My Adventures and Places Life Takes Me: November 2024

It's wild to think that I was going to be 41 this year. Time does fly by faster than you anticipate. You get busy living, working and having fun and forget how quickly days, months and years pass by. As a kid, you think the adults around you are kidding when they say, make the most of your time while you have it and you're young because it does go by quickly. Not that I've had a mid-life crisis, but I do understand how they surface in individuals. I'm in that weird demographic where I'm still young, but in some instances, I am considered old.

I've thought about this more after my developmental job assignment opportunity, returning to work on Thursdays and being around people I haven't been around in four years or more. We've been so isolated working from home. I'm torn though. I enjoy working from home, but I do enjoy being around people occasionally.

This would be the first time in probably five or more years that I had to work on my birthday because it was in the middle of the week. It's hard to take off a Wednesday and have that consecutive three or four-day weekend you want. I was alright with it because I wanted to be a good asset to the new opportunity I was given.

Friday, November 8th

I took Friday off to have that four-day weekend since Veteran's Day was on Monday. It was so nice to sleep in and not be in a rush to do anything. I got ready, went for a walk around the park and then finished getting ready for my hair appointment with Celeste on the westside. I desperately needed a haircut since the last time was the previous spring.

It was a nice visit with Celeste. We talked about the usual things, reminisced about the weddings, told her about my DJA and the stuff in between. It's always a nice chat with Celeste and she does a great job on my hair every time I go to the salon. I paid, thanked her and did some errands while I was in town.

I drove over to Trader Joe's to pick up some gluten free items for Ben. They had the breads, cookies and candies that were reasonably priced for gluten free items. I was in and out quickly because the place was super busy. I got on the freeway and decided to go see Erika and Brian for a little bit, but I needed a snack. I stopped by the Albertson's for some Cheez-It's and a pop for Erika. I got to the house, and we hung out for about an hour.

Since I was out, I decided to do some shopping at Winco. I got gas and went home.

Saturday, November 9th

We were invited to Heather's father's funeral. He had passed away a few weeks ago with a long battle with Parkinson's.

This is what I wrote about that day:

This afternoon, we had the honor to celebrate the life of Michael Iselin, at a lovely venue outside of Tenino.

Ben and I left a little later than we wanted to but made it to the venue just in time. There were a lot of cars and trucks in the parking lot, and it drizzled as we approached the barn doors.

We entered the hallway and Michael's family members lined each side welcoming everyone to the event with handshakes, hugs and smiles. It felt homey. Heather told us that we were going to sit at a family table and to go find Josh, so that's what we did.

We sat down and introduced ourselves to the family members we didn't know. Everyone got settled in, some small talk was had and within a few minutes, Heather and her siblings went up to the front with the microphone.

Heather thanked everyone for coming, said a couple of things about her dad, the order of events for the day and wasn't sure what else to say because she really didn't prepare a speech. She just decided to wing it. She came back to the table and asked if it was okay, we told her she said all the right things and it went well.

Table by table, we all got up and filled our plates with Costco sandwiches, entrees, veggies, fruit, dips and chips. It was a nice spread. There was also an array of drinks, water, coffee, and many different types of sodas. For dessert, there were cupcakes and Michael's favorite candy - Reese's Peanut Butter Cups, Almond Roca and three different kinds of Mountain Bars. He wasn't supposed to have chocolate, but he snuck it in anyway.

While we ate, we watched a 20-minute slideshow on Michal and his family throughout the years. You could see the love in each and every photo and the way his eyes lit up every time he held his newborn child or grandchild. It was amazing to watch the photos progress year after year and all the good times he and his family had together. Heather has shared some of these memories with Ben and I over the years.

After the slideshow, we listened to whoever was brave enough to stand up in front of everyone and share their stories about Michael. Some of them were very touching and emotional and some were hilarious.

I, personally, didn't know Michael that well, but both Ben and I did go camping with him and his family last summer. We spent three days and two nights with them. I remember how much he loved his sweets. I brought banana bread with us and gave him a small piece before dinner time. He wanted more. Theresa told him no more until he has eaten dinner that night. He looked disappointed, but Thresa was right. He did end up having more pieces of it as the weekend went on.

I was able to connect with Trina and Mark. I haven't seen her in person since Covid. We caught up and shared stories. It was a nice visit. She has known the Iselin's for many years.

We thanked Heather and her family for inviting us to Michael's memorial and we were happy to come support her in any way we could. Heather, you had an amazing dad, and I am happy you have many memorable moments with him throughout your life. Hold onto those and cherish them!

Sunday, November 10th

That morning, I got up and went for a walk around the park in the freshly fallen leaves before breakfast. I was happy it didn't rain on me.

That afternoon, Ben and I went over to the rental to get a couple of things accomplished. We worked on getting the cabinets over the stove area down. It took a while, but with some finesse, we finally got them down. I got another section of the wallpaper trim off in the dining room area and clean up the mess I made.

Mom and I did some math and figured out how much wallpaper to purchase for the kitchen and we measured out how big of an area we had to purchase backsplash for behind the sink.

Ben worked on the trench some more and I picked up limbs in the yard and put it in a pile so Dad and Doug could haul it away on Wednesday. It was a lot of work picking up the branches, but I am glad I got it done before it rained and got dark. I was not a fan of the upcoming dark, dank days of a pacific northwest fall and winter.

Monday, November 11th

We had the day off so all of us went over to Grammie and Grandpa's house to start getting rid of stuff that wasn't worth anything. We got there around 11a.m. and Dad had jobs for everyone. We went through a lot of the boxes in the living room. Most of it was Goodwill and stuff you would toss. We packaged it all up and divvied it out into a Goodwill pile and a throw away pile. I still can't believe how much random stuff they had tucked away.

Going through loved one's personal items is never an easy task. A lot of the things we went through that afternoon reminded us of our grandparents and the memories we share with them inside that house. I know it's just stuff they can't take with them, but it still reminds you of people you miss seeing and talking to every day.

We packed up a load of it into the trailer. The house looked weird with the stuff missing, but I knew it was something we had to do. We all went to the Goodwill to help Dad unload the trailer. It really did suck giving away my grandparent's stuff, but they didn't need it, we didn't need it but maybe someone else needs it?

We all went to Mr. Doug's for a hamburger. That was Dad's way of thanking us for helping him. We drove back to Grammie and Grandpa's house, did a few things and then went home. I got home around 5.

Tuesday, November 12th

Due to being off the day before because of the Veteran's Day holiday, we did find out that morning the Comagine did work. It was my least favorite day, a double Tuesday. I knew it was going to be all day long too because of the waiting for stuff to come over. So, while I waited, I did my DJA stuff throughout the day, so I had something to do.

With this new opportunity that came my way back in August and started in October, I was thoroughly enjoying learning the new information in another business area and honestly, I was slowly checking out of my UR job. It just wasn't something I wanted to continue on doing, especially, if my supervisor was going to continue taking my work away and not replacing it with anything else. I started seriously thinking about what it would be like to work in a different place.

I did not get done with my UR work until about 3:20. That pushed into my DJA time, and I was only able to get 40 minutes of DJA work in before I left for the day. I went for a walk around the park and thought I could make it to and from without it raining. Luckily, I had the umbrella and was wearing my rain jacket and new waterproof hiking boots.

Wednesday, November 13th

I can't believe I am 41. This age seemed like it would take forever to get here and now that it's here, what happened? It's like, did I let my guard down or is life is really moving faster than I think it is? I can tell you one thing; life is extremely unpredictable and throws you some pretty hefty curveballs.

A year ago, life was different. I had just turned 40 and Ben and I were eight months away from getting married. Erika was also 3 months pregnant with a potential niece or nephew. Our lives were changing slowly every day and so were everyone else's around us. We were a few years removed from Covid, and I was still working from home. I had a different mindset than I did then too. I was comfortable with being mediocre even though I knew I should be doing something better with my time. I had no idea my life was going to change a little less than a year later. It is amazing what time does to people and the potential possibilities it gives.

Anyway, this was the first time, in a while, that I've had to go to work on my actual birthday. The last 6-7 years or so, it's fallen on a weekend, near a holiday or near a weekend. This year it was on a Wednesday - that's a hard day to take off. Well, a hard day to take off to make it worthwhile. So, this year I got up and went to work.

I did my UR work in the morning, went to lunch and then did my DJA work in the afternoon. Liz and Sandra wished me a happy birthday on TEAMS, which was a great surprise, and Liz spent about an hour teaching me how to do the preparing for collections spreadsheet. She explained that it was a piece that customer service usually does but because they are short staffed our team does it currently. She said it may change somewhere down the road, but they wanted it to get caught up, so it was weekly instead of several months behind. I told her I would do my best with the time I was allotted to get as much of it done as possible. I truly believed I could get this stuff back on track.

Ben came home and we got ready and drove out to the westside for some Buffalo Wild Wings! This was our first date night to BWW since we got married. We got our usual and used some of our gift cards to pay for our meal. It was fun to go out and eat dinner for my birthday.

We hit up Costco and Walmart on the way home and got home around 7:30.

I know I've said this before, and I will say it again; it's just not a complete birthday without my annual birthday song from Grammie.

Thursday, November 14th

I was in the office. I started going into the office when I started my DJA. This week had been odd because of the holiday on Monday and the double Tuesday with my UR work. The days in the office seemed to go by really slow, especially in the mornings while doing UR work.

I was out the door and made it to the office at a decent time do to "past Val" for getting everything ready the night before. I got all of my stuff set up and started in on my work list. We didn't get the DE's right away and that bummed me out, but I was able to work on my other stuff. I took a quick walk around the campus loop and then stopped by Jamie's desk and chatted for a little bit.

I did a couple more hours of work, we got our work list done before 11:30 and finished the first version of my DJA spreadsheet. Liz added more to it. I am determined to get them caught up so we can move onto the next part. We met up with Jamie for lunch in the cafeteria. The conversations are always hilarious.

That afternoon, I sent out a bunch of citation emails and now that I had done it a few times I felt like I was getting quicker at it. I was able to finish them before it was time to go and even got to work on the spreadsheet for a half hour or so. I logged off, gathered all of my stuff and went to the YMCA to work on my basketball skills for the upcoming RHS Alumni game. I needed to work on my shots and dribbling skills because it's been a while.

Friday, November 15th

I was so glad it was Friday. I got all of my morning work done and had a little bit of extra time to start my DJA afternoon work. I was able to get my collections list done before the end of the day. Ben and I had finally hammered down dates for our honeymoon. We were going to do it the last two weeks of February and started planning what we were going to do. I thought I would be considerate and let my supervisor know three months in advance. It did not turn out the way I imagined it going. She basically said that it was great that I had a plan and next time give her and the team a heads up. Then she continued with, that we are a group of people with various time off needs, but it was obviously great that I had a plan. I sat there going, what? Next time give her a heads up? Were three months not enough of a heads up? She's never had an issue about me taking time off ever. This was the first time she was rude to me about it.

I was so frustrated and angry that I called Debbie for a few minutes to vent. Debbie didn't understand either. Then I called Liz to get a supervisor perspective on it. She said she would love to have that much of a heads up if one of her teammates was going to take an extended leave. She didn't understand why my supervisor was being like that. It sure ruined the rest of the day and set the tone for the weekend.

I logged off of work, went for a walk to clear my head. I did get some joy out of the afternoon with my annual front yard mushroom Smurf photo shoot.

Saturday, November 16th

Ben and I went over to the rental house in the early afternoon with at least one goal in mind, finally getting all the trim in the dining room off the top of the walls. It took about two hours, but we were successful. We can prepare it for painting, and I bought some wallpaper for the kitchen on the internet. Once it comes in the mail, we can figure out a day to start doing that. Ben was able to work on the trench a little bit and hopefully soon we can have power back in the shop.

Later that evening, I met up with Julie to watch the Cougar game at River's Edge.

Her friend Alaina joined us after work. We had some great and hilarious conversations while we watched the game. It was awesome to finally meet up with her after all the time that has passed. The Cougars didn't win but we still had a fun time. I am hoping this is something we can do every year.

Sunday, November 17th

I planned out my own 41st birthday party with my family. Erika and Zac were willing to host because it was easier to do it at their house than have to bring Brian and all of his stuff to someone else's house. We decided to eat white people tacos and have gluten free Funfetti cake. I provided the hamburger, taco seasoning and the tortillas, Erika cooked the food and had cheese, sour cream and cilantro, Doug and Sonya brought chips and Trish, Amy and Ed brought tomatoes and lettuce. Mom and Dad didn't come because they were sick. Grandma drove herself into town. We made sure it was in the middle of the day so she could get home before it got dark.

The food was good, and the cake was alright for gluten free cake. I got a couple of cool gifts - a book from Grandma, a curling iron from Doug and Sonya, a panini maker from Trish and Erika got me some penguin D&D dice for our campaign with Nicole and Del.