Short week

Figured I would come on here and update before I pack up and leave again.  It has been a long drawn out wait.  I told them when I got home, I would like to go back but couldn’t extend because I had to be back for my sister’s surgery.  I was initially supposed to go to LA, but they decided they were going to cut back on sending people, so I got moved back to North Carolina.  Cool, not mad about that.  Report date was 9 June.  Got an email saying they needed to spread people out more and asked for people to hold off and come in staggered on the 9^th, 16^th and 23^rd.  I sent a message back saying I would like to go the 16^th (and get the 2 holidays) but was punted to the 23^rd.  That made work a pita because I am not going to start anything new and have to hand it off or put it on hold for 30 – 45 days so I have been doing busy work everyday for 3 weeks and it’s starting to get really old.  I am almost there, just working three days this week and it won’t be too bad because one of those is our annual award ceremony, where I will get my 30-year pin, and a meeting with a retirement planner.  That will eat away a good part of the day tomorrow.  The picnic that the award ceremony and the corps picnic are usually done on the same day, but we have high water at pretty much all of our parks, so they are rescheduling that part.  I don’t go anyway.  They asked us to send pictures for a slideshow, but I think we all know I didn’t do that. 

My sister is doing well, she bounced back fast.  We went to Tulsa Tough last weekend and you could not see any scars or anything.  It is noticeable but if you didn’t know you would probably think she got laser or something.  She is starting to get that plastic look though so I hope she backs off on the filler and botox just a little.  She is still gorgeous but is starting to have that generic overdone look.  I would never tell her that.  I would really like to have it done as well but I just can’t spend that kind of money on it when I could use it to travel.  That would be a trip to London.  

Tulsa Tough was fine.  It will never be as fun as it used to be when it first started.  I didn’t run into a single person I knew and none of them teams that we followed were there.  It was Laura’s first time going but she kind of paid attention to the race.  I thought she would just walk around and not want to watch, but once it got to 10 laps to go, she kind of got into it.  When she realized they had huge wrecks that kind of reeled her in.  The was a bad one at after the 10-lap mark that took out 20 bikes.  After the race was over, we went to Valkyrie, a vodka bar on the route.  This was where I realized my id fell out of my pocket.  We had a few drinks and went out to see if anyone turned it in.  They were packing up but the organizer was at the info area and I asked if it was turned in.  They had an id turned in but it wasn’t mine.  We walked over to a bench we sat at and ate some pizza and my freaking debit card was laying there in the grass!  I told Laura that I must have grabbed my card instead of my license but I knew I only had one card and had planned on using tap to pay.  Sure enough my license was in my wallet when I got back home.  I really lucked out on that.  It was still light out when we ate but dark when we left so no one picking it up and me actually seeing it was a huge stroke of luck.  

HMF and I went to the last show of our season, Wicked.  It was so good.  I wasn’t really looking forward to it because I had seen it so many times, but I am really glad we went.  It was a good production.  My older sister didn’t get tickets with her season package and said she probably wasn’t going to go.  I told her it was pretty good, and she caved and went last week.  She said she was glad she did.  We got the line up for the next season and I think it will mostly be good with a couple that I am not sure about.  We have Kimberly Akimbo, The Outsiders, Beauty and the Beast, A Beautiful Noise, Mamma Mia, The Wiz, and The Notebook.  I am on the fence about Notebook and A Beautiful Noise.  The first one because I hear it is sappy and sad, I never saw the movie as it isn’t my jam.  HMF’s dad has Parkinson’s, and she has no interest in watching a show that is about dementia.  If they get a good add on show, we will trade those in.  Also, A Beautiful Noise is another biopic.  Biopics are my least liked shows.  I really didn’t like Ain’t Too Proud and gave my ticket to MJ and Tina away.  We did send in our renewal, and I sprang for a seat upgrade.  Our normal seats were behind this dude that is giant, and we really didn’t want to sit behind him again.  We went down and checked out the new seats while we were at Wicked, and they are going to be so good!  We are now really hyped up for the next Wicked movie and are planning on buying tickets for opening night!! 

Our specialty wicked themed drinks

Our Fluevogs

Dennis is doing well at his new job.  He is starting to see some of the petty personality come out in people which means petty disagreements, he swears he is staying out of it.  Last week I had to review all of his insurance stuff to see if there would be any benefit to adding me on his policy.  I hate doing that stuff.  It feels like an adult decision that I am not fully qualified to make.  His portion is completely paid for but adding me makes his premium almost the same as mine.  I am curious to see how the two companies work together since I am not taking him off mine.  If we see it isn’t working, I will take him off in open season.  The only thing I was really interested in was their dental and vision but mine pays more ($350 vs $150 for frames) and I guess they don’t work in tandem like health insurance, so I passed on that too.  This is the first time he has really had a 8-5 M-F job and I think he kind of likes it.  He is close enough to my house that he can go home and check on the kiddos at lunch. 

I had to reschedule a bunch of doctor appointments while I was gone, I had primary, allergy, and rheumatology appointments that I had to fit in before I left.  Still haven’t gotten to allergy but the other two were last week.  I ran out of my RA meds while I was gone and thought I would just fill it when I got home because it was only like a week.  Around the time for me to go home my hands hurt so bad.  Getting back on the medication helped but it was still achy.  He gave me a steroid shot to maybe give it a jump start.  It seemed to help.  My bloodwork came back completely normal!  I think this is the first time in years I had all completely normal counts!  So exciting. 

I took off a little early for my appointment and went to a store called Name Brand Clothing.  It is a huge store that sells name brand and designer stuff from overstock, returns, and out of season stuff.  It is huge and requires digging and careful scrutiny because they can be damaged.  I get a wild hair once a year or so to go digging.  I didn’t have much time, but it was close to my doctor and decided to make a quick run.  I found out that Best Friends Animal Sanctuary teamed up with a designer men’s wear label and.  I found Dennis a couple of shirts for under $10 each.  I was super stoked.  He loved them and said he wanted to go back and see if he could find some more.  We went back on Saturday night and he found several more that he liked.  I wish they had a women’s line.  I did find an XS jacket and sweats that I picked up.  After that we went to Scheel’s, an outdoor, sporting good, general clothing store with a ferris wheel in the middle of it.  We hadn’t been because it is always packed and really had no reason to go, but since it was across the street we went and checked it out.  The place is huge.  We didn’t buy anything, but we spent about an hour walking around and looking.  It is bigger and nicer than Bass Pro and I hear it has really affected their business, which I am glad to hear.

Earlier Saturday I got my hair touched up.  It was a strange appointment because Hayley and I usually talk non-stop, but I think we were both just tired because we didn’t really engage that much. I was afraid it would take all day, but I was out by 2:30.  Since I was downtown, I took a drive down through the busy part of town.  There was such a good turnout despite the rain, it gave me chills and I got a little choked up. 

Nothing major going on or coming up, but I will start getting everything together to leave on the 23^rd.   No clue where in North Carolina I’m going to be staying, I hope they tell me before Wednesday so I can get that stuff taken care off before I take off after the holiday.  They aren’t great about doing that kind of stuff and I don’t want to do it on my own time.  It is a huge pain.  I do have my first night hotel booked in Ashville at the same place I stayed last time because it’s walking distance from the little art/shopping district with lots of neat little shops and restaurants.  It’s an Embassy Suites so it also comes with the 2 free drink coupons, if I get there early enough.