09 November 2010

…ready to go the night before…


Well, today was MUCH better than yesterday at Office! I absolutely KICKED ASS today! Compared to leaving the office and feeling like a failure yesterday, I left today, feeling like I won the fucking Olympics! It was a very successful day, here's to hoping for a repeat performance tomorrow!

So…it’s been cold as fuck and raining.  But, that is OK because our lovely friend, La Nina is DUMPING fresh powder on the mountain!  So, before I go any further…let me just say thank you to this lovely weather pattern we get every few years in the Pacific NW.  I heart you La Nina! It makes for an epic boarding season and I am beyond excited for this year.  

I need to remember to go get wax and a cheap iron so I can prep my board.  Although, I should check it first, I may just need to run the iron over it to smooth out any bumps and then just lightly scrape it.  I’m usually pretty good about keeping my board waxed and I only boarded twice last year.  Soo…guess I’ll be making a trip downstairs later to give my plank a pre season inspection.  Yep, that MSB 020sounds about right.  SO.FUCKING.EXCITED to go boarding this year!  With the exception of last year, I have had a season pass the three seasons before.  Ah, boarding…how I’ve missed you so.  Especially because I remember taking some INSANE pictures during those years on my point and shoot.  I can always Photoshop them later anyway.  It just sucks shooting at such low resolution vs. shooting with my DSLR at 300 dpi.  You lose so much image quality, but it will have to do because I’m not taking my DSLR boarding.  It’s way too big to cart around anyway.  Being able to get good shots is most definitely a bonus for boarding!  Shit, I digress…I should probably make sure I can find the rest of my gear while I’m at it.  HATE scrambling last minute for everything in the AM.  It’s always all ready to go the night before so all I hafta do is roll out of bed, do a half assed hair and makeup job and it’s off we go.  Timberline is opening it’s lower lifts tomorrow, and with this cold storm front in for the next day or so, we should get some good accumulation.  Here’s to hoping that the resorts DO get to open on Thanksgiving weekend, I wanna get my shred on!
Random…LOVING the remix that just came on the Comcast RockTLL 004 Station.  It's Paper Planes by MIA, but with a rock mix and totally different lyrics by the Street Sweeper Social Club.  Hm, a new ending to blog posts?  Song of the Day!  Yay!  Adding to bottom of this post.

Quote of the Day: Perspective is the key to happiness…even a bumpy road looks smooth from a distance.

Random GOOD Life Lesson # 129: You will have one of the best times of your life with your best friend on a random Tuesday night drinking wine, talking, laughing, crying and drunk facebooking. It will remind you for days, of one of your many favorite quotes: “I always knew we’d look back on our tears and laugh, but I never thought we’d look back on our laughter and cry.”





08 November 2010

…all I really wanna be is a Snow Bunny…

 

OK, um…so…not enough time in the day.  EVER.  I have been spending WAY too much time being a Stress Puppy when all I really wanna be is a Snow Bunny!  Hee hee, can’t wait to get up to Matera Weddingthe mountain and carve some wicked lines in fresh pow.  Yeah baby.

So, weekend catch up.  Spent some much needed time with Buckeye, (He being the Significant Other has been given a nickname) on Thursday and Friday nights.  Good company, good food, good wine, good conversation, good laughter among other things…as always an amazing time.  Wait, did I say it was good?  Winking smile  So…I went home early afternoon and pretty much held the couch down.  I took a nap and caught up on some DVR’d shows.  Went to bed early and slept kinda late again on Sunday.  I played Domestic Goddess for a while and then edited some photos.  A good friend of mine took the photos and I edited them for him.  I’m very happy with the way they came out.  My favorite ones are featured in today’s post.  Sunday was another lazy day, I haven’t been feeling well lately.  I started to get sick, thought I chased it off but I just don’t think I’ve ever fully recovered.  I’m sure I have bronchitis again, happens every year.  Anyway, I just felt heavy and had no energy on Sunday.  I went to bed early, yet again, in anticipation of getting up early and a long day at Office on Monday.

DSC_0415 copySOOOOOooooooo…Office.  Ugh, that is my biggest contributor of stress right now.  I should try to give an overview of what a typical day at Office entails for me.  Here’s my attempt:  Arrive at Office and flip light switches, copiers, my PC, etc.  Get a cup of coffee while PC is warming up.  Exchange witty banter w/ passing coworker.  Go back to desk and handle emails.  Get interrupted.  Go back to what I was doing.  Phone rings.  Handle caller and issue and go back to what I was working on.  Maybe some time passes, maybe it doesn’t.  Someone comes in the front door. (Let me clarify.  We do not have a receptionist.  I do not sit at the reception desk and we all have direct lines, so I am the Gate Keeper at Office, among other things.  I have to greet anyone coming in the front door at all times and so you can only imagine how many times in a day I am interrupted whether it be a quick signature for the Fed Ex/UPS guy or an issue that takes up more of my time.) Handle person/issue/WTF they needed and go back to what I was doing, or TRY for that matter.  Usually get right back in my groove and I am again interrupted by a phone call, email or coworker who thinks their issue is THE.MOST.IMPORTANT at that given time.  I don’t think so.  However, I am apparently a yes person and need to learn how to tell people no more often.  I will usually stop what I am doing and handle whatever the issue at hand is, and then try to go back to what I was doing.  Repeat this process, IN ITS FUCKING ENTIRETY, as many times as needed to be able to complete my day.  Lately, I have been going in early, working through my lunch and I still feel like I’m barely keeping my head above water.  Today was one of those days that I left the office feeling like a failure.  However, I’m going to get up early again and do it all over again.  All I can do is try my best and that is what I am doing.  Office is a plethora of frustration to me.  Most issues are absolutely valid and need immediate attention.  But there are days that I absolutely have a difficult time assessing which issue has pertinence DSC_0438 copyat that point in time.  Billing issues usually always have precedence over anything else.  However, when you have a job mobilizing and information that needs to go with said equipment to jobsite, sometimes you have to change the method to your madness.  This happened to me today and it was HIGHLY frustrating.  But, I did my best and asked for help where I needed it in order to get a resolution to my conflicts.  I was able to get the information that was needed to the jobsite and also rectify my billing issue.  So, here’s to hoping tomorrow is a little less stressful, a lot more easy and 100 times better than today was.

Ugh, still from that last paragraph…(sip of wine, ah…much better).  I’ve been having a hard time decompressing, getting my mind out of work mode and letting the stress from the office go.  It just seems to follow me lately.  DISLIKE.  I just feel like I’m not doing enough, or I should be trying harder and it stresses me out even more.  Fuck, its making my head hurt just thinking about it right now.  Icky. (sip of wine) RARGH! 

So…I’ve been editing wedding photos the past few days.  I have never done this before and I am very pleased with the outcome of the ones I’ve edited thus far.  I can only hope to DSC_0440 copygain more creative skill/flair/talent or whateverthefuck you wanna call it.  The photos I posted today I chose to edit, out of over 100 photos given to my by a friend.  I had a great time editing them and I think I’m going to pick a few more out of the set and see if I can’t come up with something that I’m happy with.  I have to say that lately, I feel that photography has been more of a creative outlet for me than writing has.  Not that it has replaced writing, I don’t think that can ever be possible with me.  I just think that I seem to get some sort of different, creative release from it.  I know however, that writing has always been a HUGE part of my life and I do not foresee letting go of something that has so much meaning to me.  It’s just not possible.

Quote of the Day:  “When people throw rocks at you, collect them and build something.”

Random Hard Life Lesson #234: Do not choose to go out on your friend’s boat in 90+ degree weather when you’re severely hung over.  You will not only puke off the side of the boat all day while your friends laugh and take pictures, but you will also get the attention of the River Patrol…who not only question your age for legal consumption, but also as to your condition. You will be embarrassed.  You will get severely dehydrated from being out in the hot sun all day, throwing up and not being able to keep any fluids.  You will then have a 24 hour hangover while declaring you’re never drinking again…

03 November 2010

Past Year…Briefly

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Wow.  It’s been so long, I’m not even sure where to start.  My last post was on September 17, 2009, just over a year ago.  I guess I’ll try to briefly catch up on what’s transpired in the past year and then move forward and be proactive about posting here again.  Here we go…

First and foremost, the job.  That changed a lot in the past year.  In my last post I was working at what I now like to call “The Devil Company,” doing dispatch. HATED.THAT.FUCKING.JOB.  That didn’t end up working out and so I was unemployed for quite some time.  Did some odd jobs here and there to do what I could from sinking into a financial hole and then along came my current job.  From this point forward I will always refer to it as Workplace or Office.  LOVE.THAT.FUCKING.JOB.  I’m back in the construction industry…er, actually we’re a demolition company which is exactly the opposite of construction…and right up my destructive alley!  That’s kinda funny.  I digress, I have always immensely enjoyed the construction industry.  It just works for me.  So, I am the Office Bitch, with the official title of Demolition Division Specialist.  Woo hoo!  It sounds all fancy…not so much, yet I still love it.  I think because it’s challenging for me at times.  I actually have to use my brain and it rocks.  That and it’s not monotonous at all, which is another aspect of a job that I require.  So, work is good, I love my coworkers and that’s that.

Ugh, the dreaded Significant other paragraph.  He who I used to refer to as The Man is no longer a part of my life.  I have moved on and have found someone else that I adore and love to spend time with.  I haven’t figured out a name to use for him in my posts, so that will evolve with time…

Lately, a HUGE aspect of my life has been my little freelance project that I like to call You’ve Been Shot Photography.  I’ve always loved photography and graphic design and I have been so blessed as to have been able to do some freelance stuff for friends with companies.  It has been really fulfilling and I feel I’ve really evolved as an artist in the past few months.  There is always room to grow though, and I look forward to continuing to hone my skills and fully enjoying it.  I’ve been given the opportunity to take pictures for friends and family and I can only hope for more!  It just keeps getting better each time, with each and every different experience and I’m hungry for more!  This post has some of my favorite recent pictures from You’ve Been Shot.

Elsewhere, I am still living with my TB and loving it.  The past year living with her has been some of the best time that I’ve ever spent with her.  We were both really afraid to live together for fear of ruining our friendship, but decided that we were going to take the plunge anyway.  It has been one of the most fulfilling experiences of my life.  I get to spend each and every day with my best friend in the world.  It is the most convenient support group ever!  We get to come home to each other and get to be the first person to be there if and when they need you.  I couldn’t have ever wished or hoped for more out of living with her.  It has always worked seamlessly for us.  There have been no major issues to date, or even any issues in the cohabitation department at all, actually.  Unfortunately, TB and I may have some crazy changes to our lives soon and may not be able to live together anymore.  It sucks, I will miss my best friend but I know she will always be there for me even if we don’t live together.  This isn’t a subject I really like to discuss and is most likely something I won’t really talk about on this blog.  So, that is that.

Wow, that’s really been my year in a nutshell.  TB and I have spent a TON of good times together and I will post pics from my personal collection as well as photography with my posts, so there will be a pictorial of the past year as we move forward also.  If nothing else, I love the fact that this blog exists for my own personal needs.  Maybe down the road it will be interesting to read these posts and see how much I’ve changed, grown and evolved as a person.  I suppose it could also be sad, depressing or hilarious when being read in the future also.  All I can say to that is BRING.IT.ON!

Quote of the Day: “Candor is overrated. It’s hard to unsay what you’ve said in anger and almost impossible to take back what you’ve written.”

Random Hard Life Lesson #372: “DO NOT, under ANY circumstances have a shot of whiskey after you’ve consumed at least a bottle of wine.  You will throw up, BRIGHT red later and HATE life the next morning.  Plus, having a nice, cute guy have to pull over to let you puke on your way home is NOT attractive.  You will say dumb things later and be completely ashamed and embarrassed.  Even though you managed to pull a SHEL SHEL while wasted, which is usually a bonus, it’s still JUST.NOT.RIGHT.”