"If we couldn't laugh, we would all go insane"

I'm pulling out the Jimmy Buffet lyrics tonight because it's the song that keeps going through my mind regarding this work move. For those of you who don't know, my department moved to a new building this week.  I thought this week was going to be super stressful because it was going to be so chaotic.  But it turns out that the chaoticness has just been really humorous to me.  If they didn't want me to work for a week, they should have just told me.  Originally we were told that we were moving on Thursday.  Does "Hey, you're moving on Thursday" sound to you like "We're going to start moving you on Tuesday?"  Me either.  But Tuesday early afternoon the MIS people started moving the computers and phones out of our office.  No big deal, I decided I could just bring my laptop in on Wednesday to do the paperwork that they still expect me to get done.  Wednesday morning at 8:45 when I got to work, the maintenance guys were dismantling shelves and removing counter tops (the equivalent of our desk space).  I lasted until about 11:00 before I went home.  Thursday was the move day, so I didn't even attempt to go in. Today, Friday, I planned to work from home for a little while and then go to the office to start settling in.  Hahahahahahahahahahaha!  Here is what I found at 2:30 this afternoon in my new office:

Above is the view from the front door.  All those black file cabinets are the two drawer cabinets that are supposed to be under our new counter tops.  And the back wall to the right is where the next pictures are zoomed in on.

If you look at the blue tape on the wall, mine space is the tape farthest to the right.  Yesterday when I went into the office (before they started moving things in), they had the counter tops laid on the floor where they would go.  My space did not have counter top in front of it.  I'm not really sure what that means.  Maybe I'll be working from the floor.  I could put a nice rug down.  Maybe get an inflatable chair.  The possibilities are endless!

Here is a close up of my space.  See the phone on top of the red tub?  That is my phone.  Well, it's half mine.  I get to share it with one of my coworkers.  Don't get me started on that.

See now why I'm choosing to laugh so I don't go insane?  It's that or cry or get really frustrated.  Did I mention that one of the maintenance men was hanging pictures on the wall in other parts of the building today?  He must not be savvy about putting up counter tops.  I'm thinking I might have a space, complete with my shelves to set my stuff on sometime in mid-January.  Any other guesses?

Decorating 2012

2:00 until 7:00ish. Two people. One Christmas tree. 32 strands of lights.   Zero trips to the store! (That is definitely a record).  One strand of garland.  Two nativity sets.  Lots of snowmen.  Various other decorations.  A decorating extravaganza!  Here is the progression of the 3 hours of light putting on.  Emily and I are a great team.  Each plays her vital role. I string the lights.  Emily unrolls each strand and has it ready for me before I need it.  Here is the first row of branches finished:

Emily had a snafu with the garland and had to put new lights on it.  But she was a trooper.

More than halfway there and getting a little loopy :):

At the top where I can't reach, so I have to straddle some chairs instead of getting up and down and moving chairs.

Finishing touches.  Red bows:

The injuries.  I always cut up my fingers on the needles.

Pizza for dinner has become the tradition.  Normally we have frozen pizza, but we forgot to buy one, so we had to go to Papa Johns.  Notice the mess in the living room.  We are still in the midst of decorating.

This year, the tree came complete with presents to go under it.  Thanks to a very early visit from Santa and some presents from my mom.

And here is the completed living room.  A job well done, if I do say so myself!

Thanksgiving Weekend

So, someone finally mentioned that I haven't been blogging.  It wasn't necessarily why I haven't been blogging, but it motivated me a little bit.  The fact is, I've planned several blog posts in my head and then never gotten around to typing them.  That's just how it goes sometimes.

Yesterday I celebrated Thanksgiving in Roselle with my mom's side of the family.  At some points in the evening I was laughing so hard I cried. My plan was to tell you the story about the coffee cup, but I think it would get lost in translation and I forgot to take a picture of the coffee cup, which would have helped you understand the story.  At the end of the evening, my cousin Jake said, "I love when Teresa visits.  She laughs at everything!"  I finally got to see my cousin's engagement ring (she got engaged in July) and hear some wedding details.  Here are some pictures of our dinner:

 Before consumption.

 A candid of the diners:

 Hey, everyone look:

Then, today, Mom and I left the house at 9:30 to start shopping.  My kind of Black Friday.  We went to Woodfield and went to Gap and New York & Company.  Then we stopped at Chickfila for lunch :).  Unlike if we had gone in Peoria, there was absolutely no wait.  And I think I could have gotten free fries!  You know how they walk around asking if you want a refill on your drinks?  Well, I was eating the last of mom's fries (I had already eaten my own!) and the owner asked if I wanted a refill.  I was taken aback and full, or I would have seen if he would have really given me more fries.  Then we headed to Stratford for a couple of more stores.  And we ended at Best Buy.  Now, I am parked in a chair and might not move again.

Roy G Biv

Tonight at Bible Study we were discussing God's promise to never flood the earth again and that the sign of that promise is the rainbow.  The teacher stated that the rainbow has been  consistent throughout all these generations.  In elementary school many of us learned Roy G Biv so that we would know the order of the colors of the rainbow: red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, violet.  I was talking to a couple of women who went to school in India.  Interesting fact of the evening--they learned the colors of the rainbow in opposite order--Vib G Yor.  Someone mentioned the fact that Roy is probably not a common name in India.  One of the ladies said, "Vib G Yor was not a popular name in India either!"  Hilarious!

Why I like football movies but not football

I've always loved sports movies.  I've never really understood why, since I don't really like sports.  Especially football.  I don't like football really at all.  As a matter of fact, one of the fastest ways to get me out of the room is to turn on a football game.  Yet, I love football movies.  And not just the off the field stuff, but the actual games.  I've been watching the TV show Friday Night Lights.  Which is all about football.  And I sometimes rewind to watch the football parts of it.  But tonight I just realized why I like it.  I don't have to watch all of the time outs.  One slow play at a time.  Soooo boring.  But fiction is fast paced and you only see the important stuff.  :)  I guess I'll stick with fiction over the real game.  And I'm okay with that. 

There is something wrong with me!

I have been sleeping with my window cracked all week.  At 4:30 this morning I woke up to go the bathroom and realized I was sweating.  When I woke up this morning my room was 52 degrees.  I just walked my rent to the office in a t-shirt, exercise pants, and flip flops.  It is 49 degrees outside.  My hands were the only thing cold.  Sometimes I wish people who are cold all the time could live in my body for a day or two to understand how miserable I sometimes am!

PS.  I know...there are other things wrong with me, but this is the one I wanted to blog about today!

Practically Perfect in Every Way

Last night I was able to go see Mary Poppins at the Civic Center.  It was really good.  It is a movie that I have loved for a long time, so it had a lot to live up to.  I'm not sure that I would say the play was better than the movie, but it was good.  New songs and revised old songs.  The highlight was definitely the song "Step in Time."  Excellent.  At one point during the song, Bert, with cables attached, walked up the side of the stage, upside down across the top of the stage, and then down the other side.  It was so cool!

I sat with Kari, Jan, and Kari's parents.  This was during intermission.  There were some technical difficulties that stopped the show twice.  It was not great, but it will make the memories last longer. :)  I was singing Mary Poppins songs throughout the day today.

Chick-fil-a Take One; Chick-fil-a Take Two

Chick-fil-a opened in Peoria on Wednesday :). I don't know that you can comprehend my elation. Well, I guess if you think about a restaurant that you love that you can only have when you visit family because it is so far away. And then think about having that restaurant five minutes from your house. Comprehension! Here are photo memories of my Chick-fil-a experiences:

 This is a really bad picture of the day before they opened with some of the tents set up when people camped out for 24 hours to get a year of free food.

 Thursday morning of opening, I was getting ready for work and decided that I would surprise my coworkers with chicken biscuits.  Here I am at the drive through.

 There was only one car ahead of me.  In this picture I was trying to get the sign on the side of the building.  And I was trying to be quick about it so that I would have my money ready, although there wasn't anyone behind me, so I could have taken my time.

 The sign at the front of the building. :)

 Friday I was off of work, so I found some friends who could go for lunch.  At one point we had a kids table and an adult table, but then we felt guilty using up two tables, so we each had a kid on our laps.  In the background you can see all the people at the counter and the people who couldn't get in the door. It was crazy.  But the food was still good!  And the customer service was still amazing!

 Hudson was my table buddy.  One day we will get a picture with him smiling!

 

And for those of you wondering, I will not always be this excited about Chick-fil-a.  It is one of my favorite places to eat, but now that it is five minutes from my house, it will become just like any other place I like to eat at.  I won't talk about it all the time.  I won't be fixated on getting it when I go other places that have it.  You might never hear about it again.  :)  But I will still love it!

Raise your hand if you locked your keys in your car yesterday!

 I did! I did! :) And what a comedy of errors it was...

Last night I went to a cookout at Kari's parent's house. I parked, put my keys in the console, got out of the car, took two steps, and realized that I had hit the lock button on the car door before I got out. And I left my cell phone in my car. It wasn't convenient, but it wasn't a huge deal either. I have a spare key in the apartment. But Emily was going to be gone until after 9. So I called her to see if she could go by the apartment before she went to dinner and leave the apartment unlocked. My plan was to have someone take me to the apartment to get my spare and take me back to my car. She said she would do that. (I know it wasn't ideal to leave the apartment unlocked but it was just what needed to be done). About 15 minutes later, Emily called Kari's phone to talk to me. She started by saying, "So...we have a little problem." She had left her apartment key on her desk at work in Bloomington 45 minutes away. So, we had to pay to have someone from the apartment come let us in. Kari's mom offered to drive me to my apartment to get my spare key, but sometime in the evening I realized that could borrow someone's car and go get my keys myself.  I borrowed Nancy's van and went and got my keys.  Halfway back to the house, I realized that I should have had someone drive me to get my keys because I didn't have my license.  Don't worry...I didn't get pulled over.  But could you imagine how that would have gone over if I had been pulled over?  "No, officer, this is not my van.  No, officer, I don't have my license.  Yes, officer, I will go down to the station with you."  Really, I would have tried to convince him to follow me to the house where he could have a hot dog! :)  I got to the house without incident and got home with my own car later.  Since there had been a bonfire at the house, I wanted to take a shower to wash the smoke smell out of my hair.  As I was shutting off the water, I realized I had locked the apartment door when I got home and if Emily had come home while I was in the shower, she couldn't get in!  I threw my towel on and ran for the door, grabbing my phone on the way.  Emily HAD gotten home and texted me and called me!  :)  Luckily, she had only been at the door for a minute or two!  But now we both have our keys...

Snakes in the bed.

Snakes under the table.  Snakes in the plants.  This is the dream I had last night.  I moved into a new apartment.  And one of the things the apartment furnished the apartment with was this long stick with a pokey thing at the end to grab the snakes and throw them outside.  I was NOT okay with this.  But, in the dream I also never considered finding a new apartment!  I would just freak out any time I saw a snake and make someone else use the stick to get rid of it!