My Fives

So, Carolyn tagged me a couple months ago, but it's taken me awhile to think of all these things. I'm not a big planner--I tend to take things as they come. Here goes...







Five years ago I was:

1. Planning for a family reunion at a California beach house
2. Thinking about selling my "dream home" in Dryden
3. Worrying about what to do with Vanessa for her senior year of high school
4. Working on finishing my MLIS degree at Syracuse University
5. Enjoying a 25 hr/week job as Director of the Southworth Library

Five things on my To-Do list today:

1. Eat healthy and exercise
2. Watch "Libraries and Autism" training video
3. Take a motorcycle ride with Rich
4. Check periodically with Vanessa to be sure she is still breathing and hasn't gone into anaphylactic shock
5. Get milk

5 things I'd do with 1 Million Dollars:

1. Become the financial backer for Golden's fly rod company
2. Buy homes for Vanessa, Dustin and Rachel & Jay (and pay off Fillmore's mortgage)
3. Hmmm. That might be all I could do. One million doesn't go as far these days...if there was any left, I'd bank it for a
4. mission
5. retirement

5 Places I've lived:

1. Massachusetts (5 different addresses)
2. Texas
3. Europe (2 places: Belgium & Germany)
4. California
5. Virginia

5 Jobs I've held:

1. Quality Control at Ore-Ida Potato Factory in Burley, ID
2. Custodian/Bookstore clerk (at BYU--did the bookstore thing again in MA)
3. Machine operator in a plastics factory (Massachusetts)
4. Administrative Assistant to a Vice Principal, Madison High School
5. Computer Lab Aide at Redland Oaks Elementary School

5 years from now I will be:

1. Getting ready to attend Quincy Fillmore's baptism
2. Planning a trip to Disneyland (or similar destination) with 5 year old "baby" Fillmore
3. Playing Five for Fighting's "100 years" flawlessly on the piano
4. Traveling
5. Running marathons
   

Thanks for the opportunity to do this, Carolyn! I don't know 5 other people who blog who haven't already done this to pass it on...

1. Maybe Joella, I don't see that she's done it yet, and
2. Veronica; and
3. Annie and
4. Kelly and
5. Brandolyn could just send me an email with their Fives Lists

How do you know?

This is how I know...(by no means an exhaustive list..)

• He saves the raw broccoli stalks for me
• He kills slugs in my garden
• He put a passenger seat and sissy bar on his Harley
• He doesn't give me chocolates for Valentines' Day
• He writes poems for me (actually, a whole book of poetry!)
• He watches Pushing Daisies with me
• He records shows he thinks I'll like to surprises me (Michael Buble, Pierce Brosnan interview)
• He calls during the day just to check in and say "hi."
• He recycles and composts
• He encourages me to paint and puts up with the mess--in the kitchen
• He bought a baby grand
• He let me choose the paint colors for the house (inside and out! I went with his choice on the front door)

ring ring

Whenever I talk to my daughters on the phone, you know the conversation is over, not by "we'll talk to you later," or "well, I've gotta go," but by the phrase, "love ya." And, as I talk to at least one of my daughters sometimes several times a day, "love ya, bye" tends to roll off the tongue...
So I had a phone message at work from a manager at the Service Center. (And I think my daughter had just called prior to that...) I returned his call, and got his voice mail. I confirmed our meeting time, then closed, "love ya, bye." And hung up. And felt sick. WHAT DID I JUST DO??!! Can't take it back, it's on the voicemail. Can't call back--that would make it worse. Ignore it? Never look that person in the eye again? Hope the phone connection was garbly (which it often is at TRL...)? Laugh? I picked that one. I went in to my co-worker's office here at Tumwater and told her what I had just done-- and we both had a good laugh about it.
Thanks, Rachel--I think you started us all on this!

finishing each other's sentences

Rich and I were in the kitchen the other day, both lost in thought. What we didn't realize, was we were lost in the same thought! I was singing Viva la Vida in my head and then suddenly began humming the part..."I hear Jerusalem bells a ringing..."
Rich turned and stared at me. "What song are you humming?"
"Viva la Vida.."
"Not only was I singing that song in my head just now, but I had just finished the part, '...Upon pillars of salt and pillars of sand' when you picked up at that moment humming the next line!"

What can I say? After 33 years, I guess we are finally getting in-sync!

not all bad

I spent most of yesterday at work on "graffiti guard duty" outside the men's public toilet. Two days in a row we have had graffiti painted on the walls there. The first time, we called the police in to see if the symbols were gang-related. They weren't. The officer called them, "gang wanna-be" symbols. (The facilities guy who came to paint over it said he was just trying to spare me, they actually were gang code for "get the Librarian" haha.) The next day the same symbol was there again, painted over the newly painted wall. So I spent the day pretending to clean windows in the foyer, but actually watching every person who used the restroom, scrutinizing their faces and composing descriptions (25-yr-old Caucasian male, approx 6'2", shaved head, white t-shirt, jeans). Then when they left, I'd call out: "Maintenance!" go in the stalls and check to see if the graffiti returned. If not, I'd erase the previous user from my description bank and lurk around waiting for the next. Very tedious, but I knew if I left, that was when he would strike. 

Anyway, the serendipity of it all was, as I was browsing the "free" magazines rack in the foyer (looking casual to any observer) I found this cool photograph of a California mission window I thought I'd like to paint. 

And no, Faux Gang Member didn't strike. (But I'm sure he must have stopped in to see if we covered over his work...this is not over...)

conflicted

I think of myself as a nice person--easy to get along with, kind...but lately, I have been annoying a lot of people...
First there was Asian Man at the treadmill. Next, my neighbor, one of the few in my neighborhood I've actually spent time cultivating a friendship with, isn't speaking to me because I painted my house red. Seems she finds the color very jarring as she looks at it from her backyard. She can't understand why I didn't consult with her before choosing this color (I didn't tell her there was no "choosing" about it--this was the only color I wanted). Then today, I was doing my morning run, jogging into my housing area, where the speed limit is 5 mph anyway, and I got angry gestures and facial expressions from a woman driver who indicated I should be up on the sidewalk. I guess she isn't much of a runner or she would know that the cement sidewalk is way worse for joints than the asphalt road...
I'm trying to be nice, but I just can't seem to please people these days.
(And BTW, isn't my house absolutely gorgeous this color?!!)