Some random things I’ve been thinking about lately:

• Getting another tattoo…..it’s a bit more elaborate and it will be on my back, on the right side. I feel out of sorts a bit as my tats are not symmetrical. And least that’s my justification. Need to get the budget all set first, though.
• It’s been too long since I’ve fuddled with my instruments – the last time I wrote a song (yet unpublished….I know….the suspense!) was in December. Song is called Butterflies. Yeah, it was a time and place and yet, I am not there now. Hmmmmm.
• I want to start exercising again. I think I will get my bike (aka, a BICYCLE! No more motorcycles for me, at least for now.) and start doing trails or something. Maybe lift weights to get toned. I need to do something.
• I miss playing the drums, with a band. Not sure what to do about that.
• I can only do what I can do – life might be out of sorts, I might not be exactly where I want to be at every moment, but I can only do what I can do. And I am fine with that! Huh…..
• I love to read……and I’m gonna do that right now before I fall to sleep and dream that I have a stick shift again…..that’s been my recurring dream the last few nights!

Wishing my wonderful 2.78 readers great thougths and blessings – GINA OUT!

Addendum:  I find it amazingly ironic that a blog-bot (site that harvests blogs so that readers can see all sorts of things in one place) picked THIS POST to reference!  Hundreds of readers (welcome!) learning about how very boring I am!  Nice……LOL.

So today there were some good things that happened – traffic from my new place to work was not bad at all!  Well, there WAS some traffic coming home, but overall it wasn’t horrible.  I even swung by to pick up Kenny before heading home!  So I am very grateful for that for sure!  Living closer to Edgar again is AWESOME!

Work, however, kind of sucked.  We are upgrading our server, and I had gone through this elaborate planning with our vendor and our (currently) five locations.  However, it started off badly…..despite my planning efforts, the vendor majorly dropped the ball.  No temp log ons, no directions, and basically an entire day without access to our accounting program.  When I called them on it, they claimed they always planned for Monday to be a down day.  However, they didn’t realize that they are dealing with “CYB Gina”, who had an arsenal of emails that clearly established the agreement and plans!  So, I sent a couple to say, “help me see where I misunderstood the plan”…..suddenly, the plan was back but then myriad excuses were offered.  Sigh.  Bottom line, we didn’t get the accounting system up until after 4pm.  Wasted day.

HOPEFULLY, the conversion will be completed by Wednesday.  But, if I may say so, after days like this I missed how ECCU ran conversions!

Gracie has adjusted to her new digs quite well!  Special thanks to Rita who has taken great care of her during my transition.  As I type, Gracie is sleeping behind me, with her paw resting against my shoulder.  So cute.

Just a small reference – I am really enjoying the book “Signora da Vinci”, a historical novel about Leonardo’s mother.  Cool stuff!  It is written by Robin Maxwell and I highly recommend it!  It’s also very cool that I was able to travel to Italy in 2006, so I have a point of reference to some of the sites described in the book.  I am very blessed.

After the horrible move on Saturday, I watched “Remember the Titans” on Sunday morning.  Sometimes I just need a good cry, and this is one of those movies where there is plenty of that!  Kenny came to sit with me during the movie and was asking a few questions to get caught up.  As it was a moment where I was trying hard to suppress the sobs, I had some difficulty articulating the circumstances to him.  He looked at me, and with shock asked, “Are you CRYING?!?!!?!”  My response?  “I…..love……football!”  🙂  But the sobbing with this movie really helped me settle into a glorious day and fun with the boys and getting things unpacked!

I hope that this post finds YOU healthy and happy, and settled well into your life!

Gina, OUT!

So, today is the Monday after the “big move”.  I like many things…..waking up with Gracie, realizing there have been no accidents through the night, being in a warm place that isn’t totally damp and mildewing…..nice!

Things I don’t like – not knowing where a dang thing is, feeling the aches and pains of the move, wondering how long it will take to get to work, having to walk downstairs to get in the fridge…..but in the scheme of things, it could be much worse!

We are in.  Got to spend lots of time with the boys.  Got lots unpacked.  And I am alive.  Pretty cool.

Okay, I know this is a REALLY boring post, but I gotta get ready!  Peace out!

I don’t know about you, by the time change really screws me up!  I’m waking up at 4am, falling back to sleep until almost 8am, cranky at work, hungry for lunch a 3pm….the list goes on!  My co-workers and I were breaking down the changes I’ve gone through this week…..the biggest being I’ve changed from a morning person to “a 12 o’clock person”!  I guess that’s when I start to act human and that’s kind of funny!

And, in honor of my last days in the Valley, here are some jokes (sorry Ree Ree!):

Did you hear about the near-tragedy at the mall? There was a power outage, and twelve California Valley Girls were stuck on the escalators for over four hours.

A California Valley Girl was driving home after a game and got caught in a really bad hailstorm. Her car was covered with dents, so the next day she took it to a repair shop. The shop owner saw that she was a e, so he decided to have some fun. He told her just to go home and blow into the tail pipe really hard, and all the dents would pop out.  So the California Valley Girl went home, got down on her hands and knees and started blowing into her tailpipe. Nothing happened. So she blew a little harder, and still nothing happened.  Her roommate, another California Valley Girl, came home and said, “What are you doing?” The first California Valley Girl told her how the repairman had instructed her to blow into the tail pipe in order to get all the dents to pop out.  The roommate rolled her eyes and said, “Uh, like hello! You need to Roll up the windows first.”

Two California Valley Girls living in Oklahoma were sitting on a bench talking ……..and one California Valley Girl says to the other, “Which do you think is farther away……….Florida or the moon?”  The other California Valley Girl turns and says “Helloooooooooo, can you see Florida…?????”

A gorgeous young female claiming to be an Engineering College Student goes into the doctor’s office and said that her body hurt wherever she touched it. “Impossible!” says the doctor. “Show me.”  The student took her finger, pushed on her left breast and screamed, then she pushed her elbow and screamed in even more. She pushed her knee and screamed; likewise she pushed her ankle and screamed.  Everywhere she touched made her scream. The doctor said, “You’re not really a Engineering College Student, are you?  “Well, no” she said, “I’m actually a California Valley Girl.” “I thought so,” the doctor said; “Your finger is broken.”

Gina OUT!

Having lived in the Valley for a couple of months, and since I will be moving OUT of the Valley (sort of) at the end of this week, I’d love to share some of the culture shocks that occurred for this transplanted OC Girl!

• On the totally cool side, I LOVE the Targets here!  Why?  Well, it’s not that they offer different products or that the prices are better.  It’s because every store I’ve been to out here has 3 levels.  Why is that a big deal?  They have these totally cool things for your carts!  So you need to go upstairs?  Push your cart into the feed for it’s ride, and then hop on the escalator!  It’s SO COOL I feel like a kid!
• I have eluded to the drivers out here in previous posts.  Well, I have to say they ARE different!  While OC drivers are not angels, boy…..LA/Valley drivers are even more aggressive…..or at least sure of themselves.  The difference, for sure, is that they break laws left and right and don’t even blink, but still get pissed off if you are in their way.  But, I am getting used to it!
• The higher sales tax rate really sucks.
• It really surprises me that houses around where I live are so expensive!  I mean, I am used to older homes in OC, but it’s different.  The homes in OC don’t look ANCIENT many times, and in fact many are “new” (built within the last 20 years).  Many of the homes here were built pre-40’s, have 2 bedrooms and 1 bath, don’t look at all appealing, and yet are getting over $600,000.  Weird.  I won’t even mention the houses with THREE bedrooms and TWO bathrooms!
• There are tons more pedestrians around where I work and live.
• There are traffic cops at many of the intersections.  At first, they really intimidated me.  Now, I am becoming a valley girl I guess, because I can almost ignore them like everyone else around me.  I think they are there because, around here anyway, a yellow light (especially if you’re turning left) means to follow the car in front of you really closely and quickly.  You should watch it!  The light turns yellow and about 30 cars turn left…….
• I think it’s totally awesome, at least near my work, that there seems to be some sort of movie production going on at least every other week.  They might not all be “big Hollywood productions”, but cool nonetheless.
• Street sweeping tickets are EXPENSIVE!

And that’s my list!