and unprofessional.

I want to work exclusively for Kim an Jackie, but I know that Debby will glare at me all day everyday, and talk about me, Jakie and Kim behind our backs and generally try to make life as miserable as possible for us all.

If I took the full time job with Jackie and Kim, I also run the risk of losing my privelage to work on base... depending on how it all pans out (and who Debby lies to about the situation)

I really want to do things the right way... but I'm more than tired of being taken advantage of...

I've had to miss out on too many things that matter to me this year... and even though I'm younger than her and I don't have kids, it doesn't make my life any less important than the things in her life. And it surely does not make me qualified to be her doormat.

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the many adventures of Fred the spider

Last week seemed like it might never end...
but now it's Sunday night, and I feel the weights finally slipping off.

I'm almost positive that I worked more than I slept... but the amount of laughing that I did more than makes up for it.

Monday and Tuesday there was work... 10 hours of work, both days. But Tuesday ended well, with a lovely walk down the River De Poo (that's the river Des Peres, for everyone who doesn't frequent the area). Jonathan and I found an amazing trail that lead down the river and through some great neighborhoods. We belted out the worst 90's songs ever (it happens alot, if you encounter it, please forgive me...) and walked for probably 5 or 6 miles, through back alleys, and a turn of the century cemetery. We read the most beautifully engraved markers, many of which were from the last cholera epidemic that swept St. Louis in the late 1800's. Got a quick drink from QT and continued on our way back to the car.
We scared ourselves plenty of times, which isn't hard when you're walking the city and a very old cemetery in the dark... But, just before we got to the car we found three teeny tiny bunnies, no bigger than the palm of my hand. They were too small to know to run away from us, so they kind of just sat there while we took pictures of them and talked, poor little things. I REALLY REALLY wanted to hold one, but I know better. If their mother is still around she'd turn them away for smelling like human, and I'd hate to be responsible for an abandoned bunny.
We ended the night with Jimmy Johns and Skinny Cow Ice Cream (if you haven't tried it.... TRY IT). And when we finally got back to the house, Josh introduced me to the boys new pet, Fred the spider. Haha!! Josh catches small bugs and throws them into Fred's web... it's a little bit sick, but REALLY funny to watch. Jonathan claims that it has kept the bug count down and that it's easier and cheaper than a dog... I think they need a new hobby!! haha

Wednesday was INCREDIBLE! What a wonderful day for Earth Day! Jordan and I had the day off together and we slept IN!! oh, what a glorious feeling, to sleep past 7 am.... Then we made breakfast (Jordan makes my favorite eggs for me on my days off) and we were off. Since it was Earth Day I was determined to spend the day outside soaking up the beautiful area that we live in. We walked from our apartment, across the street to Tower Groves Park (one of St. Louis best kept secrets, and was once owned by the same man that created and dedicated the Missouri Botanical Gardens to St. Louis). We walked the tree lined path and smelled every different flower, talked to the ducks that always swim in the pond there and spotted four baby turtles. It was so nice that the park wasn't overrun with people. Since it was a weekday everyone was still at work or in school. We walked past a couple of statues and read all the inscriptions, and played on the exercise benches they have lining the trail in the park. ON our way out of the park we visited Emack and Bolio's. It was wonderfully refreshing. I got a delicious Passion Fruit smoothie and Jordan got a Gooey Butter cake ice cream sandwich and a Fitz's soda. Yumm Yumm..
Emack and Bolio's is locally owned and operated, and they only employ people from the Tower Groves area, which I think is wonderful and I'll continue my quest to support local businesses whenever I can. St. Louis, and it's surrounding areas have so much fun and flavor to offer as far as small businesses go, and I really hope that they are able to hang on through these tough times. They really are the heart and soul of the neighborhoods that surround them.
After we got back to our street we decided to take a self guided tour of the Compton Hills Water Tower, the gigantic Tower that sits across the street from our apartment and gives us a beautiful view. The grounds have a couple different historic artifacts, as well as a dog park, a playground and some tennis courts. We spent a little while swinging and watching the traffic zoom by on I-44.
It's funny how much you can enjoy something that simple... we don't get to have quiet moments like that often enough.

Thursday was another adventure, and another great day off. Another morning spent in bed and the day spent helping Jonathan paint his garage. I've painted for recreation, but I'd never painted a structure before, and even though I painted ALL OVER my hands, it was plenty of fun, and very successful. I didn't get a single drop of paint on the siding. :)
Josh cooked everyone bbq, and a few friends dropped by and we hung out in the back yard, on the front porch and finally, as the sun set, we all sunk into his brand new couches.

Friday and Saturday were back at work, which I honestly don't mind most days, especially when I work with Jackie and Kim. They are hilarious, and I appreciate them so much. They've basically adopted me, and Kim's two boys are gems. We laugh and talk and give each other hard times all day, which makes the time creep by a little bit quicker... not much, but at least we have fun. When they aren't around I crack into my new Harry Potter book (my first birthday present so far) and I'm enjoying it immensely! I know I'm a little late to be jumping on the bandwagon, but I'd honestly been skeptical until Krystan bought me the very first one, and I can't believe my own misjudgement!! LOVE it! And I'm eagerly anticipating the next 6.

Saturday night (last night), however, I got some bad news... My dad's grandma, "Big Gram's" passed away just hours before. She was wonderful little lady, who reached the very accomplished age of 92. She was 100% Italian, and full of heart. She and my dad have been very close his entire life. She helped raise him and he was definitely her favorite... He spent many many summers with her at her cottage in Cape Cod and spoke of her fondly, and often. Even though we've lived all over the world and back again, he always made time to take a trip up there to visit her whenever he could. She was the one person in his very large and estranged family that he was close to... She's been sick for quite a while, and earlier this month she suffered a heart attack and 2 strokes, the last of which left her bed-ridden, paralyzed on her left side, almost blind and put most of her major organs into shock, which eventually led to them almost completely shutting down. Even in her painful state she found little ways to communicate, and while she was in the hospital she started asking for "her Johnny"... she 's the only person in the world who could call him that.
He took a full week off work and went up to Boston, hoping to see her one more time, and let her know that he was there. Miraculously, the night that he got there her vitals got a little better and she stabilized, and made what was starting to look like a slow recovery (even though they knew from her scans that her brain was slowly bleeding). He spent the whole week right next to her bed, talking to her, getting her ice and blankets, talking about the Cape and all of their memories together... He came home on Easter Sunday, fulfilled that she had made it through the most recent stroke, but sad knowing that it would probably be the last time he saw the woman that meant so very much to him...

If you could, please keep my dad and the rest of his family in your prayers I'd really appreciate it. It's always so hard to lose someone close...

Today is his birthday, and I wish with all my heart that it could have been a better day for him. My dad has been through so much... and it breaks my heart to know how much grief he's holding onto. I hope he finds peace in the good memories... and in all of the love she had for him.

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