Merry Christmas

A sweet picture of my Dad and Mollie. They must have had a tough day wrapping gifts or perhaps they were all tuckered out from trying to sneek peeks at gifts and then re-wrapping?? Hmmmm, i think that's the one! 

It looks like Winter out there

And my goodness it it sure does feel like it too! This morning was SO cold, i had to scrape heavy frost off of the windows of my car. But what a great day for the weather to decide to snow for us. Jessica and I met up with Jodell at The Herbfarm this morning to decorate for the holiday season. It's always so much fun to prep up for Christmas. Jessica tackled the tree decorations and putting the tree together (it's a fake one, of course) and I took on the mantle decorations in the salon. Jodell was helping us and giving us tips on the holiday embellishments and it was such a pleasure to work with someone that has a great eye and communicates so well. I have to say that i would love to spend a day as her student and learn tricks of the trade in floral design and just plain 'ol decorating in general. She gave me a few tips on floral design, which i asked for since i absolutly love (and lose too much time sometimes at work...). She said that i have a great eye and a good opinion of color and placement. I certinley will take that as a great compliment from someone who has a background as her. She recently designed a line of umbrellas which will be delivered to her in about 3 weeks. She said that there are seven different colors with an additional three different handles which of course are mixed and matched. Anyways, Jodell is doing well and i had fun with her and Jessica. I actually got to do a little silk floral arrangement that i got critiqued by Jodell, she said that it was great, since i picked what went it there and all she did was come in and do a little "fluffing" and gave me a few pointers. She also asked why i hadn't taken over the floral arranging for the restaurant, she thought that i should have a LONG time ago. Anyways, i again had a good time this morning with the girls. I made coffee in the big pumper pot and we went through two of em! Carolyn and Misty were also there this morning doing the monthly inventory for the pantry, which i got out of because i was helping with the fun stuff, good trade off? YES, i got lucky this month, and last month because i was off eloping... :)

Now about that weather again! As of this moment it is mixed rain and snow at my house here in North Seattle. It was plain old raining for quite a while when the storm system started through, but i don't think we will get anything that amounts to much out this way, we are just too low. When i was leaving this evening to go to dinner it felt pretty warm out there. Too warm to snow, but it smelled of snow. And when i left The Jones there were a few little flakes that were falling and melting as soon as they hit my windshield. I always get so excited when there is a possibility of snow in the city. There is just something about snow that is so pure and serene. I love when it has snowed and you go outside to walk around and it is so quiet and the sound of steps in the freshly fallen snow is so wonderful. Another great thing about the snow coming to Western Washington tonight and tomorrow is that i don't have to try to be anywhere! That is the best when you know that you don't have to brave the roads with all of the other people out there. Especially when you live in an area that is very hilly. Even if we don't get any measurable snow here in the city, it's fun to watch the news and see the kids out there sledding and all of the pictures of the area covered.
Joe, Jessica and Sally all reported snow at their homes on Sunday morning. They live in the Monroe and Mill Creek areas. I learned that they are part of the convergence zone in Puget Sound and usually get snow when the rest of us see nothing, i think they also get more rain when the rest of us just get clouds. Lucky ducks, they have already gotten snow!!
On my sad note of the weather, i believe that it has thrown me into another arthritis flare. For the past two or three days i have been very worn out and yesterday i noticed twards the end of my work day that my hand started turning red and was getting a little swollen. This morning it was worse, and the redness was still there. Pain is getting worse and i'm affraid that it could be the return of an infection. It hurts to use my right hand for pretty much anything. I could feel it throbbing when i was trying to nap after i got home from work today. The pain killers aren't really doing anything. I think i have to put a call into Dr G tomorrow and see what she says. The oxy's are hardly touching the pain, it mildly dulls it, but does nothing of the sort of taking it away. The thought of that scares me. I was driving into work this morning and listening to a morning radio show and they were saying something about how something was as fun as taking vicodin and hot cocoa, I nearly laughed out loud because vicodin does nothing to me anymore. I think i would have to take 6 for them to make me feel any effect. Tonight i took my usual one oxycotin that i take (one in the AM, one in the PM is the schedule they have me on) and two percoset and didn't touch the pain and i wasn't all loopy as most people would be. Most people it would knock em out, but nope, not me, I just sit here and type away about decorating for the holidays and the potential for snow. It really scares me on the tolerance that i have gained over the past 23 months. And when i saw Jason tonight for dinner and showed him my hand, he said "it's christmas time, that means it's time for another surgery" Past two christmas days i have had painful times that led to trips to the emergency room and eventually to surgery. I don't know what they could possibly do this time. I'm thinking that when i get blood work done and if it shows infection that they will just put me back on the zyvox. Nothing too major, but i don't like being on these antibiotics all of the time. That thought scares me more than the pain killers... almost...
I have been doing so well with the tapering too! This sucks. I'm all the way down to 13 mg. I had to take an additional 5 mg today to try to stop the swelling in the hand, but i feel like my attitude is getting better from finally getting off the high dose. I was even doing a trial taper of the zoloft, but i don't think that this is the time now since the flare is in action. I found myself being on edge this past week. I thought that it was just because i was mad that the restaurant was open for Thanksgiving, but started to realize that even when i wasn't thinking about that, i was still grumpy. So i decided that i will keep the same dose of zoloft until my prednisone level is stable and i have gone down as far as i think i can go. That will probably be next summer. We'll see. I just don't want to be sad or grumpy this holiday season. There are so many good things going on right now and i really need to enjoy them. Jason and I just got married, Andy is getting married in February. Sarah is coming to visit soon with her family. Nickki and i are hanging out more. I WILL get a raise at work and i still do enjoy my job for the most part. J and I get to have a party to celebrate our marriage!! Just too many wonderful things are going on that i hate being so tired all of the time. I don't want to be the person that just can do one thing a day and then go to sleep. And that's all it has been for the past 6 weeks it seems. I get so exhasted from work that all i want to do is crawl into bed and lay there. I have gotten so far behind in my ironing for work that it's wearing me out just thinking about starting that project. I've been just able to keep up with the lace doily ironing, havent had the energy to tackle the table cloths.... Damn that's what i should be doing right now, especially since this week at work is so busy and weird. We are going to be serving 5 days in a row. We have a lunch on the 30th, 2 small groups for dinner on Thursday and regular service for Friday, Saturday and Sunday. I stayed at work for about 2 extra hours tried to get a head start on all of the folding. The shipment of linen that i got in this week was wonderful and just the right amount of starch so folding has been a breeze this week. I'm such a dork when it comes to my work, i get excited about the smallest things. The small things are really the things that matter right?? I think so. I have been trying so hard lately to do my very very best a work. I made a updated my prep sheet for work about, oh goodness, 6 weeks ago, maybe 2 months ago, and it's very detailed and it covers all of the tasks that i do that i would do on a VERY thourough day, but it's everyday thing now. I was wondering and not realizing why it was taking me so long to do set-up a few days back. Then i realized that it's because i am doing all of these little things that make the restaurant tighter and tidy. And the dining room has been looking so good. The new chargers are not chipping like the last ones and that makes SUCH a HUGE difference. The goblets that we FINALLY got in make things sparkle again and Carolyn does a wonderful job on polishing the stemware and flatware. I have to say that we are a good team. An eye for detail and caring about what you do really comes through when you put in the effort. I've been having so much fun in my own little world setting up, i just need to stop stessing myself out about things at work that are out of my control and just relax. When i learn how to do that.... Wait, i don't know if that is a possiblity, but i can try!

Alright, enough for tonight. I did my ranting and raving about work, depressed myself all over again for my one day off this week. Talked about the weather and how i love weather. Discussed the wonderful things that are going on in my family. And revisited days with Jodell and decor and floral arranging. Good night and have sparkling snowy dreams.

Love Anne Jones

The "Wedding" day, November 1st

The day we got married, November 1st, 2005 Clark County, Las Vegas Nevada

After we got back to the room from the show and relaxed a little, i discovered how tired i was from all of the travel and exciting Ween show that we had just been too, not to mention all of the walking on the strip that we had done. I was well on my way to dream land, and Jason needed to satisfy his gambling hunger, so i took my medicines and promptly fell asleep as Jason went back to the Hard Rock to play paigow poker for a few hours. J tells me this is a kind of poker that you can ante in for not a whole lot and play for a long time, you also push a lot, which actually means.... okay, i'm not even going to claim to know what kind of poker this is because i have no clue and have never seen it played, but he likes it and played for quite some time and had the drinks keep coming for free for those few hours that he was back at the Hard Rock Casino. I fell asleep until about 3 or 3:30 and decided that some crosswords needed to be solved and I also had to catch up on the news so i flipped on ESPN and was content. Knowing that Jason was having his last night of "freedom" I wasn't concerned that he wasn't back yet. It really wasn't long before he came back in all happy with his piagow stories from across the street. He was wondering what i was doing awake though, since i was so sleepy when he left and now i was awake and doing crosswords and puzzles. Since i take so many naps it seems that i just sleep in shifts and need only a few hours every 8-10 hours to survive and strive. So he came to bed and told me his stories of the game tables and softly difted off to dream land. I did a few puzzles and then followed him happily. I set the alarm for 9:30 so that i could pack all our junk and get some breakfast down stairs.
I woke up before the alarm and got dressed and put on my make up. I had trouble sleeping, it felt like i didn't get good sleep at all. Ya know those nights when you wake up every hour or so, by the time it's "acceptable" to wake up it's almost worse than when you went to sleep. That is the kind of time i had sleeping. Jason was out like a light though, he was a TIRED man.
I thought that the breakfast at the hotel was served until 10 am, so i went down at a little before 9:30 thinking i had plenty of time to spare only to find the staff clearing all of the food when i got there. I found the yogurt and a serving of waffle mix left, so i hurried to get the waffle started.... then i couldn't find the plates, so i asked the lady that was clearing some of the dirty dishes where the plates were and she informed me that they had "closed" at 9:30... But she took pity on me and got me a plate. I also got a glass of milk not seeing that there was coffee available at the other end of the dining room. I waited the 2 minutes 45 seconds it took for my waffle to cook on the waffle irons they provided and seasoned it with the syrup they had in a pump type dispenser. I got another glass of milk and settled down to read the sports section in the sunniest part of the dining room i could find. How often is it that i will be in 75 degree weather in November again? Then i saw the coffee service they provided and helped myself to a cup of that as well. I had a funny feeling that the lady that had given me the plate a few minutes earlier hadn't really wanted me to sit down and have breakfast in the dining room since it was impending her from doing her work, but what was i to do now? So i ate as fast as i thought was healthy and got out of her way. It was nearly 10 am anyways and check out was 11.
I got back upstairs to our room and Jason was still sawing logs as i expected. I did my best to arise him, but he was just too sleepy. I got him to agree to get out of bed and get into the shower if i went to Starbucks and get him a quad carmel latte.
I had a feeling that he would still be in the same exact position as when i left him, when i returned with the coffee... I was correct... Now it being after 10:30 and Jason not wanting any part of the getting out of bed and getting out to show his sweetheart Las Vegas, i was in a precicament in what to do since we had less than a half hour to check out of the hotel. I could hear the maids working their way to our room as the moments ticked by. I tried to bribe him with keeping the coffee across the room to get him out of bed, but that didn't work... So i gave him a little to try to get the caffeine in his blood, and that got him to at least be a little more concious. Then I tried to threaten him by telling him he didn't have time to take a shower if he didn't get out of bed. He didn't like that at all, and there was no way that i was going to keep him from showering on our wedding day. I was even jumping on the bed and turned the air way up to try to force him out of bed. It ended up that he convienced me to call the front desk and ask for a late check out. I called down with a sleepy voice and acted as though we both had just woken up with ten minutes to check out and just had to get our stuff together and then we would be out... They were kind enough to give us until noon to checkout without charging us, i was thankful, but i think Jason was even more thankful so that he could actually have a little nap (without me BUGGING him to death) so get his mind together. At about 11:30 he finally put his feet on the ground and got in the shower. After that we moved at a good pace on getting out of the hotel. We checked out and started walking around outside not really knowing where we wanted to go. Jason was hungry and then we decided that we could go to FatBurger on the strip, and the hotel we stayed at offered a shuttle ever hour at the top of the hour to the Aladdin, so we jetted back to the hotel and caught the shuttle. We got dropped off and started walking, and walking... It turns out we went the wrong direction and so J bagged the Fatburger idea. We sorta wandered around and stopped in a few of the Casinos that I hadn't been to yet and wanted to see. We went into the Billagio and it was pretty inside, but we entered at the shopping part and it was so gaudy that we turned around and left about three minutes after we came in. Shops like Armani, Gucci, Tiffany's, Chanel, etc. were just too much for my blood. It was a very beautiful hotel/casino though, i would like to go back next time and see more than just the shops. We also visited Cesars Palace. Amazing sports book, beautiful shopping center. The mall section has very high ceilings that are painted like the sky on a beautiful summers day with fluffy clouds. The shops they have in there are "whatever" I didn't really find the need to go into any of them, but the entire atmosphere of Ceasers was so cool. My favorite part was at the end of the shopping center where there is a HUGE fish tank. I have no idea how many gallons it is, but it wraps around with benches along the entire thing so you can sit and watch all of the different salt water creatures. There were a few sting rays, sharks, box fish, triggers, clown fish, puffers, fox fish and so many other varities it was just so beautiful and amazing. There was also a video system that transmitted the fish to TV's surrounding the base of the ceiling of the fishes swimming around on a live feed. I was so taken with that fish display, i can't do it justice by the words i type, i will have to see if any of the pictures i took are ok and post those. After we walked around Cesars Palace and saw the sites of that casino we went and finally found some food for Jason in one of the little food courts beyond the gaming tables. He had a bacon burger and i got a beer to try to curb my nerves a little. I had gone to the bathroom when he was ordering and i had asked him to get me a beer, when i got back he thought it was funny that he had to pay for his sparkling water but my beer was free. Las Vegas can be so backwards sometimes. After we finished our lunch we decided that it was time to go get things done, so we headed out of the casino and were going to start our trek to downtown Las Vegas. As we were walking and talking about the fish tank in Ceasers, Jason mentioned that The Mirage also had a big salt water tank and it was very cool with sharks and the whole 9 yards as well. I wanted to see that one so we stopped by that casino as well. We saw the white tigers that nearly killed Sigfreed and Roy act a while back... well we saw a couple of exotic kitties, don't know if they are the same ones that were in the preformance or not. Anyways the mirage also has a large display of orchids as well, which i took a little stroll through. A few of the ones they had on display were pretty impressive, but not any that i hadn't seen in books. The fish tank behind the service counter was large, about 20,000 gallons i think they claim, but it wasn't nearly as impressive as the one at C.P. Jason had thought that it was much larger in the past and now it just didn't seem as big, funny how memories change through the years! We left after staying and identifing a few fishes and orchids along our walk.
It was getting pretty warm outside in the desert sun, i think that it was near 80 degrees on the first day of November and we were doing a LOT of walking. Good thing i had drank all of those liquids in the morning to stay hydrated! We kept on walking and Jason kept mentioning that we better go just get the whole married thing over with so that i would stop acting funny, but i think he was the one acting funny. Or maybe it was both of us being slightly nervous about the entire thing. I thought that i was pretty excited at the time, but looking back i suppose that i was a little nervous of what the reaction would be of both of our families. But over everything else i knew that i wanted more than anything to be married to my sweetheart Jason. I wanted him to be as sure, so there was a few times throughout the day that i stopped him and asked him to answer me honestly if it was what he wanted to do. I didn't want him to feel rushed, pressured or anything of a negitive way about marrying me. He said he wanted to marry me still and so we walked on in search of a taxi to take us to the court house. I guess it can be looked on as acting funny if i keep asking if he is sure that he wants to go through with it all of the time... Funny how you can see a day so differently when you step back two steps and see it from anothers eyes.... I thought that i was doing it that day, but i guess i was a little caught up in myself.... Stupid Bride! We walked a little further until we got tired of all the cabs passing us by, so we decided to go to the taxi stand at the Wynn Hotel/Casino. Good choice! We got a cab there within minutes and were finally on our way downtown.
Downtown LV was a lot further than i thought it was. And the feel of it is so different than the strip too! The groups of people that hang on the strip are so much younger than in old vegas. I saw so many seniors and families in downtown than compared to the partying people of the strip. Not saying that there weren't any families or seniors on the strip in the casinos, but the amount of younger people in downtown was far less than on the strip.
As we got closer to the court house we kept seeing more and more chapels, a couple drive-thru ones, just like on TV. A few of the classics like the little white chapel that it seems the celebrities do their elopments at, but that place can be a little more pricey than the other smaller places. It was just like going downtown in anyother city when you get close to the court house you usually see bail bond places in abundance, but in Vegas you see wedding chapels. Just something funny that we noticed.
We got dropped off at 3rd and Main and found our way to the court house of clark county. I think we went in the wrong enterance because we had to go through the heavy security where you had to take off your belt if you were wearing one, the two guys behind me, but in front of Jason, were wearing belts and their pants were so baggy that they literally had to scruntch their pants as they walked so they wouldn't fall around their ankles! I thought that it was funny. Jason always has lots of stuff in his pockets and wears a belt so it took him longer to go through the metal detector than it did for me. In my waiting time i asked one of the people at the help desk where we go for the marriage licenses since i didn't see it as one of the options in the direct area we were in. The way she answered was so funny, she said to me "If that is sure what you want and you still want to get a marriage license go to the end of this building, go out the door and take the first door to the left" She said like she had seen so many other couples come through the same door and ask the same question. Being in her position i would probably do the same thing. So many people get married in Las Vegas and have to do the same thing that we did i think that i may throw that little extra flag out there as well. Once Jason got his belt back on and all of his stuff back in his pockets we headed down the hall to that first door on the left.
We went in and found that we both needed to fill out a form about ourselves and our parents. Each bride and groom needed to fill out the form and had to have the information of where we were born, where and when our parents were born and where we lived currently. You would think that this kind of form would be filled out in ink.... not so, they provided pencils, but not just any pencils, GOLF PENCILS! I thought that was weird, no erasers on these small pencils. Oh well, just another detail i remember that doesn't make any difference... We filled out our forms and waited to be called upon from the next available clerk. The room remided me of a steiral bank office or building. There was plexi glass in front of the clerks and they spoke into these little mircophones that cut out twice during each word. The lady that helped us was very sweet and happy. She would have been a great kindergarden or first grade teacher i think, just had that demenor that seemed to me that she would read stories so soothing that it would make me sleepy and happy. Our "transaction" with her was very pleasent and quick. There wern't many people in the place applying marriage licenses which they said was rare, which was a good thing for us. We got our license and i asked her where we could get married, if there was a place in the court house and she directed us to the Marriage Commisioners Office across the street and told us that it was $50 exact change or to go to any of the chapels and present them with the three peices of paper she gave us (can't tell ya what they were cause i was just caught up with everything at the moment). We didn't need a big production, hell we were already eloping! So the Marriage Commisioner was the place for us! After a little work we found it but then discovered that we didn't have the exact change.... So then we went in search of a place to break a $100 bill. We stopped into a little deli and grabbed a soda, but they couldn't break the large bill.... so off we went to find another place. At this point i must have been much more nervous than i led on to believe because i sorta broke down and freaked out a little.... I cried thinking maybe it was a sign or something that there were hurdles that we had to go through, or something was trying to keep us from getting married today... But Jason made me feel better and we went to a casino to break the 100. Then off we went again. We arrived to the place to find out that.... well.... you must have a WITNESS.... oppsie, we didn't bring one of those with us..... So we asked what were we to do and the M.C. told us that we had three options. number 1 was to wait until the security guard came back from his break. Number 2 was to find a witness of our own, or number 3 was to wait until 5 pm until they provide a witness daily. We took option one and took a seat in the lobby waiting for the security guard to get back. As we sat there and watched the people walk by on the street all i could think is that there were so many witnesses walking us by! Why couldn't they just stop by and ask if they could help us out? After MAYBE 5 minutes the security guard walked in the door and checked in with his office and soon came and got us and informed us that he was infact our witness if we still wanted to get married.
We both got up and proceeded to the little office that was two rooms basically. In the front office was the desk with the computer that types out the official marriage licences, and there were other classic office type things in there, lots of filing cabinets and such. The second room was more of a private office looking room. There was a desk that the Commisioner stood behind as she led us through our vows. Also in the room was a few decorations to make it seem a little "festive" I suppose. There were these little white pillars with fake ivy in two of the corners, and on the desk was a little ring bering pillow (for those people that thought ahead and actually had rings when they exchanged vows.) I think that there were some sort of official papers hung on the wall too, but i can't remember too clearly. After we handed her our papers that we got from the court house across the street she told us to wait in the "Ceremony Room" So we sat down in a row of chairs along one of the walls and waited. It was a little strange knowing that i would be getting married in a little room with a security guard as our witness, but it didn't really matter to me, i just wanted to marry Jason. When she came in to marry us, she asked us to stand before her and state our names, then asked us if we were going to be exchanging rings, but we wern't. So she then asked us to turn and face one another and take eachothers hand. I was a little more nervous now, and i knew i was gonna cry and i just didn't want to do that.... but i couldn't help it. She started with Jason first asking if he takes me as his lawfully wedded wife, he said yes, she then asked all of the classical vows about rich and poor, sickness and health, blah blah. When Jason was repeating it to me and looking in my eyes is when i broke down and tears started flowing. I didn't let it get out of hand but there was a stream of tears coming down, it was very emotional for me to have him vow all of these things to me. And FOR REAL, i think he actually likes me! Once he was done with his vows it was my turn. She asked me if i took Jason to be my lawfully wedded husband and i said "absolutly" Jason let out a little laugh, i think cause i said it so confidently, but i know what i want and i wanted to marry this man. Then off she went with my vows to Jason. After i got through repeating all of them she pronounced us Husband and Wife and asked Jason to kiss his bride. She handed us the official Marriage License and asked us to make sure it was all correct and wished us the best of luck and many happy years together. She was nice, she had a comforting look to her as well. To me she looked so much like the pastor that Grandma and Grandpa Zimmerman saw and was at their services. I don't remember what her name was, but i could have sworn that they were related at least if not the same person. I'll have to look on our Marriage License to see what her name was. Anyway, after we were married, we put the papers in the backpack and headed back out to the Las Vegas evening to spend our last few hours of the wonderful ween/wedding weekend having fun. I think we both felt a little dazed about what happened, cause we were both quiet for a few minutes, tried to have a normal conversation, then went into talking about when we were going to tell people and why and all the little details. I knew that i wouldn't be able to talk too much or too long with my family or i would let it slip somehow, i just can't keep a secret. We decided that we wern't to tell anyone that we had just gotten married until February 2006 when we were back down in Vegas for Superbowl weekend. The Jones side of the family would be there and we could say that we were going to get married then and then suprise them that way. That is what we agreed on. Oh and i would have told my family that we were going to get married down there and invite them if they wanted to be there as well. We walked and talked about how hard it was going to be for my blabber mouth to keep this one a secret, but i thought it was going to be fun to have my own huge secret. He agreed to let me tell Nickki though, i had to be able to tell my bestest friend.
We wound up on Fremont Street, which is old Las Vegas. They closed down the street and have nightly laser shows i think, and nighttime displays of different things. Anyway, we wanted a place that had video poker at a bar so that i could do my little bit of gambling and Jason could keep an eye on ESPN and have a beer or two and maybe play a little video poker too. I really enjoy playing video poker, i don't think that i have ever come away with any money, but it certinly is entertaining, plus they give you drinks as you play. I knocked back 4 strawberry daquris while i lost my 35 dollars. Jason played along side me and every few minutes he would say "we just got married" " how weird is that" I would agree and then say "we just got married, in Las Vegas". Jason even told the bartender in the same astonished voice that we had just tied the knot. I was thinking later that he probably gets that a lot with the court house so near by. It was getting near the time to get to the airport and i wanted a little something to commemorate our little getaway so i told Jason that i was going to go roam around the gift shop a few doors down for some goodies. I found a little shop and got a new magnet for the collection at work (a 100 dollar black vegas chip) i got a pretty little bracelet for me as well as a 4 leaf clover key chain, and i got Jason a cool lighter, it's in the shape of two $25 chips, and you twist one of the chips to lite it, it is pretty cool. Now i was officially ready to go home, now a married woman with little souvineers (plus a HUSBAND). We crossed the street and caught a cab to the airport, the cabby complained that we were going to the airport at the middle of rush hour, i think it was about 5:30 but he decided to take our fare anyway. Jason fell asleep fairly quickly in the ride and left me to try to make conversation with this man who was telling me about how he was counting his day until he left Las Vegas because it was so corrupt with mobsters and the entire city is run by the mob. I didn't know how to respond to a lot of it, but we finally got to the airport around 6. We paid the cab driver and gave him a nice tip for baring rush hour for us. We checked in at the SW Airlines kiosk for ticketless and checkless passengers. It took about a minute and a half before we were off to our gate and looking for a place to get a little food and kill time before boarding. We ate at a little mexican place inside the concorse. The food came out so fast it was almost unbelieveable. We got simple foods, but it was litterally about 4 minutes from the time we ordered to the time it was on our table. I got chicken nachos and Jason got a wrap of somesort that was delisious. We started talking about all of the advatages and disadvantages of being married were throughout our dinner. Jason appoligized to me for getting the short end of the stick, but i disagree, he got a broken bride, i got a wonderfully talented man who loves me and is so sweetly nice! He got the short end in my opinion. We ate and ate and talked and half way watched the first NBA game of the season that was broadcast on the TV in the little restaurant. We then moseied on down to our gate and waited to board the plane. The only picture i got of us together the entire weekend was a BEGGED camera phone shot of the two of us at the airport leaving Las Vegas. The batteries on my camera were dying quickly at Ceasers Palace. anyways the flight home was very fast, we arrived in Seattle 20 minutes early, we both slept a majority of the flight. We went and picked up our car from AJAX and drove home to a house with sleeping roommates. It was a few days before they found out that we had gotten married... The sunday after we got married Jason had me call his mom and tell her and we had dinner with my mom and dad, plus thomas and colin on monday evening to tell them the news. Turns out that we both couldn't wait to tell people. Now just about everyone knows and it's only the 19th of November. I have a beautiful band that we went and picked out on the 8th or 9th of Nov. Jason is wearing a silver ring that we bought at the mall to see if he can actually stand to wear a wedding band before we spend some actual cash on a more precious metal for him. He's also thinking of getting a ring tattooed on his finger instead of actually having a ring ring. I also went to the bank and got my accounts changed to my new name and along with the DOL. It's official, I'm now Mrs. Anne Elizabeth Jones

Got Married In Vegas Baby!

Married in Vegas. Here is what i wrote on myspace.com. I had written the entire day of November 1st out tonight only to have it not post and disappear... So I'm very irritated at the moment. I will repost on here... when I'm in a better mood. I can't believe that happened. Oh well, life goes on and i still have the story in my head... It just took so LONG to write cause it was such a fun day! But here is the start of our trip and how it came to be. I hope you enjoy reading it. I had to write it down so that in a few years i can remember all of the little details that i know my brain can't hold. Read on!

Jason and I had wanted to go see his favorite band Ween down in Las Vegas for Halloween ever since we found out they were playing on Halloween. Knowing it was just going to be a drop kick ass good show, we tried to get tickets weeks in advance and set up a little mini vacation. But.... the show had sold nearly immediatly when they were offered a while back. So we were bummed about that and the trip idea sort of died. So instead of going to the show in vegas on halloween, we bought a bunch of Ween stuff from their web site. Jason and I got hoodies that have the little ween dude. They are both black and with Jason being a weirdo and insisting that we never match, i said that i would be the one that wouldn't wear the hoodie if we were together. He also got a few t-shirts, a zippo, a pint glass, and i think something else but i can't remember at this time, please forgive me.Anyways back to the story. As the weeks past and we are still loving weens latest release Quebec in the car and at our work enviroments, we still dream of how cool it would be to see the weirdos on Halloween in VEGAS! Jason has mentioned this to one of the bartenders at the jones and finds out that Malcom is actually going to go to the show, turns out that Malcom has a buddy that lives in vegas and bought 15 tickets! Now we were just being taunted by knowing that Malcom is going to be there and we have to stay home and pass out candy to greedy teenagers and cute little kids on Halloween. So the night of the 30th happens to be Jasons pool night at Pipers Creek Pub, so he is out late. When he comes home i'm messing around on bebo or something. Jason has been thinking about going to the show and how cool it still would be to go. So we go to the ween site and start listening to songs that we haven't heard in a while. Then i decided to see if ticketmaster has released any more passes (day of tickets) I tried and guess what?! I could get buy tickets to the general admission standing only area. The best place to be anyway! So we starting talking about ACTUALLY getting on a plane and going to see the show. After about ten (felt like about 2 hours) we decided that we could make it a fun Halloween weekend. Jason dared me to click the botton to buy the plane tickets. bad idea if you were just joking about the whole trip. Anne clicked and bought the plane tickets. Then anne went back and bought the recently released Ween tickets. We were ready to go now, i printed out the confirmations for the show and the ride down there and hopped in the show to get ready to be at the airport in a mere 3 hours from when we first started listening to Ween for good times. Off we went! We packed a backpack with a change of clothes and a few travel necessities and popped in the car to get to the airport. Dropped the car off at one of those shuttle places, pre-paid for the parking and went to the airport. I hadn't been to the airport since they opened the Pacific Market part, it's really nice! It didn't look like the seattle airport at all!! We went and had breakfast at Anthony's and had a coffee before getting onto the plane. I had to call Carolyn from the airport because when we booked the flight, i forgot that i was supposed to do inventory on the 1st with her, i called and told her to leave me a page or two to count, but she informed me that we are going to start a new inventory where everyother month we just count the glasses and it happened to be the perfect opportunity to start that! Sweet, now anne and jason are free to enjoy eachother on the halloween adventour they were about to embark upon. The flight was pretty short, i was a smarty and booked both flights non-stop. we got to vegas at about 1 in the after noon and grabbed the backback and headed tward the taxi stand outside. Once we got to the signs directing us, i was blown away on how many people needed taxis and the line for them was crazy! Organized, but insane on how many people were using the tazi stand. Anyway, it took a while for us to finally get to the front of the line and get moving. The cab driver informed us that there was some huge convention of car lovers in town the next day and vegas was going to be very full. He asked where were staying and we said we HOPED to stay somewhere cheaper near the HardRock. Luckily for us we only needed the hotel for one night, but they were charging nearly double what they usually would because the demand for rooms was so incredibly high. But it was a nice room, it was pretty close (about 2 blocks) to a 24 hour starbucks and a cold stone creamery. Once we checked in Jason took to the bed for the sleep that surpassed him with the ween listening, ticket buying, and traveling. Since i had slept a good 14 hours the night before and was now in Vegas for the second time, i was ready to walk around and be a visitor!! So i took off and left my honey to rest while i got a little las vegas sunshine. I walked over to the Hard Rock and looked around a bit. It's a pretty small casino, unless i missed a part of it somewhere, maybe there were more levels? anyways i scoped out where we needed to go for the show that evening and where the will call was so we could actually get our tickets. After that i wanted coffee, so i walked across the street to the little strip mall and got a big iced mocha then walked over the the cold stone creamery and got a waffle cone with coffee ice cream and cookie dough bits in it, it hit the spot! i LOVE ice cream, and it's so much more special when it's in a waffle cone, can someone explain to me why that is? After i savored my treat i went back to the room to wake my sweetheart from his slumber. He woke up slowly and then we decided that we should go get the tickets from ticketmaster will call and scope out the bar there for a Malcom sighting, we didn't see Malcom but we did now in fact have two ween tickets in hand for the show that evening, the show that we were drooling over since we found out it was on. Very good feeling, that was. Next we decided to go to the strip. It looks so close! It looks like maybe 1/2 mile tops............ It took us nearly an hour to walk there.... Damn hotels on the strip are so big it makes them look like they are just right there. So we got our exercise in for that day. We stopped in a couple of casinos, but did no gambling, just a walk through to see what it was all about. We continued down the strip walking with the other tourist. I was taking pictures of the things that you usually take shots of in Las Vegas. I actually haven't seen them yet, so i hope they aren't all blurry as i had the flash off to get the night pictures of the hotels... we'll see soon i suppose. Next we got a cab back to the hard rock so we were close enough to grab a bit to eat and relax a little before the show. We got pizza from Joe's New York Pizza. Jason also went to the convience store and got beers for us so that we could start the party a little early and just buy a few drinks at the bar in the Joint. Good thinkin Honey! Pizza was delious and so was my shmirnof ice. Over our lovely dinner of pizza and malt beverages we talked about the impeding marriage between the two of us. His main concern was that none of our family members were there and he thought that make some people mad. But personally i think the ceromony is very personal, when i'm saying my vows i don't need everyone around staring at me when i feel that it's a very private moment between the two of us. I reminded him that the ceromony is for us to make our vows and pleadge our love for one another in front of the person who signs the paper and makes it legal. The party afterwards is where everyone should be to celebrate with us and be happy that we didn't make them sit through a boring ass ceromony. (( I must stop here because i am falling asleep and have to wake up in the morning fresh for work, i will finish the story on Friday the 11th.)) sorry for the break in action. got married in Vegas on Nov. 1st 2005, PART 2 So i think where i left off is where we had gone to the strip and walked and walked and taken some night-time pictures of tourist type vegas at night. We also got pizza from the little place from across the street from the hotel and got a drink and were discussing the impending "wedding" the next day. Once i convienced Jason that the ceromony was okay to have with just the two of us, he was excited and we decided that we would go downtown before we took off for Seattle the next evening. It was so exciting to know that the next day i would be forever together with the man that makes me laugh and smile and feel like everything will work out as long as we both are still breathing and are together. If Jason has taught me anything it is that no matter how bad things seem to get, it can get worse and it really isn't that bad if you are still breathing and your heart is beating, it WILL always get better. And since i found him life has just been getting better and better. I have made it through surgeries and a whole lotta pain in the past two years and he has been there holding my hand and helping me remember that it is getting better. He helped me survive and keep a good attitude most days. If i mean half as much to him as he means to me I am a lucky lucky girl. So now we go off to the Ween show across the show. The doors opened at 8 and with no opening act the show started at 9. I think it must have been a 21 and over show because there was a bar in The Joint and come to think of it I didn't see anyone that even looked too young to be in the bar area. I hadn't really drank that much in a very long time, so i thought that i should stick to beer instead of cocktails so that i could enjoy the show. I drank bud lights for the rest of the evening and Jason had Buds. It seems like in Vegas that no matter how much you drink your buzz takes so much longer to arrive, like it's having a good time somewhere else and has to find you! Needless to say i had three beers and usually would be three sheets to the wind, but i was not really even feeling the alcohol, but i was too full to drink anymore! The show finally started and we all started rockin out to Ween dressed up as peas and carrots. There were some pretty cool costumes there (it being halloween and all) Some of the ones that stood out to me were Rainbow Bright, A Keg, a Bumblebee, a ladybug, a plethra of nurses and doctors (weird how many of these costumes there were), there was also a couple that dressed up as people floating and waiting to get rescued from hurricane katrina- they had little signs on their backs that said something to the matter of asking for FEMA help. Ween is a very high energy, lyricly genious band. I know two of their cd's very well, but i'm not the die hard fan that knows every song like Jason. But they are a band that no matter if you know the song or not, they are very enjoyable to watch and jam out to. They played my song, or at least the one that Jason calls my song, Zoloft! It was so cool to hear that one live! My favorite song in the universe at the moment wasn't preformed, Transdermal Celebration. TC has an amazing video if anyone cares to watch it, i think you go to chocodog.com or just do a google search for transdermal celebration video. It is a animated video and i swear it throws you into all of the human emotions, i just smile thinking of it. The show was very cool, seeing Ween on Halloween in Las Vegas was just a one of a kind experience that i'm so glad that we decided to go. Silly band in costumes and just being in Las Vegas was amazing. It was so hot in there though, soo soo hot. I had to leave at one point to cool down cause i didn't want to pass out like one chick that i saw being carried out in the first half of the show. The first time i left to go to the bathroom and tried to get back into the show they wern't going to let me back in because THEY took the wrong part of the ticket. Luckily they let me back in and the next time i had to go outside The Joint i talked to the dudes at the door, they double stamped my arm and i was a-ok. After the show we walked around The Hard Rock trying to find Malcom, but there were so many people and they just seemed to be walking around with no direction. We didn't find Malcom in any of the bars and decided that they probably didn't stick around the Hard Rock too long if there was a large group of them. ---- Here is where i was falling asleep again and had to stop for the night, now here is the rest of the story and the completion of our getaway! Damn myspace.com! I had spent over 2 and a half hours typing out the entire day of the first of November and the post never posted, and so now it is lost. I'm so irritated by that damn site i don't think i will ever post there again. IT SUCKS ASSES, not just normal asses either, it sucks POOPY ASSES! MYSPACE.COM SUCKS POOPY HEMROIDAL ASSES!!!

Cookies, Cookies, Cookies everywhere!

I think that I'm getting back to who i used to be again! It's only been 22 months. I made two batches of cookies tonight. Of course it wasn't issue free, life never is, but the wonderful thing is that i'm getting to do the things that make me happy again. I was watching baseball playoffs and getting nervous because it was a close game and it was also a deciding game 5. So if anyone knows me when i'm watching sports and it's a close game with something on the line, i need to keep myself busy either with baking or cleaning. Tonight it happened to be baking cookies! I've been wanting to make snickerdoodles for awhile now, so i made a batch of those. And one of Jason's co-workers birthday was last week and no one made him a cake or really do anything to celebrate his birthday (he didn't tell anyone that it was his day...) So today when i was dropping Jason off at work i wished him a happy birthday and asked him what was his favorite kind of cookie. He said he likes chocolate chip cookies so i made a batch of those as well. I baked the chocolate chip cookies first and since i'm a little out of practice i didn't catch that the dough didn't have enough flour, so they were a little flat and turned out a little crispy on the edges. So i added more flour to the batter and the next batch was perfect. They look picture perfect. The snickerdoodles turned out pretty well. I've only made one other batch of these kind before so i didn't really have a lot of experience of how the dough is supposed to feel. Although i like to have a more cake like cookie with the snickerdoodle than a crisper one. They look almost like puffball mushrooms they are so pillowy. Anyways it feels good to be baking again. I bought a kitchen aid hand mixer a few weeks back and it is a wonder of a little machine. Not as good as the traditional bowl mixer that Jason had to take to work for pasta making, but for a hand mixer it does me just great. It handled creamed my sugar and butter like a dream.... I'm such a dork. I can't believe that i just wrote a big ol paragraph on cookie baking and a chunk of that paragraph was about how wonderful my new hand mixer is...
I finally got my Thanksgiving pictures downloaded and uploaded on bebo and a few here on my little blog. I took my favorite pictures of Jason from the trip here and a amazing sunset and a great pic of the Lake. It was such a beautiful trip, I'm so glad that i have pictures to remind me. I think that we will be sticking around home this holiday season since Jason most likely won't want to take the time off work. I don't blame the man, when it's got your name on it you want to make sure it's up to your standards. Maybe we will be able to take a trip after the holidays when we see how much we ended up spending on the presents this year. I think that the HF takes the annual spring break in March this year. Brunie has also mentioned a Super Bowl weekend in Vegas for this Winter as well, that is an option maybe. Geez, speaking of all this money spending makes me want to work more so that i can afford it all! Too bad i love the time off.

It's so great waking up on a monday morning and know that I have that day off, the next day and even the following day after!! It's so relaxing to just have that in my mind. I was thinking of work today, but it was a little exciting because i'm thinkng of developing a detailed prep-list for what i do day to day. It would make my job a little easier for anyone that filled in for me. It's not that my job is hard at all, but it just seems like there are so many little things that i do that as a whole make my day full. People look at my little to do list on the prep sheet for the dining room and it doesn't look at all detailed, but if i actually make my own list of what it entails, maybe people can see what goes into keeping the dining room sparkling. I was trying to think of what i do as i walk in the door and as my day flows. There aren't too many days that go by that there isn't something that always needs to be looked after and needs to be on a list so we don't forget to do it. A few weeks ago i got a scrap of paper and started jotting down the little things that i do but aren't on any list, but if i'm taking a day off and i have a fill in, it would be nice to know that it is done. Not that i don't think that my co-workers don't notice these things, but sometimes it seems they can overlook it because someone else always does it. I'm being a dork about my job again, anal i know, but i like my job. I like lists too. I just wish i had word or excel on this computer so that i could work on it at home instead of at work where i don't want to be sitting because i get so sleepy when i sit down there! I had the idea that i could make my little list and have 4 identical lists per page, or basically a week of service on one page so i could save some paper as well. The servers prep-list could be more detailed as well with all of my items off the page. I could add all of my picky nagging things that don't always need to be done, but would be so nice if someone took responsibilty for on some days. These are the things i think about as my day at work goes by, LISTS. I seriously think i must have some sort or some degree of OCD.
Last week was good everyday though. Prep-day was good because i had a new guy as my helper and he seems like a good worker, takes direction well and has been in the industry long enough to know some of the things to look for. So anyways, i got to focus on projects that i've been needing to do. I put bowling alley wax on the coffee cup hutch, which it needed so bad. I don't know why Ron and Carrie don't want a finish put on it or some sort of stain, but they like the natural wood. It gets looking so dry and splinters. It was sanded down over the spring break months ago, which helped so much, but it still looks better when there is polish on it. It turns out that the stuff they had me using before was just soaking into the wood and ruining it, so Bob started having me use the bowling alley wax, which he said will put a protective coating on and a little shine, but won't soak in like the other stuff. I put two coats on this past week and buffed it pretty well and so it looks snazzy now. Another project that i took on (i don't think i will do this again for maybe a year or two) is dusting the chairs. They were getting a little gross, but since i had already polished the founders room table, the coffee hutch, the silverware cabinet and the flower arrangement table, my hands were feeling a little tired. It has effected my right hand all weekend long. I really need to be more careful and know my limits on prep-days. That day was also weird because we had service for 26 people, but it was two parties, one in the founders (14) and 12 people in the main, on one long table. So basically the entire main room needed to be set to some degree for just the twelve people. And since it was my prep-day with a new employee i didn't really have time to do much of the setting by the time the servers that were working that evening arrived. So at 4 when Jessica showed up I had nothing set and Carrie hadn't really let anyone know who was doing what. So i started doing the menu napkins and replacments and let Jess know that i didn't really know what the plan was and I would help out but i was already over the hours that i was schedueld for that day. I helped her set out glasses in the founders room and some little things until they were caught up and Dani was done with the wine work for the week and on for his shift. It just seemed so unorganized... big surprise for that place, huh? That one day slowed the rest of my week down, but overall it was a good week. I had a good attitude and tried to be agreeable with the powers that be. On sunday i think i was a little on edge because i got there so late. Carrie asked me if i had renewed my food handlers permit yet, and no i havn't because the only reason i got one two years ago is because i wanted to get a job at a coffee shop and thought i should have one in hand if i decided to leave my set-up job. But all the stuff with my right wrist/hand happened and never really developed. So i sorta told her that i didn't really need one because i don't work with food, and she reminded me that i package teas and well apparently that counts.... So i said in a very unhappy tone "okay" like a little bitch. And when she was going out to train the pigs she told me that she was going and i could come observe if i wanted to, but she didn't notice that i was rushing trying to get the dining room set before the servers came and i started holding them up by not being done. The little things she doesn't notice sometimes amazes me.... Like hmmm, dining room needs to be set so that the guests have something to enjoy their evenings with. Since she asked me to be her partner in pig care and training it's been something i consider a big commitment, i don't think she thinks it is. I'm not sure what to think of that. I think that if i do agree to this that it would be a pay increase because it means a long term commitment to the company and a commitment to these precious little babies that i'm trying so hard not to get attached to. On Saturday she also asked me to add even more things to my dining room shopping list. Normally wouldn't be a issue and who knows maybe it won't be, but i don't really want to add a costco trip to my job duties. Seems like Costco always gets a LIST of things for lots of people. It's a fucking hastle to go to costco, i'd rather not go, yet she makes it seem like i get to go out for a treat by going for the HF. I guess that if i could get everything that i normally shop for at costco and it would save time overall i would be all for it, but it's for ONE thing. I don't know, i'm just making drama out of nothing really. I like to complain, it makes me feel like i have more of a life or something. I just like to have someone to pick on. I was asking Jason today why i make the money that i make. Is it a difference in pay from the servers because i don't actually interact with each guest personally? He told me that is the reason given for the pay difference between front of the house and back of the house. Servers bitch that they have to "deal" with the customers and they DESERVE more. But it hurts to hear them cry poor and that they have to get a second job because they don't make enough. Well, baby, I make DOLLARS less than you do and somehow i am making it. Barely, but somehow i survive. It is pretty funny that just about all of the people that aren't on salary at the HF have to have some sort of second job to suplement their income. The people that are on salary either don't have the time to have a second job because they are there for 70-80 hours a week already or are work on their days off or just don't sleep much. So here is my argument for wanting more money from the herbfarm, i've worked many YEARS for the herbfarm, i'm a utility player knowing MANY departments of the herbfarm, and damn, I'm just over all good. Does it not matter that i'm family too? Should i take less or expect less because i share the last name with one of the owners? I do a good job, i'm loyal, i'm stable, why? why? why? Why should i accept more responsibilty if i'm still not getting a equal output from the other end? I can only take it for so long before I'm just a dope for taking it? Right? And usually i would be really angry as I talk about this, but honestly right now i'm not. I would just like to know why. Is it something holding me back still? Since my last review i've missed only one day for my wrist hurting and the infection. But I take care of my things the best i can to make it as easy as possible for who ever may be doing my job. What more do they want from me? I find out that people that are just hired are making 5 dollars more than me TO START! they haven't showed her anything but they have a donger, and i really hoped they haven't "showed" her and ron, but gender is still an issue. Damn GLASS CEILING! (hehe, i just used a phrase that i learned in college) So this is the way that i'm seeing it as of right now. I'm being held back from a better income because 1. I'm disabled 2. I'm female 3. I don't "deal" with guests on a personal basis daily 4. I'm family 5. I try to get all of the departments of the company to communicate and work together "be on the same page" 6. I have a bad attitude. These are the things that jump to my mind off hand. I don't know if my supervisor realizes it, but those 6 reasons i just stated are very true. Number one on my list was the reason why i didn't get the raise i deserved 6 months ago. number 2, i seriously think she doesn't realize that she counts this in at all. number 4, why the hell does it matter, i do a great job, above and beyond. They take me for granted! Number 5 just plain pisses her off because it makes the greed card so visible to everyone. Number 6, yes, some days i do have a bad attitude, i'm stubborn and think that i need to fight back, i'm still young and i'm still learning. Maybe if i was compensated well enough i would feel better about adding the additional 6 people at the end of my day when i'm nearly ready to head out the door. But do i see anything as far as a thank you for making changes or a bonus in my paycheck when things get stressful? No, but the servers do, because when they get overworked they need to be babied because the guests can see when the smiles disappear. They don't ever see my smile or frustration. I want these people to have a night they will never forget, i want the guests to tell their friends of what a wonderful place it is to spend an evening and how good the food is. But i also know that they think that all of the employees are well taken care of. I want them to know that when we are at work that it is a great place with a great crew taking care of them that night. We are, but if you want that great crew to stick around, show us that you care as well mr and mrs boss people. There is a reason why people come back, give us a reason to stay.

Annie

Brunie and Jim hired a photographer to come and get some family shots of the Thanksgiving holiday, and although this isn't a pro picture we were all gussied up (hehe can't you tell?) I had had a few too many drinks the night before playing cards and wasn't my usual perky self. I still couldn't resist a picture with Jason with a backdrop like we had that day. The snow had fallen the day before and was just so pretty. If you notice my jacket, Jason had gotten me with a few snowballs just before the shot was taken, isn't he a sweetheart? :)

Stunning picture of Lake Tahoe November 2004
I still can't get over how beautiful it is there. It was such a pretty morning when we went up on the Gondola, the view was amazing.

Thanksgiving in Lake Tahoe
This picture doesn't look real, but it is! As the sun began to go down mist formed over the medow against the tree line. It was sooooo soooo pretty. I keep saying that but Tahoe is a lovely place, i can see why the ski resort there is called Heavenly.

Jason in Tahoe over Thanksgiving 04. The kids were sledding on the slope beside the house we were staying in and Jason thought it was a great idea to peg them with snowballs as they were whizzing by. Silly man.

Saturday Night

I'm trying my hardest to stay awake until at least 10 tonight so i can actually get a good night of sleep. All week long i have been taking 3 hour naps, then not being sleepy when i need to be sleeping. The rain has been making me pretty fatigued as well. We were busy at work today, and it didn't help that I woke up 15 minutes after i wanted to be at work. I got there at nearly ten this morning to find that the Founders Room wasn't pre-set by the servers the night before. It wasn't a big deal, it just took me back and made the morning feel a little rushed. But some days i swear that is a good thing to get me going. I was in a good mood just about all day today, which is SOOOO nice, and such a good change for all of the people around me. I have to owe my much improved mood to much rest and fewer hours at the office the past couple of weeks. The fewers hours only sucks when payday comes around. I got my paycheck this past prep-day and it was so small! It was the size that it was when i was recovering from surgeries. I guess it's a good thing that next week the powers that be added a day of service. Luckily, i have been too tired to go out and do anything to actually spend these small paychecks, so it is all working out. It has been worth it to just be home and in bed most of these days, i must admit.
I got home for the end of the Chicago vs. Boston game 3 yesterday, and too bad for the Red Sox, they were swept by chicago in the ALDS. After the storied year they had last year it was sort of a whimpy end this year. But they were just plain beat by chicago. Out pitched, hit, and played all around. In the other American League series, the Angels vs. New York, Anaheim leads the Yankees 2 games to 1 with game 4 to be played on Sunday evening at New York. It was postponed due to rain today. In yesterdays game the Angels looked pretty damn good against the Yankees, they were stringing together hits and taking advantage of New Yorks mistakes. If the Angels can close it out on Sunday I will be looking forward to watching Chicago and Anaheim play for the ALCS.
In the National League the Braves and Astros played this evening in Houston and the Astros pulled out that victory to take a 2-1 lead in that series. The Padres and Cardnials are playing as I type. St. Louis has taken an early 5-0 lead early. The Cards are looking to sweep San Diego and wait for the winner of the Houston/Atlanta series. As if you couldn't tell by my telling of the series, i'm more into the American League series a lot more than the NL, but hey i watch AL Ball all the time and I am more familiar with those teams, can ya blame me?

On a sad note I think that the goby in the salt water fish tank is dying. He has been looking pretty skinny lately. I don't think it's from lack of food because ever since i took over feeding the fish i see him eating every other day (that's their feeding schedule). The goby must be pretty old, he is huge compared to any goby that you see in the fish stores. We bought him from Below Sea Level where they had gotten him from a long time customer. And I think we've had him for a year and a half. I didn't see him when i fed them yesterday and not today when i went down to check the water level and see how everything was doing... I gotta call J cause the Xenia didn't look good either and it has been so healthy ever since we moved everything into the small tank with the different lighting. I think the tank needs some good ol' Jason time. Like we all do from time to time.

I cooked! and it actually tastes good! I went shopping at the grocery store earlier this week and wanted to try my hand (finally!) at cooking chicken. So i found the smallest package of chicken breast that i could. Picked out some veggies that sounded tastey, and decided that i could cook it and put it on some rice. So when i get home i discover that i really don't know how to cook all this stuff together. Sure i may be able to cook the veggies individually, and i could grill the chicken if i wanted to, but actually put a dish together? nope... So i wait for J to get home and he writes me out directions on exactly what to do. Of course i talk to him when i'm having one of my drug induced talk athons. The next day i look at the directions and get nervous all over again and put it off. So when Jason gets home from work I'm already asleep. He comes and wakes me up and informs me that i forgot to cook and how much he was looking forward to coming home and eating some of the chicken and rice. After a little talking, and again I'm in a drug induced stuper, we decide that it's a good idea if i go downstairs and cook it then, so that if i have any questions that he'll be there to lend a hand. It's 3 am... I only half remember cooking... But i did it and it actually tastes good. I had a little when we finished cooking last night, and i had some when i got home from work, and it's still good! Jason pretty much finished the cooking, but i cooked the chicken and made the rice and prepped all of the veggies. The directions he made for me had cream to finish the dish, but we didn't have any so he worked his magic and "made" cream. Basically a mixture of butter, a little water and wondra. I don't really know what wondra is or why we have it in our pantry, but i don't care cause i (we) made a yummy dinner. It wouldn't of tasted nearly as good without his touch, but i have a little experience now and maybe a little confidence to go beyond pasta! I would also love to get back into the cookie baking passion. I've been wanting to make snickerdoodles and chocolate chip cookies. If i have energy in the next few days i'll have to do that.

At work today carrie asked me if i wanted to be her partner in pig care and training. I told her i would think about it. I don't think that i really want to starting this fall because of the weather, and i most likely won't agree to it just for that reason alone. But also i don't know if i still think that we should have them out there. THey are SO cute though. And i would love to have a relationship with them, but i just don't know if i can commit myself to them. I just don't know yet, i should talk with carrie more about it before i say no for sure. I would like to have my review, maybe i should incorperate that into my "goals". Another work note that happened today is about my tea production. Thomas and Ron have been working on new color tea lables for the herbal teas that i package and we put in the retail hutch. Today was the day that Thomas delivered em! I'm going in early tomorrow morning to stick the new lables over the old ones and possibly package up some new teas too. It's going to look so much better than the plain text, black and white lables that we have been using. Ron isn't happy with the sniffle tea lable, so that is the only one that is missing, but i can live with that :)

Looks like i will make it to ten o'clock tonight! I'm going to prepare myself for bed now. St Louis is still leading 5-0 now in the 5th inning, unless the Padres get something going they will be swept this post season.

Sweet Dreams, Annie

Ah! Two days off

Okay, i usually get two days off a week, but i got lots of rest and didn't even have to take a nap today. Jason has had the last two days off as well which has been nice to see him sleeping in FINALLY!
ok, wait, i have to watch Neopolitan Dynomite..... he's dancing for Pedro.... Man that guy has some MOVES!Love the boots.... hip action! a little moon walking.... spinning, yeah baby yeah! more hips.... ahhh it's over...

Vote for Pedro!

that was fun.... anyways, last week at work was better. I need the shorter service weeks for October, i think that will do me wonders. I have inventory tomorrow afternoon, but that isn't really work, it's just showing up and counting stuff. I should do ironing tomorrow as well, but i think i might just make cookies instead and watch baseball playoffs.

Speaking of baseball playoffs, it was a disappointing day for the teams i'm rooting for. Red Sox lost as well as the Angels. I just hate the yankees. I don't really dislike the white sox but i'd rather see the red sox win than them. We watched the end of the Saint Louis/ San Diego game this morning, but i don't think that series will be much of a series since St Louis is going to slaughter the Padres. The Angels weren't looking too hot today against the yankers, but in the 9th they made alittle run for it getting the tying run up to the dish, but they ending it by hitting into a double play and sending the yankees home field advantage with the road win. The Red Sox were punished by Chicago 14-2. The Chi Sox scores runs in bunches hitting something like 4 home runs just being bastards to Boston pitching. They'll rebound tomorrow and kick a little pale hose ass tomorrow.

JRA update- I've dropped to 16mg of prednisone as of yesterday. I'm feeling a little headache but i'm not sure if that is directly related or not. I am a little sore, but i certinly expect that for the first few days. I know i have to take it a little slower and be good to my bones. I gotta keep warm too. We got out the down comforter a few days back and i have been keeping my little warmers that my mommy got me in good use. We are discovering that the house we live in doesn't have the best insulation. Although, it could be so much worse. At least we can keep warm if we just add a layer or two and keep a little blankey around. I like the hot cocoa and tea as well. J is so funny the past two days, since it's his days off he is insisting on wearing shorts, but he also is wearing his jacket. It looks so funny cause he has his shorts on with white sox pulled up and then he's wearing a jacket that he wore skiing in Tahoe this past Thanksgiving. It's not like it's a huge heavy one, but it's the waterproof shell with a little warmth as well. It just looks cute. And at some points throughout the day he would put up the hood and pull the strings tight... silly man. Anyways it looks like it's soup and sandwich days again!

The started pouring the concrete for our side of the street today! It was actually a little quiet out there, it was nice to not have the tractors and machines going at 7 in the morning. It looks like they should finish pouring tomorrow on our side and then i suppose it has to set and all of that groovy stuff before we can actually park in our driveway again. It's been pretty annoying walking a block to my car every morning, especially when i bring folding or ironing home with me. It could be worse i suppose, i shouldn't complain about a block walk it's good for me. I was reading the little notice that they gave us about the work that they are doing and they won't be completely finished until sometime in December! I was thinking of having a housewarming party in October, but if people can't park close by i may have to put it off even further. Seems as though some of my family may never see my humble abode. In time I suppose. Thinking of all of this family get together stuff, i think that i need to reinstate the get together with family at least once a month for dinner or brunch. I've been looking for a reason to take a sunday off of work at least once a month and i'm thinking that i would love to take the first or last sunday off and have a family brunch or something like that. In the summers it could be BBQ's and in the colder months it could be late breakfast or early dinner. I think i should promote that family tradition back as i did about two years ago. I hope that i would have the energy to do that if i took one sunday off a month and had a meal with my loved ones. It just may keep me sane. I feel like this summer has nearly disconnected me from my family. I've missed birthday parties because i'm afraid that i might fall asleep at the wheel driving out there. I was so tired all summer long i need to recharge and get back to seeing the ones i love. My family makes me happy (most of the time, i like em, they are a good group of people) I think that i'm not too much of a burden anymore since i'm out of their hair most of the time. Of course i still do complain a lot, but that's just my nature most of the time.

I came to a realization this past week when i was talking to Jason half asleep. I'm a whinney little bitch at work. I guess i always kinda knew, but it was confirmed. J was talking about a situation he ran across and how annoying it was, and i started to think about it, well, it's me at work sometimes. And i was telling Joe about it on Sunday about how i came across the realization and how i was determinded to change it, and he said that it was a common thing, he thought, that when you are at a job long enough you get expectations on how your day should go and when i bump comes up that you are more comfortable letting people around you know that you are annoyed by the bump. He said that it was a sign of comfort and that it was expected. But i see his point in a way and i agree in many ways, but i don't want it to become ok. I want to be a good employee. I want to be the best at my job, and to do that it means being coopertive when changes happen. WHen i huff and puff and complain about what i don't like I'm not being the best i can be. I want to be a team player. But i think there are limits to being a Yes Man too, the HF way is to always think of the guests, and when some changes are made i think that it effects the guests' experience. The level of service and quality of their evening can be jepordized if there are too many changes and all of the employees can't keep up with what we are supposed to do to maximize their night. I try to explain that to my boss sometimes, but i don't think it gets through. I understand that there are certain circumstances can be made, but sometimes i also can see the dollar signs get in the way of judgement. When someone comes down and says "it's so hard to turn down 500 bucks" i understand that, but when it's 500 bucks over and over and over, is it worth it to make all of the people coming that night not get the smiles from the staff because there is just too much to do and too few people to do it? There just has to be the line where enough is enough and you must think of all the guests, the staff and the evening as a whole and not the "it's 500 bucks"
At the last meeting we were all reminded to have our "Thursday -aka first day of the service week- attitudes on Sunday, because the guests don't know that it's our last day before the weekend and they deserve our best because it's their night." We got that speech and a day later all i could think is how much that rule needed to be instilled back to the reservation taking when we are full or understaffed for how many people are booked, when they try to add people last minute. It's not fair to the guests that booked weeks in advance to have more people come than we are staffed for. When the quality is compromised because we can't serve them the HF way we simply shouldn't book their reservation.
Maybe it's all just crazy talk on my end, i don't know. It's past 4 in the morning now and i wanted to write something in my little journal here and i was thinking that i didn't really have much to say... silly me, i think i don't have anything to say and that's when it all comes pouring out! I could go on about nothing and everything for ages.
LIKE how HBO is sucking out my life the past few days. We have started watching the series Rome. It's one of the shows that we can get on HBO On Demand, which is cool cause i can catch up from when J was watching last week and i fell asleep. I have all of the episodes a little jumbled, so i need to go back and get them in order so i'm a little more clear on exactly what's happening. I'm not sure i like this whole watching TV shows again. We got sucked into Lost and now Rome. I don't like having to be there on a night and a time so that i can follow the story. I like it all on my time when i want! Now that we are caught up with Lost i have a day and a time that is dedicated to TV and it's so precictable. I like dedicating my tv time to sports, that's real reality tv. I like that. Now that Mariners are done for the season i don't have a nightly family to watch until the sonics start up next month. I have playoffs for a while, but it's not MY boys, it's other cities boys and their excitment. Oh well, i can take naps and not feel guilty about missing the game. I can stay late at work ironing or doing whatever and not feel as guilty when i come home and fall asleep. Basically it's all about the sleeping and sports watching. A little work here and there, but mostly the sleeping. Oh i like eating too. Now i also have to find ways to stay warm. We have a fireplace and i shall buy a duralog tomorrow for the test of it to make sure that our bedroom doesn't get overly hot by having a fire down stairs or whatever the case may be. Also we just want to see what the sucker does to the heat of the house because all we have are electric baseboard heaters and that will get expensive REALLY fast if we turn those things on. I think that we will end up getting space heaters for the bedrooms, and just layer clothes during the waking hours. I may have to find a warmer place for my orchids. Or i may have to create a warming tray for them for the winter. I was reading in my orchid book that i can get a soil warmer strip and create a cute little thing that should keep the roots a good temp and as long as they remain getting good light they should be good. I may also have to get a new plant light for the winter months since we are getting fewer hours of daylight for my precious little babies.
Oh my goodness, i havn't talked about what happened to my newest! There was a party here about two weeks ago maybe ten days ago, anyways a few days after i was checking out my babies and noticed that the one that i keep in the east window that the clay pot that surrounds the little plastic one was broken and positioned in a way that was trying to conceal the fact that in was indeed broken. The terracota pot i don't really care about, those are a dime a dozen, but i think that the incident that broke the pot shocked my little guy because now a few of the blossoms are dying! And they aren't like the normal aging and wilting of the blossoms. They are lower on the flower spike, but they aren't the oldest blossoms which is odd for them to die first. I was reading a post on the orchid group that i'm on and someone else had one of their plants fall when she was vacuuming and was asking if the fall could have stressed the plant enough to drop blossoms prematurely. And sure enough, apparently orchids can be so delicate that i fall can shock them and they can die! I was so sad to read that, and a little upset that my poor plant had been through a trauma. Now i have to baby it even more and try to find a very secure place in the house for it. I'll also need to go to the store and buy a new surrounding pot for it to try to make it feel better. The stresses i have to deal with.... I never knew that being a mother of three orchids would be so stressful. I better get myself a little baggie of m&ms to calm myself while i'm getting the new pot as well. what to do what to do??!! :)

Now that i've been rambling on and on about things that i will probably kick myself for later, i'm going to continue, because basically i'm not ready to go to sleep yet.
To try and solve the algae problem that i've been having in my fish tank i found some window treatment fabric that was my grandmothers that i got last year. I actually found it in my walkin closet when i was looking for the vcr remote last week. Anyways there was also two hook like things that came with the fabric and i got the brillant idea to hang it in the sky light to keep the natural light from getting to the fish tank. I read that a cause for the algae to grow is too much daylight, one of the causes at least. So i hung this maroon sheer fabric on one side of the sky light, which looks sort of odd when you come into the bedroom, but luckily for me the only people that really come up to the bedroom are Jason and I, although when my mom came over she saw it, but she liked it... I don't know where i'm going with this at all, but now i have a sun shield for my tank and i HOPE that it will help with the algae control! They tell me that i should be able to control it with regular water changes and not overfeeding, and since i don't really have the option of moving the tank from where it is because the house is so unlevel, i hope that the sheer maroon window "treatment" will help me with controling the SLIME that has invaded my poor pets home. I already had to throw out all of the plants i had in there because the damn slime choked them to death. I should get some new ones and if they die in a few months, so be it, at least they will have something to decorate the little tank.

Alright, i don't think i have anything else to type about.... even though it is fun to have fingers not hurting like a ..... hurting bunch of fingers....... i just have run out of things to say. I would have said interesting things to say, but that hasn't happened this entire post! Except when i was talking about Jason and his shorts and long jacket. That was funny, i should have taken a picture.

OH! I did my laundry today. I have things to wear that are clean! :)

We had lunch at Greatful Bread today, sandwiches were good, but extreamly overpriced. It was 7 dollars for a whole sandwich and all it came with was a quarter of a pickle, and cheese was an additional .50 I thought it was a good sandwich until Jason told me it was 17 dollars for two sandwiches and a coffee. I don't think that i'll be going back anytime soon for a sandwich, but they do have cafe vita coffee and the pastries are looking kinda tastey. I have a cinnamon roll about 6 weeks ago when Rach gave me a ride to work and we stopped for coffee on the way in. They have large cookies there that loooked good. I wanted a snickerdoodle, but i am determinded to make it myself!

Ok, battery on computer almost gone... goodnight!

Annie

It's been a tough one... again.

I don't know what I'm doing wrong these days, it must be my attitude because I'm not having the sunny disposition that i usually carry with me. I get so irritated so easily about stuff that I know doesn't matter. It is so frustrating to not know why I'm stressing myself out. I have been tired lately, but my infections don't seem to be coming back, why can't I be happy about that? Other than just working a lot I have a great life and I know that I'm not appreciating it like I should be. It seems like all I want to do is get home so that i can rest or sleep. I'm always seeming to be doing something for prepare for work, either it be rest up so that i can go in the next day, or go on some damn shopping trip for the place, or trying to find clothes to fit my fattening body to look appropriate for the dining room. I think that is what has me so frustrated the past few weeks, trying to shop for pants and realizing that the size that i was a year ago will no longer fit, and the clothes that i was fitting into 6 months ago are snug (to put it gently). And the doctors and nurses tell me that it's the prednisone, and it just does that. But DAMN IT, I HATE IT! I hate feeling hungry and never satisfied and thinking about what i can have next and if it's healthy or not. I hate when people try to get me to eat something and I can't say no even though i KNOW i should stay away from it cause it's usually something like a piece of cake or a donut or candy. I try so hard to be good, but the only thing that seems to keep me truly good is sleeping. I used to sleep my way through my days... Those were not happy days at all for me. I'm just so scared that I won't be able to get off the damn steriods and I'll just keep getting bigger and bigger. People try to be nice and say they don't notice the difference in me, but HELLO, YOU CAN'T GAIN 30 pounds and not see a difference unless you are blind, and last time i checked i don't have many people around me with those white stick thingies. I even bought one of those exercise machines from an infomercial on late night TV thinking that it was something that was would be easy on my joints and would motivate me to get going on toning my body back up, but once I got it I found it to be too hard on my knees and now am thinking of selling it on craigslist.com. I feel like I'm trying so hard and also feel like I'm letting everyone one around me down all of the time. At work because I'm tired and grumpy all the time, and at home because i can't stay awake long enough to pick J up from work, and my family and friends because I'm always too tired to make it down for events and soemtimes even make a phone call because it takes so much energy to interact with people and sometimes I just don't want them to ask how I am because I don't want to have to lie. I've thought about talking to my boss about possibly taking everyother sunday off, some weeks I just can't face 4 service days. The winter is coming which means we usually would be going down to 3 service days a week, however the HF is looking like we are going to have a nice fall/winter season, which is great, i like to be busy, but i don't like to be so busy that i feel like i just don't want to do it anymore, because i still do enjoy what i do, and if i don't say so myself, I think I'm pretty good at it. I like that we have had a busy summer, i just wish that i could ask for help before it comes to the breaking point. Life is a learning process and I'm still so young.
Damn, that was necessary wasn't it?! I didn't know what i had in me... I guess that's why I started this blog in the first place, to VENT my frustrations on what the JRA is doing to me and my little place in this world.
On Bebo.com I've resorted to drawing on the whiteboard feature. It's so much fun, it lets me draw like a kid again. I can sit in front on my laptop for it seems like an hour just doodling stupid little pictures and it makes me happy. I guess it isn't as hard on my hands as regular drawing because i'm just using the click button on the mouse instead of all of the pressure of holding a pen or pencil to draw with. I wish the little white board had a few more features, but it will have to do for now. It seems like with out the little white board i would be going nuts these days. I don't know what's going to happen when baseball ends, I'm going to be LOST!
Speaking of "LOST" Jason and I have started watching the entire first season of the TV show Lost. It's so addictive. The first night we started watching the DVD i got through one before my drugs kicked in and i fell asleep, but J continued to watch the entire first disk, which is the first 4 episodes... And I've been trying to catch up ever since. I finally did today watching a total of 4 just today alone!! I watched 2 a few nights ago. It was so funny today when i had finally caught up with him and he wanted to watch the next one, but i had been watching all morning while he was asleep, and baseball was coming up. So we missed the pre-game so that we could watch the next one together, and then we went and picked up some take-out so we could go home and watch baseball. But during the entire game he was whining that he just wanted to watch "Lost" and not a LOSING BASEBALL team.... I had to shove my computer at him and tell him to search for new ringtones for his razor. Somehow he got distracted on the way to the ringtones and started looking at pictures of Old English Mastiffs, SO CUTE! In a few years once we have a place that we can have a doggy we are going to get a mastiff. I told him that he should get a mastiff and I'll get a weiner dog and we could walk em down the street together and it would be so cute. I also said that the mastiff probably wouldn't be able to sleep on the bed with us cause it just might crush my broken body. we'll have to get a drool proof bed for the thing set up next to our bed. The weiner dog can cuddle with us though, I've decided, i think i forgot to tell Jason that part though.... Oh well, who could ever resist a weiner dog face?

wow, it's 2:30... Time flies when you have stuff on your mind and it won't stop coming out!

Jason has a poker night with his buddies now, so i had a brilliant idea on my way home from dropping him off, i should have my girl night that day! I'm going to see if Mondays work for Nickki to have a hang out day then. Either I could mosey on down south or we could hang out up here in the coolness of Wedgewood!
Jason finally has two days off a week now! Well, this week, one of his line-cooks is going on vacation next week, so he has to cover those shifts, but after that he will have monday AND Tuesday off, which are MY days off too! It's so nice to know that I'm going be able to sleep in on Tuesday and still have the entire afternoon and evening to just lounge with my honey. I have a feeling that we will be watching a lot of "Lost" and setting up the VCR to record the season premire coming up on Wednesday. It will be cool once we are all caught up and have something to look forward to every week, like a normal run of the mill couple! How about that! I'm astonished that I'm getting back into primetime TV again. But I tell ya what, the entire season on DVD is certinly the way to go, there are no commercials, but you can tell where there would have been a break, and it's so great to only have to wait about 3 seconds for the scene to continue. The entire first season of Lost was only 40 bucks, which is entirely worth it since we miss all the damn breaks, AND we can have mini marathons of watching it all day long or night if it comes to that. I was very tempted to watch a few episodes when Jason was at Joe's house playing poker, but i made a personal guarentee that i wouldn't watch anymore without him unless i was catching up due to me falling asleep during a watching period. sooooo here i am typing away and not watching Lost. I even tidied up the bedroom and put away some clothes! I was a good girlfriend today. Damn it, he's buying me a big big coffee tomorrow, maybe even a pumpkin scone if i feel like it too! yep, i think i do!
Gee, i don't know if i have that much more too say, although i do feel a whole lot better now that i have typed my little heart out. I feel bad for anyone who stumbles upon my little rants because they are so negitive, but i feel like if i publish it than i have done more than write it in a notebook and stash it away to go back and just relive it myself. This way I sorta know that i told someone, but i didn't have to deal with the reactions, or the best part for me is not having the guilt of laying all this shit on people i love. I do get it out in someway and I think that has to be healthier than keeping it bottled in my giant head. Maybe I'll go rant about how much i think the Mariners front office sucks and how i think they could improve the team for next year. I spent nearly an hour writng all of this, hope someone out there read it, if not, hey I won't know, but at least my attitude got a little dusting ;)

Love is all around,

Annie

Orchids are addictive...