VACATION!

Well - sort of if you call visiting family vacation!  We hung out at home until Tuesday and then drove to NY.  The trip up was good.  We stopped in Camp Hill, PA for a geocache.  Zed was very good in his harness.

During the day, we went geocaching - there wasn't too many that were together, so it was kind of rough, in and out of the car with the pups.  The first day, we went around Kanakadea Park.  On the trail, close to the cache, I was probably 5 feet away from a fawn who was sleeping.  That was crazy!  Dan had the same thing happen to him about a week before!  The second day we went to Stony Brook State Park where there were about 5 caches - with a LOT of walking and stairs.  I almost thought we would have to take Zed to the emergency vet because he got bit by a mosquito and it welted up!  Luckily, I think because he had Benedryl in his system, it went down within the hour. 

Wednesday night, we drove up to Rochester to see The Lipstick Massacre with Mae for her birthday present.  We stopped at Chipotle and then picked up a geocache that was right around the corner from there.  The play was great!  I was really surprised that Dan liked it.  Since he didn't want to go see it at first.  The pups stayed with my brother, Vincent.  Mae really wanted to meet Pandora Boxx so after the show we waiting in the lobby and one of the actresses came out & said they were taking press photos in the theater, so we walked back in and when they were done, I yelled to get Pandora's attention.  Mae was so excited.

Thursday, we went to Canisteo Crazee Daze Parade and then hung out at the vendor area.  I had funnel cake and Dan had a deep fried Snickers bar.  When we were in line (which we cut into because Mae was in line and we just got inline with her), some guy came up to Dan and asked if he would get 2 funnel cakes for him and handed him a $20.  When Dan tried to give him the change ($12), he wouldn't take it.  I didn't expect to see that in Canisteo!  People don't make a lot in the area.

Things that did happen that didn't surprise me, people sent by Social Services were staying at the Econo Lodge.  When I stopped in the office, the "mother/grandmother" came in to complain that she couldn't get into her daughter's room to take care of the grandchildren and the employee said "I just got off the phone with Social Services, we will fix it."  The next morning, there was a MESS outside of their room door.  It's no wonder people can't get out of the system, they don't have the mindset to change/take care of their environment to better themselves.

Then I was at Walmart and the cashier began to tell me about how she is sueing her neighbor because of the neighbor's dog and how she let's the dog bark and bark and go after people.  Not sure if she should be talking about a lawsuit to people.....

When we were at Crazee Daze, someone came up to me and said "do you remember me?"  Of course not, It ended up being Dawn Patton.  Totally not what I remembered she looked like, of course it's been over 20 years since I last saw her.  This takes me to how people REAL change or how you remember someone looking like and they aren't even close to it anymore.  I remember when Tim Patton, Dawn's former husband, started to date Dawn and how beautiful/stylish she was.  How everbody thought how lucky she was to get a Patton and how tall she was.  Well, totally different now - I think she was shorter than me and kind of frumpy.  And to think she thought I would remember her....I have a hard enough time with names - nevermind if I haven't seen you in over 20 years and you look totally different!

Pictures from NY trip

An attempt to catch up on what's been going on in our daily lives

Back tracking to the week of May 9 - it was a crazy week......

The new life of Zed
So Dan was asked to work days starting Tuesday, May 11.  He headed out before me and I put Zed in the crate and took Esa to daycare.  Dan came home during lunch to check on Zed.  He (Zed) was not happy.  He had pulled the towels we had on top of the crate (for drying the pups off when they come in wet) into the crate as much as possible and shredded it.  Poor pup - he did NOT like being left behind.  We can see this in his personality - at least it's not too much anxiety.  He's fine if Esa is with him.  He just didn't like the fact that Esa got to go and he didn't.

The changing winds at work
So we are all trying to get used to the former boss now being the client.  Unfortunately, the personalities are still the same and it feels to me that I am the one the workload from the client comes to.  Fortunately, I can vent to the new boss.  Thank goodness for getting along with co-workers and them not holding things against you.

Mother's Day
Sad day and an appreciative day. I'll start with the sad - my high school girlfriend's son committed suicide that evening.  He was so close to graduating and getting out of high school (where I think the issues were), but he couldn't make it.  It makes you wonder why God puts the weight on people - MC has had so many trials and tribulations - yet she pulls through.  My heart goes out to her.  Even though we aren't as close as we used to be, I will always consider her my friend.

The appreciative part - on Facebook, I copied a status that my friend had (see below) - it really touched me that people who didn't even know my mom or I don't think even knew that my mom has passed posted "like"
Ronalyn Wentz Dear Mom, I wish Heaven had a phone so I could hear your voice again. I thought of you today, but that is nothing new. I thought about you yesterday, and days before that too. I think of you in silence, I often speak your name. All I have are memories and a picture in a frame. Your memory is a keepsake, from which I'll never part. God has you in his arms, I have you in my heart. Repost if your Mom's in Heaven - May 9 at 8:29pm
Michelle Datini Page, Darren Shepherd, Frank Graf and 8 others like this.

Frank Graf Well done, my friend......May 10 at 10:38am ·
Karen Johnson Earley We loved her too. Still in our thoughts- Jo, my mom misses you. May 11 at 5:57am · Kim Young I miss her, too. May 13 at 6:33am

Thank you Frank, Ed, Kat, Diane, Janet, Nancy, Angie, Mary, and hubby for posting LIKE.  It shows you understand.

Present day event = yesterdays memories
So I was driving to work, just like always and got in the turning lane to turn into the aiport property.  Since they have paved the road, they haven't put the lane paint down and the guy in front of me thought he was in a straight lane.  I didn't figure that out until I beeped twice and he didn't go on the red.  He proceeded to get out of the car and came back and yelled at me - "Can't you see it goes straight! Asshole".  I noticed when he got back in the car he wasn't alone, someone was in the passenger side.  I have gone that way for 11 years and know that it is a turn lane, but didn't notice until that night that the lanes aren't marked.  It really upset me - not that the guy yelled at me, but it brought back flashbacks.  That was exactly something my dad would have done.  I was upset because I totally understood how the person in the car felt - so embarassed.  It took me awhile to get over it.  It's weird how you don't think of something for such a long time and all of the sudden all of the feelings come back up.  You think you are over the emotional pain - it's out of your life, but it's still there - deep down.

I was upset until I started my walk into the building - then I started seeing the smiling faces that I see everyday and thought - I am not going to let one asshole ruin my day.  All of these people that I see everyday, make me smile and care about me.  It's nice to like the place you work.

The weekend - decorating, supporting a charity & seeing an old friend
Ever since I moved into the back office at work, I've said that I was going to paint it Capitals red.  Well, it's done thanks to Dan helping me out.  I'm still working on the decorating, but it's getting there.

 

Sunday was Great Strides.  The trip up and back were fine.  Zed used his harness for the first time and did a good job.  The walk was a success with Grace's Aces raising over $26,000.  We introduced Zed to the Ehries for the first time and Grace was in love.  She asked if she could take him - I thought she just meant until the beginning of the walk.  I was mistaken.  She took him for the whole walk and he kept up with her (something I couldn't do)!  I won the scrapbooking basket in the silent auction - lost the Miche purses bid.

That night, Dan and I met up with my old college buddy, Mike.  I haven't seen him in probably 15 years.  It was great catching up with him and I think Dan had fun too.

It's been how long?

Yikes!  It's been awhile since I've posted.  A lot of things (little things) have happened and I have meant to post about them, but just haven't had a chance.  I have notes all the way back from May 12 on things that have happened - and then trying to figure out how personal to get on here.  This is a place for my thoughts no matter how crazy.  I know that not many people are reading this - just because it's on invite only, but the reason I did this was for people (friends) to read and the majority are not (not even the hubby!).  Oh I guess deep down, I wish a was a famous blogger...It comes from wanting to be on The Real World - The Complete First Season - New York from way back.