2 in one week!

Don't fall of your chairs!  I'm pretty peppy this morning.  Perhaps it's the convo with my parents last night that perked me up or maybe it is the fact that it is Friday and I only have 2 meetings today - so far :)

So we played with Skype last night. It was pretty entertaining.  I gave my dad a tour of my place.  Good times.  Everyone should download it.

Why on earth are they talking about Lindsey Lohan on the Today show this morning? I hear it in the background in the other room and I have to pause and consider the credibility of US news.  Really?  My goodness.  Sometimes it is nice living in the middle of nowhere and being so far away from all of that.

Instead, I will choose to focus on the upcoming State Fair.  They have every kind of animal you can imagine, including pigeons.  I'm not quite sure what these birds will do at the fair, but I will capture it on camera - whatever it is.  They were talking about all the fried food that will be there - sounds like a death wish.  The most amazing may be the Krispy Creme Cheeseburger.  Yes, you read that right.  Instead of a nice kaiser roll, there will be doughnuts.  Healthy, right?  That's how we roll down here.

Tomorrow I get to pick up my first farm share.  A guy that I work with transferred to North Dakota and gave me his food share.  So every weekend I get to go to the farmers market and pick up a half a basket of veggies. I did something similar last year (City Fresh for all you Clevelanders) and loved it.  It challenged me to cook all kinds of things and it supported the local farmers, mostly Amish.  Plus it was organic and fresh and CHEAP!  Can't beat it.  Win win win situation. :)

they are still talking about Lindsey on the 'news'. 

This weekend I am also going to a managers bowling event.  It is for managers and their families.  There will be food.  No alcohol.  No beer.  Yes, you read that right. I'm sure there are people that bowl without a frosty mug in their hands, however, I would offer that I am not one of those people.  It's like hops flavored soda.  What's the problem?  If it is too family friendly and I start getting looks that imply pity for the old maid with cats, I'm hightailing it out the door.  I have yet to meet anyone over the age of 23 who is not divorced with children.  Some days I feel like I belong in the C'ville version of Ripley's Believe It or Not.  I just made myself laugh :)

Alright, time to go to work.  For my fellow HR gurus - I'll be  mapping out the Workers Comp process and Long Term Accommodation practice for my site.  Then there will be a couple interviews and wrapping up and starting another investigation.  It amazes me the things people say to each other... but we will save that for next weeks blog.

Have a great weekend!

It's getting HOTT in here

As we welcome August (yes, I know this happened a couple weeks ago), we welcome the heat.  Not just the heat that I'm used to..the kind that makes you glisten when you walk to the end of the driveway when you take out the trash...but the kind that makes you wonder if you did something terrible and have discovered hell.  We have been clearing 100 lately - just the heat - this past week.  Once you figure the heat index and the heat of the conveyors in the warehouse, we're talking heat indexes upward of 110.  I've never experienced hot like this.  It's pretty miserable.  Now imagine that you have to run all over the place for ten hours and you've got the life of our hourly employees.  My goodness.

Here I would insert my newly acquired C'ville phrase - "Bless their hearts".  Our group says this about everything.  It's actually pretty catchy. 

Some more C'ville craziness... this isn't the happiest story, but I'm just in awe of it.  My colleague/friend got a call from her mother the other night.  Her mother's cousin is a buffalo farmer in a nearby state.  He went out to check on his herd the other night and one of them charged and gourged him.  He died shortly after....death by buffalo.  I didn't even think that buffalo would charge and hurt a person, but my goodness, kill a person?  Never in a million years.  When I think of all the terrible ways that people go, that certainly is one of the worst.  Wow.

Let me think of something on a lighter note.  AH!  So the state fair is coming up and I am making plans to go.  can you imagine this gem?  They have all kinds of animals there and farmers.  I just can't wait. I will be sure to take pictures.

Speaking of... I won't write a lot...just share a few token pics that have been long overdue... Enjoy!

Alas, I am here!

The terribly delinquent blogger that I am... I've come up for air and joined the land of the living.    It's been a crazy couple of weeks - things have really revved up at work and I've been on the road. 

I spent a week in Seattle and was able to spend some time with my brother.  We enjoyed a Mariners game and a nice dinner out by the water.  It was nice to be out in a city and one with so many things to do.  One of the things that I love about Seattle is it's mellowness.  It's just a good city to hang out in.  You can walk around and go in and out of shops and restaurants and just wander.  It's safe and clean.. at least in my opinion.. and there is no better place to get a variety of cuisines and fresh seafood.  Add the mountains in the background and the lush green landscapes and I think that's a little taste of heaven!

So work has been chaotic.  My team has some interesting dynamics that we are working through... I'm not used to being on a large team and being so involved in so many things.  I'm getting some meaty projects and working with some great people, so I can't complain about much other than the hours.  But I expected that and it's only temporary.  9 more months.

I'm excited that I will get to go home in a month.  Will be nice to relax with friends and family.  I was going to try to be superwoman and hit Pittsburgh and Cleveland in a four days span, but I just don't think I can do it.  I can't go at this pace without having a break soon and by then I will certainly need one.

In local news, there is a guy at work who is transferring to one of our facilities in North Dakota.  Yes, you read that right!  and I thought C'ville was rural!  But this kind man and his wife have offered to give me his farmers market food share for free through October.  How cool is that?  last year when I had City Fresh (look it up Clevelanders!  Best food sharing program EVER!  Support your local farmers!), I was cooking up a storm.  This will force me to take the time to cook and enjoy it again.  Reflecting on my meal of turkey brats and gardienera, this will be a welcome relief. 

I took out my poultry to make chili tomorrow for dinner.  Did I mention that tomorrow is going to be the hottest day of the year?  Hmmmmm

One last plug - I was severely disappointed by my recent trip on Delta.  My flight was delayed and I was sprinting through the Minneapolis airport and didn't get home until very late on Saturday night.  Then they lost my bag...which didn't arrive at my house until today.  Today is TUESDAY.  Then something exploded in my bag and now a bunch of stuff is red.  Not sure where or how, but it's red.  Nice.   So Delta will be getting a letter from me with lots of adjectives. :)

Oh- and for those of you who have been trying to subscribe.. apparently it is a pain the bum.  I've been told that you have to have a gmail account to do so and really, as a gal who has too many email accounts as it is, please do not feel obligated to open one.  Just check my blog every once in awhile :)

Happy Tuesday!  Til next time...

Creepy crawlies!

I know, I know. I've been a bad blogger.  My workdays have blurred into my work nights and I have lost track of days and fallen behind on emails yet again.  I will catch up eventually, I promise!

It was an interesting week in C'ville.  I learned about the local animal population....oh boy, did I!  It started with an innocent conversation in the middle of my office when I asked if there were poisonous snakes in the state.  Certainly they had gardener snakes, but could they be deadly?  The answer - oh yes!  There are def copperheads and even rattlesnakes in this area.  I ran this by another colleague who was quick to inform me that they had found 2 snakes in the plant over the past couple of months.  One was a copperhead.  Awesome.

I had to run home at some point last week to sign for a delivery...probably around 3pm.  As I walked to my front stoop, I noticed a little lizard sitting next to my pot of basil.  At first I thought it was a newt, but after closer inspection I determined he was a bit bigger than he should be.  Needless to say, he did not want to hang out with me and took off running down the side of the house.  When I got back to the office and asked if they had newts or salamanders around here, they said no, just lizards.  Again, awesome.

After I vetted the lizard scenario with my colleagues, I struck up a conversation with a guy who was in the building for an interview.  He was a very chatty fella and from the area.  He was telling me that when he phone screened with us he had to delay the interview because he had just discovered a snake in his house.  A cowsucker snake to be exact.  Yes, you read that right.  I am immediately assumed that I was being setup by my office mates who found my awe amusing, but alas, it was a true story.  Apparently cowsuckers are not poisonous, but they hang out in fields.  After further Googling, I have discovered they are also called rat snakes.  But enough about them... I'm trying to eat my breakfast. Ew.

Then on Friday I went to the weekly labor planning meeting with our sr ops team, controller and gm.  One of our sr ops mgrs comes in laughing hysterically over a conversation he just had with one of our employees about frog giggin'.  Now before you cringe, think about the last time you had some nice, delicate, buttery frog legs.  This is where they come from.  Somewhere in the world, someone is going frog giggin with their little trident spear and pocket knife.  If you are eating, I suggest you stop reading or hold on to your stomach because what happens next is kind of gross.  So they catch a from in a trap and use the trident to pin down the frog and cut off its legs....while it is still alive.  Apparently if you kill the poor creature first, it dries up their legs and you can't eat them.  This lovely employee had fried frog legs for breakfast.  Just think about that.  Awesome.

I must have looked shocked because the gm and controller called me out...said I was rethinking my decision to come down here.  If he only knew the rest of my week!

So that it what I have learned about the local animals.  Besides being afraid of ticks, I'm now worried about cowsuckers and lizards getting in my house.  But fear not, I do not believe that I will have to worry about frog giggin.  Not a local tradition I care to experience. 

I realize that I keep promising pictures that I have yet to deliver.  You are probably thinking I only wished that I was Lady Liberty.  By the way, they only call her Lady Liberty around here.... I've called her the Statue of Liberty and received some strange looks.  Strange. Strange.  It's kind of fun being the pale girl that talks funny.  I'm actually kind of tan by my standards!

TGIF!

For a short week, it certainly lasted awhile!  Another 11 hours in the books for the day and my head hurts.  Was a busy, busy day at work.  There are things about being the new kid that are tough.  You never know what you aren't asking, but I continue down the path that I think makes sense.  It hasn't failed me too terribly yet.  The good thing about my company is that they are extremely accepting of risk-taking, change, and a different perspective.  They stress that they hire you because you have an opinion and will literally ask for it all the time.  This has really stretched me as it is now coming from all directions.  It moves fast.  I knew that it would. I was forewarned, but DANG they weren't exaggerating!

A few of you have commented on my somewhat depressed last post.  It's not that I'm sad, really I'm not.  I just have a lot of time on my hands and spend a lot of time appreciating the way that my life used to be.  Not sure that I really did that before.  I'm used to being able to fill my days and nights with endless activities and here it's just not an option.  Most people that I work with all work a lot and really just want to go home to their families.  It's really on the account that I'm single and not so much that I am in C'ville.  But it will get better.  These things take time.

Tomorrow's adventure will take me to Louisville.  I believe that I am going to head to Whole Foods and maybe Costco.  For the first time in my life it's appropriate for me to actually have a Costco membership and stock up on stuff.  Before it was just pure excess.  Here is it necessity, at least in my book.  Yes, I need a giant package of turkey sausage and yes, I need some fromage blanc for the mini cheesecake recipe I am planning on making this weekend.  I'm winning the hearts of my peers by working my way up through their bellies :)  

I did crop some of the 4th of July pics and will get them up here this weekend.  You will all be so proud of me.  I didn't look nearly as ridiculous as I thought I would, maybe even kind of cute.  You judge.

I may be venturing out on the town to night with a colleague from work.  Maybe.  Haven't decided how creepy he is yet.  We'll see....hahaha

Tuesday that feels like Monday

It's hot.  Not just a little hot that makes you sweat a little.  Or hot that makes you want to grill out and sit outside with a cold beer.  But hot that makes you want to sit in the air with your ice cold beer and blog about how hot it is out there and pity those without air conditioning.  This place has heat like I've never seen.  It's like mid-August, sticky, nasty Cleveland humid hot every day since I've been here except for 2.  Miserable.  But, in an effort to be a little cheery about it, I don't have to shovel snow and I don't have to worry about the humidity making my hair curl.  What a lucky girl am I!

There is this interesting phenomenon that I am finding quite interesting and am having trouble coming to terms with.  As I learn more and more about the people that I work with, I learn more about the local dating/marriage culture.  So C'ville has an abnormally high divorce rate.  I think it's somewhere near 70 % or upwards.  They say the people here are really friendly - too friendly, in my opinion!  Apparently some people are married, but only 'kind of married'.  So by definition, at least to my understanding, is that they are married by law and wear the jewelry to go with it but are date on the side.  Some spouses even consent to this.  And it's not just a couple people.  I've ran into a disturbing amount of people where this is true.  What I don't understand is with this degree of openness and honesty, shouldn't the divorce rate be higher?  And with 60 some churches around here, you'd think someone would try to wrangle them up somehow.  Perhaps it's just me and my naivety.  After all, I'm the equivalent to the town spinstress!

Been spending a lot of time thinking about my life in Cleveland.  Not having all the things that you hold close to your heart really makes you think.  I get sad when I think about my beautiful house on my quiet little street in the Heights.  About the hours that my dad spent with me putting in tile or fixing something that I no doubt broke because I knew that he could fix it if did break.  About the many friends and family that I left behind.  Or even the ease of a life in a town that I knew like the back of my hand, where I could find anything and always had somewhere to go....the safety of knowing, of being a native, of having connections.  Here I'm out on a limb, exposed to the elements.  Here I'm looked at funny if I wear a blouse instead of a tshirt or have stretch marks from the freshman 15 (cough cough ;) ) and not having a gagillion children by the time I was old enough to buy beer.  It's hard to be away from a place where I felt and was accepted and loved.  I had a very good life, a great life in fact.  And I still do.  It just looks different and will take some time to get used to. Who knows, maybe I will grow into this place but deep down I know that it's not big enough for me here.  I crave the people, the culture, the diversity and the depth that only a city has.  And for as much as people knock Cleveland, it has all of those things.

On the work front, I've started to sink my teeth into some projects.  Need to get used to having assistants who support our team.  Such a change for me.  There's such a get-it-done attitude that I almost feel bad scheduling their time or giving them more tasks, but they expect it as well.  Everyone chips in and puts in the long hours together.  It's certainly a team environment which I suspect only strengthens as we head into our seasonal peak season.  

In other news, my Lady Liberty name will live with me forever I suspect.  I'm now addressed as such at our morning production meetings.  At least I got a free Halloween costume from it!  Pics to come, I promise.

Miss me??

Hello world!  did you miss me?  I'm sorry - took a little hiatus and watched too much tv.  I'm well rested and starting to feel a little more at home in C'ville.  Not entirely, but a little more. 

I've been here almost one month.  That's longer than a vacation and shorter than a lifetime.  So I'm at the point where I am missing my friends and family.  I had such a wonderful life in Cleveland, filled with wonderful friends and family.  I always had something to do, whether it was just to order pizza in or go out for the night.  I miss them.  

By the way, the pitbull just came by and peed on my tomato plant.  Maybe that's why it's not doing so well.  I like dogs, but this is a bit much.

I started hanging out with some people from work.  Had dinner at the little cafe and publically humiliated myself this weekend.  So let me tell you about the 4th of July in C'ville.  It's the biggest event in the COUNTY and everyone comes.  Little did I know that I would have any part of it.

So I was at work the other day and the lady in charge of our float asked me if I would be Lady Liberty on the float.  I laughed and kindly declined, but then an email came out that I was excited to do it.  So I thought it was a joke and tried to laugh it off for the the majority of the day.  Then the next morning, my colleague came in and stuck her head in my office to tell me that it wasn't a joke - oh they were serious.  I was tagged to be Lady Liberty and it was announced to the senior leadership team at the morning meeting.  Uhhhhhhh.  what?

I couldn't really back out.  And I don't really know anyone, so what's the harm?  Then I found out they asked another guy to be Lincoln.  Except our Lincoln was 5'5 and blond.  Awesome.  So we stood on our float for about an hour and a half waving at hundreds and hundreds of people.  I didn't even think this many people lived in C'ville.  They were lined up about 15 people back for about 2 miles.  And the parade was huge.  Every tractor, four wheeler, and horse was in the thing. Who would have thought there would be anyone left to watch it?  But there was.  And at the end of the day, I had a funny sunburn and my arm was tired from waving.  I'm pretty sure that it will be in the newspaper and there will be plenty of pics to come. I don't have any yet, but will be sure to post them once I get them.

 I discovered this cute little spa and treated myself to a massage and pedicure today.  The pedicure was so-so, but the massage was heavenly.  I was totally and utterly surprised by this adorable little lady.  I feel like a million bucks.  Wonderful.  Simply wonderful.

I was downloading some photos today and came across a few gems, courtesy of my mama.  See, she tries real hard but something the camera should be removed from her hands.  But sometimes it's best to let her have at it and see what happens.  The attached are of the camo car we saw at the gas station and of my adorable little man, Mo, while we were unpacking the kitchen.  If you are looking for a photographer for a special event, my mom is available for bookings if you want memorable snapshots of time :)