Being Thankful

It's coming down to the final 5 days.

If someone would have told me 15 years ago that I'd be living in Los Angeles I would have said they were nuts. I would have never thought I'd have made it here...me the 'big fish in the small pond' called Lafayette moving to Los Angeles. I remember the day I left from seeing my parents one last time then driving out to see Jonathan at his work, which was on my way west. I think I probably cried for hours as I left all my family and what I called home. I threw out all my materialistic needs packing only what I thought I needed to start my new life and new adventures. After all, it's just stuff I was told I'd get more stuff and I did. I love living here, the small-ish 1 bedroom Kevin let me move in with him to the larger 2 bedroom we moved down to for 6 years and now this great house I will call home for a long time. But then this too is material right? We have a new place to call home in London. It'll be another adjustment where we go from having lots of space indoors and out to where we have little space indoors and there is no private space outside. The dogs will have to deal with that adjustment and we'll have to get used to walking them at odd hours.

I'm sitting here in the big EMPTY house with the dogs, asleep, well, Pepper looked up at me. They know somethings up and I hope they're able to deal with being couped up in their big new crates for the flight over. Once we get them there they'll have to learn how to live indoors. I don't think it'll be too difficult to stay indoors there right now, it's cold and often wet. I hope I have enough warm clothes for myself before the big shipment gets there mid December.

I've been working hard on cleaning the house, getting it into shape where I know anyone wouldn't know 2 dogs live here. I've been scrubbing grout and shoe molding by hand. I've been patching nail holes and trying to get the walls in the beautiful condition they were in 3 years ago when we moved here. I think I'm going to get to a point when I just say "enough" and let things go the way they are, after all, I'm not a professional.

I'm going to miss a lot of things about Los Angeles. The weather here it up there at the top of the list. The Mexican food is up there too. I will miss my color guard friends who have actually become more than people I hang out with for band or guard shows. I've missed Jessi a whole lot since she's moved to the Midwest. I'll miss those friends I've made through meeting them as Kevin's friends. Penny & Eric, Domi & Mimi, Steve & Jim, Matthew, Chris, Micheal, Lorraine....the list is a nice one. I really hope they all come over to visit us. Maybe not all at once but I'd love to see them all.

On this Thanksgiving Day I'm sitting here with my 2 sleepy pups thinking back at my year and finding lots to be thankful for. I got to visit my Dad and nephews. I spent lots of time with Jonathan, he's the best! I got to see my friends babies get bigger and that includes my God Daughter. I got to spend time with Kevin's Mom. I'm thankful that I'm not working for the manager at DIRECTV but will miss working at that company.

I'm mostly thankful that I have had and will continue to have an amazing adventure with Kevin.

Countdown!

Yes, - 10 days!

Happy Birthday to ME!

Yes, today I turn 49. I can honestly say it is just a number....as I don't feel any different then 45. I remember the milestones clearly. At 25 Allan Dekko asked me how does it feel to be a Quarter of a Century old. At 30 I was with friends in Lafayette, Louisiana. At 40 I was with close friends in Las Vegas. Next year I plan on being in Paris France for my 50th!

I got a call late yesterday afternoon early evening about the motorcycle. The guy saw my ad on recycler.com and is interested in coming over today to check it out after 5pm. I hope he's got intentions of buying the bike! This would be one more HUGE piece of the puzzle to fit into place. Send me all the good luck karma you can!

Also, I chatted with a dear friend this morning about this and that, he used to be a Senior Executive at DTV and also responsible for Human Resources. I told him what had happened and he suggested writing to the head of Human Resources and at least telling them what transpired. I'm not exactly expecting anything to happen but now I've at least put that part out of my mind and heart.

I had a great time at lunch. I got to spend it with Karen, Dan and Raffi. Karen has been one of the best managers ever and I'm grateful I can call her a friend. I worked with Dan and Raffi over the years and have always been able to get help from them. It was really nice to be able to just sit there and talk about our lives and not have to bring up work or the problems from it.

I'm working on some more house repairs, minor ones. I'm trying to re-do the ceiling in the main shower, the paint is peeling away from the humidity up there. I'll have to probably do some extra work to get it in a smooth finish again. I may just see about having a light and fan installed and be done with it.

Tonight I'm off to the Disney Hall with Matthew to see Charlie Haden. I don't know who this is but when I pulled up his music on iTunes I found he's a Blue Grass artist. It's not going to be too awful, maybe even fun. I've only been inside the Disney Hall twice and love the space. They curved wood to look like drapes!

Sunday

It's getting chilly here in Los Angeles...well, maybe it's just a slow moving front that we won't have for very long. Yesterday I had probably 15 calls about the Xterre, I posted it on Craigslist for sale. I didn't expect that many calls as I've been posting my motorcycle on there for months and nothings happened. I called my friend Mike last night on my way home from Oxnard, I had a band show to judge, to strategize how to get the people all here at the same time to possibly show that it's a great car and someone will offer me the asking price. He also told me about the forms from the DMV I didn't know about and is going to print them out and come over to be the 'unemotional advisor'. Wish me luck, if it sells today I'll just rent a car when I need one.

Yes, chilly walking the dogs this morning. I wanted to give them some running time too so we walked over to the front of the school near by, I let them run across the front lawn. They like the short freedom they have, especially Bentley. He'll have to be better about coming when called when we get to those big parks in London. We walked over to get a coffee and newspaper then home....still chilly.

I had a short chat with Kevin via Skype this morning to catch up. It's been great to have that connection even if it's virtual. He was having a beer while I sipped my coffee....strange but good all the same to see him. I explained to him the conversation with Mike and the game plan for later today. I'm excited to see how this will turn out.

I need to run for possibly the 2nd to last trip out to the storage locker with boxes in a few. I know I'll have to go back at least once more, hopefully just once more.

I'm moving forward.

UPDATE: The Xterra sold! I had almost a dozen calls from 20 minutes after it was posted and today it sold for the asking price. Mike was great with helping with it all even if he wasn't feeling well and couldn't come as my 'back up'. Yeah!

UPDATE NUMBER 2: The Bike Sold! Yes! I didn't get exactly what I wanted to get but close and the best part is it's done....DONE!

Friday the 13th

Today was an interesting day. I had a great day but....maybe the bad luck isn't mine?

Yesterday I gave notice to my employer of almost 14 years and went in hoping for no surprises, but I think I caught my former manager off guard with my announcement. "I don't think there's any better way to do this....but I'm turning in my resignation". I think this was not what she was expecting. We had a nice conversation, basically she said "I'm jealous and excited....I've always wanted to live in Europe.....I hope the best for you". It seemed to have gone well. I even explained about the recent virus problems and couldn't understand what was going on.

The virus issue started a week ago where I was notified by our stealthy Internet Security group of a potential virus on my laptop. They asked if I had been to Facebook, used Instant Messenger, checked on my bank account...the typical non-work related stuff. I told them I use my machine like everyone does, what's the big deal? They picked it up and gave me a different machine explaining they couldn't 'clean' it they'd have to re-image it. Ok....new machine. Then a couple days ago I get another message from the Internet Gestapo about another virus issue. Away goes my laptop. What ever....get me another one. I don't care, I'm leaving in 9 days anyway.

This morning I show up, 8 AM like I have for the past 19 months....alone till 9:30 when the rest trickle in. I'm still without a computer so I go over to the general use one. Log in and start working on emails I missed from the day before. The door to our department opens and it's the Senior Director and the Human Resources person. They asked me to sit at the conference room table. He, HR guy, goes into his speech about what's going on.....basically I'm being told I can leave now and that the recent virus issue is the reason I'm being let out early WITH PAY.

I signed over the forms, handed in my security badge and cleaned out what little I had in my desk, I prepared for this day 5 months ago, it all fit in 1 box. On my way out I ran into people I worked with, said my quick good-byes and left.

*PHEW*

I had a feeling something like this would happen.....this just proves to me that the person I thought would help me to grow and guide me through the remainder of my time there was only looking for a way to get me out. I had never felt like I would get anywhere after 5 months of being in the side office away from the rest of the group, being left out of pretty much any kind of department planning on work loads or just the daily chit-chat. When I had one of my monthly reviews I specifically asked when I could start working on the job I actually interviewed for. This really threw the manager for a loop. I never did get to do that job anyway. I was being paid almost 70k annually to be a data entry operator. That's pretty damn good, huh? I guess I should have just enjoyed the money and sat there. But me being me I really couldn't just be complacent with it all. I had to push. I'm a Scorpio.

Time goes by and I'm still trying to figure this whole thing out about why I ended up doing the work I was given. I did it all, quickly and efficiently. The faster I'd do the data entry work the more they handed me. There were even times when we were given the monthly presentation from our department to the heads of IT Operations where I alone would have the highest amount on the bar chart graph. Of course I would make mention in staff meetings "Wow I carried the group" month after month.

My mid year review was very memorable. I swear it was 30 minutes of everything I could have done wrong in the past 6 months. She'd pull print outs from her folder that impressed me that she'd kept that kind of record. One was "Why did you send this to me via email?" It was about me telling her that I was going to make up my time out of the office over a lunch hour. I guess she didn't like that there was a record of that? I ran into my old boss a few days later and we talked about this review. My old boss was shocked by all this. I've never had anything like it. The best thing is it came after Kevin and I had already agreed to move to London so it really didn't affect me.

Eleanor Roosevelt once said "No one can make you feel inferior without your consent". I never allowed the person who runs the department I worked in to get to me. Her insecurities and lack of experience showed through on a daily bases. The fact that she'd make comments about not wanting to be a micro-manager when she'd tell people what to write in emails was proof she shouldn't be managing kittens. I strongly believe that because I showed no fear and maybe no respect to her got the best of her.

Yes, I'm not doing the whole security and routine of going to work at 8 and leaving at 5 right now(by the way, she didn't like that either when everyone would come in after 9 and stay until 6 or 7...I know me coming in so early drove her even farther down the crazy path). But I've got lots more time to do the things I need to do and not be rushed.

I'm really happy by the turn of events.....after all I'M MOVING TO LONDON!

Finally!

After months of trying not to spill the beans I can finally "talk" about the big MOVE! It seems like forever and 3 weeks since I was in London looking for a place to live. Being apart has been hard, harder than I thought it would be. We have Skype and emails but it's still that human touch one becomes used to.

Today marks 10 working days and 20 calendar days before me and the pups can go over. They've been great, adjusting to the changes around the house very much. The best thing for them was in September Kevin had a surprise visit back to Los Angeles for work and got to stay here to get some much needed organizing done and hang out with me and the doggies. We saw it as a great half way point in the waiting period.

I've kept the news to a small group as I didn't want things to get too crazy and now that I have given notice at work I can freely talk to people about the next adventure for this Cajun from the bayou.

London is a great world city. I really didn't think I'd like it so quickly. 1 week there in July was barely enough time to get acquainted with it, but I managed to start to like being there. It's very different from Los Angeles, and not just because they drive in the other side of the road. It's just got so much character and style. I know I must have stuck out like a complete tourist the whole time. I didn't try to 'fit in' then as I knew I'd not be there for very long. I'm looking forward to learning how to be a city dweller and find what this amazing city has to offer.

Prison pups serve those who served

OTISVILLE, N.Y. — The state prison here sits among green rolling hills in southern New York. It is a medium-security prison, so it's not unusual to see inmates in green prison garb shuffling from one building to another. What is surprising is to see an inmate walking his dog. read more