Christmas Time is Here

Well, really Christmas time is over, and we’re patiently waiting for the New Year! It was another success and here is the wrap (hahahaha!) up of the events... After Thanksgiving, we got the tree and other decorations up. I’m happy to say that Sophie and Gizmo (especially Gizmo) weren’t even remotely interested in the tree. I say this because a couple of years ago I had to take my tree down 5 days after putting it up because my handsome guy was terrorizing it. This year, the tree (yup, same tree) was terrorized by someone else…

Winifred enjoyed her first Christmas tree despite the soakings she got from the evil purple spray bottle. Hardly a day went by without her crawling up the tree, knocking off and playing with ornaments, and just generally bothering the tree limbs. By Saturday, December 19th, when mom’s sisters’ families came over, I had to redecorate the tree with all the ornaments the little Turd had knocked off!

So come Christmas Eve, mom and I packed our toys into our little red (actually it’s tan-ish) wagon and prepared to go up to Indy to spend the holiday with the Sibs and what did we have to do BEFORE we could leave? Yup, we had to take down the tree. Sort of a bummer, but it was nice to come home and not have to worry about doing it afterwards.

As usual, I think my gifts were hits. I got each of the Sibs’ families the The Office Clue game. We played a couple of rounds – I won both, thank you very much, mostly due to my perspicacity (look it up). Hollian’s belated 21st birthday gift, a bottle of Bailey’s :), was a hit, too! I’ve already received a request from Natalie that I get her the same thing next year for her 21st!

Of the gifts I received, I got money for clothes from mom (BTW, the new bras fit great!), some gift cards, some DVD’s. But the prize for best present from this season goes to Haley. This adorable set of aliens making off with a gnome! I actually found the bigger yard version of this in a catalog a year or so ago, and I thought about getting it for Dad. But it was too expensive for me to get and I guess I never got around to suggesting a group gift from the three of us, so… Anyway, Haley found a smaller version and it’s perfect! It is currently sitting on the ledge of my desk at work. I had it at home, but the little critters kept making off with various things around the house. I figure they can run amok at work for a while.

The runner up in the fun gift category is Phil (see pic) from my Secret Santa, Shawn. The best part is when I opened it up and read the directions to add water to the dirt pellet and “fluff the dirt with a fork”! I loved it. Less than a week later, I come in to work and Phil has sprouted a head of hair, ur.. grass! I’m not sure how long the thrill of watching grass grow will entertain me, but for now, Phil is hanging with Bob, Ted, and Jareth the African violets.

Christmas did end up with a big uh-oh, though. Mom got sick and instead of getting better up in Indy, she got worse. I brought her back home and took her to the convenient care center and she was diagnosed with pneumonia. The doctor shot her up with some high-powered antibiotics and gave her an Rx for a Z-pac, but she wasn’t bad enough off to have to be hospitalized (I said ‘refrigerated’ at one point when I was talking to Boss #2 at work about it, don’t know where that came from). Unfortunately, I don’t have any paid time off until the new year due to my having sprained my neck muscles while hanging up my coat (don’t ask, it’s a short, un-interesting, and very painful story) earlier this month. And my aunt who lives less than a football field length down the road, well, let's just say it would never occur to her to volunteer to come over and hang with mom, her sister, while I was at work. Fortunately, Holly, who is off work until next week sometime, came down to nurse the sickee.

Ch-ch-ch-Changes!

I moved in with my mother this past month. (Hence the lack of updates during November – all of my free time has been spent either packing/unpacking, toting, lifting, etc. or playing Treasure Mania (now Treasure Madness) on Facebook. BTW, I'm SO happy to have Columbus's underpants!)

We both had to get rid of some of my furniture. My big thing was my couch. I loved that couch. I got it about 10 years ago for $250 and the cats and I would snuggle together on it. I’m a big girl, and the couch was big girl sized. I’ve never been all that comfortable (physically, not mentally or emotionally) on mom’s couch. But it has the matching love seat and is newer, so my couch went. It took four men from my church 30-45 minutes to figure out how to get the behemouth out thru three consecutive 90-degree turns and outside the house. (It took four men over an hour four years ago to get it in the apartment, but this time we already knew that it wouldn’t go out the backdoor and that the front window was too small, so they didn’t have to waste time testing those options. While we waited for one of the men to go get his truck, so he could take it to Goodwill for me, some frat guys came walking down the street and one of the men yelled and asked if they needed a couch. They said they could use it, so off trotted my couch. Sniff.. I loved that couch. I wonder if they would have noticed, being frat guys, if I’d left the petrified hairball in it.

Quite some time has been spent getting the room ready. Mom and I went to Lowes one Sunday after lunch on a fact finding mission and in less than an hour, I’d picked out paint, carpet and the border. Of course the underlying theme was “purple,” duh! and once it was all put together, I think it looks pretty stinkin’ good! Martha Stewart, eat your heart out! Tom and other Bro-in-Law Ed helped hang pics and a dragon and a wizard and the bi-plane dad made me this past weekend, so now once I get rid of a couple of more boxes, it’s all done! Here's a pic of the final product.

The border is my piece de resistance – is that spelled right? I opened a wallpaper/border book for kids rooms and chose it within minutes. It was $36/roll, but then I found the exact same border online for $15.99 per roll!! What a coup! (What’s with all the French all of a sudden??)

The cats and I moved in the weekend of November 7th, and the furniture followed us on the next weekend. It has been an adjustment for all concerned. Sophie and Gizmo had to leave the only home they’ve really ever known AND get used to there being another cat in the mix. Winifred had to get used to going from being Queen of the Castle to smallest and youngest of three. Giz and Wini made friends pretty quickly. I understand they even play together at night while I’m asleep. But Sophie and Wini are still not completely sure of each other. Although things have improved. This past weekend (Thanksgiving) there were 8 extra adults in the house for 2 days and 2 extra adults for 2 more days. We didn’t see much of Soph or Giz, and Wini accidentally got shut in the basement and spent one entire night downstairs, but everyone survived. Now the Christmas tree is up and assuming young Winifred doesn’t decimate it, we should have a happy holiday season.

There have been adjustments for me and mom, too. My normal routine was to come home, heat up some Easy Mac or a bag of frozen veggies, sprinkled with shredded cheese and go play on Facebook (Farmville, Mafia Wars, Treasure Mania, you know, the usual) and watch some TV until the old carpal tunnel acted up, and then hop into bed with whichever cat was still awake. Other than the occasional comment to a cat, I didn’t have to talk, no one wanted anything from me. I lived alone. Now I get home, mom generally has dinner made – BTW, she thinks vegetables are for every night! – or in the process, and although she says I don’t have too, I feel like I have to hang out and chat with her. I’ll adjust. I don’t have a problem hanging and chatting with mom, but it’s not my natural inclination, so until I get acclimated to being a roommate, I have to remind myself to do it.

Biscuits and Gravy

Well, yet again, my biscuits and gravy are a hit at KDDK's Bosses' Day breakfast.  One of the attorney's told me that he's been looking forward to them all week (as his assistant had the sign up sheet and he'd been nosing around to see what we were having), and another attorney told me that he'd never considered himself a biscuits and gravy type of guy, but mine are making him rethink his entire existence.

 

Tee Hee!

What's Up with Rose? - "The Working Years"

I know my long time fans have been thinking, "Rose celebrates her 100^th blog and disappears from the face of the earth!  I wonder what she's up to now!" for the past several weeks.  Well the answer isn't pretty.

 

First, there's work.  Let me state at the beginning that there is nothing that I do as a part of my job that I don't like doing… with the slight exception of calling people.  I just don't like calling people.  I don't mind talking to people who call me (which is odd because one would assume that the aspect about not knowing WHO is calling or WHAT they want might be something I wouldn't like), but I HATE calling people.  If I have only one work-related flaw (and I'm not saying I ONLY have one, I said IF there were only one), it would be that phone calls that I need to make tend to be put off.  I'm very bad about that.  Non-work-related case in point: I'd love to talk to my old college roommate, Janna.  I have her phone number.  I have a cell phone and a cell plan with free long distance.  There is NO reason not to call Janna.  I just hate calling people so I don't.  But you know, if she called me, I could talk to her for hours.  I'm weird, I know.

 

Where was I??  Sigh… Work.  Steve (Boss #1) is the partner in charge of the collection department at the firm.  He does a lot of administrative stuff regarding the department and, consequently, has me running all sorts of reports and working up spreadsheets, etc for him.  Oh, that reminds me.  When I was last looking for a job, back in August 2000 (not a pretty time in the history of Rose, BTW), I had an interview with a company for a job that I probably would have really enjoyed.  But they needed someone who had a strong working knowledge of Excel and who could jump into the job with both feet and run with the Excel stuff.  At that time, Rose didn't know Excel and although we had a nice time talking, I had to tell the interviewer that I just wasn't the girl for him.  Fast forward to now, or even 5 years ago, and Rose is very proficient in Excel.  Mostly self-taught, although there have been plenty of urgent phone calls to first my friend Kathy, then later Dad, before he retired, and now Haley with Excel questions.  I know there's tons that I don't know about Excel, but on my last review I requested advanced training in Excel.  Of course I specified training from someplace other than our illustrious IT department, but that's a whole other blog!

 

I really am wandering today aren't I?  WORK.  Back in June we got a placement of 3,600+ new collection accounts from a local business that in a big month normally only sends about 250-300 accounts.  So decisions had to be made.  Do we hire new people? If so, how many?  Steve has had me running all sorts of fun reports and whipping up all sorts of fun spreadsheets.  Very exciting, but all on top of my normal duties.  So Rose has been very busy in that regard.

 

And then, about two, (three?) weeks ago, two of the new hires started and guess who got the job of training them on entering all these new accounts.  Yup, Rose.  I know the girls in collections are busy, and none of them are busier than the supervising paralegal, so I'm really not bitching that it was ME instead of THEM doing the training.  I realize that it is a comment regarding my abilities and Steve's faith in me that he gives me these things.  Occasionally, though, I could do with a little less faith in me!  I don't like strangers (although I am better with the aid of my precious pink pills than I used to be – again, not a pretty time in the history of Rose) and having to sit in there one on one, or two as the case may be/is, with them was probably more stressful for me than them!  And although the two of them have really caught on like a house a fire, Steve still is having me review their work until they have the FDCPA training.  Did I mention that my life was good until I met the FDCPA?  And did I mention that I didn't really meet the FDCPA until I started here, despite doing collections/subro at the other firm?  J  hahaha!  Reviewing their work turned out to be quite an undertaking, and boring, since they were doing well enough that I wasn't finding many mistakes.  So generally it was after Noon before I was done with their previous day's work and I could start on my work.   Fortunately, they did their FDCPA training today so I'm free!!  Fun fact!  The third (and hopefully final) new girl starts on Monday, so the whole training thing starts again!  (yeah.)

 

Meanwhile on the other work front:  (and here, I'll sketch in some background since I don't' recall if I previously wrote about this,) last October the sh&! hit the fan in our subrogation department and the woman who was responsible for the work, well let's just say that she's no longer working here.  I had worked in … well, really, me and my secretary Becky WERE the subrogation department at my old law firm, but I'd managed to live a subro-free life for the bulk of 8 years.  Unfortunately the partner in charge of the subro department worked with me at the old firm (BTW, he adores me) and he knew that I am a Subro Diva and he asked me to help out until things could get back under control.  Now, a year later, I'm still helping out because they didn't hire a replacement for her.  In fact, we've split the job up and we have one person opening all of the new subro files and a variety of other duties, one person (me) filing suit on all of the files when the time comes and handling settlements, and a third person handling the litigation aspect of those files that I hated having to do, such as discovery, trial prep, etc.  And the files just keep pouring in.  I worked a big bunch of OT from last October until this past April at which point I just couldn't take it any longer.  Of course, then Dad started getting worse and I spent more of my time out with the 'Rents, so work wasn't my main priority.  Although I must say, the OT fundage was very nice.  Things on my end started piling up again, especially since the collection aspect had increased considerably (see above), so the OT has slowly weedled its claws back into me, and the fundage is still nice, especially after my recent review/raise. 

 

I'm thinking that this is enough for now.  Part Deux of "What's Up with Rose" will be devoted to her personal existence and possible medical/emotional issues.  Or maybe that'll be Part Theux.  Either way, it may have the subtitle of "Too Much Information" so be forewarned. 

Sept 19 - Talk Like a Pirate Day

Ahoy Mateys! September 19th is Talk Like a Pirate Day it is my favorite bizarre holiday (with Sneak a Zucchini on Your Neighbor’s Porch Night - August 8th coming in as a close second.) I’ve known about, yet not really observed Pirate Day for several years now, but this year it seemed like the right time to show my pirate-y side. My mateys and I decided to talk pirate-y all day at work for a short while there, we thought Pirate Day was 9-17, which is a Thursday. But we found out the actual day was a Saturday! Shiver me timbers!

While contemplating my future as a lily-livered landlubber, I found a treasure map that led the way to truly celebrating the holiday. Just follow the steps, X marks the spot …

Step 1 - Ducks
Deborah (“Deborarrr”), a saucy wench who I work with has been showcasing my rubber ducks each month at her desk here at KDDK because #1) she enjoys it and B) my desk has too many toys on it as it is, so the ducks tend to get lost in the process. (I will, however, maintain custody of the nativity ducks because I like having my nativity scene and I have a bunch of other scurvy dogs that sit in and watch the baby Jesus, including Batman, who protects Him from the Joker, a gnome, Darth Vader duels with Yoda over Him, a bobble-head penguin, and a stuffed vulture. But I digress.) When I asked her what type of ducks she wanted for September, since there’s no big holiday, she pointed out Talk Like a Pirate Day so on September 1st, pirate ducks showed up around her desk.

Step 2 – Chest o’ Booty
As I mentioned in a previous blog, I found the pirate chest/lunch box at Factory Card Outlet. The plan was to buy some chocolate dubloons to have spilling out of the chest but Deborarrr couldn’t find any when she went looking, and I never got back to Factory Card Outlet. But still the treasure chest full of candy has been quite a hit. Deborarrr makes anyone who comes for candy “arrr” for their candy or she forces them to walk the plank!

Step 3 – Inspiration
Then another matey, Kelly, told me that her sister loves Talk Like a Pirate Day and blogs about it every year. As she said this, a light bulb went on in my skull and crossbones. I needed to BLOG about Talk Like a Pirate Day! I had (at that time) 19 days to come up with my high-seas swashbucklin' adventure. But of course I’d need to be able to speak the lingo, so...

Step 4 - I found a website (http://www.talklikeapirateday.com/translate/) that translates anything into pirate-speak. I started my blog and translated it. So the blog was perfect. It only needed one more thing.

Step 5 – The Photograph
Like all truly talented photographers, I had to set the scene. Oh, I could have just posted a quick pic of the treasure chest and the ducks, but how bland.. If only I had a pirate costume.. Hmm… but wait! Do I not have an eye patch from my prior eye-goo problem? Does not a handsome young gnome of my acquaintance who generally dresses up as a pirate for Halloween have a hook? I mentioned my evil scheme to Deborarrr and then all we needed was for someone (me) to remember to bring in my birthday booty, er.. camera.

So long story short, below is photographic evidence of two hot, hip, happenin' pirates protectin' their loot. Happy Talk Like a Pirate Day!

100 Blogs Down... ??? to Go

This is my 100th blog entry and I thought I'd take this moment to take stock. I began my blogging in September 2007. In the past two years, I have lost a total of seven fish, not including all unnumbered fish progeny. And my father. I don't mean to sound flip, there, it's been a main topic. I've taken Sophie to the vet at least five times for hairballs. I've reviewed more than ten movies and correctly chosen one Oscar winner. I have solemnly shared with the world my addiction to both Webkinz (which has been beat, by the way) and to Farm Town (the jury's still out on that one).

I read a book about a woman who got fired and then got divorced and started a blog for 40-something women starting over in life and subsequently solved a couple of murders (my lifelong goal, BTW). And I went to see Julie and Julia (see my review) about this woman who writes a blog while cooking her way thru Julia Child's book. What I took from these two blog-related items was that I really want to become a famous blogger... and to solve a murder.

However, I'm not sure that my blog is famous blog fodder. After all, I don't see that my blog topics are generally very deep. In fact, I take pride in my general shallowness. I don't read books that have redeeming value - I go more for mysteries with some smut (although there has been a slight detour into vampire romances). I don't enjoy movies with a "point," I go more for movies with explosions and Gerard Butler's abs. I don't enjoy educational television, I tend to watch The Simpsons and music videos. I don't enjoy conversations about the economy or politics or, well, I think you get my point.

So what is my point? Well, I can't promise that my next 100 blogs will be filled with perspicacious insights regarding the economy, religion or politics. But I can promise more stories about me, my cats, my researching a decision to buy a new car in the next year or so, and my move back to W-ville. I'll also try to watch and review as many movies as I can afford to go see and Gerard Butler can make. Also, as Mom and I intend to travel some (once she gets her passport), I will attempt to regale you with stories of my travels and show lots of pictures along the way.

I promise you, my faithful readers, that this will NOT be a blog where I dig deep into my inner emotional thoughts. Instead, I will strive to merely scrape the scabby surface. I will not whine about the things I don't have, or try to figure out what could make me happier with my life. I'm generally a glass is half-full person and I try not to cry over spilt milk. And if there are cookies available to go with that glass of milk, and if I'm wearing my fuzzy bunny slippers with a warm cat by my side, my life is as good as it gets. And I'll be ok with that. My friends, this is the dawn of part deux of Rose's Ramblings. This is.. well, this is going on too long.

Thanks for staying with me this far and feel free to join me for future adventures. Feel free to leave comments - where are you from? how did you find my blog? Nothing thrills my shallow little heart like when I find a comment! And does anyone but me feed the fish?? What's up with that?

"You Can't Go Home Again" - Thomas Wolfe

You can never go home again, but the truth is you can never leave home, so it's all right. ~Maya Angelou

Back in February, when Dad got out of the hospital one time. He and I sat down and talked. I've mentioned it before. He told me a variety of things, but one of them was that he thought mom and I should sell the house in Wadesville and buy a condo or something in town and live together. I just sort of assumed that that's what would happen.

Mom and I have discussed it. With the current tax break to first time homeowners (and I would qualify) and the fact that it supposedly is a buyers market, it seemed like maybe this was the time to proceed. Now, I'm not going to say that we've looked hard. The house I grew up in has big rooms, a big backyard, a lot of peace and quiet. I drive around town seeing houses for sale that are so small and right up against its neighbor. Mom has a house full of stuff and I have an apartment full of stuff and collectively we have three cats which are NOT going to want to be close to each other, so a larger, roomier place is going to be necessary.

Mom knew that one of my main reasons for thinking condo was not having to be responsible for yardwork and house maintenance. I admit it, I'm generally lazy. I don't like to sweat or get dirty. I praise God for inventing air-conditioning and I firmly believe in taking advantage of His creation! So Monday, Labor Day, Mom and I went out to dinner at the new Feed Mill Restaurant in Poseyville. We talked about a variety of things, centering on Dad. There were tears, of course, and at one point we got to the topic of living plans and she pointed out that since the house is paid for, if I moved back home, I wouldn't be paying rent; and if I'm not paying rent, I can save up enough money that we could afford to hire someone to take care of the yard and other such things. It was like a lightning bolt hit me. DUH!

I've always been the type of person that I can make certain decisions easily. When I know what feels right, I go with it. What's the point of shilly-shallying? It just hit me that this was the right decision. I even talked it over with Dad on the drive back into the apartment. Mom doesn't want to leave her home.

Mom pointed out that I've been on my own now for 14+ years. Would I be able to handle moving back home. I told her that as long as she understood that the satellite dish and a black cat that sheds like nobody's business and yacks up the occasional hairballs come with me, and that I'm not a good housekeeper, and I am grumpy in the mornings and sometimes I might come home and grunt at her and then hide away on the computer/Facebook (Farm Town Rocks!) with the TV and my cats and not talk to her because I've had to talk to too many people and had too many people wanting too much from me all day and I just need some quiet, sane alone time, then I could handle moving back home.

So once I make a decision, I'm ready to make a plan and put it into action. So the first step of the grand plan is that Mom is going to move from the larger front bedroom where she's been sleeping for the past couple of years into the back bedroom where Dad had been sleeping and where had been their combined room for years before that. Then there's the extraneous furniture, including an organ (if anyone is interested), that needs to be sold or given away. Once the front bedroom is empty we'll have the 40-year old carpet taken up and replaced with something from this century. Meanwhile, mom will be taking her desk from the front room and moving her geneaology research into the computer room. Then I can start taking things out to Wadesville. Maybe if we keep our momentum going, we can get this all done by the end of the year. Sounds exhausting, doesn't it?

Anyway, long blog short, anyone want to help me move?