Recently in 2008 Category

I stayed with my sister and her family from August 9 through October 23, minus the 2 weeks that I watched the house and dog of  Mary Ann and Paul, Doug's sister and brother-in-law, while they were out of town getting married and on their honeymoon. During the first few weeks of my stay, Finnegan pointed out some similarities between my sister and me. 

One day while we were driving around in the van after picking up Finnegan from school, he said: "You two look like you have the same mommy and daddy."  Of course, we said that we did.  A few days later, he asked us to say some things at the same time, like Star Wars, light saber, and Batman.  He had already realized that we looked alike but that we spoke alike as well.  One day he asked us to repeat some words while we were eating dinner.  Nancy said that we were talking "in stereo."  Then Doug said, "Finnegan has two mommys."  We all laughed.  Then Nancy and I decided to say full sentences at the same time.  It was kind of weird.  Then Finnegan told us to "stop talking like that." I think we freaked him out.

Actually, our voices are so similar that I once mistook my own voice on Nancy's answering machine for hers!  I was going to visit her at her dormitory at the University of La Verne so I left her a message that I would arrive at a certain time.  She met me outside and we went to her room where she immediately listened to her answering machine (back in the days when we didn't have cell phones). After she played my message, I said, "Nancy, how stupid that you leave yourself a message that you're going to be coming home!"  She gave me a puzzled look and said, "That's not me.  That's you."  Then I remembered that, indeed, I had left that message! 

 

 

 

 

It's been six weeks now that I've lived with my parents, or 5 if I subtract the week that I was at my sister's in Seattle for an interview. Fortunately, I started to receive my unemployment insurance checks from the State a few weeks ago, so I have been able to relax a little about bills and my future.  I must admit that I am very glad to live in country where the government has a program for employers to pay into it and then give back to workers in their time of need.  I was really stressed before when I was just living off of my savings. Now I just have to secure some type of employment and move out to my own place.

Once you're out of work for a while, it's hard to maintain a routine that gets you out of bed every morning for a reason.  I started going to the library or employment office everyday so that I have that routine. The library is better because I don't get kicked out after an hour like at the employment office.  The homeless guys take advantage of the policy all the time.  I can't blame them.  It's a free, warm space with plenty of reading material and free, clean bathrooms.

I've got my usual spot in the back in between the geneaology section and nonfiction. There's plenty of space to spread out my bags, computer, books and DVDs.  And I've got free reign of all the books in the library.  Sometimes I stay there for 4 - 5 hours, applying for jobs, watching TV programs, e-mailing people, etc.  I make all of my phone calls out in the parking lot inside my car because I can't get reception up at my parents'. Basically, it's my office.  Now I tell my mom that I'm going to "the office" when I head out to the library. 

Today's Monday so I'm not at the library, which is closed on Sundays and Mondays. So I am at my favorite coffee shop, C-Note Coffee and Blues Cafe, a really homely little place run by some kooky guys with beards and glasses.  It's located inside Hemet's old train depot.  The museum is in the depot, too.  There's free wifi so people come here to work or study.  And there are people who come here to play board games as well.  

 

 

 

 

My nephew Finnegan just turned 4 years old and he is really smart.  He has such a great vocabulary.  In addition, he is pretty funny without even trying.  Here are some of the funnier things he's said. 

• "I'll say darn if I wanna say darn."
• "I think you're gonna cry."
• When playing school with me, he says that my daddy will drop me off at school.  He makes me go into his room and before he shuts the door, he says:"I think you're gonna cry."   After I cry for a while, much to his amusement, he checks in on me, at which point I say that I want to go home.  He replies: "You have to wait till your mommy picks you up."
• Finnegan asked my sister, "Mommy, is Barbara your friend?"  Nancy replied, "No, Barbara's my sister."  (And I thought I was both....) So I asked Finnegan if Elijah, his little brother, was his friend.  He replied, "No...You know, I'm allergic to nuts."
• While playing cards with a table full of adults, Finnegan said, " Everyone, stop talking.  I'm the game master."
• Of course, I would be remiss to leave out one of the things that he asks me very regularly: "Can I watch Sesame Street?"  Needless to say, I've got the website bookmarked on my computer and have memorized a whole lot of Sesame Street songs, games, and little videos.  Now, whenever I see an actor on TV, the first thing that comes to mind is the Sesame Street skit that he/she appeared in. As my sister puts it, "You know you've made it as a performer when you get to appear on Sesame Street." 

 

Well, it's been quite a while since I've written in this blog.  Shame on me.  I told everyone that this was the best way to know what was going on with me.  However, I'm no computer genius and managed to mess up my internet connection when I tried to connect at the Nampa Library in good old Idaho.  While visiting/living with my friend, Stephanie, I went to various places to log on to the internet.  The Nampa Library's wifi is not easy to connect to so I followed the library's very long, complex instructions and still couldn't log on.  Well, as luck would have it, I messed up my chances of logging on to any wifi connection.  So, for about 6 weeks, I was without a personal connection.  I've been using other computers but they're not the same.  At any rate, while on a short trip to Seattle this week for a job interview, my brother-in-law Doug was able to fix up my computer "in 5 minutes," as my sister predicted.  Actually, he fixed it in about 30 seconds but he had to wait 4 and a half minutes for the computer to boot up and go through the motions.

So, there's so much to report.  I guess I'll start with my list of "Finnegan-isms."  I have had some good laughs at the things my little nephew says.

 

Ah. Waking up here at Nancy's house is definitely crazy.  I will hear noises around the house but be secure in my converted garage room... until the door opens.  

Finnegan decided to start waking me up most mornings.  He likes to come in, tell me to wake up, then jump on me and walk on my back.  Then he tells me that I can't stay in bed all day and that I should change my clothes. Then he goes and throws all of my magazines and notebooks off the nightstand / toybox and takes out ALL of the toys.  After playing with them, he leaves the room in a disaster.  I should call him Hurricane Finnegan.

This morning, they all came at me at once:  Nancy, Finnegan, Elijah and Spoon.  Finnegan ran over to the bed to sit on me, Elijah scooted over and marveled at my personalized mug with a photo of Valentin on it.  Spoon jumped on my chest and licked my face.  Then Nancy babbled off everything we had to do today and left me with the kids... alone.  

 

Unfortunately for Nancy and her family, I'm not moving out soon to take a fashion job in L.A.  Today I got rejected even before the interview took place.  Apparently, the boss of the person who called me decided not to interview me.  

I guess I'll be buying lottery tickets tonight.  Anybody got a dollar?

Nancy, Doug and the kids went to Portland today to attend the wedding of Doug's cousin so Nancy and I went to the mall yesterday to get some accessories for her outfit.  I wanted to go to the gym afterward so I threw on my exercise clothes and a sweatshirt and got in the minivan.  My plan was to get in a workout at 24 Hour Fitness.  Well, as things worked out, I got my workout but I didn't have to go to the gym.  Here's the story.

The plan was to go to Forever 21 to buy a wide black belt and then to look for a shrug or cardigan and some shoes. The quick trip to Forever 21 turned into an ordeal.  As Nancy tried on belts and some other clothes, I had to watch Finnegan and Elijah.  At least Elijah was quiet and strapped into a stroller.  Finnegan, on the other hand, decided to run around the store, hide underneath the clothing racks, touch all the clothes, and elude capture.  He had a grant old time. Of course, I had to keep an eye on Elijah, as well, so wandering all over looking for Finnegan wasn't easy.  Finally, Nancy came out of the dressing room and I tried something on.  Later while we were standing in line to pay for Nancy's items, she thought she'd give Finnegan a snack to calm him down.  She gave him a gooey chocolate mini-pretzel that he ate underneath a rack of clothes.  I pulled him out from underneath the clothes and told Nancy to wipe off Finnegan's hands before he wiped them on something expensive. She remarked that his hands were pretty clean which meant that I hadn't been hallucinating when I thought I saw him wipe them on a white and black blouse.  I turned to look at the blouse in question and saw it swinging on the rack.  I said nothing and tried to hustle us all out of the store before a store employee discovered the sticky deed.

We walked around and looked at shoes in other shops as Finnegan ran wild.  I had to keep running after him and grabbing him.  He loved that. I so regretted that he had taken off the leash he had attached to his pants earlier in the day while he was playing a wild tiger. 

My sister finally succumbed to Finnegan's whinings to eat as we passed the very aromatic Cinnabon and a giant pretzel shop.  Nancy opted for Pretzels and we loaded up.  Thank goodness that mall has sitting areas with real sofas and lounge chairs.  Finnegan pitched a fit because he had wanted a roll not a soft pretzel but Nancy finally managed to convince him that they were the same so he sat down and started eating it.  She left us to go look at some shoes.  I happily scarfed down the pretzel and got some much needed rest from chasing after Finnegan.  Then I got a really good laugh when I realized that Finnegan was wearing his shoes on the wrong feet. I didn't say anything but laughed quietly to myself.

After eating and resting, Nancy spotted the kiddy carts rental area that would make our experience more manageable.  For an exorbitant $5 we could rent the little red cart that would keep Finnegan strapped in for the rest of our shopping trip.  I forked over $4 and Nancy put the last quarters in and away we went.  We almost panicked when we thought that we didn't have enough money. The only one who got to rest up was Finnegan.  I had to push him around for another hour, which wasn't easy on carpeted floors. 

We decided to go to JCPenney to buy some really pretty recycled material shopping bags for $2 each.  As we were in the store, I noticed Finnegan's shoe problem again and very stupidly mentioned out loud that we should switch them. So I removed them and tried to get him to put them on the proper feet.  No such luck.  He left them on the floor of his car and we kept on moving.  I said that they might fall out then forgot about it as we moved about the shopping center.  After racing through more shops and finally getting to Nordstrom I did a shoe check. Oh no, one was missing.  So we backtracked through the mall and Nancy found the errant loafer at the entrance of Express.  Thank goodness no one had picked it up.  People with small children must have seen it and known to leave it where it lay. I finally had the sense to put both of the shoes in the car's basket.

Later we went back to Nordstrom to look at shoes and accessories.  Nancy spotted some beautiful $200 shoes and picked them up.  A salesman asked if he could bring out her size but she declined.  Later, Nancy said that he probably had flipped a coin with another salesman to see who would go talk to us, given the fact that we probably couldn't afford it with all the kids we had and how haggard we looked.  Then I caught a glimpse of myself in one of the full length mirrors and gasped.

While in Forever 21 Finnegan kept grabbing bunches of necklaces in his hands, which frightened me.  However, nothing is more frightening than being at Nordstrom and seeing a $78 pricetag on each of 20 necklaces that a 3-year-old is grasping.  After very carefully negotiating the release of the shiny, pretty hostages, I pushed Finnegan out of the store and at least a mile back to the cart rental area.   Cost of belt, pretzels and lemonade at the mall: $30.  Kiddy car rental: Priceless.

After disagreeing with Nancy over where we had parked the car, she strolled Elijah in one direction and I threw Finnegan over my shoulder and took off toward the other end.  As Finnegan asked why his Mommy was going in a different direction, I spotted the store near where we'd parked and told him that she was wrong.  Finnegan spotted the van so we waited there for Nancy.  She got really mad when she noticed a big red dent in the gas tank cover. Then as she was carefully inspecting the rest of the vehicle for damage, she realized that the van wasn't even hers.  The real minivan was over another row. 

After Elijah and Finnegan were strapped into their seats and we had pulled out onto the freeway, I told Nancy that I didn't need to go to the gym anymore.  I had gotten my workout. 

 

It's now 3 weeks that I've been here in Seattle, mooching off my sister and her family.  The first two weeks I had to alternate between sleeping on the floor and the couch, depending on where the dog wanted to sleep. Usually on top of me. Spoon, a feisty Pomeranian, has a tendency to get very upset when touched in the wrong place.  So any move during my sleep could send him into a swirling, snapping, snarling mode that resembles that cartoon character, The Tasmanian Devil.  It doesn't matter what I do, though, he has officially adopted me as his best friend, chief petter, roommate and, unfortunately, bunkmate. 

I was getting pretty annoyed of sleeping poorly so I asked my sister if I could sleep on that elusive bed she spoke about in our telephone conversations before I moved up here.  About a week ago she threw me some sort of heavy comforter that she said was "the bed" and I tried to sleep on it on the floor.  I spent some cold, hard nights down there. Then a few days ago she said that I should sleep in the movie room, which has been off limits to me.  She told me that the beanbag squares were very comfortable and that I could use them as a bed.  I threw two down, put the comforter on top, and tried to situate myself.  For a while, everything was fine.  Then my body would start to sink through the "beans" and, of course, by the middle of the night, if not sooner, I'd be sleeping on the floor. Spoon was pretty happy curled up on his beanbag and coming over to sleep with or on top of me on my beanbag during the night. 

The movie room has a fridge / wine cooler that has digital temperate readings that would shine straight into my eyes which read something like 45, 50, 62.  That makes for some weird dreams.  Anyway, Spoon made some noise the other night that woke me up and as I opened my eyes I say a beastly, hairy image illuminated from behind by the fridge lights that looked like a scary character out of "Gremlins."  

Yesterday was a good day all around because I received a call from a fashion company in Los Angeles for a job interview.  Nancy got all excited and miraculously the actual bed appeared and a real room got organized.  In no more than 15 minutes I had a real mattress to sleep on situated in a part of the room without lights shining into my eyes, real sheets and covers and even a nightstand.  I guess that she hadn't wanted me to get too comfortable, which would make we want to stay longer.  Now that she thinks I'll be moving out soon I'm allowed a few luxuries. For her sake I hope I get the job.  If not, I'm not giving up the mattress. Neither is Spoon.

 

 

 

Well, I'm on the move again.  2 weeks ago today I arrived in Seattle.  I packed up my place in Long Beach, put most of my things in storage, stuffed the car, and drove 24 hours to Seattle.  Of course, I stopped and stayed the night in Northern California. 

Finding a job in a new town is a bit of a challenge. I spend hours on the internet searching for jobs and e-mailing my resume out.  I went to Career Fair this week.  Nothing interesting but at least I got to dress up, get out of the house with a purpose, and talk to people.  I need to drive around more and study the map to understand distances here.  I think we're only 3 miles from Downtown Seattle so that makes things easy for going to the gym. 

Nancy, my sister, bought me a membership to the 24 Hour Fitness downtown.  The gym has a 25-meter saltwater pool.  I don't like chlorine so I might try this one.  I had hurt my neck at work in L.A. and had to undergo physical therapy sessions.  I'm not in pain anymore so I can go to the gym and workout.  The good thing is that I never have pain after my workouts now because I'm drinking a fantastic juice called Univera Ageless Extra tand taking the RegeniFree, which is like a natural painkiller, that my sister found.  I am a serious convert now. 

More news to follow.

Yesterday, on June 20, 2008, my Valentin, Boo Boo Bear, Baby Cakes, best friend and wonderful companion passed away of lung and heart failure. He suffered for 4 weeks, although he had about 5 good days last week. His little body just couldn't fight back anymore, despite all the medicine and my 24-hour nursing.    He was 13 years, 5 months and 20 days old.  We spent 13 years, 4 months and 6 days together

Rest in Peace, Valentin. I really loved you. I'll miss you.