Cause & Effect

Cause:
It's snowing SOOOOO hard here! As in, it's barely let up all day! The freeway has been shut down a couple of times and the flakes are freakin' HUGE. (And I'm not just talking about the idiots on the roads.) ;) It literally looks like pieces of cloud are breaking off and floating to the ground.

Effect:
We're not going to camp this weekend. The snow isn't suppose to let up at all for about a week, which means that there's a pretty good chance that we would get stuck at camp for longer than just the weekend. Not that I'd mind, but well...

The good news is that Nathan and I finally get a weekend at home together, during which neither of us has to work, there are no plays going on, etc. SO exciting! It's been a really long time since we've had a day where we've stayed in bed ALL day long, so maybe we'll do that on Saturday or Sunday. I love those days.

I really wish I could take a picture of these flakes for you, they're phenominal.

Holy Moly!

I am so SORE! I went running at the gym on Monday and then did (don't laugh) Billy Blanks Tae Bo Bootcamp dvd at home on Tuesday. It felt incredibly good, but today my body is protesting...loudly.

It helped me remember how good working out makes me feel mentally and emotionally also. I've been constantly tired and a little cranky lately. But during the last two days, I've had a lot of energy and have been ridiculously happy, almost to the point of giddiness...just ask Nathan, I think he's a little confused. Granted, I absolutely collapse by about 8 pm, but oh well.

Along with all of those benefits, working out also helps me to be motivated to eat better. What's the point of working out if you're going to go eat crap afterwards, right?

In other news, it's still up in the air as to whether my young life co-leader and I are going to be taking kids to Campaigner Camp at Wildhorse Canyon (the young life camp, not the casino) this weekend. Evidently it's a little iffy as to whether the road into camp (a one lane dirt road winding down into the canyon) is going to be drivable. So we're crossing our fingers that the snow holds off for another two days. Actually, evidently the concern is not so much whether we'd be able to get into camp on Friday, it's more as to whether we'd be able to get back OUT on Sunday if it snows. Not that I'd mind having to stay an extra day or so down there, I absolutely love it there!

Speaking of which, I just found a fan club for Wildhorse Canyon on Facebook.com and check out this photo that is on there. It's just gorgeous!

I really hope we get to go, I've been looking forward to this for over a month.

Reminiscing

I'm thinking about putting together a wedding photo book on blurb.com, so I've been going through the few digital photos that I actually have (thanks to Kate and Eliot) and looking up the lyrics from a few important songs from the wedding. This is going to be quite the task, since NONE of our professionally done photos are digital...that's right, they're all either hard copy or negatives. And the photographer who did our photos retired, taking all of our negatives with her...but she's willing to sell them to us...for $500! So, rather than forking out all that dough to get our negatives back, I'm just going to scan all of our hard copies onto my external hard drive. It will take a while, but it's worth saving the money.

But that's not really what this post is about. It's more about how looking at all these wedding photos has made me reminisce over the time surrounding our wedding. There was a lot of fun, a lot of uncertainty, and a lot of love. I was about to get married to my best friend. We weren't sure if Marla was going to be able to make it to the wedding because she had to have a chemo treatment the week before. And we were having to say goodbye to all of our family and friends in the Portland area in order to move over to Baker, and we weren't sure when we would see them again.

When I was looking up lyrics to a few of our wedding songs, I found the song I danced to with my dad. It was (of course) a song that Jimmy Buffett wrote for his daughter called "Delaney Talks to Statues", and it immediately made me think of my dad. The lyrics were too perfect. I'm definitely a daddy's girl, and some of my favorite memories are of times we spent exploring while sailing around in my parent's boat. Being a big fan of planning surprises, I didn't tell my dad what song we were dancing to, so I didn't know how much that song meant to him until we were actually dancing to it. As soon as the lyrics started, dad started laughing and crying at the same time, and he said "Ever since I first heard this song, it's made me think of you." I love the lyrics so much, I just had to share them.

Delaney Talks to Statues
Jimmy Buffett

Delaney talks to statues
As she dances round the pool
She chases cats through roman ruins
And stomps on big toadstools
She speaks a language all her own
That I cannot discover
But she knows I love her so
When I tuck her neath the covers

Chorus:
Father, daughter
Down by the water
Shells sink, dreams float
Lifes good on our boat

Delaney draws me pictures
She finger paints the sand
We chase the dogs and hop like frogs
Then I do my bad handstands
Shes growin up too fast for me
And askin lots of questions
Some I know the answers to
And some I'm lookin for suggestions

Chorus:
Father, daughter
Born by the water
Surfs up, suns down
Life in a beach town

And some of the things I've seen
Maybe she wont have to see
But theres a lot I want to pass along
That was handed down to me

Delaney talks to statues
As she dances round the pool
She chases cats through roman ruins
And stomps on big toadstools
She speaks a language all her own
Just a little like her mother
And she knows I love her so
When I tuck her neath the covers

Chorus:
Father, daughter
Down by the water
Shells sink, dreams float
Lifes good on our boat
Shells sink, dreams float
Lifes good on our boat

I think for a girl, a wedding is very bittersweet time, especially when it comes to her dad. All the sudden there's another man in her life that has become the most important man in her life, a spot previously held by her dad. This doesn't mean that she loves her dad any less. But now it should be her husband that she runs to after a hard day.

I can't even begin to express how lucky I am in that my husband and my parents get along so amazingly well. My mom and dad are constantly telling other people how much they enjoy Nathan, and I love the fact that Nathan regularly turns to my parents for advice or just someone to talk to. In my parents, Nathan and I have a phenomenal example of what marriage should be.

In the last year and a half, Nathan and I have been through a lot of ups and downs. I never expected to go through a lot of these things so early in our marriage and I sometimes wonder where we would be as a couple if we hadn't been faced with such trials...would we be better off, or have they forces us to be stronger? We'll never know. I will never be one to say that marriage is easy...but when I can't fall asleep at night until Nathan is laying beside me, I know it's all worth it.

Blurb Gem

Sometime in December, Carly posted about a website called blurb.com, where you can go online, download a free program and design a book of your blog that will be professionally printed and bound, all for a pretty decent price. I didn't think much of it until I later saw an ad for it on Facebook and decided to check it out, simply because I was bored. After seeing the things you could do with it (albums, cookbooks, portfolios, etc) I couldn't wait to get started on a project. Only problem is that the templates and settings available on the program are incredibly limiting and I couldn't find a way to make my book look as polished as the ones in the examples.

That was, of course, until I stumbled on Robin's blog. She outlines how to use Photoshop or InDesign to create amazing layouts for each page, and even includes some free templates that make creating the layouts a breeze. If any of you are interested in making a blurb book, I would highly recommend spending an hour or so just perusing her website, as it's filled with great pointers and guidelines. Robin says she isn't an artist, but I'd have to disagree with her.

I'm turning into such a nerd.

Chick Flicks I Want To See

Ok Dana, I was inspired by the previews before 27 Dresses last night to make a list of the chick flicks I want to see, and I think we need to make it our goal to see all of them. Not necessarily all in the theatre (especially since some of them are already out of theatres), but some of them we should definitely go see on the big screen. Here they are, so that I remember which ones they are:

Made of Honor, opens 2/8/2008
Fools Gold, opens 2/8/2008
Accidental Husband, opens 3/7/2008
Prince Caspian, opens 5/16/2008
Juno, already in theatres, probably on video soon
PS I Love You, already in theatres

If there are any I have forgotten, just let me know!

I hate saying goodbye...

It's official...as of late last night, my parents are back in Ecuador. We kept grabbing any possible moment to talk, right up until they boarded their flight out of Atlanta and their US cell phones ceased to work. I know I have friends who go for a year or more without seeing their parents, but at least they get to call them on a regular basis. And, for the most part, their parents aren't in Third World countries.

Hair Dilemma

If you haven't noticed, I put a poll on the right side of our blog, underneath our "About Us", entitled "What should Lindy do with her hair?" I've been working on growing my hair out since summer, and I've enjoyed having it longer but there's one problem...I really wish I didn't have to dye my hair once a month (or more). I'm happy that I've gotten it back to blonde, but I also wish it looked more natural. So here's my dilemma...

I've decided that I basically have these options. A) I cut my hair short and just grin and bear the ugly roots while keeping it trimmed short until only my natural hair is left, then let it grow back out again. B) Get my hair cut short, then have it professionally dyed to match as closely to my natural root color so that it isn't as noticeable when the roots grow out. C) Just let it grow and have it professionally dyed to look more natural, then hopefully the roots won't show as much. D) Just leave it as it is and keep dying it monthly.

Anyway, those options are on the poll, let me know what you think I should do because I hate making these kinds of decisions.

Umm...brr?

According to our weather reader thingy here in dispatch, it is currently -5.4 degrees out. My nose hairs were freezing together...not that you probably wanted to know that.

And according to weather.com (which I'm a little more apt to believe since our weather reader thingy is always kind of on the fritz), it's actually -14 degrees. Sweet.

Relief...and Other Emotions

Last night was our last performance of Laundry & Bourbon here in Baker. It's kind of bitter sweet. Anyone who has done theatre before knows the love/hate relationship you develop with the play you're doing. That's very much the case with this play. I will really miss seeing everyone involved on a regular basis, and I'll miss the characters, but gosh darn it, if I hear the lines from the first half of the play one more time in the near future, I just may scream. Plus, I'm just plain tired. Oh, and if I have to eat guacamole again any time soon, I just may throw up. I HATE guacamole and I had to eat it for the play. There was no way around it. Last night I got a huge mouthful of it and I almost threw up all over the stage...oh the things we do for our art!

Anyway, we had the owner the La Grande bowling alley come see our performance last night. He is putting on a wine dinner in February and he is wanting us to come perform for it on Feb 23 & 24. I have kind of mixed feelings about this...part of me really wants to do it because it means more revenue for the theatre, but another (larger) part shudders at the thought, for several reasons. First, if I get the P&P job, I may be at academy in Salem Jan 28-Feb 22nd. Which means I would get home from academy either late on the 22nd and have to turn around and drive to La Grande (45 min away over a mountain pass) and back for two days in a row, or I would come home on the 23rd, and get home just to turn around again and drive to La Grande. OR, if I don't get the job, I will be working that weekend. So I will be working a 12 hour shift, driving to La Grande, doing the play, driving back late that night, and getting up at 5 am the next morning to do it all over again. Makes me tired just thinking about it. So we'll see what happens.

Last night was also my last time to see my parents before they head back to the boat for 6 months. They just got back yesterday evening from a skiing trip in Montana, spent the night with us, and got up at 3 am this morning to drive back to Burns for my dad's last day of work. They don't fly out until the 24th, but unless Nathan and I magically are able to go visit them at some point, we won't see them at all for 6 months. Which wouldn't be such a big deal if it weren't for the fact that I can't call them whenever I need to. Instead, we have to email them, ask them to call us, and then hopefully not miss their call from their satellite phone. I'm going to miss being able to just pick up the phone and call just to chat every day. I know they love sailing, and I could never ask them to stop...but that doesn't mean I have to be happy about it.

Hey Honey, Can We Get a Truck?

I seem to be hearing a lot of interesting things when I wake up in the morning. That was the first thing Nathan said when I woke up yesterday morning. To which I replied with the guppy mouthed reply..."Uhhhhhhhh." Long story short, we ended up driving to Nampa, ID and buying a 2000 Toyota Tundra. Here it is:

This is the dealer's photo of our truck...yes, that's a picture of the exact truck we bought. It's an automatic 8 cylinder, full off-road package (steel plate under the engine to protect it from rocks, lifted, etc), spray-in truck bed, 4 door with back suicide doors (they open backwards), 4 wheel drive, both hi and low, which makes a huge difference when driving in the snow. Here's the interior:


Tan leather interior, back bench seat, 6 cd changer in the dash, automatic doors and locks, AC, 6 cup holders (4 in front, 2 in back). The cab of it is HUGE! I took Dana for a ride in it last night and she commented on the fact that it literally felt like we were in different vehicles. It rides SO smoothly that you can barely tell that you're in a truck, and it handles like a dream in the snow. We don't have studded tires on it and last night it snowed about 4 inches in 3 hours. Even so, when I drove it, it didn't do much slipping around at all and stopped very easily when you remember that you're driving a truck and not our Subaru. Anyway, we love it so far and we're excited about the fact that it's going to be exactly what we need in terms of a truck to head into the mountains with. So there it is. We're hoping to get Nathan's old truck sold off shortly.

Now, lest you think that we are in the habit of just randomly buying newer vehicles, we've actually been toying with the idea of buying Nathan a larger truck ever since the first snow fell. We have studded tires on his little Nissan, but, well, let's face it, it's a tiny pickup and it has 2 wheel drive and no weight to it. See?

Which, in this snow, is scary. It was a great pickup for over in the Portland area, but it's not at all suitable for our winters here. Not only that, but Nathan really does need a truck that he can take up into the mountains hunting and not worry about getting stuck. So there IS a method to our madness.

"Lindy...are you working today?"

Those were the first words I heard this morning, right before hearing, "Well, it's 6:05."

At which point I jumped out of bed, called work to let the gal I was relieving know that I'd be there very shortly, threw on my clothes, pulled my hair back in a ponytail, grabbed my purse, and headed out the door.

From the moment Nathan woke me up to the moment I walked in the door at work, only 15 minutes had elapsed.

Dang I'm good...you know, besides that whole oversleeping thing.

As for the whole html stuff, I think I got it figured out with the help of everyone who posted comments on my last post. I ended up having to use a completely different template because mine somehow got messed up to the point where I didn't have a place to edit several of the font colors for my website...don't know exactly how that happened, but oh well. It's fixed now. I'll probably play with it some more today because I'm not completely thrilled with the background. But that's the fun part, right?

Still Boo Html

With the help of Arly and Rachel, I've pretty much been able to tweak my blog to be exactly how I want it using html. But there's one thing that I can't stinkin' figure out...how the heck do I get my main post font to be any color but black?!?! I've tried everything from editing it in the 'fonts and colors' page, to manually changing every color possible in the html code. But no dice! Ah well, I guess I will live. I finally got the title of the blog to be some color other than black, which makes me happy.

Marla has been on my mind a lot lately as this Saturday will mark one year since she passed away. Today Nathan found this article on the Baker City Herald website, and it made me feel just how much I really still miss her. Before that, he found this article about Marla and her cooking. I read it while standing in the kitchen that use to be filled the smells and tastes of her Italian heritage and I cried.

I'm really not sure how I'm going to react or feel on Saturday. It still doesn't seem possible that she's gone...deep down, I think that I still believe she's simply on a really long vacation. The actual reality of it just hurts too badly. It wasn't until just a couple of days ago that I deleted her email address from my address book and her phone number from my cell phone. I tried not to feel that too much. The worst moments are when I stop by the cemetary in Pendleton on my way to Portland and stand at her headstone. At those times, there's no denying what my heart and mind don't want to believe.

I still remember the moment she told me that she had ovarian cancer. I was driving from Hillsboro to Forest Grove, because I had class that afternoon. I remember going cold and then instantly breaking into a sweat. She promised me that it wasn't a big deal, that she would be just fine, and I believed her. I believed her so completely that, at the time, it didn't even enter my mind that she would be gone within a year.

My mom was there when she died. I didn't get to see her for the last two days because mom wouldn't let me, said she wouldn't recognize me and it would be too hard. In a way, I'm thankful for that. It's been a year, and I have to to work up the courage to ask my mom exactly how she passed. Part of me wants to know, while a greater part of me begs to be sheltered from the idea of her being in any more pain than I had already seen.

I try my best to remember her as she was before the cancer hit. Even with all the health problems she had before the cancer, she still seemed invincible to me. But the Marla that is stuck in my minds eye is one I knew at the very end. The one weak and staring death in the eye. That's not how I want to remember her.

I want to remember this Marla:

She taught me how to jet ski. Every chance we had, we were up at Phillips Lake, boating and jet skiing. Somehow she survived being a second mother to me during my teenage years, without the prepping of my early childhood. She was rough around the edges, but loved fiercely. I've never seen anyone hold a grudge like she use to...must be the Italian in her.

We once forced her to let us paint her toe nails, for no other reason than to make her squirm. I only saw her wear a dress twice...my Marla was more at home in gym shorts and a sweatshirt. She was one of the most stubborn people I've ever met, and I absolutely loved that about her. Marla was the only person I was ever willing to admit was as good of a cook as my mom (and in some areas, better). We use to camp in the back of her Expedition, and somehow she always made even camp food taste gourmet.

When she got really really cold, she would break out in huge hives, so she always had to wear a wet suit while jet skiing/swimming/water skiing. To her, flipping you the middle finger was showing just as much affection as giving you a hug. She was my travel partner, and we strongly believed in Travel Karma (treat people like crap, your flight gets delayed...be patient and kind, somehow things always work out).

But beyond all that, the thing I loved the most about her is that she never apologized for who she was. She never denied who she was. She was continually working to better herself, but never compromised the person she was deep down.

I love you Mar Far, and I'll never stop missing you.

Woot!

I bit the bullet and told my boss about applying for the P&P job. And he took it REALLY well.

Basically, he said that he is never one to stand in the way of someone wanting to better themselves. If I get the job, great, he'll be happy for me. But if I don't get the job, great, he'll be happy to still have me here at dispatch.

He also asked me to keep him posted on how things go and to keep it kind of hush hush with my co-workers, which I have no problem with. I see no reason to spread it around work that I'm applying for another job, which is another reason why I made this blog private...my coworkers really don't need to be reading up on me.

Anyway, that's one more hurdle successfully jumped over, now I can relax for the rest of the day without worrying about what my boss will say.

It's Going To Be Kind Of a Long Day

For some reason, I thought our Active Shooter Training for work last night was only suppose to go from 6:00 to 8:00...silly me, it was really scheduled to go until 10:00. And, of course, it actually went until around 10:30. Bad new for the girl who has to get up at 5 am to work the next morning (aka me).

The training was fun for the most part, but I was super bummed because (thinking the training only went to 8:00) I had arranged for Nathan and I to meet up with my parents one last time before they head back to the boat on the 24th for 6 months. They came into town last night in order to leave early this morning for their yearly ski trip with a bunch of friends to Big Mountain in Montana. They're coming back through on Sunday, but they can only stop for a little bit before I go to my last performance of the play and they have to keep heading to Burns, since Dad has to work his last day on Monday. So I may get to see them for a few minutes on Sunday, but then they head to Portland on the 22nd in order to fly out early on the 24th. It's going to be really sad to not have them around, not be able to call them whenever I want/need, after getting use to having them back home for a year.

In other news, today I have to tell my boss that I'm applying for another job, which gives me just a little bit of a nauseous feeling in my stomach. I think he'll take it just fine, since I'm not going to say anything bad about this job and am just going to tell him that I'd like the chance to try for a job that is directly related to my passion (working directly with people to better their lives). I'll let you know how he reacts.

PS. Did I mention that if I get this job, I'd get to go through Defensive Tactics and Firearm training at Academy?! :D

New Hair

For those of you who have been picturing me with the short, chin-length brown hair in the last picture I had up on our blog, this might be a shocker.

I've been working for the past few months to get my hair back to the blonde that it use to naturally be, and I think I finally got it there! Then today I decided that I was tired of the ends of my hair being dry and split, so I got a quick haircut. Here it is:

Update

Yesterday I remembered that I hadn't filled out my time sheet that needed to be turned in today, so I decided to head to work and fill it out. When I got there, I saw that the Undersheriff was in his office. Seeing as P&P is part of the Sheriff's office, I decided to stop in and see if I could pick his brain a little bit regarding applying for the P&P position. We ended up talking for about 45 minutes about various things, everything from what it takes to be a P&P officer to what it takes to be a dispatcher. He told me that it would be a big loss to the county to lose me as a dispatcher because I'm shaping up to be one of the better dispatcher...to which I almost had to laugh, because that was the first time I've heard anything like that from anyone.

But talking to him really solidified some of my wants and needs in terms of a job/career. I'm tired of having a job that requires me to sit in one place idly for hours upon hours. I want a job that allows me to work face to face with people and make a difference in their lives. And I've realized that this job as a dispatcher has had a lot a negative influence on my self confidence as an employee. I miss feeling competent and like I'm good at what I do. At this point, I feel like I can still salvage some of that self confidence, but I don't know how much longer it will be before I start thinking that I'm completely worthless as an employee...and darn it, I'm better than that!

So today I went to the P&P office and had the chance to talk to the P&P office supervisor, Will. It was a good talk, for all that it was short because he was sick and heading home. He gave me a better idea of what a day in the life of a P&P officer looks like, which was great. Essentially, the majority of the job is paperwork, follow up and investigation into possible violations by clients. Other parts of the job include 1-on-1 meetings with clients, home/work visits, working with the Parole Board, making statements in courts, and if necessary, arresting clients.

I think the investigation part would be really fun, and I would love to have a job that keeps me busy all day long instead of one that keeps me insanely busy for a few minutes and then ridiculously bored for the next couple of hours.

Anyway, tomorrow I get to take on the lovely task of telling my boss that I'm applying for a new job. If it were a bigger city, I wouldn't bother. But this is Baker, and the job I'm applying for works closely with my current job. I figure it's better for my boss to find out from me than through the grape vine. After that, I will feel free to put in my application, which is all ready to turn in.

Well, it's time for me to head to A'Diva to get my hair cut. Tonight is active shooter training for work, which should be a ton of fun.

Pros and Cons

So I'm thinking about changing jobs. Yes, for the most part, I enjoy the work I do in the dispatch center. But several things are starting to really wear me down, physically mentally and emotionally. There's a job posted here in Baker for a Parole & Probation Officer I. If I were to get this job, I would still be working for the county (which means having the exact same insurance coverage) and it would be a raise in pay, which is by no means a bad thing. But the idea of switching jobs kinda scares me right now. So I've decided to list the pros and cons that I know for each job, see how I feel after that, and see if I get any feed back from y'all. So here we go...


Dispatching Pros:

• Enjoy being involved with law enforcement
• Great leave time benefit
• Lots of laughs
• Satisfies my need for some adrenaline
• Sometimes feel like I REALLY help people
• Schedule allows for a 2 day work week every other week.
• Have invested a year into learning this job.

Dispatching Cons:

• Getting yelled at for mistakes
  Constantly feeling like my co workers are waiting for me to fail.
• My decisions potentially having a life or death effect on peoples' lives.
• Long hours and funky shifts that make it hard to do the things I love, like Young Life, theatre, and spending time with family/friends/my husband.
• Feel like I can't excel at this job
• No availability of a higher position to advance to.
• Being stuck in one room for 12 hours straight.
• Losing whole nights of sleep stressing about this job.
• I have people's lives in my hands (that's a big one, had to say it twice).

P&P Pros:

• Less sedentary of a job
• Still working in law enforcement
• Would mean a nice pay raise
• Ability to advance to a Parole & Probation Officer II
• Would get to work with people face to face
• Less likely to be told that there's a 15% of the job that you can't be taught, you just have it or you don't, and that I might not have it.
• Would get to use some of the skills that I learned working at the prison, which was a job I also enjoyed.
• Would get to arrest people and possibly carry a firearm...yes, in my books, that IS a pro!
• Would have the potential to help improve the quality of work done at the P&P office.
• I already have a basic knowledge of what it is that P&P does and how they interact w/ law enforcement, dispatch, and clients.
• I'm pretty darn good at "tough love", which is what a lot of people on parole/probation need.

P&P Cons:

• Kind of like babysitting, only with criminals.
• Having to learn a new job all over again.
• Would have to go back to Academy in Salem for 4 weeks.
• Would be on call 24/7, but that doesn't necessarily mean that I have to respond every time.
• Would have a higher risk because I would be dealing with subjects face to face instead of over a telephone line.
• Potential of becoming discouraged working with repeat offenders (which most of them are).
• Would probably have to work some nights, weekends, and holidays...but wait, I do that already!

Ok, that's what I've come up with so far. I'll probably add to this later tonight, but I have to head home soon. Thank goodness it's my Friday! Anyway, the application deadline for this job is on Tuesday the 15th (day after tomorrow). I have the application almost completely filled out, so I just need to fill in a couple more small things on there, add my current job to my resume, and type out a cover letter. I'm hoping that maybe tomorrow I can meet with one of the current P&P officers that I know is really nice, so I can pick her brain and get a better idea of what this job entails. Let me know what you think and I'll keep you all posted!!!

Privacy Please

So I think I'm going to follow in Carly's footsteps and make my blog private. The more I think about it, the more I really don't want completely random people reading my blog and knowing a bunch of private stuff about Nathan and I. The reason I put this blog up was to keep our distant family and friends up to speed on what is going on in our lives, and to have a place to vent/brainstorm if necessary.

So, if you would like to be invited to our blog, send me your email addresses!
My email (if you don't know it) is lindy.yl@gmail.com

Rollercoaster Ooh Ooh Ooh!

Yeah, yesterday was pretty...entertaining. I functioned moderately well until around 4:00 or so, when evidently I didn't talk loud enough on the radio, the Chief missed me saying something fairly important to one of his officers (even though the officer heard me) and then called to completely chew me out. Now, on a normal day I would be able to handle that just fine. I would have been able to shrug my shoulders, see where he was coming from, know that I hadn't really done anything wrong (verified by the officer on the call) and moved on. But we have to remember that I was going on about 28 hours without sleep.

I absolutely hit the wall. I started bawling. Right there in dispatch. And I don't cry delicately. Thankfully my partner was kind enough to hand me a tissue, take over radios for me, let me go to the bathroom to compose myself (took a while since I was so tired), and then called the officer who was on the call to see if he had a problem with the way I did anything...to which he said no. That helped a lot, knowing that the officer I was actually responsible for didn't feel like I completely goofed it up. After a while I was able to compose myself enough to get through the rest of the day with only a slightly wobbly smile.

Oh, and did I mention that my last call of the day was someone who had accidentally shot themselves in the calf with a pistol...out in the county. Sweet. Not only did we have to get the city ambulance all the way out there, but we had to figure out which officers were going to go in order to get to the scene before the ambulance, since gun shot wounds aren't really something you send unarmed paramedics in to alone. I mean, who really knows how it actually happened, and whether the reporting party is telling you the truth ("It just accidentally went off" vs "I shot the jerk for running around on me!")? Unfortunately, one of our deputies was on his way home, about 20 minutes out of town on the opposite side of the valley, and the other one was in Huntington...an hour away. So we got to quickly figure out which city officer was going to leave the city to drive 10 minutes out of town. All of this was at the 30-hours-of-no-sleep mark.

But opening night of "Laundry & Bourbon" went great! It wasn't a huge audience, but they were incredibly receptive and active, laughing at parts that I hadn't even thought about as being funny. It was SO nice to finally have an audience. For those of you who don't know, actors get about 30% or so of their energy simply from the energy of the audience. Rehearsals can get pretty tiresome towards the end simply because you are craving an audience to give you that boost that you need to REALLY bring the character to live. And as far as I can remember, I only goofed once, when I called one character by the other character's name...oops. Ah well, it was fun, and I'm looking forward to our second performance tonight!

And then last night, I slept like a rock. Mom helped me throw some hair dye on my hair, since the last time I put highlights in it it came out kind of...well...yellow. When I got out of the shower and got my hair dried, I popped a benadryl (just for good measure), crawled into bed, and out was out like a light. I didn't wake up when Nathan came to bed, I didn't feel him move, hear him snore, and didn't wake up until my music alarm had been going off for a good 30 seconds or so...it gradually gets louder, and it was pretty stinkin' loud by the time I got it turned off. I'm still a little groggy, but much better than yesterday. And tonight...tonight I am going to bed as soon as I get home from the play. It's going to be wonderful. :)

Oh for the love...

I didn't get any sleep last night. Absolutely none. Zip zero nada.

I stayed up pretty late because my parents got into town and I want to spend as much time with them as possible since they're heading back to their boat on the 24th and will be gone for 6 months. Once I finally got to bed, things just got worse. First I had a bad stomach ache that kept me awake. When that calmed down, Nathan started snoring every time I was about to fall asleep. Eventually, I gave up and moved to the couch in order to read for a few minutes then hopefully fall asleep, since my parents were in the guest bedroom. At which point my parent's dog started whining down in our basement...loudly. So yeah, no sleep for Lindy.

And now I have to work a 12 hour shift AND get through opening night of the play I'm in tonight. I have no idea how I'm going to do it. Unfortunately, one of our dispatchers is now on maternity leave, so all of our reserve dispatchers are schedule to cover her shifts. Which means that there really isn't anyone to cover any other shifts.

When 10:00 am rolls around, I'll have been up for 24 hours...and then I'll have another 12 or so to go before I can collapse.

But in good news, I just found out this morning that I got bumped from a Level 1 pay scale to a Level 2, because I've been at this job for a year. So I got a raise! That's always a good thing.

Back in the Saddle

I've decided that I need to get back into doing Weight Watchers again. I lost 20 lbs on it during the summer and then slacked off and gained half of that back. So it's time to start again!

In order to motivate myself and keep myself accountable, I put a weight loss ticker on our blog. It shows my goal weight loss (30 lbs), and how far I've gone towards that (0 so far since I just started today). If you see me remove that ticker before I get down to my goal weight, call me on it, it probably means I'm slacking off again!

While I was on Weight Watchers, I absolutely loved it. I loved how I felt, how much energy I had, how comfortable I was in my body, and how easy it was to use. The point system pretty much rocked my world because it forced me to be completely honest with how much or little I was eating each day...but it only works if I actually write down what I'm eating and the points for each thing! Things started going downhill when I stopped writing down my points and tried to keep track in my head...it's too easy to cheat that way!

Now that I'm motivated to start eating right again, I just need to get motivated to work out more often. That, as much as eating right, is what made me feel so good, because my body was doing something besides just sitting. Not only that, but it helped me actually have energy during the day, which is almost unheard of.

I just found out that WW now has a weekly meeting here in Baker, at the Baker Towers on Tuesday nights. I'd like to start going to those every other week (they end about the same time I get off work), so we'll see what happens. I've decided that I'm going to weigh myself every Monday...your weight can fluctuate several times a day, so it's not good to weigh yourself more than once a week. So stay tuned for the newer, slimmer me!

New Bed!

I know I've raved about our new bed several times, but I still can't get over how well we've both been sleeping. We finally got the 4 poster bed that I bought from Goodwill in college (it's been in my parent's storage unit for the past year and a half) and set it up with the new mattress set in our room. That required a little rearranging in our tiny room. Unfortunately, the legs of the bed frame were so tall that I literally had to jump to get into bed. So Nathan took a miter saw to the legs and now it's a much more manageable height.

Here's a couple of photos of our bed/room. It's pretty hard to get a decent photo in such a small space, but that's the best I could do.

Photos

I finally had a chance to take all the photos off of our little point and shoot digital camera. I have photos on there all the way back from my trip to Arizona with my mom in the middle of October. So I decided to make slide shows of each group of photos and put them up in one post. Here they are.

The first slide show is from my trip to Arizona. The first photos are from our trip to the art village down the road from where my grandparent's live. The rest of the photos are from our trip to Kitt Peak Observatory, a astrological observatory outside of Tucson. It was a beautiful clear day, and I got some really fun photos.

The next slide show is from when we put baby gates up around our back landing so that Bandit could come and go through his doggy door without having access to the rest of the house. But we made the mistake of putting one of his doggy beds in the back landing with him...this is the result.

When we went to get out Christmas Tree from my parent's property out on Pine Creek, Bandit took off and went into the creek that runs through the center of the property. Because he was so wet, we threw him in the back of the truck with the tree for the trip home, something we've never done before. He seemed to actually enjoy it, and you have to love his batboy ears.

And finally, the pictures I promised of how our house was decorated for Christmas...a little late, I know, but better late than never.

Funny

Here's a funny article I stumbled upon on msn.com. It's about car steriotypes. The really funny part is about half way down.

http://editorial.autos.msn.com/article.aspx?cp-documentid=445065&topart=passenger

Whew

I got my first annual evaluation at work today. And it wasn't as painful as I thought it was going to be. In fact, it actually had some praise in it (gasp!) and other than that, it just reiterated the things that I heard from our Police Sgt. What a relief! The only part that kind of surprised me is that my boss said that I need to become more comfortable with processing warrants and detainers...umm...as far as I know, I can enter and process warrants/detainers with the best of them. So I sent him an email asking him to clarify where I could improve in that area. The evaluation ended with my boss saying that the last 6 months of my probationary period will be the hardest, during which I will hopefully pick up that 15% of my job that is instinctual, the 15% that no one can teach you, that is your 6th sense...I'll get on that.

I was talking with Arly today about how my ride along with the Sgt went, and it made me realize something about myself...I will work my butt off for you if you treat me with respect and honesty. I can't say that I've been treated that way by certain people in my work place, which could account for my lack of enthusiasm towards working hard for them. Even if your complete honesty hurts a little bit, I will respect you immensely for having enough respect for me to deal with me face to face. Nothing loses my respect faster than taking your problem with me to a higher-up, without attempting to fix it with me first.

The other highlight of the day is that the Guitar Hero III for the Wii that I ordered on the 26th arrived today!!!! Super excited!!! Nathan set it up during his lunch hour and got to play it first (pout), but I can't wait to get done w/ rehearsal tonight at around 7 and go play it for the first time!

Speaking of shopping online, I just have to share with all you other bargain hunters out there...I got a $50 Old Navy gift card in my stocking for Christmas. I love shopping at Old Navy, but their prices are getting to be pretty rediculous, so I figured that I was only going to be able to get two or three things with the card. I decided to go online and see if I could find any good deals, since I know my sizes there. I ended up getting nine...yes NINE things...I didn't pay over $7.25 for a single item. My purchases included: 3 U-neck long sleeve tshirts (brown, blue and white), one Perfect Fit tee (deep red), one V neck tee (blue), three holiday tank tops (maroon, blue, and white with snowflakes on it), and some really cute earrings. With shipping being $5, the total came to just $0.49 above what I had on the gift card...so I actually paid only 49 cents for 9 items. Yes, I know, my girliness is showing, but I was just so proud of my ability to get so much for that price. Hopefully that will be delivered in the next couple of days.

On a completely different note, the play I'm in, Laundry & Bourbon, opens on the 11th. That means we have less than 2 weeks to rehearse...I think we'll be just fine. It doesn't feel like we've been rehearsing for very long though. If anyone is going to be in the area, it's playing Jan 11 & 12, 18 & 19, 7:00 pm at the Rodeway Inn in Baker. It's a dinner theatre, so dinner starts at 7:00 and the play will probably start at around 7:30 or so. Should be good food (Lynne Burroughs and my mom are doing the cooking), and the play is very entertaining with some great one line zingers.

Well, I'm off work in half an hour (this 6 am - 6 pm shift kinda rocks) so I better make sure all my call screens are finished. Later!

Here's to 2008!

I'd be lying if I told you that I'm sad to see 2007 go. It was a tough year and I'm looking very forward to what 2008 has in store for us.

For New Year's Eve, Nathan and I went down to Barley's, had some dinner, and were joined by our friend Dana. We had some good laughs and some good drinks until just before 11:00, when they closed the place down...not sure why the heck they did that. They could have made a lot of money in just one more hour of staying open. Anyway, the three of us then headed back to our place, where we proceeded to sing some karaoke until midnight and then went to bed.

By the way, have I mentioned that our new bed is freakin' fantastic?! I sleep so well at night, and I'm assuming Nathan does too because I never feel him move during the night.

Today we slept in a little bit then Nathan made breakfast before we went up to Anthony Lakes for a day of skiing. What a BEAUTIFUL day! A blue bird day, to be exact. The only clouds in the sky were little wispy things that didn't block any of the sun. We were able to take some great pictures. The highlight of the day was when my ski glove fell off of the ski lift while I was trying to take some pictures on our first trip up the lift. Thankfully it was a nice warm day, so skiing down the hill without a glove wasn't a big deal.

Unfortunately, at around 2:00 I got a raging headache. As in, the kind that makes you feel like you're going to vomit any moment. We went back to the car, got some ibuprofen, then went and sat in the lodge for a while. But instead of feeling better, I started feeling worse so we came home. I immediately went to bed until I started feeling better. Which brings us to now.

Not exactly the way I was picturing the first day of our new year, but over all it was really fun. And now...pictures!