Happy Halloween

This is my granddaughter, the zombie pirate. Pretty scarry huh?

My interview went well I thought and they are of course going to interview some other people and then do call backs. I also dropped off my resume at another optical office that is in need of employees so maybe I'll hear from them too. At least I had an interview and that made me feel like something was happening.

So far this morning I'm stuck in front of the TV. Having all these channels is new to me remember and since it is Halloween there are all kinds of shows on spooky stuff. I'm not a big spooky movie person but I do get interested in paranormal stuff.

The sun is shining beautifully and I need to get myself outside for a nice long walk. Not working and having bunches of TV channels and a TV in my room is not so good for one's weight. I need to move my butt!

Anyway, not much else going on. Hope your day is a good one.
Love,
Robbin

At Last

At last I have a real bonafide interview! I am beside myself with excitement. It was an ad for an optician that I answered by fax a few weeks ago. I believe it is only part time with the opportunity to go full time and that is ok by me for now. I need benefits and all that but we'll take one step at the time since it has been so hard to even get asked for an interview. Times are hard and competition. Of course if somebody will give me a chance I can show them just how wonderful I am. (I'm trying to keep my confidence up which I've misplaced in the last year or so.)
SO we'll see if this is meant to be.

If you've not figured it out so far, I'm trying to title each of my posts after a song. So far it's been pretty easy. And just recently I've become a real Etta James fan so At Last was in my head. It's because I watched the movie Cadillac Records the other night.

Waiting for Wednesday

It's Wednesday and that means a few things around here. Haleigh has "early release" from school on Wednesday, which cracks me up. Sounds like she's being let out of prison early since she has been a good girl. I prefer to call it the day school lets out a few hours earlier but she always corrects me. So YAY! Today's early release day for Haleigh! It is her favorite day of the week for sure.

Also on Wednesdays she has a late dance class and so it has become my day to cook dinner and have it ready when her and her mom get home.(Matthew is working a shift now where he is not home for dinner with us). Tonight I've decided we're having just good old hamburgers and macaroni salad. I seem to look forward to Wednesdays as it seems to be a day I can make myself useful. I don't feel very useful these days but being able to plan a mean and cook it helps.

I was thinking of how things are different for me in little ways since I've moved to this new and strange part of the world. The biggest, well maybe not the biggest, is having to put a leash on Sweetie to walk her instead of just opening the door and letting her out for a while. AND I have to have a little bag with me at all times when we walk. The first time I took that little bad out and picked up her poop she looked at me like I was nuts. Now it is old hat to her.

Another thing is learning new weather terms and new phrases, like mountain passes and snow in the mountains. Also learning that the weather literally can change as you speak and sometimes the early morning is not the coldest part of the day. The weather is quite interesting to me here. I have noticed the weathermen can't predict it as well as the southern ones can. Something to do with the mountains and all the water and things I don't understand.

The ferries are one of my favorite things. To get almost anywhere you can and sometimes have to take ferries. You can drive on or walk on. I love the ferries.

Hope your Wednesday is going well.

Love,

Robbin

What's Happening at Our House

We've discovered that you can take these two ingredients and make the best chocolate muffins in the world. Well, to me they are, I like them a lot and this cuts the calories in half. With the low sugar box of cake mix it makes them even more better. YOU must try this. I promise you will like them.

Amy bought the coolest vintage whistling teapot but..................

....... It really and truly upsets the dogs, they go nuts. This is Sam going "OH MAKE IT STOP!"

And Ozzie goes on automatic guard duty, he is ready to attack!!

They stay on alert for a long time after the whistling has stopped.

But after awhile when he is sure the threat is gone............

He conks out and relaxes until we have our next cups of tea.

That's Life

I read with interest a little bit ago on the site of this state's labor department of a nice little retail job in a book store. AH HA, I love books, I have all the experience to handle this one but then I noticed one little problem. It's an ADULT book store. I DON'T THINK that would work for me. Darn it!

Haleigh and I have had some interesting conversations today, one being that I think the honeymoon of having her grandmother living here is over. She says when I just came to visit I always had something for her and I let her do whatever she asks and I never said no to her. Ummm, I guess life is tough like that. I told her I'd move out again way far and only visit again if she thought that was best and she said...."NO!!! that's not what I meant!" I know what she means, it is very different but in a good way. And anyway she still has another grandmother in Georgia that can do her that way. Me, I get to be the mean grandmother now but maybe she'll have good memories of me like I do of my grandmother that I got to spend some summers with when I was little. She'd come stay with us for the summer and I still have memories of some of our experiences and conversations. I can only hope.

I like the weather as it gets colder. We'll see how I fare with the winters here but something tells me I'll do fine. If it snows I'll just keep myself at home! Hope you have a good week,
Love,
Robbin


That's life
That's what all the people say
You're riding high in April
You're shot down in May
I know I'm gonna change that tune
When I'm back on top in June

I say that's life
& as funny as it may seem
Some people get their kicks
Stompin' on your dreams
But I don't let it, let it get me down
'Cause this fine ol' world keeps spinning 'round

I've been a puppet, a pauper, a pirate,
A poet, a pawn & a king
I've been up & down & over & out
But I know one thing
Each time I find myself, flat on this face
I pick myself up & get back in the race

That's life
I can't deny it
I thought of quitting, baby
This heart wasn't gonna buy it
And if I didn't think it was worth one single try
I'd jump right on a big bird & then I'd fly

I've been a puppet, a pauper, a pirate,
A poet, a pawn & a king
I've been up & down & over & out
And I know one thing
Each time I find myself flat on my face
I pick myself up & get back in the race

That's life
That's life & I can't deny it
Many times I thought of cutting out
But my heart won't buy it
But if there's nothing shakin' come this here July
I'm gonna roll
I'm gonna roll
I'm gonna roll myself up in a big ball & die
Can't deny it
That's life

Sung by Frank Sinatra
Written by Kay Gordon

Time, time, time

When I was younger I felt like I always lived for the future. It seemed all I ever did was dream of better days to come. And then for the last few years I decided to live in the moment. One day at a time. Reason being I suppose is that I wasn't sure how much of a future I had. But now it seems I am back to living for the future or at least dreaming of moving on with my life in this new beautiful place I've chosen to live. I dream of just the perfect little place that is my own. I dream of a good job with good co workers. I dream of having a place by or
near the water or at least with a mountain view. I dream of decorating it and being surrounded by only the things I love. Maybe I've confused living for the future and having dreams. I think I have realized that I need dreams, I need
to be able to have something to look forward to, to think about when I lie down to sleep. And maybe I've realized that just because I hope for something in the future doesn't mean I can't enjoy and appreciate what I have today,
at this moment in time. And I have to remember my favorite passage from the bible.

"To everything there is a season,a time for every purpose under the sun.A time to be born and a time to die;a time to plant and a time to pluck up that which is planted;a time to kill and a time to heal ...a time to weep and a time to laugh;a time to mourn and a time to dance ...a time to embrace and a time to refrain from embracing;a time to lose and a time to seek;a time to rend and a time to sew;a time to keep silent and a time to speak;a time to love and a time to hate;a time for war and a time for peace." Ecclesiastes 3:1-8

So I suppose dreaming of where I'd like to be in the future is not necessarily not living in this moment. Life is always progressing, ever changing and like whoever wrote the book of Ecclesiastes says, "To everything there is a season" and I look forward to what each time holds for me. It's what keeps me interested in life. I'm just nosy enough to want to find out what will happen next. And that's how you know you're not depressed when you have things to look forward to.

Keeping the Faith

What is the matter with these people around here? Don't they know what a good employee I'd be? Why I stayed at my last job for nearly 15 years and the time before that for over ten. I wish I could at least snag an interview. I know the economy is bad and people are losing their jobs but HELLO out there, I need a job! I've faith it will happen when it is suppose to. But like I said, it would be nice to at least get an interview.

It's a beautiful shade of gray here today, matches my mood and that's ok. It's just a gray mood and not that veil of depression that can creep upon me. It's funny how I've learned to know that difference. When it finally lifted I felt it physically leave me. It stuck around for quite awhile and just when I thought I was going to have to get some help it left me. I hope it keeps away!

A Life Lesson from Nature

One of the things I love about this room of mine is the big double window. For the last few days I've watched with interest as one of those big spiders wove her web right on the outside in my view . It's one of those really cool webs we've all seen, perfect and amazing in design. Once she was done with it, she works constantly to make sure it stays perfect. I've watched her catch her dinner in her web and I've watched her crawl around checking for loose treads and repairing them.

The other day I saw that a big red leaf had blown right into her web and got stuck. Suddenly she appeared out what seemed like nowhere and just stared for a while at the leaf. If was like she was in shock that this had happened to her web. I watched to see what she'd do if anything and sure enough after a little while she ran in a spider like way to the leaf and started working around the intruder and finally disconnected it. But it only fell a little bit further down the web and got stuck again. Without hesitation this time she crawled down and worked to disconnect it again only for the same thing to happen. I could almost see her frustration but she didn't stop, she kept working until finally the leaf was gone. But then she had work to do for every time she'd scrambled to get the leaf loose she'd destroyed a section of the web. She seemed to rest a few minutes and then she set off to work to repair her world. And she did too, before long all was just like it had been before that big red leaf came crashing in.

Now there's a life lesson in this if you choose to see it which I do. Sometimes these little lessons about life come in strange ways.

Soap Operas, Racing Heart & Why are my oranges from Australia?

As stated before I need a job. Reason number thirty six is because I'm addicted and absorbed and obsessed with Days of Our Lives. I want Sami to know that Nicole has her baby so badly I could just jump right into the TV and tell her, shake her, yell at her! The urge is hard to ignore.
And apparently chemo can cause heart problems of which I have developed in the form of A-fib. It is a long story of which perhaps I will share soon but right now I just sort of have it on the back burner until I see the cardiologist again in December. I've told nobody about this outside of this house and one other person simply because I figure they are tired of hearing of my tragedies. I AM tired of having them for sure. So, anyway, since I'm on Wafarin which is a blood thinner, I have to go to have that checked every week or so and I go to a nearby town of Silverdale. I like to go to the stores there to buy fruit but lately the fruit everywhere looks bad, I guess it is in between seasons. Apples and Pears are lovely but the oranges and grapefruits looks bad. I bought some navel oranges that looked ok and when I got home I realized they are from Australia! WHAT THE HECK??? I'm not so far from California, why can't I have California oranges? Or even Florida would be wonderful, why do we have to get fruit from other countries?? It disturbs me greatly.

AND last but not least, Haleigh and I made terrariums this summer(or maybe I should say last summer) and the African Violet is blooming again in mine. I'm really excited because I've never been able to make any plant live much less BLOOM.

And that is my story for today.
Love,
Robbin

A New Start

My heart and soul can't go too long without an outlet to "out" in if you know what I mean. So here I am again, back in blog world. For a while there I wasn't really in the mood to share much after my big move. I tried for a while but it became a chore to me. I was having to deal with deep dark thoughts, I was getting used to my new surroundings and for a while there I was afraid I was done with blogging. But alas here I am again. I'm a different person really and ready to share with whomever might happen to stop by.

So, my blog has a new look, my thoughts are sharper and almost clear and I'm ready to write. The biggest thing I have going right now is I WANT A JOB! I have cabin fever and I'm ready to get out into the world. I NEED A JOB! Not just for the obvious reasons of food and shelter but because I need to feel like I'm contributing something to the world. So that is what we'll explore for a while. If I could just snag ONE little interview I'd be really happy.
SO stay tuned.