Casual Monday

My Sunday evening routine isn't what the majority of the LDS community would consider appropriate Sabbath day activity. More often than not, I wash about two loads of cloths - whites and darks. I, personally, don't consider laundry a chore. In my no child or husband world, laundry is a non-chore. It's almost as if I'm really not doing anything. The washer and dryer do all the work, I just show up after 30 minutes or so to throw the first load into the dryer and start a new one.

Anyway, yesterday around 6pm (prime laundry time) I got a call from my friend Jenna and we spoke for 2 1/2 hours. I was so excited that she called and getting to talk to her for so long was HEAVEN!!

Well, needless to say, when we finally did hang up at 8:30pm my brain was not thinking about laundry and whether or not I had any "work" cloths for Monday. All I thought about was doing a quick blog post and then winding down for the night.

BEEP!
BEEP!
BEEP!

Yeah, I'm at work in jeans and the blouse I wore to church yesterday!

So Much For That

Here I thought I'd have all this extra time on my hands while sitting in my hotel room these past couple of nights. Um...yeah, right.

It's 9:16pm Wednesday evening and I'm just getting in.

Last night it was after 8 when I finally got in for the night.

On the plus side, I have learned a great deal from the meeting I've been attending these past few days and I'm actually excited to get back to work and implement the knowledge I've gained.

Granted, with Ike barrelling down on the Houston area, it could be a couple of days before that happens. ConocoPhillips put out an email this evening stating that the Houston offices would be closing at noon on Thursday with the plan to re-open on Monday. We'll see how that goes.

You all will probably think I'm certifiable, but I'm pretty excited for our impending weather. I wish we could enjoy it without all the destruction.

Off to Oklahoma

I still can't seem to get anything out of my brain and into my blog, but I'll be away on business this week with several nights on my own and plenty of time to blog. Maybe I'll be able to dislodge some posts (I don't count weather updates as real posts).

I'm taking my camera on the off chance that Ponca City, OK has some pretty landscape.

I'm scheduled to return home Friday morning. Just in time for Ike??

A Room With A View

As much as I LOVE the movie "A Room With A View", this isn't going to be about Lucy Honeychurch, George Emerson or Mr. Beebe. If you have not seen this movie and you like Merchant Ivory films (Howards End, The Remains of the Day, etc.), this is the movie for you!! You may also like this 2008 PBS Masterpiece version. (viewer discretion advised for both versions)

But on to the real reason for my post.

I have friends who find this part of the world a little on the ugly side. I don't happen to agree with them, but if I listen to what they say, I can see what they are seeing.

Houston is a concrete jungle. The westside, where I live and work, has seen major growth in the past 5 years; tons of houses, tons of new stores. To make way for this growth, lots and lots of concrete has been poored. There doesn't seem to be much room for anything green.

Or is there?

When driving down I-10, you only see concrete, but from my vantage point on the 11th floor of the Westlake II tower, I see tons of green.


Granted, it's hot, humid and flat, but there is some green!

Now we just need to tackle the trash problem. Anyone want to get together and pick up trash?

BIG BANG

Besides the fact that I was running about an hour late for work, today started out like every other day: I get up, get ready, drive to work, park on the 5th floor of the garage, walk a short distance to my office, log onto my computer and work for the next 9 hours. Same thing Monday - Friday.

Today was no different until I got to the garage. I pulled in and noticed it was fairly dark and that only the emergency lights were on. Ok, no biggie, they've had trouble with the garage lighting before, but a little voice in my head was saying, "This ain't right!" My brain was saying this, but my eyes were seeing other people getting out of their cars and making their way to the elevators, so I continued to my parking spot and made my way to the elevator.

As I exited the elevator and came around to the entrance of my office building, there were hundreds of people milling around outside. Part of me was surprised, but the little voice in my head said, "Told you so!"

Come to find out, at around 6:30 this morning, one of the main transformers in the building exploded. This in turn shut down all power to the building and garage. I spoke with one of my co-workers who was there when it happened and she said it shook the building.

My first thought was, "I'm so going home!!"

Yeah, right!! We have offices in the building next door and we were told by management to go and help the techs there.

DANG!! So much for an early weekend.

I assume they had a backup transformer; power was restored by 10:30 and we were told to get back to work!

(Don't worry, no one was hurt in the explosion)

It's all in my head.

I hate to move!! I hate moving from one place of residence to another and I hate having to move my office. My father moved us 19 times before I was in 5th grade and it was traumatic every stinking time!! Three more times after that, but we stayed in the same schools, so it didn't hurt as much. I've got nasty little psychological scars and a mindset that any and all moves are evil!

My office is what I'm dealing with today. My whole day has been taken up with packing 2 years worth of crap into 2 small crates so that it can be moved 4 floors up this weekend. Thankfully I don't have to actually move the stuff myself, but packing it is just as bad in my view! Monday is going to be crummy because not only did I move, but so did 100 other people and more than enough of them are going to have computer problems I'm going to have to fix while also getting my computers back up and going.

Sorry for the run on sentence, but that's how my life feels right now. ONE HUGE RUN ON SENTENCE!! It's like my brain can't stop thinking, but at the same time can't settle on one thing to think about. One day, hopefully pretty soon, I'll be able to tell you about what else is going on in my life. For now, I'm keeping it under wraps.

Maybe my yucky day yesterday was in anticipation of today???

Dang, I've been a whiney cry baby lately!! I need more cheese!!

Should I be at work today??

Ever had one of those days where getting out of bed wasn't the wisest choice? I had another night of not being able to get to sleep until after 1am, so needless to say, 5:45 rolled around awful fast. As a side note, I was able to watch all 4 1/2 hours of Wives and Daughters!! I haven't watched it in a few months and I absolutely love it! So anyway, I hit the snooze until 6:30 and even though I didn't get out of the house until a few minutes after 7, was still able to get to work on time thanks to no school. So I pull into the parking garage, find my favorite parking spot, put it in park, finish listening to Roula & Ryan talk about who knows what, turn the car off and get my stuff together to go to my office. But wait, somethings missing. CONFOUND IT!! I've managed to leave my laptop at home. So I stand there for a second thinking about what I should do and decide to go up to my office and wait a bit for traffic to die down and then make a little quick trip home. So at about 9 I leave, make a non-routine stop at McD's for a little breakfast and make my way home to pick up my laptop. Mission accomplished, it's in the car and I'm on my way back to the office. Again, I pull into the garage, my favorite spot is still open (SCORE!!), nothing on the radio to finish listening to and make my way to the garage elevator. But wait, somethings missing!! I still didn't have my laptop; I had left it in the car. My writing this blog is testament that I was finally able to get my laptop to my office, get it turned on and now at least look like I'm working!! Lets hope the rest of the day is a bit more even-keeled.

Tooting my own horn

Thought I'd take a few moments to toot my own horn. 2007 was a great year for me at work. On top of my regular day to day work I took on several projects that have helped me get noticed by management (in the good way). Last week I had my performance review and found out that the hard work paid off. I was given the highest review you can get. The most exciting part of this (to me) is the financial part. The employees who get the highest review also receives 2% more on their annual raise and yearly bonus. ChaChing$!$!