Oh yeah!

Me + 2 friends + tickets + Key Arena + October 2nd = Madonna

Just sayin'

It's January 25th. It's sunny and not a cloud in the sky. It's 64 degrees outside. Office windows and doors are open. And my motivation to work is completely non-existent.

_____________________________.

I couldn't come up with a title for this post, I have yet to find a word that describes this past weekend. Last week was my trip home for January. I had my flight scheduled to leave Fayetteville at 6:05 am on Wednesday morning. I had been watching the news and following the weather, because this is what was happening in Seattle last week:

Snow. And lots of it. Well, at least for the Seattle area. The flight left Fayetteville on time, but then we got delayed in Atlanta. Not because of snow. Because of a broken toilet. Delta knew it was broken, and knew it was going to take at least 30 minutes to fix it. Yet they loaded us into the plane anyway. Then we sat there and waited. Stupid. Anyway, once we finally took off, the pilot informed us that because of the western storms, the headwinds were very bad. So what is normally not quite a 5 hour flight was going to take a little over 6 hours. Plus the 45 minutes sitting in the plane waiting for the toilet repair, and that was not my idea of fun.

Anyway, as we were coming into Seattle, we could see from the air that the roads were not even close to being cleaned up. So I was really starting to think I would be stuck in Seattle. The problem with Seattle when it snows is you combine stupid drivers in any weather, rain that freezes to snow/ice, that thaws in the day and re-freezes at night, before finally turning completely to rain and flooding the area, and you get not fun driving conditions. My friend had been tracking my travel and probably rivaled Mom in her concern for me getting into Seattle. When I was finally able to turn on my phone, there was a text from her saying I could stay at her place if need be. So I called my neighbor Keith, and before I could even get a word out, he said "don't drive over here, the roads are horrible!" So, Seattle it was.

I made my way to my friend's house, they live about 20 minutes from the airport. I got settled in, and we just relaxed that night. The problem was I had been up since 1:15 in the morning Seattle time, so I was beyond tired. I hadn't seen them for a month though, so I sucked it up so we could catch up. The next morning, I didn't even get a chance to check the roads. My neighbor Keith called me and said the roads were still bad, wait till later, or don't come home that day at all. So I waited till noon, then decided to leave. I had a good half inch of solid ice over the entire car, which took some time to remove. Once I did, I got in, threw it into drive, and .... spun the wheels. I was stuck. The road was ice. I didn't want to play around with it too much, it was parked on a hill, and I have a fear of out of controls vehicles. Been there, done that. Don't care to again. So I put it in park and spent another day and night in Seattle. We again had a fun evening, watched some basketball and a movie, had pizza, and visited.

Friday morning I got up at 7:00 am because I had a meeting at Fort Lewis at 9:00. The temps had risen enough that the roads were finally driveable. After leaving I called just to make sure my meeting was still on, and was told it wasn't. Thanks for letting me know...

So I was finally heading home!! And this is what I found:

My car is stuck in there behind the trees, I couldn't get up my driveway. It took some shoveling, but I eventually got it up to the garage. And here's the view on my street:

Fortunately, my house was holding up fine. So I finally got to relax and settle into my house, 3 days later. It was so nice. There's something to be said about being home, and being able to relax in your own place. I chilled the rest of Friday, and finally got to sleep in my own bed. Saturday I was able to do some things around the house, relax a little, then head back to Seattle.

Before the storm and being stuck there, a group of friends had planned to do dinner. So Saturday night, we all got together for a good evening of fun. By the time I left, it was nearly midnight. An hour and a half later, I was home. Sunday morning I got up and headed back to Seattle to the airport at 9:00 am.

My flight left Seattle on time, but my next "can this trip get any more weird/ridiculous" moment was on the plane. The Patriots were playing for a trip to the Super Bowl, and it was right in the middle of my flight time. So I was REALLY hoping they had tv's in the seats so I could watch. Well, they did. They just didn't function. So I was going bonkers not being able to see it, and the pilot giving us periodic updates, and it was a close game! They won, which took the burn out. But still, I wanted to watch that. Stupid tv's. Then in Atlanta, we had an hour delay because of fog. Ugh. By the time I got home last night/this morning, it was 1:00 am.

I set my alarm for 5:45 am, then turned it off when it went off. And went back to sleep. And didn't wake up till 11:15 when the phone rang. Apparently the two 3-hour time changes in five days, not getting much sleep while home, traveling, and craziness had caught up to me. The guys at work were cool with me missing half the day, which I really appreciated. But I know if I hadn't done that, chances were good I would be sick in no time. I was seriously tired. I don't feel like I even went home, the trip went that fast. The travel part was obnoxious, and I don't care to do that again. But the rest of the trip was loads of fun, and I'm glad I was able to have a few days this month to enjoy life.

Stereotypes

Soldiers spend their free time at strip clubs and bars.

Southerners do nothing more than smoke and live in trailer parks.

While we are toiling away on the job site, our bosses back in the main office in Montgomery, AL are sitting on the veranda drinking their mint juleps.

Black people are nothing more than hoodlum drug dealers carrying guns, and can't be trusted.

Mormons marry two or three wives, and are not willing to acknowledge ones existence if one is not a Mormon.

We live in east LA, white people can't go out at any time of the day.

Walmart is too white trash, and normal people don't shop there.

Southerners talk funny, so they must be totally uneducated idiots.

All these are things my co-worker, who is also out here from WA, has said to me in the three months we've been here. All essentially based on things he's read or heard, not actually experienced. Because he won't take the time to. It gets a little annoying. Mom has heard my gripes, I'm at my wits end. The funny thing is, when he says these things, I will essentially correct what he's saying, or say I don't agree. And he changes his tune. I didn't realize it was possible for a late 40's aged person to be so easily influenced by other people's statements. He takes at face value what someone says. On some issues, he'll research it. But others, he just believes it's correct. The two latest ones that seriously annoyed me:

1. We live in a pretty bad area, no one argues that. Maybe I've lived enough places, and experienced enough "ways of life", that this place really doesn't phase me. I know to be careful where I go, and not go anywhere other than the main road when driving at night. I also know only a handful of people are making this whole place seem bad. But he has attributed all the bad we've witnessed to all black people, and we can't go anywhere at any time. I pointed out I went to the hair cutter place in the shopping center around the corner, and his first comment was "they do white people hair!?" Why wouldn't they? Yesterday when talking to someone, he noted that he saw someone walk through an open gate at the apartments, but he was white, so it probably wasn't a big deal. Me and the other guy just kind of stopped when he said that, amazed that he did say that. The nearest grocery store is a Walmart. He's said he doesn't like shopping there because of who else goes there. Really?! For someone who swears he's not prejudiced, he sure doesn't realize he REALLY is.

2. Yesterday we were talking about Utah, and a conversation he had the other day with another guy about this other guy's bad experience living in Utah. Tim knows I'm Mormon, so why he chose to make these comments, I'll never know. But he proceeded to tell me that this other guy said Mormon's are not nice people, they didn't want to deal with him because he's not Mormon, and actually treated him bad for not being Mormon. Tim then acted as if he was now believing this was true. When I said this guy was embellishing just a little, he argued with me. I counter-argued everything he said, but who knows if he believes me, the one who has lived there. Because, you know, he's never been there and only has other people's opinions to base his on....

Basically, I am thisclose telling him what I really think of his opinions. Right now, I politely tell him what I think. It apparently hasn't crossed his mind that I claim to be a bit of a southerner, and I love the way of life in the south. So every time he makes these statements, it's offending me. I love the Pacific Northwest, and I hope to stay there for as long as possible. But there is a bit of an elitist attitude there, and he is a prime example of it. I find it sad that he can't be open to a different way of life.

On other notes, I made biscuits this morning, and they were pretty good. Tonight for dinner, it's homemade mac 'n cheese, yummy! I don't know that North Carolina is really, technically part of the south, but it's close enough. And I can't find any southern cookin' restaurants. There's a Smokey Bones, which has awesome ribs. But otherwise, I'm having to cook my own southern dishes. I am a little sad about this, but such is life. I find it funny I have to go to Seattle to have some really good southern food. I found a restaurant that has to die for biscuits and gravy, and shrimp n' grits.

We gave our notice at the apartments on Friday. I found a place that's only 12 miles from the jobsite, which will be nice. And it's a nicer area, which should make Mom feel better :-). We're moving on Feb 11th. My project manager said they'd pay to get us out of our lease, but was a little hesitant to do so. Then he, for some reason, sent us the budget for the project. After seeing what they have allotted for our living expenses, I don't feel one iota of guilt for doing this. It's almost double what they'll end up paying by the end of the project.

I think I previously reported that the first couple of months on the project pretty much sucked because the Corps team we are working with was making it as painful as possible. Well, Scott and I decided to call a meeting with them to clear the air. It turned out to be a great idea, as we all shared our thoughts, and what we hoped for for the rest of the project. Since the meeting, we have been in a much better mood with each other, and it's not nearly as confrontational as it was. That's not to say we won't have issues down the road, but at least for now, we're all seemingly on the same page. There's something to be said for partnering.

We found out a week or so ago that my company is not really looking at work at Fort Lewis any more. Further, they're not really looking at any work outside of the southeast. Which got me a little concerned. At least I have a job till October. But I will have to start thinking about my next move here pretty soon. I don't really want to stay here, I'd rather head back to Seattle. Our joint venture company would most likely have something for me to do. I think I've built up enough of a good relationship with them that, if need be, I could ask to hire on with them in some capacity. I also have a couple of connections back in Seattle I could explore. So I'm not too worried about it, but it does make me pause for a minute at the thought.

Otherwise, I still haven't found much to do here. However, I decided over the Christmas holiday that I was going to stop bumming about it and make the most of it. Right now football is my saving grace, it gives me something to watch at least. But even when there is nothing on, I still try to find something to do or watch or read. I have apparently been to the Smokey Bones enough they know my order now. But they are nice waitresses/waiters, so I can't argue. I'm going to join a fantasy baseball league, just to keep my mind occupied a little. And the project is finally going full bore, so I'm staying plenty busy with that. I will make the most of the next 10 months here.

I'm a simple country girl...

Meaning when I hear a gun shot, it's typically from a shotgun and it's being aimed at an animal or target. That's what people do in the woods, at least where I live. Today I was introduced to the sound of gunfire from a different type of gun, either a rifle or pistol, though I'm thinking pistol. My safety guy Tim heard it too, and said it sounded like a large caliber, whatever it was. That made me feel REALLY good.... So how did I hear this? Well, it woke me up at 3:00 this morning. It took a minute to register, but once it did, I was thinking, "Am I really hearing this? And right outside my apartment, no less?!" Yes, it sounded like it was right across the street. Then a few minutes later were more shots, but they were further away. Then about 20 minutes later, more shots. I never heard sirens, so either the cops never came, or they kept their sirens off. I texted Tim when I finally got up this morning, and he said he heard it too. If there was ever a reason to find a new place to live, I think this covers it.

So, coincidentally, this past week Scott, Tim, and I started talking about making a joint effort to convince our company to let us look into getting out of our leases. If the guys aren't really feeling comfortable about where we live, we figured the request would get some consideration if the female asked the question and noted the guys also don't feel too safe. So I did yesterday. To my sort of surprise, my project manager didn't argue in the least, and offered to help with whatever he needed to. I think the combination of hearing our stories of drug dealers on the corners, hookers everywhere, and seeing more than our fair share of apparent crime scenes from all the cops everywhere, plus the fact our company recommended this location, they are not going to argue.

The guys are fortunate in that they are under 6-month leases, so if they just ride out the last 3-4 months, then they can just move. But I'm on a 1-year lease. So that poses a little issue. On Monday I get to go in to the apartment office and find out how to get out of the lease. It looks like we'll have to pay 2 months worth of rent, since there's so much time left on the lease. I'm hoping that doesn't scare my PM into changing his mind on this, because that will be $1,850. So I'm trying to find an apartment complex that's a little cheaper, to offset the cost of the buy-out. I think they should go for that, right?

So, on a day when it was sunny and 70 degrees, instead of going for a motorcycle ride and enjoying the day, I was apartment shopping. And I'm a little cross-eyed from all the apartments I looked at. The last couple I think I asked the sales chics the same questions three times. I found some good options though, I'll show them to the guys next week. There's nothing saying we all have to live in the same complex, but it is nice knowing they are right near me if I need something.

It's definitely been an interesting experience here, just re-acquainting myself with living in a city. I have lived in the woods, or close to it, for so long, I'm not used to the craziness and noise of city life any more. I had a friend this summer note that she couldn't believe where I lived, and that I could hear the crickets and it was so dark. It drove her nuts. I love the sounds and the fact there's no artificial light! In all reality, where my apartment complex is, it actually is pretty quiet, so it's not bad. If it weren't for the occasional gun shot...

As a side note, funny story. At least I thought so. So I'm at the last apartment I looked at today, and another older woman showed up at the same time. So they took both of us together to do the tour and see the model home apartment. We get to the game/entertainment room in the main office, and the sales ladies are pointing out that there are DVD's for renters to borrow. And the older lady stops and looks stumped. She stands there for a minute, then asks how we watch DVD's on the tv in the entertainment room, there's no cords. There was a 52" flat screen mounted on the wall. The sales girls were confused, then said "well, there's no DVD player on this one, so the DVD's are for your apartment." Still stumped, the older woman says "well, how do you watch tv when there's no cords?" The two sales girls were still not quite understanding what she was talking about. I just stood there and laughed in my head, I wanted to see where this went. Finally the sales girl hesitantly said, "Well, there's a hole in the wall behind the tv for the cords." Older lady, "Ohhhhhh, now I get it." Then in shear amazement, the sales girl notes that the fax machine in the office area needed a phone line, so they ran it above us in the ceiling! Craziness!!

The whole thing still makes me laugh.

The joys of....

living in an apartment again. My neighbor to the side likes blow 'em up movies. My neighbor below me likes heavy bass music. And both turn up their subwoofers so it bounces me off the walls. Last night I asked the ones below me to turn down the bass, and they complied. Apparently they thought I just meant for last night, because today I am bouncing off my walls again. They are newlyweds, and are fairly young. Perhaps they are still thinking they live in a frat and sorority house or something. Besides the loud music, they like to come and go at all hours, and make sure everyone knows it. I have never appreciated living in a house SO much. I don't want to be that annoying person that calls and tattles on people. But it may come to that. Just so I can have some peace and quiet. Is that too much to ask?

Other than that, still not a whole lot going on. We've met more people from here, and we're still getting the same responses on what to do around here - nothing. I will be shipping my Playstation back out here. And I've started watching DVD's of tv shows. Right now I'm on season 3 of Mad Men. Interesting show. It gets lots of buzz, but I don't really see it. It's good, but I wouldn't have kept watching it if I wasn't so bored. Any ideas on my next show, pass them on! I did find a few good shows on tv to DVR and watch. If you want an intense show, that gives a new appreciation for what the military is going through in Afghanistan, watch "Bomb Patrol: Afghanistan". Holy bessie, that show makes me nervous and jittery just watching it. I can't imagine what they are feeling. I also recently discovered a show called "Moonshiners". It's pretty funny. And educational. Not that I'm going to start a moonshining business.... ;-).

My project is finally going. We broke ground two weeks ago, though we are still basically just moving dirt around. So nothing exciting yet. About the only thing going on is the Corps annoying the heck out of us, and our project managers apparently wanting us to throw things at them. Our project managers don't seem to understand a schedule, because they are taking their own sweet time getting subcontractors signed up. Which is delaying us. And our Corps team are being pests about everything. This project is definitely going to be a challenge in dealing with them. I told my superintendent, Scott, the other day that he's going to have to give me occasional reminders to let it go, or shut my mouth. I have a tendency to tell the Corps what I think of them, which is not always productive. :-)

I am excited that I finally get to go home though, I leave tomorrow. It's been five weeks since I've been home, it's about time! I had originally gotten a ticket for Wednesday, because we were supposed to be going full-bore in the project by now. But since we're not, and I blame the project team for that, I bought a new ticket for Monday. And to top it off, I refuse to sit in a middle seat for a five and half hour flight. Since there weren't any seats other than middle seats left at such short notice, I am flying first class. Well, that and I'm taking a red-eye back. And I absolutely refuse to fly a red-eye in a middle seat. Then on Thursday of last week, we found out we finally got the state elevator inspector to come do the final inspection on my Ft Lewis project (yes, the one we finished three months ago). It's Monday. So my company said to change my ticket to fly home this weekend so I can be there for the inspection. So I'll spend Monday morning at Ft Lewis, which I can handle. At least I'll be home!!

I finally went to the dentist the other day. It's been a few months, ....plus some years...., since I've been .... and it showed. I figured I had a cavity or two, I can tell a couple of spots that are starting to hurt a little. I did not anticipate the plethora of cavities they found. So I get to look forward to dropping a little cash on some fixed up teeth when I get back. Merry Christmas to me!

Speaking of Christmas, this year I have just not felt it. I have a serious case of the bah humbugs. I blame it on the travel. I did put up a little tree and some lights in my apartment, but it's not my house with my decorations. And I didn't want to spend a lot of money on decorations when I have a whole bunch at home. It didn't even occur to me till yesterday that I didn't do any cards - sorry. Since I didn't forward my mail to this place, I haven't seen any cards, I'm guessing I'll have a little pile of mail when I get home. So I apologize for not reciprocating the seasonal thoughts you may have sent. It also does not in any way feel like Christmas here. It's been in the 60's in NC, and sunny. There's decorations out in some places, but otherwise, you'd never know it was almost Christmas if you didn't know it was December 17th. I will go all out next year, just to make up for this year!

Well, I have a few minutes of quiet going. I can watch this week's CSI. Hopefully that means they went out for the evening. Oh wait, never mind.....

After a week...

I've been in North Carolina for a week or so. Honestly, I can't even remember how long. I'm so bored, time has kind of gone blank on me. I flew in on the 14th, so two weeks I guess. My project hasn't gotten going yet, we've just had a couple of meetings. Our job trailer was delivered on Tuesday of this week, so I was able to unload my truck finally. But we're apparently not getting power to it for another week. So I get another week of sleeping in a little :-). In the meantime, I do have a little bit of work to do, but nothing that will take up whole days. So I pretty much sleep till whenever, have some breakfast, go to the little gym at the apartments and walk or ride the bike for an hour, shower, and do nothing the rest of the day. Maybe around 7 pm I get motivated to do some work. It's a good work life I guess.

Other than that exciting bit of life, I have been exploring a little. I have been able to drive around Fort Bragg a little, it is a huge base. It's the home to the 82nd Airborne and the Special Operations Forces, which also requires soldiers to jump out of planes. So there are jump trainers everywhere. It's kind of cool to see. There's an 82nd Airborne museum in Fayetteville I've been told is a must visit, so I will probably head there this week sometime to kill time. But it is weird to be around Army uniforms all the time. At least in WA I could escape it, my house is nowhere near Fort Lewis. Here, I live 1/2 mile from the Base. There's no escaping it. Not that it's a bad thing, it's just a little to get used to.

In my wanderings around the area, it has been quite humbling, and a little scary, to see the couple of areas where entire swaths of land and houses are destroyed from a tornado outbreak here last April. Apparently the state of NC had 122 tornadoes in one day in April, and several of them were here. When driving into the main gate, you can see on either side of the road where a tornado passed through. When I was first out here, and didn't know why, I was thinking that those houses were looking pretty bad, and a little sad that there were tarps on the roofs and whatnot. Then I found out why. It's kind of scary to think of what did that. Then we found out a tornado also touched down right up the road from our job site. I just figured the trees were all askew from some construction company or something. No, they were blown all over the place. Crazy. I'm not a fan of thunderstorms, certainly not ones that have extra winds to them. And I live on the third floor of a three floor apartment complex. Should be a fun year...

So this weekend we had BEAUTIFUL weather. While my house is getting deluged in rain back in WA, I'm loving this 70 degrees and sunny stuff we're having here. Yesterday I was a lazy bum and didn't get myself together very quickly, so I decided to just go for a ride on the motorcycle. I found my "need to clear my head, go for a quick ride" route. It takes about an hour, and it's on some back roads with beautiful scenery. I also found a nice golf course that I'll probably hit up here pretty soon. I am super glad I brought the motorcycle with me, I can see going for some awesome rides while I'm here.

Today I was a little more energetic in getting up and going, so I headed to the coast. I decided to go down to Wilmington, which is about 2-1/2 hours southeast of me. Given it looked to be a long day of driving, I took the truck for this trip. I took the back roads so I could see the countryside. It was such a great drive. Kind of in reverse order of how I took these, I'll start with the finish line first. I ended up down along the Kure beach (said "curry"). So gorgeous!

I love how the sand kind of just does it's own art with the water:
Under the boardwalk:

It was so relaxing to sit and listen to the waves. What made it even better was the light breeze and the 72 degree temps. I have always said the east coast beaches are better than the west coast ones. This beach confirmed that thought. I'm totally looking into getting a rental there for some weekends while I'm out here, even if just for a night. So nice!

On the drive down, I took my time and stopped to look at some old houses. One of the reasons I was so excited to come back east for this project was the old structures. For some reason, the east has so many abandoned houses, and they are so awesome to look at. I love how they were built, and the fact that they are still standing, and that a lot of them are covered with trees, vines and other growth. I would love to know their stories. Unfortunately, most are either on someone's property, or still occupied. So I can't venture too close to those. But I did find a few that I stopped to get pics.

This one is an old school that was built in the late 1800's. There actually was a plaque for this, that's how I know that.
This house was right on the side of the road, so I pulled over and meandered around the property for a little while. I so wanted to go into the house and the outbuilding, but I know that's not the safest idea. There's no telling what critters are in there, or weird humans. Plus, it was obvious those structures were ready to drop. So I stayed outside. This is the one side that's not covered with trees and vines:
I'm guessing this was the front of the house. Though on the other side it appeared there was another main entrance, so who knows. But looking through the windows, it had some nice fireplaces and wood slat ceilings.

One of the things I love about the old houses is the wavy glass. I soooo wanted to steal some of these panes, but I was good... :-)
I loved this. Three different types of footing support: brick, CMU, and a chunk of wood. Whatever holds the house up, right?
It's cool to me to see how much construction has evolved over the years. Per building codes, air vents of some sort have to be installed along the perimeter of a crawl space. They are usually some sort of plastic or masonry deal that has holes in it. This house I found appeared to be ahead of the "building codes" times. The brick skirting for the crawl space had bricks missing every second brick or so for the vents. I was impressed.

This is the outbuilding, kind of a small barn:
I loved how they put the horizontal siding up over the diagonal sheathing, all 1x wood. Goes to show that good old fashioned wood does a lot better over time than all the convenient materials we have today. It was really fun to be able to look at this place up close. I passed a lot of other places that I could have gotten out and looked at, but figured I'd save them for future adventures. Plus, if I give it some time, I figure I can catch them in the spring when the overgrowth is green and more pretty. So looking forward to those drives!

On the drive home, we had a GORGEOUS sunset. I tried to get a pic as I was driving, that's why this one sucks. But you get the idea:
I scared the lady in the truck next to mine, her face was pretty funny. Anyway, I made it home with lots of plans for the next year. I want to hit the coast a few more times, and I have plenty of backroads to explore. I want to get a more comfortable seat, and some bags, for my motorcycle. I can see doing a lot of these trips on the bike. Should be pretty fun!!