And I'm spent...

Okay, not really. I'm just bored. I'm one week into my unemployment, and that feeling of "I need to be working" is slowly creeping in. Don't get me wrong, I'm thoroughly enjoying sleeping past 5:00 am, not having any real stress, and having time to do things I want to do. But there's this thing in my head that is starting to steer me towards that need to work thing. I blame my parents for raising me with a sense of purpose and a work ethic. I learned it by watching you!!!! Why couldn't you have raised me to be one of those lazy people that relies on all you hard working individuals to pay for me to survive? Sheesh.

Anyway, I am finding things to do to occupy my time. I spread them out so I don't leave myself totally bored after three days. For instance, Monday I did a load of laundry, went grocery shopping, got my windshield fixed, and went to Target and bought everything but what I went there for. Go figure. Yes, that was a lot for one day. I should have done the windshield another day. But whatever.

I am job searching a little each day. The Corps jobs finally posted, so I've got my name in for those. Wish me luck. The funny thing here is, if you get hired by the government, they want to see your official transcripts from school. Who knows why, given most people aren't even working in the field they got their degree in. Anyway, so I contact Utah State to get mine, and they inform me I have a past due balance. Of course my first thought is - 14 years later I find this out. Nice. So I call them up, and they tell me it's a housing bill for $100 from 2004. Okay, first of all, a major university is worried about $100 from six years ago?! Second, I tell them I haven't been back to Logan since 1996, so that certainly can't be mine. They agree, and off goes my transcript. Adventures.

In an effort to help my employment cause, I have decided to take the test to become a certified commercial building inspector. It will allow me to work on government projects, which are not going to be ending any time soon. And being an official inspector always goes farther than just saying you have a degree in something.

I've heard the test is quite difficult, and we all remember my adventures in attaining this certificate:

So I'm mentally preparing for this new challenge. So far, I've dropped $250 on three books. I'm still awaiting the concrete code book. Aren't you sad you don't get to read these?

The test itself is $180. So now my dilemma is do I fork over $800 to take a class that guarantees you'll pass the test, or pay $80 to do self-study tests. My former co-worker suggested I take the test once, just to see what they're looking for, then study, then take it again. In theory, I should pass the second time. This would be cheaper than the class. I'm still working this one out in my head. Before I left my job, I was talking to some of the guys I was working with about this, and they were baffled as to why I would voluntarily take the test. First of all, I thought in my head that it was amazing that people would be amazed at why you would want to further your education. Second, I responded with, "when facing unemployment, you do what's necessary to get a job." Funny thing is, one of the guys works for the company I talked to about a job. Better look out, I may take your job.....

.

Lastly, my saving grace in the insanity of my life right now is this:

Yes, those picutes are really close to the team. I sat next to their bench. It allows me to get away for two hours once in a while.

.

As if the game on Sunday wasn't fun enough, this was sitting on my car when I left:

That would be Sue Bird's autograph on a jersey. I have no idea where it came from, or why it was there. It's oviously old and worn, so the most I can figure is someone dropped it while walking by. It's too bad autographs from WNBA players aren't as valued as male sports figures, this would be worth a bit of money. Such is life, I'll add it to my collection.

.

So I am heading to Salt Lake in a couple of weeks to spend a week or so with the family. This trip was planned before the lay-off, so this worked out well for a get-away. After much thought and map measuring, I will be down on the night of the 2nd. I'll get to go to a game, then head out. Birthday party to be held at Mom and Dad's upon arrival.

.

I'll be leaving Utah on the 10th. So I can go to a game on the 11th.

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Sanity. Whatever I can get these days.

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Update and thoughts

So as of 2:30 today, I will officially be unemployed again. This one stands to last longer than 24 hours though, unlike the last time I played this game. The contract I'm working under officially expires today, and there's no fixes for now. They supposedly have one, but it could take months to get it in place. The funny thing about this is when the field rep for my company told me this, and didn't understand my dis-interest in sitting around for months waiting to see if I have a job or not. He actually asked me, "can't you go on unemployment?" And we wonder why our unemployment and welfare systems are so jacked up.

Anyway, I could be back here in a few weeks, or I could be elsewhere. I am talking to one of the contractors we're overseeing right now about coming on their team. I'd rather not, that means going back to endless hours and stress. But it's a job. My other option is to wait for the Corps to post their job openings, which are supposedly going to happen soon. They said that 4 weeks ago. And those aren't a guarantee, despite having spoken with the head of the Corps at Fort Lewis and having several employees vouch for me. Stupid hiring system the government has. So I am going to take a few weeks off, relax and play around the house a little, maybe play some golf, then go to Utah for a week or so and hang out with the family. Hopefully I won't go too stir crazy.

Now on to other thoughts. Has anyone ever been listening to the radio and had a song come on and thought, "they sang that on an episode of Glee!" That show is ruining my radio listening. But it sure is funny. Sometimes I think it would be fun to be Sue Sylvester.

So I went for a bike ride last night. Here's how my brain went:
The weather is nice, perhaps I should go for a ride instead of the treadmill tonight.
Need motivational music to push me through.
Are you sure you want to tackle the hill today? Perhaps not the best idea just yet.
Boy it's nice to get out in the fresh air. Okay, I do that when I walk around a job site. This is different though.
I hope that dog doesn't come after my ankles again.
Okay, the hill is not much further. Turn around when you get to the hill.
Do I really want to turn around? I can do this.
Turn Around.
Turn AROund!
Turn AROUND!
TURN AROUND!!!!!! For the love of legs and lungs that will continue to function, TURN AROUND!!!!!!

Crap.....
Do I really have to go up that thing now?
Push through it, go go go go go!
And let a little smile out, even if you can't breath and your legs are going to laugh when you try to stand on them.


I'm going to miss my morning eye candy, a.k.a soldiers doing their morning PT. It's rather nice to live vicariously through them when it comes to exercise. I feel your pain, man. Keep going.

Ever opened your fridge to have some horrendous smell come out, and not be able to identify it's origin? Then clean out the fridge of anything that comes remotely close to causing the smell. Only to find the smell still there. Even though you have one of those baking soda smell-eater-upper things in there. Annoying.

In doing several inspections of one of the buildings lately, I've done a lot of research on how things get built to ensure people's safety. While most people go into a building and think of aesthetics, I look at how it's constructed. It really is amazing what goes into making a building safe, and how much we think about how people will get out in case of fire, earthquake, or other emergency when building it. It's not just studs and drywall my friends.

I don't know if I want to go out to eat for lunch, or eat my frozen dinner. Coin flip coming. Till next time....

Say what?

This story is too stupid to make up. So I show up to work Monday morning to start another exciting week (yes, there's some sarcasm in that statement). One of the first things I do when I get to work every day is open up my e-mail. So I opened an e-mail from my company. Let me preface this with how my job works. I am employed by BCE, an engineering company that essentially rents me to the Army Corps of Engineers to do quality assurance on construction projects. So I am not actually employed by the Corps. Anyway, this letter informs me that Monday, that day, is my last day. I'm being laid off. Say what? I print this off and take it to my co-worker, to which he says "say what!?"

We knew this would potentially happen, the contract I am working under expires in May. But we all figured it would be renewed. Perhaps not. Turns out the company I work for is charging the Corps nearly 4 times what they are actually paying me. The Corps has wised up and realized this isn't the best use of tax payer dollars. So they are re-thinking this deal.

So apparently, in an effort to stem the gross expendtiure of money, the Corps told my company they needed to immediately get rid of three people. My name was among the three. So Monday I was told I was done. My company said they were scrambling to fix this and get me back to work, but it would take at least a few days to make it happen. I'd be back next Monday at the earliest. And they would most likely get the contract issue figured out.

So I had Tuesday off. I then decided to make use of an extra ticket on Southwest I had and got a ticket to fly to Dallas to visit Jeff and his family for a few days. I am due to leave Wednesday morning. Tuesday night at 5:30 I get a call from my company telling me they have good news, and bad news. The good news is they want me back tomorrow. The bad news is the contract isn't being renewed, so after May 12th, I don't have a job.

So, now I'm flying to Texas tomorrow. Then when I get back, I go to work for two and a half weeks. Then I hit the unemployment line. Anyone hear of someone getting a job in 3 three weeks these days? Anyone hear of anyone getting a job at all these days? Guess I'll have some free time soon.

To make it more fun, I called one of the guys I work with to tell him I won't be in the rest of the week. He tells me that I wasn't supposed to be one of the ones let go this week, there was a misunderstanding in the main office. So once he and another guy I work with talked to the main guy up there, they realized the mistake and told my company to bring me back. For three weeks.

Whatever.

Catharsis

Back when the family moved to California, I discovered something that helped me get away. Literally and figuratively. And my parents didn't much care for it. Surprise there, huh? We lived in San Ramon, in the east Bay Area. I was in my early 20's, still living at home and working. One day, I decided I wanted to go for a drive. I needed to get away, to clear my head. So I grabbed a few things, including my camera, and I took off. After 4 hours of driving, I pulled off into a parking lot, pulled out the newly purchased cell phone, and called home.

Me: "Hey Mom."
Mom: "Where are you, you've been gone a while?"
Me: "I'm standing on the east shore of Lake Tahoe. It's beautiful up here."
Mom: "Kelli, what are you doing?!!"

And thus began my adventurous ways of grabbing my camera and taking off. No maps, no schedule, no plans other than to purposely get lost and see what I can discover. I have found a lot doing this. I've discovered the coast line along Northern California is beautiful at sunset. I've found the Maine coast line isn't quite as pretty as the Cali coast, but it is beautiful in it's own right. I've found back roads that wind and go on forever. And I've parked and hiked up mountains that take me to the unknown. Most of all, I've discovered that a Honda Civic can drive thru flood waters that come up to the top of the car door, and the car only gets a little wet on the inside (another story for another day). :-)

But the main reason I do this is to let my brain go to neverland. It doesn't have to think about what's going on at that time, it doesn't have to worry about what's coming up. It's allowed a break. It's extremely cathartic to stand on a mountainside and look down over Lake Tahoe and see the beauty that lies in that lake and the mountains that surround it.

Yesterday, I was needing one of those trips. So I did what I haven't done in I don't know how long, and grabbed my camera and took off. I wanted to go to the mountains, but since winter decided to finally start here, I figured that wasn't the best idea. So I headed to the ocean, a tiny fishing town called Westport. It's not quite 2 hours from the house, and the drive goes by quickly. It's nice to have the option of mountains or ocean, either one grabs the mind and relaxes the soul.

As typical with the ocean here, had I not had a desire to stay upright and in one place, I would have been blown to the California coastline. It was beautiful though, sunny and somewhat warm. Here's a few of the photos I took. This one I took just as I got there. I think it's really pretty because the guy is looking off into the unknown. What lies ahead is there for the taking.
This is my favorite one, this just grabbed me when I saw it. I don't know why, it's merely four guys headed into the ocean. Perhaps the simple beauty of it.
This sight made me pause. The snow covered Olympic mountains in the background, it is amazing what God has given us.

The ocean was quite active today, the waves were pretty big. I managed to get the spray off the waves as they crashed. And the four guys heading in to enjoy it.

A few others to enjoy:

Seriously!?

I'm only 34 years old. It is rather depressing to regularly recieve mail from AARP. I have been for years. It was doubly depressing when, last week, I was informed I must now start taking this:




And my trip to the grocery store entailed getting all this:


As if my body doesn't have enough issues, I now have digestion problems. I swear this is someone's cruel way of punishing me for not managing to get through two attempts each on my physiology class and anatomy class at Utah State. I am now regularly looking up what parts deal with what problems, why pain in one location may mean a problem for another part, and how what you put into your mouth affects all those bits and pieces. Anyone need a lecturer on how much fun your body can have with you?

And because I am doing my best to avoid drugs, I'm also learning about all the natural ways you can fix these problems. When I was put on a drug for high cholesterol a few years ago, it about killed me. I had cramps and pain I wouldn't wish on anyone, and I couldn't stand up. All were side affects noted on the paperwork for the drug, but the doctor insisted it couldn't be that. So I quit doing the drug and just started eating better, and low and behold, my cholestrol numbers dropped. Funny thing is, I told the doctor this, and he swore it was because of the drug. Whatever. My body does not like all these fancy "I fix one problem but cause 5 others" drugs, so I'm going the au naturale route. It takes a little effort with reading labels, and doing some research, but I'm learning. Like for instance, licorice tea helps cure ulcers. Peppermint tea helps with digestion pain. Garlic cures many things. Eating plain yogurt with blackberries and nuts provides a good portion of protein and fiber four your day. And so forth.

Now, don't take this to mean I've gone cold turkey off the good stuff. I get tempted every now and then. Like when these ended up in the same shopping cart as the above items:

I'm human, what can I say. :-)

Latest happenings

Bet you can't find me? Where's Kelli?

Yes, I wear a very bright yellow coat at work. It looks good with my complexion. It also goes well with the glasses and hard hat. Aren't you jealous you don't get to dress this well for your jobs? The sad thing is, this picture doesn't do justice for how bright the coat actually is. Someone touched it the other day, and I gave him a hard time for messing up my camouflage.

Speaking of camouflage, notice my sneaky way of getting these pictures.

My co-workers give me a hard time for picking an office that faces the street so I can watch the soldiers do their training runs. This occurs once a week. Honestly, I did not plan this. I just picked an office that got some good light and faced the job site. This is just an additional view. And I'm not arguing.

It does make me glad I'm in my office and not out running with these guys. I don't know how far they run, but they're gone a while. So it's gotta be a good distance.

Lastly, and most important for this post, the garage is done. I felt like adding some more colorful and descriptive words to that statement, but chose to do the better thing, respecting the eyes of those who choose to read this.

We got the permit signed off on the 12th, a mere 14-1/2 months after we broke groung on the stupid thing. It was an adventure, to say the least. But we are glad to have it.

It still isn't completely done. The power the garage door is currently using is run from an extension cord to the back of the house. In Washington, the power is a separate permit, so we still need to get that taken care of. But the garage is structurally signed off.

We painted it last weekend when we got some of the most gorgeous weather I've seen out here. Especially for a February. It was near 60 and sunny for a week straight. The problem is we painted it the wrong color. Karl pulled out the extra paint from the house, and we painted an entire wall before realizing we were using the color of the trim on the house, not the wall paint. But I am so done with this thing, I said who cares and kept going. So our house is grey, our garage is a yellowish color. It works.

Yes, I'll be repainting it later.

Anyway, you can see we've moved in and are fully making use of the new structure.

On to finishing the landscaping around it!

Christmas

So I was informed yesterday by someone who will remain nameless that I have been slacking in my blogging duties. Since Mom apparently needs something to read, I guess I'll use some of my boredom time at work to do this.

So Karl and I headed to Maine for Christmas to spend it with his family. We took a red-eye from Seattle to Portland, Maine. Now I've done a red-eye in the past, and thought it a wise idea because we're not losing an entire day of vacation to sitting on an airplane. This is pretty much how I felt after getting to Portland:

They don't explain to you when you buy the ticket that flying at night totally throws your body out of whack, especially when you've already been up since 4:15 in the morning, then thought it prudent to take some Nyquil prior to getting on the plane. The combination of tiredness, cold medicine, and tight quarters makes for some hallucinogenic thoughts and cold sweats. Not fun! All while "sleep through anything" Karl is snoozing away.

We arrived in Portland the morning of the 23rd, and Karl's parents met us to pick him up so I could head to Hartford. Yes, I got in the rental car and drove for 4 hours right after getting off the plane. Tiredness - nothing a little caffeine and driving on Massachusettes highways can't fix. I headed down to watch the UConn vs. Stanford basketball game, which was one half excellent play, one half "did Stanford come out of the locker room". It was fun though. I headed up to Bangor the next day. I learned that people in Massachesettes see a posted speed limit, and don't see "limit", they see "starting point". I was going 9 over, and I was getting passed like I was sitting still. And given that state apparently uses toll money for anything other than road upkeep, I'm guessing a lot of residents of that state go through shocks and tires quite frequently.

The halfway point of the drive landed me in Kittery, ME, my former stomping grounds. WHen passing through Kittery, one must always stop at the Kittery traffic circle, home of the Bagel Caboose and the Hot Dog Shop.

Since it was lunchtime, I hit the Hot Dog Shop. This place rocks, even if you don't like hot dogs. They have burgers too, which are also awesome. It's literally a shack, there's no where to sit. I would frequent this establishment once or twice a week when I lived there.

After 6 hours of driving, I finally arrived in Orono at Karl's parent's house. There's nothing much more fun than driving through 4 states in New England in 6 hours, and seeing all the land and buildings, the history. It is beautiful. We spent the next few days going between Karl's parent's and brother's house. We had a good time catching up with everyone. Karl's been out there several times this year, but I hadn't been back there since Christmas of '07 I think, so it was nice catching up with everyone.

On Monday we took Karl's parents to the Boston airport so they could head to Utah, then we spent the next couple of days in Portsmouth, NH site seeing and visiting friends. On Tuesday we stumbled on this pizza place in Dover, NH. Holy crap this has to be the best pizza I've ever eaten. And I've eaten more than I care to admit.

Karl enjoying his piece.

Tuesday night we spent the evening with the Gurecki's, friends of ours from when I was living in Kittery. I was in the Young Women presidency with the mother, and had two daughters in my class. They are awesome people, and we always have a great time with them.

Wednesday we went to luch with an old friend of Karl's who also a Fierro nut. We ended up spending the entire afteroon with them, which was fun. They always have fun stories to tell. We drove past our old house, which is up for sale again. Kinda funny to see it, it was so small. Then we headed to our hotel in Portland. But first...

There are two things I am always adamant about when we travel out there - 1. eat at Friendly's, and 2. stop by Dunkin Donuts. We hit the DD a few times. We hit the Friendly's the last night we were there. For those not in the know, my Dad worked at Friendly's back in the day. I am probably the only one old enough to really remember much of our short time there, but we all remember the ice cream treats he always brought home. Such as these:I still remember being strapped into the car with everyone else while we drove all over New England so Dad could hit the Friendly's restaurants for samples and to see how the stores were doing. The good 'ol days. Anyway, nowadays we don't necessarily hit the place to eat the food, it's nothing to really write home about. But the ice cream is what brings us in. My personal fave - Reeses Pieces sundae. MMMMMMMMMM good!!

I look like the food I ate was spiked with something, but you get the gist. Anyway, we did dinner and ice cream, headed to the hotel, slept, and flew home the next day. It was a fun trip, and a nice time off from work and life.

We did our Christmas before we left. We decided this year that we would keep it simple, and we wanted to help out someone else this year. So we did boxes of goodies to some of my friends' husbands that are currently serving in Afghanistan as part of the Army's 5th Striker Brigade. Then Karl and I set an amount that we'd spend on each other, then went to Target and had a half hour to shop. We each got some decent stuff, and each got a little something funny.

Karl got me a dart board, though he admitted he liked the idea of having it to play with. I took that as a "this says it's for you, but it's really for me". Whatever works.

I now have an appreciation for parents who buy toys for their children, then realize it was the biggest mistake in the world. The noises they make are attrocious and beyond annoying:

It's been hidden a few times.

This was my joke to Karl. Sort of.

I thought this was Karl's joke to me, but he seemed to genuinely believe it was something I would like. Does this man not know me? Or women? I'll give him credit for trying. I got a good laugh out of it, as well as some of my friends. They suggested that I could use them if I'm ever asked to make a Brittney Spears type video.

Lastly, this was a gift from Allyson and Jon, Karl's brother and his wife. This has to be the best gift anyone has ever given. It kept all of us occupied for 24 hours. Well, one of the puzzles did. There's 4 mind-bender puzzles that you take apart and then put back together. They're quite challenging, and had us all ready to throw things and say things we would later regret at times. But they were fun.
Hope everyone had a great Christmas, and hope you have a good 2010!