Go There

I know I said I was going to try not using the word "hate" in 2012 and we're only 24 days into the new year, but here I am hating winter.

Gene has been busy moving all my photos off my virus-ridden computer onto a little laptop a good friend gave me. I pulled this picture from our Hawaii photos. It was taken two winters ago.  Sniff sniff. 

I've been dreaming about Hawaii lately. 

A very long time ago, I worked in the mental health field with a therapist who gave me a lot of good ideas and among them was this technique for remembering things. Ironically, I cannot for the life of me, remember what he called it but I want to say it is something like anchoring.  

How it works.  When I go places and experience things I want to remember forever, I close my eyes and try to capture all the things that my senses are picking up. When I snapped this photo, we were standing just off a street in Honolulu. The smell of dinner grilling at the local restaurants was in the air and people were standing politely along the beach front to share this sunset. I was there.

During the dark, cold months of January and February, I'm really glad I still have my mind to take me to those places that are warm and sunny. I'm grateful I took this photo and even more grateful my husband was able to pull my photos off my sick computer. I would have survived if he hadn't but this morning I'm especially enjoying the memories of that trip and it brings a smile to my face.

love, susan

Remember Me?

We recently opened up a checking account at a local, home-town bank.  I'm slowly moving our business over which has required a couple of trips into the new bank to open the account, make deposits and last week we picked up our new checks and debit cards.  When we walked through the front door, the new accounts lady (Carla) said, "Oh, hello Susan. I'll get your checks".  She remembered my name.  I am impressed by that.

My soon-to-be old bank has no clue who I am nor could I tell you the name of one person in the only branch this huge corporation has in this area, although I do have a favorite teller but I don't know his name. It's not that I'm all that important but it is a huge comfort to me to know that when I need something from my bank, they'll know who it is when I call for help. I have a card with Carla's name on it and she is the one who answers the phone most of the time.

My new bank serves cookies & coffee on Fridays. Gene has offered to come do banking with me every time I go. I love that!  Those folks now how to treat their customers right! 

Customer service is not completely dead. What a relief.

Snow Day!

No work today. I heard it on the news, I got it on a text on my phone. All I can say is YAHOO!

I was looking at my blog posts over the last 1 1/2 years and wondered how many posts I have written about the weather. I found quite a few. If you know me, this shouldn't come as a big surprise. My life is ruled by the sun.  I need it as much as food and water and air. I'm not terribly happy when it disappears for days at a time.

So, what does a girl do when she has a snow day?

Well, this morning when I saw the first phone text that we had a work delay until 10:00a.m. I decided to make a batch of  English Muffin Bread.  I have intended to get around to making it and thought I'd better do that before I drink up all the buttermilk. Since I was in the mood, I also made Gene some homemade cornbread from scratch. He's already downed a plate of it and will likely have it again with a bowl of soup for dinner.

Later this morning, we're going to hop on the city bus and head to the mall. I'm not a mall rat but on a day like today it seems like a good idea. I have really been wanting to see a couple of movies so we'll walk around the mall and then hit a show. I love our local bus drivers and especially on days like this. I figure they need some good cheer so we'll give 'em our best smiles as they work hard to move people today. 

And, of course, I'll go out and throw the frisbee to "Missy". She loves the snow as evidenced by sticking her nose down into it and getting all frisky!  Crazy canine.

Time to go dust off those cute purple snow boots and get dolled up for a day date with my hubby!

What are you doing today?

love, susan

Happy Anniversary, Love You!

On Tuesday, it will be 8 years since Gene and I stood on the bank of the not-so-mighty Colorado River in Laughlin, Nevada to say "I do".

Every year we light-heartedly (is this a real word? spell check thinks not) debate what year it was. I went to my file cabinet and pulled out the marriage certificate to verify this year. Yep, it has been 8 years. Confirmed.

It has been some of the best years of my life and I'll  try to give you just a couple of the million reasons why. I hope my entire blog from beginning to end will document the rest of the story. If you are new to my blog, I hope you'll click on some old posts and have a look-see.  Anyway .....

First, I've never met anyone who loves peppermint candy ice cream as much as I do. I remember the day early in our relationship when we were standing in the freezer section trying to find something we both liked. When I put my hand on that pretty pink box of heaven-in-a-box, his eyes lit up. We both took it as a good sign! 

I discovered I had never really seen the world until I started to see it from the road. Gene loves to drive, camp and just see everything. Turns out, I do too. Read: Wanderlust can lay dormant in anyone. One of our favorite memories is while on a road trip to Alaska, we stopped to stretch our legs at Kluane Lake in Canada. The lake was thawing and we stood on the bank to throw rocks at the half-frozen layer. When the rocks would make the icicles separate and float slowly away into the lake, it made the most magical musical tinkling sound. We stood there for probably an hour, mesmerized by the sound, the blue sky and the vastness of that lake.  Later on, we decided all new couples should take a road trip together to see if they are compatible. One should really know how their partner behaves after spending 500 mile days on the road, sometimes not getting a shower for a day or two. Seriously.  Relationships are not for those faint of heart.

Long story short, we have done more adventuring and fun things in the last 10 years than I could have ever imagined. Every weekend is like a mini-vacation. I can't say I have ever been bored since we've been married.

The photo in this blog was taken recently on our trip to Wenatchee, WA. We stopped for lunch at a local Vietnamese restaurant. It was fantastic!  Who knows? Maybe someday we'll visit Vietnam.  Anything is possible.

Happy Anniversary, Gene!  I heart you!!!

love, susan


 

One Song At A Time - Make a Decision

January is a tough month for me. All of December's poor eating and the lack of sunlight culminate into a very lazy, fatter, grumpy Susan. Getting on the treadmill is a major event in January. All the justifications for not getting on it come rising to the surface. I will not list those reasons here in hopes that some day they will just go away, i.e. I don't need to keep reminding myself of all the lame excuses I have for not exercising.

The one thing that does work for me when I do slip on my socks and tennis shoes and fire up the treadmill is that I make a decision to walk at least until the end of one song. Then I make the decision to walk through one more song. It works for me. Today I was able to walk through 19+ minutes of songs. Woo hoo. That may not seem like a big deal to you but it's a start for me!

The song choices make a difference.  Nora Jones?  I don't think so.  Allison Krauss? For walking? No!  Here is my playlist today:

Thunderstruck - AC/DC 3:50 minutes

Back in Black - AC/DC  4:28 minutes

1,2,3,4 - Coolio  4:26 minutes

Black or White - Michael Jackson  3:22 minutes

Life in the Fast Lane - The Eagles 4: 45minutes

I should be walking at least 30 minutes but I just can't (read: won't) do it right now. I'm happy to say I even went in the same room with my treadmill.

How do you get and stay motivated? 

 

Don't Stop Trying

Every year around this time I start thinking ahead about the New Year and things I'd like to accomplish. Somebody told me or I read it somewhere that to make a defined resolution is a set up for failure. For instance, if I made a resolution to drink 8 glasses of water every day, the fact is I will fail. So I started making my resolution list to look like this:

Drink more water.

Read more.

Waste less.

I think you get my drift. I've noticed since I started making my resolutions differently, it seems like the same ones end up on my list and it feels more like a re-commitment to doing those things that I'd like to have happen.  I still want to drink more water. Some days I go all day and a plain glass of water never touches my lips. Other days, I do okay. I resolve to never stop trying.

A couple of my resolutions from years past are still on that list in my mind. Maybe I should type them out and place them on the fridge for a reminder:

Recycle everything I can.

Waste nothing.

Buy used.

Buy less.

Use what I have.

Drink more water.

Treadmill more often.

Quit using the word "hate".

Do one thing to make a difference.

Don't stop trying.

What's on your resolution list this year?

love, suan

 

Looking Ahead

 2012

It's almost time to make New Year's resolutions.  I don't know if I want to really resolve to do too many things in the new year but here's a list of things I'd like to give a shot:

Drink more water.  

Learn to play guitar.  (still need to buy one)

Take "Missy" to at least one doggie class.

Go to a silent retreat.

Take more photos.

Write better blog posts.

Spend more time on the treadmill. (note how this did not make it to the top of the list)

Read more.

Visit Michigan.

Totally do-able!!

What's on your resolution list?

love, susan

Looking in the Rearview Mirror

Spotted this rabbit on a day trip to McNary Bird Refuge.

A Year in Review

One of my favorite blogs, The Art of Non-Conformity, is written by a guy who lives in Portland, Oregon. He's a world traveler, author, changer of attitudes, and I'll bet just a really swell human being. He does an annual review of his year on his blog using the following questions:

What went well in 2011?
What did not go well in 2011?

I thought about 2011 today and quite frankly I couldn't come up with anything that did not go well. Really. It was a banner year for me. I hope it's okay to say that. Do you think I should knock on wood right now? Is it bad karma to talk about how great your life is? I don't think so.  I hope it isn't.  Is it?

It started with a one-week fly-by-the-seat-of-our-pants trip to Phoenix in February. We had been tossing around the notion that maybe we should get in on some really dirt-cheap housing prices there and so drove through the worst snow storm in Nevada, with only street tires, to get there. About 3 hours into driving around Phoenix, we looked at each other and said, "what are we thinking???"  We cannot leave the green trees for a concrete jungle. That's how it is with us. We just knew. But we had to get it out of our system.  No bueno.  Phoenix.

The first week of May, I said adios to the law firm where I was working in exchange for the perfect summer. And, it was ... a perfect summer. We headed to Flagstaff the 2nd week in May for my son and his wife's graduation via The Arches National Park in Utah. Arches is quite possibly the most awesome place I've ever visited. 

Our summer was non-stop fun, travel, picnics, hiking, camping, motorcycling, and anything else we could squeeze in between. It was so busy that I was ready to go back to work in September.  I found a great temporary job and we've enjoyed two great trips to the beach since I started working again.

I've said it before .... I feel like I'm hanging on to a runaway train in my life.  And, it's fun! I can't think of one thing that did not go well this year.  Perhaps that's the Pollyanna in me.  

I  look forward to 2012.  How about you? 

love, susan

Four Days Til Solstice

I've noticed that people in Washington don't really give a rip about solstice.  Being a life-long Alaskan, I can tell you that winter solstice is something almost every  Alaskan looks forward to.  It's a date that (if you don't drink yourself to death or go completely insane) gives you hope. December 21st is the shortest day of the year and when you live in Alaska, knowing that you will gain daylight the next day, even if it's only 4 seconds, is something to look forward to. Life-long Alaskans pride themselves in survival.

I've discovered since we moved to Washington, after a 7-year stint in sunny Yuma, Arizona, that the Alaskan in me comes out in the winter time.  I have been thinking about December 21st for a couple of weeks now. This will be my fourth winter here in Eastern Washington. While I love living here, I could do without the long winter.  I know just a short time ago, I wrote that I was happy to see winter arrive because we ran hard last summer.  I'm over it now.  I want summer to come back.  Soon.

This time of year is always busy and I have a full December calendar.  January, not so much. We don't have any trips planned. There are no parties. It's very much like living in Alaska without the -50 weather. Just gotta hang on and watch the days grow longer.

love, susan 

Hey Mouse!

Our supervisor at work gave us each sweet little figurines for Christmas. Mine is a little mouse with the hugest ears and the body is the shape of a pear. My card reader is not working or I would post a photo of it for you.

Opening that little mouse gift reminded me that my nickname in high school was "Mouse".  I said it out loud yesterday and someone asked me why that was my nickname.   Here's why.

Until I was in my mid 30's, I had ears that stuck out like a mouse. I was born that way and I suffered all through my school years into adulthood with those ears. My hair is quite fine and although I tried to wear it in a style that hid those ears, I didn't do a very good job of it. I remembered in the flash of a second the pain of being burdened with such a physical flaw.  I hated windy days because I felt terribly exposed. I hated that I couldn't wear my hair very long or pull it back in a pony tail like my friends. Those mouse ears were something I thought about every single day of my life.

I always wanted to have cosmetic surgery to fix those ears but it was expensive so I could never quite justify having the surgery done. Long story short, I ended up scheduling another medically needed surgery (breast reduction) with a cosmetic surgeon and asked him if he could do something with my ears while I was under the knife. He gladly said he would do it and at half-price since I was already on the table. While the breast reduction was awesome to have done, I was extremely happy to get my ears "fixed". The recovery for the ear job was much more physically painful than the breast reduction.

Surprisingly, it took over a year for my psyche to register the fact that I now had perfect little ears. I liken it to those who have gastric by-pass surgery and lose weight quickly. The mind has a hard time catching up with the fact that our physical appearance has changed.

I have all but forgotten that I had mouse ears and huge, back-breaking boobs at one time. One of the things that came up for me yesterday when opening that gift was the memory of how cruel kids can be and even some unthinking adults. While I know my friends' nickname for me was a term of endearment (my close friends were not bullies), I am certain they never knew how incredibly painful it was having mouse ears.

It's easy to think that our off-handed comments are funny or witty but I write this post for myself. I am as guilty as the next person to make an unthinking comment and opening that gift yesterday reminded me that I need to choose my words thoughtfully. I'd rather not be the cause of some one's feelings being hurt.

love, susan

Happy Birthday

Gene celebrated his 61st birthday on Sunday. We took a drive out to Naches, which is 12 miles north of Yakima, for a late lunch compliments of his daughter.  Her instructions were to take him to dinner, so I did!  It's a long 90 mile drive for lunch but so worth it. Being retired means he is home a lot so getting out for a drive always makes him smile. 

We love this little cafe we found a couple of years ago. They make the best Reuben sandwich and I love their hamburgers which are hand-formed and nestled on a homemade bun. Everything they serve is totally homemade.  Worth the drive!!

On the way home, I spotted two bald eagles near the river. We also saw a lot of red hawks perched up high, hunting for food. I call them "fatties". They don't seem to be starving this time of year. I felt like a fattie after eating everything on my plate which included sweet potato fries!

Happy birthday, Gene! You are the love of my life! I can't imagine how boring the last 10 years would have been without you. Your wanderlust was contagious and I've been infected with it deeply. You are showing me how to age gracefully and you've shown me that every day is like a birthday. I love how you wake up smiling and laughing even when it's hard to get moving sometimes. What a great life we have! 

love, susan